FTC Charges HomeAdvisor and Angie’s List with Deceiving Contractors

So what they were doing is their sales team was calling and they were using pre-recorded phone calls to show and make it look like every single lead that they send to everybody is amazing and they’re going to make millions of dollars. Just give us your money, give us your money, give us your money! And we all know that that’s not the case.

If you listened to any of our videos, you follow along on our podcasts, we’re telling you that you’re paying for non-exclusive leads. So you and your competitor in the same service area – one guy spending five grand a month, one guy spent a $1,000 a month, who do you think is going to get the better leads?

Not only that, but they are taking advantage of the misinformation that’s out there with these lead gen services like 33 Mile, like Angie’s List, like Yelp, like HomeAdvisors, right now HomeAdvisors and Angie’s list are in hot water from the FTC for doing this misleading, sales practices. So, if you have been following along with us, we’ve always preached that you need to take an omni-channel approach, meaning don’t rely on just one place to get leads for your business. You need to take that omni-channel approach and be as present as you can in as many areas that you can afford to be at.

And what better way to do that than do them yourself. Get more sales from the internet by just getting your internet marketing right. Got to make sure you have a website and make sure you’re managing your Google business profile. Getting reviews, obviously performing good work to get that referral and word of mouth and repeat work, you should be doing some pay-per-click if you can afford it, and SEO is the king.

Take over page one of Google and you’re spreading a very wide net. And if those leads don’t come in use Google’s Pay-Per-Click service program to get leads right now. And be very careful with Angie’s list, Yelp, HomeAdvisors because remember you’re paying for non-exclusive leads and it is a service that could go away any day, no different than referrals, right?

So you have a home inspector or a property manager or a real estate agent that’s feeding you work all the time. Well, what happens if they move or they pass away? That’s going to go away just like Google maps went down last week. So you don’t want to have put all your eggs into any one basket at all, but more so you gotta be careful for these companies that are selling you a magic pill that is going to solve all your problems and get you a bunch of leads because they will start to fall.

The Domino’s have already started the fall with the FTC charging HomeAdvisor and Angie’s list with misleading contractors by just doing that. And they’re the same as these predatory companies or these digital marketing agencies that try to sell you on a one size fits all out the box fit. And it doesn’t work that way.

The only way you’re going to get a consistent lead flow online is by doing the work, just like losing weight. The only way you’re going to lose weight is by eating healthy and working out. There’s been millions of dollars made on all these different magic pills that are going to sell you on weight loss and we all know that they’re not sustainable, they don’t work. So you kind of have to look at lead gen services in the same light, right? You don’t always want to be paying tons of money a month to get leads in that you have to sift through all this crap and worry about how much money your competitor is spending.

Your best bet is to build your own farm, build your own website, get your own authority on Google, do SEO, Pay-Per-Click, Google Business, start making relationships with people that make sense in a verticals for you to get leads just like you probably already know. And be very careful when you’re dealing with somebody that’s doing these hard sells on anything like that. Right?

So if you want to maximize your lead flow online, you do things the right way. Follow along the restoration rundown podcast. We give you tips and tricks on how to do that. We have special guests on sharing their stories on how they do it. You can check us out at ironcladrestorationmarketing.com.

We help restoration business owners get more sales by getting their internet marketing right. So SEO, website design, Pay-Per-Click, Google, business management, all the things and all the ingredients that you need to do to get a consistent flow of leads to your business, we can help you out.

If you haven’t noticed the no BS guide to internet marketing for restoration contractors, it is available on Amazon. You can check it out if you want a free copy. Shoot me a DM. I’d love to send you one. But there is a little bit give and take. The only trick is I want you to leave me a review. If you do read the book and you do get some help.

Anyway, check out the article it’s on msn.com with FTC charging HomeAdvisor and Angie’s list with deceiving contractors, but more so start getting your stuff together. Get your internet marketing right. Get all your eggs out of that one basket. Spread them around a little bit, and you will see by casting that wider net you will get a better lead flow to your restoration business. We’ll talk to you soon.