This post will show you how to leverage the home improvement and remodeling knowledge you already have to grow your email marketing list. The strategy is dead simple:
- Write something truly useful for your prospects.
- Offer it to your website visitors in exchange for their contact info.
Use Your Home Improvement Knowledge to Build a Great Piece of Content
If you’re in a sales role for a home improvement or remodeling company, then you have a goldmine of information in your head. All you have to do is think of your last 3-5 prospects and clients. Now, go get a pen and paper and write down the answers to these questions:
- What are the top 10 questions new prospects ask when they first call to request an in-home estimate?
- What are the top 10 questions prospects ask during the sales appointment?
- What surprised or irritated your customers during the course of the remodeling project?
- Did you encounter any stumbling blocks during the remodeling project? What could have been done prior to the project to better set the homeowners expectations?
That’s just a short list of questions to help you brainstorm.
Turn your brainstorm ideas into email marketing gold
After completing the exercise above, you should have least 2 or 3 really good topics and titles that may look something like this:
- How to prepare your home and family for a major remodel.
- How to pick the right [x] to go with [y]. (You’ll have to fill in the blanks for your industry. For example, “How to pick the right exhaust hood for your gas cooktop.”)
Now that you’ve got at least one solid idea, someone in your organization will need to write it. Just be honest and write what you know. It’s really not that hard.
Create a functional & Useful PDF
Next, you’ll need to turn that document into a PDF. It doesn’t have to be pretty, just functional. Now, you’ll need to promote this document on your website as a free guide, how-to manual, tip sheet or whatever. All websites and email campaigns are set up slightly different depending on the software involved, but here are the basic steps to launch your new PDF:
- Create and publish a new page on your website site promoting your new tip sheet. Give readers just enough info to describe it, without giving away all your great content.
- Upload your new PDF to a subfolder on your website.
- Create a signup form either through your website’s form building tool or through your email service provider. If you use a form building tool on your website, make sure to connect it to your email distribution list, so new people are automatically added.
- Set up auto-responders for your new form. The auto-responder will send your prospect an email reply with a link to download your tip sheet.
Now, go grab a cup of coffee! You’ve just used some of your industry knowledge to grow the subscribers to your email marketing list.
