Web Marketing 102

But, Pangan points out, just because sites are simple to use doesn't mean they can be created in a week or two. Not if you want a site that's more than a brochure. “It could take anywhere from four to nine months,” she says. Clients, she points out, are often surprised at how much time it takes, and are even more surprised at how much of their time it takes. But your input is critical to meeting and exceeding the site's strategic goals. Pagano says it took American Siding & Window Systems more than a year to get the company site to the point where it produced leads, qualified customers, and reduced rescission.

Retail Web sites such as Wal-Mart or L.L. Bean want to sell people products; most home improvement company sites want to sell them an appointment. DVD — in the form of streaming video — is a great way to help that happen. For instance, a Cleveland area consumer visiting the Web site of Larmco Windows, www.larmco.com, can not only view the company's windows and siding, but can watch a Larmco installer put a window in, from beginning to end, in two highly edited minutes. The site uses video to show visitors installation and testimonials. These convey the sense that Larmco is a company with a rigorous and professional attitude toward its work, and that customers are happy with what they bought. “We wanted to show a problem and a solution,” explains Sherman, whose company built the site for Larmco Windows.

If few home improvement companies today use their streaming video to walk homeowners through a product install, it's only because they haven't yet grasped how effective it is in building trust and confidence.

Dennis Schaefer, owner of Creative Wood Products, in Fenton, Mich., realigned his Web site to educate customers rather than try to sell them. He figured that selling them was his job, not the site's.

More and more home improvement sites, on the other hand, are carrying filmed testimonials. American Siding & Window Systems, for instance, includes lengthy testimonials by customers for all its product lines. Despite their seeming awkwardness, unscripted customers often provide the most authentic-looking endorsement. And, to lend further credence to the assertion of customer satisfaction, the company's Web site includes a searchable database you can use to locate previous customers in your own ZIP code. Want to see what the company's work looks like? Check it out for yourself. “Everyone says they have thousands of satisfied customers,” Pagano says. “We wanted to prove it.”

The ease with which video can be added has also given home improvement companies another feature to include: their own commercials. Posting your company's 30- or 60-second spots on your Web site gives visitors an opportunity to see if you are what you say you are. That is, if the claims you make in commercial spots seem to be backed up by other information you provide on your site. It also gives site visitors another reason to stay that much longer.

And if before-and-after pictures and other graphics pique their interest, what next? Creative Wood Products' site includes a direct link to G.E. Finance options. Visitors can click to find out whether or not they qualify and, if so, get approved for Same As Cash financing. “If they decide to go with my company, they hand me their approval number and I write it up,” Schaefer says. Since he knows prior to the sales call what prospects are approved for, “it gives me a leg up in terms of design.”

Along with the spread of broadband — making the Web a medium most households now consult daily — the cost of redesigning a Web site has come down dramatically during the last few years. The Web site Schaefer built for Creative Wood Products nine years ago cost $25,000. His new site? A fifth of that. And $225 per month to maintain, including changing out photographs and adding text or other new features.

Sherman estimates that his company can create or redesign a Web site for anywhere from $3,500 to $7,500. That's a figure many experts would agree with. But some companies have spent far more. Costs depend on the kind of functionality your site has, and the kind of company you hire to do the revamping. “You could hire a boutique ad agency and spend a lot of money,” Gamse says. It also depends, she adds, on what part of the country you're in.

Typically, Web design companies bill by the hour. Web Noxious gives its clients a minimum and a maximum amount that they would pay on site completion. And owner Pangan says she never exceeds the maximum amount — ever.

Schaefer found a local Web company after lots of background checking and research. The company he chose had done Web sites for many municipalities, which to Schaefer indicated stability and follow-through. Then, he says, “I explained to them what I was looking to accomplish; what kind of interactive areas I would like.” At a second meeting, the Web design company presented a site blueprint. Schaefer says he took certain elements out and added others. Once the basic structure of the site was agreed to, “they priced it accordingly. There was no dollar commitment until I knew what I was getting and they knew what they were building.”