How a "New Kind of Report" is helping home builders get a windfall of new clients in their local area. | Blue Bloom Media

One of the most important parts of marketing your business is identifying where to best focus your efforts to bring in new clients.

The most valuable source of high quality leads is Google.  46% of all Google searches are looking for local information and 88% of searches for local businesses on a mobile device will either call or visit the business within 24 hours. 

What these stats mean is local clients are currently looking for you online.  If they can find you in Google search, you will start to see quick and sustainable growth.

Today, I want to walk you through one of the simplest but most impactful changes you can implement in your business to identify opportunities to increase your online presence and bring in more of these high quality Google leads.

What is it? 

Create what we call an 'Opportunity Snapshot Report' for your business.

An Opportunity Snapshot Report is a report that identifies the services you should be visible for in Google in your local service area, to what extent you currently do show up for these services and how competitive it is to be found in Google in your local service area for these services.  

With this data, you can create a plan on where to best focus your marketing efforts over the next 12 months for maximum impact, by identifying the best opportunities for extra targeted Google traffic.

Why is an Opportunity Snapshot Report so important for businesses that want to keep growing every quarter?

Reason #1: it Identifies The Services Your Business Should Be Visible For

By listing out each of the services you would like more clients for, you maximise the number of opportunities available to be found in Google search.  From here, you can identify the best opportunities and keep track of your progress.

Reason #2: You Can Compare Your Visibility Across The Locations, Neighborhoods and Regions You Serve

Your competitors are probably focussing on the main area they are located, for example Los Angeles. Your opportunity analysis should go much deeper than this. For example, if you were located in Los Angeles, you could break it down further into the main neighborhoods in your service area such as Beverley Hills, Santa Monica, Hollywood Hills, Culver City, Echo Park, Venice, Mid-City etc.  

Or if your service area was Central Oregon you could break it down into Bend, Redmond, Sunriver, Terrebonne, Prineville, Sisters, Tumalo etc.

Remember, prospective clients are seeking a solution in their local area and Google is looking for the most relevant local content to put in front of them when they perform a search.

Ranking content for ADU Builder Bend is far more targeted than Home Builder Central Oregon.

Reason #3: See Your Current Visibility In Google Search and level of Competition

If your phone is not constantly ringing bringing in high quality leads, it is because not enough prospective local clients can find you in Google search.  

The Opportunity Snapshot Report will show your current level of visibility for the services you provide and also how competitive it is to be found for that service in each of your local service areas.  

If you are not consistently showing up on the first page or even the first place in Google for a particular service in each of the areas you service, or in the local '3 pack', this is a potential opportunity.

Reason #4: Identify Quick Wins

By knowing the level of competition for each service in each local service area, you can quickly identify opportunities with lower competition where you have limited visibility, and can focus your marketing activities on the most lucrative.

Reason #5: Save Time and Money By Knowing Exactly Where To Focus Your Efforts To Improve Visibility With Your Most Valuable Client Prospects.

While your competitors are either throwing 10’s of thousands of dollars at marketing trying to get something to work, or have given up putting it in the too hard basket, you have a 12 month roadmap to focus your efforts to improve your visibility in Google search.

Reason #6: Get An Edge Over Your Competition With Data Insights They Won’t Have

You have Google data insights at a local level that your competitors won’t have. That is why you have access to the 90% of the opportunities everyone else is overlooking.

Part 1

Open up an excel spreadsheet or equivalent such as Google Sheets.

Give the page a title such as ABC Home Builder Opportunity Snapshot Report.

In Column A from A4 down, list all of your local service locations being as detailed as possible.   

In Row 3 starting from B3, list each of the services you provide. Again, be as specific as possible. For example, for a custom home builder, the services could include custom homes, remodelling, additions, ADUs, disaster restoration, outdoor living spaces and include feasibility, design, permitting and construction.

Part 2

Open up a new Google search using a Chrome browser.  This process may seem hard but just follow the instructions and it is not that bad.

Perform a new search for each service and location combined.  For example, search 1 could be ADU builder Bend. For this search only:

• If your business shows up in the google 3 pack and 2 or 3 times on the first page of Google, this is high visibility and green.

• If your business does not show up at all on the first page of Google, this is red.

• If your business shows up once on the first page of Google, this is yellow.

• If your business shows up twice on the first page of Google, this is orange.

• If your business does not show up at all and the first page rankings are large competitors or websites such as Yelp or Houzz, put in 4/5 stars as this is higher competition.   

• If rankings are taken up by your local competitors and the 3 pack shows local competitors with 50+ Google reviews, put in 3 stars. 

• If rankings are taken up by your local competitors, the 3 pack shows local competitors with <5 Google reviews, and there are social media pages such as Facebook on the front page, put in 1 or 2 stars as this is low competition.

Part 3

Do these searches for every service in every local service area. Ultimately, you should end up with a report like this.

Part 4

Now you have created the Opportunity Snapshot Report, you need to interpret it. Straight away, from the image above, you can see the majority of the report is in red.  This means ABC Home Builder has very limited visibility online.

The goal now is to change some of this red into yellow, orange and ultimately even green.  The place to start is a service in a location with the least number of stars.  As their are multiple 2 star opportunities, ABC Home Builder should pick from these a service that it would like more clients for in a preferred location.  For example, this could be in-law unit builder Bend.  

ABC Home Builder can then create and promote content on this topic, which done strategically will have a very good chance of showing up in Google search, bringing in more high quality leads.  

Click here for an article on how to create and promote content that gets found in Google search.

While creating an Opportunity Snapshot Report is something that you can absolutely do on your own, I know that your time is valuable. 

This is a task we do for our customers all the time and my team and provide for free for every customer who signs up for one of our done-for-you organic traffic packages.

It’s something that we can have ready for you to use and benefit from in under 4 weeks from today, and is yours to keep no matter how long you continue partnering with us.

All you have to do is sign up to one of our packages using this link and we’ll create it for you within 28 days.  You can also book in a call with us from this link if you would like to discuss your needs further.

Click Here to Sign Up Now and let us help build your business using strategies that get results.

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