Over 90% of design/builds we speak with have an enormous problem with attracting, finding, and keeping labor. Whether it’s the H2B visa problems or finding local employees - this is one of the biggest pain-points. With Facebook and Instagram - you can get a little help with finding labor this year. While we can’t promise you that the employees you may find on these two platforms will always show up Mondays and completely transform your workforce problems, they may provide a little help.

This design/build company reached out to Halstead to help improve their Facebook Advertising performance and generate leads. They had already been doing their own Facebook advertising for a couple of year, but were looking for some professional advertising help from someone who understood their design/build industry.

A landscape lighting company based out of Fishkill, NY, was a brand-new entity that lacked a social media presence. Previously part of an established landscape design and build company, this lighting company was spun out to become a separate division with its own distinct brand. As part of this effort, a new website and Facebook presence were a must. However, while the landscape design and build parent company was known for installing outdoor lighting for years, the newly branded business was new to the space and had no community branding. The company needed to assert itself with homeowners in the region, to generate leads for high-end outdoor lighting projects.

Properly documenting hardscape projects gives hardscape design and construction companies excellent marketing materials they can use to win new contracts. However, without a full understanding of the techniques available and how to use them, the task can seem very intimidating. The reality is actually much different.

Want your events to last longer? The power is in your hands. In this intro-to-the-topic video, we introduce spreading the wildfire event approach with widgets that encourage people to take photos, using branded items, and share them on their social media. The return? People are posting images of themselves, happy, with your brand. Magic. Watch for more and tell us how you've done it!

Everyone knows that you can choose location, age, family, income - and other demographics when it comes to creating a Facebook audience for targeting your posts and dark ads. But what about interests and behaviors? Does every high income wife with children that is age 42 want a service you install or a product you sell?! NO!! So don't stop there. Make sure your Facebook audiences include interests and/or behaviors. Watch here for more:

In any business, regardless of the industry, companies need to be where there potential customers are. Would a toy company be at a local home show? I sure hope not! And while on that topic, not many people should be at a home show ;-). Back to digital marketing, should design/builds be on Snapchat? Is all the hype about it really better than Facebook for the design/build industry? Find out.

Facebook users will visit your business’ page driven by a certain need or desire that you promise to fulfill, but this doesn’t guarantee that they will follow through and engage in business with you. The call-to action feature on your Facebook page serves to keep these people ‘hooked’ and is a mechanism through which they can interact with your business without leaving Facebook’s convenient platform or doing any searching of their own.

Quality data about your customers and potential customers is key to running a successful business. In days past, collecting this sort of information was a time consuming process involving weeks of gathering data and transcribing that research into readable charts and reports. Now this sort of information is readily available: fully compiled and ready to work with, provided you know how to read and use it. Introducing Facebook Audience Insights.

So you've got yourself a Facebook account - post every now and again and don't really see the likes moving up. Perhaps you're not even sure whether or not you should invest your time in creating a Facebook account. Or, last possible common scenario, you might have an account and don't even remember the last time you posted (if ever!). All possible, and regardless of your scenario, you're not alone.

Ah, the good ol' landscaping business cards. Spend hours designing them, leave one behind after every conversation.. sounds familiar? It seems like business cards have been around forever. Have you ever tried to figure out how many customers they bring in? I'm sure you'll agree they might have served their purpose well in the past, but there are other solutions out there better equipped to keep you at the forefront of your customers' minds. We've got some ideas to help you get your creativity juices rolling and finally say goodbye to business cards.

Remember when Facebook was the hot platform in which every home services business needed to be on? When companies used it as the best free way to market to their potential customers? Well, things have changed. What is still very true is that whether you're company is in the interior or exterior home remodeling business, you need to be connecting with your potential, current, and previous customers on a social media platform.

Website analytics are not a-learn-it-overnight kind of topic. From selecting the right tools, to understanding how to use them - you can invest hundreds of hours and still be in the dark about truly understanding how well your website is doing online. There are a few that are more important than others and thankfully, we'll help you identify these top metrics to get you on the right track.

First, selecting the right tool isn't as important as always using the same tool. Every website tracking tool (e.g. Google Analytics is one) uses slightly different reasoning in their calculations. Some have more filters and some give you the raw data. So before you go on tracking a specific group of metrics, the first and most important thing you need to do is pick a source for your metrics and stick to it. 

One in five page views occurs on Facebook (source: Zephoria). That's right, a whopping 20% of page views. Lets put this in perspective to your home services business. Say your website visitor looks at three pages on your website and then Googles something - visits one page of your competitor's, that fifth page will be a Facebook page. What if its yours? Is your Facebook page up to snuff? Are you communicating credibility and a consistent branding image?