Agency Success Interview with Mark Petree from Limo Marketer

Hey, this is Joshua Nelson with the 7 Figure Agency, and I'm super excited on today's episode to be interviewing Mark Petrie of Limo Marketer. Uh, on this interview, he shares some amazing insights on how he grew his agency from $26,000 a month to over $50,000 per month in recurring over the last 12 months. He also shares how he was able to make a pivot from chasing prospects down to having prospects and clients come to him pre-positioned to buy. I really love this interview. I know you're gonna get great value and insight from it, so check it out. Mark, thanks so much for joining us.

Yeah, no, it's great to be here, Josh. I'm glad I could do this.

Fantastic. So before we dive in, you know, I know you a little bit and kinda have a sense of your background and what you're up to, kind of where you're at, but kind of give us a high-level overview of your agency, like in terms of how many clients, how much recurring revenue, kind of how you got started in this business in the first place.

Sure, so I got started, um, at the end of 2015. I, um, I'd been doing marketing at that point, like Google Ads, for a company that was like an audiovisual company And so I found the best way to grow that business was through online marketing. So doing SEO, which I didn't do personally, but I did the Google Ads, all the pay-per-click. And so I was with that company for 9 years and it was kind of— I just knew it wasn't really going anywhere. I knew I needed to change. And so I knew I could do pay-per-click and I knew I could cold call. So that's what I did. I just picked up the phone and I started calling on companies that, you know, when I inspected like their website, and you can just tell when you check out the ads if they know what they're doing, right? And so I just started calling on those companies. I think within 2 or 3 weeks I got my first client. And as anyone knows, when you get that first client, you see what's possible, right? You're like, okay, this is doable. And so, um, so yeah, uh, so fast forward, um, it's been what now, probably a little over 3 years, 3 years and 4 months. I went full-time in April, uh, because I was still at my other job part-time. So I went full-time in April of 2016. And so, um, so today I'm at, I think around 64, 65 clients. I'm at about 56 50, 60 grand in recurring revenue. So I only offer pay-per-click. I don't do any SEO. I don't get into websites. I don't really do any of that. Aside from that, you know, I do like retargeting. For some of my clients, I've been offering like a follow-up system. I pretty much white-labeled ActiveCampaign to kind of help my clients close more of the leads by having, you know, an automated follow-up system. And so, um, yeah, initially I grew my business by cold calling, but, um, I discovered about, you know, 8, 9 months ago, uh, you know, Josh, and, um, you know, learned a ton from him about positioning and becoming the kind of authority, almost mini celebrity in your little niche. And I'm finding out, you know, how powerful that can be. It takes time, you know, it doesn't happen right away, but cold calling is like you get that immediate, you know, gratification, but it's much harder to scale. And so I've just found that inbound marketing that I'm doing now to be really effective.

That's awesome. So, so like 9 years basically learning the, learning the ins and the outs of pay-per-click, right, at this audiovisual company. Deciding you want to go out on your own, starting your own thing, pounding the phones, and now starting to get to the place where you got some momentum because the clients are coming in. Throw some thumbs up if you're pretty excited about kind of going to $56K in monthly recurring. That's awesome, man. Congratulations.

Thank you.

Can you talk a little bit about the types of companies that you serve?

Oh, sure. I didn't mention that. Yeah, so I just work with the transportation industry right now, so limousine companies, companies that rent party buses, large charter buses, motor coaches. So I really just say transportation industry now because I work with all different types of companies. But, um, yeah, transportation or limo would be kind of the niche I'm in.

Sweet. And everybody wants to know like two things, you know. First of all, how did you wind up in that as your niche? So we'll talk a little bit about that in a second. And the other is, you know, this $56K only pay-per-click, which is like a great model, um, do you include your budget in that or is your fee plus PPC kind of on top of that?

Um, so, um, the $56K, that does not include that. So my clients spend the ad spend separately. So that's just in, uh, that's just in the agency fees. And how I got in the niche was Actually, one of my best friends at the time that I was living with, he did SEO. And so he had a limo client that he said was spending like $8,000 a month in pay-per-click. And this is actually really, I guess, what gave me the idea. He said he's spending $8,000 a month and he just isn't sure how good of an ROI he's getting. So I looked at his campaign. I was like, this is insane that he's spending this much money because I just, you know, if you know anything about pay-per-click, you know, search term report was a mess. He wasn't tracking conversions and the only reason I think he didn't realize how dire his situation was, was because his SEO was on point. So he was number one in his market, he owned multiple websites and so he was getting a ton of leads, he just didn't know that a lot of those leads were coming from SEO and his ROI on pay-per-click I'm sure was horrible. So I redid his whole account. I spent probably the most time I've ever spent on an account on his and I got him down to probably $3,000 or $3,500 in ad spend because that's all his market could really handle with relevant searches. And then yeah, his lead volume probably more than doubled or tripled. And so like he was insanely happy, he's still a client today. And so I was thinking, okay, if this guy's got such a horrible campaign, most of these transportation companies I'm guessing have horrible campaigns. And of course, pretty much all companies, like generally speaking, their campaigns can be massively improved. Either the landing page, you know, the conversion rate on the landing page or just their you know, their pay-per-click campaign itself.

Nice. So you found a problem, you solved it, and you were like, wait a minute, there, you know, this guy's having this issue, there's probably an issue in this industry. And that's kind of the basic premise of business, right? Find a problem that you can solve, solve it, and then go out and market it to others, right?

That's it, exactly.

That's awesome. Well, congratulations. You know, obviously you've kind of broken into that space. We'll talk more about what you're doing to land clients and position yourself. But I guess where I'd like to start is, I think you and I started working together about, um, at the beginning of the year, and obviously there was a problem you were looking to solve. Can you talk a little bit about like where you were at, what challenges you were facing?

Uh, yeah, sure. So, um, I actually heard about you from my, uh, track opportunity.

Stages. Sorry about that, had something— go ahead.

No worries. Uh, I had actually heard about you from my same friend I used to live with, the guy who did SEO, and he was like, have you checked out this Josh guy? Like, he's everywhere. And so I started following you, and you know, again, retargeted and everything. I'm like, dude, this guy is just like everywhere, and he's totally got his marketing on point. And, uh, at the time I was kind of looking for something to join. I think it's always important to be a part of some sort of training, right? Some sort of group, because you get the motivation and just the mindset and everything from that. And so at the time, I had just started working with a, a JV partner for like probably 2 months or so, and he brought me a ton of clients. Um, I didn't really structure the deal very well because I just didn't see what I was bringing to the table, and I was so excited to have like a source of new clients coming in that, you know, he got a pretty sweet deal. But look, I brought on a lot of clients from it, so I'm happy it happened because it also gave me, you know, gave me a little more authority in the industry since I was associating with him. And so I still think it was completely worth it. I wouldn't change anything. Um, but when I found you, I just wanted to really learn more about how you went about positioning yourself and really having kind of a game plan on what I needed to implement to, you know, you know, reach your level of positioning, which I knew wasn't going to happen overnight, but I just was looking for some sort of a roadmap, so to speak.

Okay, so it was kind of like you were in this place where you had, you had some massive momentum from the JV, but a lot of your business was directly related to that JV and/or the cold sale outreach that you'd done in the past. And kind of what you were looking to solve for was, how do I position myself and kind of get my own business coming in? Is that fair to say?

Yeah, exactly. Because before the JV, all, all I did was outreach at that point and, and cold calling. I wasn't actually doing it. I had some appointment setters and What I found, the reason, which there's no problem with outreach, I don't actually do a lot of it. I'd like to start doing it again, but I was doing outreach without any sort of retargeting. I wasn't doing any sort of— I didn't have any assets in place that could be doing some of the work for me, so to speak, like videos they could be watching. I found that's just huge these days. A lot of the people I talk to now, they're like, oh, you know, I've seen a bunch of your videos. Where before, when I was just cold calling, it would be me myself on the phone educating them, having several talks. And each client, I don't even know how much time each client took, but some signed up right away, but a lot of them took lots and lots of follow-up. And I was just like, doing it this way is not scalable. Right? Because obviously you only have so much time in the day. And so I went from that to what— when I had this JV, the sales calls, you know, they pretty much sign up right away, right? And it was just like, you know, something clicked and I'm like, this is what I want. And so then I was like, all right, I really need to learn how to market my own business, which is pretty ironic, right? Because help other people market their businesses, but I've been learning, you know, in the past 8, 9 months how to market my own business.

No doubt. And as marketers, digital marketing agency owners, we get so fixated on serving our clients like you did the first transportation client you got, like really going deep, rolling up the sleeves. What's wrong with this campaign? Why doesn't this convert? How do we make it work? And that's where you have to start, but it's hard to shift and kind of like, how do I market myself as the agency owner? How do I grow my business? And so it's great that you made that transition. I guess before we dive into what you changed, I'd like to know, like, what would have been the outcome or the impact if you hadn't made a change? If you had just like kept your strategy like it was, like, how do you think that would have impacted your business and the ability for the business to grow?

So I was getting to the point And I think a lot of companies, once you get to a certain level of clients, you've got churn, right? And so really, to continue growing, you have to be— let's say if you're at 60 clients, I've noticed my average churn rate is like 5% a month or so, so far this year. So I lose about on average 3 clients a month or so. And so to continue growing at, let's say, you know, $4,000 or $5,000 a month in recurring revenue, then you have to be bringing on maybe 8 or 10 clients a month. And the more clients you get, you know, the higher that churn goes, you know, which is in turn you need, you know, more, more leads coming in, more all of that. And so I think, I think I would have been pretty frustrated at this point just because it is so much work just doing all outbound. And it's just a grind really, you know, and it's just not the best way to do it. And I almost wish, you know, I'm glad I went all through that. I don't regret anything, but if there's one thing I've learned, like investing in yourself, investing in education, it's literally the best investment you will ever make, right? Learning from guys like you, because it can really accelerate you.

No doubt. Yeah, no doubt. And, and 100%, I've always done the same. I've always— even right now, I'm in a bunch of groups and learn from a lot of the, the top leaders. So that's really the most powerful thing you can do, is find, find people that are doing what you want to accomplish or have solved something that you're trying to solve and align with them so you can shortcut the process significantly. So awesome. So, all right, so you made some changes and you've had some massive momentum. Can you talk a little bit about like the top 3 things that you changed in your agency to kind of get the momentum that you're getting now?

Sure. So I actually didn't go to a lot of events. Okay, so I would say the number 1 most important thing, we'll start at number 1, would be creating content, participating in Facebook groups, and just starting to get that content out there, posting it on my fan page, on my personal page, You know, I'm in some Facebook groups where they let me post the content and just consistently posting it. You know, right now I post about 4 days a week, I believe, but I'd like to get that to 7 days a week. I just need to find the content I can fill in on those other days. But I would say that's probably the, probably the most important thing I've done, which has really helped everything else start working. So to speak. So that would be number 1. Number 2, just going to industry events and talking to people, just showing your face. A lot of these business owners, they still want to meet, you know, especially my larger clients. They want to meet face to face and know who they're working with. So that helps out a lot. What else? You know, just setting up, you know, I never had any sort of funnels in place before, so I've got, you know, a couple case study lead magnets I've been using that have been working out really well. Just the exact funnel you teach, you know, lead magnet to thanks for downloading this resource. Hey, if you're like most transportation company owners, you like to be in the know. Like, I've memorized it now. Because I've said it so many times.

That's awesome.

It's pretty much a copy of what you said.

That's exactly it. That's great.

Yeah, yeah. So, uh, that funnel has been working great and, uh, it's been keeping me busy.

Fantastic. So the top 3 things you're saying is, you know, just being, you know, very present in the marketplace, putting out content, positioning yourself as the expert, getting out in the real world at these industry events and association meetings. I've seen a lot of pictures of you doing that. And then just making sure you've got a dialed-in funnel so that all that content leads them somewhere where they can get on your calendar, you can take them through a sales process and get a yes or a no at the end of the day.

Yep, exactly.

Can you talk about— because, and if you look Mark up, you'll see, you'll see he's doing lots of great video content. You'll probably get some additional pixels now, people in your retargeting sphere. But, um, can you talk about how you come up with the content for these videos? 'Cause it seems like you're putting out great things about specifically like how they can dial in their AdWords and things like that. Can you just share a little bit on that front where you're coming up with the ideas?

Yeah, so how I come up with the ideas is I keep a running log of questions that I get from my clients or from even, you know, people like I'm on a sales call with. And so I'm constantly, I have just, I think it's like a Google Sheet I use whenever I hear like a question that I think would make an interesting video, I just put it on this Google Sheet. I've probably got another 100. The funny thing is a lot of the questions have the same answers, but if they're different questions, you know, you don't want to overthink the content. That was like, I was like, oh, I don't want to be putting out like this video is kind of like this one. I don't think about that anymore. Because many times not everyone's watching every video and you're the only one who really knows everything you put out. And you just think people know everything you've done. They don't and they don't care, you know.

So such a great point, right? You mean as the person creating the content, you feel like it has to be completely unique from one to the next. The reality is probably 1% of the eyeballs that saw your stuff would even recognize that. So, you know, iterate even if it's just an incremental change, it's a valuable piece of content that you're putting out. So that's a salient point.

Yeah, and really more than anything, it's just like a mindset shift. I used to have a little fear of like creating videos and putting them on Facebook, and it's just something that you have to get past because really, if you want to achieve a certain level of success, you got to get attention. You know, that's the name of the game. If no one knows who you are, you know, how do you position yourself as any sort of authority? And so just putting yourself out there. And yeah, my videos are probably better than when they first were. I'm still getting better and better. Like, now I can do like one-take shoots and whatever. But yeah, in the beginning there, it was just like, you know, I'm making a video, I'm like sweating, I'm like, I can't believe I'm gonna upload this, taking several takes. And finally, I realized it doesn't have to look perfect, you know. If you're providing good content, you care a lot more than anyone else that's watching the video does, right?

No doubt. Yeah, the perfection is the enemy of execution, and especially as it relates to video, we always think, oh man, I got to get the lights right, my hair has to be right, the audio needs to be right. And if you're thinking all that stuff, it creates friction and you don't create the content. You'd much better serve, create, you know, not perfect content on a consistent basis than to wait for perfection. So kudos, kudos to you for kind of breaking through that mental barrier, getting the content done. I recognize that you made a couple of shifts over the last couple, I guess over the last year or so. One was, you know, a name change from like ClickProfits to Limo Marketer. And then a kind of a positioning change where instead of posting from your personal profile, you created a, uh, like a brand profile for Mark Petrie. Can you talk a little bit about what the thought process behind that was and how that's working for you?

Yeah, so, um, I changed— I did have a generalist agency called Clicks Profit up until like 4 or 5 months ago, and I switched it over to Limo Marketer 4 months ago. It's really hard for me to say, and maybe it hasn't been that long, whether that is going to matter at all because people, they don't remember Limo Marketer. I talk to a lot of people, they're like, "Oh, Limo Marketing," or they think it's some other name, or Click— they say the names wrong all the time. But who do they always remember? They remember Mark Petrie. Yeah. And so I found people just, it's hard, people don't connect as much with brands. I mean, you know this, they connect with people. And so, you know, all the big guys out there, you usually don't see them, you know, doing like, for instance, when I do Facebook ads, I run it from Mark Petrie. I don't run it from Limo Marketer. So it's hard to say. I've never tried running the ads from Limo Marketer, but—

I definitely recommend doing it from your personal profile. Yeah, I mean, not from your personal brand profile.

Um, yeah, no, that's— when I was talking to my JV, he was like, oh, I don't think you should rebrand as The Little Marketer. I think, you know, because people, they connect. And he very well might have been right. I don't know how much it actually helped or not. It's, it's too soon to say. But you know what, in 3 years, um, you know, if you want to get to a certain size, it can't just be You can't just be the guy, right? But you are still the face of Plumber SEO and so—

No doubt.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, I did a video about this a couple weeks ago. Kind of the generalist, expert, celebrity expert, kind of the hierarchy of authority. People aren't going to attach to a brand, they're going to attach to the person and they'll pay premium dollar to deal with the individual that's most known as the expert in their space. And so by putting yourself out as the face of the company with all of the marketing that you're doing, you're creating that celebrity status in your niche.

Exactly, and that's really the key.

So as you created this brand profile under Mark Petrie, can you talk a little bit about the strategy behind that and how it plays into what you're doing in the Facebook groups and how you're building your audiences?

Yeah, so, Gotta give a shout out to Josh Wheeler. He helped out with this. So he suggested like 4 months ago, he said, what you want to do is you want to start building up like a retargeting audience with videos. And he said how you do that is, you know, turn your personal page into a fan page, which I think every one of your friends already gives you an automatic like. So you start out with like, I had 1,400 friends, so I had 1,400 likes. And I think they all automatically follow your brand page as well. And so he said, what you do is, you know, you upload videos to your fan page and then you share them into the different channels. Like, you know, I'm in several Facebook groups. I started my own Facebook group. Great idea, by the way. It's finally gaining some traction. And so I share the videos into that. And so, and I've been, you know, doing pretty much 4 videos, I believe about 4 videos every week for the past few months. And so I've got, I think the audience like 2,100 or so have watched at least like 3 seconds of the video. And so I've been using that audience, retargeting those people in my like Facebook ads. And so that's That's helped a ton, I know. So I'm glad I did that.

Yeah, so in comments, I'd love to hear like, what are your thoughts about that strategy? Is that something you can implement? It really is a game changer because if you as a company, let's say Plumber SEO created content and then tried to share it into industry groups, it looks tacky, right? It looks like, why is Plumber SEO posting this? Whereas if Joshua Nelson's profile page starts posting into those groups It looks like Joshua Nelson, a member of the group, is posting out there or is sharing content. It's a lot more acceptable. And so by doing that, not only are you getting eyeballs on your stuff, but you're creating custom audiences that you can advertise on Facebook to, and for very low cost, be like, kind of develop that omnipresence in your top prospects world. So great, great share, great share, Mark. So that was the content creation piece. You know, don't let it get lost on you that Mark is creating content, like he's creating videos. You said 4 times per week is the target?

Yeah, so that's, uh, I realized a while ago, I'm like, creating 4 unique videos a week, that's going to take me forever. So what I actually started doing is 2 of the videos a week, I just offer free website reviews. And the funny thing is I pretty much say the same thing every time. The recommendations are very similar, but I just posted in a few of these groups. I'm like, hey, who would like their website reviewed? I'm going to post it on here, I'll tag you. And I've just got like— so that's 2 videos a week. They take me like 5 minutes each to shoot. So typically one day every month I'll shoot, you know, I guess that's 8, 8 of those videos a month. And it takes me, you know, maybe an hour to do it. And then I do 1 testimonial a week, and then I do just 1 like education whiteboard video a week. So that's kind of what I've been doing right now, and I'm thinking about possibly on that 5th day going with your strategy where, you know, cut up a webinar. I'm still using your guide, by the way, and then maybe posting one of those videos, you know, each day of the week.

I love that. Thanks for sharing that. That kind of simplifies it. It goes from like, man, I'm only going to do 5 videos to Hey, I mean, I can find a couple people that are willing to let me review their website and come up with one unique piece of content to record. The testimonial piece, is that like a live interview with the prospect, or can you talk about what that means?

Yeah, so, um, so I've got a couple different types. I do have some live interviews, uh, with, uh, with prospects, and this is actually something that I just started doing a month ago that I wish I would have been doing a long time ago because I realized really what's moving the needle for me is these case studies. Like, people always bring them up on my— hey, I watched your video with so-and-so. Wow, yeah, that was pretty, you know— well, you saw the one with Nev, that was probably the best video I've ever shot.

Yeah, that was amazing. I loved it. I was like cheering out of the group. I mean, look guys, you need to do more of this type of stuff, right?

Yeah. Yeah, he had quite the story, but yeah, what I wish I had been doing from the very start of my business was as soon as they say, "Let's do this, you know, let's sign me up," I say, "Okay, but first I have to say this, you know, the lifeblood of my business is referrals, and so I'm going to, you know, try my hardest to get you really insane results." But I would ask you this, at the end of 3 months, if you think I've done what I said I would do and you are impressed with the results, I would ask you to do one of two things. Either give me 3 referrals or do a video testimonial for me. And everyone, I used to think people would like be scared, no, no.

I really— Like, I don't know.

I would love to, exactly, because The more of those you have, I mean, that's probably the biggest asset you can— if you have 30, 40 testimonial videos, I mean, and all people in your niche, you know, there's, there's nothing better than that. Plus it gives you like new lead magnet ideas, right?

So 100% and amazing share, guys. Thumbs up if you like that idea, you know, post to Mark, thanks so much for sharing. Right, how easy is that at the beginning to plant the seed? I'm going to give 110%. If I do what I promise over the next 3 months, will you do one of these 2 things, right? 3 referrals or testimonial video, right? Um, and how many, how many of them have followed through on that for you at this point?

Oh, well, so I just— I knew I should have implemented this long.

All right, so you're just kind of getting to that level.

Yeah, yeah, we even talked about this at one of the mastermind events. I think I was talking to Nicholas, I think is his name.

And yeah, he's with us as well. He's on the call. What's up, Nicholas?

Shout out, Nicholas. Yeah, I wish I would have taken that and done that 4 or 5 months ago. I just never implemented it. But it's kind of like, again, when I look back at what I've done wrong in the past, it's really short-term thinking. Now I've noticed like everything I've been doing recently I'm like, okay, this isn't going to help me right now, but 3 months from now, 6 months from now, like, you know, it could really start making a difference. And so, but I already have like a dozen or more of those testimonial videos. I actually called my clients, the ones who had gotten outstanding results, and, you know, asked them for one. And, you know, a lot of them agreed to do it, but it's just like pulling teeth, you know. They say they'll do it and then you have to remind them like 20 times. And so I really think this is going to work the best because I'm guessing they will remember, oh yeah, shit, I did say I would do— so I think it'll work. Um, so, um, yeah, so I'm excited about that.

Absolutely. Great, great play. And if you want to see some examples of that, I believe 100% these case study videos like this are the most interesting to prospects because it's more about their industry than it is about Some piece of education. The most influential because you're not just saying you can get a result, you're showing, hey look, this is somebody I work with, this is the result they've got, and you know, this has been their experience. So look, look Mark up and you can see some of those. Also, if you go to plumbingmarketing.net, you know, that's where we kind of aggregate all of those types of testimonials for plumbing and HVAC SEO. And just simplify it for yourself. Have like a 5 or 6 questions that you've thought out in advance. And either send it to them in advance, get them on a Zoom session kind of like what we're doing here, and record it. And now you've got video, you've got audio, you could do a podcast out of it, and it helps to create the content in that positioning value. So amazing share.

Um, yeah, one last thing. I think, uh, I think in the future I'm going to try to do all of them as interview style because Whenever they're shooting a testimonial, I've had a few that I'm like, eh, it's, you know, not the greatest testimonial because really you want to establish, okay, where were you at before we started working together? You know, you want to create that separation, right, where they had their, you know, former situation, you know, in pain, company not growing, and then what was the transition like, and then talking about that desired situation. And they don't always do that when they just shoot it on their cell phone. They're like, oh, Mark's done a great job. He helps us with our marketing, thanks. That's not as powerful as like, hey, I was like, I was really struggling and I thought I might be going out of business, which not all stories are that dire, but, and then look at where I'm at today. That's really, the story is, is the power. It's not like them just saying some words, which I actually had a client literally read off the screen, "Hey, I've been working with Mark for—" I'm like, I can't use that.

So anyway, look up the, look up the debut interview that Mark did, and that's like the perfect story of here's the problem, here's where I was stuck, and you know, Mark saved my life, and now here's where I'm at today, right? That's exactly, exactly what you want, and you can kind of You won't always get it, but you can engineer your questions in a way that kind of lead to that type of, um, story, right, Mark? Exactly.

Yeah, I just talked with a guy yesterday who had watched a few testimonial videos. He was like, yeah, you know, uh, those videos were, uh, you know, they were good. But he was like, I didn't really, um, it seemed like you were just like asking them for a favor and like, you know, they weren't Like really, whereas that Nebu video, you can really see, you know, the honesty there, right? Because people are very— even of video testimonials, people are skeptical of those, you know. And so really telling a story, you know, people engage more in that than just, uh, oh hey, Mark's done a great job for us. Well, what does it even mean, you know? Because I found, you know, in our industry we all talk, okay, how much are you doing a month? But I don't know what it is, if it's just the limo industry, or— I don't think it is, but these guys, they don't like talking about numbers. It's like pulling teeth, it seems anyways. Or maybe that's just my perception, and so maybe I'm weird about asking it and then they're weird about telling me. I don't know what it is exactly.

It could be they hold their numbers close to the vest, you know. But, you know, some of them, some of them can and some of them will. Um, Nicholas Chavez, thanks for having, you know, being on here. He says, happy to hear that you're using the language for my contract, that our conversation was useful. So he appreciates that. Um, Dean's asking, so are you posting the limo page and the Mark Petrie page and then boosting any of the posts? Um, my understanding is you post on Mark Petrie and that's the play, the, the, the brand, not the personal profile, and then you share out everywhere you want it to be so you can collect that audience. Is that right?

Exactly. So if you post on your personal profile and share from there, you can't build an audience. So you have to upload the video to your fan page and share it from there into all of the other channels. And so that's, that's how you build that audience. Yeah.

And okay, so Dean, let us know if that answered that question for you. Sean says, sounds like you stopped thinking of business in a transactional model and started thinking long-term, and that's a game change move.

Yeah, no, exactly. It's that instant gratification. I'm trying to get away from that because it's not as— I can see long-term I'll be able to scale much quicker when I start implementing these things. They take time and they suck building out, like the Infusionsoft thing, which fortunately I got help George Diaz has been a great help with that, but George, in the group, a massive headache, man, because there's just so many things you need to have just right. And but once it's all built out and the work's done, then it's just like sending traffic to that page in any way you can. So absolutely.

So, um, okay, so we'll ask— we'll answer one more question on this and we'll keep going forward. But Dean's asking, what channels do you share to? So you record it and upload it onto the Mark Petrie brand page Where do you share it from there?

So I share it to my personal page. I share it— I'm a part of, uh, I own a Facebook group that has about 400 members.

You get up to 400 already? That's killer.

Yeah, well, I've got a VA who goes in every morning and she's adding people from other groups and then trying to move them over to that group. That's been a help. By the way, I'm not posting any of these videos myself. I hired a VA who does this every morning.

The only way to do it, guys.

Yeah, the way to do it. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, so I'm sharing from my fan page to my personal, two different Facebook groups, and then I'm also posting every single video on LinkedIn as well. So nice.

So talk to me about that strategy for the VA going into groups and adding them into, into your group. Are they just friend requesting as you, and then once they say yes, inviting them to the group?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I'm pretty sure she's covered all the groups I'm in, but yeah, what she was doing is she's going through these limo groups, adding them as friends, and then once they accept the request, she moves them over into the Limo Marketing Mastermind group.

Love it. And she's doing that obviously as Mark Petrie, right?

She's logged in as you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's got my own personal— it's kind of weird, a VA having your own, but It is what it is, man. I really only use Facebook for business, you know.

So this is the secret to do it, guys. If— I mean, you can't do this yourself, right? You have to get VAs, and there's all kinds of people that can do this, whether they're stateside or international, and they can be the ones interacting as you in groups, you know, doing comment chats and all kinds of things to build your audience and to grow the group. Um, that's, that's a cool share to build your own, build your own group a little bit quicker. Um, so does that— I think, Dean, that must answer that, that question there. Are you also then taking the video, putting it on your blog, or are you keeping it just in the Facebook and LinkedIn sphere?

No, so that's— I haven't even really gotten into posting the videos on my blog. And to, you know, I have been posting them to YouTube. I'm building that channel, but I haven't even started doing that, which I know that's like the next thing I need to start building out. Once I have the Facebook thing in place, then to the next thing, right?

All it is is like another set of instructions, right? They take your YouTube video, embed it on a page, have it transcribed through otter.ai, and then you've got a post as well, which is getting SEO juice to it. So let's talk about that after and how to get that leverage, that one more.

I'm sure you have the instructions for that. Yeah, I'll hook you up with that.

That's awesome. Okay, so we've got the content piece down. Right, so this is what's positioning you as the expert, building your audience, warming these people up so they're like, oh man, Mark is the celebrity that knows what he's doing, so they come into your funnel. Let's talk a little bit about number 2, which was getting involved in these industry events. What do you mean by that? Can you talk about kind of how you're tapping into it?

Yeah, so there's a couple diff— there's one major event every year, it's in Vegas, it's called LCT, I think it's in March. And so I've been just going there every year. And actually, what I found that worked really well this past year, and I discovered it by accident, is one of my clients was there. And, um, so, so we met up and it was his first time there. I told him he had never been before. I was like, dude, there's great networking here, you should really go. And so he loved it. And so, uh, I actually was just walking around with him and I didn't ask him to like start telling people about me. But he was like, hey, who are you? You know, and so we were walking around and he was like, hey, who are you choosing for? He's like, dude, this guy's been killing it for me. I'm like, okay. And so towards the end, I was walking around with like a group of my clients and they were, they were kind of like helping me get cards and whatever. So, uh, so that was pretty cool. I didn't even have a booth, which I plan on doing a booth at this next one. Um, I wish I would have done one at this last one because I don't think there was one marketing company there.

That's it. That's a big opportunity. So at this point, I know that strategy worked well for you in that case. For all the other events you've been going to, it's you're just hanging out like one of the guys, and ideally a client kind of grabs you by the shoulder and starts introducing you to all their buddies as the, as the secret weapon that's growing their business.

Yeah, so, uh, I've been at two events that I got to speak at. That was when I was kind of doing more, uh, we're not like on bad terms, but we just haven't been working together like we were. We were doing a weekly podcast, me and that JV, and so he's just got a lot of other opportunities on his plate. So I think it just wasn't even worth it for him anymore. But, um, yeah, I mean, if you can speak on stage, I mean, there's nothing better than that.

No doubt, no doubt. So I mean, this is one of the keys to your success, right? Just the being at the industry events, being face to face with people. You know, a lot of us, we want to stay behind our computer and be inside the office, but really those, those elbow-to-elbow interactions are powerful. And you leverage it in a nice way too, because you take pictures of yourself at the event, you put it up in your Facebook page and in the group. And so it kind of, it paints you as not just somebody that claims to be in the inside, but you're actually showing it because you're out there in the, in the world with these guys at their events and stuff.

No, exactly. Yeah, one of my clients even mentioned that in his video testimonial. He's like, Mark's been going to all the industry events. He's been at this one, at this one, this one. And so that just kind of made it real for me how big of a deal that was. One other thing I noticed when I go to these events is people will just walk up to me and be like, oh hey, you're Mark, I watch your videos. And the funny thing is the videos don't get that many likes, and not hardly any comments. And so you think no one's watching them, but lots of people are watching them. You just don't know it. And so more than I ever thought.

And so that's pretty cool, developing that celebrity status in the, in the group, right? I mean, that's, that's super powerful celebrity. So that, that's number 2. All of you guys, if you're not part of an association, going to the events, seeking opportunities to speak Ideally getting a booth, you're leaving opportunity on the table for sure. And then number 3, it sounded like was the funnel, getting the funnel dialed in. Just kind of talk about that a little bit, like the key funnel pieces that you're using as your lead magnet and how you're getting people onto the strategy session.

Sure. So after I did that interview with my client, nephew, I remember you saying, oh dude, that is probably one of the best case studies I've ever seen. You should use that as your lead magnet. And so I always thought in the back of my mind, I need to create a lead magnet from it. So I finally did, you know, I set up— so it's essentially 3 pages. So the first page they go to is, you know, the download your case study page, right? And the page is actually super simple. I mean, you can see it, it's limomarketer.com/ bnl-case-study, and it's— was that E-M-L? Uh, B-N, like Blue Nile Livery. bnl-case-study, and the page, it's like super, super simple. I actually—

hey, what's up, everyone? I'll share this out in comments as a point of reference.

Thanks for sharing. And so, uh, It's super simple, right? It just has what they'll learn. It has a video of me talking about the case study, and then they hit the button, they leave their email. Then the most important piece is the following. Then it sends them to a page that has a video of me. Hey, you know, if you're like most transportation company owners, you like to be in the know, but at the end of the day, you're looking to partner with someone who can help you grow your business. And then that's where they sign up for the case study, right? And then after they do that, they book a time on Calendly, then it redirects them to a questionnaire which has a video on the page that tells them what they should expect, to please, you know, not miss it. You know, that, you know, I say like, you know, I'm going to respect your business, I hope you can respect mine. And, you know, if you need to reschedule, no problem, please do it 24 hours in advance, you know, be at a computer. If there's anyone else that needs to, you know, if you have any partner in your business, if they need to be on the call, please have them there. And so, so yeah, that's been working pretty well. That's awesome.

And what a share, guys. Please thumbs up. Thanks for sharing. Like, this is, this is great stuff. So, all right, so these are the key 3 things. I'm sure there's been a lot of other things that you've implemented and rolled out. What has been the results and how are things kind of moving as a result of having these 3 things dialed in and moving in a positive direction for you?

Yeah, so I first started doing Facebook ads for my business on June 23rd, and so it's been just over a month and I've landed 12 clients in the past month. So it's been my best 30 days ever. That's amazing. And it's all from Facebook.

Yeah, that's killer. 12 clients in the last month, guys. How many of you guys would love to get that in the last 6 months? You know what I mean? Kudos, well done. And I think the key is a lot of us think, okay, we're gonna run Facebook ads, but how do we get the targeting right? And the key is what he explained there. He's like, correct me if I'm wrong, but the reason it works is because you're putting out content and really these ads are targeting the people that have seen the videos. Am I right about that, or is there some other targeting ninja hack that you've tapped into?

Yeah, so, um, I, uh, just created— so that's— so part of it's the video retargeting that helps a ton, but I also created a custom audience that is pretty much just— I've got like 2,500 or 3,000 emails and contact info for limo companies, and so, um So I created a custom audience with that, didn't do any lookalike or anything like that. And the ads run, it does really well in the first week or two. Of course, since it's such a small audience, frequency goes up, cost per click goes up, ads stop working. So now I'm trying to figure out— so I refresh the lead magnet. So far I've done a case study lead magnet and a webinar. And so my plan is to do 2 campaigns a month, 1 lead magnet, 1 webinar, and so that I'm promoting something pretty much all month long on Facebook. And I honestly don't know how well it's going to keep working. I don't see why it wouldn't. I don't think I can keep using the same lead magnet. I actually tried that. I'm not sure if I did something wrong, but yeah, so I'm going to— I'm rolling out a new lead magnet here in another 3 or 4 days. Just finished the Infusionsoft and So just need some photos, which is another thing I learned why it's so important whenever you're at an industry event, take a million photos because like with Facebook ads, I've found the best photos that have been working are the ones when I'm with my client, especially if they're a well-known person in the industry, right? For obvious reasons, right? It gives you kind of that, uh, that social proof. Yeah, powerful.

I think Josh Wheeler and the other Facebook guys will tell you, yeah, I mean, when your audience is relatively small like that, Facebook fatigue or ad fatigue kicks in pretty quick. So it's smart to rotate those ads every month and/or when you start to see the impression or the click-through rates drop off.

Exactly. And, uh, and yeah, I just, uh, so I don't know how much the copy You know, everything I've read says the copy is super important, and how I generated that is I record all of my sales calls. And the best thing to do is listen to those sales calls, and a lot of these guys have the same story. You know, they're— a lot of them wanting to go from being in the driver's seat, being 24/7. They don't want to grow their business necessarily just for the money. They want to grow it because, you know, they want more time. They want to have more time to spend working, you know, on their business rather than in it. And so that's kind of helped me write, you know, the copy for the ads. Great insight.

That's a great, that's a great shortcut, right? Sales, some real sales conversations play very well in sales scripting. Yeah. All right. So, all right. So, so we've got these, these things we've changed. We've got 12 new clients in the last 30 days and some massive momentum with Facebook ads. What are 3 lessons that you've learned from getting this change that those listening can benefit from?

One is I wish I would have tried Facebook ads a lot sooner. I don't know why I didn't. Well, actually, I do know why I didn't because I was always told that if you have a small audience that Facebook ads just doesn't work. And the truth is There is truth to that, right? Because you can't— it's hard to scale because in my industry there's no, like, interest that I can target. It's just not a big enough industry. So I had to just use a straight custom audience, and I wish I would have tried that out a lot sooner. I wish I would have been creating content for, like, instead of just the past, like, 6 months. I mean, I can't imagine where I'll be, you know, in a few years. You know, just creating content, which I'm guessing— who knows if I'll still be in the industry. I don't know what the future holds. But yeah, just start creating the content. Start that today, right? Because that's really something that takes, you know, it's like a snowball, right? So start doing that, you know, posting from your fan page, those other pages. Give Facebook ads a shot. Try a custom audience if you have a few thousand emails and contacts. I just had a VA scrape, you know, I've actually got a few VAs because it works so well. I'm trying to make that list bigger. So give that a shot. And then really, I've adjusted my sales script a lot recently. I don't get technical at all anymore. My sales calls follow like an exact script. I know it's crazy, but I wasn't doing this like a year ago. I would just wing it. And I would get into a lot of technical details, which I don't get technical at all anymore. It's me asking them questions, you know, me trying to figure out where they're at, where they want to be. More importantly, why do they want to be there? Really trying to flesh out, you know, this is Sales 101, but I wasn't actually doing this. I was kind of figuring out, oh, you know, you're— this could be better. Let me show you this landing page. This could convert better. And you're getting all these irrelevant clicks. And I don't think that ever sold these people. I think really what sold them is just like, okay, this guy sounds like he knows what he's talking about, you know. But I knew like, if I ever wanna hire, my plan is to hire a sales guy, you know, by the end of the year. And I knew to find a sales guy that was as technical as me, first off, I don't need that. And now that I have a script, a ton of recorded calls, I have a formula, And now as specific as I get is typically saying, oh, you just need to have the right people clicking on your ads for the lowest price possible, sending them to a page that's going to turn them from a visitor into a lead. And that's as technical as I get. I don't talk about cost per click or any of this other stuff really, unless they're kind of technical, then I'll throw a little technical stuff in there. I found that's generally, especially because they're pre-sold, right? They know who I am. They know I've got a lot of success stories, and so the sales process is already halfway complete, right? It's kind of like, can they afford it? Powerful, right? Powerful.

Keep it simple, keep it about them, keep it about the examples and case studies, and ask for the business. So those, those are the 3 big things. Uh, you know, give a shout out in comments here if that's useful to kind of hear those lessons that he's learned that have moved the needle so much for him. What other nuggets of wisdom would you share with these, these agencies that are going wherever they're at, they're looking to get to the next level, they're looking to continue to grow? Um, any suggestions or nuggets of wisdom that you want to drop?

Um, so yeah, I think, uh, I think things have changed a lot in the past like 5 or 10 years. Uh, with social media, business and social is like kind of merging, it seems. And so like, I think now for outreach, if I started like being aggressive with outreach again, what I'd do is I'd probably— you got to create the content, right? Be posting on my profile and I'd probably start, you know, just reaching out to people, adding them as friends on Facebook. They can see my profile. So that might be if I was just starting out again, totally, you know, starting from scratch. I know you pretty much have to start with outreach, right? You might not have money for ads and all this other stuff. I would start creating content ASAP. Well, actually, I should say before any of that, you have to be able to get results. The reason I've been able to do this and my churn rate isn't that high is because I get results. I know you guys get results. That's like the most important thing. So you really have to know your craft first, you know. Anyone that says, oh, you know, just jump in— and I get it because you don't want to be on the sidelines too long, but you need to get a little bit of success, you know, before— in my opinion, before you try to go out and get 20 clients. And going in acquiring clients and then outsourcing all the work I know that can work. Me personally, I don't think you should ever outsource your core competency. Right? Yeah. So, um, so yeah, creating content. And, um, in order to create that content, you have to have some sort of competency, right? And then, uh, just reaching out to people on Facebook, getting active socially on LinkedIn, on Facebook, try to figure out where your prospects are and try to start making connections. If they add you as a friend, shoot them a message that says, hey, I help these people, you know, do this. I help, you know, transportation businesses grow using, you know, proven marketing. I don't even say Google Ads anymore typically. I know my last webinar did because I needed a topic, but I try to even avoid saying pay-per-click, Google Ads. I just say I have a proven marketing system because a lot of people already have like a funky taste in their mouth where they've tried something before, and the minute they hear Oh, you do Google Ads? Oh no, that doesn't work. Oh, you do SEO? No, that doesn't work. And so I just have a proven marketing system, you know, um, and that's pretty much it.

So I like that. Powerful, powerful shares. I know that you're a big mindset guy. You're really diligent with your time management. What, um, you know, how much do you feel like mindset has played in your success and your ability to get the kind of momentum that you've gotten over the past year or so?

Yeah, no, that's, that's been like a massive shift for me. You know, I just, certain things I do every morning, you know, I start meditating. If you would have asked me 5 years ago, do you like, I'd be like, what, that's some hippie bullshit, right? And so that, that's, that's helped me a lot because I'm definitely a Type A. I'm like quick to react and And so that's helped a lot. And yeah, just goal setting, you know, I write my goals down every morning because I got to like remind myself, you know, why I do what I do. And the truth is I'm far from perfect. I'm a lot better than I was 6, 8 months ago as far as time management. But there's still days at like, you know, 2 or 3 PM, I'm like, ah, I just, you know, want to go to the gym or something. And so I will. But Yeah, that's, that's been huge for me. Just, you know, all that meditation, goal setting, you know, just reminding myself why I do this. I think it's especially important when you work by yourself. When I used to have an office, part of the reason I got the office was because I knew if I went in and was around other people, that would bring me motivation. But I realized It just didn't fit my business where it's at right now, and, um, and I don't need those people. It's actually almost more of a distraction for me. And so now that I'm working from home, my margins are higher. I actually don't have any full-time employees, um, and, uh, and yeah, I just get so much more done. But I also think if this was me a year ago, you know, working from home You know, I've made a lot of changes mindset-wise that have made me more productive when I am at home. You know, when I'm working, I'm working. So, good stuff.

Well, hey guys, I mean, we're gonna— we're about to wrap up. So if you have any questions, well, I'll look at the comment box here. We'll be sure— it's Mark from the marketer here, and I just finished trying, uh, sorry about that, that started to autoplay. We'll try and address a couple of the questions. Mark, thank you so much for your willingness to share, right? You'll find that world-class people are willing to share what, what's working for them. Um, and, and don't let that be lost on you, right? Mark has just opened the kimono, talked about his niche, talked about what's working for him. You know, share some love in the Facebook group, share some face in the, some love in the, in the comments, and thank Mark for his willingness to do this. And, um, so I'm just going to look at comments. Carl says this has been really helpful. Um, Nicholas says awesome job, Mark and Josh. Uh, great questions, Josh. Very good answers, Mark. Let's see, uh, somebody wants to know about— can you share one of Mark's marketing videos? Yeah, I'll be sure to pop that in, in, uh, in comments. Excellent info. I'm not seeing any, any specific questions. I'm just going to share my screen here real quick.

That's, that's good. I have to go soon anyways. I've got actual sales appointment. I have work to do, guys.

Come on. So we're gonna stop here. Mark, thanks again. If you'd like to hear more interviews like this with highly successful digital marketing agency owners that are growing and scaling, be sure to go to 7figureagency.com, hit the blog section there. We've got a lot of interviews like this with other successful agencies. Also, if you're not already, be sure to join the Local Agency Success Group at 7figureagency.com/group. We'll get you added right away. Mark, I know you got to go. Thanks for your time. We'll talk to you later. Thanks, Josh.

Alright. Thanks, man.

Well, I hope you got value from this session. If you'd like more ideas, strategies, and techniques on how to more effectively grow and scale your digital marketing agency, I'd like to invite you to go to 7figureagency.com. Www.growthagency.com. There you'll find a training series completely free of charge that walks you through how we were able to grow our agency from zero to over $300,000 per month, uh, in less than 7 years, and how we're adding clients on a consistent basis. So we walk you through, you know, the quickest way to position yourself as the expert in a particular market and proven models to get customers coming to you pre-positioned to buy. So if you got value from this and you would like more, you can go to 7figureagency.com. There's a free video series for you there. Just get there, you'll enter your name, your email address, and you'll get access in the next couple of minutes. So thanks for joining us. Go to 7figureagency.com now, and we'll talk to you soon.