How Much Does It Cost To ...

Where I live in Mary­land, most home­own­ers have asphalt dri­ve­ways, not con­crete. I have one as well! It starts out as a sin­gle dri­ve­way (for 1 car) and ends up at the garage accom­mo­dat­ing two cars. For a while now, I have been think­ing that I’d like to expand my dri­ve­way to fit more cars and make it eas­i­er to get in and out. But I had no idea what it would cost to do this sort of project. Is this a $3,000 project or a $10,000 project? Because this is not my line of work, I decid­ed to go online to see what the World Wide Web had to say about it. I asked Google: ​“What does it cost to repave a typ­i­cal driveway?”  It was­n’t a sur­prise, but the first 7 – 10 results I found were either Google Ads or direc­to­ry sites: Ang­ie’s List, Home­Ad­vi­sor, etc. I was pret­ty sure those would not answer my ques­tion so I kept scrolling down. Keep in mind that I was doing this with my phone. I final­ly stum­bled upon this web­site (blog post): Willie’s Paving. Had he been local to me, this prob­a­bly would have been up at the top. Take a look and read the blog post for your­self! It answered my ques­tion. In fact, if you spend a lit­tle time on the site, you will find that Willie’s Paving is a pret­ty help­ful web­site that focus­es on what a con­sumer wants to know. It helped me find the num­ber that I should expect when I am ready to repave my dri­ve­way. The only down­side to Willie’s blog post is that he is NOT local to me. If he were, I would be call­ing him for an esti­mate when I am ready to get the job done. Chances are, I won’t be get­ting a sec­ond bid. I think there are plen­ty of busy con­sumers (like me) who are the same way. They hunt online for answers, do a lit­tle research on a com­pa­ny and then pur­chase from that com­pa­ny if they feel com­fort­able and don’t feel they will get take advan­tage of. If a con­sumer can­not find an answer look­ing online or ask­ing friends/​neighbors, they will begin the process of hunt­ing by call­ing a few con­trac­tors to come out and give them bids. This is painful and not a lot of peo­ple enjoy this process. The peo­ple who do, and they are out there, are not peo­ple you and I want to work for!

Your Turn

So let me chal­lenge you to make your mar­ket­ing, espe­cial­ly your web­site, more about what the con­sumer real­ly wants to know! Begin writ­ing con­tent that talks about the cost as well. Most of your com­peti­tors will not be doing this any­time soon. So the more you give your cus­tomers what they are look­ing for online, the more trust you’ll build and jobs you will sell. Side Note: If Willie’s Paving ever reads this post, excel­lent job! Keep it up!