Episode 52: Website Design That Generates Leads With Peter Butler
In episode 52 of the Professional Builders Secrets podcast, we’re joined by Peter Butler, Managing Director of Smarter Websites. Throughout this episode, Peter explains the importance of how a well designed website will set your building company up for success.
Episode 52: Website Design That Generates Leads With Peter Butler
In episode 52 of the Professional Builders Secrets podcast, we’re joined by Peter Butler, Managing Director of Smarter Websites. Throughout this episode, Peter explains the importance of how a well designed website will set your building company up for success.
Show Notes
Transcript
In episode 52 of the Professional Builders Secrets podcast, we’re joined by Peter Butler, Managing Director of Smarter Websites. Throughout this episode, Peter explains the importance of how a well designed website will set your building company up for success.
Inside episode 52 you will discover
- Why a high-performing website is more effective than an online-brochure model website
- How to convert your customers pain points into lead generating CTA’s
- What are the most important website content types to include
- How demonstrating authority builds trust in your audience
- Insider tips on the current most effective website trends
- And much, much more.
Listen to the full episode to discover exactly what you need to be incorporating into your building website to make it the most effective it can be!
Peter Butler - Managing Director of Smarter Websites
With over 15 years of experience in the web and digital space, Peter Butler the Managing Director of Smarter Websites knows how to create websites that convert. With a strong focus on systems, processes and automations, Peter is on a mission to help businesses use their website more effectively to boost predictable sales and create more revenue.
Timeline
1:37 About Peter and Smarter Websites
4:00 Proven elements to include in your website
21:45 Your websites psychology
28:26 The number #1 thing your website must have
34:00 How to automate your website
Links, Resources & More
Website Lead Generation Checklist
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Peter Butler:
You've got eight seconds to make an impression.
Peter Butler:
You've got to really own your space.
Peter Butler:
Social moves so quickly, there's nothing wrong with reposting pre-existing content.
Peter Butler:
It's all about user experience, it's all about journey.
Peter Butler:
Really, it's about the outcome, the happiness, the joy, it's the emotion.
Peter Butler:
Anything that gives you credibility, anything that gives you authority inspires confidence, it's really that simple.
Bosco Anthony:
Hello and welcome to the Professional Builders Secrets Podcast, a podcast by the Association of Professional Builders (APB), for building company owners, general managers, VPs and emerging leaders. Here we discuss all things running a professional building company, from sales processes to financials, operations and marketing. We have another exciting episode from the Professional Builders Secrets Podcast. I'm joined today by Peter Butler, Managing Director for Smarter Websites. Peter, lovely to have you here today, how have you been?
Peter Butler:
Really good, really busy. It's a great opportunity out there for people online.
Bosco Anthony:
Well, I'm sure you're kept busy with all the work that you do, but I'd love you to just introduce yourself, and tell us a little bit about Smarter Websites, and what you specialise in, first.
Peter Butler:
I've been in the web and digital space for 15 years, and we've built up a solid team over that time. I've got seven people on the team, some of those have been with me seven years, some five years, so we're a really tight team and work well together.
Bosco Anthony:
Wow, and do you specialise in websites for professional building companies as well? I'm told that you come heavily recommended in this space.
Peter Butler:
Yeah, absolutely. There's something that's really ironic: the two industries on the planet that are the hardest to systemise and automate are the custom home building industry and the website design industry. The reason is, although they might have 10 stages in the process, it's the variables in each one of those stages that actually maps out why it's so difficult to automate and specialise. So that's why we work so well with custom home builders, because we literally speak their language. I'm personally a system process as an automations freak, and I love that, and try and bring that other level to it, because they're so hard to systemise.
Bosco Anthony:
Well, Peter, I'm just curious, why do building companies normally struggle with building effective websites? What's the key issue here next to web design? That could be another podcast on its own. But when it comes to the professional building company, why do you think they struggle?
Peter Butler:
There are two types of websites out there, there's the online-brochure model, and then there's a high-performing website, and so many builders focus on just the imagery. Now that's really, really important, absolutely, you've got to showcase the quality of your work. But if that's all you are doing, you're not focusing on good lead generation practices, so it's all about imagery, but not about connecting and engaging with the prospect.
Bosco Anthony:
Yeah, let's home in on that. You talk about moving away from just the visual aesthetic look, but also focusing on lead generation. So what are some of the secrets that you have uncovered over this illustrious career of yours, where building companies are using some of these tactics, or deploying some of these tactics to generate leads, and how do you turn those websites into lead generation machines that produce high quality leads?
Peter Butler:
The thing is you've got to have calls to action, so you've got to have the opportunity to identify what their pain points are. APB does that exceptionally well with the free report model: Are you planning on building your new house? What secrets do you need to know before you talk to any builder? And they've got a range of these free reports. Those free reports resonate with the web visitor, and so there’s an opportunity for that unknown lead, that possible prospect, to become identified.
Peter Butler:
In exchange for that information you get their contact details, and so you’re then able to communicate with them, and start that rapport, start that relationship, establish that trust as the expert in your industry. Whereas the big glossy brochure style websites have none of that, none of the lead generation reports, none of the calls to action, and it's not going to happen. So APB has really nailed it.
Bosco Anthony:
With that lead generation tactic, do you call that a lead magnet in your industry? Is that what it's called?
Peter Butler:
Correct, yes.
Bosco Anthony:
Excellent, okay. Well look, I'm going to dive a little deeper into the checklist of creating a lead generation website, and I'm going to throw you a couple of questions here. So let's start off with the basics I guess, the direction of the website. What goes into a website, header and footer as well? What are some of those key areas? When someone lands on the website, what does that first impression look like?
Peter Butler:
The industry stats are something like you've got eight seconds to make an impression, and so many people get it wrong, in as much as they have a revolving slideshow of seven images, or even 10 images, trying to showcase everything they do. Well, the only people who watch all those images are the website owners, not the visitor. Have three, at a maximum. But if you can find one really standout hero image that encapsulates everything about your business, then you've nailed it.
Peter Butler:
But other important things up in that header are firstly, your logo, not too big, not too small. It's not all about your logo; you want your branding to stand out, but it's not all about that. They don't know you yet, so don't overdo it there. And you need your trusted statement; you've got to really own your space, so just having a simplified statement is gold. You've also got to make it so that it's easy to contact you.
Peter Butler:
I see so many websites that just makes it so hard to make a contact, it's just ridiculous, so having a strong call to action is essential. Now, whether that's a lead generation report, a lead magnet as you've said, or a booking time, a qualifying call, you've got to make it easy for people to get hold of you. But at the same time, you want to qualify them, because you don't want to just talk to tyre kickers, and there's qualifying processes.
Peter Butler:
Other things that are important as far as the website structure are, say down in your footer, you want to have your terms and conditions and your privacy policy. And again, if somebody's gone to the bottom of your website, you might have your contact details at the top, your phone number at the top of the page. Well, that should be replicated at the bottom, because you know what? If they've gone all the way to the bottom of the website, there's a good chance they want to reach out more, so you've got to replicate it down there. You've got to make it so it's easy for people to get in contact with you.
Bosco Anthony:
Now you talked a little bit about the website navigation. Why is it so important to have a really strong website navigation experience when people land on your website?
Peter Butler:
When you're building and designing a website, you've got to give people multiple ways to take them on the journey that you want to take them on. In your menu you will have things like your process, your designs, your projects, all of those sorts of things, and that's in your menu at the top of the website. But then as people scroll down your website, you want to replicate those elements so that you're taking people on a journey. It's all about user experience, it's all about journey.
Bosco Anthony:
Right. And you mentioned something really interesting; you talked about calls to action. It sounds like calls to action are really important for professional building companies, especially when it comes to lead generation. Why do you emphasise it in today's world?
Peter Butler:
It's a difference between an online-brochure website and a high-performing website. Again, too many people over the years have focused on that high gloss look, and it doesn't mean to say your image is not important on a high-performing website, but by having pain points, calls to action embedded at every level of your website is just crucial for people identifying themselves. You need your unknown prospect to turn into a known prospect.
Peter Butler:
If they're on your website, the thing is they're interested in what you do, but maybe their wife just called for dinner, or maybe the husband called for dinner, or whatever that is, a momentary distraction. And will they remember your website? So by having calls to action, there's an opportunity for them to identify themselves, so that you can then continue to market to them, you can start the relationship. Look, we all do business with people we know, like and trust, and until they identify themselves you're not able to build that relationship, that rapport. Does that make sense?
Bosco Anthony:
Totally, absolutely. You talked about the importance of, and you also defined what a lead magnet is, and why it's so important. Can you give me some effective examples of lead magnets that you've worked on in the construction space that worked really well? Or just an example of what could be given away as a lead magnet?
Peter Butler:
It's funny, we started off in this industry in 2007, and at that stage with your free report white paper model, you had about a 70% sign up rate. Nowadays, you're lucky if you get a 7% sign up rate generically. Now within the building industry, there's actually a massive opportunity to make that a 70% rate, because those people are hungry for your industry.
Peter Butler:
Some of the models are, for example, The five mistakes people make when planning, there's The seven things you must know before designing. There are also Pre-start checklists, because as soon as somebody starts down this journey and they start to learn this language, they're hungry for more information; they want to get it right. It's a big spend, so they can't afford to get it wrong. There are Consumers’ guide to builders’ jargon, there's a whole host of different types of reports that you can integrate into your website.
Bosco Anthony:
Well, it's interesting you say that, because I am a homeowner, and I obviously have invested into my place, and I would give away my contact details if I needed some of this information. I recently just did my backyard, and I wanted to know what type of plants to put into the backyard. And funnily enough, the person I worked with actually had some finished work of some looks and everything else that I was able to download, and then he was able to call me. So my guess is that the builders are already sitting on this content, and they're already giving it away for free, so why not have the email address collected, or contact details collected with this particular tactic?
Bosco Anthony:
What are your thoughts, Peter, of a marketing guarantee? Should a building company offer a marketing guarantee? Do you see any benefits to the online visitor having that?
Peter Butler:
Absolutely. We've all got confidence in what we deliver, and so there's no reason that you can't offer that and integrate that with your offer. It's all about customer confidence; it's really that simple. There are standard build guarantees that builders have anyway, so why would you not reinforce that as a part of your marketing? Shout that from the mountain top. A lot of the time, especially with custom home builders, what people like, and why they're drawn to that, is because they're going to be in direct contact with the builder, not some large building company. So it needs to be reinforced as a part of your marketing arsenal.
Bosco Anthony:
It sounds like this is an opportunity for building companies to even work on their value propositions and selling propositions as part of this guarantee, because that could potentially fuel what they have to offer. I'm really excited to ask you the next few questions around storytelling; I'm a bit of a storytelling nerd myself. So the first one I've got for you is what type of visual storytelling should a website have? You talked a little bit about having a really capturing hero image, but tell me a little bit about the types of storytelling that professional building companies should have.
Peter Butler:
Leveraging from previous work that you've done is absolutely vital. Now, if there's no previous work, if you’re a start-up builder and you maybe don't have that strong portfolio of images, you can use stock images, but be careful about the stock images you do use if that's the case. We don't want to see American style plugs if it's for an Australian audience, and vice versa. So you've got to be careful there.
Peter Butler:
But video is absolutely vital. The thing is that you can use storytelling, as in the builder cutting to the chase and actually having a conversation with the audience. It could be a video about their project management, about the builds they've done, all of that, but also that personal connection. So people see that this guy's real, he's authentic, he's genuine. Sometimes that's hard to do, to be relaxed when a video camera is on you.
Peter Butler:
But the thing is that we have those conversations every single day. I do and builders do. I reckon there's probably 60, 70 conversations that we have, where we almost hit the autopilot switch, and we say, "Blah, blah, blah," because we've had the conversation a thousand times. They're the sorts of conversations that you can have in text, in video, in your storytelling on the website. Using a copywriter is gold, because they make it so much more powerful. But that authenticity when it comes through is gold; it's hard to beat.
Bosco Anthony:
Now, what about that hero image, or the images on the website? You just talked about potentially sourcing images if you're a new builder, and I'm assuming websites like Shutterstock or Unsplash could have some of those images. But like you said, you have to make it more customised to the audience that you're in, whether you're in North America or New Zealand. But when it comes to that hero image, are we looking at selling the end results? I'm assuming from a building company that's really important.
Peter Butler:
Yeah, absolutely. It's all about the emotion, showcasing the quality of the builder, property or whatever. If you are showcasing, say, a two-storey property, and it's a magnificent, multi million dollar property, that's great. But that might not resonate with somebody where that market is just outside of their reach, and you could focus on something mid-range. But really, it's about the outcome, the happiness, the joy, it's the emotion that goes with it, so it depends if you've got a niche, and things like that. I see some really successful building companies using a photo of a family holding a set of keys, with a property behind them, and it's almost blurred out; the focus is on the emotion of the end result.
Bosco Anthony:
Right. So I guess it comes down to knowing your customer; in our marketing world we use the term avatar or persona. Why should professional building companies know their customer avatar or persona?
Peter Butler:
Yeah, it’s interesting you say that. I was talking to a custom home builder before, where they've realised they've diluted the strength of their brand, because they have a construction site, but they also have a specialty roofing site. By melding the two together they caused a little bit of confusion, so they're going to separate that. I think that's very important to understand your customer, and understand the emotions attached to that, but also your niche area, your specialty. Where's the money? Where's the cash cow? What's the simple model for you to roll out? What's your happy place as well? It's all very important.
Bosco Anthony:
Talking about videos and the era of videos, I've seen a statistic that said Cisco claims that by 2021, or at least the completion of that year, 82% of traffic will come from video sources. Obviously YouTube is owned by Google as well, so what are some of the key benefits of having video on the website? And more importantly, what are some of the types of videos that you should have on your website?
Peter Butler:
This is a big subject, and I see so many people get this wrong from the get-go. You mentioned YouTube; streaming your videos on YouTube is absolute gold, so I highly recommend it. However, do not embed those videos from YouTube onto your website, no. Look, the concentration span of everybody these days is a lot shorter, so the reason you have your videos on YouTube is simply to direct people to your website, and to showcase your business.
Peter Butler:
So if they only visualise it on YouTube, that's okay, that's fine. But you would have links in the description area to your website, to particular web pages, whatever that is. But the videos shown on your website should not be hosted through YouTube. You can use independent hosting platforms so there's no distractions, there's no little YouTube thing down the bottom, where they scroll, and off they go, and get totally distracted. So, there's a way to use YouTube. Now, here's an interesting stat to throw back to you: 92% of videos that are watched on a mobile device are watched with no sound.
Bosco Anthony:
Interesting; it's the captions.
Peter Butler:
Exactly; captions are absolutely vital. There are some very cool caption services. You just simply upload the video, it'll create the captions, you get an opportunity to edit it for accuracy, and load those videos to YouTube and the streaming one to your website. So there's a way to use them, and they can make a big difference to your business.
Bosco Anthony:
So would testimonial videos be one of the types of videos you could have on the website? If so, what are some of the other ones that you're seeing in the market right now?
Peter Butler:
Testimonial videos are great, but not everybody's comfortable doing that. I've got to say, if you can get it done as an impromptu thing, it can be really helpful sometimes. If you're doing that, I would always recommend that you tell people, "Look, I'm just going to do this." If somebody's just said to you something quite emotive, "I love my house, I can't believe it," that's a great time to get a video, because they're at the highest emotive state. It's a great time to get a testimonial too, by the way. But video testimonial's gold, and warn people, "Just be natural, just say what you've said to me." Boom, do it right there. It's going to be quite natural; it's going to come across as really authentic. Do warn them to just hold their pose at the end, because quite often they'll say, "How's that?" And you can't cut that part out.
Bosco Anthony:
Right. Let's talk about proof as well on a website. What are some of the entities that basically show proof of success, or proof of integrity, or in some cases that reassurance that people need? What are some of the types of proof that should be on a professional building website?
Peter Butler:
There are two things that stand out there for me. There are testimonials again, but there are also case studies. Testimonials are proof of what people think about your business, case studies are proof that you can deliver what people say about your business. Does that make sense?
Bosco Anthony:
That's an interesting way of saying it.
Peter Butler:
Yeah, it's a really important distinction. What's even more powerful about case studies is when you then tie that to a testimonial. With case studies, there's the problem, how you solve the problem, and what the outcome was. We've got a framework for creating case studies that helps anybody, and certainly builders, that we roll out, and so it helps them to identify. The way the case study is displayed on the website is really important, because you want to convey the quality of your work, and you want to resonate with the person who's reading that case study. Because if they resonate with it, boom, they're convinced that you are going to be able to solve their problem. When that's reinforced with a testimonial, that's just massive added value.
Bosco Anthony:
I'm going to throw some other questions at you around authority, because obviously this is just as important, and authority usually builds trust, and in this era today trust is so important. So I'll start off with, how does a professional building company establish authority on a website? And especially if it's, let's say, a new builder, where they're getting themselves into this space as well. How do you borrow some form of authority?
Peter Butler:
There are some simple things, for example, builders have to be registered for a start. So show your registration, your licence number, if you're new you might not have any awards, but consider that. Also show your associations’ badges, anything you're associated with. If you are a start-off it might be product ranges perhaps, but also showcase your team. Use anything that gives you credibility, anything that gives you authority inspires confidence; it's really that simple.
Bosco Anthony:
In the perfect world as well, any listener here who’s a member of APB should also think about putting that badge on their site as well. What about the type of quality of content that should be on a website? You just distinguished between a brochure-based website and a lead generation website, and I'm assuming there's a different language to actually get those conversions. And what are some of those necessary pages that you need to have on a website?
Peter Butler:
It's all about education. Somebody's coming to your website, you've got some lead generations, some lead magnets there, and that's great. But then they've got other questions, and APB can provide the common FAQs as a standard template, and then you customise that to suit your specialty audience, or your language, the way you communicate.
Peter Butler:
The FAQs should include the process of building a house. How many people know what the processes are? Break that down, make it easy for people to understand. It's all about education, which again comes to trust, confidence and everything else. But it also makes your job as a business owner a lot easier, because those 60 or 70 conversations I referred to earlier should be all in your website somewhere. They're conversations you have verbally, and you need to articulate that throughout your marketing, throughout your website, which means that you either won't get asked those questions, or when you get asked those questions, it'll be shorter, more concise, because they've already been pre-educated.
Peter Butler:
It is quite an interesting psychological thing, because sometimes people don't like to repeat information, but there's a psychological thing where, say if you provide a free report, there might be seven vital bits of information in that report. Somebody gets that, they read that report and they take in those seven vital bits of information. You can then have a follow-up sequence providing one of those seven bits of information, say every week. That's where a lot of people do go wrong, in the lead generation space.
Peter Butler:
So you could have a sequence offering one point one week, another point another week. Is that repetitive? Well, yes, technically, but do you know what happens psychologically? People read that and say, "Oh yeah, I read that somewhere. I know that." It reinforces that education, and that's really crucial, that nurturing, the follow-up sequences in CRMs.
Bosco Anthony:
Right. So some of the pages would be, I'm assuming, a homepage, an about page, services, galleries, potentially a plan range for a builder and testimonials.
Peter Butler:
Yeah, and case studies.
Bosco Anthony:
Yeah, case studies, guarantees, frequently asked questions, advanced pages like a client login, or basically even a blog for organic content, but these are some of the pages I see out there in building companies. How important is it to leverage a 404 page, and can you define that to our listeners out there?
Peter Butler:
A 404 page simply is if a link is broken in your website, or they went to a page they thought existed and it doesn't exist. A 404 page basically can be a summary of valid content, so they've gone to the wrong page, and rather than it just saying, "Oh, you've gone to the wrong page," and nothing else, there can be vital information. There can be links to lots of other valid content, FAQs, or any of the pages we just listed can be listed on that 404 page.
Bosco Anthony:
Right. And could you turn that into a lead generation opportunity if they land on a 404 page as well?
Peter Butler:
Absolutely. Yeah, you could embed your free reports on there if they've missed them or weren't interested in signing up earlier. Yeah, absolutely.
Bosco Anthony:
Let's talk about social media, shall we? I feel like I've noticed as well with some of the things that I've hired, or services I've taken on, if someone has links to their social platform, often if I land on their social platforms I can see they haven't been updated for years. Chances are they're too busy, or they might not even get back to me in a timely fashion. So I guess the question that I have is, should you link social platforms to a website if you're a professional building company, and should you be also staying on top of your social platforms?
Peter Butler:
Absolutely. There's a couple of points I'd like to make there. The trend a number of years ago was to have your social media links high on your website as well, and I would not advocate that. The point is you've got the prospect to your website in one manner or another, whether that's organic SEO ranking in Google, or whatever that is, and you don't want to take them away from your website.
Bosco Anthony:
The minute when they land.
Peter Butler:
Yeah, have your social links at the bottom, so then they can go off and check out your social platforms. But not having dynamic content on your social platforms is really not a good place to be; you want to be publishing to your social platforms quite regularly. The thing is, most people don't realise that they've got so many opportunities to create social posts from the content that's already on their website, and that's generally why people don't make regular social posts, because they struggle with getting content together – and time, it's the old issue of time.
Peter Butler:
There is automation out there, there is software that will host your social platforms, and you can set it on an evergreen cycle. By that, I mean a lot of the content I call evergreen, because it's as valid now as it will be in three months, or it will be in 12 months. Social moves so quickly, there's nothing wrong with reposting pre-existing content. You wouldn't recycle something every week, you come up with a 90 or 120 day cycle, but you've got to post regularly. There are other ways to leverage from that, simply with photography imagery.
Peter Butler:
If you're on a project, you can take a photo of a bathroom that just got fixed, or a bath that just got installed, or whatever it is, publish that on Instagram, and it can get reposted to Facebook. You can also integrate it with your website where you have an Instagram page, and you've got fresh new content there. So to me it's all about leverage in business, do one thing and three things happen, that photo goes to Instagram, Facebook and your website.
Bosco Anthony:
I think we call it repurposing content, but I also really like the concept about moving the social icons to the bottom of the page, because I read this recently. I do agree with you that having the platform icons at the top is almost like owning a shoe store, and as soon as people enter the shoe store you have an exit sign that says, "Leave the store." You know what I mean?
Peter Butler:
Yeah.
Bosco Anthony:
So I definitely agree with that as well, and it's interesting how a lot of the things that you're talking about are about understanding behaviours of website visitors, more importantly than just where you're coming from, from a business as well. Because again, a lot of the things you're talking about are to kill the cul-de-sacs within your website and try to create a very smooth user flow and experience.
Peter Butler:
Yeah, that was a really good term you used, user flow, it's that customer journey, it's that user experience. Take them on that journey; you've got that eight seconds, and boom, they know they're in the right place. “Great, okay, now I'm going to investigate further.” Your website can never be too long, it really can't, but it can be too boring. So you've got to just showcase and identify their pain points and get them engaged.
Bosco Anthony:
I know that for our listeners out there, APB has come up with an amazing checklist that I'm sure, Peter, you've had some insights on. I know that they'll be sharing that at the end of these notes as well for our listeners. We're going to cover a lot of the best practices, the training as well that we're going to give away, as well as the checklist. But what I wanted to talk about is what happens once the website's built. Should we have a CRM or an email platform? And why are analytics so important for a builder today?
Peter Butler:
Analytics are important, and for website tracking we use Google Analytics. You might not look at that for a year, and that's okay, as long as you're tracking it. But the bottom line is you want to know how many visitors you've had to your website, what pages they're visiting and how long they stayed on those pages. Like I said, you might not look at that year to year, but historically you can then look back.
Peter Butler:
We had a classic case of this quite recently, where a different web firm had worked on a particular website, and they changed what I call doorway buttons on the homepage. So there was a doorway to the left, doorway to the right, and this person said to the business owner, "Oh my God, the website, the interactions, it's going off." Those two buttons were big buttons, so if they're big buttons you'd think they're going to get people clicking on them. But we had a look at the Google Analytics, and we could see that in the previous six months, there was not one click through.
Bosco Anthony:
Interesting.
Peter Butler:
We made some changes, and within the first month they were getting 13% click through on the left button, and I think 17% on the right button. So there was no disputing this, and this person didn't mean to give the wrong information, I just don't think they understood what they were doing. So we proved that it's important having that historical data, to see if people were clicking on this. Now, how that helps your website is Google will measure all this. So, if a website has people coming to it, and nobody's visiting the internal pages, you will get demerit points. With Google, it's all about brownie points and demerit points, it's really that simple. So by more people clicking through you are getting brownie points, you will get higher organic rankings. Does that make sense?
Bosco Anthony:
Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of Google, they've obviously updated their analytics, because now they've got the whole GA4 coming in very soon as well. So analytics, I wouldn't say it's retiring, but it's getting a new aesthetic uplift, as we say.
Peter Butler:
Yeah, that's right. So there's a lot more information, and for a lot of business owners, that's not in their wheelhouse, their strength, and that's okay, but the historical data's there to be used. So a business owner might think, "Well, I want to make some changes to my website." So they can talk to their webbie and have a look at what the traffic has been and what pages are getting visited. So you might have a lot of traffic to a particular page, but then they exit from that page. You might ask, “Why aren't they engaging? Why aren't they filling in the contact form?” “Oh, there's something broken there.” So it helps you identify those issues as well.
Bosco Anthony:
Okay, so let's just say the website's done, it's built. What's next? Are you taking a vacation, or is the work just starting?
Peter Butler:
Right, yeah. A website's dynamic. When it's finished, when it's built, the go-live day when everybody's happy and running around is just the beginning. A couple of things you mentioned, I want to capture. You mentioned about the CRM [customer relationship management software], so we cannot forget that. We need to come back to that and you've got to add regular new content. So the websites we build, and that APB recommends, are WordPress. They use the WordPress platform, and WordPress now commands 46% of all websites on the planet.
Peter Butler:
When I started in this industry, only 10% of websites were built in WordPress, now it's 46%. There's a reason for that, because they're very easy to update, they're very easy to edit and evolve as a business evolves. Not only that, but also because of the blogging aspect. A blog is simply a newsworthy post; it's as simple as that.
Peter Butler:
When you add a blog post, that is dynamic content, and the moment you hit the publish key, it pings the search engines, and pinging is like internet sonar for the web. It says, "Hey, new content here." So the search engines come back and visit the website and they index the content. Indexing means they know it exists. So the more often you're publishing new content, the more the search engines are coming back and visiting your website, and that's important. And there are different ways you can add new content.
Bosco Anthony:
Right, let's talk about the CRM. So obviously, you talked about lead magnets, and my mind thought, so we're collecting contact information, and we're sending information, and I'm assuming you're recommending a CRM to do both.
Peter Butler:
Yes, absolutely. So your contact form might be lead generation, your lead magnet forms, and they traditionally use contact forms software within the website itself, but that's disconnected from your CRM. Why would you not use your CRM form contact software? So boom, the contact is straight into your CRM.
Peter Butler:
Like I said, with the free report model, they register for the free report, they sign up, they get sent that free report. Why would you not then turn that into a nurture sequence, so they get information number one in week number one, information point number two in week number two, so you're nurturing that contact? And you can only do that using a CRM. We actually have a CRM that we're using with some of the APB clients now called Smarter CRM, and that is absolutely brilliant software. It's very easy to use, very intuitive, and it can be integrated with the custom home builders’ websites.
Bosco Anthony:
I think for me, one of the best features that any CRM should have, is that it should also capture the journey of what stage they're in, whether they're in the consideration stage, or the sales process. I think from a business side of things, any CRM that can do that as well, makes you just map out your leads even better.
Peter Butler:
Yeah, you're absolutely right. We've talked about social media, we've talked about websites, and we've talked about Google. With Google My Business, you have a Google Business listing, and what most business owners don't realise is that on a mobile device, your Google My Business listing has a chat feature. When people hit that chat, they send you a message, and if you don't have this integrated into your CRM, you'll get an email.
Peter Butler:
But think about it: that's a chat feature. People have an expectation that the chat feature is going to get an instant result. Well, what we've done is we've taken your Facebook Messenger leads, your Google My Business chat leads, your contact forms and your Instagram direct messages, and they all go into one portal in your CRM, and there's actually an app for that on the phone as well. You can have automated responses, so you're not a slave to these inbound leads. You can have an automated message, "Hey, we just got your message. Thanks for that. Please register for this, and go and book a schedule, call, or sign up for our free report." So there's all this automation that you can create using a CRM.
Bosco Anthony:
I could chat with you for hours, and obviously you have a wealth of knowledge, but I'm going to wrap up our really interesting and insightful interview with a very important question. It has to do around trends basically in this space: what are some of the current trends you're seeing in the market when it comes to effective lead generation websites? And more importantly, how can the listeners out there on this podcast reach you?
Peter Butler:
Trends I mentioned earlier, and this is a very simple one, not having too many slideshows on the hero image on your website, finding that one hero image, three maximum if you want to do a little bit of storytelling. Definitely include free reports in different areas of your website, so you're really pushing those pain points. Also, there's this expectation to respond more quickly.
Peter Butler:
The quicker you respond the more you engage. You think about somebody out there who’s looking for a home builder; is the custom home builder they are talking to now the only home builder that they've contacted? Probably not. So the person who does the most nurturing, is the most responsive and has the best follow-up sequence is going to be the winner.
Bosco Anthony:
So basically provide value wherever you can?
Peter Butler:
Absolutely.
Bosco Anthony:
Cool. Any wise words from you for our listeners out there before we wrap this up?
Peter Butler:
Don't be shy on investing in this; it's a capital expense; it's a one-off expense. So do the numbers but do the ROI. How many new contacts, or how many new projects do you need to make this worth your investment? And invest the time in getting it right.
Bosco Anthony:
Smarter Websites is how people can find you as well here.
Peter Butler:
Absolutely, yeah. We're APB's preferred partner for websites, and also for CRM technology.
Bosco Anthony:
Well, it was a pleasure having you. Thank you so much for the wealth of knowledge and the insights. It certainly was a great refresher for me, being in this space, to hear it from someone else who's a professional as well. I look forward to having you back on the show as well in the future. And again, thank you so much for your generosity and the information provided.
Peter Butler:
Thank you very much.
Bosco Anthony:
Cheers mate.
Bosco Anthony:
Thank you for listening. Remember to subscribe to Professional Builders Secrets on your favourite podcast platform and leave a review. To learn more about how the systems at APB can help you grow your building company, visit associationofprofessionalbuilders.com. See you next time.
