Filtering Posts by Month: August, 2016

Wouldn’t it be great to have the power to predict when something bad was about to happen?

While not as cool as having x-ray vision or the ability to fly, problem-spotting premonition superpowers would be mighty handy.

You’d know the next time the stock market would crash, so you can pull out your money. You’d anticipate the idiot at the intersection running the red light, so you could deftly avoid him. You’d foresee the Chinese takeout you’re about to order giving you food poisoning, so you can call the pizza joint next door instead.

While I can’t provide you with the power to predict when the stock market will plunge or if you should order a Big Gulp of Pepto with your Kung-Pao Chicken, I can give you something better: The ability to see and stop bad online reviews of your business before they happen.

But before I tell you how, here’s why this ability can literally make or break your business…

Negative online reviews are like a rattlesnake bite. They happen quickly, they’re unexpected, and they hurt like heck.

And when I say “hurt,” I don’t mean they bruise your ego (although they might do that, too). I mean they seriously hurt your profits—just one bad online review influences 86% of buyers. EIGHTY. SIX.

Yeah… it’s safe to say poor online reviews can cripple your company.

But here’s the thing. You’d be surprised at just how easy it is to turn a foaming-at-the-mouth customer into one of your biggest fans. I’ve already told you about Service Champions, an HVAC company that converts 80% of one-star reviews into five-star reviews.

Here’s an example of their process in action:

See? A little customer TLC was all it took for Service Champions to convert this one-star review to a five-star review. It’s surprisingly easy to do.

The only issue with the Service Champions method is that they have to respond to reviews that have already been posted. With MYM Online Reputation Management (ORM), you can prevent bad reviews from appearing online at all.

Here’s how…

Using a highly effective customer-review funnel, our ORM gives customers leaving negative feedback to send you an email instead of posting their review online. This gives you the opportunity to address the customer’s issue and convert their potential bad review into a four or five-star review BEFORE it goes out for the world to see. As a result, you maintain an impeccable online reputation.

In addition, our ORM alerts you—or us, depending on your preference—when a bad review that does not go through the funnel is posted to a third-party website. So no matter what, you’ll have the chance to address every single bad online review that comes your way.

Want to know right NOW if any negative online feedback has flown under your radar? Click here for an instant Review Scan for an instant report that details how your business appears on local third-party review websites. After that, contact us to get set up with our ORM and utilize its “poor-review premonition superpowers.”

Trust me: In today’s always-online world, the ability to head off bad internet reviews at the pass is one of the most important things you can do to maintain and grow your business. So get to it!

Have a great day.

-Rich

P.S. Why doesn’t pay per click work for you? Contrary to what you may think, PPC does work. (If it didn’t, Google wouldn’t be making $43 billion a year from AdWords.) Tomorrow, I’ll give you five reasons you always finish dead-last in the PPC Olympics.

As you may know, MYM is a virtual marketing company. We don’t have an official “office”, we operate entirely online, and MYM employees are spread throughout the country.

When some people find out how we operate, you can hear a tinge of cynicism as they say, “Oh, you’re a virtual company? That’s… interesting.” They initially can’t wrap their heads around how our virtual business model functions efficiently.

What these skeptics don’t realize is that our virtual model is actually one of our biggest strengths:

• Since we don’t have a home base of operations, we aren’t restricted to hiring locally. We have the entire country at our disposal to search for the best talent.
• We have much lower overhead, so our prices are ultra-competitive compared to brick-and-mortar marketing companies.
• No office politics, time-wasting company meetings, or anything like that. Operating virtually allows us to have a laser-beam focus on marketing and only marketing.

Once we explain the advantages of a virtual company, people “get” it.

Here’s why I’m telling you this: Your company—just like MYM—probably has a certain aspect that people at first perceive as your “Achilles’ Heel.” In other words, something that might make some prospects hesitate.

But here’s the thing. More often than not, your company’s “Achilles’ Heel” is, in fact, a huge strength disguised in Groucho Glasses.

Your company’s biggest selling point could be hiding under your nose.

In many cases with reputable contractors, there’s a positive hiding underneath the surface of what people (or even you) consider the “negative” qualities of your company. You just have to dig a bit deeper than normal to show prospects why what’s initially making them hesitate is actually one of the main reasons to do business with you.
Here are five examples, along with why they can be one of your biggest selling points:

“Achilles’ Heel” #1: You Have Higher Prices 

Why It’s Actually A Strength: Unless you’re shamelessly price gouging, your higher prices mean better products, installation, and service. A good portion of MYM clients are “above average” on the pricing scale because they demand the best of the best in everything they do and realize quality doesn’t come cheap.

Example: Craftsman Construction, who openly say they have higher prices because they provide the absolute highest quality materials and installation.

“Achilles’ Heel” #2: You Have Lower Prices

Why It’s Actually A Strength: On the other end of the spectrum, some contractors fear advertising their low prices because homeowners sometimes equate low prices with cheap quality. While some contractors do sacrifice quality to keep prices low, others are just really good at cutting costs with low overhead, buying factory direct, and minimal (but effective) advertising. If that’s you, proudly flaunt your lower prices—just make sure to inform your customers how you’re still able to deliver quality.

Example: Accent Southwest Windows & Doors, who advertise 20% lower prices because they run a smart, efficient operation.

“Achilles’ Heel” #3: You Aren’t As Fast As Your Competitors

Why It’s Actually A Strength: Sure, homeowners want their remodel done as quickly as possible. But 99.9% of them prefer quality over speed. Do you take your time on a project because you want to get it right? Great! Play that up in your marketing to bring in the high-paying clientele who want the absolute best quality—even if they have to wait a little longer for it.

Example: Upscale Remodeling, who admit their slower, but only because they take their time to ensure everything is exactly right. As a result, the majority of their customer base is made up of affluent homeowners who pay big bucks for a project.

“Achilles’ Heel” 4: You’re A Small Operation

Why It’s Actually A Strength: Personalized service and hands-on ownership, which homeowners love. Customers don’t have to deal with seven different people for their project, so you provide better communication and eliminate annoying “I thought he said…” situations.

Example: Two Four Exteriors, who has a hands-on owner involved in every part of a project to ensure a great outcome. His customers absolutely love it.

“Achilles’ Heel” 5: You’re A New Company

Why It’s Actually A Strength: Contractors have a notoriously poor reputation. Positioning yourself as the new-and-improved sheriff in town can reap huge rewards. Let prospects know that you’re the contractor who has eliminated all the common things homeowners hate about remodeling (sales pressure, corner cutting, pricing games, etc.).

Example: Zen Windows of North Carolina, who created a revolutionary zero-pressure window-buying process to remove all the usual hassles “typical” contractors put homeowners through.

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Let me warn you: Do NOT use these tactics unless what you are saying is true. I consider honesty to be the only policy. I don’t like when people use my marketing advice for nefarious purposes.

So if your prices are cheap because your products stink or you pay Joe Blow from the street corner pennies to be your installer for the day, don’t spin it into a #2 situation. And if you take a long time to complete projects because you improperly manage your schedule or like hitting the snooze button, don’t even think of trying #3. You’re being deceptive, and it will blow up in your face (and I will laugh at you because you deserve it).

If, however, you’re a reputable contractor who has your customers’ best interests at heart—and you need a little help overcoming common objections to your company—use this Achilles’ Heel tactic to turn the Doubting Thomases into True Believers.

Have a great day!

-Rich

P.S. If you’re on the higher end of the pricing scale—or you want to be—watch my webinar on overcoming price resistance. You’ll discover exactly how to use higher prices to your advantage.

P.P.S. If you only have five minutes, fast-forward to the 17:25 mark of the video for an invaluable lesson from actor Jason Statham, and his action flick The Transporter, on how to conquer cost objections. (Yes, I’m serious!)

Continuing with the SEO theme I started, I want to share something that’s probably never occurred to you: Your competitors can (and some do) use your company’s name as one of their keywords.

I call this “Grand Theft Google” because your competitor is essentially trying to steal your brand and use it against you. What they do is optimize your company name as a keyword in an attempt to sneak above you on the results page when prospects search your specific name.

Sometimes Grand Theft Google works startlingly well. Here’s an example…

One of our clients had a rather nasty rivalry with a competitor. Before we took over their SEO, one of the first results when you Googled their name was a page on their competitor’s website that totally trashed our client.

This competitor’s page ranked highly under our client’s name for a few reasons. I won’t go into them all, but one was that the page was set up to look like a neutral comparison (though it was anything but) between our client and the competitor. The page format made Google think the content was quality information, and not a hit piece. Worked like a charm.

So yep, the one keyword you thought was 100% safe—your own company name—is actually one of the most vulnerable. And the tactic our client’s competitor used is just one of two dozen ways in which a competitor can hijack your brand on Google.

The question is, how do you stop it from happening?

One of the most effective methods I’ve seen for preventing Grand Theft Google is having online reviews on multiple third-party websites. Google loves linking to online reviews from different sites because it sees this content as objective information that its users will find valuable.

Online reviews carry a ton of SEO power for your brand, and it shows in your search results. As an example, here’s a look at Zen Window’s page-one Google results when you search their name:

As you can see, Google eats up third-party reviews like candy. Five out of the top eight spots are links to different review websites. Not only do all the shiny five-star ratings from review sites help build credibility with prospects, but they also prevent competitors from using Zen Windows’ name as a keyword to “steal” spots on the results page.

The Bottom Line: Being on multiple review websites is like having a can of Google-brand pepper spray in your back pocket. Anytime a competitor tries to steal your brand’s SEO mojo, your online reviews instantly halt the hijacking.

Want to know how your online reputation stacks up, and how big (or small) of an impact it has on your page-one results? Click here for a free Online Review Scan.  We’ll instantly generate a detailed report to tell you whether your online reputation is flourishing or floundering.

If it’s the latter, we can help. Our Online Reputation Management (ORM) controls and builds your online reputation to grow your business and make more profit. Here’s a sample of what MYM ORM provides:

• Monitors customer reviews across all 170+ review websites
• Converts happy customers into glowing, sales-producing online reviews
• Stops negative reviews BEFORE they happen 
• Turns positive reviews into automated SEO-friendly web and social media content 
• Provides regular comprehensive reporting regarding the “health” and status of your online reputation
  

We began offering ORM about a month ago, and it’s already becoming a hugely popular service among our clients. Join them in reaping the massive rewards of a robust online reputation… and preventing yourself from becoming the next victim of Grand Theft Google.

Have a great day!

-Rich

P.S. Resistance to SEO is common in contractors who operate in smaller service areas. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about a client in a small town who was dead-set against SEO… until we convinced him to try an SEO campaign with MYM a few months ago. Wait until you hear what he has to say now. Stay tuned.

“I operate in a small town. I don’t need SEO, PPC, or any other online marketing!”

I hear this all the time from contractors in small markets. They usually believe online marketing is a waste of time for two reasons:

1. They think that because they serve a small population, everyone already knows about their services.
2. They don’t believe their service area is large enough for online marketing to net them a profitable ROI.

If you’re in one of these two camps, I have a message for you:

You’re just plain wrong… period. If you’re not taking advantage of online marketing—whether you’re in Manhattan, NY or Podunk, RI—you are gradually losing your market share and slowly killing your business. End of story.

The truth is, 99.9% of people looking for a home improvement project do some internet sleuthing before they even consider picking up the phone. It doesn’t matter if they have already heard about you—they are NOT going to call you until they look you up online.

If your name is not plastered on the first pages of Google, Bing, and Yahoo for the best keywords, you’re making things ridiculously easy for your competitors. All they have to do is a little SEO to scoop up the glut of internet leads in your service area… the leads you keep telling yourself don’t exist.

Case in point…

We built Fortenberry Roofing’s website about a year ago. They operate in a town with a population of 6,274, so they convinced themselves they didn’t need much in the way of internet marketing or search engine optimization. They believed a nice website was all they needed. As a result, we had them on the most bare-bones SEO package we (used to) offer.

But a few months ago, the client did some digging on their competitors. Turns out, their competition was doing some online marketing and search engine optimization and raking in droves of high-quality leads as a result. (Who’da thunk?)

When Fortenberry found out about their competitor’s online success, they decided they needed a piece of the internet marketing pie—ASAP. They immediately dedicated more of their marketing budget to the internet, and then they contacted MYM to expand their online marketing efforts.

We got Fortenberry locked and loaded with our premier SEO package. Since then, Fortenberry’s online traffic has gone through the roof. Wrap your head around these results:

Since 6/25/16, Fortenberry has rocketed from the bottom of the Google Abyss to page one for nearly all of their keywords.

They shot from 29th to 1st for one highly competitive keyword… from 54th to 3rd for another… and from 60th to 1st for yet another. As I write this, 98% of Fortenberry’s keywords rank in the top 10, and the majority of their web traffic now comes from organic search.

A few months ago, Fortenberry insisted internet marketing and SEO wouldn’t work for them. Now they’re dominating Google and gobbling up internet leads left, right, up, down, and sideways.

And get this: We recently launched a PPC campaign for the client. Once we optimize their campaign, they’ll have the remaining piece of the puzzle in place for total online marketing domination.

Bottom Line: It doesn’t matter if you service a city where tumbleweeds outnumber people. If you aren’t marketing yourself online, you’re missing out a ton of business—period.

Just how much? Let us perform a free Lead Generation Audit, and we’ll determine if your online marketing (or lack thereof) is hindering your sales and growth. We’ll also dig deep into your website’s convertibility power to see if it’s turning LOOKERS into BUYERS.

Click here to get started with your Lead Generation Audit.

Thanks!

-Rich

P.S. Sugarcoating should be reserved for telling a seven-year-old his participation trophy is just as good as first place. When we audit your website, SEO, and PPC, we’re brutally honest and pull no punches. If your internet marketing efforts stink, we flat out tell you… then we show you how to fix it. You want the unfiltered truth about your online marketing—with ZERO fluff? Click here to get started.

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