So, I have a bet going with my COO, Bryan Bauman. Winner gets a hundred bucks.

Bryan says our recent Yext Certified Partner status is a good selling point to advertise.

I say prospects won’t give a flying fig because most contractors don’t know what the heck Yext is.

I’m confident I’ll win the bet, even though I don’t really want to.

I’ll explain.

Yext is a program that allows you to manage and optimize your local business listings across 100+ websites (Google, Yellow Pages, BBB, CitySearch, and so on).

It’s a great tool for companies that want to grow their business. Stanley Steamers, Ben & Jerry’s, Pep Boys, T-Mobile, Meineke, and a whole bunch of other big names use Yext because IT WORKS.

Yext is just as effective for contractors, too. At MYM, we use Yext to build our SEO clients’ local brand awareness, enhance rankings, and drive more traffic to their websites by managing their info on these business listing sites.

Unfortunately, most contractors fall into one of three camps:

A) They don’t know about Yext (many don’t even know which business listing sites they’re on!).

B) They know about Yext but don’t get how it can benefit them.

C) They know about Yext, know what it can do for them, but can’t budget the time or labor for it.

Make no mistake—optimizing and managing your online business listings is heavy-duty work.

You need to ensure your listings are correct, fix any inconsistencies across business listing websites (Google hates inconsistent listings), put your company on all the sites where YOUR prospects are looking, continually optimize your listings to improve search engine rankings… and a dozen other things.

If you were to manage your business listings yourself, you’d need to dedicate a full-time person to it, which would cost you thousands a month.

The Ben & Jerry’s and T-Mobiles of the world bank hundreds of millions of dollars every year, so they can afford to do that.

The average contractor? Not so much. Creating a new position with a five-figure-per-year salary isn’t possible.

MYM clients, though, don’t have to worry about any of that. They get our Yext Certified services as part of their SEO package.

Our clients have certified experts (i.e., us) managing and optimizing their business listings round-the-clock… for literally a fraction of the cost it would take them to do in-house. As a result, they get more web traffic, more brand awareness, and a serious SEO steroid shot that shoots their local rankings through the roof.

Our SEO clients also get to take advantage of our Yext Certified Partner status. We know absolutely everything there is to know about Yext and how to ensure your online business listings. That means we squeeze every last bit of mileage out of the service for them, AND we get access to new Yext features for clients before they’re made available to the public.

This gives our clients such a giant leg up on local competitors, it’s almost unfair.

Want to know more about all of the advantages MYM SEO clients have over the competition? Visit our SEO page.

So, yeah… having a Yext Certified Partner managing your online business listing is a HUGE benefit. Many contractors aren’t even aware of (which means I’ll likely lose that $100 bet).

But now that you ARE aware of the importance of managing your online business listings—and the huge profits at stake—what will you do about it?

P.S. Next post, I’ll inform you of the hidden cash-sucking parasite that could be costing you thousands of dollars… without your knowledge.

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Let me tell you about the Curious Case Of Disappearing Yelp Reviews.

It’s pretty unnerving—especially if you’re a contractor whose online reputation relies heavily on Yelp.

Here’s the story…

I was talking to a client last week, and they’re currently having a huge problem with Yelp.

The client has been paying Yelp for advertising for several years now. The client started with a budget of a couple thousand a month and built it up to $10,000 a month.

Eventually, the client got frustrated with their inability to track the leads coming from Yelp. They were not able to distinguish which leads were coming from Yelp as a result of their ads vs. people just finding them on Yelp organically.

So at the end of December, the client yanked their ads. No spend in January.

That’s when the problem started.

Their five-star reviews mysteriously began to vanish.

January 1, 2017: 753 total Yelp reviews, 648 5-star reviews

January 31, 2017: 698 total Yelp reviews, 593 5-star reviews

Over the course of January, the client collected 43 new five-star reviews. Yet somehow they have substantially FEWER five-star reviews than they did BEFORE January.

What’s happening?

Simple… Yelp is steadily removing the client’s five-star reviews because the client stopped paying.

This is alarming, to say the least. The client has 50 one-star reviews; that means their ratio of five-star to one-star reviews shrunk from 13:1 to 12:1 in just 30 days.

This is not an anomaly, either. A quick Google search reveals Yelp’s “pay for play” system is common practice. In fact, they’ve been sued big time over this… and the circuit court judge ruled that it’s not illegal. Yelp says it’s just disgruntled customers who get bad reviews and suck and therefore complain.

Yelp scrubbing five-star reviews is surprisingly common.

When the client called Yelp and asked what the heck was going on, they made up some mumbo jumbo about “algorithms.”

Really? What kind of algorithm removes five-star reviews… and ONLY five-star reviews?

That’s a pretty funky algorithm for a REVIEWS company to implement. It would be like Priceline inventing an algorithm that randomly un-booked people’s trips, or Amazon developing a system that suddenly cancels customer orders.

Let’s call it what it REALLY is: Extortion.

Since online reputation is so important to this client (they’ve spent YEARS accumulating their reviews), and since Yelp is holding their five-star reviews for ransom, the client caved and started advertising on Yelp again at $1,000 per month. They feel like they have no other choice.

So far, though, it hasn’t helped. As of today, the client has 661 reviews and 563 five-star reviews. They are now at an 11:1 five-star to one-star review ratio.

I have no idea what can stop the bleeding, or even if it can be. I’m simply warning you…

Do NOT do business with Yelp. Period.

If you have reviews on Yelp, that’s fine. Just NEVER, EVER give them your money. And realize that your five-star could “mysteriously” vanish in an instant for any reason (usually because you are not giving them money).

Honestly, if you want to build your online reputation, there are better ways than Yelp… literally over 170 of them.

That’s roughly how many review websites exist (both nationally and locally). And MYM can help you build an ultra-stout online reputation on as many of them as you chose.

Our Online Reputation Management…

• Monitors customer reviews across all 170+ review websites
• Converts happy customers into glowing, sales-producing online reviews
• Can stop 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

All you have to do is keep performing the same great work, while we get your customers gushing about you online.

For more info, visit our Online Reputation Management page. Make sure you use the Free Review Scanner for an instant report on the health of your online reputation.

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A few years ago, I met a man named Kip Lee from Savannah, GA who owned a sunroom and window company.

Kip’s business was getting along just fine. In fact, he had one of the country’s top sunroom companies, despite being in one of the smallest markets.

Kip spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on newspaper advertising, and was just starting to dabble in TV commercials.

His first few commercials featured a spokesman who talked about the qualities of the company’s products. The actor had charisma, great stage presence, and came across as friendly and knowledgeable.

The commercials worked OK, but were not generating the results required to take Kip’s business to the next level.

I started working with Kip around this time. As I was reviewing his existing marketing materials, one item caught my eye: Kip’s infomercial.

Kip made an infomercial basically as an afterthought because the production company cut him a good deal on it. Kip only ran the infomercial on early Saturday and Sunday mornings, so it didn’t produce many leads and sales.

In the first few seconds of watching it, though, I knew this forgotten piece of advertising—relegated to a time only insomniacs and new moms were awake—was THE key to increasing Kip’s business.

Why?

Because Kip was a natural-born star.

One of the biggest reasons Kip’s company is so successful is because he has one of the most friendly, authentic, teddy-bearish personalities on the planet. When he sat down in someone’s home for a sales presentation, it was a done deal—prospects just knew they could trust Kip and that he wouldn’t BS them.

Kip’s demeanor came across like gangbusters in his infomercial. So I told Kip right then and there that he needed to be the star in his advertising.

And, practically overnight, a star he became.

First, we put Kip in a set of TV commercials. Then we started putting his picture in his print ads and his jovial voice on the radio.

Not long after, folks were recognizing him at the grocery store and in restaurants.

He heard, “Hey, you’re the guy from TV” on the daily. Random strangers high-fived him. He even signed some autographs.

Yeah, a sunroom guy… signing autographs.

But becoming the face of his franchise did more than make Kip the George Clooney of Savannah, Georgia.

As people saw Kip on TV and became familiar with his “We Take The Risk Out Of Home Improvement” pitch, they began to truly believe him.

Kip’s cost per lead started shrinking as his stardom rose. It wasn’t overnight, but that’s the name of the game when you’re using brand-building advertising methods like TV.

After a while, Kip started getting plenty of leads contacting him even when his ads were NOT running.

Here’s the million-dollar question…

Should YOU star in your own ads?

Like everything else, there are pros and cons to being the face of your franchise. So consider a few things before taking the plunge.

Can You Act?

Everybody has seen that business owner “starring” in his own commercial who looks like a deer in headlights and reading straight from a cue card. When you watch them, you feel a mixture of pity, secondhand embarrassment, and a tinge of guilt at your urge to laugh.

To pull off effective TV commercials, you have to have personality, charm, polish, and enough acting talent NOT to sound stilted. And trust me—do NOT ask for a family member’s evaluation on this.

Do You Care About Fame?

Do you want to be recognized when you’re buying toilet paper at Costco? Put yourself on TV for long enough, and it WILL happen.

You’ll start getting stares in parking lots, whispers at dinner tables, and points from children. I’m not saying you’ll get the paparazzi chasing you around town or TMZ writing some trashy story about you… but you will get noticed and called out on the regular.

And remember: not everybody is going to like you. Some will think you’re cheesy or dopey or annoying. Are you ready to handle that?

Do You Want To Be Your Company’s Brand?

When you’re the star of your commercials, YOU become your brand. People may catch your company’s name, but they’ll likely remember yours more.

This can be a good thing, especially if you’re a likable person. But if you’re planning to sell your business at some point, you could be hurting the value of your company by packaging its image so tightly with your personal image.

Bottom Line…

Starring in your own commercials can boost business big time. Plus, it can be a lot of fun. I recommend it for business owners with the right personality and who don’t plan to sell their company any time in the near future.

Just know what you’re getting into before the camera starts rolling.

P.S. If you need helping creating your television ads and buying media, we can help. Visit our Ad Writing and Media Buying pages for the nitty gritty.

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“Why do you try to sell me stuff? I want for marketing advice, not to be pitched to, dagnabit!”

I sometimes hear this from people.

It’s like nails slowly scraping down a chalkboard.

If you don’t get why I promote various products and services from MYM and our Trusted Partners, you need a good slap.

There. That’s better.

If that doesn’t knock some sense into you, let me break it down for you.

My emails usually point out a marketing problem contractors have, and then the right solution(s) to solve it.

You can either try to implement these solutions yourself or pay someone else to implement them (way more effectively) for you.

The choice is yours.

But here’s what I’ve discovered in my 20+ years in marketing…

To achieve the success you want, you need to invest in yourself.

Sometimes, the solutions I outline require an investment.

So, if you are the kind of person who price shops and thinks everything “costs too much,” snap out of it. You’re in a self-destructive—yes, self-destructive—mindset and hurting your business.

People who think this way get stuck in a rut for their whole lives. They look for ways to pinch pennies, instead of investing in methods that will generate millions of dollars.

As a result, they never attain the level of success and wealth they desire. I see it ALL. THE. TIME.

I know what you’re thinking: “Rich, I understand what you’re saying. But there are so many terrible ‘solutions’ on the market. I’ve been burned before.”

I get it. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

But let’s get one thing straight right here, right now, for all time:

• I LOATHE the pretenders who promise a solution and don’t deliver.

• I DESPISE the guys who are just in it for the money, and not to help people better their businesses (and lives).

• I DETEST the doofuses who shill crappy products that don’t work.

The solutions in my emails that do require the “cash commitment” are all 100% proven to work… and they all provide stellar ROI for the contractors who invest in them.

So, when I tell you that you can substantially increase leads from MYM’s marketing solutions, I’m telling you the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

When I tell you that MarketSharp CRM can streamline your entire business and increase your sales, I’m telling you the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

When I tell you that both Renoworks Pro visualization software and financing through GreenSky can lead to thousands of dollars in upsells on practically every project, I’m telling you the truth, the whole truth and… well, you know the rest.

I’m giving you ALL of the tools you need to transform your business into an unqualified success and break the $10-million-dollar mark (and if you’re already there, the $20-million-dollar mark and beyond).

So, no, I will not apologize for trying to help you. And I’ll continue to provide you with the absolute best marketing investments you can make for your company, along with the smorgasbord of the juicy marketing info I dish out for free.

Sorry, not sorry. 😉

P.S. Speaking of selling, tomorrow I’ll tell you if it’s a good idea for you to star in your own TV ads. Television is NOT for everyone… but it can wildly boost business if you have the right personality.

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