IRgA launched an ambitious program in the fall of 2024 designed to market individual members’ large-format scanning capabilities. The program is undergoing changes to make it more valuable to members.
The Scanning Marketing Program used Google Ads to drive traffic to special website that encouraged potential customers to complete an inquiry form. We hired a consultant who redesigned the site, placed the ads, and tracked performance – and regularly tweaked the campaign – and after a few months, the leads started pouring in. On many days, we received 4 or 5 leads, which in were sent to participating members.
But a problem soon emerged. When we asked members if the leads were turning into customers, they told us that most of the leads were for small, one-off jobs – mostly art scanning – and did not lead to long-term, valuable customers. The consultant tweaked the campaign to give greater emphasis to companies over individual consumers, and to increase the focus on AEC businesses, but things did not improve much.
In February we held a Zoom meeting among participating members and the consensus was that the program – which was costing the IRgA about $2,000 per month – was not bringing enough value. So we decided to pause the program.
However, during the Zoom meeting we discussed other ways to exploit the knowledge we gained during the months the scanning program was running. With the consultant’s help, we had learned a lot about what kind of site generates leads and how to tweak Google Ads to improve response. In the meeting, it came out that maybe other services could benefit more from the program, such as ADA signage, construction signage, color graphics in general, or 3D reality capture.
This led to a survey of members last week about which of those services they offer, and whether they feel a Google Ad campaign would benefit them. Construction signage led the group – 78 percent of respondents said they would “definitely benefit” from a program that marketed those services. That was followed by color graphics in general, and then ADA signage. Only 3D reality capture failed to get at least 50 percent of respondents in the positive column, probably because many firms do not offer that service at this time.
If you are an IRgA member and have not taken the survey, please click here to do so.
The board will discuss the results of the survey in the coming month and see how the program can best evolve to serve the most members. Stay tuned!