- prestridgesolar
Will Thumbtack Take Over The Lead Generation Market?
As a small business owner looking to spread quality work at reasonably rates I have tried almost every platform there is for lead generation. Although some may work better then others if you look at the cost to generate that lead against the quantity and quality they deliver it seems to work out like a casino. The house always wins.
Yelp has been extremely pressing and every little thing costs money. You want to put an icon saying "satisfaction guarenteed" thats $2 a day. You want to hide competitors adds from being shown on the add you are already paying for that's $4 a day. You want to offer a discount through Yelp? PERFECT! You wont ony be loosing money on the job by offering the discount, yelp is going to charge you 33% on top of that discounted price to show your discount! You want to actually show all your reviews except for the negative few that every company eventually gets on your page? You're gana pay for that too. Yelp has been widely known to showcase bad reviews while hiding good reviews and hound small businesses to pay to show all their reviews.
Although yelp has made a great name for themselves to consumers and I do use yelp (at the base cost no extra fees) it comes at the cost to the businesses. Yelp has started to create a carnivorous unrelenting image to the small business community and I believe that as other lead generation service focus on getting a smaller cut and creating a friendly atmosphere for the consumers AND the businesses they will eventually put yelp in their place.
The best platform I have used so far is thumbtack. I feel that I owe thumbtack more for what they generate (but I hope they stay as they are it is why I promote them!). There are no fee's for using thumbtack, you don't even pay to quote a job, you only pay if they accept your quote! For example, if a customer is looking for solar panel cleaning in my service area and I want to be put at the top of the list I select to do so at no charge to me. Not only that but by doing this I get a 20% discount on the leads I do get this way! The catch doesn't even feel like a catch to me. The catch is that I will automatically be charged for them reaching out to me if they click on my add AND request a quote or accept my pre listed terms and prices. On google, facebook, Instagram and every other platform you pay a high price just to be clicked on! Thumbtack chargers an extremely small percentage for their leads as well. I just got a $200 job through thumbtack this morning and paid $3 for that lead... that is incredible.
Thumbtack has no hidden fees, I haven't received a single cold call from them to up sale me, they just straight deliver results with no BS.
When companies like this win the hearts of consumers AND the business owners, time will make them leaders and I believe Thumbtack and companies that want to follow suit will win in the end. I don't even care to direct traffic straight to my website after first contact with a customer to avoid the fees for later services. Find me on thumbtack i'm happy to support their growth!
Prestridge Solar
Residential & Commercial
Solar Panel Cleaning - Solar Panel Bird Netting - Window Maintenance.
Find us on Thumbtack, Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Nextdoor our website and I guess Yelp (if you want to bankrupt my business) :)