Some numbers to consider

Here are some numbers to consider.

One of this region's largest renovation/remodeling contractors says he has less than 2 per cent of the local market share (he gave a specific number, to the tenth of a percentage point, but I'm not going to share specific competitive information here.)

Fly-by-night underground economy contractors have 52 per cent, he says.

He told me how much he spends on Google Adwords ads. I wish I could share the number but respect it is competitively sensitive information. But to me, it was a mind-blowingly large number. The ads don't work nearly as well as signage, though (and are much more expensive).

He is now working on revamping his website to enhance the organic SEO. Not surprisingly, he was reasonably impressed with this blog's success but he said this validates his awareness that content and information, along with frequent updates, are essential for high search engine rankings. With the money he is spending on Adwords, he certainly could afford a full-time employee to do nothing but build and update site content.

Of course he is in the top tier of his industry, and most of his competitors are much smaller, relying on word-of-mouth and seat-of-your-pants marketing rather than systematic and thoughtful approaches.