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Okay, are there ANY online lead service companies worth giving a shot?

10K views 32 replies 16 participants last post by  BMX 
#1 ·
Hi folks!

Newbies here on the forum. :) Been in the biz 5+ years and my fiancee Dave is just getting back into residential bathroom remodeling after working retail for a couple of years.

He had a Service Magic horror story from a couple of years ago, and even with that experience was considering giving them another shot; thinking maybe they cleaned up their act. Funny thing is they won't take him back now anyway, ha! But from the reviews here it looks like nothing much has changed with those bastages. Anyway, we've read a ton of reviews here and have done some searching on our own, checking here and ripoffreport.com and elsewhere for names of companies we run across. So far the verdict is that everybody sucks!!

Saw a post by Grumpy that he might be doing a blog post on lead service companies he's tried but wasn't able to find whether that was published? Would love his or anyone else's thoughts on the matter.

Currently working on our website and SEO strategy but as you know that's not an overnight deal. Were hoping to get some sort of halfway decent lead company to give us a few initial leads and get some business going while refining that part of it.

I saw one post talking about "local lead providers" possibly being a good move but where the heck do you find them, community websites?

Any info appreciated! Love all the great comments here. You guys rock.

-Kelly & Dave
 
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#2 ·
Just get G analytics, their verifier, code and their tracker. Submit to G's local business directory, and all the search engines. ( I don't understand the $$$ to Yahoo..People search there and find me on top too. Not sure why/how)

Look around (Google) for local community sites and get listed on them. Etc, etc.

Hand out cards, use your referral base, be seen, etc.
 
#4 ·
"but where the heck do you find them, community websites?"
Two found me and requested I offer my services. 1 exchanged links. One just sends me business. I found another somehow and made contact. We'll see where that goes.

Your city must have 'areas, communities, etc, like Nob Hill in S.F. Ca., Beverly Hills, in Hollywood, Ca. for instance. Google the places you find on your local maps. Decide who to target that your work/temperment, or whatever jives with. G may find online associations for the areas. Make contact. Don't go in selling something! But let them look you and your website over. Meet in person.
 
#7 ·
"but where the heck do you find them, community websites?"
Two found me and requested I offer my services. 1 exchanged links. One just sends me business. I found another somehow and made contact. We'll see where that goes.

Okay gotcha, so you're talking the standard general websites for a particular community; I was thinking something different. Will check those out.
Agreed in person meetings are always best to establish a relationship. Thanks Tinner!
 
#11 ·
Definitely do the research....

I was actually looking up on them today, and did a bbb check in their home state of Arizona.

Funny thing is?--They have 14 negative complaints with the Arizona BBB, and they also have a "sub" company under the "Leadpile" name of "loans for all"--some sort of shady lending company....lol

I tired calling them, and never get an answer--it does however give you the option of putting in someone's extension, and I tried all 3 names of the principles that were listed on their BBB site, and again--no one answered.

Good luck with that.:whistling
 
#15 ·
We just started working with a local company called i-click websites (iclickwebsites.com) who specializes in contractor marketing. Right now our first months average cost per call / lead is about $4/call which is significantly lower then other advertising we are using right now - then again its only our first month so we will see how things go.
 
#16 ·
We just started working with a local company called i-click websites (iclickwebsites.com) who specializes in contractor marketing. Right now our first months average cost per call / lead is about $4/call which is significantly lower then other advertising we are using right now - then again its only our first month so we will see how things go.
Hey DenverAsphalt,
How is iclickwebsites working out at this point?
building decks in Denver [centennialcustomcecks.com] and looking for the secret formula,
Thanks,
 
#17 ·
It's working out great! It took about a month to get rolling strong. They extended us 1 month free on the front end to allow the campaign to get rolling. Right now we get about 20-30 solid leads per month.

The good part is they have a call recording system that records all calls as well as the call source so you see your roi.

Pretty cool.
 
#20 ·
The best advice I can give from a marketing perspective is like others said, create your own website. I see a lot of people spending $300+ on lead websites that generally don't give out the best leads or oversell them. If you have your own website, optimize it, and market it then you have something that can generate leads on its own for next to nothing where with lead companies you continually have to pay them to keep it going.

My advice would be hire an SEO person with a focus on local seo as well as get a good designer to make a professional website and most of all learn the basics of adwords. I have seen many people waste money by simply not geo-targeting and also not using phrase match or exact match but instead use general terms that get them un-targeted clicks wasting hundreds.
 
#21 ·
Help4TheHome Coming Soon!

We have been gathering all the complaints from contractors and implementing our own ideas to bring the community of contractors as well as home-owners a reliable, easy to use renovation and remodeling website. Have a recommendation, let us know - after all this tool is designed to help you manage and grow your business. We are new so we can't afford to burn holes in your pocket or deliver unsatisfactory leads without offering 100% refunds. You chose the leads you want and it's a LOW flat rate for all leads. Have a good one!
 
#22 ·
It's in my opinion best to let online marketers do what they do best and have contractors do what they do best.

I got together with a bunch of contractors when I was in AZ who had a great idea to drive leads etc... It sounded like a good idea. In fact - it was a way to break away from popular lead generators. It lasted all about a few months and turned out to be a big waste of time.

I found my niche and it sounds like Greg did to. I'm thankful for Contractor Talk. It's turned out to be a great resource for our business. :clap:
 
#32 ·
This topic is very interesting to me because I work in the marketing side of the business... Whether you choose to market via lead generation or otherwise, both the Counselors to America's Small Business (SCORE) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) define the variable for a proper marketing budget to be between 2% and 10% of sales. While this percentage is rather broad... 5% of your total costs should include marketing.

My Local Contracting (mentioned by contractorsales) looks slick however I personally do not trust a large and broad based lead generation system.

I agree with what so many people have mentioned regarding lead generating sites, the leads are not valid, information is incorrect, obtaining a refund is nearly impossible, being placed on hold re: customer service issues is a complete waste of time...etc.

I do trust niche lead generation sites. However, there are only a handful of these niche sites for contractors. I find that the smaller marketing sites leverage the web for leads successfully, are companies that answer the phone as well as stand by their leads with 100 % refunds for leads that are incorrect or expired etc...

There are two that I know of that are worth checking out, both are owned by the same small web marketing company:

The Heating and Air Conditioning Service Directory and The Network Cabling Directory (both rank on Google, Yahoo! and Bing for relevant terms)

 
#33 ·
Lot's of choices....

Hi all - I just wanted to let you know as a service provider there are many different channels to consider when planning your budget. Online? Offline?
Traditional? Digital? Who is your demographic today and tomorrow?

I don't want to get long winded here - but it really comes down to analytics - anything you do MUST have analytics

By and large any small to medium sized company should be directing 70% of their budget to online - but use it wisely - it's all about Niche - as a internet consumer we spend 5% of our time typing in search and the other 95% on Niche sites - example - if your looking for a car would you go to chevy.com or cars.com? (Rhetorical) with that said - find companies that can provide you with a large internet footprint (platform) for your company to be found on supply you with all the analytics, phone calls, web traffic etc.. and close the deals -:thumbsup:
 
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