Three years go, Moon Associates was a hub-and-spoke gutter protection installer with multiple locations. And when the gutter cover industry began to mature, the company, now doing business as Moonworks Home Improvement, had to reinvent itself — fast.

“We saw business soften,” says general manager Matt Weiner (left in photo, with president James Moon on the right). “We knew we needed a diversification strategy.” Their strategy was to leverage the company’s expertise in marketing by taking on brand names in roofing, siding, and window replacement. That allowed Moonworks to market a broad array of products under a recognizable regional brand.

What they found, Weiner says, was that products such as roofing or windows require serious installation expertise. But Moonworks hired the right people to install and sell. Meanwhile, the company, which had always been good at generating leads, got better at it, even in a subdued New England housing market.

Best Practices

“In the last four years,” Weiner says, “we developed a solid understanding of what an ad needs to do to cause someone to pick up that phone.” Today about a third of the company’s leads come from the Internet, either through paid search or its own optimized site, and replacement windows are its No. 1 product. In addition, the company has set its sites on the renewable energy market, launching Repower Home last year to market, sell, and install solar hot water systems in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with the goal of becoming the first recognizable renewable energy brand in New England.

- Jim Cory