Three Powerful Houzz Marketing Tools

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Boy are you all in for a treat! I interviewed Liza Hausman, vice president of industry marketing for Houzz, to get the scoop on how to use Houzz, an effective way to market your business. I will pass on what Lisa shared with me in three monthly columns. This is the first of the three.

I am sure most of you have heard of Houzz. Houzz is a platform and app designed for the home industry. Homeowners go there for design ideas, to get professional advice on their projects, peruse articles about specific aspects about design and to visit directories to find local pros to implement some of those ideas.

“Houzz initially began as collaborative tool to help homeowners find and define their vision and communicate with their spouse or pro, while allowing home industry professionals to inspire and close more business,” says Hausman.

As I chatted with her further, I was impressed by the platform’s offerings and the personal support it provides to make it a “one-stop shop” to market and attract, inspire and close more business.

Here are just a few things that Houzz offers to help you market your business, and how to use them specifically to close more sales:

  • Ideabooks: Houzz allows you to collect and display your own photos or others to get a better idea of style. It helps clients to visualize what their project will look like. Houzz works especially well using the presumptive sale method, says Hausman.

“Before meeting with interested homeowners, ask them to create an ideabook of photos showing materials, design elements and other features showing what they like, as well as things they don’t like,” she explains. Then, you can sit down at the initial meeting and go through it with them. As you incorporate those ideas from the ideabook from Houzz you will get them excited about the vision for the design.

“Not only does this create more of a collaborative relationship and allow you to build trust quickly, it also allows you to design a project that you know they are going to love,“ says Hausman.

“The ideabooks allow for better communication throughout the design and build process, ensuring you and the homeowner are on the same page so that the end result is a happy and thrilled customer!”

Click here for a step-by-step tutorial for Ideabooks

  • Houzz Site Designer: Need a new website? As of April 21, Google changed its search algorithm and will penalize non-mobile optimized websites in search results. Luckily, Houzz has you covered. Using your professional profile on Houzz, you can design a mobile-friendly site in 15 minutes to replace your old, outdated website … all for free!

“We have added even more templates to really allow businesses to showcase their own unique brand and style,” says Hausman.

Sign up here to get started.

  • Photography Services: In the midst of the busy season, it is often hard to go back to take photos of completed projects. Getting the lighting right, making sure that the photos are taken on the best angles to showcase all the elements of the project make the process even harder.

“We understand that,” says Liza. “We now have a network of photographers where you may contact one of the professionals in your area who is offering a first-time client special to come and take the beautiful photos that will make your profile stand out!”

The photographer network has three price points starting at $200 for eight optimized daylight photos of your project.

To learn more about the photographers in your area click here.

How are you using Houzz to market your business and get leads?

Let me know and I’ll share it with other landscape and lawn service pros in this column.