2021 has been quite a year at HomeStars. Our team has worked hard to create the best possible product and experience for pros who use our platform. We’re happy to report that this has produced incredible results. Here are just a few of our massive 2021 achievements to give you an idea of how the things we do on our end help fuel growth on yours.
The Overall Results
Before we dive deeper into the specifics of how we drove our 2021 results, here are a few key figures we want to highlight (current as of November 17, 2021):
- Homeowner quote requests submitted on HomeStars: 241,032
- Approved reviews published on pros’ listings: 74,687
- New listings created: 7,459
- Homeowner visits to HomeStars’ listings: 14,873,800
Looking at these results, one thing is clear: Canadian homeowners have made using HomeStars a habit, and they’re showing no signs of slowing down! Pros across the country are following in their footsteps, coming to the realization that they need to be active on HomeStars or risk losing out on projects.
New Marketing Strategies Made a Huge Splash
At HomeStars, we’re constantly on the lookout for new ways to let homeowners know about our platform so we can drive more quote requests towards the pros we work with. 2021 was no different. Here’s a summary of the incredible results:
Television advertising: Television commercials are a great opportunity to reach huge numbers of viewers, speak to new demographics and drive brand awareness. We’re happy to say that the results of our 2021 television advertising campaign support these findings. In regions where our commercial aired, we witnessed an approximate 20% increase in aided brand awareness and a significant increase in quote requests.
Radio advertising: Advertising on the radio is an effective way to reach captive audiences in their cars, in office waiting rooms, at job sites, and more. We noticed this firsthand, as our 2021 radio campaign increased local traffic to our platform by 5% in comparison to the period before it aired. This 5% increase is responsible for a noticeable spike in quote requests.
Here at Home Magazine: 2021 was the year we launched our seasonal homeowner magazine, Here at Home. Across four beautifully designed issues to date, the magazine has provided project inspiration, educational tips, and expert advice to keep our growing network of over 200,000 homeowners engaged in the work you do.
Familiar Marketing Strategies Continued to Grow
In 2021, we continued to leverage digital channels like email marketing, social media outreach, search engine marketing, blog content, and cost guides to make sure homeowners keep seeing the HomeStars brand all over their screens. We saw growth across all of these channels, but we wanted to highlight a few of our biggest accomplishments:
Blog: Our homeowner blog, which is always being updated with engaging home improvement content to capture the interest of Canadian homeowners, saw a huge flow of traffic in 2021. From the start of 2021 to mid-November, the blog saw over 520,000 page views. Clearly, homeowners are interested in learning more about your work.
Social media: Across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, HomeStars’ presence on social media grew by an impressive 32% in 2021. This includes a 17.3% increase in followers — upwards of 50,000 as of mid-November — and an equally meaningful increase in engagement. Our Pinterest page alone, relaunched in April, was a huge driver of homeowner interest, seeing over 2.9 million views every month.
Market Research Supplied Valuable Insights
Across two surveys we conducted in 2021, our 2021 Reno Report and our Review Behaviour Survey, we gathered some incredible data to help you plan your business’s future and set you up for success right now. Here’s a quick rundown:
2021 Reno Report: For the third consecutive year, HomeStars commissioned our annual Reno Report to understand homeowners’ attitudes and behaviours regarding home improvement, and forecast trends for the period ahead. The illuminating results can help you determine where to focus your efforts in the coming year.
2021 Review Behaviour Survey: We surveyed homeowners who use our platform to understand their perception of reviews. The results confirmed what we already know: a whopping 98% of respondents said they read reviews before hiring. Just as interesting, though, 85.5% of respondents say they write reviews of products between somewhat often to very often. Take a look at the full results to see how you can use reviews to fuel the growth of your business.
Get Ready for Next Year
Now that we’ve taken a look back at 2021, it’s time to start looking ahead to 2022. At HomeStars, we’ve already started crafting our marketing strategy to make sure project-ready homeowners find your business’s listing in 2022. But it’s up to you to impress them once they get there. Take the first step to creating a great impression by logging in to request your next review today.
