Ed Weeks Jr. warns local businesses like HVAC companies and plumbers against relying on a single lead source like Google or Houzz. If an algorithm changes or a well-funded competitor outbids you, you can lose most of your revenue overnight. Diversify across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and other platforms while building brand awareness so customers know your name.
Hey everybody, it's Ed Weeks Jr., the founder of HV Social Media. I'm getting all up in the camera today. No, seriously, today I want to talk about really just, A, I want to thank everybody for, you know, so many views, 1,200, 1,300 views that I got on the video that I did about Hudson Valley auto dealers and how their marketing sucks. Thank everybody for their comments, everybody chiming in. I love it, it's awesome. But the reality, I want to focus in on one piece there. Mm-hmm. And there was a comment in there where somebody talked about, 80% of business for car dealers now coming from Google. And I've sat with clients that have 90+% of business coming from Houzz, or other people that solely rely on Google to drive all their leads, all their traffic, all their sales are coming from one source. That is a very, very, very scary reality. If you're getting all of your business from one source, you need to diversify. If you got all your stocks in one stock, you need to diversify, right? Diversification is the key, and it's going to be the key to sustaining and growing your business going forward. Think about this: say you're one of the better car dealers in the Hudson Valley, or you're a great HVAC company, or you're a great plumber, and you have a huge 90, 80 90% source of your business and that source suddenly changes? Even if it's networking, what happens if the person that's doing the networking becomes disabled, right? Or has a surgery, has something major happen where they can't be out networking? People forget you when you're not there. All of a sudden your source dries up. If your source is solely Google, what if they change the game? Which just for the record, they've changed the game before. How many people out here that built up great SEO had it change in the not too distant past and saw business dry up? So today's video is simple. If you're getting a huge amount of your business from one source, the time to diversify is right now. And diversify across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google for sure. Look at Pinterest. Look into other areas to start diversifying. If you're a contractor, you could look at Houzz, but look at some of the competitors to Houzz. You go all in on one source of your traffic and your leads and your sales and your income and your revenue, you are going to face major problems if that source changes, and it will. Also keep in mind, I don't know any of them off the top of my head, but always look for new avenues to put content into just to start to build up audiences. Why is this so important? Think about this. I want— if you've watched the video this far, here's your last little golden nugget. If I am an app that is VC-backed with tons of money, which is mostly going into marketing, I can come into this market in the Hudson Valley right now today and bury almost any car dealer. Why? Well, people are telling me in the industry that 80% of their business comes from Google. All they have to do is outbid you, and then all that sort— all that comes to me. And if I guarantee the lowest price, no hassle sales, an app that basically allows you to have a car delivered to your house, you can conveniently pick the colors and all your options, and then it's delivered. Hassle-free, right to you without dealing with a car dealership, I can own you. And just so you know, those apps are out there. Now, if I'm an HVAC company in the area and my sole 80-90% of my business is coming from Google pay-per-click, if I am a national company who decides I want to come in here and just outbid you, I can take away your business like that. That's a scary thing for me. That again though, but that's searching, right? That's active buyers. If you start to think about passive, think about the other channels where you can start to grow brand and awareness and people are going to know you for your name, not just for your price or because you're number one on a Google ad, you're going to win. So have to diversify. Hope you get that. Again, I thank everybody from here, honestly, big time for for all the comments, all the likes, all the views, it's awesome. Hopefully this one has some chutzpah behind it. It's not as direct, but the reality is hopefully there's some content in here that makes you think, I need to really start to diversify where my business is coming from. Peace. Peace.
