Another month goes by so it’s time for another review and look back at July. It seems quite hard to believe that we’re already into August. But time does tend to fly when we’re as busy as we are.
A solid month, with a strong end
Looking at some of the tweets and the various conversations I’ve had over the past month, July seems to be about where we all expected it to be. A fairly strong month, as you would expect for this time of year.
July though is the month where schools finish and parents have children to occupy, so I always find sales and lead levels tempered slightly.
At our place, we found that the first four of the five weeks in July to be steady. Nothing spectacular, but steady sales coming in and a decent number of leads to sit. But it was the very last week for us that made the difference. A lot of the big projects we had quoted all came in in this final week to sign up, giving us a very strong end to the month, and a very strong start to August.
In fact across the board and across the industry, I feel like we’re in for a strong month for August. The energy seems to be there now which indicates to me at least that the industry is going to experience a very good month for sales. Maybe it’s just me, but I just get that sense August is going to be killer!
New products
Well there really was only one major product announcement to talk about in July, and that was the unveiling of the fantastic new triple glazing system Rustique 3 by PVCu fabricators John Fredericks.
It had been building up for a while now, with teasers on here, from John Fredericks and in the trade press. But on the 14th July, all was revealed, and the industry community online went nuts!
Click to read about Rustique 3
Site traffic once that post went live was ridiculous. But for good reason. Here was a dedicated 44mm triple glazed system, designed to make the most of the benefits that a 44mm triple glazed unit brings, whilst keeping the tried and tested looks and appearance that the industry has grown used to with the previous Rustique products.
Judging by the response, and the fact that I’m already pricing up jobs of my own in the product, the early signs of success for this product bode well.
Green Deal scrapped
During July we also had some news about the flop that was the Green Deal home improvement scheme. The Government announced that it was to stop funding it, effectively calling it a day on the whole thing. It came as no surprise to many, but the scheme’s closure will leave many businesses founded on the back of it angry, and with out a job.
Click to read my review of the scrapping of Green Deal
DGB
July was another strong month for DGB on the visitors and unique visitors front. But the site is still having a hangover from the spike of page views it had last year when the massive revamp went live. But two out of three isn’t bad!
However, on Monday August 3rd I plan to launch a big new area of DGB that I have been working on for quite a while. About a year ago I floated the idea of creating an area for DGB just for consumers. I was getting, and continue to do so, a stream of traffic from home owners finding their way on to this site. They would then email me and ask me questions. So I thought that it might be prudent to create an area where home owners can find out a little more about our industry, and hopefully find a few answers to their questions too.
So I’m hoping that once this area of the site goes live, the number of page views will jump, and continue to grow thereafter as I try and market the site to a big new area of people.
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