I've seen many questions and comments about Angie's List on the board lately, so I decided to fill in some blanks for you guys and hopefully help give you a firm grasp of it.
Angie's List can be a very good tool for your marketing tool box if used properly.
Angie's List is that marketing venue that you dive into and really make a ginormous push by doing the store front offers and big deals.
Why should you do all of this?
Because you will get tons of reviews fast. However once you build up these reviews, crank it down and don't offer deals on the big deal, offer next to nothing discounts in your storefront, and eventually stop paying Angie's List all together.
Why would you stop paying this awesome lead source or lower the area you are targeting? A couple of things will likely happen...
1) you will be ranked high enough in their storefront deals section that you will still generate leads ((this rank is based on amount of purchases))
2) now you can use your awesome reviews and hopefully accolades to be a verifier for consumers who research companies on AL before purchasing or simply have the reviews as testimonials that are on your site or printed for customers to request when calling.
Heck you can even say, would you like me to send over some verified reviews from Angie's List to your email?
The biggest mistake I made with Angie's List was paying for multiple zones... Why? Because I still get leads outside of my zone from AL and I have found I only really want 1 zone. So stick to small zones! Pay less! Cause guess what... You can offer a Big Deal outside of your typical service zone that you are paying for.
Angie's List can be great for new area startups. Why? Because you can do deals that are higher priced than Groupon or LS and build reviews that will benefit you in the future.
The real trick is having enough value in the deal to be worthwhile to consumers.
The problem any and I'm sure all of us have faced is that while you are advertising on AL the AL customers have you by the balls. They will use their review as a carrot and if you don't do what they want they will either not give you a review or they will write a negative one. And if you're gonna get a negative one its best to be one that you didn't service because it won't effect your ranking nearly as bad.
Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate! Everything is negotiable... The Storefront team will swear to you that they don't offer deals below 15%... I pay 10%...
The Big Deal Team will say that they don't offer deals where it's not a 50/50 split... I pay 30%.. Which is high in my opinion...
Don't expect to get the same deals but try. It never hurts to ask and explain why you need the cut to be this way.
In my city in 4 months of pushing for reviews I now have 60 verified Angie's List reviews. It's not like the 270 that Torrey has... But it's competitive with the other providers where the max provider has 270 and the rest level off to below 100...
Use the reviews to capture leads! Even if its From another venue, simply mentioning you are an A rated provider on AL can be a big boost.
From Angie's List I saw between a 10-1 and 15-1 return in the months where I really pushed. Now I'm not pushing and using it to capture their "deal" shopping customers anymore. My goal now is to go after the quality customers that are sill on AL and the ones that I can capture through Angie's List leads.
Torrey Please Chime in if I missed anything or if I'm off about something...
Almost forgot! Watch the amount of advertisers that join and know when to jump ship. Right now in my city its 9 in my zones... When I hopped on board originally it was 5... That affects things too... It's kinda like this woman trying to fit in these shorts... At some point the list becomes too big...
Angie's List can be a very good tool for your marketing tool box if used properly.
Angie's List is that marketing venue that you dive into and really make a ginormous push by doing the store front offers and big deals.
Why should you do all of this?
Because you will get tons of reviews fast. However once you build up these reviews, crank it down and don't offer deals on the big deal, offer next to nothing discounts in your storefront, and eventually stop paying Angie's List all together.
Why would you stop paying this awesome lead source or lower the area you are targeting? A couple of things will likely happen...
1) you will be ranked high enough in their storefront deals section that you will still generate leads ((this rank is based on amount of purchases))
2) now you can use your awesome reviews and hopefully accolades to be a verifier for consumers who research companies on AL before purchasing or simply have the reviews as testimonials that are on your site or printed for customers to request when calling.
Heck you can even say, would you like me to send over some verified reviews from Angie's List to your email?
The biggest mistake I made with Angie's List was paying for multiple zones... Why? Because I still get leads outside of my zone from AL and I have found I only really want 1 zone. So stick to small zones! Pay less! Cause guess what... You can offer a Big Deal outside of your typical service zone that you are paying for.
Angie's List can be great for new area startups. Why? Because you can do deals that are higher priced than Groupon or LS and build reviews that will benefit you in the future.
The real trick is having enough value in the deal to be worthwhile to consumers.
The problem any and I'm sure all of us have faced is that while you are advertising on AL the AL customers have you by the balls. They will use their review as a carrot and if you don't do what they want they will either not give you a review or they will write a negative one. And if you're gonna get a negative one its best to be one that you didn't service because it won't effect your ranking nearly as bad.
Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate! Everything is negotiable... The Storefront team will swear to you that they don't offer deals below 15%... I pay 10%...
The Big Deal Team will say that they don't offer deals where it's not a 50/50 split... I pay 30%.. Which is high in my opinion...
Don't expect to get the same deals but try. It never hurts to ask and explain why you need the cut to be this way.
In my city in 4 months of pushing for reviews I now have 60 verified Angie's List reviews. It's not like the 270 that Torrey has... But it's competitive with the other providers where the max provider has 270 and the rest level off to below 100...
Use the reviews to capture leads! Even if its From another venue, simply mentioning you are an A rated provider on AL can be a big boost.
From Angie's List I saw between a 10-1 and 15-1 return in the months where I really pushed. Now I'm not pushing and using it to capture their "deal" shopping customers anymore. My goal now is to go after the quality customers that are sill on AL and the ones that I can capture through Angie's List leads.
Torrey Please Chime in if I missed anything or if I'm off about something...
Almost forgot! Watch the amount of advertisers that join and know when to jump ship. Right now in my city its 9 in my zones... When I hopped on board originally it was 5... That affects things too... It's kinda like this woman trying to fit in these shorts... At some point the list becomes too big...
