Read Poughkeepsie Journal Article Daniel Contelmo hadn’t thought about joining an online community to boost his company’s business. Then a client gave the registered architect a different perspective.
“Every time she wanted to describe something she wanted on her house, she would thumb through her iPad and show me photos,” said Contelmo, principal architect of Daniel Contelmo Architects in Poughkeepsie. “I asked what she was looking at and she said it was Houzz,” a leading online platform for home remodeling and design.
He joined the online community, creating a company profile with photos of his projects and redesigned his company’s website, making it easier for existing and prospective clients to see his work and communicate with him.
Within a few months, emails and phone calls from potential clients across the country picked up, with some more suitable than others. He also heard from industry vendors.
“I was speaking with designers and potential clients and, frankly, I was getting a lot of positive feedback from the photos everyone was seeing and it just encouraged me to improve my site and the photos,” Contelmo said.
In fact, in the year-and-a-half since Contelmo joined Houzz for free, his firm has won its “best of” award in 2013 and 2014 per member ratings and is one of the highest ranked architects on the site. Moreover, one of the firm’s bathrooms is a top 10 design, appearing in more than 100,000 member ideabooks.
