What If I Only Want Uber-Wealthy Web Leads?

Would­n’t it be nice if most of the leads you received from your con­tract­ing web­site were from your tar­get audi­ence only? If your web­site already does well in the local search, chances are you are get­ting a pret­ty decent num­ber of web inquiries dur­ing the spring and sum­mer months. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, it is very like­ly that a good por­tion of the leads are not ones you were hop­ing for, espe­cial­ly ones from the über-wealthy audience.

The ques­tion I have got­ten asked in more recent months is this, ​“How can I only get über-wealthy, tar­get­ed leads off my website?” 

I do not think there is an easy answer to this ques­tion. It is very dif­fi­cult to tar­get only the über-wealthy audi­ence for a num­ber of rea­sons. Some­times the ​“upper crust” deci­sions mak­ers are not the ones look­ing for a painter on the Inter­net. It might be their assis­tants, sec­re­taries, or office/​house man­agers. So just hav­ing a web­site that speaks to the über wealthy clien­tele may not work if they are not the ones com­ing to your website.

Also, the über-wealthy are not always look­ing for a slick and sexy painter’s web­site. Some painters and con­trac­tors think that putting the most amaz­ing, staged pho­tos on one’s web­site will make them look extra good in the eyes of the behold­er. Yet this could actu­al­ly turn some wealthy clients away. They might think you are too expensive.

“Wait,” you might ask, ​“if they are rich, they can afford my services…so should I not try to impress them with my amaz­ing work?” Not nec­es­sar­i­ly. These buy­ers do not always want to open their pock­et­book to just any­one. They did not get rich by being care­free spenders. Their assis­tants can also be turned off by pic­tures and con­tent that looks too expen­sive. They are tasked to spend wisely!

So How Can My Web­site Mar­ket To The Uber-Wealthy?

I do not think there is one sim­ple answer to this ques­tion. I do not think you can change a few pic­tures, update the copy, change the form and then reap the rewards of only get­ting über-wealthy leads. The web is too broad to tar­get that one audience.

Yet there might be ways to increase the chances of get­ting bet­ter leads in gen­er­al off your web­site, not just those from the upper class market.

Here are a few pointers:

• Make your web­site easy to nav­i­gate for the end-user: Build the site with the vis­i­tor in mind. Is it easy to find out where you are locat­ed, what you do and how to con­tact you? Do not make your vis­i­tors have to think too much when they arrive at your website.
• Use real pho­tos: My advice is to use your own images as much as pos­si­ble, not stock pho­tos and videos. At some point, most web vis­i­tors will fig­ure out if a pic­ture is yours or is ​“fake.” Take the time to take some decent pho­tos of your home improve­ment ser­vices. Most of these pho­tos can be tak­en by your own staff, or if you are very par­tic­u­lar about the qual­i­ty, you can hire a pro­fes­sion­al to take some shots. How­ev­er, do not do too much ​“stag­ing” of the images. Just take good before, dur­ing and after shots of your work and arrange them nice­ly on the web­site. This will cre­ate trust with your web visitors.
• Tell Your Sto­ry: Hav­ing a great ​“About Us” page is worth the time and effort. If your audi­ence cares about qual­i­ty more than the price tag, they will want to hear your sto­ry. They are not just look­ing for the bar­gain base­ment price. They want to know who you are and who works for you. Build­ing trust is per­haps one of the most impor­tant things con­trac­tors need to be think­ing about with online mar­ket­ing. Tak­ing pho­tos and even short video clips of your man­age­ment team is a great way to con­nect with your web visitors.
• Edu­cate your audi­ence: I have writ­ten and spo­ken about con­tent mar­ket­ing for years now and how impor­tant this is for all your mar­ket­ing. Use your web­site to edu­cate and inform your vis­i­tors. This can be done by writ­ing great blogs and doing short videos. Here is a quick tip on this: every ques­tion a prospect might ask you when you are doing an esti­mate should be answered in the form of a blog or short video. (i.e. How long does it take to paint my exte­ri­or? / Do I have to be home when the work is being per­formed? What does it typ­i­cal­ly cost to install a new roof on a typ­i­cal home like mine?) The über-wealthy, the mid­dle class, and the upper class = the buy­er in my opin­ion. These folks will appre­ci­ate that your com­pa­ny is not hold­ing any­thing back and will feel more con­fi­dent that your com­pa­ny might be a good fit.
• Detailed vs Short Con­tact Forms: This will be debat­ed by online mar­keters. The gen­er­al rule is to have short and quick forms: easy to fill out. If you just want more leads, the sim­ple forms work best. Peo­ple online tend to be lazy and do not like fill­ing out long and detailed forms. Be that as it may, if you real­ly do want to get more qual­i­fied leads and you have built the trust by tak­ing the steps that I men­tioned above, hav­ing a more detailed web form will tend to give you more qual­i­fied traf­fic. You will get few­er tire kick­ers who will not both­er fill­ing out the detailed form. This might be a strat­e­gy when you get very busy and can­not keep up on leads.
• Stay Away from Direc­to­ry Adver­tis­ing: If you want more qual­i­fied leads, I would not both­er pay­ing mon­ey for most of the direc­to­ries and ser­vices online that offer to get you more leads. You will get the leads, but in most cas­es, you’ll be dis­ap­point­ed with the qual­i­ty. This is because you do not have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to build the trust through social media, blog­ging and your website.
• Com­mu­ni­ty Events: Get involved in tar­get­ed com­mu­ni­ty events. Spon­sor a 5K, hand out pop­corn or bot­tled water, spon­sor a lit­tle league team or a blood dri­ve, you name it. Reach out to your clients and ask them what they do in the com­mu­ni­ty. Then begin plan­ning how you can get involved as well.

Your Turn

How does your com­pa­ny cur­rent­ly mar­ket to the über-wealthy online? How do you plan on mak­ing changes to your approach in the months to come?