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Using a sales page for my local website?

by ferriswannabe
4 replies
Hello Warriors,

Still trying to get into IM, and thought it would be smart to experiment with a website by creating my first one for my offline business in Florida as a painting contractor. My state was hit extremely hard by the recession, and with little work, like most newbies I found IM. Anyways, I need to build whats paying the bills right now. So I registered a keyword rich domain (paintingwestpalmbeach.com) and now have it hosted at hostgator.

Two questions, First I thought I would stand out from my competitors with your typical websites with the tabs like "about us" "services" "contact" etc. I was thinking of creating something like your typical sales or landing pages used for IM. Just a convincing letter with testamonials. Nothing fancy. What do you guys think of this approach, nobody else is doing this for my type of service. Is it harder to rank because I wont have all thos extra pages with their tags, and descriptions, and keywords?

Second question, Do you think those targeted traffic generation services ( warrior classifieds ) would help a local painter like myself just by having those hits. I know there meant to provide sales, but since I'm not selling anything would all those unique hits help for ranking high? There selling 2.500 visitors for $25 bucks. Its such a small investment, they provide like 100 hits a day, thats alot for just a local service, but will it work for what I want. I'm not sure if they would even do it for my type of site. ( just sent them an email )

Thank you so much for your time and help. I really need to produce more income in my offline business so I can in return outsource what I really want to do in my online business.
#local #page #sales #website
  • Profile picture of the author Jason Johns
    Hi there,

    What you really need to do is test it. Try the sales page versus the traditional method and see which gets you the most clients.

    The other option would be to go stand on a street corner and interview your potential customers. Ask them what they would like to see from such a site. Create a survey and get them to fill it out as you ask them. Then you will know exactly what the market will want.

    I'm not sure the targeted traffic generation would be a massive help to you, to be perfectly honest. I would say you would be much better with a leaflet drop, handing out leaflets, local advertising and the like. You would get much better targeted traffic I believe then that would be more likely to use your service.

    Heck, if you are really feeling like taking the bull by the horns, drive around a few neighbourhoods, find houses that look run down and need painting and contact the owners and offer to do the painting for a "discount" price.

    You could even try and get in with some the holiday rental crowd and see about offering a painting service for them. That would work too.

    DO you also do walls / fences and other things? That may be something to advertise? If you have friends that have other trades you can advertise a complete service to do lots of things around the house and get your friends to advertise you. E.g. the plumber leaves your card after he finishes a job and you leave the plumbers card when you finish the job.

    Hope that helps you out.

    All the best

    Jason
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  • Profile picture of the author Don Schenk
    Several years ago I was at a marketing seminar taught by Ron LeGrand (the real estate guru). One of the concepts about which he spoke was his experience with using testimonials.

    At the time, he was running a half-hour infomercial on TV around the country, and he told us that when he doubled the amount of time spent on testimonials in the infomercial, his sales rate doubled.

    If you have a lot of testimonials, show them. Showing testimonials - lots of testimonials -gives social proof. There are some real fly-by-night folks who get into the painting business, take people's money, do a poor job, then get out of business.

    Testimonials will help make potential customers trust you and know you are reliable.

    Do you have photos of jobs you have done? How about before and after photos?

    Just putting up a local website won't bring traffic to it. That will take a little extra effort on your part. PPC Ads. on Google adwords can be inexpensive for a local business, and other painters won't know how to use adwords to put themselves on Google.

    At your local bookstore get "The Ultimate Guide To Google Adwords" by Perry Marshall and Byran Todd. Pay particular attention to the chapter about local adwords marketing.

    There is a free book offered in my signature here at the WF. The book is about marketing for local business and not about Internet marketing, but there are quite a few stratagies you can use for your painting business. You might want to grab a copy.

    :-Don
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Hits won't improve your ranking. And unless those visitors come from your trading area, they likely won't improve your business, either.

      There's nothing preventing you from having the best of both worlds...

      If you want a sales letter or squeeze page type of presentation, test it on your home page. Then provide the tabs for people who want the added information.

      Between the recent housing boom and the spate of hurricanes a few years ago, our area (I'm on the other coast) has been hammered by fly-by-night contractors. So the more things you can do that suggest roots, legitimacy, etc., the better.

      If I were advising you, I'd suggest an about page with license numbers, any certifications, etc. I'd also suggest a page with lots of before-and-after photos and testimonials (videos would be even better).

      On a side note, have you sat down with the REO people at your local banks? You might be able to work out a package deal for "refreshing" homes they take over.
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      • Profile picture of the author Teddy Garcia
        You want to send your traffic to a page that forces them to take 1 specific action.

        Either they provide their email in exchange for some free information such as "The 7 Things You Need To Know Before Hiring a Painter" or you get them to call a TRACKABLE phone number so you can gauge exactly how much business you're getting specifically from the website.

        If they fill out the form to get more info, then you can redirect them to your typical brochure site after that so they can learn more about you and your services.

        Alternatively, they can fill out the form and you cna redirect them to a survey where you ask them more about what important to them in choosing a contractor and then after the survey you send them to your traditional website.

        The key is, you want to get the email so you can follow-up and build the relationship. Going for the sale right away is typically harder.

        For more info go grab my free ebook, "The 7 Secrets To Marketing Your Local Business Online" at http://www.gearedlocal.com
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