In today’s internet age getting leads from potential clients searching online is vital to not only growing your business, in some cases staying in business! Don’t get me wrong, word of mouth advertising works, and can work really well for some small business owners or a service provider.

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The reality is, word of mouth only goes far, to get your business to the next level, your going to have to look at other forms of advertising especially for home improvement projects. For contractors and home service providers that don’t understand digital marketing, there are two choices that can make a lot of sense, Home Advisor vs Angie’s List.

 

Home Advisor vs Angie’s List, What are the Pros and Cons

There are a lot of similarities to both these services, and if you didn’t already know this, Homeadvisor bought Angie’s List not too long ago. Both companies offer a free service to consumers where they can search for local contractors, handyman services, or any type of home services type company.

 

Consumers can look through reviews from clients that have used their services, and see pictures of their work in some cases and completed projects.

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For the contractor or what Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor refer to as “Pros”, it is a paid service. They pay to have a profile and advertised on both HomeAdvisor and Angie’s List

 

The Pros and Cons of Using HomeAdvisor

 

On HomeAdvisor, The “Pros” pay for the lead, leads can vary from $15 to as much as $150 depending on the service they want to be found for. These leads are then sold to other “Pros” in their local area, and you have to call the potential client and then bid against the other “Pros” that the client contacted via HomeAdvisor.

Whether you’re a new home-improvement company looking for leads or an established plumbing company wanting to expand your brand, HomeAdvisor can be a great resource.

However, there’s more than one way to look at this service and each perspective will offer vastly different benefits and drawbacks.

Lead generation is often seen as the main benefit of using HomeAdvisor.

This online home improvement marketplace works with over 490,000 installation professionals and generates over 1 million monthly visits.

Lead Generation Company

Of those monthly visitors, 80 percent are homeowners actively searching for services such as yours (homeadvisor.com).

The sheer number of potential customers provides access to market segments that might not otherwise be available through other lead sources. Yet what makes these leads so enticing isn’t just the number of them, it’s also their quality.

HomeAdvisor provides potential customers with a profile page that offers an introduction to your company and details about why you have earned positive reviews in the past.

These pages include information such as the last time you were reviewed including any house photos taken during the service call.

The site’s search function allows visitors to filter through professionals by location, price range, type of work they offer, and more which can make for an ideal lead generation opportunity (homeadvisor.com).

Lead quantity is great but what are these leads worth if they aren’t high quality enough to merit follow-up? Unfortunately, each lead provided by HomeAdvisor comes with its own problems – often times many of them – which can lead to disappointing results.

 

What Are The Pros of Using HomeAdvisor?

You don’t have to have a website or any internet presence at all and start getting leads tomorrow. Basically, Home Advisor Pro is your marketing department, and they invest a lot of money to be in front of potential homeowners looking to do a project or need a repair.

 

  • Get leads right away
  • They are your advertising agency
  • Reach clients that wouldn’t normally know you exist
  • Only buy leads for projects that you want to do
  • marketing strategy small business

 

They advertise on TV, they spend a boatload of money on Bing and Google Adwords advertising to generate leads for their Pros. Also, in just about any marketing in the United States, their website comes up for just about any relative search on the Google search engine. Their internet presence is unbeatable on a National level.

 

What Are Some Cons of Using HomeAdvisor

Like I mentioned before, for service professionals leads can be very expensive, up to $150 a leads for roofing companies or water damage restoration services. Just because you got the lead, it does not guarantee you will get the job and in many cases, you might not ever even talk to the potential client!

 

Consider that, you just paid $150 for a lead you will never even have contact with! I already know as a small business owner the thought of throwing $150 out the windows doesn’t make you feel warm and fuzzy.

 

  • Having a lead doesn’t guarantee a job
  • Leads can be very costly
  • No checks and balances on lead quality-could be bogus!
  • If you are not a good salesman, you may never win

 

HomeAdvisor does not pre-qualify the leads that they sell you, it could be and in many cases are bogus leads or just tire kickers. People who are dreaming about a remodel, but have no intention or don’t have the money to start a project anytime soon.

Market Yourself, Not Homeadvisor or Angie's List

So What About Angie’s List

Angie’s List is a paid directory platform and you pay for advertising on their directory. If you don’t know what a directory is, think “Yellow Pages” or YP.com. Now do I think they are as worthless as YP.com, absolutely not, a lot of homeowners go onto Angie’s List to find service professionals in their area.

 

So, Let’s Give You Some Pros Of Advertising on Angie’s List

Like HomeAdvisor, Angie’s List invests a lot of money in advertising to direct consumers to their website who are looking for service professionals to complete a project or do a repair.

You don’t have to pay per lead, so if you end up getting 100 jobs from your listing you don’t have to pay any extra money.

So what are the major differences between these two services?

First of all, Angie’s List is a membership site – to access its full range of features and reviews you have to pay either $30/year or $99/year (which includes a subscription to Angie’s magazine). HomeAdvisor, on the other hand, is a free site that connects homeowners with contractors.

Angie’s List members can access reviews of local service providers in over 700 categories.

These reviews are written by customers who have used the services of these businesses. HomeAdvisor doesn’t offer customer reviews – instead it provides profiles of businesses that have been screened and approved by the company.

 

  • Unlimited Leads
  • Get in front of clients that you wouldn’t normally know about
  • Many local homeowners use their service

 

So Here are The Cons of Working With Angie’s List

You wouldn’t pay to have a listing in YP.com, would you? Then why the hell would you pay to be in another directory? Let’s be honest, the odds of putting up a listing and getting phone calls are slim to none. You are basically throwing up a billboard and hoping that the right person in the right are looking for the right project will drive by.

 

 

  • You are paying to advertise, not buying leads
  • Share leads with Homeadvisor
  • Leads are sent to multiple contractors
  • Consumers get bombarded by phone calls
  • Poor customer service

Benefit of Thumbtack Pro

There are better ways to invest your marketing dollars, Angie’s List most likely isn’t one of them. Not to say that there aren’t any companies that benefit from being on Angie’s List, but from the reviews on the internet in most cases, you are just throwing money out the window.

 

So What’s The Conclusion Angie’s List or Home Advisor

If I were to choose Home Advisor vs Angie’s List, Home Advisor would win hands down. Paying to be listed on a website and hoping that someone will trip across my listing and then ask me to call them doesn’t seem like a good use of my marketing dollars.

 

With that Homeadvisor has its drawback as well. Not having a verified lead means you are rolling the dice and hope that you get in touch with the potential client. You still have to get their attention long enough to be able to submit an estimate or bid the project.

 

Being a Small Business Owner Isn’t Easy

There is nothing easy about owning a  business, whether you are trying to build your business or trying to find an employee that can pull their own weight, you have nothing but challenges ahead of you. If it were easy we all would-be business owners, right?

 

If You Want You Phone To Ring Next Year, You Need To Start Today

Online marketing isn’t easy, and sometimes can be a bit scary if you don’t know what you are doing. The main thing you need to remember, it takes time. If I am building a website for myself, I am thinking about years from now, not 90 or 120 days.

 

If you looked at your business as short-term, you would most likely fail within that time frame. So why would you think any different about your website or online profiles? For some of you reading this, maybe it’s starting to make sense, maybe it’s time you will rethink your internet marketing strategy?

 

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