We’re already into Episode 15 of the Trades Secret Podcast and we’re loving all these marketing chats. This time around hosts Devon Hayes and Amanda Joyce talk about why 1 marketing channels isn’t enough. We’re coming off of Easter weekend, so let’s talk eggs and baskets.
Throwing all of your money into a single marketing channel is just not smart business. It may seem like a good idea in the moment, but so was that tattoo on Spring Break in ’99.
Spreading the love between channels provides a more consistent and efficient way of spending your valued marketing dollars.
We’re here to shed some light on how to find the best marketing channels for your business and where to start if you don’t have historical data to make an educated decision.
Episode Covers:
- How to make DATA DRIVEN decisions
- The Wash, Rinse, Repeat method of marketing
- Ways to build trust within your community
- Find out where your target audience is and meet them there
Ready for more? Subscribe today so you don’t miss a single trade secret reveal. Also be sure and connect with us on social: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & TikTok.
Send us your questions, comments, feedback, praise! We can’t wait to hear from you!
Transcription:
Amanda:
Hi, I’m Amanda Joyce.
Devon:
And I’m Devon Hayes.
Amanda:
And today’s topic is why you should not focus on a single marketing channel, and here’s why you should care. Investing all of your marketing budget into one single marketing channel is going to produce inconsistent results.
Devon:
Welcome to Trade Secrets, where we demystify digital marketing to help contractors get the most bang for their marketing bucks.
Amanda:
This is for you if you’re a contractor looking for actionable marketing insights.
Devon:
Learn from home services industry experts to elevate your business through simplified marketing strategies.
Amanda:
Let’s dive into today’s trade secret.
Okay. Before we get started, this is yet another topic that came out of the Roofing Success Summit. So we figured it was a good one to revisit, and we feel like this is a common question from contractors, that marketing is not necessarily at the forefront of their mind. And they want to know, okay, where can I just put my money and it’s going to give me leads and I can check out and go back to my job?
Devon:
Yeah, kind of, right? All right, I’ve got a lump sum. Where should I put that money? And that’s kind of the question that was posed to the marketing panel. And while I’m partial to Google, because that’s where customers go to shop or at least vet people out, that’s really not the answer. If you threw all of your money into Google Ads, you wouldn’t get the results that you think you would get from doing that. So that’s not the answer, as much as I love SEO and investing in Google Ads.
Amanda:
Yeah, exactly. And I don’t think the person that posed the question, I don’t think he got the answer he wanted, because he wanted a succinct, easy, put your money here and it’ll be good, and he got a long-winded answer, but it was meaty and a response from everyone on the panel, and it was everyone in agreement that you’ve really got to diversify. Just the way you need to diversify a financial portfolio, you have to diversify your marketing efforts to really get the most bang for your buck and learn what works.
Devon:
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s easy, once you’ve been in business for a while, you probably have a lot of data that you can use to help make those decisions and figure out what your most effective marketing channel was. Maybe it was a home show or maybe you’ve figured out that door knocking is really effective for you. But sometimes as a new business, you don’t have that data to help drive those decisions, and so that’s kind of the discussion we want to have. If you are at a place where you don’t know what your most effective marketing channel has been, this is where we’d start. This is what we would tell you to do and our best advice just from our experience with over 10 years in the industry. Well, not one industry. In the home services space, we should say, specifically.
Amanda:
Exactly. Exactly. And you’ll hear this a lot if you’re reading up on marketing or trying to learn about it, it’s a buzzword, people talk about data-driven decisions, but that’s where it all lies. I mean, marketing, in its essence, is testing, analyzing, refining, and starting over again. Wash, rinse, repeat. So learning from where you have spent money in the past, where you’ve devoted resources. And so if you are leaning on that data, your marketing’s only going to get smarter, just the way you’re probably running things internally where you’re learning, you stumble, you fall, you pick up, you decide we’re not doing it that way anymore, we’ve streamlined things. It’s the same thing with marketing. You’ve just got to put the time in, look at the analytics, and figure out what’s working for you. That’s more top level. But I know we wanted to dive in on how we would tell you if you were asking us this question, I’ve got some money, what am I going to do with it? I feel like invest a good-
Devon:
And you touched on this, was accurate lead attribution kind of comes from that data. Someone on the panel was like, well, look at your CRM and see what zip code are your buyers in, where are they actually coming from? And you can get super targeted that way, which is a smart answer. But again, if you’re just starting or you don’t have a CRM, which you probably want to hop on that, where do you begin? So this is what we came up with. So as my husband’s a contractor, we both work from home. What we know is if you’re selling windows or windows, painters, roofers, landscapers, those tend to be the ones that come to the door, come door knocking, right? I think door knocking is super effective. It’s annoying, but it’s effective. You can quantify how many houses you’ve touched and then you can see how many people convert from that.
But with your door knocking efforts, I know as a woman, I’m not opening the door for an unmarked vehicle in the neighborhood and someone just knocking on my door. So I guess the first thing you’ve got to do that I would suggest, and I think Amanda agrees, kind of talked offline about this, is having a branded shirt, having your truck wrapped. That’s a couple grand, granted, but you want people to trust you and you need them to open the door, because that’s where that’s going to get the appointment set, right? But they’re not going to open the door for a rundown hoopty at 8:00 PM.
Amanda:
Yeah. Exactly. And that’s also, it’s a driving billboard for your company. I mean, then every neighborhood you’re in, everywhere you’re touching, as long as you’re not driving like a jerk on the highway, you’re going to be spreading your brand messaging around the community that you’re already in. So it’s a really smart place to start A, to make people open their door for you, but B, to let people know, I’m here, I’m working in your neighborhood. I’m one of your neighbors.
Devon:
Yeah, absolutely. You can trust me. You can look me up on the BBB. Make sure you sign up for that, because that is you conveying trust to them. I think it’s pretty inexpensive per year. But if you can get Google guaranteed, that’s another trust logo. Another way to impart, hey, I’m not going to fly by night and take off. I’m insured. I’m licensed. You can trust me. And going back to the truck wrap or a van wrap, what is it? It’s eight touches. You need eight touches for somebody to remember you. And so seeing your van around town or parked in the neighborhood as you door knock, that’s not a bad thing. They see your van, then they get the flyer, maybe they get a direct thing in the mail, maybe you’re geo-targeting, and so then they see you on Facebook. Facebook ads are super cheap. LinkedIn ads, not so much. So if you’re in the commercial realm, it’s a bit more expensive. And then maybe they go to Google you and they can find you, right? So you’re kind of-
Amanda:
Exactly. And the yard signs as well. Another huge thing, you’re already there. You’ve left for the night and your truck’s not in the driveway anymore, but you’re clearly in the middle of a roofing project. The sign can stay there. The sign can stay there after you’ve left. Another great touchpoint, very inexpensive, and a great way to just get your brand out there.
Devon:
Yeah, that job site branding is gold. Because again, it’s neighbors walking their dogs, walking by, seeing your logo again, and helping to convey trust. So really, I think if you’re looking where to invest, I feel like job site branding, truck wrap, door knocking, but take the time. The thing you can do in the middle of the night when you get home and you’re still working on your business, because that’s what entrepreneurs do, that’s what ends up happening, your Google business profile.
That’s completely free and will have such an impact on your local positioning online, so that you can reach the customers when they’re looking in the middle of the night going, shoot, I need the exterior of my house painted. Who should I turn to? You’re meeting them where they’re at in the middle of the night, and it doesn’t cost you anything to have your Google business profile completely optimized, to post to it weekly, just sharing pictures of the work that you’re doing, share a picture of your dog that comes along to the job site with you, or I love seeing pictures of leaks dripping down walls inside houses or electricians when they find, I don’t know, all kinds of fun stuff in the walls when they’re routing wire.
Amanda:
Yeah, exactly. And Google, there are so many components to a Google business profile. You don’t need to be a marketing expert to take advantage of it. Just get in there and make sure you have hit every single one of them. Don’t just do your hours and your description. Like you said, all the videos, I mean, the pictures of your work, videos of maybe a crane dropping materials off at a job site, things that are interesting and it shows you guys out in the field doing what you do best. That’s huge. And then there’s things like products. You can completely expand. Make sure you build out.
If you’re a service-based company that does not offer actual products, you can use that to describe every single service you provide. Just get in there and look and make sure that absolutely every single thing you can click on inside that Google business profile has been maxed out. And like Devon said, it’s free. Do it in the middle of the night when you’ve got a little while, but just prioritize that. And you’re not going to be sinking thousands of marketing dollars into it, but it’s going to improve your rankings online. And then when people come look at your profile, they’re going to get to really know about your business. And again, it doesn’t cost you anything.
Devon:
Yeah, exactly. And that one’s absolutely free. So that’s a really, really great place to start. And most contractors, I would say, I haven’t run into someone who doesn’t have a Google business profile. Sometimes an agency owns it, which is a whole other podcast, but it’s free to set up. And it is one of the most effective things you can do hands down. And I know they’re getting trickier in terms of whether you have a physical location or not, and some more intensive verification methods through Google, but it’s massively important if you don’t already have that. And if you don’t already own it, make sure you get it transferred over to your own ownership.
But I mean, that’s free and super easy to do. So I mean, we’ve talked about a bunch of different channels already. So we’ve talked about, let’s see, job site marketing. We talked a bit about Google. We talked a little bit about direct mail, door knocking, truck wraps. I mean, obviously there’s radio, there’s TV, there’s the Valpak. Some people swear by that, and they still do it every month. If you can afford to pay that, right? I mean, there is a variety to choose from. But if you’re starting small, job site marketing, Google business profile.
Amanda:
I would say, and then if you’re really ready to actually start having some ad spend, I would say Google Local Service Ads. You do have to go through the process of getting the Google guarantee, which you’d refer to earlier, Devon, and that obviously adds a trust factor as well. They run a background check on the business owner. They make sure that you can prove licensure, and then you can be featured in the search results right there at the top where people can click on you and call you directly. And we see those calls coming in anywhere from 50 to $75, depending on the market. And that is a phone call of an engaged customer for 50 to $75.
You really can’t beat that in digital marketing. And if it’s not a good lead, you can dispute it and you won’t be charged for it. So that’s a really good place to start. If he had 500 bucks to throw at it a month, spend a couple hundred bucks a week or 150 bucks a week, and you can get that phone ringing while you’re building your business enough that then you can afford to start investing some of the more expensive marketing efforts out there.
Devon:
Yeah. And that’s exactly right. We’re talking, you’re just starting out. I have this lump sum, I’m small, I’m trying to grow. These are things that are going to get the phone to ring faster. Obviously, like I mentioned in the beginning, I am totally partial to content marketing and SEO, because that’s meeting your buyers where they’re at. That’s figuring out who your buyers are. They’re called buyer personas. Identifying them and then meeting them wherever they’re at. And so once you identify that person, that could be someone who is on social media, or that could be somebody, I don’t know, who’s within in a networking group. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all online, although I think we all tend to then vet somebody out on Google.
That’s not always the answer. And I think for contractors, I love SEO as an answer, but that’s long term. And that’s way after you’ve had the phone ringing and you’ve got a cushion and you’re feeling better and it’s not just you anymore. You’ve got probably a revenue, at least, I would say, 3 million. You can get by on, we have a friend who’s a fractional CMO. He says you can get by on heroics up to about 2 to maybe 3 million. And then after that, you really have to have a process and a plan and more help on the marketing front.
Yeah. So our abbreviated plan, this is for someone who’s just like, all right, I’ve got a lump sum. Where do I start? And then grow from there. And there’s some businesses too, we’ve got a good friend, Randy Brothers, he is a roofing coach. And for him, SEO is, again, I think it’s for every business, but also, he’s got a huge social following. His reach is right there. So for him, it makes way more sense to invest deeper in the Facebook groups and things like that within social media, instead of going for an organic strategy where there’s not a high search volume for roofing coaching services specifically.
Amanda:
I just wanted to reiterate what you were saying earlier. I loved how you were talking about how important it is to meet your client where they are. And without capturing data and testing different channels, you don’t know that for sure. And you can come in strongly believing where they are, and you could very much be surprised after doing some testing where they, in fact, are.
Devon:
Yeah. And I think I admitted my bias to Google earlier in the podcast, but we’ve had clients in smaller towns down south that they actually have better luck networking and going to school events and sponsoring school events or church events, meeting people within the community, and they have more luck there. And it makes the most sense, because people in a smaller community specifically, I mean, they know one another and they trust their neighbors. And generations have lived in these smaller towns. And so building a presence and getting to know people and really building up the community instead of just taking from the community, that’s a case where Google isn’t really your best friend. It’s great if they need your phone number and they already know the name of your business, but places like that, they really lean on friends and family and neighbors. Who did you trust? Who did your landscaping? Because they all see each other’s landscaping, because they all know where one another lives. So really understanding your market too, is another great way to think of, okay, maybe Google isn’t the answer.
Amanda:
Well, it’s hard to admit sometimes.
Devon:
I admittedly need to remind myself of that.
Amanda:
Yes. It’s not always the answer. Almost always, but not always. And that makes me think as well, that those are the kind of communities too, that can lean harder on their referral rewards program, push that a little bit harder, remind your existing customer base about you and what you did for them and what you’re doing in the community, so that then they will remember to let their friend or their neighbor know what a great experience they had with you, even if it was eight years ago, when they need need your services.
Devon:
Yeah. And that goes back to being budget friendly, actually, Amanda, is you can remind them of your referral rewards program just by an email. If you have, I don’t know what it is on Constant Contact, but up to X amount of contacts, it’s actually free. And so you could just send that monthly newsletter, and that’s your little quick free ping top of mind awareness. Remember me, remember this program, we hired this person.
It’s not a big sell and you maybe don’t get a lot of opens, but it’s that top of mind awareness. It’s one of those eight touches, right? And occasionally, someone’s like, oh, actually I do need a repair. Actually, I do need this other thing. Yeah, so it’s just another channel that you don’t want to ignore, because you just never know. We have plenty of clients that actually people will reply and say, actually, I do need a roof. Actually, my neighbor is looking for a roofer. But maybe they haven’t opened email for eight months from you. So it’s good to be consistent and stay top of mind and use all channels available to you, because there’s a lot of free ones out there and when you don’t have a huge marketing budget.
Amanda:
Exactly. And an email, let’s talk about a warm market. You’re not even having to go out and door knock and introduce yourself and break that door down, break that wall down. You’ve already got a little bit of that warmth with them, so take advantage of it.
Devon:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So, okay, we always like to end each episode with some useful nuggets, some great takeaways. Amanda?
Amanda:
I would say first-
Devon:
We’ve talked about so much. I’m overwhelmed. I can’t. I can’t.
Amanda:
So remember those eight touches. If you’re finding yourself not knowing what channel to put it in, remember they’re going to have to see you at least eight times. Think about yourself when you’re making a buying decision. You’ve got to see that brand recognition several times before you’re going to make a decision. So test multiple channels. Spread the love.
Devon:
One of the major things we talked about too is if you have a tighter marketing budget and you’re just starting out and you’re kind of handling everything yourself is definitely job site marketing, great signage, great truck wrap, professional looking, logoed wear for the job site, or if you’re door knocking, first and foremost. And then second, that Google business profile, optimize it, post weekly. That’s free.
Amanda:
Absolutely. And then once you start to build that business, start to get some of those leads coming in and you’re ready to really start investing in more marketing, we’d say Google Local Service first and foremost. You can get that phone ringing for 50 to $75 a call, depending on your market. And then you can start looking at things like SEO. We typically, like you were saying earlier, the $3 million mark when you get in there and you’re really ready to start amping things up, we would say put SEO at the top of that list.
Devon:
Yes, yes. So there we go. Those are your nuggets. Those are your takeaways. We hope you enjoyed this episode. And did we leave anything out? Is there something else that you found really helpful that you’d like us to share? This whole podcast is just about sharing and kind of saving everyone the “dumb tax”. So did we miss anything? Is there something that worked for you? Let us know. We’d love to share it. Thanks for listening.
Amanda:
Thanks. Thanks, guys. That was today’s trade secret. Thanks for listening.
Devon:
Did you find this helpful? We’re just getting started.
Amanda:
Subscribe, and don’t miss our next reveal.
Devon:
Until next time.
