Known for its wild weather, the Midwest has no shortage of local roofing and exteriors companies, not to mention the out-of-towners who blow in after every big storm. In this crowded market, H&F Exteriors found its niche as a trusted company that offered superior customer services, workmanship, and communication. As the company expanded its service area and employee base, it struggled with growing pains, most significantly a lack of qualified leads and a low conversion rate that resulted in a high cost per acquisition and a lot of inefficiency.
H&F Exteriors’ goals included growing its business in the St. Louis market and gaining market share on both sides of the Mississippi River – not just in its hometown of Edwardsville, IL. Additionally, H&F needed to drive more leads for its sales team of 10+ members and bring the overall cost of leads down, ultimately decreasing the cost of acquiring projects. H&F leadership understood the value of marketing and the need to invest in the business to see desired growth.
Zeal’s goal as the marketing partner was to put H&F on the map, building brand awareness in the St. Louis market and the Metro East to drive leads and secure long-term success. This strategy required reevaluating how the marketing budget was being spent and investing additional resources.
Zeal started by digging in to deeply understand the organization, leading the owners through the strategic planning process by conducting a series of focus groups to glean valuable information from employees. This process identified the company’s strengths, which formed the basis for a branding campaign. It also brought issues and inefficiencies to light.
For example, H&F Exteriors spent a large portion of its marketing budget on home service provider search apps. While the company received a constant influx of inquiries, most prospects didn’t respond to return calls, and most of those who did were discount-focused, basing their purchasing decision on the lowest-cost option. Unwilling to compromise their standards or cut corners, H&F decided it couldn’t justify the cost of generating leads through these platforms. These junk leads were weighing down the sales team, lowering their success rates and wasting their time.
A stunning discovery that made a monumental impact was a delay in H&F’s call answering and appointment scheduling process. Potential inspection appointments were lost because consumers in search of home exteriors services quickly moved on to the next name on the Google results list when they didn’t receive an immediate response. To solve this communication crisis, Zeal led the process of refining internal procedures at H&F. Zeal partnered with the company to optimize the sales conversion process, including streamlining web communications, personalizing follow-up text messaging, and simplifying scheduling. Today, H&F has a dedicated scheduling team that answers every phone call and arranges inspections and appointments on behalf of the sales staff.
Zeal recommended a layered marketing strategy to increase H&F’s brand awareness in the St. Louis market and better target individuals willing to invest in high-quality products and outstanding service. The ambitious strategy started with developing a new custom-designed website and coordinating sales materials highlighting H&F’s customer-centered benefits. Zeal also produced a series of high-end TV commercials for broadcast in the St. Louis market and expanded them to streaming video, YouTube, and social media.
Zeal reallocated the marketing budget to shift away from the reliance on search apps and Google Ads to get leads. With the new strategy, TV and digital marketing are driving awareness of the brand and services, resulting in more clicks and ultimately generating more leads.
By diverting most of its advertising budget from the search apps to a more diversified marketing strategy, H&F secured the brand recognition and sales boost it needed. After running the branding campaign for one year, a major storm hit the St. Louis market. H&F fielded calls and scheduled over 1,000 appointments in two weeks – more than five times as many as they received after prior storms. The company also doubled the size of its sales team.
Non-qualified leads dropped dramatically by 90%, while qualified leads skyrocketed over the previous year. In addition, the revamped sales process has allowed the sales staff to build relationships with customers rather than chase wasted leads, saving the company both time and money. 100% of all calls are answered, and clients continue to rave about the communication, sharing their positive experiences with future H&F customers.
To hear more about H&F’s boost in leads and sales, listen to Phillip Holland, co-owner of H&F, share his experience of working with Zeal.