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Ben Vangarde is not only a Veteran of the War in Afghanistan, he has also established himself as a veteran in local business Marketing and Lead Generation.
After coming on board in 2017 with a local tree service in Central Virginia, Ben has worked to implement several branding and lead generation strategies to free the business from dependence on Home Advisor leads.
When asked about his thoughts on the lead service that companies like Home Advisor provide for contractors, Ben stated “Well, no one blames a new business owner for finding the quickest source of leads to grow their client base. The problem comes, as most of them come to realize, when Home Advisor becomes their sole source for customers… or their long term strategy for acquiring new business.”
To explain why long term dependence on these types of lead services is problematic, he said “The way the Home Advisor structure works, is they use massive online advertising to generate home services leads, and then they sell each one of those potential buyers to several contractors at once. This creates a situation where competitors race to the bottom in pricing, which eats into what should be a healthy profit margin. On top of that, many consumers report being annoyed by the several phone calls they receive from different contractors.”
Mr Vangarde, who continues to serve in the North Carolina Army National Guard as a reserve soldier, then went on to explain how he plans to offer roofing contractors and a few other specific business types a better long term alternative for branding and lead generation.
“After our tremendous success in becoming independent of Home Advisor for quality sales leads, I looked at the highest impact strategies that got us there. I also considered which tactics got us short term results, and which were more long term growth plays. It was clear to me that each of these pieces were important, but that most business owners faced the constant challenge of trying to put them together in a way that produced predictable, consistent results. Things like automating the process of getting five-star reviews, increasing organic search rankings, bringing in leads from Pay-Per-Click, Online Video Advertising, and even Press and Media mentions… these were all important and worked together to bring massive awareness and inbound leads.”
“So with these things in mind, I worked for months on putting together resources that would allow me to offer an all-encompassing service like this for a small or medium roofing company or home service contractor. What I came up with is pretty unprecedented, I think. In order to help not all businesses, but the right ones, I created an ongoing and completely managed branding and lead generation service. What makes this service almost entirely different than that of Home Advisor and others is that we would be building the brand of the contractor, rather than pitting them against others to fight for each lead. Every business that we work with will build a massive 5 star reputation online, and they will show up everywhere that buyers are looking for service online.”
When Mr Vangarde was asked what makes this alternative service unprecedented, he replied “Well here’s the kicker, we do all of this comprehensive and ongoing work with no upfront cost to the contractor. In other words, they pay only for results, after the fact. We literally assume all of the financial risk in this service offering. Because of this, we’re pretty selective about who we work with.”
Ben admitted that between military obligations and his business, he is not always easy to reach. Questions about this service should be directed to his website here.
Release ID: 88920446