KBB - April 2015 - 68

LEARNING CORNER

How to Build
Your Brand
on Houzz
Home design and renovation professionals on Houzz can create and
manage proﬁles, upload photos of their projects and interact with homeowners in the Houzz community - all to build their brands, communicate
with and reach new clients both locally and globally. Homeowners are
able to communicate their ideas, learn more about the remodeling and
building process and ﬁnd the right professionals for their projects. So why
should you take the time to create a Houzz proﬁle?
Houzz connects more than 25 million monthly unique users - 90 percent of whom are homeowners - with more than 600,000 professionals across more than 60 categories from kitchen and bath designers
to general contractors to landscape architects across the country and
around the world.
According to the 2014 Houzz & Home survey, 26 percent of homeowners on Houzz are planning a bathroom remodel in the next two
years, and more than one in ﬁve are planning a kitchen remodel in the
same timeframe. In addition, 21 percent of homeowners plan to hire a
kitchen or bath remodeler in the next two years, and 18 percent plan to
hire a kitchen or bath designer. They're using Houzz to ﬁnd inspiration,
collaborate with others, source products and research and hire professionals. If you're looking to reach new prospective clients and work more
efﬁciently with current clients, Houzz is an indispensable tool.
Here are some tips to get you started on Houzz:

1. Create a Compelling Proﬁle. This is where homeowners will get
information about you and your business, so you want to provide a good
sense of who you are and what makes your business different from others.
Similar to the "About Us" section of your website, you can share the background and history of your business, where and how you work with clients
and why your business or approach is unique.
2. Showcase Your Work. The Houzz platform is highly visual, so uploading high-quality photos of your work is key to getting noticed by prospective clients. Consider investing in good photography to showcase your
work and increase your exposure to as many homeowners looking to hire
a pro as possible. To make this process easier, Houzz recently launched a
Photographer Network (www.houzz.com/getphotos) that provides professionals on Houzz with access to top photographers at affordable prices.
When posting photos, including details about each one will help homeowners understand your work and surface your photos in search results.
3. Get Reviews. A Houzz survey revealed that when it comes to hiring
a professional for their projects, 83 percent of homeowners rated "good
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reviews and recommendations" as "very important" (a ﬁve on a ﬁve-point
scale). Having reviews on Houzz from both clients and colleagues is a
great way to build your credibility and brand. On your proﬁle, simply click
the "Get Reviews" button, and Houzz will help you send your requests, or
you can ask clients to visit your proﬁle and click "Review Me." Having more
reviews will help raise your ranking in the directory.

4. Use Ideabooks as a Communication Tool. Clients often ﬁnd it
challenging to articulate a vision for their home. Having your client create
an ideabook of spaces and products they like can help you identify their
style preferences at the start of a project. With private ideabooks, you can
share styles, colors, layouts, products and more, allowing your client to edit
the ideabook for instant feedback.
If you use Houzz ideabooks to communicate and collaborate with
your clients throughout the project, they will already be Houzz users, so
asking them to provide a review will be no problem. Plus, clients will see
you as a tech-savvy expert who is sharing valuable tools that will help
make their project a success; making it even more likely you'll get that
positive review.
5. Engage the Community. Houzzers are looking for advice about
everything from ﬁnishes to ﬂoor plans, paint color to appliances and beyond, providing a rare opportunity for professionals to engage directly
with interested consumers. Seeing how a professional interacts in "Design
Dilemmas" provides homeowners with a glimpse into a pro's work style
and demonstrates their expertise.
Once you've set up your Houzz proﬁle, you can use Houzz Site Designer
- a free website tool provided by Houzz to all professionals - to create
a beautiful, free website with the photos, photos, reviews and other key
content that's already available in your Houzz proﬁle. Start by choosing a
theme, then select the best projects and photos to showcase your work
and publish the site with just a few clicks. Site Designer is already optimized for desktop computers, tablets and smartphones. n
- Liza Hausman is vice president of industry marketing for Houzz.To create
your free business proﬁle on Houzz, visit www.houzz.com/getStartedPro.

April 2015 / www.kbbonline.com / The Ofﬁcial Sponsor of KBIS www.kbis.com

http://www.houzz.com/getphotos http://www.houzz.com/getStartedPro http://www.kbbonline.com http://www.kbis.com

KBB - April 2015

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