Using Houzz For Small Business Marketing And Advertising

July 2, 2014 WaterfallNow

Using Houzz For Small Business Marketing And Advertising

Are you wondering what the benefits are? Want to know why you should be using houzz to market your business as well? Perhaps you’ve heard someone say that you should check out their ideabook and you just sat there with a blank stare? Here are some reasons to consider getting with the program.

A recent survey done by Houzz.com showed that more than 50% of renters expect to hire a general contractor for some renovations in the next 1-2 years. Almost 20% said they are planning to hire a custom home builder in that same time frame. That has ‘ideal client’ written all over it. Are you a designer or contractor? Your customers are on Houzz and if they aren’t looking at your portfolio, you can bet that they are looking at someone elses.

In case you haven’t heard, Houzz was founded in 2009 and is essentially the biggest collection of interior design ideas online. Millions of people use Houzz to gather ideas on architecture, landscaping, home improvement and design. They also use Houzz to pick out a contractor that they would like to work with. I heard one story of an interior designer on Houzz who was urged by his wife to begin posting photos. One day he noticed hundreds of people had put his photos in their ideabooks (Houzz Ideabook APP).  Eventually someone from another continent contacted and flew him over to do a major redesign project. Houzz is in my opinion the most ideal site for anyone in the aformentioned industries to search for their clients.

Remember the old days of cutting out photos from magazines and putting them in your box? Neither do I because that was more than 5 years ago and what worked 5 years ago doesn’t necessarily work anymore – for most things at least.

Now users can gather ideas online in a much more convenient and efficient fashion. Simply enter your search queries while using the filters to get more specific. You can get specific to narrow down what you are looking for ranging from the room, style, location, your budget, and even size. More recently the site has included advertisement functions for designers and contractors to display their company information alongside search results.

I believe the success of Houzz can be largely contributed to the fact that it helps everyone that uses it. With the average person in North America being exposed to thousands of advertisements a day, the narrowed focus that Houzz provides is a good one. The customer is happy because he or she is presented with professional representations and ideas from companies themselves.

Houzz has a great community with helpful individuals participating in discussions and contributing helpful solutions to people’s design challenges. Did you hear that? it is a target rich market of potential clients who are looking for solutions to their design challenges. Someone on Houzz needs what you have Right Now.

Houzz even provides a free website function. I don’t recommend using it as your main site. It is cool to have but not ideal if you want to convey a more professional image or be found at all in search engine results pages (SERPS).

The reviews function on Houzz which is becoming standard on most sites helps to put customers minds at ease when selecting a designer or contractor whom they wish to hire. We have seen business slowly go from contractor based to customer-based which is how it should have been from the start. Scammy business owners with poor practices are being shut out and put in the spotlight.

There are people who hate the way the online review system works but if you treat your clients well, you will always have more than enough good to overshadow the bad. If you are getting defamatory reviews simply call me and I will discover their information for you and take action on your behalf.

We have heard stories of people posting negative reviews online. This is one of the fears that stops many business owners from establishing their online presence. You won’t have that problem if you learn to say no to the wrong clients in the first place. Should it happen to you the best way to handle it is not to address the person but the situation from your perspective in a professional manner. Responding to a negative review is not the time to attack the client and add fuel to the flame. Sometimes it may even be best to mention your lawyer from the start before things get out of hand.

Many directories such as Yelp or the BBB are notorious for making it difficult to remove defamatory reviews. How to handle negative online reviews. If you have enough good reviews, that one negative review will not look so bad. Every company no matter how big or small whether good or bad has negative reviews at some point. The important thing is to learn from mistakes and move on.

In a nutshell, Houzz.com solves many of the problems associated with most traditional paid advertising sources. It is a win-win situation for those involved in the home renovations, and improvement industry. Negative reviews are also rare on Houzz. To get the most of the site and your profile fill in as much detail as you can.

I can’t say that I’ve ever used the paid advertising function but I know people who have and contribute 80% of their business to it.  Here is our Houzz profile for water features. I don’t recommend using a cell phone camera for taking your photos as I have for obvious reasons :D   …I know I know.. The quality sucks but taking photos from my ipad and uploading them to Houzz only takes me a few minutes.

Are you ready?
Create your free professional profile on Houzz.com: http://www.houzz.com/getStartedProf

 

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WaterfallNow

We build waterwall features that stand out and gets compliments.

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