 Sometimes I think manufacturers don't realize that there's a huge opportunity to influence the professional community as well as the homeowner community. So you can kind of get both a push push and pull that happens with with good marketing. Welcome to the Smarter Building Materials Marketing Podcast, helping you find better ways to grow leads, sales and outperform your competition. All right, everybody. Welcome to Smarter Building Materials Marketing, where we believe your online presence should be your best salesperson. I am Zach Williams, alongside my co-host, Beth Pompey-Glove. And today, we're going to be talking about House. House for Manufacturers, specifically. We get a ton of questions about this, and so we are excited about today's show. We are really excited to welcome Liza Hausman. She is the Vice President of Industry Marketing at House. We have so many questions for you, Liza. And I know all of the ears of our listeners are perked up because we are probably asked about how to get the most out of House or hear even great case studies about how manufacturers are winning business through House, genuinely on a weekly basis. So with a giant welcome, would you please introduce yourself? Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do with House. Absolutely. And thank you guys, both of you, for having me today. It's really fun to be here. I'm excited to share a little bit more about House with your audience. So yes, I'm Liza Hausman. I have been with House for about nine and a half years now. So kind of seeing the growth and work have worked very early on with basically our entire trade community. And that includes all of the kind of hundred categories of professionals, construction and design professionals we have, the architects, the home builders, the general contractors, kitchen and bathroom modelers, as well as all the brands and manufacturers that also participate in our ecosystem. Very cool. And I think you and I first met a couple of years ago, I think through Heery, I believe, is that correct? Yes, yes. We've been pretty involved for a few years. It's been a lot of fun to work together. So I want to hear about House, but I want to first start by just hearing what you all are seeing in the industry as a whole. You know, like we've seen a lot of shifts and we talk about this a lot on the show. It feels like it's almost every episode. But like the changes that have happened over the last two years or so have been pretty dramatic. And so, you know, from a macro perspective, I'd love to hear what you're seeing in the marketplace and how the different audiences that a lot of manufacturers market to, so like pros, contractors, interior designers, architects, how you see things are changing from their standpoint of how they do the projects that they might undertake, as well as how they're finding and sourcing materials, right? Yep, absolutely. So it has been a very interesting year plus for the industry. I think, you know, the good news for everybody is that things are booming, right? Homeowners are looking at their homes and saying to themselves, you know, there are a lot of changes I need to make to make this home work better for me. We have more than 65 million homeowners using house worldwide and 90% of our users are homeowners. So we really have kind of that intense and high intent user who really is focused on improving their home and that lets us gather a lot of really interesting data. You know, both pros and brands and manufacturers come to house for the homeowner insights that we do have. We do a lot of proprietary research that we make available to everyone free of charge. Every year we do a kitchen trend study, a bath trend study, our house and home study, which is the largest survey of residential or modeling building and decorating activity that's out there. It kind of covers a wide range of projects and a lot of quantitative data. And we also do a survey of our professional community that's actually super interesting to manufacturers because it talks about how, what's the sentiment in the industry? You know, our architects and designers and contractors bullish or bearish on what things are happening. So all of those are great insights. But in terms of what's happening over the last year, yes, absolutely, industry is booming. That's put some new and interesting pressures on the whole trade community from pros to brands and manufacturers. One is, you know, how folks are gathering information. That's a big one, right? A lot more is digital, right? Folks aren't as able to go to showrooms or go and meet directly with folks in person. So we're seeing a lot of changes in terms of digital and online collaboration, online meetings, online sourcing. You know, a huge shift kind of across the board in the industry around finding pros and finding products. Out of curiosity, you know, we have our phones here, right? You know, I sometimes think about like Instagram and Facebook and other platforms. And if I got a chance to look at the data, you know, if I was like someone in their organization, you probably would judge people because amount of time they spend on a platform and go, oh my gosh, this person has a problem. Like, I'm very curious, and I mean, not to put you on the spot, but like I'm very curious, like, do you ever get a chance to like look at the data and go, my goodness, like this person, like, house is great, yes, but like you need, like you need to go find something else in your life? Do you ever? I mean, I'm not advocating to not use house, but it's like, I'm very curious if like you ever get a chance to see like that kind of data out there. Absolutely. And the fun thing is in the reviews we get, you know, the app store and you can go look at them. People, people, you know, admit that they're, they're, they're an addict. And so that's kind of fun because people will say upfront, you know, they're wherever they are, they're in line at the grocery store doesn't matter. They're, they're on house and, you know, looking, looking for ideas and help them. That's pretty neat. I know that we're not in the trade show world right now, but the majority of trade shows we've been to in the industry house usually has a presence there. And we just have to talk about how beautiful your boots are. And I think he will do one of the best jobs that actually manufacturers could learn from. You have really knowledgeable people on the floor. You're grabbing people off of the trade show floor as they're going by introducing you to house. It would be difficult to be at IBS and not encounter the house booth in some manner. And that's saying something for a trade show that large. So let's imagine we're in trade show world. You are on the floor. A manufacturer is walking by and they want to know either how do I get the best use out of house or what, you know, what should or could house do for me has a large manufacturer. What would you say to them would be the best place to start to get a return on their time investment? I guess is how I would say that. Yeah. Well, there's a few different things that I that I recommend that I like to talk about. One is to, you know, really embrace the fact that houses a great place to influence the entire buyer journey kind of from start to finish for both pro and homeowner. And so sometimes I think manufacturers don't realize that there's a huge opportunity to influence the professional community as well as the homeowner community. So you can kind of get both a push push and pull that happens with with good marketing. So kind of on the on the branding side, there's, you know, a really great opportunity, you know, simply to create a free profile and make sure that you can be found and that you are uploading, you know, as many photos as you can of your of your products in a lifestyle setting, since that's how homeowners browse photos on house. I think that's one of the one of the key things. And I think manufacturers certainly have gotten better at this, but making sure that they don't just have e-commerce product shots, but that they really are taking photos of their products in a lifestyle situation. So homeowners can really envision what that product's going to look like in their home when it's done. So there's, you know, all kinds of ways like that just to kind of get into the ecosystem and again and start getting exposure to homeowners. And then of course we have, you know, a number of options we have a dedicated brand team that works with brands and manufacturers to help them figure out where to make investments in their presence on house. And again, that can be everything from getting more exposure for their photos for a project for a product launch. We have, you know, opportunities for native content. So we can write articles that really help explain the benefits of a product or help introduce it to a customer. And these types of things can reach both pros and homeowners. So we have, we have the opportunity to do both. And then, you know, even on the channel side, so for brand and manufacturer, you know, is focused on a particular channel. We actually have kind of a local dealer program where the manufacturer, for example, has co-op funds and wants to support a part of their dealer network. We can actually help them use that to drive people to their dealers and put that product in front of more of their potential customers. Is there anyone from a manufacturer standpoint that's doing this really well? And when a manufacturer is getting started, your brand team maybe points them and says, like, take a look at these profiles to get some inspiration. Can I, can I ask, can I add a little asterisk to that, too? Because I wanted to, I wanted to ask that question as well. But like, what manufacturers have I never heard of? Like, obviously, like, there's large manufacturers that, you know, like, you know, like, so like Kohler, for example, like, they're massive. Of course, they might be doing a great job. But like, who is smaller out there that you're like, man, these guys are actually really leveraging the platform well. So some examples of, you know, brands or manufacturers that might surprise you are like Train and Lennox. But we have, you know, window manufacturers, door manufacturers. I think one interesting story that might be great to talk about is our Benjamin Moore relationship. So one of the things we haven't talked about yet, kind of with the new challenges that professionals are facing, we've actually expanded our platform for professionals. We launched a product called House Pro, and that really has taken what was originally just a local advertising program and expanded it to provide project management, lead management, project management software to the design and construction community. We have tailored tools for both groups. And one of the neat parts about it is that it includes a floor planning tool where you can design in 2D and then actually tour your clients in 3D. And we have a relationship with Benjamin Moore where we've actually integrated them into those tools. And you can now choose Benjamin Moore colors and put them on your walls. If you're a designer, you can also put them in your mood boards. But it's really a very interesting relationship. And so we're always open to having those types of discussions with brands and manufacturers. Windows and doors is a great example where when pros are creating these floor plans or doing these models for homeowners, to be able to put in a branded product is definitely something we know our pro community is looking for. It's really, really cool. Who is Hal is right for and who is it not right for, Liza? If I look at platforms, not every platform is right for every manufacturer. And so I'm curious to get your perspective on the types of categories or manufacturers that Hal's performs really well for. And ones that you're like, this might not be the best fit for you. Honestly, if you work in residential and your products go into homes, you're probably a fit for Hal's. If you're just doing commercial products, probably not a fit for Hal's. I think it's probably more obvious that products that you can see in a finished space are easier to market on Hal's because the photo stream is such a big piece of it and we're such a visual platform. So if you manufacture just insulation might be a little bit harder to drive drive interest. But if you're, you know, if you're anything the front of the walls on the walls floors, any surface that's visible. There's absolutely a huge opportunity. And again, we still also are very successful with more of the infrastructure companies because it's still a challenge that homeowners are looking to solve. And because we have such a great editorial arm and incredible discussion boards and, you know, homeowners are on there looking for, you know, challenges to HVAC as well as their design problems. There really is still an opportunity for both. Yeah, that was giving my question is, you know, if I have a visually appealing, you know, product or my practice scene with the eye, of course, like, yes, it's a no brainer because it's a very, as you said, it's a very visually appealing platform. But then you mentioned insulation like that's exactly what I was wondering is like, how do companies and we hear this all like, how do I market my product if I can't see it? Or if people can't see it in the home. But it's interesting to hear you even find manufacturers who maybe aren't seen in the space, you know, are finding ways to be successful. I think insulation is a great example of that or like, gosh, under flooring, you know, things you don't think about during the design process. But, you know, one thing I've seen and I get to be curious to get your take on this is, especially with like interior designers and architects is we'll see like a bleed over from like residential to commercial when it comes to inspiration. And so you mentioned like, hey, you know, tend to focus on products that are more residentially focused. Are you seeing any kind of like translation or seeing any kind of bleed over, as I said, into, you know, people that are in commercial that are using houses like maybe an inspiration platform for commercial projects. Are you seeing any that or is like, there's no data around that currently. We have a lot of data on that because, you know, to again, most of our audience and that folks are trying to reach our, you know, focused on the residential space. Certainly quite a lot of our pros work on both, you know, commercial and residential projects. And so they do use house that way. I think, you know, typically in the industry it goes the other direction. So when you think about and primarily from hospitality right so you get there is a lot of inspiration that comes out of you know people go and stay in an incredible hotel or they eat in an incredible restaurant. And that, you know, that becomes inspiration. That's why we now have LED lighting right in our homes and not just in these commercial spaces. Because people are like, well, why can't I have that experience I just had at this bar at this club in my own living room or in my shower. And so you see a lot of that kind of coming, I think, from commercial into residential. If I can go back to thinking about manufacturers building their profiles getting started. One thing that we talk to our clients about a lot on any given project is the importance of measuring KPIs and goals. We always ask the question what does success look like. So from a manufacturer standpoint, whether I'm brand new or revising or investing in my house profile. What kind of results should I expect or what would you say success would look like. And I can know okay I'm doing a good. I'm using air quotes for people listening. Good job with my house profile. Sure. That's a great question. And you know I think for the house profile looking just that you know photo saves or questions that you're getting on your photos is a good one. Because how is you know we have more than 23 million photos on house now. And it's the reason why most brands and manufacturers actually you know invest money and advertise on house and take advantage of all of the native advertising opportunities that we have so that they can actually drive metrics that's really, I think an important message to take away is that, you know, we're 10 years in, just having an organic profile it's hard to really move the needle. And it's hard to, you know, really focus and target. And so those are the capabilities that we provide with our different, you know, advertising and sponsorship programs and they really are very tailored to what that brand or manufacturers or KPIs are so you know if you're doing a product launch and you want to make sure people understand how your product is differentiated then you know views and reads of you know an article that we have, you know that we written for you might be the key thing right if you're trying to just drive awareness of a new design line that it might be that we're driving saves or likes of photos in our photo stream for you. So it could be you know people visiting your dealers if it's part of a co-op program or engaging with dealer profiles so it really depends on those KPIs that the manufacturer has and we absolutely you know advise folks to work backwards from what they're trying to achieve. You know the nerd in me is like, I hear you say 23 million photos and I'm like what is the cost of your server per month like I want to ask her. Like that isn't that so it's so bad but I'm curious without you you know without getting you to disclose information you're not allowed to Eliza I'm curious to know you know within the platform we encourage people to try to be early in platforms because you know you get prioritized you get momentum like we've seen we've seen this happen with companies like within Pinterest you know companies that were early on in Pinterest saw huge waves of traffic hit their site. I'm curious to know with that in mind where do you see how's evolving long term and like what you're allowed to share like what can manufacturers who get on board expect years down the road that you're hoping how's will evolve into eventually. Sure, you know I think what we're doing with house pro is a key part of that so I think you know there's going to be an even greater opportunity to get products integrated into you know those early stages where pros are working directly with homeowner so you know those points of influence where you know pros are building their estimates or they're working on idea books together for where they're going with the products to be able to insert your brand your products and your ideas using our you know planning tools using our design tools I think that's where things are going to get super exciting. Further down the road we're not quite there yet. But you know even now you know the opportunity really to be part of the plot the only platform out there that you know reaches both pros and homeowners in that collaboration process is really unique. That's that completely vertically integrated idea you know if I can get into in front of a let's say a contractor and a homeowner and you have data and insight on what project they're planning. That's pretty compelling if you can do that I mean frankly that'd be a huge disruptor you know if that process you know if if you're moving towards that I think that's really exciting. We've bombarded you with questions Liza and I really appreciate you I'm using us you know I'm sure you get a lot of these questions from manufacturers too because you know we wholeheartedly like we get asked all the time you know should we be on house and I'm curious to know you know what haven't we asked you that we should ask you like what information and we've asked you everything from the cost of servers to what can people expect from a KPI standpoint but what But what information do you think we valuable for our audience to know. Around house. Yeah. Well so there's a few things one kind of going back to you asked a question earlier about just how the industry is working differently. And I talked a little bit about kind of the virtual consults one of the things that we're actually seeing brands do in their advertising on house is switching to you know call outs driving to virtual consultations. I think that's really interesting so instead of driving someone to find the showroom they're actually we're actually seeing brands and manufacturers push for these virtual consultations online. I think the other thing that's interesting to know with house pros that you know we're really you know just just as we attract homeowners who you know on the higher end of intent and are working on projects right they're on house because they're looking to make a change in their home. For pros we're reaching pros and attracting pros who are really investing in building their business. And so you're kind of reaching the movers and shakers in the world and I think that's that's an interesting thing to understand. You asked you know just in terms of the opportunities for brands. We've introduced a number of new things this year additional tracking the ability to do retargeting within house we have video ads. Again we have these sponsored sponsored content stories so that we're actually writing really engaging content that's performing really well for brands and manufacturers to really get them to get homeowners to spend time and pros to spend time with that content and not just see a photo. Other things to know you know a lot of brands and manufacturers are global or you know multinational and houses available in every country around the world and we have localized platforms and more than 10 countries across North America Europe Asia and Australia. So folks are looking to be able to you know do global product launches or have an easy turnkey way to reach pros and homeowners in multiple countries for a unique way to do that as well. That's great. Eliza thank you so much for coming on the show if somebody wants to get in contact with house if they're interested what's the best way for them to do that. Sure I think for brands and manufacturers we have a dedicated email that goes to our brand team that be happy to answer questions it's just brands with an S V R A N D S at house.com. And anyone is always welcome to reach out to me directly as well it's just L I Z A at house.com. Wonderful. Thank you again so much for coming on the show and for our listeners if you want more great content like this go to nvio.com slash podcast until next time I'm Zach Williams alongside Beth Popney Glove. Thanks everybody.