HomeAdvisor acquiring Angie’s List, why am I happy?

So after a few years of being pushed aside, Angie’s List has finally caved and accepted to be acquired by HomeAdvsior. The new company will be called ANGI Homeservices Inc. And without me focusing on the negatives of contractors using these services, I would like for you to understand the opportunities as I see it for MyOnlineToolbox too.

Currently, the combined businesses of these two companies have about 4 percent of the market for home services, which gives a lot of upside. Even with just 4 percent the announcement also exposes a big weakness in the industry, and one where the average contractor can capitalize upon.

The CEO of HomeAdvisor adds “We’ve only just scratched the surface of this tremendous market opportunity, given 90 percent of home improvement transactions are still generated via word-of-mouth.”

The CEO of IAC (the parent company) even says “Home services is one of the last commerce categories where the vast majority of the market is still offline,” he said. “That’s a huge opportunity.”

Contractors should embrace this announcement as a clear reminder to focus on their own website marketing.Why? Well so much is based on word of mouth, and so much is still heading towards the internet while the majority of this industry doesn’t promote themselves and is considered offline.

In mathematical terms, HomeAdvisor and Angie’s List only have about 4% of the market. Let’s assume that all the other Lead Generation Services make up another 6%. That leaves for 90% of the market being still offline in one form or another, either by not having a website or having a very weak online marketing initiative.

I am excited since MyOnlineToolbox specifically helps contractors learn and implement all the ingredients to having a strong online image and inbound marketing opportunity. Yes, there is 90% of the market opportunity and many will forgo doing the right thing for the short-term lead gen leads. But then again with such a large percentage of people still offline, that gives me so much upside too.

I can write a story on this stuff and just look forward to working with the contractors who are focusing on their own website, their own image and own direct quality leads.

HomeAdvisor is a servicemark of HomeAdvisor, Inc.

Angie’s List is a registered trademark of Angie’s List, Inc.