RatedPeople.com doubles marketing spend
RatedPeople.com is doubling its marketing budget this year as it looks to attract more of the 15 million UK homeowners to its tradesmen database.
The site, which launched its first TV campaign last year, forecasts its revenues will increase by around 30% year on year to more than £8m as awareness of the brand grows.
Tariq Dag Khan, RatedPeople.com’s chief marketing officer, says the company will double its marketing budget this year and will invest in a further five to 10 staff – some in a marketing capacity – to help reach its revenue target.
Campaigns on TV, including a deal with Sky News to run ads throughout the year, radio and print are among the marketing activities planned. Marketing communications are likely to feature Location, Location, Location presenter Phil Spencer, its long-term brand ambassador.
Khan says: “Marketing is the engine for all business growth and we’re no different. There’s a lot of distrust in tradesmen at the moment: there are 15 million homeowners in the UK and about 2.5 million have had a bad experience with tradesmen, but we’re showing how much this workforce is adding to the economy.”
More than 50,000 jobs were listed on RatedPeople.com last year, bringing an estimated £3m in value to the economy, the site claims.
As part of its growth strategy, the company is also mooting moves into other verticals to help remove the “mystifications” of searching for people to carry out jobs around the home and beyond.
The company owns more than 150 “Rated…” URLs, meaning it could potentially become a recommendation database for architects, doctors, nannies and more professions.
RatedPeople.com receives a 42% share of all website traffic related to tradesmen websites, according to Hitwise data for January. Its closest competitor MyBuilder attracts a 24% share of traffic in the sector.
