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Don’t Be The Fat Kid Shooting 3’s In The Driveway

Contractor Marketing
If you’re serious about getting to $10MM, you’re going to have to Master internet marketing.

That’s Master, with a capital M.

Like Steph Curry is the Master of the 3-point shot.

But honestly, most remodelers are more like a fat kid hoisting 3’s in his driveway. They’re just not very good at internet marketing

But Mastery is non-negotiable—if you want to get to $10MM. Here’s why:

1.    Every lead you ever get from any source is going to check out your website. All of them. And if you’re not careful, your website will scare them off—without you even knowing it.

2.    There are a TON of prospects wandering around the internet just waiting to be captured by you… or somebody else who is better at doing so.

To learn more about the Make The Jump Event click here.

In terms of websites: yours MUST be fresh, clean, and current. It has to turn LOOKERS into BUYERS. You have to build a case for why you’re different and better than your competitors. You have to show them plenty of evidence. You have to be convincing.

Especially considering your prices are going to be 50% to 150% higher than your competitors.

Fat kid in the driveway isn’t going to cut it.

Want to see what your website SHOULD look like? Click here, here, here, or here.

If you want to learn more about what goes into a great website, watch this webinar.

Now let’s shift gears and talk about SEO & PPC.

These are two of the least understood weapons in the remodeler’s toolkits—because sellers of SEO & PPC have been ripping remodelers off for well over a decade now.

Everyone has stories of failure and doom. And most of them are true. You do have to be careful when wading into these waters.

But flushing SEO & PPC down the toilet because some company ripped you off makes no more sense than homeowners flushing remodeling down the toilet because contractors have a bad reputation.

Get over it—there are hundreds and hundreds of leads just WAITING to be captured.

Obviously, you have to have a killer website or else the prospects that land on your site are going to draw the natural conclusion that you suck. Airball.

But beyond that, what are the rules? How does it work? What should you do?

For SEO, it’s simple. You have to add TONS and TONS and TONS of relevant, interesting, and well-written content and add it to your site.

Every. Single. Month.

Content can mean articles, blog posts, videos, geographic-specific pages, product-specific pages, case studies, project photos, online reviews—just to name a few.

Google sees all that stuff and rates you higher than your competitors who don’t put in the time and effort to do so. It’s just that simple.

But still, most SEO companies try to shortcut the process. The key words above were “relevant, interesting, and well-written.” Most companies settle for poorly written, irrelevant, and uninteresting.

Fat kid hoisting 3’s in the driveway.

And they wonder why Google keeps crucifying them.

SEO to the level you need to get to $10MM is going to cost you about $1,200 to $3,000 a month—and it strictly depends on how aggressive and good your competitors are (at SEO).

Most of our clients are on a $1,200 a month plan and are riding first page (and many #1) rankings… and rising. A few of our clients pay double that because they are in super competitive markets, or they have a few really bad reviews that we have to bury. (note: bad reviews does NOT necessarily mean they are a bad company. It often means that some idiot jack-wagon has a vendetta against them. You also need to actively manage your online reputation and reviews).

Not doing SEO is not an option. It’s 100% mandatory.

But what about PPC?

To be a $10MM company, you’re going to want to Master this one as well.

To learn more about the Make The Jump Event click here.

Google recently changed the way its search results look. The top FOUR spots are now ads, then a map, and then the “organic” (SEO) results.

Take a look:

Roofing Dallas google search
Let me give you the short course on PPC, then give you some links to read more if you want.

PPC providers are worse than the SEO guys. There are a TON of them that have ZERO clue what they are doing. Most of them are simply taking your money and putting it on an online automated bidding platform that takes a huge chunk of the money you paid to use. You never know this except when you get crappy results. I want to emphasize—they literally have no idea what they are doing. None.

Fat kid in the driveway trying to shoot a medicine ball.

The few that don’t use an automated system have SOME clue, but almost always are generating fewer leads than you should be getting.

To get to $10MM, you have to find a great PPC company, then once you’re satisfied they’re good, SPEND AS MUCH MONEY AS POSSIBLE WITH THEM!

Why? Because every dollar they spend is going to bring you leads.

But not just leads. Leads from the people who are actively trying to find somebody to buy from!!!!

Once you have a great website and you’ve Mastered SEO & PPC, you’re ready to talk about MEDIA advertising. Radio and TV.

And radio and TV is what is going to make you a millionaire.

Next post, I’ll explain how.

Happy Marketing! For info about the upcoming 2-day seminar, click here.

P.S. Here’s a great webinar I did on SEO & PPC called “The No BS Webinar On SEO & PPC

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What A $10MM Marketing Budget Looks Like

Marketing Budget
Early in my career, I thought I would perform a noble service for my clients by helping them minimize their advertising expenses.

Specifically, I was consulting with an $8MM sunroom and window company in Savannah, GA, and helping them manage a $100,000 a month advertising budget.

About 2 or 3 months into the relationship, I nipped and tucked different parts of the budget, and got it down to about $85,000. I was excited to have “saved” my client a significant amount of money.

At the end of the month, as I reviewed the results with my client, he saw the reduced budget number and went berserk.

And not in a good way.

“I have to spend the money to buy my leads!” he chastened me. “Every dollar you don’t spend means fewer leads and less sales. From now on, spend EVERY. SINGLE. DOLLAR.”

Point taken.

So with that as a backdrop, consider these 2 important points as you ponder growing your business to $10MM in sales (or more):

  1. You need to budget a bare minimum of 10% of sales to marketing. 12% would be better.
  2. You’re probably going to have to find new ways to spend that money.

The 10% rule is iron-clad. You can’t fudge on it. As you grow, you can’t say “we’re getting big enough now that we can scale back and pocket the savings.”

If you want to do $5MM next year, you need to plan AND SPEND $500,000.

If you want to do $10MM next year, you need to plan AND SPEND $1,000,000.

The problem is—lots of smaller companies are only spending 5% or less right now. They’re doing $2.3MM in sales on $9,240 in advertising a month. Or something like that.

I’ve seen it a thousand times. Invariably, those companies are relying heavily on repeat and referral business. There’s nothing wrong with repeat and referral; it’s just not scalable to $10MM a year. There’s a reason they’ve been in business for 33 years and haven’t ever cracked $3MM.

You have to spend money to make money. There’s no way around it.

I covered in an earlier post the urgent need to raise your prices. Your prices need to be high so you can afford to do things the right way (materials, people, business practices), and so you can afford to spend the necessary money on marketing.

Commit to it. If you can’t/won’t/don’t, we have no need for further discussion—you’re dismissed.

Assuming you’re still reading, now you have to figure out where to spend all that money.

Here is the answer, in order of importance:

  •  Your Bread And Butter: Whatever you are currently doing that is reliably generating leads at a reasonable cost… keep doing that. In fact, investigate if it’s possible to spend even more money on it. I don’t care what “it” is—if it’s working, keep doing it.
  • SEO: You should be spending $1,000 to $3,000 a month on SEO & online reputation management. It’s mandatory. If you’re not, you are willingly passing up juicy leads. Cheap, juicy leads.  Lots of them. Plus, you’ll bury negative reviews and remove buyer skepticism.
  • PPC: Spend every single cent you can on PPC—Every. Single. Cent. One of my big clients was spending PPC on a budget; in other words, $15,000 a month or something… then they’d run out of budget on the 15th or 20th of the month. That’s insane. Don’t spend a specific amount—spend as much as you possibly can every month! This is low-hanging fruit—people who want to buy RIGHT NOW! Get a good PPC company and buy every single lead they can give you.
  • TV And Radio: With very few exceptions, you’re not going to get to $10MM without TV and radio. I’ll cover this in more detail in a future email, but for now, trust me—it’s mandatory. And it’s a huge part of my upcoming 2-day seminar in Dallas (April 26 & 27).
  • Other Stuff: Try other stuff like direct mail, home shows, Val-Pak, and so forth. Set a budget to try things that, if they work, can become part of your bread and butter category.

That’s it—80% to 90% of your budget should go to the above categories—it will make 80% to 90% of the difference.

And if you want to nitpick with me about “well we did this or that and we grew to $10MM,” keep it to yourself. I’m not interested.

There are lots of factors in marketing. I’ve seen one company grow to $40MM with practically no TV and radio. And another grew to $30MM on the strength of direct mail. But guess what—they both came to me for TV and radio expertise to get them to $100MM. And guess what else? They were both in top 10 (size) markets. The scaling is a little different. But the principles remain true.

Here’s how you do it, practically speaking:

  1. Determine your budget using the 10% method. If your goal next year is $6MM, that’s $600,000 a year. If your business is seasonal, adjust the monthly spend accordingly. Don’t worry—if your prices are set correctly, you can afford this.
  2. Spend as much money as you can (profitably) on your bread and butter advertising.
  3. If you have money left over, spend it on SEO & online reputation management.
  4. If you have money left over, spend it on PPC.
  5. If you have money left over, start buying TV and/or radio with at least 50% of the extra money (80% would be better).
  6. If you have money left, spend it on other stuff. But you may just want to spend it on TV and radio.

This formula can get you from $3MM to $10MM in less than 5 years.

And yes, you can get to $10MM using “Bread and Butter” and “Other Stuff”—in fact, that’s exactly what the typical remodeler does—and it’s why most of them max out at less than $5MM. But even those who do get to $10MM take 10 to 15 years to get there. Maybe longer. And maybe never.

But to get there FAST (2 to 4 years), you’ve got to start harnessing the magic power of TV and radio as soon as possible.

It’s the grand key to quick and sustainable growth.

Why?

It’s a combination of things: TV is the most credible medium, with radio a close second. It’s inexpensive in terms of reaching a TON of people at a reasonable cost. And it’s a great medium for communicating with power, precision, and passion.

Nothing beats TV. Nothing.

I’ll prove it to you in an upcoming post.

For info about the upcoming 2-day seminar called “Make the Jump to $10MM” click here.

Until then, happy marketing!

P.S. Before I get to TV, I’m going to circle back around and cover PPC and SEO in my next post. It’s a sure thing that you’re not getting the bang for your buck that you should—I’ll help you fix that.

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This Contractor Is Cleaning House In Sin City


One of the best movies ever made—and this is an undisputed fact—is Rain Man.

You know the flick: Dustin Hoffman plays the titular autistic math genius and Tom Cruise plays his opportunistic brother. Cruise’s character takes Hoffman’s to Las Vegas to count cards and clean out the casinos.

If you have even a passing interest in gambling, you know that card counting is a HUGE no-no in Vegas. It’s not illegal, but casinos don’t like when their prey—excuse me, “customers”—have any sort of upper hand over the house.

In Rain Man, a casino finds out about Tom Cruise’s scheme and has some goons kick the snot out of him in a back alley. In real life, you’d probably just be banned from the building (at least, I hope that’s all).

The truth, though, is that while card counting is frowned upon, it’s a 100% surefire method to clean up in Vegas.

Want to know a 100% surefire (and completely kosher way that won’t get you beaten up) method to clean up with PPC? Put MYM in charge of your campaign.

The guy who runs our PPC division is the Rain Man of pay-per-click. He’s a wizard with PPC numbers—so much so he often bores me to tears with his endless talk about impression share percentages, click-thru rates, and other nerd stats.

I guess you can say I’m Tom Cruise in this scenario (except better looking). The difference is I don’t use my Rain Man’s special ability solely for my own personal gain… I harness his otherworldly PPC powers for the benefit of our clients.

Here’s an example…

Our PPC Rain Man is currently helping a client called Home Masters clean house in Las Vegas. We launched the client’s PPC campaign on December 13th, 2015. Since then, they’ve generated 118 PPC leads. One hundred and eighteen.

It took the standard three months to fully optimize the client’s campaign. But once we did, well… the results speak for themselves.

For example, during Cycle 6 (5/14/16 to 6/16/16), Home Masters’ PPC campaign generated 33 leads at a cost per lead of only $150.25. What’s even more amazing is that from June 6/5/16 to 6/11/16 in that cycle, the company’s campaign brought in 12 leads for $85.57 per lead.

Think about that: Fresh, high-quality leads for 85 bucks a pop. Eighty-five dollars can’t even buy a few bags of groceries anymore. And it’s, what, a third of the cost of one of your kid’s college textbooks?

But low-cost, high-quality leads like these are possible when you have the PPC Rain Man helping your campaign. No gambling, chance, or luck involved. As long as you follow a few extremely simple requirements (click here for info), we guarantee it will make you money.

Want to know if your website is getting enough eyeballs and producing leads? Let us perform a Website Visibility Audit. We’ll tell you exactly where you’re ranking on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. And if you have an active PPC campaign, we’ll put it under the microscope to see if it’s bringing in business—or hemorrhaging cash.

Get started by clicking here.

Thanks!

-Rich

P.S. In the next day or two, I’ll tell you how we painstakingly overhauled every square inch of a client’s SEO efforts in one week. From updating the keywords to improving the nerd coding to posting 60-plus blog articles that search engines go gaga over, we gave this client’s SEO “the works” in just seven days. Stay tuned.

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You Can’t Teach Stupid, And Here’s The Proof (Part II)

ID:98424338

About a month ago, I emailed you a couple of audio recordings of one of our clients botching PPC phone leads.

To summarize, the company was losing a ton of leads because the people answering their phone were, well… atrocious.

As promised, today I’m back with more recordings of cringe-worthy phone calls that resulted in lost leads.

Just so we’re clear, I’m not doing this for the schadenfreude or to embarrass anybody. I simply want to show you what not to do when PPC leads call you, so you can avoid these types of blunders.

Let’s dive in…

Lost Opportunity #1 (4/8/16): “I’m sorry, we can’t help with that.”

Click here for audio.

The lead’s first words are literally, “I’m calling to see if I can get a quote.” HOW CAN YOU MESS THAT UP?!!

This phone rep found a way.

The lead is a real-estate agent calling on behalf of someone who is renting a home and about to close on it. He needs a bid on windows to know how much money to put in escrow for the project.

The phone rep informs the lead that the current owner needs to be present during the consultation, even though the owner lives out of state.

::banging my head against wall::

Okay, I get the legalities involved if the project were to move forward. But you can’t even provide a quote? Really?

This lead wants to move forward right now. He has already received a bid from another company. He’s not going to back out. The company is not going to waste man hours on a fruitless estimate. This is a guaranteed project and guaranteed money.

Well, it is for the company that provided a bid, at least.

Lost Opportunity #2 (4/15/16): “I don’t have any answers regarding the pricing of our windows!!”

Click here for audio.

I’ll admit, the lead in this call is kind of obnoxious. He repeatedly asks for prices despite the phone rep telling him she can’t give prices over the phone.

That said, the phone rep could have easily set an appointment with this prospect had she been a little more proactive. A simple “Let’s schedule you a free estimate, so you can get exact prices and answers to your questions” would have probably done the trick.

Instead, the phone rep loses her patience and gets snippy with the prospect by the end of the call. No Bueno.

Lost Opportunity #3 (4/11/16): “We have a four-window project minimum.”

Click here for audio.

The lead says he needs one, maybe two windows replaced. The phone rep informs him that the company has four-window project minimum.

That’s all well and good. But you can tell from the lead’s uncertainty of his situation that he’ll be receptive to an up sell. He doesn’t even know how many windows he needs—where’s the harm in telling him about the benefits of having a home full of new matching, beautiful, energy-efficient windows?

Instead of doing that, the phone rep immediately refers the lead to a repair company. I’m sure the repair company thinks this call went great, but I chalk it up to a big fat missed opportunity.

The moral of the story: You don’t need the reincarnation of Zig Ziglar answering your phone. But it pays (big time) to have phone reps who are knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and not afraid to exercise the occasional salesmanship.

Want to know if your phone-answering practices are costing you job opportunities and sales? When you’re an MYM PPC client, you can.

We record, listen to and track every single phone call FOR YOU. If you’re messing up, we pause your campaign and help you fix the problem.

Will other companies do this for you? Not a chance. They’re happy to let you flounder, as long as you keep giving them money.

Let us know if we can help you out.

Thanks,

-Rich

P.S. Remember: We offer a free, no-strings, no-obligation lead generation & marketing audit if you’re curious about how effective your online marketing is. We’ll perform an in-depth analysis of your SEO, PPC, and website, and then personally review the results with you. This is a fantastic way to know exactly where you need to step up your online marketing game.

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