Case study

How Hanako Koi Ponds attracted better clients and got featured in a magazine.

Building stunning Koi ponds and water gardens for clients has been a passion for Joey Acevedo for over 27 years. He recognized that Koi ponds can transform anyone's backyard into a serene landscape, a sanctuary in which anyone can immerse themselves and forget about the stresses of their work lives.

However, he was frustrated with certain things about his business.

His Yellow Pages ads weren't giving him the desired results and were costing him money.
He needed more projects to pay for his equipment and workers.
He was losing contracts to competitors who worked for cheaper prices.
In addition, the prospects he was talking to tended to have unrealistic expectations and thought the projects could be done for cheaper.
And he was tired of arguing with them about how the Koi ponds should be built, ignoring his advice that cheaper pond construction doesn't guarantee the safety of their Koi fish.

Also, he was losing patience over the fact that these problems were stalling his business growth.

The Solution

Joey needed some way to stand out and make an impression that his skills and knowledge in landscaping could not be found anywhere else. Koi pond construction is a niche craft and there are not a lot of contractors who have the years of professional experience that Joey has. It was important to emphasize to prospects the special handle and care needed to construct the perfect environment for Koi fish because their livelihoods are sensitive to the smallest defect.

I worked with Joey on building a website and come up with with effective copywriting that allows him to achieve this.

What Was Achieved for Joey

With an online portfolio that allows prospects to browse his gorgeous collection of past projects, Joey's work is no longer seen as a commodity.

Prospects can see the value of his work and the solid evidence of the results that he was able to deliver to his clients.

Thus, they were likelier to trust his expertise in solving a hard challenge - building the safest environment for the Koi fish without sacrificing the pond's aesthetic and beauty.

This allowed him to justify the prices that he wanted to charge for each project.

Ever since the website was launched, Joey and his brother Dave Acevedo have been gaining more clients and adding more landscaping projects into their online portfolio.

The website currently ranks for the keywords "koi pond construction Glendora" on the first page of Google's search results. Thus, people searching for Koi pond contractors in Glendora are more likely to find out about Hanako Koi ponds. This will likely result in them becoming clients. Searching behavior on Google usually leads to purchasing behavior.

Now, the contracts that they acquire are worth more than $10 - 20K. And there were fewer headaches experienced from arguing with prospects over price. Furthermore, their work has been featured two times in the magazine Koi Nations.