Disparity of Construction Contractor Presence on the Web

When my partner, Brett Vernon, and I began the conceptualization of jobtrio.com, we were spurned by a vacuum both of us had experienced first hand: Why is it so hard to find contractors on the Internet. With only a couple clicks you can find every restaurant in town, every doctor, or every car dealership, but where are all the construction contractors? Below is a collection of other interesting facts we have stumbled upon which have encouraged jobtrio.com along the way:

• Consumers are searching. A 2008 Yahoo study found that 59% of homeowners use the Internet to help them choose the right contractor for their projects.


• Contractors are absent. In a study conducted by jobtrio.com team members, a random sample of 100 contractors was selected from a database of all 250K+ licensed contractors in the state of California. A Google search was performed using the business name for each of these 100 contractors. Of these 100, only 9 contractors appeared in the first 2 pages (top 20) results on Google. Of course, I realize that 100 is not a very large sample size, but it is certainly enough of a sample to indicate a disparity.


• Just having a company website doesn't cut it. We have found that about 15-20% of contracting companies with more than 5 employees have a company website. A website is a great way to spread information about your product and services, but who is going to your website? Chances are, unless you have employed search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) firms, the majority of people landing on your site are either existing clients or someone who heard about your site through some other media outlet (newspaper, radio, word-of-mouth). In other words, your website may be doing very little to generate new business for your organization.


• "You come to me" is on the out. In the late '90s there was a wave of web-based companies that featured "you come to me" business models, meaning, a consumer specifies their general desires for a product or service, and a handful of providers then bid to get the consumer's business. As the web and its users have evolved, this old-school approach has proven to have little staying power. For one reason, the "bidders" began to setup automated response systems or other tactics which are intended to lure-in unsuspecting consumers. Also, consumers have grown much more savvy, and wish to be in the driver's seat, with all decision-making tools placed right at their fingertips via the Internet.

These above mentioned discoveries have been integral in shaping the jobtrio.com product. Here is how we responded:

• jobtrio.com is built around a database already containing the business name and contact information for 250K+ California contractors. The information was hiding out there on the web, we just assemble it all in one place.


• jobtrio.com is absolutely free for consumers to use.


• we have employed top-notch SEM and SEO firms to assure that jobtrio.com listing come up with high rankings in Google and Yahoo searches


• We set our Enhanced Profile pricing as low as we possibly could. In order to benefit the consumer and contractor, we are aiming for volume, volume, volume.

As always, I would love to hear any feedback on this blog!

Have a great day,

Josh
President of jobtrio.com
Profiles and Review of California Contractors


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Marketing to the Construction Industry

For the last three weeks, I have been overseeing the prospect of marketing our new construction lead generation web platform to construction contractors. It is pretty apparent to me that there are some hurdles we need to overcome. Some of the initial roadblock we are finding are:

1. Inertia. Construction is still a widely word-of-mouth industry, thus it is often difficult to convince contractors that there is a good reason to advertise on the Internet.
2. Getting an Audience. The construction contractor is a very busy individual by nature and hard to pin down. Also, the fact that exist in a world of “brick and mortar” (no pun intended) is completely contrasted with the ones and zeros world of the Internet — we run in different circles.
3. Holding an Audience. Contractors live in a constant world of wheeling-and-dealing. There are constantly selling, and they are constantly being sold to. This can make them a wary and impatient audience for our pitches.
4. Fear of the Unknown. A lot of the contractors seem either overwhelmed by the prospect of Web advertising, or know so very little about the Internet that is difficult to even begin a conversation with them that involves the Web.

So far, we have taken a pretty typical approach in trying to get the message to the contractors. We started with a Web and local print media PR campaign. Next, we started running radio ads on local classic rock stations. And, just recently, we have launched a comprehensive pay-per-click campaign on Google, targeting local contractors and their potential clients.

It’s slow going. Some people have advised me that it is just a side effect of the ecomnomic times, but I really don’t think so. I believe that we just haven’t found our avenue which will allow us to properly communicate to value of our product to construction contractors. Regarding the “economic times” argument, here is a quote which I find my self constantly referencing:

“It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times.”

John Quelch, Marketing Your Way Through a Recession, Harvard Business School, March 3, 2008

Well, time to log off and analyze some more Ad Words. Please chime in with any ideas or comments you have for me regarding marketing to construction contractors.

Josh Groves
President
jobtrio.com
Profiles and reviews of California contractors.
“Let’s get to work!”