Too often, home remodelers make their marketing about the practical aspects of their business. What they can offer, their years of expertise and fancy degrees, their unique vision or master craftsmanship.
These things are great for making the sale, but they only tell the prospect part of the story. Everyone has practical concerns, but practical answers are a dime a dozen. It’s the emotional problems these practical concerns that lead people to buy.
In fact, most people make their home remodeling decisions based on emotion and then use logic to rationalize those decisions AFTER they’re already made.
So how can a home remodeler capitalize on these emotions? First, you have to know what they are.
Loss Aversion
“Loss aversion” describes a psychological phenomenon that people would rather avoid losses than
Loss aversion can be a powerful tool for home remodelers. People put enormous amounts of time and money into their homes, and they want to know that they’ll get that value back when they sell.
So how do you capitalize on a homeowner’s loss aversion? First, figure out if they’re likely to think about selling. If they’re young and unattached or middle-aged with older children, they may be coming up on big life events that they’re at least subconsciously planning around.
Second, emphasize the value your projects to potential buyers. Play up your projects as “must haves” for the market. Make them think they’ll have to keep their property on the market for months if they don’t get that new kitchen. They won’t want to lose their value.
Jealousy
“Keeping up with the Joneses” often inspires a spate of home remodeling in a neighborhood. If one family gets a new bathroom, the green monster will rear its ugly head soon enough.
The psychological need for higher status plays a big role in the home improvement sphere. It’s not as petty as it sounds. Humans are social animals, and as such, status plays a big role in who thrives in a society. People want to have things that bring them
How do you make jealousy work for you? Do things that draw attention to yourself in any neighborhood you have a job in that you want to get more work in. Put up signs about who you are and what you’re doing during construction. Send out mail to the neighbors that
Belonging
Another emotional response based on our social natures. Everyone needs to belong somewhere, be it a community, a club, a bowling league, a church, a family or an HOA.
How does home remodeling fit into this story? Well, there are a lot of ways remodeling a home can help. It can bring a family closer together through expanding multi-use space and an open concept. You can stress your close ties to an HOA that will make sure the prospect doesn’t run afoul of their rules.
If you want to get advanced, you can start collecting emails for a newsletter your prospects can join that shares with them your inside knowledge of the industry as well as special offers exclusive to those who join.
Trust
Trust is a critical part of the home remodeling relationship and one you must work on with your prospects. They’re already prone to mistrust contractors, either because of previous bad experiences or stereotypes about the industry.
But that mistrust can play to your advantage. If you can position yourself as trustworthy, you box out all the other alternatives who have yet to prove themselves trustworthy.
How? Building trust is mainly about assuring that they’ll get the value they want for what they’re paying. You can assuage their concerns by laying out how the process will work before they start and promise complete transparency. People want more than anything to be heard and know that they’re ideas are taken seriously, so listen more in your sales calls than you talk.
Want a website that targets these emotional responses and more? Contact us today to set up a free consultation.