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Assuming Made An Ass Out Of Me (And Left Me $8,336 Poorer)

assuming left me $8,336 poorer
Let me tell you about the Curse Of The Volkswagen Beetle.

My oldest daughter is a really, really good kid. So when she turned 16 years old in 2012, I decided to buy her a car.

It was a 2006 pale blue Volkswagen Bug.

Here’s what it looked like:

low mileage doesn't always mean it's in good shape
My daughter LOVED it.

And I loved that it had just 36,000 miles and was only six years old (at the time).

To be extra safe, I bought an extended warranty for about $1,500.

Since the car was relatively new, had low mileage, and was protected by an extended warranty, I assumed my daughter would get years and years of use out of it.

My mistake? ASSUMING.

A month after I bought the car, the transmission started acting up.

Cost of repair: $1,300.

Amount covered by warranty: $125.

After I got that fixed, the catalytic converter needed replacing a few months later.

Cost of replacement: $770.

Amount covered by warranty: $65.

About a year later, I needed to replace the drive shaft:

Cost of replacement: $500

Amount covered by warranty: $0.

Finally, in December 2014, the engine completely gave out. It would have cost $7,500 to replace it—basically the total cost of the car in GOOD SHAPE.

That’s when I said, “Nope, I’m done.”

I sold the car in its broken down state at a loss of about $6,000.

Factoring in all of the repairs, the worthless “warranty,” and what I originally paid for the car, I lost over $8,300.

All because I assumed the car was in good condition.

It reminds me of when I spoke to the owner of a large HVAC company about his mailing campaign.

His company generates a big chunk of revenue through direct mail. The first time I talked to him (in 2014), he told me they would send six mailings a year to their customer base that hasn’t either purchased an HVAC system or the company’s service plan.

Here’s the gist of the conversation:

Me: How many customers are you mailing to every six months?

Client: Around 40,000.

Me: Whoa, that’s a lot. How far back do these customers go?

Client: Since we started the company in 2002.

Me: Do you get good response from the customers who are eight years or older?

Client: (pondering) I’m not really sure.

The client assumed since the mailings bring in big profits, everything was hunky-dory.

Not so fast.

After the call, the company dug into their numbers a little more. Here’s what they found:

mailers - leads percentage by years
83% of the leads from these mailers came from customers who had service within the past five years, and 65% within the last two years.

Sure, the company was making good money off these mailers. But think of how much money they wasted on old, unresponsive customers. They could have used that cash to mail to their newer customers more frequently and generate even bigger revenue than they already were.

Lesson: Just because something is working, don’t assume it can’t be improved.

Another example…

A client who was a kitchen and bathroom remodeler was advertising heavily on TV and the radio… but only on Mondays, Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Here’s how my convo with them went down:

Me: Why just those days?

Client: That’s when homeowners think about remodeling.

Me: How do you know that?

Client: A marketing guy told us a few years ago. That’s the way we’ve been buying it ever since.

Me: Do you know if that’s when the calls actually come in?

Client: I can check.

When the client pulled up the report, here’s what we found:

television - leads by day
Uh-oh… those numbers don’t exactly match to the days they advertise.

Monday and Tuesday are good. But Saturday and Sunday are an advertising deathtrap.

Money, meet drain.

Radio and TV are “farming” (i.e. branding) marketing activities. You have to put yourself in front of people as much as you can—and at the times they’re most likely to see or hear you.

We changed the client’s radio and TV advertising schedule to reflect this. Instead of advertising only on days the client assumed brought in the most leads, we started advertising five days a week (Monday through Friday) to reach as many people as possible.

(Check out these blog posts on radio and television advertising to create ads that move the needle.)

Lesson: Assuming you’re reaching as many prospects as possible without actually looking at the numbers is like throwing your money in a pile, dousing it in gasoline, and tossing a match on it.

Bottom Line…

If you’re wondering how to generate more leads with your marketing, take a look at your numbers.

You may find your ASSUMPTION that something is working is just that…

An assumption.

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How To Get More Sales From Your Mailers

milking new movers like the cash cow they are
Let me throw some numbers about new movers at you…

According to a recent Scarborough report, new homeowners are more likely than established homeowners (people who have lived in their homes for over three years) to invest in the following:

  • 53% more likely to repair or replace their floors

  • 47% more likely to replace their HVAC systems

  • 47% more likely to have their homes painted

  • 45% more likely to remodel their kitchens

  • 34% more likely to replace their siding

  • 33% more likely to augment their homes with additions

  • 32% more likely to remodel their bathrooms

  • 29% more likely to replace their windows

  • 24% more likely to upgrade the exterior of their homes

  • 14% more likely to get roof repair or replacement

In other words: New movers are a gold mine for contractors.

No “ifs.”

No “ands.”

No “buts.”

No bull.

Honestly, these numbers are no surprise. When people move into an existing home, there will always be at least one thing they want to change/remodel/renovate/add.

The question is, how do you make sure they spend their money on YOU?

The obvious answer is internet marketing: website, SEO, PPC, and so on.

But…

Do you want to know an even faster way to get in a new mover’s face and make them think of you—and ONLY you—when they consider their project?

Good old-fashioned direct mail… and lots of it.

I’m not talking about one or two mailers. If you only send a couple postcards, you’ll get crap results.

I mean hitting new movers consistently and frequently.

How consistently and frequently?

Let’s dive into the numbers and figure it out.

First, determine how much you normally spend on marketing to generate a sale.

Not a lead—a sale.

Example: Let’s say you spend $250 per lead and convert 33% of them into sales. That means you’re paying $750 per sale.

Next, estimate the percentage of new movers you think you can convert into a sale if you consistently and frequently mail to them.

What’s that? You don’t know how many you can convert?

Newsflash: No one ever knows for sure the results a marketing campaign will generate. Not even yours truly.

So let’s just go with a conservative estimate of 1%. That means you sell one job for every 100 people you consistently mail to on a regular basis.

This means you have a budget of—wait for it—$750 per 100 new movers to cover mailing costs.

Stop a second and take those numbers in.

If your mailings cost $0.50 per piece, that means you can afford to send 15 mailers to all 100 of those new movers ($750 x $0.50 / 100 people).

This lets you…

  • Establish a rapport.
  • Get the homeowners familiar with your name.
  • Educate them about who you are, what you do, and why you do it better.
  • Let them get settled in and start a project when they’re good and ready.
  • Nudge them into taking action on the project they know they want or need to do.
  • Outlast all the other guys who send a measly one or two (or zero!) mailers.

But why stop there?

If you want to get MAXIMUM mojo out of your mailers, here’s what you do…

After two or three months of mailing your new movers, hire someone to drive around and knock on their doors to see if they’re interested in a home improvement project. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how open and willing to talk these new movers are.

Why?

Because a good chunk of them want what you sell… and they want it NOW!

Canvassing in today’s day and age may sound a little “old fashioned.” But try it and see what happens—I’m 99.7% certain you’ll experience great results as long as you mail your prospects frequently.

If you don’t want to take the time and effort to create a powerful direct-mail campaign, let us do it for you.

 

P.S. Here are some sample “new mover” mailers to get your brain juices flowing:

new mover mailer example 1

new mover mailer example 2

new mover mailer example 3

new mover mailer example 4

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You’re Rich And Famous… Now What?

rich and famous... now what
Since we are finishing up the season of giving (but this could be all year long), I want you to think about something.

Something BIG.

Something more important than work.

(Yes, really.)

Here it is…

You can work for yourself, achieve personal goals, and reach your own personal benchmark for success.

But there will come a time when your personal success is no longer enough.

Then, what’s your plan?

For Service Champions, a 30+MM a year HVAC company, the next step is helping others.

A lot.

So much so the company has created the “Good Deeds For Free” program.

Here’s a look at one of their recent Good Deeds—anonymously mailing money to those in need:

good deeds - service champions give back
Here’s another, in which they help out and donate to a German Shepherd rescue shelter:

good deeds in the community - service champions and german shepherd rescue
And my personal favorite, where they secretly pin money to unaware people on the boardwalk:

good deeds - service champions clothes pinning money
I’m not showing you these just for the warm, gooey feelings they give your insides just before the holidays.

I want you to think about what YOU are going to do once you’ve achieved your personal goals for success.

For many people, “paying it forward” is the next step.

Wanting to help others is human nature. And making that happen comes in many forms.

It could be donating to charity. Holding a fundraiser for community schools. Volunteering at the local soup kitchen. Pinning a $20 bill to a stranger’s back.

It could be a thousand and one different things.

Whatever way we choose to give back, one thing is certain: It makes us feel complete. Like we’ve fulfilled our purpose as people.

So when the time comes (and it will come), what will YOU choose to do?

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3 Magic SEO Pills That Are Really Search Engine Cyanide

SEO Magic Pills or Cyanide
Ever notice how there are approximately 129,347 different diets, programs, pills, products, and scams for weight loss?

Heck, you probably have someone on your Facebook friend list who’s become a “representative” for some multi-level-marketing company and the latest fat-loss fad product (stomach wraps, magical diet pills, etc.) they’re hocking.

Even though 99.9% of these flash-in-the-pan remedies don’t work, people buy ‘em up by the millions. The prospect of a getting a killer beach bod while exerting zero effort is just too tempting to pass up.

Deep down, though, everyone knows—but won’t admit to themselves—that there’s really just one simple three-step process to losing weight:

  1. Lay off the Big Macs.
  2. Hop on the treadmill.
  3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you get the result you want.

This method is GUARANTEED to work, but it takes time and energy. That’s why everyone always flocks to the latest bogus “solution” that promises instant results.

It’s the same with SEO.

Contractors don’t want to put forth the required time and effort to get good results. So they fall for all the gurus promising magic solutions that launch your site to the top of Google Mountain with no effort or time.

In the back of your mind, though, you know it’s a load of crap.

But in case you don’t, I present 3 SEO “Magic Pills” that are actually poison for your rankings:

Magic Pill #1: Keyword Stuffing

Shoving a bunch of keywords and geographic locations on a webpage might get you immediate results, but your ranking will gradually decrease as Google realizes that no one likes your website.

Example: “We are expert replacement window installers for Dallas TX, Fort Worth TX, Richardson TX, Mesquite TX, Garland TX, Plano TX, Irving TX, Balch Springs TX, and Farmers Branch TX.”

Would you ever say this to a prospect face to face? No. They’d never buy from you.

It’s the same with your internet prospects. If your website reads like it was written by Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, people will click away faster than you can say “Captain Jean-Luc Picard.” As a result, your rankings will sink at warp speed.

Bottom Line: Prospects who visit your website are humans, too. So don’t write for Google; write for PEOPLE (while tossing in the occasional keyword in logical places).

Magic Pill #2: Spammy Links

Having a ton of outside sources linking to your website SOUNDS like a great SEO-boosting strategy. But it only works if the places linked to your website are worth a dang.

Read the comment section of this webpage for an example of links Google hates. This is called “forum spam,” and Google will destroy you if they catch you doing it.

For a comprehensive list of link spam, click here.

Bottom Line: Quality links to your website = good. Spammy links to your website = bad. REALLY BAD.

Magic Pill #3: Emphasizing Quantity Over Quality

Having 400 blog posts on your website is useless if they are poorly written, boring, thin on content, and irrelevant to your market.

If you spend less time on your blog posts than it takes to nuke a Hot Pocket, you’re who I’m talking about. If you want a smorgasbord of examples, Google just about any type of service in your town. You’ll see a ton of keyword-stuffed blog posts with wafer-thin content.

Bottom Line: Google will hurt your rankings something good if they discover your webpage content is awful. (And Google WILL discover it sooner rather than later.)

To sum all of this SEO talk up:

To achieve true SEO success, you have to do things the RIGHT way.

There is no “magic pill” that takes you to page one instantly. If someone tells you otherwise, remember all of the worthless weight-loss products that deliver ZERO results.

The truth is that it takes at least 6 to 9 months to start seeing quality SEO results.

When MYM is in charge of your SEO, that’s about the amount of time it’s going to take. We do NOT promise you overnight SEO success. What we do promise is that we’ll use ALL of the right methods to get you to number one.

This means:

  • writing engaging content.
  • creating relevant back links (and Disavowing the bad ones!)
  • inserting the right keywords in the right places. “nerd coding” your website to take advantage of Google’s latest algorithms
  • ensuring your business listings are consistent, (and that duplicate listings are suprressed!)
  • optimizing your Google My Business page and other social media details are optimized
  • marking your website up with “schema” (a special language that Google reads on how to show your website in search results to get more traffic.)
  • auditing your website once per month to catch any broken links, broken pages, or error codes in your site
  • creating high quality service area landing pages so that you can rank for cities other than where your office is located
  • and so. so. much. more. (Here’s a mostly complete list of the things we do for our SEO Clients).

Sure, this takes time. But it’s the ONLY way to get the results you want.

The good news is that it takes no effort on your end—kick back and let us handle the hard work for you.

Check out more details about MYM’s Search Engine Optimization.

 

P.S. For some amazing client SEO success stories, click here, here, here, here, and here.

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