5 Marketing Strategies You Can't Afford to Go Into 2022 Without!

Foreign. Hey everybody, is Jim Johnson here? The head coach at Contractor Coach Pro and your host with Contractor Radio. And we have been really working hard on the marketing side of things. It's one of the things that we need more of for our business all the time. We need more leads. We, we want to make sure that we get them at the right time. Because according to this blueprint that we work with with all of our clients, it is one of 12 components of our business. We want to make sure that the components that come before it are all set up and working right. Processes, systems, finance, all that other good stuff. And that way when you get to marketing, everything you do fits into that process and then sales is after that and we want to make sure that we can sell those. I hear all the time how marketing companies generate bad leads. Well, could it possibly be that you have a bad sales system, bad follow up, bad approach afterwards? Could it some of that be on you? So we're going to talk about some of those things today. We're going to talk about five marketing strategies that you cannot afford to go into 2022 without. And we have an amazing guest that we're going to be bringing on today. But before that, we've got to get to the point of paying the bills, make sure we keep the lights on around here so that we can continue to do Contractor Radio. So just a little message from Hail Trace, the absolute best weather mapping tool and customer tracking tool you're ever going to find out there in the industry. You're not using Hail Trace. It's definitely worth the money. That money invested was one sale was already bought. We've got from deny or declined 2x of being bought just because of Hail Trace and storm reports that they give us. Not only do I know where the storm's at sometimes as they're happening and I can already head right there to the storm. But also after the fact, when I'm out knocking on doors, I can show homeowners the map and what kind of hail was in their area. We've seen a huge return in our investment and I have no doubt that you will too. We talk all the time here on Contractor Radio about how every decision you make has an roi. And one of the best decisions you can make is with Hail Trace because the ROI is off the charts and helping you follow up, follow through and, and inform your clients. And so today we're going to talk about some more of those decisions. These things that we've got to do when it comes to marketing and what's the return on investment of those decisions, we have brought in the guru that is the guru of marketing in our industry. Her level of intelligence and knowledge across all aspects is unbelievable. Welcome to the show, Jessica. Reyna.

Hey, how's it going?

It's going pretty good. Pretty good. And you're in Florida, right?

Yes.

And it's nice and sunny and warm and all that good stuff there always.

It's beautiful out right now. I think it's probably like 80 degrees right now in November.

We're here in Texas, so, you know, it's nice and warm here today. Kind of starts off cool in the morning, but it's been 75, 80 somewhere in there. We're recording this while all those people are freezing to death up in Minnesota and Wisconsin and those places. And so we're going to rub it in a little bit. But, you know, I asked you to be on the show today because we have been making a real push here on Contractor radio to help contractors with their marketing aspect of things. I called them out a little bit, you know, as we were introing this, that sometimes it's not so much the marketing company, it might be your approach with those leads and stuff. And we were talking a little bit before we hopped on today and you noticed a few things. I want to get to those at the end of the show, but for now, I want to talk about what those five strategies are. And before we do that, could you just tell everybody who you are, who you're with and why you're amazing?

Well, I'm amazing only because I have an amazing team around me that makes this whole thing work because I couldn't be there without them. And we have amazing clients and amazing partners and I. I can't say enough about them. So there's not really anything special or spectacular about me because it takes a team. What I do. Again, my name is Jessica. I own a advertising agency. And big part of my job is really about strategy implementation, also about making sure that it's followed through all the way to the end. A lot of times marketing companies will say, here's your lead, Good luck. And what we really like to do is partner with your sales team, your customer service team, and your leadership to really ensure that that process is such a good experience. In time, your team answers that phone all the way through the very end when they give you that referral.

That's awesome. So you're not just about like, hey, we're going to generate a bunch of leads. It's like the whole customer experience aspect of things. You're focused there strategically as well.

Yes. I think it's critical for your marketing. A lot of times people think there's two parts of marketing. There's the marketing and the salesperson. And there's a whole process that happens before time. The phone rings, it's first picked up to the very end, and we want to make sure that nobody drops the ball. And so we want to partner as closely as, you know, our clients will allow us to.

Yeah. And I think so many marketing companies are focused on that idea of we're going to generate a bunch of leads for you, which is awesome and good and when you should. I mean, that's part of it. But how do you convert the vast majority of those leads? And focusing there, I think that's a piece that a lot of them leave out. And I love about you guys is helping them convert those leads. I see you giggling there. I think you're giggling because your cat just walked into the screen. All good is perfect. So these five strategies, we're going to get to those, but have they changed from last year any or are they similar?

They're very much the same. The only thing that I would say is much more, even more important this year than ever before, and probably not for many years, is just really focusing in on that reputation and that customer experience. Because right now, that is number one in a market that we're currently in and the market we're heading into for 2022.

Awesome. So let's talk about these five. What's first? What's the first thing I like? I'm working on my strategy, which you should be at this time of year. You people watching the show. If you're not working on your strategy now and you're waiting till January 1st, we're going to. Too late. You're already the people that are getting ahead of you. And so what are some of those. What's the first thing that they should be focused on when developing their strategy from a marketing perspective?

A lot of people don't talk about this, but the most important thing you have to do before you walk into any marketing plan or strategy is you really need to have a clear written vision and goals and your understanding about what's happening in your market. A lot of times people will say, I want more leads, more leads, more leads. But what they don't do is they don't really know what that vision is or what their goals are. So they'll switch offers out randomly throughout the year and not really have an idea about why. When you walk into A year. And you're like, okay, this is what I want to accomplish. I want to do this part for this department. I want to reach these people. I want to see these types of sales. I want these types of referrals and really understand that. And also what's happening in your local market. You can create a plan for success without having that. What you're doing is you're saying, I'm just going to randomly say, I just want rear fleets, but I don't really know. Is that metal? Is that shingle? And is it going to come from these types of homes? It's going to be from, you know, is it storm base? There's so many things you have to think about before and is really having that clear vision will help you no matter what you decide to do for your marketing? Because you can say, okay, this is my vision. We are all on board with it. The team in my office is on board with it. It's understood from the top down. And then with that, we can take that and say, okay, to meet those that vision, that Strat, we have this strategy and this is where we're going to go with it.

So you do like in the marketing world, you do what we do with contractors for their whole entire business, which is to build that strategy. You know, you start with, what's the goal? Tell us where you want to be at the end of the year? What's the mission? And you kind of build that thing backwards and take advantage of the best strategies that apply to the assets of that company, right?

Absolutely. And the other thing too is also look at what changes have happened in the market. So, for example, you might be saying, well, I'm a custom deck builder, okay? And you're like, hey, there's less people looking for a custom deck this time. You're great. Well, let's look at what they are looking for. And that in one of the cases that we just looked at this week, they were looking for deck repairs. And that's because they're knowing they're going to the holiday season. Well, you can overcome that. Maybe you do those leads for deck repairs, you have the opportunity now to upsell them and say, hey, we have this financing because no one's sitting around for any home improvement project. Most people, I should say, they're not sitting around with 15 to $100,000 in the bank for whatever special project you have. But if you say, just like a car, you don't say, this truck is going to cost you 65,000. It's going to say, this truck is going to cost you 599amonth. So you put in terms they can understand, say, hey, I can repair this, but man, you really want that deck with that hot tub and with these features, that outdoor kitchen, I can make that happen. And this is the price it is per month. Or if you do other types of work that gives you opportunity to build a relationship with that homeowner, get in front of them, see the opportunity and also upsell or cross sell across those other platforms that you have in scopes in your business.

So I would. You would, you would say to that person that, yeah, it's a deck repair lead, but that's not a bad lead, right?

It's not a bad lead because you're building a relationship with someone and even if it's something small, that's an opportunity. You know, whether it's a roof repair, decor, a lot of people don't want to do repairs because while they are high profit margin, it's a smaller ticket. And I totally respect and get that. But that also could be that loss leader to build that relationship. Maybe they don't realize that they can't afford a new deck, or they can't afford a new roof, or they can't afford a new kitchen because they don't understand that you offer the financing, that it can be affordable. They just see things online like, oh, an average kitchen remodel is, you know, $80,000. And they're like brain goes turns down. But if you tell them, hey, I've got great financing options, we can make this dream a reality for you. Yes, we're going to do this, you know, swap out this sink now for example. But man, we can change and transform your whole kitchen, your whole deck, your whole roof, whatever that is, your exterior of your house, your interior, whatever contracting work that you do, you can make that because you build that relationship with them and you show them that they're still valuable even if they are just a deck repair. And they'll remember that too when they talk with their friends and their neighbors.

So from a strategic vision perspective for a contractor, should I approach it like, hey, I'm all in on Facebook ads or I'm all in on Google Ads and like, that's just the thing I'm going to do. I'm going to be the best at it and that's the only thing we do, or should they be a little bit more broad based?

I think you cannot have tunnel vision. If there was such a thing and tunnel vision was a great thing, then there'd be no point for GPS or Waze and things with alternate routes because different opportunities, different things will come up and you don't want to miss out. A lot of times the most common tunnel vision I see is social media. They're like, I'm going to post, I'm going to post, I'm going to post. And then they watch and they're like, why is my mind not getting enough business from Google? My business, which is also a free service, and they see their map impressions drop, their search impressions drop, it's because they have that tunnel vision. It's Facebook, it's Instagram, it's like, I just got a post here and I'm going to make millions and millions of dollars. Well, that's not where people are going to search. That's part of your social proof. But if you're not feeding that Google my business, you're not feeding your SEO. And if you're not feeding your SEO when people are looking for it and they don't know who you are and there's a lot more people searching there, you're going to miss that opportunity.

You're the third marketing professional I've talked to in less than a week. All three of you have said the same thing. So I want to make sure that people like, oh, okay, I get it. Google is where it's at for brick and mortar, home service, trade contractors. While there are other things that we should do and it shouldn't be all in one one basket, like, that's where people are going to search. Is that a fair assessment?

Absolutely. If they don't know a contractor, they don't know them by reputation, they don't know a brand name. They're going to do, they're going to go to Google. And even if they do, they're still going to go there to say, what are your views? Like, what did people say about you? Other complaints, what is your BBB look like? And it's part of a process. They're going to spend a lot of money. They're not just going down to Target to buy a sweater. This is a major investment and they're going to actually take their time to really look into who you are as a company. So again, social media, I'm not saying ignore it. I'm just saying you can't have tunnel vision. You know, anything you can do to feed, you know, your reputation should be a major focus for 2022.

So how would you describe that? Like saying, hey, I'm going to spend some here, I'm going to Spend some there going to do this over here. How would you describe that from a strategic standpoint? What would you call that approach?

So I guess I'm not sure if I have a label for it. But the most important thing is really identify and know. What is your reputation awareness in your market? There is a free tool on Google you can use. It's a search volume tool and you can see how many people are searching for you on a month by month basis. You can go back I think five years and you can see okay. And you can also see too there's different times where you probably tried different advertising. You can actually see that impact because if it worked right, you should have more search volume around your name. That should naturally be some of the dream. Because you're doing marketing not just to get leads, but to get that reputation, that awareness. So that way when they need you, they know you. So that's, I would say that's strategy number one. And then once you say okay, once you know how much awareness you have, people know you. The second step is, okay, what happens when they get to my website so they know who I am? How do they get to me? Do they jump off? Do they come on, are they coming to me? Because I have this super great blog about something and they're not even in my area. And then they bounce out, like really understand what's happening on your website traffic and who converts best and how they convert. Do they like to call? Do you like to fill out a form? Do you like to do a message? And once you have again that clear vision, you know what market reputation awareness you have and then you're down to okay, you know how people contact you or decide to choose to use you, then you can say, okay, I'm going to build it backwards. I'm going to build a marketing plan because now that I know what traffic converts, how it interacts with all of the people on my website, how people know me, how people find me, then you can build something to drive basically people to those specific ways to you. So if you know for a fact, maybe your organic traffic doesn't deliver the most local leads, but direct traffic does. Well, then you need to create a campaign that drives more direct traffic. If you know that people like to message you versus call, then you build even in that ad message, hey, text us on our website. So just making sure you really understand how well you're known. Because everyone says, you know, everybody knows me and you might feel like everybody knows you and you probably have a really great closing rate on your referrals, but how many in your service area really are searching for you and know you. Okay. And I'm going to be honest, sometimes when I look at mine, I'm like, ouch, that hurts. You know what I mean? And some months when I'm doing really awesome in my marketing, I'm being productive on the things I should do for my business. I see that it's up, you know, and then I can see those different stages through. So don't, don't get disheartened if you see, like, hey, I'm not really strong, or I see my competitor. They're growing, you know, that's because they're investing in their reputation. Focus on what you can do. Focus on what you have to offer that's different from your competitors, and then build that plan around those things.

Yeah, like, for me, I don't know anything about SEO and all, I got somebody for that. Right. Like, I let them do that, and they're doing a pretty good job of it. But I noticed that when I add fuel to that. So in other words, I go out and I make some posts on Facebook and I put some pictures on my Google, my business, and I put a blog and I add to what it is they're doing, those numbers go through the roof.

Absolutely. Because your job is to drive more direct and organic traffic to your website. And the only way you're going to do that is driving reputation awareness and value. Like, why they should care about your. Your brand, why they should care about your company, why they should care about the work that you specifically do.

So has anything changed with search? Like, it seems like it's different to me. I don't like, it seems like there's a bunch more ads at the top than there's ever been. It used to be one to three or so, and the organic first page was like half of the page. There's like one organic listing at the bottom at this point. So what went on there? What happened?

So there's a couple things that have changed in search from a paid side? Yes, they added those. And I know everybody on this call has probably heard of it, tried it, maybe they're using it, maybe they're not. Is Google local services, which are those little square boxes across the top and it's like guaranteed by Google, and most people don't really know what that means. And when it first started, it was awesome because a lot of contractors hadn't signed on. Now you can probably find more contractors on there than you could even find on a map. And I'm just being honest. Like if you zoomed way out in the big dma, like you're in Dallas and you're like, there's a hundred people on there. Well, if you get on Google Local service, there's probably 500. And the most common thing that I hear back about Google Local Services is I can't spend my budget even if I max it out. And that's just because there's so many people there. It's kind of like saying even if like Publix is our grocery store here, even if you, you know, send everybody in town to Publix, they're not going to buy out the entire store. There's just too much inventory in the same way there's too much inventory for contractors for people to choose from. So. And if they're not familiar, if a homeowner is not familiar with that service, they're going to skip down to the next section of paid ads, which is traditional Google Ads. Ironically, Google Local Services and Google Ads are actually different departments within Google. They actually compete against each other. So they're both going to tell you how much more awesome one is than the other. So it's really one thing I would recommend is make sure whatever you're doing on Google Local Services, make sure it's real. You're really listening those calls because while they will say like okay, missed call, they're going to credit to you sometimes that might be a callback and they may not listen to that whole call, but you're going to recognize that person. So it's important that you dispute them. And also look at your cost per lead because there are times where Google Local Services, your cost per lead there is going to be significantly higher than Google Ads. So or it's higher. You're paying, let's say, you know, 75, $50 for repair versus Google Ads, you might have paid 30 to $50 for that repair. So Ouch. Especially for a repair. Or it may be the reverse. Different markets have different types of bidding. So in some markets it's really expensive to bid on repairs. And some markets. Are you alright?

Oh yeah, I muted myself. We're good.

I always come with like two drinks. And other markets might be less expensive. So it's really important that you understand what the best opportunity is and only optimize for those campaigns. So then you get down to the map and in the map now there's also ads. So those first one to two can be a paid ad, which you can do through the Google Ads dashboard. And then after you get past the paid ads on the map and you have the organic ones which are based on those relevance factors, which we can talk about later. And then now you're finally at organic listings, unless they decide to put in what's called rich snippets or things like that. And then there's some other little things in there which are technically organic results.

So the marketers that say, hey, I can get you on the first page, is that even valuable anymore?

Well, if you want, and I'm more than happy to provide this to anyone on this call. Google says that no one can guarantee, guarantee you that no one can guarantee that for first page for SEO or SEM, because there is an algorithm and there's also a thing that nobody in SEO talks about and that is intent. Because my intent, my behavior, all those things will impact our rankings. So I remember probably about a month or so ago, I've actually had this conversation a lot lately because people get all these, here's my local rank. And I always say, okay, show me one first party thing from Google that shows me a rank below a United States level. Nobody has, by the way. And then we go into, okay, let's talk about how is that rank determined? And the issue is Google knows more and considers more about where you're at in the universe. So for example, the first one I did was for a company that does online orientations for colleges. And they're like, we want to be number one. And I was like, you have to understand everyone is going to have different results. Say, we did this test where I'm searching, someone else is searching and I'm sharing my screen. And look, instead of it giving me results for their competitors or even them, it was asking me questions about what am I really looking for, do I understand? It was like, what is online orientation? And you've probably all seen this where it has kind of like almost like four or five suggested questions. You know, how do I get online orientation? It has online orientation for college. It goes through all these different things because it's trying to understand what is my behavior. In the same way, if you're looking up roof repair and you're not in the roofing industry, you're not connected in any way, shape or form in any of your registrations, email, Facebook, whatever. It's going to be like DIY roof repair. You know how to get a roof repair. How much does a roof bear cost? So it gives you all these suggested things and then flash forward a couple weeks later, we did the same thing with a roofing Contractor where John and I, he's one of my account managers, were sitting in a meeting with three of the people in leadership of this company and he's like, how come I don't show up? And I had everybody search the exact same. I think it was even just like roofing company in with the name of the city. And everyone in the room had completely different results.

Wow.

So because there's person in leadership A over here who's searching all the time to see where he's at. And when Google sees that you're searching all the time, you're not clicking on the results they're giving you, they're going to shuffle them down because they're going to say, wow, he's not clicking on it. It must not be relevant. Okay, there's.

And it goes on your behavior over time too. Right. So one of the things I noticed like I was looking to buy a piece of software and I knew exactly what the name of the software was and I typed it into Google Search and the first thing that came up was the name of that software versus this other software I'd never heard of before. So what Google knows about me is I compare. Yeah, I'm gonna go look and I'm gonna go. And so it was the very first listing. The actual website for the company I was looking for is like the fifth one down. There were some questions in there. There was all kinds of things going on before I actually like, I gotta go all the way down. Go. Okay, that's the company I'm looking for. And you know what happened? I didn't choose them. I took the Versus one. The Versus one had another feature on it that was better and the price was a little bit lower and it worked exactly the same. I'm like, okay, that was. Thank you Google. You made my life better. I appreciate that. And so we get into the search has gotten. It's almost creepy. It's almost to the level of creepy. Like it knows that buyer and how.

They buy, how you buy is definitely transacted on. So the, the biggest thing really isn't the ads that people spend on the biggest, fastest I would say shift of dollars being spent and sold is going to be your personal data. So there's places where you can go and you can see all these companies that is sharing your information with companies like Google, like Facebook, whatever. They're collecting that information, they're selling that information. It may not be personally identifiable. Like it won't say, this is Jessica Raina and she lives at this address with this they will have enough information that can fill in those blanks so ads can be served to you. And that's why things like Duck Duck, though, are becoming more and more popular because people are like, oh my gosh, like, I'm so tired of. I'm talking about something I was burying a. I was in charge of a cremation for a family member earlier this year and I was talking about with my husband. Next thing I know, literally on the maps, every freaking funeral home and cemetery as I'm driving down is like populating. Like, I'm driving to go get donuts with my kids and I'm looking for Krispy Kreme and everything that's highlighted, you know, as you're driving along, like, hey, this might be Avengers was related to funeral and burial. I mean, it was unreal. So they're listening. Your device, like, people are like, oh, it's not always listening. Absolutely wrong. Because your devices, including some TVs, but we won't get too weird, are listening to your stuff because that's how they transact. It's how they gather information. That's why you're like, wow, I was talking about this and now I'm seeing a Facebook ad for that.

It's. It's kind of funny though. I think most people are creeped out by that. I'm like, first off, I don't have anything like that's, you know, sensitive in any way. And it's making my life easy. I don't have to search as much. I don't have to spend as much time like, okay, cool. Like, I actually will talk about things on purpose just so they'll start populating in there. So I don't even have to go type it in.

You don't have to look for it. Exactly. So your phone is always listening, for example, like, no, it's not. You have to say, hey, Siri, or hey, Google. Well, it has to constantly be listening to hear those different commands. You know, it's not like all of a sudden you're pressing record for it to say, okay, Google. And that's what people don't understand is that it has to listen to be able to do any of those voice activated commands.

All right, so we get. We got to get through that. I want to make sure we get to five. We're only on one right now, so let's get. Okay, number two, real quick. Number two, it. We've talked about it a little bit, right? Google my business. Like, what's. Why is that such an important strategy going into 2022.

So again, because a lot of marketers sell Facebook, I'm just being honest about my industry. They're like, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook. And then they promote real content, build content, build content. But they never, ever, ever talk about take that same content and put it on Google. My business and part of your relevance score is about putting regular posts on and getting regular reviews and responding to reviews and keeping your information up to date. So even though you probably haven't had a change for things like Covid updates, still put in there. This is our current Covid update. You know, this is the work we did.

Current Covid update in Texas.

What is normal Texas, Utah floor. They're like, what is Covid? So, so it's important that you put those things on there because that relevance score impacts your rank in those organic map listings, the ones you can pay for your organic search. Those map packs. And you'll see on there, there's they call Insights and it'll say, this is how many map views you had, this is how many search views you had. And not doing those things, you'll notice you'll have a decrease, decrease, decrease. So whether you're, if, even if you're a small business, aim to get one to two reviews a week, like just one to two. And then make sure you respond to them because responding is as equally important as getting the reviews. So a lot of people are like, oh, I just need to get them. No, you have to respond them and respond to them whether they're good, bad, ugly, whatever. You have to absolutely respond to them. That is part of your score. And those reviews alone are over a third of your, your relevant score. That posting a content one to two jobs a week. And for me personally as a marketer, it's frustrating when you're like, are you guys in business? Like, I feel like you're probably doing a roof, you're probably installing something where you've done a kitchen, you've done a bath, whatever, you signed up a customer. Send those things to your marketing team. It literally takes them, no joke, five minutes max to post across all those places. Your social media and your Google My business. Because Facebook is not giving you SEO credit. The only SEO credit you're probably getting from that is going to be if they search by images, maybe and your reviews. Okay, so like when you search a business, you see those reviews, the Google ones, and then the bottom, it's like, here's Houzz, here's Home Advisor, here's Facebook, here's bbb, here's whatever. But you absolutely have to do it. It is the cheapest and best way you could spend five minutes of your day to build your business.

So I mentioned earlier that I was looking at a piece of software, right. And they gave me the comparison. Well, the piece of software I was looking for is to make our posting easier. And most of them were, like, Facebook, Instagram, and, you know, alone, or Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and then there was a couple that had, you know, a little bit more than that. And I wanted to be Facebook, like, pages, groups, my own personal feed. I wanted to be Instagram on our company feed and our personal feed. I wanted to be LinkedIn on our company page and my personal page. I wanted to have TikTok, which there's like, trying to find one of these that goes to TikTok is outrageous. You can't find them. And then, sure enough, this one that was the competitor had two things that none of the others did. Had Google my business. So now I don't have to go to Google and go like. Like, Google's gotten pretty good about sending me an email saying, hey, you haven't put anything on Google my business lately. You want to put a picture? You want to do this? Yep. And I go put one on. Well, now every single time we post, we're choosing, you know, a portion of those to go out to our Google my business so I can get them all in one shot. I'll tell everybody what the software is. It's called E clincher, which I had never heard of in my entire life. I was looking for Senable, and I got Eclincher. I was like, oh, dude, they got TikTok.

Great.

I got the contractor coach, TikTok, so we can start sending stuff there. So now my team has this tool that, I mean, it's a snap of a finger. Done. We're getting them in all those places, which is going to help our SEO because we're driving it to Google my business too.

Is that right? Yeah, absolutely.

Cool. Good. I made a good decision once in a. Hey, you got one down for 20, 21. That's good.

I think it was awesome. It's great.

All right, so we're gonna come back. We're gonna get the other three. All right. I. We'll keep the lights thing on. We love our sponsors, and thank you too. Like, we didn't mention that when we started. Jessica is actually one of our sponsors with kill your Competition. She does an amazing job with our clients and helping them drive their SEO, make their websites better, get better traction, follow through with Their customers. She does an absolute awesome job with that. And we're grateful and thankful not only that you're a sponsor of Contractor Radio, but you're also sponsoring our Contractor Strategy Conference as our headline sponsor, which. That's super cool. Can't wait to have you here in New Braunfels and help these contractors. But for now, we gotta get the other one in there, and that's Atlas. And we love those guys. Their shingles are something to help you set yourself apart as a contractor. So hang on a second. We'll have a little word from Atlas Roofing. The Atlas Pro plus Contractor program is designed to help you build your business. It gives you tools and resources, training, industry insights, bonus structures, technical knowledge, the brand power and science of 3M Scotchgard and what we think is the best product and warranty in the industry. Become part of the family that is succeeding and growing their businesses. We went from nobody ever heard of us to the number one roofing company in our region.

And we've gone from 12 roofs a year to 2035, and we did over 400 last year.

We're on track right now to do.

A thousand roofs this year.

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I have to give Atlas credit here. So I don't know, maybe six or seven years ago, I was working with a roofing contractor in Colorado, and they used Atlas shingles. And they're not very common in some of the other states that we work in. Just being honest, you know, kind of like GF is really common in some markets. Certainty, Jones, Corning. Everyone's kind of got there, whatever. And I saw a piece of marketing literature, and they're like, oh, yeah, we have these different things that we can use for display or for postcards or whatever. And I see this picture, and it is literally a dude with some hairy legs, like, crossing his legs a little bit. Like, he's kind of, like scratching his legs or something. You just see the legs and you see the roof. And I was like, what is this? And I could not stop. I thought she was joking and she was serious. And it was about the Scotch Guard and some other stuff. And I was like, wow. Because you Know what? I've never seen anything like that. Worked with contractors for 20 years past 15 in marketing before that with commercial lending. And I almost, I was so floored by that. But you know what? No one will ever forget that. I mean, the creepy man legs were a little gross, but with the hair and everything. But it was just. You can't forget it. I still, when I hear Atlas Shingles, I still think of that one very specific ad. I tried Googling it the other day to share with one of my teammates and I couldn't find it. So whoever thought of that, like you have, like, it is now like the head and shoulders of my brain, the Oscar Meyer wiener. I cannot take it out of my head no matter how hard I try.

That's kind of like the Duluth Trading Company, their little commercials where, you know, the pants are too, too tight or their shirt is too scratchy and all that stuff. Yeah, it's like just so memorable. And that's, that's really what I think the key to marketing is, is being memorable, being this thing that. I just cannot get that out of my head. So keep that in mind as you're putting your marketing together. We're actually planning on some things to maybe be a little bit more memorable coming out here soon. I'm pretty excited for those. So we've got our vision covered. We've got Google my business covered. So what's number three? What's the next thing that people should be paying attention?

Next thing I would say is probably make sure your money is spent wisely. And everyone says, I want to make sure my money spent wisely. But there's no matter what your strategy is, there are some very common core things you can do. Number one is a lot of contractors I have seen use multiple different people to do multiple different things. This is my digital guy, this is my on air person. This is my website person, this is my SEO person. It is amazing to me how many different people may touch a contractor's business from marketing standpoint. And what's shocking and disappointing for me personally in the marketing industry is not seeing all these different people that are supposed to be working for the benefit of this contractor working together. And that only person that will always, always, always, always lose is the contractor, because they all should be working together. Everything you do for marketing should be working together. You don't have, you know, your admin department that doesn't ever talk to your field department, which never talks to the people in your warehouse. You never talk to your estimators. You all work together. You might have a meeting, you may have leadership meetings, you might have sales meetings, but there is still communication that happens in your company in the same way. You have to absolutely have to have communication across your marketing teams and all your teams, whether it's, you know, two to, God forbid, five or whatever, they all need to meet at least twice a month and say, okay, I'm working on this, you're working on this. Is the message the same? Is the look the same? Is the strategy still working to meet the same goals? When we talked about that vision and goals and, you know, identity, are they all working together? Is there anything that I could be doing here that could help this team, per. This team over here? And the more that you do that and meet those regular, at least, God willing, twice a month in a perfect world, even 30 minutes once a week, you know, you set a time, 45 minutes and everyone's like, hey, here's what I'm doing. Because there's going to be different elements. That one that's using SMS marketing, they could probably grab that and they could probably share that with the display team. You know, people that's working on their Google Ads and sees that, hey, this display ad, this message on here, you know, is really driving people to call, you know, all those different things. And if you do that, you're working together in the benefit of the owner and the entire company of the contractors who are all depending on you. Because it's not just about the owner. It's about, you know, the gal that's answering the phone, you know, the person that's pulling the permits. You know, everyone is so dependent on what we do in marketing and it's a disservice to any contractor, any business, hands down. If you cannot work together, you might not like that. You don't have the whole puzzle. And I'll be honest, sometimes for me, it is easier if we have. We can touch the whole puzzle, see the whole puzzle, because I can see how it's all interacting because that's what makes us unique and different. But even then, there's ones where we'll work with, where they've got, you know, 40 stores, you know, from a retail standpoint, but I know what's happening from this department, that department. We're all working together for the common good of that store and all of their employees.

So this is one of those things that we do again at the strategy conference. It's. I think that most of the time when people are developing what they're going to do for the next year, it's kind of a brainstorming whiteboard session. They come up with a bunch of good ideas and they say, hey, yeah, we're going to go after those ideas. But they don't stay on them. They just kind of fade away. Because day to day life gets in the way, business gets in the way. Hey, we need to make sales, we need to generate more leads. And they don't have it organized in a fashion where they can manage it very well. And so, like here in our company, we have a marketing mission meeting every single week. We also have a company mission meeting. And those two things are aligned. The marketing lead is in the mission meeting, making sure that those two things are lining up. And I just did a training yesterday for a group of contractors on how to look at their finances, and we were talking about marketing and saying, hey, you need to review your marketing and say, where am I getting the most bang for my buck between all of these people? And so the more people we coach, the more people are going to be looking at those things, going, nope, not that person. Yes, this person. And being very well aware of their finances. And unless you have a mission designed, planned, and that you're going to meet about and hold yourself accountable to each year, your likelihood of moving the needle very much is. Is pretty difficult. Yeah, go ahead.

You definitely need to have someone, too. When you're looking at, you know, what's my spank for your buck? That may be. And I'm just gonna be really honest, it's probably going to be skewed because that person that's doing your Facebook wants to look better than the person doing your SEO wants to look better. That's doing your Google Ads. All these different people, they're all basically competing still instead of working together. So the best thing you can do is have someone who can, you know, even pay. Someone who, like, we do this actually a lot for larger firms is they'll pay for us to look at it from an objective view. Okay, how is this social piece working with this SEO piece? And we can say, okay, it might not look like the Facebook guy is doing a lot, you know, but hey, I can see on here the Facebook guy brought that person initially there, and then the SEO, the organic one, actually converted. But it never would have happened if that Facebook guy wasn't part of that process. And that's what having someone who can oversee how all of it looks together, and a lot of companies like ours included, you know, can do that for you. And they can do it objectively because I'm not, you're not paying me to do your Facebook, you're not paying me to do your Google Ads, you're not paying me to your tv. But I can tell you, here's how it's working together. So when you walk into 2022, instead of saying, well, my cost per lead for this was terrible and my costly person was great, you really know how it's working and how it all interacts. Because a lot of times, again, going back to the tunnel vision, I only think my Facebook is the only way that people see me. My Google, my business or whatever is the only people see me, my TV ads, whatever that is. And you don't realize that person is not just driving down the street all of a sudden seeing a yard sign and nothing else happened. And it was like the skies opened up and they're like, but that's what we do. We treat each one of those things. When you funnel, when you try to basically give them each their own little funnel. People are not one dimensional. And I know we talked about this last year in the last strategy conversation, people are not one dimensional. And the more dimensions are added, the bigger that price tag goes up. And so it's important to be able to say, okay, this is what is happening objectively. This is how my customers are interacting and then creating a plan, like I said, at least, at least, at least twice a month where all those people come in. And even better is if you can get something where your marketing team or whoever that marketing person is can hear what the customer service people are hearing when they answer that phone. That is, number one. And number two, what are the contractors or the, excuse me, estimators hearing when they're actually in the door? Because that conversation can change. So a lot of times on forms, you know, you give them the option like, do you want to have financing? And they're like, no, because they feel like it looks bad on them. And then the customer service person might offer again. They're like, no. Then they see the price, and they're talking with the estimator and they're like, yes, I need financing. And this other guy offered me, you know, same as cash. You know, all of a sudden, now that story changes. But if that information from the estimator never gets back to customer service and never gets back to your marketing team and the people that are doing your marketing, you're doing yourself a disservice. So that's why we say having that honesty and transparency about what's going on, how it's working, and how it's being done. And also it creates accountability across each of your marketing people. You know, there's no reason, period. I will see. I've said this probably till I've been blue in the face. For anyone to be, like, secretive about what they do, ask them, how did you come up with this strategy? Why do you believe that this is going to work? What does the strategy look like and how does it interact with other parts of my business and my marketing?

Yeah, sometimes the marketers try to be something between magic and voodoo.

I can't stand the words like secret sauce and proprietary. Like, I just want to slap people. And I hear that there's no such thing. Everything is public.

While it may be proprietary, the way we do it and how we. I'm going to tell you what it is, so I want you to know. So it's transparent. You understand the strategy behind it. Make sure it aligns with what you guys are after.

Yeah.

Okay. So we gotta. We gotta be smart with our money. Make sure that people are communicating across. If you were using various parties, all of that seems to be driven quite a bit by our reputation. Is that. Is that true?

Reputation is number one. And I'm not trying to be like a negative Nancy. I'm sorry, if anyone listening, his name is Nancy or Karen. Sorry for name is Karen. But when you're going into 2022, and if we're all going to be honest, we know that your utilities are going to go up this year. We know that gas is obviously going up. We see the impact on groceries and other things, supply chain, whatever. Okay. If you want to not have to compete based on price and not look like everybody else and just like, okay, who did who? Which estimator do they like better? That's offering at the same price, same whatever. Because everyone's expecting you do a good job at whatever it is you're offering, no one comes in and says, I'm going to do the worst kitchen install you've ever had in your life. This is going to be the worst roofing experience you've ever had. You know, you're all saying, it's going to be great and we're great and we're wonderful, but you need to build that reputation because that reputation is going to win over price every time. Because eventually you cannot go lower. You still have a business to run. You still need to make a profit.

So what are some of the best ways for them to handle building that reputation?

Number one, customer experience. I know we talked about this before. Keep your customers up to date. Okay, so number one, let them know where it's going on. You know, it takes certain number of weeks for a permit, but guess what? Your customer probably didn't memorize that information. You can do things like old school, give them a little piece of paper. So clap might have been loud on the mic. And I'll say, you know, this is the timeline of what you can expect. You know, a broad stroke. Here's what you can expect. But use things like either get the referral or podium and just text them and say, hey, your permit was ordered, your materials were done, your permit was approved. Keeping them up to date will make them feel a lot better about a major project and give them more trust and confidence in you versus you have no idea what's happening. And then you also don't burn out your Google Ads budget because they're not searching for your name and they see your phone number. And even though your things like, you know, get $500 off a roof or something, you know, our free storm estimate, and they click to call you and say, where's my permit at? I need to change my appointment time. You know, all those things, you keeping them up to date and the other thing too that people don't think about. And again, just being honest people, we're in that age of instant gratification. Now make sure that you tell them to save your phone number. So when they call in, you say, listen, Jessica, I want you to save this number. So if you need anything, you need to get a hold of me, you have any questions, need to change your appointment, you don't even have to search for my number. It's in your phone. Okay, when your estimator, again, point reminder, saving, save this number. Whether you text them, you don't email them, save the number. When the estimator is in their home, they should say, jessica, can I have your phone real quick? And you send them, you put that phone number in their phone. So that way if they didn't do it those other times. Now if it's an insurance question, where's my job at permit, whatever? Say I want you to make sure you have my number. So that way if you ever have any questions, you can contact me. And if you can't get a hold of me, I'm saving the office phone number in here as well. So all you have to do is search in, you know, Big John's roofing, you know, and there's Big John's Roofing and it comes up and then there's Jessica, who's the estimator whatever that looks like. Make it as easy as possible for people to do business with you.

That's a great golden nugget. People will do what you instruct them to do.

You.

But if you don't give them the instruction, they're not just going to like magically go, hey, I should maybe save that number, right? That was, that was a great little golden nugget right there. Just. That's. That's one that I haven't heard very often. I'm aware of it, but I haven't heard too many people use it. And they should definitely, because I do it personally, anytime I come into contact with somebody that, hey, maybe I'd like to work with you as a coaching client or maybe your vendor partner or maybe a relationship I want to keep. I'm like, hey, let's exchange numbers. Let me text you. Here's my. What's your number? And I shoot them off a text and I say, okay, I put my name on there so you can save it. Shoot me one back with your name and everything so I can save yours. And that way every time that call comes up, it's that person. I know who that person is. And I can also get back in touch with them directly instead of trying to figure it out through, hey, do I have that person's email? Or any of that kind of stuff.

And if you make it about them, you're incentivizing them to do what you're instructing them to do. Because as we talked about earlier, they have to scroll through all the Google local services, then all the Google Ads, then the map pack, which might have ads, and they eventually might find your name and your number. Especially if they're on a mobile device, everybody's going through a while, so they're just going to click on what's top, and the top might be click to call ad. They might even just go to your website because they're trying to scroll through all that stuff. Especially if people are bidding on your name in Google Ads.

You had another golden nugget in there too about get the referral. Our job as salespeople out there in the world is, hey, we want to. Want to get more than just one while we're here. And we use this tool, it's called get the Referral. It's a way for us to communicate with you. And if I do a great job, I hope to get some referrals from you at the end. So you'll get text messages and stuff like that here. Download the app. They download the app on their phone and you communicate with them back and forth, creating this amazing customer experience. I couldn't agree with you more on that one. Like your reputation and this. You can tell when somebody has good customer experience. Experience because you literally say it out loud to yourself. You're like, wow, I wasn't expecting that.

Right, absolutely.

And that's your goal with every customer, is to get them to say, wow, I wasn't expecting that.

Yeah. And get the referral is great, especially if you don't have the infrastructure to make sure that you're sending out those messages or updating certain things in certain places so that it's not necessarily as personalized, but again, it's keeping them updated up to date. And if you don't have that infrastructure, you don't have someone you know who can do that. Follow up in your office and make sure everything's working. Get the referral is the one that I personally would recommend. Podium is my other favorite one. I know you've heard me talk about them before. And that one, you can be very personalized with it. So you can actually send them pictures through it that's specific to them. Hey, this is the job starting this morning. This is the materials loaded. You can go through all those things and attach specific pictures at every point, follow up with different things, you know, from a sales standpoint. And both of them at the end still give you that opportunity to get referrals. The other thing that I do like about Podium is you can also do outbound messaging. So get the referral is they've signed up and you follow them all the way through. With Podium, let's say, and let's be honest, you're not going to close every deal. There's going to be a percentage. You're going to say no, there's going to be. Because it's not the right fit for them. Whatever or whatever the issue was there, and I'm not saying it's them or you or anybody, there's going to be a percentage that say yes. And then there's that middle bar. Like, they're not red light, they're not green light, they're kind of yellow. They're just going slow. You can use that podium platform to send them an SMS message, basically a text message, you know, I have a picture, whatever, and it can give an update. Hey, thank you so much for meeting with, you know, with whoever, with John. Can you please, you know, or not. Can you please. We're going to give you an extra $500 off if you sign for Them the month, you know, some of these little things. Then send them. Also social proof, kind of going back to what you post on Facebook and Google my business. Hey, this is, you know, Bob down the street who got, you know, got his new roof and it was able to make it financially possible because of this great financing thing we did. Bob would never been able to have this roof. We didn't come up to him. Hey, here's Mary. She's going to school full time. She's working, she's got kids, they're in school and they've got sports. And we were able to keep her in the loop every step of the way. So that way she didn't have to, you know, whatever, miss work, you know, for all these things, we were able to meet with her virtually and get the job done. Hey, this is. I don't know. I'm coming up. I'm terrible. Coming up. Names.

Yeah. But it's, it's this idea of having extreme customer service and showing it. Yeah. And we have this approach and we teach a lot of our clients this, that the only call you should ever get from your client is the one asking for an appointment and the one praising and thanking you for doing such a good job. That's the only two calls you should be able.

Yes, absolutely.

Every other call should come from you or text or email should come from you. And if you haven't put a customer service person into your business, you should immediately. They will return the highest return on investment of any decision you make going into 2022. We help people with how to do that at our strategy conference and we've had some. So many people that come to our strategy conference, we implement that thing. Their sales go through the roof, their reviews go through the roof, their referrals through the Facebook groups and stuff like that go through the roof. Because they're just on top of it.

Yeah, absolutely. Because a lot of times, and I'm not going to say names because we all know them on this call, they focus on sales training for the salespeople. But having a customer service team and giving them the sales training is the most. Is absolutely the best thing you can do for your business. Even if you did absolutely nothing this year for marketing, period, hands down. But creating that good customer service like answering with a smile because you can hear a smile and sounding happy and be able to run through a call quick and following up with your customers and giving them a great experience, that is the way you are going to build your business, no matter what comes in. Because you're building that reputation, that expectation, from the minute that phone is answered. And that really is where your sale starts. It is not with your estimator. It is with your customer service team.

Yeah, we're super excited to, like, let people know about some of the new things with customer service and how, number one, they more than pay for themselves just in the referrals that they're able to obtain that your sales guy didn't ask for. That should have. Right. And the other thing is the collection side of things, how fast money gets paid because somebody's in communication with them. They've been in communication with them throughout the whole thing. When you increase your velocity, increase your. Increase your profit, it's pretty amazing stuff.

You can even pay now or collect payments, too, where you can do that through podium where they can. So like you said, I'm that guy. That sales guy run a collective check. He wants to sell another roof. You know, your crew chief might not feel comfortable, whatever that is, but you can actually literally just text them, you know, hey, here's the link. Shows the invoice, everything on there. You know, a customer service person can call, but again, you can get that paid over text. And you'll probably spend not only save the money on driving around on gas, collecting checks, and your sales guy can do more sales because you're paying, What, a whopping $3 for a bank transfer instead of driving across town. That's an extra hour of his time that he could be selling for your business.

Well, gas prices are out of control right now, so I'm trying to save on that as much as possible. So I think we kind of covered the fifth one. Like, we talked about reputation, how important that is, and we just kind of covered the whole solid customer experience. Right. Like that being the fifth one. Is that. Or is there more that you like to share?

I feel like we basically. I mean, really, it's about reputation, customer experience, showing that proof. And don't be afraid to show that proof in other places. Like I said, some people are really afraid of sending a text message. And guess what? Your customers are a lot more comfortable with getting a text message, and they're a lot more likely to open it up than they are in email because I don't know what you guys, but I have, like, tons of junk that comes through. And it's frustrating because you're trying to figure out what's important, what's not. And text message. Short, sweet, simple. And again, that's the opportunity to close those sitting out there, those yellow light people show that social proof, like, hey, because they might not be just being honest following your Facebook page, they may not be following your Google my business page. But you show those things on how you help those customers, you know, and you ask them for, you know, to make a decision, give them an incentive, but you've shown them why they should. Here is a real life human being example. You know how we came to bat for these people. Don't be afraid of that.

And even texting them something that they can download, like, hey, click there. Download this. This may help you solve your problem that we found that our other customers have used this tool. Maybe it's the three things you should look for in considering a contractor to pick the best contractor for them, whether it's us or somebody else. But it should help you find the best contractor for you. Well, of course they're going to choose you. You send it to them. Right?

Absolutely.

Those are good ways to go in between the hey, thanks for calling us to. Here's the offer right in between. Give them something valuable that they go, that was cool. I didn't get that from anybody else. So, okay, that kind of covers those five strategies like we should be thinking about now going into next year. Give me three, like just cool marketing things that you have seen contractors do that might not be the thing we see. Like, of course we see all the, hey, let me get you 30 leads from Facebook every single month.

Right?

Like, we all know that. Like, seriously, if somebody sends me that, it's immediate, I delete it. But give me three things that might be different that you guys can help with or do that maybe others don't.

I am highly confident that most contractors are not using text campaigns, outbound texting. And I can tell you I ran one for a customer that was. Or a client of ours that was a little nervous, but he's been with us since 2008 and they had a 24% response rate. Wow, that is really high, huh? Yeah. And you know how much it cost them? I think it cost maybe $150 and they're one they sent out.

It's part of our strategy for next year. It's like, okay, texting is what. That's what I look at. I literally got a text just before I got on with you from somebody trying to sell me something. And I was polite with them. I answered it. I wouldn't like if I got the email delete or not even look at. Right.

Yeah. And again, I mean, this is not someone who was offering a killer deal. There was no Discount. It was just, hey, we know you need this service. Don't forget to schedule it.

What's the best way for them to get those cell numbers and those like, I know they're a customer, we get it that way. But what about those ones that you talk about that are in between? You know, they're kind of yellow.

Well, they're in yellow. They contacted you. So the best thing you can do is create an opt in process. So you can do an opt in process through when you're collecting their information. And they don't have all these things in all the places. So you can send an outbound one, like saying, would you like to opt in to people? Like, let's say you download leads from Facebook or Home Advisor. Those are not text compliant. Like you have to actually ask them if you want to opt in. Now if you do it through your website, you're sending traffic to your website, they fill out a form, they contact your office, it's on a recorded call, hey, can I, you know, opt you in for this and give you. And you could say anything like, hey, this is a way for us to keep you up to date should you choose to use us again. Give them a reason to opt in. You could get offered, you know, and you can also get referrals. Or we'll pay you for those referrals. And then they're gonna.

We usually suggest something along the lines, hey, can we add you to our discount list?

Yeah, but you have to also think too, depending on the type of contractors not everyone has, you know, depending on what type of business you are, there's gonna have a discount. You know, you've got a guy who, you know, let's say they do H Vac. You know, they're probably. If it's a repair, there's gonna be a service call. So there may not be a discount because they still have to find a way to make that money, you know, and it's also an immediate need. If I'm in Florida, which I am, and my AC goes out, I'm not necessarily looking for the discount. I'm looking for the fastest service. So again and again, building back to.

That customer experience, you hit something. So knowing what your business is and what it does and how it does it is how you tailor that. So if I'm an H VAC company, I might say something different. Different. Can I add you to our priority list so we can get out there sooner?

Yes. So that's one. Storms are great ones like, hey, can we add you to the list? So if you, if there's a storm in your area next year, we can put you on a list and you can get prioritized scheduling. So if you're an area where, you know, hails like this, you know, or there's a hurricane, I'm just saying, like western states, mid Midwest, not Florida, we have it like this, but they all pretend like it's this.

Right? So text is one. What else we got?

Well, I was gonna say one other way to opt in too is you can ask them when they review you and when they make a payment, they pay you via text. So those are other ways and those are the ones you want to ask for referral. So you can tag them. So you understand this is the yellow light people. These are the people that have already paid me. So you can basically segment them. The other thing I would recommend, and I know everybody when I say this, contractors do this, but you don't have to spend all your budget on Google Ads because if they don't know what's really different about you and they can't see that, you know, it's, you're basically just bidding on price. And I, you know, you're gonna be one of three. Better be one of three. When they're searching for you and they know something about you, your cost per lead will go down. So focus on things that really show and tell your story. That's not a billboard driving by for seven seconds is not going to tell me what's spectacular about you. Print piece. If you're a custom deck company and you've got a hundred thousand dollar deck, yes, that could work. But if you're a roofer, you know, it depends, you know, you don't get.

Excited about a picture of a roof out there.

I mean, I do because I love roofing, but everyone else does. You know what I mean? They might not think, okay, well, Susie got one down the street and it was free, but now my insurance might go up. You have to think that there's a lot more going on in someone's mind than just someone down the street got it for free. You don't, you have to think about where they're at. You know, things like TV and radio can and do work when you focus on your reputation and why they should choose you. And that's.

Aren't those outrageously expensive?

No. Which is crazy that everyone says that to me because I'll see contractors that spend an ungodly amount of money on SEO, on Google Ads, on Facebook ads, and then they're just one of somebody they have nothing that really separates them from anyone else. They're all like, I can give you that free storm estimate. I can do whatever. I'm going to give you great service. Everyone expects those things from you. But all of a sudden, when you're telling your story, you're showing your work and the cost to reach a actual target audience, with the exception of radio. Because unless you're doing Pandora or something like that, you can't guarantee the audience because your radio rep is basing any data they're giving you off of 500 people in their market, if you're lucky. So versus TV, you're measuring one in every two homes with an Experian household match. So there's no BS about their income or their homeownership status, period. Okay. Same with ott. Depending on your provider. I'm going to just be very clear about that.

Isn't that a song ott? What is ott?

What is over the top? So that could be. So you. I highly recommend placing either through Hulu Direct or through Premium. Premium is my favorite because although Hulu can have similar prices to Premium, it doesn't have all the same type of attribution that Premium has. So if you are a brick and mortar shop, so where you want people to come and look at your showcase room, you have solar, you have kitchens, you can see that foot traffic as well as people that saw you're out on TV came to your website and then how they got there, do they, you know, see you're out on TV and then go to you organically? I mean, your SEO guys doing a good job and your TV's working right? You know, do they show up in your store? We can do all of that through Premium. And the cost per thousand is typically a lot less than what you're looking at for Facebook, which, by the way, does not in any way shape or form. I guess I'm really. I guess I'm really passionate about a lot of things. Does not have homeownership that is verified. It says interest next to it. Yeah, interest does not mean I own something. I am interested in remodeling my bathroom and I plan on doing it in 2022, but it does not mean I'm doing it today. And it doesn't mean that I'm a homeowner because I could be looking at my apartment, dream shopping and looking at whatever content I want online. Because let's be honest, we all look at stuff that we're not buying today. It might be rifles, because you're going Hunting it might be, homie. I don't know what you have with rifles. I don't hunt, I just shoot. But it could be, you know, a car you're looking at. It could be a vacation or a destination. It's grabbing that information and showing it on Facebook as an interest. It does not mean you have a purchase intention. It does not mean you have that income. It is all inferred. It's like, we think because she's looking at a Ferrari, she must have a lot of money. We think she's a homeowner because she's looking at kitchen stuff. Okay. So you look at that and then how many people you can reach and that. The attention span. Am I just, you know. Yeah. So there's a lot that goes into it, and that's a whole conversation for now.

For those of you listening on audio, she was just, like, scanning through her phone and swiping to the side there. Hey, Jessica, this has been awful. There's so much. And you're going to be at the strategy conference. You're going to be hanging out. You're going to hop in on our calls. You're going to work with some of our clients. That's super cool to have you involved. What is the one thing that you're most passionate about for a contractor to do with their marketing? What's the number one thing?

I know this is going to sound insane, but it's invest in your customer service. Because even if you don't have the best marketing strategy, you can still make it a lot more effective if you have a great customer service plan and a great customer service strategy.

You speak in my language. Like, seriously, your marketing might not be great. We might as well take advantage of every opportunity you've got and maximize that opportunity. Well done. Well done. If anybody wanted to get a hold of you, how would they do?

So visit my website, Kill your competition today. I try to make it as long and difficult as possible, so I'm going to say it again slowly. Kill your competition dot today, not dot com. And you can actually text us there because I practice what I preach. You can call us or you can fill out a form. You can even email us. And my actual direct cell phone is on there as well.

Sweet. Thank you for being here today, Jessica. Thank you for helping our contractors here on contractor radio. Really appreciate having on board today.

Thanks for having me. It was great. Thanks, Jim.

All right, awesome. So that was Jessica Reina from kill your competition. That website again is killyourcompetition today, which I love. That she used that, that ending on hers. It should make it more memorable for you. Should be one of those things. You're like, oh yeah, that dot today company. And so there was a lot of golden nuggets there today. Reputation is paramount, Customer service, Google my business and the importance of that. And I see more and more that and really understanding how Google my business works and how much you need to put there to actually draw attention and work with Google's algorithms. And most of all, developing a strategy that works for you. Your budget and the abilities and skills of your team is the most important thing you need to do. And you can do that this year. Still, you got just enough time to sign up. The Contractor Strategy conference starts on November 18th. We will take last minute signups, you will get all kinds of assets and stuff that are mailed to you, but we can get them to you digitally as well. And then we're all going to gather for two days. We're going to do two days online. So it's November 18th and December 2nd online. And then the 8th and 9th of December, we're going to gather here in New Braunfels, Texas, which is right between Austin, San Antonio, really cool town in the hill country of Texas. And we are going to work together to help you guys put together your mission for 2022. Exactly what you're going to do, how you're going to do it, how you're going to measure it, how you're going to be accountable to it, to actually execute for the coming year so that we can help you blow your business up in a way that doesn't create a bunch of chaos, that it's manageable and that you find that financial freedom that you were chasing whenever you started your business. Thanks for being with us here today on Contractor Radio. I hope you learned something. I hope you found it educational, a little entertaining. And we will see you on the next episode of Contractor Radio.