171. No-Time Video Marketing With Corné and JP

Welcome to another episode of Professional Builder's Secrets. In this episode, I interview Corne Ladigan and J.P. pianna from a company called Biz Video. Biz Video specialize in creating high impact video content tailored specifically for residential builders. They help them connect with clients through powerful storytelling and educational content. Biz Video's unique approach combines strategy, creativity and efficiency, enabling builders to overcome the common excuse of not having enough time to market. So so keep listening to discover how video content can not only transform your marketing efforts and help you stand out in a crowded marketplace, but also do all of that without a huge time commitment. This episode of Professional Builder Secrets is brought to you by Apparatus Contractor Services. Apparatus provides full scope end to end QuickBooks, Precision Construction accounting and CFO services for residential builders. If you feel like you can't completely trust your weekly and monthly financial reports or you feel like you're flying blind, Apparatus Root will rebuild and operate your QuickBooks accounting system and give you precision construction accounting capability you can trust. Learn more@apparatusteam.com or on the APB Rewards Partner Directory.

Something that we've learned in terms of like, doing this since like 2011, we've been in business is the fact that you need to consistently show up, you need to consistently market your business because if you don't, people will ask questions. Whether they do it consciously or subconsciously, it's like, is this business be trusted? Like, are they even in business still? We want to create that sense of like, hope and inspiration as well. Business is tough. Like there's always going to be problems, there's always going to be fires that need to be put out and markets are up and down all the time. Like it is a crazy industry to be in. If we could just inspire a few more builders, even if it's just one builder for us, then that makes it worthwhile. Foreign.

Builder Secrets, the podcast for building company owners wanting to grow safely and securely. I'm your host, Will Blunt and today I'm joined by the team at Biz Video, Corne Ladigan and JP Pinner. Welcome to the show guys.

Thanks Will. Thank you very much. Thanks mate.

Appreciate having, yeah, just being here.

Very excited to have you on. You guys are the go to video team for builders in Australia and New Zealand and there's such a good reputation amongst our audience with what you're doing. So really excited to dive into video content marketing and the problems you're solving for builders. But Corne, do you want to maybe kickstart with telling us a bit more about what you do and how you serve builders?

Absolutely, mate. I mean, at the end of the day, we help raise builders in Australia and New Zealand really, like, overcome obscurity and build trust through authentic storytelling. So that's kind of like it in a nutshell.

Yeah. Very good. Jp, do you want to add anything to that from your perspective?

Yeah.

A lot of the guys that I'm talking to, when I explain what it is that we do and how we help them, the biggest, I guess, need that we see is just helping them differentiate themselves in their local markets. A lot of them are presenting themselves or positioning themselves with their current marketing, lack of marketing, and they position themselves to look like just every other builder. And so then it makes it very hard for that person, the consumer, the client, to make an informed decision because they go, well, you can do four walls and a roof. The guy over here can do four walls and a roof, but he can do it for 50 grand less. Well, why wouldn't I put that 50 grand back in my pocket?

Yeah. And I mean, at the end of the day, you don't get taught this, like, becoming a builder. You know, like, we. We've got builders that do come through, like, the university route, but most of the time they just go through the ranks. They start as an apprentice, go from there. They don't really, you know, learn about marketing or positioning yourself or, you know, differentiating. Differentiating yourself to other builders and so on. Problem with that is that then they revert to, okay, well, what separates me from other builders is quality. And I'm on time and I communicate well. And we always say, like, well, that's just a prerequisite for being in business. Right. Like, it doesn't matter what type of business you're in with your builder or, you know, a cafe owner or whatever. Like, quality's gotta be a thing. Right. On time. And communication, it's gotta be a thing. So then if that's the only way you differentiate yourself, then it's people are gonna go back to price.

Yeah. Often the next step in that would be, I can do a great project on time. And they go, cool. You still sound like the next person. And the next person said the same thing. So all that information becomes obvious, obsolete. You still look the same as builder B and builder C. And then you go, well, typically what we hear is, oh, well, I do a really detailed quote and it's, you know, big wad on the table. You know, a lot of detail. Problem is the client. And a lot of builders would agree with this. I would say is, you give to the client and they don't really understand what they're looking at. So they go to the last page and they see the price and they see, okay, well you're, you've both told me again, you can do four walls and a roof. You care about it like it's your own. The only thing that because of how information has been presented to the prospective client they're having, you've cornered them to make the decision on price unintentionally. And that's a lot of people that I think a lot of the builders are naive to that until we sort of point it out to them like that.

Yeah, it's a great point. It's just human nature, isn't it? Just to jump to the last page to see the price. I do it every time I get a quote in for something. And then you work your way backwards. If it's digestible, you'll go, okay, I'll actually read the detail now.

Yeah. Can I afford that? You know, that's, that's a big question. On the back of a lot of prospective clients minds is like, cool. I just didn't know how much this is. Can I even afford it?

Yeah.

Then it's about. I know we'll probably jump more into this, but your marketing needs to have done all the selling prior to that moment.

Yeah, I'd love to talk about that a bit more. In terms of you guys are telling stories for builders so they can stand out in the market, and a lot of that's through video content and stuff. I'm interested to understand where that fits into. Like, is it pre quoting, Is it pre. Anyone even knowing who they are, all that kind of stuff. So let's dive into that in a moment. But Corne, when we caught up pre interview, you were talking about one of the biggest challenges you've noticed builders facing when it comes to marketing and creating content and actually standing out in the market is the fact that they've just got no time to do any of this. They're so busy. There's so many moving parts in a building company. And so why do you think there's that underlying sentiment that, you know, marketing comes last?

Yeah, I mean, look, I think marketing is definitely like a pain point for a lot of builders. The reason why I say that is because they all know, like, builders know they have to market. They've been told like this story that you need to market, you need to be on social media, you need to do all this stuff. So they, they are not like, it's nothing New, they know they've got to do it. But the problem with builders is they just have so much to do, like day in, day out, month, month after month, every year. Right. So they have to switch gears so many times every single day, like between, like, let's say multi managing multiple projects, like managing teams, being on site, driving here, doing some pre construction stuff here with prospects, and then obviously dealing with all the fires that come up every single day. Yeah. And when it comes time to marketing their business, they can't even think about it, you know, so their mental cognition is just gone. That mental energy is just gone. And then let alone doing something about it. So they can't even think about it and then they can't even do anything about it.

A lot of them, when I talk to them, they're just frustrated because it's. It's not their forte and they don't feel like it's their current marketing, especially if they're trying to do it themselves or they are working with someone who hasn't really spent the time to really get to know them or willing to put in the effort to really differentiate them. So then they just don't feel like who they are and the value that they're providing to their clients is accurately being communicated. And then also the next part of that is being interpreted. I can say X, but is X being heard by the market?

Yeah.

And you just. That's a big expectation. A lot of builders, I'm sure, get a real awakening when they go from being a carpenter, sole trader, to being a builder and running a team and, you know, business owner. There's just how much. Yeah, a lot more that goes on there. And then you add in marketing and the marketing's not that I want to try and make it sound super complex. And we try and keep it as simple as possible.

Well, for our clients anyway.

Yeah. For their interaction with us.

Yeah. I think people underestimate how hard things are, like how hard it is to create something. Right. So a great example of this is, let's say for us, like we recently did. Did a few things in our podcast studio, which is on the other side of the building. It's so much easier just to say stuff. So it was like, oh, yeah, well, let's just do this, this and this. We'll just put this panel there, that panel there, and then, you know, it'll be easy. It'll take us like 20 minutes. We'll just go to Bunnings and just smash it out. And honestly, it ended up taking so much longer. Like, we always just underestimate how long things, how long things take. And the same for builders. Like, in their mind, they go, okay, well, I need to get my business out there. People, ideal clients, need to know about me. They need to see me. They. They need to keep seeing me day in, day out. Because building a home or renovating a home, you know, it's not like buying a $30 product on Amazon. There's a lot of time associated with that, a lot of decisions, a lot of nuances between the husband and wife. For ex, like, if, if they want to renovate. So then the builder goes, okay, well, it makes sense. I just need to be on social media. I just need to be presented. Well, it's, it's. It's easy. Let's just do it. And then when the time comes to do it, they just go, oh, my goodness, I'm wasting so much time right now. They might do a little bit and then just stop. So everything is like, there's nothing consistent. Something that we've learned in terms of, like, doing this since, like, 2011, we've been in business is the fact that you need to consistently show up. You need to consistently market your business, because if you don't, people will ask questions. Whether they do it consciously or subconsciously, it's like, is this business? Can this business be trusted? Like, are they even in business still? Like, I don't know about you, but, like, whenever I travel or whatever and I go on Google and then find a coffee shop, and then I go like, like a restaurant to go eat at, and then I go on the Instagram and see if they've been posting. And if they haven't been posting, in my mind, it's like, okay, they're probably closed, so I don't even bother. It's a real, like, yeah, pain point. And builders don't want to take the time to, like, do it because that's not their strong point.

Yeah. The unfortunate thing is you can put so much good work into marketing and the way you look online, and then the smallest thing, like you mentioned then can actually have a big impact on someone. It could be as small as, like, not updating your opening hours on Google or, you know, not having the correct link to your Instagram page from your website or something like that, and it can really deteriorate the experience someone has with you. And in a high trust industry, like building, that could be enough for them to go to someone else.

Yeah, I think definitely that consistency is a big thing, and that's something we try Other guys a lot with is, you know, if we're like, story is a big part of what we do, but then the next thing is you need to get that story out there. So we help a lot of our clients with paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram. And so you're getting the attention there. People like what they see, they interact with it. It's emotionally engaging. And if they take action, usually the next step is then either to click the link and go to, say, landing page or website, or often they'll also then go to your social page if there's a gap there, if there's any gap. And what I mean by gap is it's not consistent or congruent with what I've been seeing prior to that moment. So if I'm interacting with your marketing and I like what I see, and all of a sudden I come across something that I don't like, you've just, there's a gap there and all of a sudden you've lost trust and subconsciously it says, oh, so you're not, you're not consistent. What does that mean for you as a, as a builder if you're not consistent there? So it's a very little thing. And you're right, it can be the smallest little thing. And that's why it's so important for whatever you put in place to be consist. And we tell our guys that comes down as well to how do you carry yourself on site? How do your guys carry yourself on site?

Yeah, because marketing isn't just online. Right. It's. Yeah, it's your actual product, what you actually do.

How do you answer the phone call in Bunnings. Plenty of stories out there of, you know, having. It could be having a bad day and you lose it on the phone in public if you're in a branded shirt. That's not consistent marketing that people see.

Yeah. I think people relate those inconsistencies, whether they could just be small. But in my mind I'm thinking, okay, like, will there then be inconsistencies in the experience I'm going to have throughout the build process as well? Right. That plays into it. I like that you dropped the. The podcast studio in there. We might as well mention the biz video podcast then. 116 episodes. JP is that right?

That's it. Yeah. And growing. And there's. We filmed a lot of great stuff over the last few months and we're. That. That is to come. And more in the calendar. Got a great one, a really good one, actually. This Friday, coming up. I'm recording with someone. We just came across each other. They were following our podcast and they reached out and I love what you're doing here, and I really see this next big opportunity in the market being here. And I said, I would love to talk to you about that on the podcast.

So, yeah, the podcast is awesome. It's called Inspired Builders. We've recently changed the name. Sorry. Yeah, we don't have to.

And for builders out there that aren't familiar with it, Obviously you've got YouTube and everything as well. And you do. You've got an amazing studio.

What.

What's the big takeaways I can get from listening to that as a builder?

The big takeaways? Well, the recent name change to Inspire Builders was based on feedback from our listeners. When we kept asking, what do you want more of? What do you want to hear? What do you like most? Big. A big part of it was I just like hearing from other builders and I just feel inspired. And that word just kept coming up and so it's okay. Well, moving forward, then, let's call it Inspired Builders and let's make a stronger emphasis on just sharing the stories from other builders. They don't have to be clients of ours. We just want to, if they've got an awesome story that can be inspiring, encourage others in the market. Because running a business, and definitely building business is not easy. There are challenges that come up. And so most of the time, builders just want to hear from other builders. What are you doing? What's working? Did you fumble on that? Oh, great. I'm not the only one. I'm not. Yeah. Just avoid helping them with that sense of loneliness or isolation that can come about being a business owner, being a builder. There's not a whole lot of people around you immediately that you can interact with your team. You can't talk to them about the challenges running a business. Maybe your spouse, you can't talk to them. A lot of builders hesitate talking to other builders. That's why, you know, like, the community that you guys create is so important and so powerful for builders to be able to interact with others like them who are driven, who want to grow. You're most likely going to come across someone who is going to be a little bit further ahead from you, maybe, and you can learn from them and come across someone who's just behind where you are, and you can then pass on information to them that's going to help them overcome challenges that they are facing or help them avoid challenges that they may come up.

Yeah, Like, I get really excited about the podcast and I love what you guys are doing in terms of your podcast as well. I think a big reason why we love it is because we want to improve the industry. We want to create that sense of, like, hope and inspiration as well. Because I think, you know, in business, like what JP said just before, business is tough, like, there's always going to be problems, there's always going to be fires that need to be put out, and markets are up and down all the time. Like, it is a crazy industry to be in. If we could just inspire a few more builders, even if it's just one builder for us, then that makes it worthwhile. Yeah, just getting that feedback is amazing. We've got listeners that contact us and say they've been through our episodes, they've binge watched or listened. Yeah. All our episode. Three times. I'm like, that's like 300. I don't know, 340 episodes you have to listen to. I'm like, man, that's. That's pretty crazy, right?

Yeah, Yeah. I always find those bizarre. When you get a bit of feedback like that. Oh, I watched that episode twice through. All the way through. And you just. I'm, like, recording and just forgetting about it after that because it's just like, I don't want to watch myself back over. Yeah, it's a great point. Because it is lonely being a business owner, especially in this industry. There's such a complicated business. Running a building company. Yeah. Having those other builders that you can learn from is really powerful. And that's why it's. You know, our company's been so successful, because that is essentially the sentiment. People that want to improve, they can learn off other people that have already done that. So talk to me about content marketing. We've spoken about builders not having enough time needing to market themselves. We're both on the same page that content marketing is an essential part of the mix for builders. But why? Why content marketing? And when you're explaining to builders that that's so important, how do you explain that? Because from a builder's perspective, they're probably thinking, I need leads right now.

Yeah, that's a great point, mate. I mean, yeah, we could probably spend a couple days on this, but, yeah, let's try and make it short. If we look at what's the goal, Right? The goal is to get a project with, like, an ideal client that values what you do, and then hopefully that process is pretty smooth. I mean, I doubt that's ever the case, but as smooth as it can be. So in order for that to happen, the ideal client needs to, like, sign up. In order for that to happen, they need to trust you. That's. Yeah, breaking it down and then what the point just before that is they need to actually know about you. Right. So there's so many different things that like, kind of like play in with each other here. But I think the problem is most builders do things on like a one to one ratio. So what I mean by that is they go, okay, well let's put in X amount of time. I'm going to get X out of it. All right? So whenever I get in front of an ideal, like in front of a prospective client, I can talk to them, build that relationship, and then that's good. Then I created one good, like, relationship and they trust me more. And I've been able to educate them through that. Now what if you can do that like way earlier is prospective clients journey, right, that you can start educating them, start building that trust. But not just that. How can you move away from that one to one ratio where it's. You invest a little bit of time, but then you have like a way bigger output. All right, so what I mean by that is you do it once and you can then educate 100 or a thousand or 10,000 people. And not just that, you can do that over time as well. So that's why I love content marketing. And I mean, this podcast right here is content marketing as an example. Yeah.

Content marketing has to be like, we would say it's got to come in play with leverage. You know, if you're putting all the effort into creating content, let's assume that it's really powerful content. And one person sees that. When I said it's one to one ratio, you then better hope that one person who sees it is the one who is ready and has the money and has the property and has all that. Whereas if you can create really powerful content, and I'm sure we'll go into more of that, when I can elaborate on that, you then need to get it in front of as many of the right people as possible and consistently. Because those people you can put in front of the right person. But today's not the day. You know, they might be ready in a week, they might be ready in six months, a year, two years. Yeah.

I think one of the problems with content marketing from a perception point of view is you might create a video and sure, someone happens to watch it and they're just ready to go. They're Ready to buy, like build their next home. But for the most part, you're looking at like 12, 18 months before you can actually nurture people through trust and all the stuff that we're talking about.

Right? Yeah. I think a big problem is we're living in an age where everything is instant. Like, I love Amazon because I can think of something, like I can be in the kitchen and go, where's my paper towel? My wife's like, why didn't you pick up paper towel from Woolworths? Then I just reach into my back pocket and just order it straight away. And not just that, I like to leverage again my time. I don't want to go through that checkout process once, get my one paper roll, I just go, okay, well you know what, just deliver this thing every two weeks and then I'm happy and then my wife's happy.

That's a good example of leverage. Like you've put system in place for it to be consistently happening and you.

Have to think about it.

Yeah, we believe marketing should be like that as well.

But yeah, coming back to, I'm like, why did I say that? The reason why I say that is again, we're in this time where everything's instant and we want results instantly as well. But yeah, look at the, the truth and the facts in terms of building someone's home. That's probably going to be the biggest investment up to this point in time in their lives. Not always necessarily, but even if they've done it five times again, that trust that's got to go into the builder is massive. A lot of time goes into that before someone just pulls the trigger. It's not buying a thirty to eight dollar paper towel on Amazon.

Maybe to give some context to referring back to the original question of like content marketing. When we talk about content, there's a huge range to that. But some of the foundations of what we create for our clients would be, we'd call it a business overview story and that'd be like the main story about the company. That's going to really enable your audience to begin to build that emotional connection and that trust. And that's going to really be where you start to differentiate yourself with a lot more depth. Because the more I can get to know you as an individual and unique, the easier it is for me to differentiate you from anyone else. So that's a big thing. We help our guys understand the more you can interact with someone and then it comes back to, you know, let the content do the interacting systems and processes leverage the Content you've created to do the interacting. You can't be having 50 coffees a week personally, you know, one to one. And then there are other types of stories we look at creating, like case study stories. So really in depth story of the journey that you've gone on with someone.

Yeah. And that's really to like inspire future prospective clients see themselves in that story that you've created. There again, story is great because it allows people to resonate with it. Like, that's the reason why we go to movies and everything. And like. Will, what's your favorite movie, mate, ever? I know I'm putting in the spot.

That'S probably topical at whatever time of year it is at the moment. I've been watching. I've actually got a young daughter who's only four months old. I've been watching lots of kids Christmas movies. So I can't even remember the last. Last movie I watched. But yeah, that's. What's your favorite?

That would have changed a bit. But yeah, let's say like, I don't know, a year, like two years ago. What would have been your favorite movie? Like just Top of Mind or a.

Good movie you've watched in the last two, three years?

I always go back to like. Like comedies that I used to love in my 20s, like old schools, like just coming to mind for whatever reason. We'll go with that in the movie. Or. I mean, Will Ferrell is the funniest in it, but I don't know if he's my favorite character. I don't know.

Yeah, so he's probably not the person you're resonating with. But yeah, I guess the point is like, if, if. And this is a cool exercise for builders and everyone to do is like, look at your favorite movie and then look at who's the main character. You probably identify yourself as that character in some way or another and that's why you love that movie.

I actually, I actually usually go for the sidekick, like the one that's the bit of the underdog. And maybe they got a side story in the movie that's the one I usually resonate with.

So it's probably. That's why. Yeah, because you resonate with it. And. And that's kind of like the same that case studies need to do. Like the character we. Or the characters we use in the case study stories for our clients is obviously the client. It allows future prospective clients to identify with that person because the story goes into details, like what is their desire? And not just as a desire in the build, but the desire in life. So it could be, let's say for a young family, like their desire is like a safe, modern kind of space where they can spend good family time with. Right, that's kind of like, that's safe. So you've got a four month old. So something that's safe, they can't escape the house somehow. She'll be crawling soon or what and so on. I know mine, mine's running around everywhere. So now we're like, okay, we've got to somehow make sure that she doesn't escape the house. And then, yeah, like all these things, like those desires and it's gonna, it's gonna be different for all clients. And that's why we normally suggest to have multiple case study stories so that you have that tool that different people can resonate more with those particular characters because that'll build massive trust. It'll show that you have actually solved their problems and gotten them closer to what they desire in life. And then, yeah, it makes you the kind of like the preferred builder. Again, we're trying to shift away from this like comparing just based on numbers. Like there's so much more to like sales and everything than numbers. There's emotional, like this emotional connection is massive.

Well, at the end of the day, I mean, it depends on what type of builder you are. The builders that we work with, they shouldn't be, they shouldn't be getting to the point where they're trying to compete on price because they need to be in a position where they're working with the type of clients that value other things throughout the build. They value, you know, communication and efficiency and quality and all of those kind of things. Which is, you know, a part of the story you're telling.

Yeah, 100%. Yeah.

I mean, talking about the business overview story Tim says from Kai Construct has been on your guys podcast, I know, a couple of times and apparently one of the longest episodes of all time.

Well, we had to break three episodes.

Yeah.

He came on our podcast as well. But I was just fascinated, like talking to him because the way they've positioned their brand in the luxury home space, and a big part of that is the storytelling through the video on their homepage is really impressive. He's taken a long time to get to that point, but I remember talking to him about the experience that I had just interacting with his website and how I immediately had a feeling of, I know this is a high quality building company just because of everything that lined up perfectly. Do you know what I mean? And that's the experience you want your customers to have from this type of marketing.

Yeah, you're right. Because if you can make that happen on, like, first impression and like those first initial minutes that they get to know you and your brand and they just do that in their own time, that'll make things a lot easier. Because the alternative is like, you don't have any of those things. And then let's just assume you actually get to talk to the prospective client. Then you've got to use up all this time initially to get them to trust you and get them to get a sense of who you are. And that is really hard because it's kind of like the first time you meet someone you're not 100% yourself, because, I don't know, it might be. Because you might be a little bit nervous or awkward or you don't even know. I don't know how to explain this, but I'm like a thousand different things. And how can I quickly get Will to understand me? How can I quickly get Will to go on? I've got a clear picture of what this Cornet guy is all about. It's really tough.

Initially, the process and then a lot of your listeners would resonate with this. When you go and have that initial conversation with that prospective client, if you're doing a job right, let's assume they are. You're there to. With the intent to find out about this project, find out what their intentions are, what they want to achieve. So you spend 90% of the time with them. They're talking, you know, the prospective clients talking about their project, what they want to do, why they want to do it, expectations. You just might ask some questions. So there's very little opportunity there. And then you go away and you start. I'm simplifying it dramatically here, but you then go away and put some sort of proposal together. There's very little opportunity to really communicate with about yourself and how you can help them. And we call it the value behind closed doors. So all that value that someone's going to get when they work with you and have finished a project with you, how do you begin to communicate all of that? Yeah, there's just. And there's so much of that, that.

And if you do, you'll just. It'll just feel like that you're selling. You just.

Yeah, and you're just fire hydrating them with information. You know, it's just like, I can't. They can't absorb it. They don't have the pigeonhole to even Absorb that information.

So the goal is like. I mean, and this is an unintentional goal, like, this was never our intention, but the amount of clients that have said this to us, like, we have clients approach us, and these prospective clients, this is what they say. They say, XYZ Builder. It feels like I know you already. And this is like the first conversation, like on the phone or whatever. If I had a dollar for every time a builder client of ours told us that, like, that is what their story and their case studies have accomplished for them. I'll be. Yeah, I'll be well off.

It's either verbally, directly saying that, or the other bit of feedback we get is that in that initial conversation, it just feels like we're three or four conversations deep. Like, I've met this person before. Like, that's. That's absolute gold for us.

Yeah. And the reason. The reason why I'm bringing this up is not to, like, sell ourselves. It's just that should be your aim as a builder, especially with your content marketing, your stories and everything else like that. Whether you're in America, it doesn't matter what country you're in, that should be. Your goal is to. Is to use that content marketing to educate, build that trust, that emotional connection. And by the time you're actually talking to the client, you've got that connection already.

And that's what we'll enlabel them. Like you said, we'll like the kind of builders that you guys help to get that outcome of. When they're working with a prospective client, that prospective client is appreciating them for so much more than just the fact that they can swing a hammer. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. I think it was a great point you made, jp around the. That sales call because you want to be spending that time focusing on the client. You want to be asking questions and getting to know them. And if they already know you, you don't feel the need to oversell yourself, which is. It could be detrimental.

Yeah.

And one thing I'd probably add to that is make sure the content is authentic. And that's a big thing when it comes to us saying yes or no to who we take on is you gotta be authentic. We're not gonna try and position you as someone or someone you're not. There's a number of reasons for that, but one of the greatest reasons is it gives the builder confidence knowing that when I have that interaction with that person, I can be who I am. I don't need to try and be someone I'm not. Or what did I say last time that won me that job or help me connect with that client. This person's already chosen to reach out to you because they like and have connected with who you are.

Yeah, you want that consistency.

All right, so let's talk practically then. I mean, at a high level. We've spoken about content marketing, the benefits, the type of content that might be beneficial to builders to build trust. What does that look like in practice though? What do builders need to commit time wise? What type of videos are they doing? How does that strategically align throughout their marketing mix?

Yeah, that's a great question, mate.

In general or with us, like what's our process? Or just generally what do they need to do?

Well, yeah, what's your approach? Yeah, yeah. What's your approach for it?

So our approach would firstly be after we've had a few chats and established that it's a good fit, then we would start with the vision and story development. There's a few things in there, but to keep it simple, vision and story development is there to help our builders get really clear on what it is that they want to achieve. Where do they see themselves in the future, immediate and long term. That's very important because we need to be clear on that because that's essentially where we're helping them get to. So all of the marketing efforts need to be in line with that. We don't ever want to create something just for the sake of it or just because it looks pretty. It's got to be moving the business and the builder in that direction.

Yeah, because like when it comes time to like creating the stories, you know, overview stories, like two to three minutes and we could do anything. Like there's a thousand different ways you can create the story. So that's why vision and story dev is so important. And our clients absolutely love it because they get that clarity and they go, okay, I'm clear on like who I'm going to go after, who are my ideal clients? And then, then our team knows what to actually put in those stories. And it all drives from that vision and story dev.

A lot of the time we'll get feedback in people saying, man, I didn't really know I had a story or I didn't really, I wasn't clear on it and I couldn't communicate it well. And so that process really helps bring clarity to that. And then once we've gone through that, then we can plan out what do we need to be capturing, what do we need to be shooting, who are we Going to be interviewing all of that. And then we handheld handhold our clients through all that. So there's no. They're not doing the thinking. They just get to enjoy the process. We've studied them, we've studied the outcome. They're trying to go for who they're trying to attract. So we then know what to ask. So it's conversation. And then we go and create that stories, create the content. And then from there it's about implementing it. So six, seven years ago, you know, we would be like, awesome, here are your stories. And they would say, oh, amazing, we love it. And then they even like 10 years ago, and then they wouldn't necessarily know what to do with it.

It.

So then we created a program so they could run through to guide them what they could do with it. But again, builders are busy. So then it progressed. Okay, let us take care of that for you to make sure that people are seeing this. Because if you're going to invest in this time, effort and resources, you want to make sure it's getting out there in front of people. That's the next thing in terms of implementing it.

Yeah, like back to that kind of like that leverage thing. Right. You want to leverage your story as much as possible. And that's where we.

Yeah.

Implement it into like a, like a bv. It's called BB Amplify, like a CRM. To really manage, you know, new people, new people coming into your system. But then also you leverage that story through nurturing and everything and, and all that, like advertising. So making sure it's like, okay, where are your ideal clients hanging out? You know, at the time, at this moment, everyone's like, on Instagram, people are on Facebook and social media and everything else like that. So we make sure that their videos and their stories are being seen and their business are being seen to like new people. But then also people that have interacted with their business somehow.

Yeah. Then that's what it plays into the organic side of things, the organic social media platforms and making sure your content's being positioned there well. And then it's all consistent across everything. But I suppose maybe to then to make. Because that was a lot of information then to communicate, to put it into a, what we call the ideal client journey. So if you look, if we're. Let's say you're a builder and we're talking to you about, okay, you've built for people, they've loved working with you. Amazing. So that's a good proof of concept. We need to go and find More of those people. We found that when we did some research with our clients on Describe for Me, Ideal client, they're often describing someone who finished working with them at the end of a project. Amazing relationship, super trusting, all of that. And so we went and go, how do we, how can we create that, that experience, that relationship, that level of trust, how can we create that? Let's believe, let's, for a thought experiment, let's believe it's possible. How can we go about creating that at the front end before they even.

Ring you or reach out to you?

So that's where that's all started. And then it's about going again, reverse engineering that journey, putting all we talked about there in place. How are you getting the attention of someone? So you need to get awareness, you need to increase your awareness in the market. So you're getting people's attention through paid ads and stuff like that. From there you are emotionally interacting with them so they resonate with who they are, they're seeing and they leaning in. And then you want to bring that person into the CRM so that you can then nurture that person. Because 99% of the market who might like you are not ready today to say, hey, let's build together. So we need to have a process in place that can take that person and hold their attention and then nurture it. And let's say the nurturing takes six months, a year, five years. That's even better because that's five years you've spent nurturing and feeding this person, how you want them to interact with you, how the process looks, when is the ideal time to get in touch with you, what they might need to have prepared, what that conversation looks like. So then you over time should be talking to and interacting with a way more informed, better quality client earlier on, if that's your desire. Not every builder wants that, but most builders want to interact with someone as early as possible. Ideally that, you know, you can then direct them to an architect or a designer and then.

But that takes time.

So you gotta have this system in place that and the content needs to be doing that nurturing because you can't be doing all that manually. Hopefully that.

Yeah, you said it so much better than me. I think a big thing is like JP's, like we're trying to get a lot of information into a short podcast. Yeah, I mean that's a lot, I guess that we're trying to fit into a short period of time. Could I mention like the ebook that we have Will?

Yeah, absolutely. We can Share that in the, in the show notes.

Yeah, so it's just, it's called the Builder's Marketing System. So the ultimate kind of guide to marketing a building business. And it's just, just basically going into a little bit more detail from like A to Z, what JP just mentioned. So yeah, builders can just like opt in for that. It's a PDA version. But then also JP did a voice. So for everyone that loves JP's voice, you can, you can get that audio version as well.

To me, while you drive.

Perfectly positioned. You can turn it into a video. Maybe you should do that as well.

Oh, we, we started but then it's. Yeah, anyway I won't go into that.

Yeah, perfect. Well we'll share that in the show notes. But before we move on from this topic, jp, you spoke about the whole customer journey and how you've like people have questions at different points and you want to provide content for all of that, ideally through your CRM nurturing. Are you creating video content for all of that or is it broken up into different things?

It's, yeah, broken up and it's different for every builder. For our builders who've been with us for a long time, yeah, we've created that content for a lot of those topics and that's slowly been feeding out. And so that's why the longer, I guess you can work on your marketing on a consistent strategy. We're under the impression that the ideal strategy is a long term strategy. Then you start to see some really great fruit from that.

Yeah, and just the long term thing, I know people throw that word around a lot. It's, it's there for a reason. Because I think Will, you and I spoke about this the other day as well. Like we, we try to focus on like evergreen style content because we're living in such a fast food style kind of like time. You know, people will invest a lot of time and money into like let's say creating a video, posting it on like, like Instagram Reels or TikTok or whatever. And then the next day it's gone. You know, we again we want to keep using the, this, this video and this content. So yeah, when a new client comes on board with us, we start with some of the foundation style stories and videos first. I mean as time goes on we create different style content to go deeper into other topics, but that will also be relevant long term. So it's just that whole like evergreen long term approach.

Yeah, but it might start off as a video or written content photo or some Sort of visual graphic. And then based on what we see, that particular builder and how their market interacts with that content, then might lead us to go, okay, next time we do some production, let's focus on turning that into some sort of video. Because the market's there for it, it's desiring, it's hungry for it.

That's a big point.

Yeah, that might be one way we go about doing it. Or depending again on the goal and the strategy unique to each builder, because every builder is different. Different market, different story, different. It might change there. You know, it might be like, you know what? That is something that we know is powerful because we've seen it with hundreds of builders. We know it because you said that when you talk about that topic with build with your clients, they lean in. Well, then we should probably look at doing something like that. Let's do some research. But let' look at creating some content about that now so you can implement it now.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And one thing we've spoken about in the past is you can just utilize the same piece of content for multiple formats. Right. Like if you create a video script and a video, then that's also an email, social or multiple social posts, blog, article. Like it can be used in so many different ways.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So talk to me about. Corne, you actually mentioned offline about this batching process you guys do, and I was interested to dive into that just briefly because I know that builders out there, they're obviously strapped for time and creating a lot of video content and everything like that might feel like, whoa, that's like, when am I going to do that? I don't really want to go on camera. I don't have like a bunch of days to take out of my calendar. So, yeah, talk to me about how that works.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's a good flow. On topic to what we just spoke about, again, starting with the foundation style content first, long term content. I think one thing that a lot of people say when they look at our clients is they say it almost feels like this builder is just busy with marketing the whole time by the different style content that's going out all the time and everything. There's so much variety the whole time. We've spoken about this earlier in the podcast, like, builders are busy. Time is a real problem for a lot of our clients. So over the years we always go in with how can we make this process or this journey or whatever as easy as possible for our clients. That's a Question we ask ourselves all the time, like literally every single day when we have huddles with our team here in the office, you, we, we always look for, okay, how can we make this part of the process a little bit easier for our clients? So yeah, one just, I mean, the batching is just one example. So when it comes to, let's say us, I'm just gonna give you an example. Us managing our clients organic social feeds. So this is like when you go on someone's Instagram, like what you see there, instead of sending our client a post every single day to approve, we go batch it up into like a couple months first. And then what we like to do is, is to you know, even just jump on a zoom with them and then go through that content if that's needed, you know. So I mean, the point I'm trying to make is, is that we want our clients to obviously interact with us and give us that feedback, that live market feedback all the time. So we have those catch up scheduled in terms of just knowing their market and everything. We do that about three or four times a year and then. But when it comes to them, for example, approving some of the content that's going out, which is a very important part of it because for like, like there might be something like there's some random person in the video that is like, is not, is not wearing like a hard hat or something on site or something. I'm just throwing up some crazy examples.

But.

And we didn't pick that up because again, we're not expert builders. We're like, you know, we're here to tell your story and market your business, get you out of obscurity and all that. We're not builders, so it's important for our clients to like review the content and just put a tick next to it. Okay. Now if they're getting that request every single day now, it's just, well, they've got to do marketing. So we try and batch things for them, make it as easy as possible, possible. So that's like a bit of a long winded answer.

Maybe another practical example of that would be when it comes to like production the shoots. So some builders would be like, oh, how many times you have to come out and shoot with us? You know, and they, they're concerned about, I don't have the time. We talk about time being the issue to do multiple shoots and lots of stuff. And then they're surprised as to how much we can. When it's really well planned out, there's really Minimal time we need and we can capture way more than it looks like. We've been there multiple days. And so that often then resonates a lot with the builders who are long term thinking good systems in place as opposed to a builder goes, oh, I need someone to come to site, you know, once a week and film this and then shoot that. And if I call them in the morning, can you come visit me on site and shoot this? And it's like, well, man. And often when we've studied those guys, their business is also very much ad hoc like that. And that's not necessarily who we bring on board.

Yeah, we want our clients to just go focus on marketing for a little bit and then step out and go do this thing, you know what I mean? And let us. That's helped him with that.

Well, I think what you kind of touched on there, JP as well is just, it actually adds to that consistency piece which we spoke about earlier in the podcast online. If you're more planned ahead of with all your content, then it's going to look like it all ties together. Whereas if you're just doing random stuff day to day, it could potentially just look a bit random online as well.

Yeah, and that comes back to that I mentioned earlier the vision story development that is so, so important to start with that otherwise you can't help but make ad hoc decisions because you don't really know where you're going. That is important for everyone involved, us, our clients and anyone.

You might do a little bit of marketing, like yourself, for example, and then other things are going to come up and then it's going to stop and then you're not marketing your business. And I've seen this so many times with builders. They market, everything's going well. Too well. Where they almost go, I don't need marketing. Or they just get too busy to market and then it's got a, like a lag. They find themselves a few months afterwards and then, then it's almost too late.

Yeah, then you're playing catch.

Yeah, we see, we, we see that a lot. It's like they go, oh, I need leads now. It's like, well, you should have been doing something 18 months ago.

Unfortunately, I need, I need a huge timber slab for this table now. Okay, well, when did you plant a tree?

Yeah, exactly. I mean you need to. When you're actually in those hot periods and you got a lot of jobs on the go and you got to turn people down, that's when you should be investing in marketing.

Yeah.

Double down 100%.

Yeah.

Yeah. Because you're seeing that time and time.

Again, clients as well.

Oh, totally. Yeah. And then you're capitalizing on the really good times. Things are abundant and you can then maintain that presence and that perspective.

Awesome, guys. Well, I could probably talk to you all day about this, but I'm not sure our builders have the same opinion. So do you want to wrap it up with one final bit of advice for the builders listening today about how they can better market their companies?

Yeah, that's a great point, A great question, mate. I'll let JP start and then I'll give you mine.

I would say 300.

I'm probably going to take mine.

Probably. We've said it already in the podcast. But you know, starting with that vision, you don't have to go through a formalized process like ours. What are you wanting to achieve? If you can just put some time aside on what is the goal and then work your way back from that. What content is going to help me achieve that goal? Communicate what I need to communicate to achieve that goal. Makes decisions a lot easier as opposed to. Yeah, ad hoc look, let's capture that. You know, and then you're wondering why you keep attracting, you know, you're doing bathrooms and you want to do million dollar homes. Why do I keep attracting bathrooms?

Yeah, and I mean for the builders there that are like really small and you don't really have budget to like get a team to help you with your marketing and stuff. Just make sure, yeah, do what JP just said there. Like have some sort of goal in mind, have a, have a type of client in mind that you're looking to educate and get their attention and create that emotional connection and then just put some sort of system and process in place where you can keep that consistency up. Right. Keep building on that like brand perception, how do those ideal clients perceive you and so on. And then just, just go as hard as you can. I know it'll be tough because you're doing a lot of different things, but then, yeah, for the builders that do have, you're a little bit further along and you want to take your marketing to that next level. You want to start incorporating storytelling, content, marketing to build that trust and stuff. Stuff, you know, get a good team behind you, get a team behind you that, that actually know what they are doing. It just means your investment. And I'm not talking just money, I'm talking time. It's going to pay off more because you can get back to the things that you are best at. And that is like running your business, growing your business.

Closing deal.

Yeah, closing deals. Delivering amazing product. Okay. Because you delivering beautiful projects and having a. Creating a great client experience. That is marketing as well. That is not just operations. That is marketing as well. Because those people will be talking like your marketing and your referrals. They. They work hand in hand together. Right. So let's say, for example, you deliver an amazing project. Those people are happy. They're going to talk about you. They're going to refer you, the person that you're that's being referred to. They're going to go check you out online, they're going to go into your website. Then they're going to go get distracted on Facebook and Instagram. But guess what, you're showing up there now as well. So. So your advertising should be amplifying your referrals as well. So that's probably. Yeah. The key takeaway I want to leave builders with. It's probably. Yeah. Consistency. And get a team behind you so.

That you can get this video behind you.

Yeah.

And it doesn't have to be us. Like, let's say, for example, you're in America or whatever. Like, just get a team behind you that actually know what they're doing. We'll be in America soon anyway.

Well, guys, thanks so much for coming on the show today. Really enjoyed it. Next steps for people bizvideo.com check out the builders Marketing System ebook which you guys will share the link for. And we'll put that in the show notes, hopefully part of APB Rewards by the time this podcast goes live so that our members can make the most of engaging with you guys. But yeah, there's been tons of great advice about how builders can position themselves today and I really appreciate you coming on the show.

Thanks, Will. Appreciate it, mate.

Thank you very much, Will.

Thank you.

Cool. A big thank you to our listeners as well, wherever you are in the world. If you like the show today, please subscribe to Professional Builder Secrets on your platform of choice and if you're feeling generous and leave us a review. But until next time, have a great day.