The Hole Hogz Case Study

Hey everybody, how are you today? Welcome to our Lunch and Learn, and Vanessa's here with me.

Awesome.

Here we go.

Hey guys.

We're talking about success with Mailbox Power, the Whole Hogs story. And I know the name sounds funny, but Whole Hogs is the name of a business and they dig holes. So today they used a winning automation. That send out 3 touches. And that's what we want to talk about today. We want to expose that. But first, we want to know what you're having for lunch. I know, same thing. I'm a foodie. I need to know what you're eating for lunch today. Anybody having tacos? I'm hoping somebody's having tacos. It would be nice if somebody was having tacos.

It's not Taco Tuesday though.

Yeah, but it's Taco Wednesday.

Well.

It doesn't flow just exactly right, does it?

No, no, no.

All right.

No, it doesn't flow. Okay, guys, what are you? Chicken with— oh, my favorite, Bob. Chicken with wild rice soup. I love it.

On a cold day.

Or on a hot day. I'll eat chicken soup any day.

Any day of the week. Nachos are nuts. Nachos here.

I'm having nachos.

Okay, Helen, I'm down with that. I'm down with that, especially with my chicken.

Now, if someone just posts something about berries, we'll have all of my food groups Covered.

Maybe, maybe. Ah yeah, yeah, yeah.

Burger King. I haven't heard about Burger King in years.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wow.

Yes, Bob, I'm with you any day, anytime. Chicken soup, chicken with wild rice soup. So there's a restaurant nearby. Oh, rotisserie chicken sandwich. Yes, yes, yes. Sounds good. There's a restaurant nearby, then they have chicken soup. And anytime I'm not feeling like, or anytime, whether I'm feeling well or not, I am all about their chicken soup. I love it. And it's a Mexican restaurant, so it's got a little Mexican flair to it. And they put avocado in it. Yeah.

Yeah.

Love to have that. Now, now Laura's having something I can't even pronounce. Fruta de bosque. No, I'm not really sure what that is.

There you go. Fruita de bosque salad with blue cheese.

But there's blue cheese involved, so I'm interested.

I'm all about that. Yeah. And then chocolate ganache protein bar and coffee. Tell me where you got the chocolate ganache protein bar. And chicken Parmesan. You guys are having some good lunches today.

Heck yeah. Well, we ready to get going?

And here I sit with my ginger tea, Joe.

I get it.

I get it.

Look, I got— I have a bottle of water. Okay, so I'm hydrating. At least I'm hydrating. All is well. There you go.

All right. All right. Let's get going. I know that a lot of people ask us about case studies, Joe. And one of the things that we're excited to bring today is the Whole Hog story. So let's dig right in.

All right. Let's do it. Here we go.

Yep.

That's their logo. Whole Hogs. Pretty cool, huh? They dig holes. That's their deal. So let's talk about Whole Hogs and what they did. So they actually do hydro-excavation. So kind of, it's a, it's a new way to dig holes. They use high-pressure water and a big hose that sucks up all the dirt and the rocks. And there's not men out there with, or women, with the picks and shovels and jackhammers digging a hole, which could potentially damage water lines, electrical lines, all that kind of stuff. And this hydro-excavation makes it easier and less damaging when they're digging holes.

Wow.

So it's kind of a new service. And these machines were rather expensive. But that's what he does. And he was trying to break into the marketplace and he had really didn't have many customers for this new business. And basically said, hey, Mailbox Power, I've heard you guys make people's phones ring and I need new customers and here's what I do. So here we are. And what he did, well, Whole Hog's target customer is contractors, people that need holes dug, I guess. That makes a lot of sense, right? Got to find the customer base. And he used the contractor state license board website to find the top 20 potential customers along with their addresses, because that's what those state licensing boards do. They actually provide you all that information. And I think this is interesting because we're helping a customer prospect new customers that they didn't even know. And the success of this was pretty wild. And I can't wait to share it all with y'all. But Whole Hogs did not previously know any of these prospects, not a one of them.

Right.

So from the Contractors Board is where they found this stuff. And we helped them get new business from just those names. And then Whole Hog sent an automation to their target market. And Vanessa, you want to talk about that, what that even means, just to make sure everybody understands what we're talking about when we use the word automation?

Absolutely. So an automation is either a card or a series of cards and gifts that you can send that automatically goes out once you load up your list of people that you want to send to. So it's a really simple and efficient way to get a message out to a group of people all at the same time. And we have a lot of people that send automations. It's one of our— I would say one of the hallmarks that really makes us stand apart from anybody else in the marketplace, Joe, is our ability to send an automation, or some people call them campaigns, but it's a series of marketing touches to people. that we can personalize from the card to the gift to everything in between. So it's really, really been effective. And I know for Whole Hogs, it was incredibly effective.

Yes, it was. It's been effective for me as well. And quite a few others to be able to use these types of automations that reach out and touch somebody over a series of packages, right? And it can be cards, postcards, and packages could be all the above. But, you know, typically when I get into this, I'm ready to spend some money and get somebody's attention. And that's exactly what Whole Hogs did. They said, I'm ready to spend some money and get some people's attention. And we helped them do that. So, and of course, last but not least, MailboxPower helped make Whole Hogs' phone ring. And we did a darn good job of that. So let's explore. Vanessa, you want to go through shipment number 1?

Yes. Shipment number 1 was a custom box. And you might be wondering what in the world that is. We have a Rather card-sized box, basically, that people can customize the entire lid of that box. They, in this case, they put their logo on there with first name, which we always focus on personalizing everything that you possibly can because that makes the recipient feel incredibly special. So first name, or in this case, if it was Joe, it would say, Joe, stop digging holes. Which is going to get Joe's attention. So a custom box, you'll notice that the 5x7 greeting card right next to that also has the person's name on it. That's what we call that first name where you see the first name bracket bracket or bracket bracket first name bracket bracket. That is where the— we are using— that's what we call a merge field. And it's where our system can look at your contact database and put Someone's first name or their last name or a bunch of other things in there, depending on how you want to personalize these messages. So on this, Whole Hogs used the first name merge field. When, uh, we're ready when you are. In this case, it would say, we're ready when you are, Joe.

Yep.

Awesome. And again, that's going to capture someone's attention. And then they did a 2-pack of personalized brownies and a laser engraved— again, this is with the person's name— a laser engraved foldable phone holder. And you might wonder, like, what that has to do with anything, but I'll tell you, it was a genius thing because that foldable phone holder is one of the most useful things that, that we have in our arsenal of gifts to send.

Yeah, absolutely. And I, I'm just going to ask all of you in the audience right now, if you received this box and this package, would you open it? Number one. And would you read the card and would you eat the brownies and would you use the gift that showed up? Yeah, that's what I thought. You don't even have to answer. Yeah, you don't even have to answer. I totally get it. So now let's go in and let's go to this next slide, Vanessa. And let's see how tricky this copy is that they wrote.

Yeah. So this is— Joe, can you just go back one slide? I just want to point out the price. The price for each of these was $29.17 and they sent it out to 20 recipients. So they were willing to invest and they knew that personalizing a box, personalizing a card, personalizing 2 brownies and the phone holder, all of those things are personalized for less than $30 per touch for these people. So that was a pretty— it's a substantial investment in terms of if you had to send that to thousands and thousands of people. They had 20 people, so they were willing to go in a little bit on this, but Wait until you see the payoff.

Cool stuff. Okay, here we go. So the inside of the— this is it. This is the inside of the greeting card and what's going on. I'm gonna make this really full screen for you so you can kind of see. But Vanessa, do you want to read that?

Do you want the Our Services or the personalized message?

The personalized message. Yeah.

Okay. So on the left of this card, they have Our Services and they have the things Not just what they do, but the benefits of what they do on the left side of the card, which I think is genius to use that space wisely. And then it's, hey, first name, or in our case, hey, Joe.

Yep.

We know how customers want to be treated, which is why we thought we would send you a treat and check to see if you're looking for a trusted specialist when it comes to digging holes. Now, keep in mind, the average person probably isn't wanting to dig a hole, right? But their target market was contractors, and that's the list they're sending to. So this message is going to ring true with the contractor that they're sending to. So, are you looking for a trusted specialist? These genius, genius marketing copy here. When it comes to digging holes at Hole Hogs, we want to make things easy for you. That's why we provide emergency services. Straightforward pricing and quality workmanship, and would love the opportunity to help you. Call us 24/7 at phone number and we'll be at your service. And then they put their Whole Hog's logo on there. I think it's incredibly, incredibly effective, obviously, Joe, to speak directly to their target market in a language that they understand, offering services that they're looking for. I mean, that's a win-win.

It really is. I love everything about this. It's simple, easy to read. The copy is not tricky. It's just right there. There's a call to action. Call us 24/7. Here's the phone number. We will be at your service. Now, the next component that I'm going to share, you see down on the bottom right, it says scan this code with your phone for a special offer. And it happens to go to a video. And I want everybody to see I want to expose this whole automation for you. I want you to see every single piece of what happened so you can understand why did these prospective customers pick up the phone and make a call. And I believe it was for several reasons. But number one, had they ever received a gift like this from somebody who was trying to get their business? Probably not. Probably got invited to lunch and had a few lunches, that kind of thing. But did they ever, you know, have something like this happen where somebody really went, wow, you know, they sent me all this? But, you know, the video, I think, is another component that we all need to pay attention to because it is a component that really explains what Whole Hogs does. So if you're ready, I'm going to push play.

Yeah.

Are you still digging with picks and shovels? That's a way of the past. My name is Robert and I'm with Hole Hogs and we want to dig your holes. Here at Hole Hogs, we use hydro-excavating to get down to the depth that you need. We have a comparison video here showing you about hand digging and hydro-excavating, and man, at the end you're gonna see Why you should be hydro-excavating. They're using picks, shovels, and jackhammers to get through this tough soil. They're taking approximately 8 hours to dig the same hole that the hydro-excavator was able to do in an hour and a half. As you can see, the hydro-excavator is cutting through the soil with no problems. It'll get you done in a quarter of the time. With your burdening and your hourly rate comes to approximately $700 for the day, and hydro-excavator is able to do it for $550. You get $150 savings. I know, why am I not digging your holes right now? Let's start saving you money. We talked about the money we could save. Now let's talk about the time. Let's say you have multiple holes that you can dig in a day, or let's say you had back-to-back digs that you scheduled one on Monday, one on Wednesday, and one on Friday. What happens if you could get all those jobs done in one day? Hole Hogs can make that happen for you. We can dig all those holes You could be making all those repairs all in the same day. Let's talk about your risk. Hydro-excavation is able to dig and leave all utilities intact. Your work comp claims— what work comp claims with the hydro-excavation? We did all the digging. No backbreaking work. Your technicians' bodies are still able to work longer and harder throughout the day. When Whole Hogs completes the excavation, We leave new Type 2 on the side of the hole. No more backfilling with your caliche or your big rocks that are going to damage the pipes in the future. Now you got a clean fill to fill that hole. We want to dig your holes. Spot repairs, trenches, post holes, sign holes. We'll dig any hole you got. You got a remote location that's going to be hard to reach? Well, we have an extension hose where we can get up to 150 feet from the truck. Hole Hogs wants your business. We got an offer here today that you won't be able to refuse. We're gonna dig your first hole for cost. We want you to give us a chance. Call us, email us, get a hold of us to dig those holes for you. Once you see the results, you'll see the Hole Hog advantage.

Okay, Vanessa, um, pretty fun, right?

That's pretty impressive, Joe. And what I love about it is, again, he's speaking to contractors. First of all, when we go back to the fact that you said something about contractors probably being taken to lunch and things like that, I'm guessing that doesn't happen very often in their profession.

You're probably right.

So I think getting a personalized gift like that as a contractor, I'm just guessing. I don't know a lot of contractors, but I think that getting a personalized gift like that and then clicking on that QR code with the phone, which everyone's doing these days, is able to pull up your phone camera and click on a QR code and be able to watch that video and see the real guy, the owner talking about his service, talking about the benefits, talking about the advantages of using Whole Hogs. I think it's a no-brainer for anybody looking for that type of thing.

I agree. I loved all the basic information. And, you know, they were speaking a language I didn't even understand. I'm like, Type 2 what? Type 2? Okay, got it. Caliche? Oh, I remember when I was building a pool. That's big rocks that they— I was just gonna say, I know these terms from building a pool.

But yes, that's the kind of thing. And yes, not having to fill your hole back in with what you dug out of there, all the rocks that you had to haul out of there and things like that, is really beneficial. So I love the service, but more than anything, I love the fact that he was willing to put himself out there and, uh, and do a video that talked about his business.

Yeah, me too, me too. Really put himself out there and thought he did a great job. So you ready to see what shipment number 2 was? All right, here we go. Shipment number 2. Now, as you can see, the price went up. $58.77 for shipment number 2. So this was a custom box. And again, stop digging holes. The greeting card, as you can see, it says, we don't play games, first name. So if this were going to Vanessa, we don't play games, Vanessa. And there's some poker chips on the front of it kind of representing the game. There were 2 blondies in this one, a different treat. And then of course, it's a poker set with dice and cards. So it's referencing— I just love a gift that has a marketing message associated with it. We don't play games, right? But let's dig into this just a little bit further because I want to see what the card says and what's going on here. So here's the greeting card. And I'm going to read to you, you know, what this greeting card says. So it says, hey, first name, we hope you got our last gift. We wanted to let you know that— we wanted to let you know digging holes isn't a game to us. But with this personalized poker set, you'll be all set to play. At Hole Hogs, we want to make, we want to make things easy for you. That's why we provide emergency service, straight work per pricing, and quality workmanship and would Love the opportunity to help you. And again, a call to action. And again, the QR code, the same video, but there's a QR code. That QR code stays there. You know, what if somebody didn't get shipment number 1 or for whatever reason ended up on somebody else's desk? At least they're continuing the messaging throughout. And I think this is an awesome, awesome, you know, second stab at this thing. And that poker set, That thing is significant. I mean, it's got weight to it. The chips are clay. They're not cheap plastic. It's leather. It has the name of, you know, the recipient engraved right on it. They're gonna keep it forever. And they're gonna remember where they got it from Whole Hogs. So I just love this touch and how it worked out, you know, how it worked out. And I can't wait to share the results with all of the— from all of this, because we still have one more touch or one more shipment. What do you think, Vanessa?

I think it's amazing. I'm really excited about everything that Whole Hogs is doing and the fact that they are consistent. Now remember, guys, I know some of you might think, oh, they should have put a different video on here. Why? Why wouldn't they just use what they know works, which is the video that they have? And keep in mind, they're now hitting people who may not have scanned the first video the first time, and now they're going to scan it and see this. I think it's really, really well done. Really impressive.

Yep, I agree. All right, on to shipment number 3. Here we go.

Shipment number 3, again, price per prospect $49.63. So that's again up there a bit, but keep in mind they are only sending to 20 people, so they're willing to invest in their marketing. This is their marketing budget. They're sending out a custom box, the same one that they were sending before, the 5x7 greeting card, keep us in your thoughts, Joe. A 5-pack of the Megabyte cookies and a laser engraved suede journal and pen set. Why are they willing to do this? First of all, as a contractor, you're forever— I know this from working with contractors— you're forever making little notes here and there. So I love the fact that they thought about what a contractor needs and they sent the laser engraved journal with the pen. And what an impressive gift that is, also an incredibly useful gift if you're a contractor. You're always looking to write little things down, and this is a great place to keep it all together. Keep all those little notes to yourself and notes about the job site and things like that. So they're thinking about their target market. They're thinking about what they would find useful. They also know, hey, who doesn't love a little treat, a little snack?

Oh yeah, no doubt. Contractors love them, I can tell you that.

Yeah.

And you know, this, I just, just, this screams to me that, you know, the contractor who's willing to spend the money to get the attention is going to get the jobs. They're going to get the work. And when you see what the results were, you're going to go, oh, well, that's a no-brainer. I'd trade that money all day for that money.

Yeah, definitely.

So yeah, I love this. I think it's an amazing, you know, third shipment and it's the final shipment, but let's take a look. Here's the greeting card. So, hey, first name, we truly would love to work with you and do what makes Whole Hogs so unique. Please enjoy this personalized journal and pen to easily help keep us in your thoughts. Simple. And the same message. At Whole Hogs, we want to make things easy for you. That's why we provide emergency services, straightforward pricing, and quality workmanship, and would love the opportunity to help you. Again, call to action. Call us. Be at your service. QR code's still there. A picture of the truck, the equipment that's going to be used. And you must be too busy digging your own holes. Sorry we missed you. You must be too busy digging your own holes. You know, such a simple business, but so high-tech now. You know, no longer is it just shovels and picks. It's this truck and water. And I love it. Love, love, love it.

Love it.

All right, moving right along. Let's just see what happened. So total spent, $137.57 per prospect, per prospect. But look at the numbers, $1.2 million in new recurring annual business. Now, folks, I mean, you want to do the math. I don't know why I didn't do the math, the total investment.

I didn't. Yeah. $2,750, $1,400.

$2,700 is basically the entire investment and the return, $1.2 million. And look at the next things here. This came from only 4 customers. And I'm here to tell you that Robert, the owner of this business, he can barely give me the time of day right now because He doesn't have time with these 4 new customers. He's had to buy a new truck. He hasn't followed up with the other 16 yet. There are 16 people he hasn't even followed up with. These were the 4 that just picked up the phone and called him and said, I need you today.

Yeah.

And tomorrow and next month and next month and next month.

Yep, absolutely. So, and that last thing, that last point, Whole Hog started receiving phone calls from the first touch, which is pretty impressive. And like Joe said, they're so busy right now. They're so incredibly busy from So investing less than $3,000, and again, this is their marketing budget, right? They're not advertising in other places. We ask them just shift over your marketing budget and go all in on this and see what the results are. $1.2 million. Who wouldn't spend $3,000 to get $1.2 million in business? That is what a great deal. What a great deal that is.

I know. Oh, I'd invest that every day to get that on that return all day long. So for sure. So yeah, this was just amazing. When I stop and stare at this, you know what it did for his business and how he's had to respond by buying a new— those trucks, they're not cheap. I mean, they're just shy of a million bucks for one of these dang things. And I'm like, wow, okay. You better be out digging some holes, as he said, right? Why am I not digging your holes? I just love it.

Yes.

Love, love the message. But, and, you know, this is from the lips of Robert. So, we spent just over $2,000 on a targeted prospecting campaign that resulted in us needing to purchase another truck, hire more staff, and pause accepting new customers to avoid being too busy, if that's even a term in business. The mailbox truly does work.

So, great.

I don't know what more we could say.

Yeah, great story. So, I think the point of this, Joe, and the point of sharing case studies and stories like this is to give people ideas on how they can use this type of thing in their own business, right? So if you are looking at Whole Hogs is well aware of who their target market was, they knew exactly who they were going after. They know exactly what they do. They know why they're, what sets them apart from other businesses in their space. So they have all those questions answered. And that's what you need to do for yourself, for your business, is do you know exactly who your perfect customer is? You may get other customers that don't fit that perfect, what we call the avatar, the customer avatar. You may get other customers that don't perfectly fit that, but who is your perfect customer? And that's who you need to speak to. And you notice that Whole Hog's Use terminology that contractors understand. They didn't try to explain what that was to people because their target market and their perfect customer already understands their vernacular. So they didn't have to go into what that means, and they didn't waste their time doing that. But they created a very straightforward video of the owner of the company in front of the truck talking about what makes them different and gave examples and showed some What we call B-roll video or some video of them in action doing what they do best. That is incredibly effective. They didn't hire a huge marketing team to come up with some incredible video or campaign for them. They just said, what is it that we do? Who needs us the most? And then they put that together.

That's exactly right. And I want everybody to think about the alternative. What was the alternative that Robert had with this business? Well, he could have hired probably an ad agency to go out and create a website and then go out and buy the traffic to drive to this website, which they wouldn't have probably narrowed it down. How would you have even gotten those 20 people to take a look?

Right.

In a digital world, how would that have worked? Would an email have worked? Well, with an average open rate of 11%, I'm going to say, well, that would mean 1.1 person or no, half a person would have opened you know, the email out of the 20. And I just look at, you know, what's possible here. And I'm never saying don't use digital marketing. But what I am saying is there's a time and a place for the mailbox to be used. And this is one of those absolutely perfect times and perfect places to use Mailbox Power to gain new business. It's a specific niche market with a specific product. And if you have a name and a phone number that are a name and an address that you can get, You don't even need the phone number. You just need the name and the address because clearly he got the attention of the right people and hasn't even followed up with 16 of them. And I just look at this and go, bam, in business. Let's go.

Bam. Yeah, he absolutely hit it out of the park with that. And I am sure we know, Joe, because we've heard other stories similar to this that we'll be sharing over the next few months. But we know that a lot of people are having great success using Mailbox Power to connect with their customers, warm market or cold market. So I think that it's a, it's a great thing to implement in your business if you don't already have some sort of, uh, automation going on. If you don't already have some way of connecting with your customers, then take it, take a page out of this Whole Hog's book and watch what happens to your business as a result of that.

That is true. Now I have to expose one problem before we sign off today. And are you ready for this? And Vanessa, you know what this problem is when I say this. Do you know what one of my biggest problems is? People won't tell me what their— they won't share their successes with MailboxPower because they're afraid their competitors are going to use the same information.

Well.

It's so crazy that I, you know, I know these people are having success and I call them. They're like, you know, I'm just not willing to do that. I don't want my Yeah.

What?

I need your help though.

Right. In the case of Hole Hogs, they have limited competition. I mean, they have lots of people dig holes, but they don't have to use hydro, whatever it is, to dig the holes. Right. So they're not hydro excavation. They're not able to do that. So, so they, and they are willing to share their story because they have more business than they can handle right now. And so, I would encourage you to talk to your customers, to talk to people and get these success stories out there because we are in a mindset of abundance rather than scarcity. And when you start sharing these stories and telling people how they can gain more customers, you'll never have to worry about, oh, they might grab a customer from me. No.

Exactly.

Your target market and your perfect customer is yours for the taking if you're willing to do something to get them.

That's exactly right. And of course, at Mailbox Power, we teach you how to create relationships so you keep your customers. You don't have to worry about them looking elsewhere. I mean, that's the real deal, right? It's not just acquiring new customers. It's keeping them, creating relationships with them, and nurturing those relationships over a long period of time. Because we know that relationships don't cheat on you. They don't leave you. And we know transactions do. And that's kind of, that's just it. So, all right. Any last words, Vanessa, before we cut this thing off?

I was watching the chat. Happy anniversary, 53rd anniversary, Jay Clark. Woohoo!

Nice, nice.

Wow. We love to celebrate people like you. That is fantastic. That's what we're all about here at Mailbox Power is celebrating people for being people. And whether it's your anniversary or birthday, any success story, we're here to celebrate and shine the light on that.

Yep, absolutely. All right. Well, thank you, everybody. Thank you for being here today. We appreciate you. If you're a current customer of Mailbox Power, Thank you. We appreciate you very much. We hope you're having huge success. And for the rest of you, if you're not a customer of MailboxPower, we welcome you with open arms. We'd love to see you. We'd love to make your phone ring. We would love to help you with your customer relationships, your customer experience, retaining the existing customers that you have. That's what we do. I want to make your phone ring. So anyway, we'd love to hear from you. Have a great day, and we'll see you next Wednesday. Bye-bye.

Bye.