How to Grow a Productized Home Services Startup
This is how home EV charging startup Treehouse should think about acquiring customers.
Treehouse is a consumer services startup that helps homeowners buy and install EV chargers in their homes. They’ll wire up and install a charger you buy with your EV, or they’ll sell you one independently before installing.
They’re part of the broader productization trend happening in the home service trades kicked off with aggregators like Angie’s List over a decade ago. The next generation of startups like Skipp, Tetra and Block are building direct-to-consumer experiences for consumers while commoditizing service providers.
Consumers love not having to chase down multiple quotes from contractors, contractors are happy to give up some margin for guaranteed work, and startups are happy to take extra margin from both.
Growth Strategy
Treehouse is facing some interesting headwinds, but has a business model advantage that may help them succeed.
First, their customer base will likely only be in the market for an EV charger for a short time – from when they decide they want an EV, until they get one.
Not only that, but manufacturers are already starting to make their own chargers vendors to sell chargers to car buyers at the car’s point of purchase.
However, local dealerships don’t seem to be helping car buyers do the hard work of wiring up their home to make their chargers work and then installing the charger itself.
With all this in mind, Treehouse needs to do whatever it can to make themselves visible to would-be EV buyers before they are upsold a charger upon the purchase of their car to ensure a maximum portion of their customers are buying both the charger and the installation to maximize revenue.
To achieve this, they should aim to out-compete the car brands themselves in search results for ev charging specifically, as well as turn their real-world infrastructure into a customer acquisition moat.
This strategy will depend on a commitment to create best-in-class content aimed at educating first-time EV buyers to get the most out of their acquisition channel opportunities.
Acquisition Channel Opportunities
Paid Search
Buying EV Charger Keywords
Why its a good bet:
There is a blue ocean of opportunity in paid search for Treehouse. Fast growing search volume and disorganized competition mean clicks will be well priced and likely convert well.
How they should do it:
First, Treehouse should build landing pages for each car brand and charger brand they service to create a more relevant experience for users.
The goal here should be simple – build the most comprehensive pages on the internet for people looking to buy and install an EV charger for their new EV.
Build a landing template containing all the content that doesn’t change between brands, and create dynamic page variants with all the relevant info for each car and charger brand. While they’re at it, they should create a general landing page to be used when search terms don’t define the car or charger brand they’re looking for.
Once the landing pages are ready, Treehouse should focus on high-intent keywords indicating serious electric vehicle purchase intent – terms like “[Car Brand] EV charger”, [Charger Brand] installation”, and “EV charger installation” are a good place to start.
Over time, they should start testing keywords with lower intent but higher search volume higher in the funnel – terms like “EV Charger” and “[EV Car Model Name]”.
By making sure to separate various car brands at the ad group level, we’ll be sure people looking for solutions for particular car brands are met with the car brand specific landing page.
We’ll also want to write ad copy explaining why it makes sense to buy a charger from an outside company rather than the car manufacturer. I think focusing on combining product + installation would be a good starting point.
SEO
Ranking for EV Charger Keywords
Why its a good bet:
Investing in high-quality content in the EV charger space makes sense for the same reason focusing on paid search does. There aren’t many strong players totally focused on it, and even a chance at being the dominant player in search for EV charging keywords is worth its weight in gold.
Plus, the landing pages will already be built to support their paid search strategy. Now, all they have to do is optimize them for SEO.
How they should do it:
Build the pages Meta title and H1s around the key terms they want the pages to rank for. For car brand specific landing pages, I’d focus on the phrase “How to Install a [Car Brand] EV Charger”, and “How to Install [Charger Brand] EV Chargers” for charger brands.
Bonus points for adding content guiding people on how to install it themselves instead of going with Treehouse. Most people won’t even consider it, but showing them how will increase Treehouse’s credibility and build good will.
Once created, Treehouse should invest in link building as much as possible to create a true SEO moat that will make it harder for the next competitor to come and steal their traffic. Eventually, ranking these pages will help reduce reliance and expense on paid search.
Referral Program
Tap into Neighborhood Gossip
Why its a good bet:
While some EV chargers live in garages, many people charge their cars outside in Treehouse’s core markets of California and Arizona. Plugging in a brand new EV in front of neighbors on their evening walk is a prime opportunity to facilitate word of mouth with a well-structured referral program.
How they should do it:
Treehouse customers should be given a unique link to share online that earns them cash when they refer new customers, but why stop with digital referrals? Extending the referral program to the physical world could be a phenomenal moat.
Treehouse should include customized stickers with QR codes that link to that customer’s referral program. Instruct customers to stick them to their charger, their garage, or even their mailbox – anywhere curious neighbors and friends might notice and be tempted to lock in their discount for when they decide to upgrade from an ICE to EV vehicle in the future.