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Simple Practices to Improve Your Web Presence

By Alicia Sherwood

Like many other businesses, you have likely begun to consider how to best upgrade your overall web presence. Companies in the build-to-order building industries have seen a remarkable shift in their sales since the beginning of quarantine: an influx in online interest. Numerous businesses have realized a need to expand their web presence to keep up with an increasing demand, but don't necessarily know how.

By adapting the simple practices outlined below, you can drastically increase the value and quality of your online presence.

Learn how

Add style pages to your website

The addition of style pages enables your business to qualify and educate potential customers by allowing them to visualize the type of building they are interested in, and continue to expand on which style would work best for their specific needs. Begin with adding a style page for each building type you offer, featuring a simple and concise phrase to express reasons why a customer would purchase this style of building. Go on to show several building examples outlining the variety possible within this style. Once a building is selected, your shopper is then navigated to a product page that outlines that specific building and provides them with the building specs, price and financing options (if applicable), and more.

If you have the added benefit of an IdeaRoom 3D configurator that is available to your customers, style pages provide a natural entry point for a consumer to enter the configurator once they're ready to start designing their own building. Once you've added style pages to your website, a shopper would come across a building image and description that sparks their interest, then they can click-through a set of pages to more specifically tailor the navigation through your site, ultimately taking them into the configurator with their building of interest already pre-loaded and ready for them to personalize. Our carport industry lead, Dan VanOrden, explains more in detail about this concept in the demonstration video below.

Create Web Pages to Qualify and Educate Customers Video StillEnjoy the full video here.


Focus on purpose-built structures

In addition to style pages, you may choose to add purpose-built structure pages to your website. Implementing pages that outline the purpose or use of a specific building shows your potential customers multiple options of structures that may suit their needs. A focus on the intended or potential use of each structure also can help to increase your search engine ranking when those terms are searched.

If a customer is searching for a building to serve as a backyard art studio, they likely will search those exact keywords within a search engine. From the results of that search, they are more likely to visit a website that specifically outlines a structure meant to serve that purpose than a competitor's site that refers to a similar building as a "shed". The buildings could be exactly alike, however they believe they are shopping for a "backyard art studio" not a "shed". Utilizing other key phrases like "man cave", "RV storage", or "backyard office" will increase the search engine's ranking for your page when those terms are searched.


Improve your organic search using data-driven tools

An array of easily-accessible tools are available to help you determine which keywords will organically increase your ranking on search engines. Google Trends, a free tool by Google, enables you to track different keyword searches across a time period. Google Trends also allows you to reference the geographic region the keyword was searched to determine which phrases will do better in a certain area, as well as compare two similar keywords to select which would produce the best results. Google provides an online lesson on Google Trends available here: Basics of Google Trends.

Alternatively, you may consider using Keyword Planner by Google Ads. Similar to Google Trends, you can determine which terms are most commonly searched, yet you have the added advantage of being able to run ad experiments based on specific keywords to improve your search engine ranking. You can use those ads to capture new leads and direct them to landing pages on your site or Facebook posts related to their search. You can learn more about Keyword Planner by Google Ads here: Using Google Ads Keyword Planner.

Feel free to enjoy a video that Dan developed to utilize the aforementioned practices and tools and below.

Simple Practices for Increasing the Effectiveness of Your Internet Marketing Video Still 2Enjoy the full video here.


Up-sell add-on features with a 3D configurator

Buyers naturally tend to upgrade their buildings to premier features when building within a 3D configurator. These features generally either improve the function of the building, or make it more aesthetically pleasing to the customer, and in some cases - both. Make it easy for your shoppers to visualize upgraded features by adding them as options within the configurator, or use their saved design as a starting platform for your salesperson to work on with the customer. By reviewing the shopper's saved design, you are given access to additional knowledge about what is most important to them and can use that to most effectively and naturally drive your sales conversation with them.


Utilizing your Facebook page to educate and engage

Surprising to some, many companies use their Facebook pages (directly or indirectly) to drive the majority of their sales. To achieve this goal, you are able to use the array of tools provided by Facebook including:

  • Your Facebook Page to supply fresh content for shoppers to interact with
  • Facebook Messenger to chat directly with consumers
  • Facebook Ads to help with targeting and to drive more traffic
  • Facebook Marketplace to complete building transactions online

Two types of posts you can use to drive more sales are customer testimonials and building spotlights. For customer testimonials, create a post that tells a story about one of your many happy buyers. Use a high-quality photo of the building installed at the purchaser's plot, and include content regarding what type of building they purchased, how quickly their building was installed, how they are using their building, and how happy they are with their purchase. This type of post can often be a more relatable form of content than posting in your own words, which can increase the post's value to other shoppers.

In addition to customer testimonial posts, you can create posts to spotlight specific designs or building types. Some shoppers just aren't able to explain exactly what they want, and benefit greatly from browsing through visual representations of ready-to-buy options. Consistently posting different buildings helps you to build up an album for shoppers to look through at any stage of their buying process. Your page visitors may need more time before purchasing, however if you continue to post relevant and fresh content on your page, they are more likely to come back when they're ready. Check out the video below where Dan outlines some of the different types of posts you can use to improve your Facebook marketing.

Simple Practices for Increasing the Effectiveness of Your Internet Marketing Video Still 3Enjoy the full video here.


Overview

By implementing these simple practices to improve your web presence, you provide your customers with a premier online shopping experience that creates trust and deals more likely to close. By creating style and purpose-built pages along with improving your Facebook marketing, you allow your shoppers to more easily find structures and features that suit their needs. This provides the benefit of a more tailored and informed sales conversation about what you know the customer is interested in, and either allows you to quickly close the sale or up-sell additional options or accessories. Over time, this creates an atmosphere for you to sell more buildings at higher sales prices more quickly and with ease.

Posts and pages that ultimately direct shoppers back to your 3D configurator equips you with instant knowledge about what the customer wants, giving you the opportunity to conveniently and easily fill their needs. IdeaRoom's configurator seamlessly allows consumers educate themselves and instantly interact with your products, while self-qualifying and upgrading their building without ever needing to speak to a sales person. Once your sales team contacts the customer, they already know exactly what they want and why they want it - leading to more easily closed deals.



Would a 3D configurator be a good fit for your business?

Find out here!

Tags: 3D configurator, Carports, Sheds, Buildings, Business growth, Facebook, Website, Online Presence, Marketing, Ads

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