Eric Peschke, Vice President of Marketing for Zintex Remodeling Group, recently sat down with HomeBuddy to give us some insight on his experience working with us on his lead generation programs.
"I would say that out of all of the different sources that we have at Zintex, HomeBuddy consistently ranks in the top five of our lead sources when it comes to net revenue that we produce, as well as a consistent cost of marketing percentage." Eric said.
Eric is responsible for everything to do with lead generation. He oversees their call center as well as their events and shows, and also retail managers and departments.
He says, "We use a number of different digital lead generation services. I would say that we're a company that's very digital heavy. We also do we run TV in every one of our markets. We also have our own website management company that I spend pay per click dollars with."
Continuing on, he says "We see how customers shop when it comes to the fact that everybody's got a device in front of them. They want to do research. They're looking for a company that they can that they can trust. And when we found HomeBuddy, we ran a couple of test programs, made sure that the metrics were in line. And we've been able to expand since then."
Exclusive leads from HomeBuddy are paramount to Zintex success. "When you've got customers that are being bombarded with calls from a number of different home improvement companies where that lead source is selling that lead to three, four, five, six companies . . . we look at our conversion metrics on the call center side and on the sales side and they tend to suffer.
But with excusive leads, that's not the case. "When HomeBuddy provides us an exclusive lead, we're able to convert that lead into a set appointment, get our rep into the home, and generate a net sale.
Also, according to Eric: "Speed to lead is very, very important."
His 20 person call center team contacts the customers as soon as they receive the lead. And he can tell results very quickly based on what the metrics.
He asks "what is our set rate? How many leads are we getting and how many of them are turning into set appointments? How many are turning into a run appointment, when a design consultants get out to the home? That's where we go through and complete the entire process of the funnel to look at the ROI and what our cost of marketing is based on what each lead source is charging us."
Eric says he usually tries to test new sources in two peak seasons, the spring and the fall, because that's when they have their largest sales goals, and also their largest marketing budgets. He tries to commit to testing new lead sources for at least two or three months in those peak seasons.
He says "If a lead generation vendor is doing their job properly of optimizing their campaigns based on the disposition reports that we're sending them, then you will see a difference when it comes to the results of month one versus the results of month two or three. So you have to give the source enough time to be able to optimize and bake out."
With HomeBuddy, he says he saw leads coming in that were converting into sets, runs, demos and sales within the first two months.
"When I look at the cost of marketing this this year, it's been a little bit higher across the board for all sources, strictly because of the number of finance declines that we've had from all sources, meaning people are not able to qualify for financing like they were in 2021. So we are seeing a little bit of a higher cost of marketing than normal."
"But when I can find a source like HomeBuddy, where my overall cost of marketing ends up being between 13 and 15%, it's a win across the board."