MegaMarketer Coachcast for Contractors

Summary:

In this week's episode of the MegaMarketer Coachcast, hosts Justin Jacob and China Morissette talk about techniques and strategies for getting more upsells and improving your closing ratio.

Main Questions Asked:

• What does it mean to upsell?
• How would you go about looking at a market to see if offer a new service would be a good investment to make?

Key Lessons Learned:

Getting The Upsell

• It doesn't matter what business you're in, there are only three ways to grow. You add to your customer base, you increase the number of transactions, or you increase the transaction size.
• If you can increase the average size of your transactions by $50, that can translate to a large amount of revenue at the end of the year.
• The first thing you need to do to earn your customer's trust is to make sure that your technician is on time. First impressions are very important, your tech has to be on time, prepared, and friendly.
• Covering your feet in a customer's house can go a long way. It shows that you actually care about their home, and by extension them.
• Always take the time to walk the homeowner through what you're doing. It shows you to be the expert they believe you are and establishes the trust that leads to the next step.
• The technician can be a major difference for the customer, if they build a relationship with the technician, that can function a lot like customer retention.
• Make sure when you arrive at the home to investigate the original problem first. Don't jump the gun trying to go for the big sale. An upsell needs to go up from somewhere, without the initial sale you won't have anything to build off of. Your technician needs to have the technical skills to solve your customer's problem but also the soft skills to see down the line and articulate what they need in a professional way.
• It takes time to build a relationship and earn trust. Sales is not for everybody though, there are a lot of technicians that aren't interested in doing sales. In those situations, it makes sense to have a designated closer come in to help the homeowner make a positive decision.
• Presentation can make all the difference. Show the homeowner that you are on their side. Present the benefits of fixing the problem instead of doing a band aid solution.
• Train your technicians to look for the additional parts that will need to be fixed. Those will naturally become the upsell offer.
• If you are running a campaign or a manufacturer is offering something special, make sure your technicians know about it. A special offer may be the thing that gets a customer to commit, but they can't do that if the tech doesn't know about the offer.
• Convey to the customer what the cost of not making the big decision today is going to cost them over time.
• Homeowners may need to plan for the expense. Your tech should be able to help them understand what the expense is going to be and leave them with information if they need time to make a decision.
• If the people in your market never answer their phone, or show up on time, those are the things that will set you apart.
• The big brands are very rarely the lowest price. People are calling them because they have spent time building up their brand and reputation.
• We usually understand the benefit of the upsell to our bottom line, but we also have to convey the benefit to the customer. Those are things you have to sell, that you are saving them time and money.
• When you think about what the customer actually needs, that's going to give you the empathy you need to come up with great marketing.
• If you want to increase your closing ratio, you have to put in the time and the training. If you don't make an investment in your staff, you will reap the results.
• When you're finished with your homeowner that needed the service call, go to the neighbor's houses and check with them as well. A lot of times the equipment in a neighborhood is in the same condition and they may be in the same situation soon enough. Saying you were over at Mr. Smith's house doing some work can create instant trust and is a great way to find new customers.

Offering Additional Services

• The first step is doing research on the competition. Is there anyone else doing it? Can you do it as well or better? Can you do it for the same price or less?
• Just because no one else is doing it, that doesn't mean it needs to be done. There may be a reason that no one is doing it.
• If there aren't many people doing it, but it is something that people have asked about you may have found the sweet spot.
• The following step is putting together marketing pieces that educate the customer on what the service is and why the customer needs it. The extra service then becomes marketing gold, because it's something that differentiates you from the competition.
• Be careful about jumping into a new technology, you can buy into some very expensive equipment that can become obsolete very quickly.
• Although price is going to be important for a lot of consumers, trust will trump price.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

[email protected]

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In this week's episode of the MegaMarketer Coachcast, hosts Justin Jacob and China Morissette talks about the most important word in the English language, yes! Justin and China talk about different ways that you can get to that final yes.

Main Questions Asked:

• What are the different stages of saying yes?

Key Lessons Learned:

Getting To Yes

• The final yes is actually a series of yes's that build up to the customer choosing you to be their contractor.
• The process starts with everyone and everything in your business. Every team member and marketing piece should be a part of your sales team that is helping you get to yes.
• When you realize that everyone that interacts with your customers has a part to play in making sure that customer stays a customer, then you will always be closing throughout the process.
• The marketing process is the first step in getting your customer to say yes to your business in the form of a click or a call. This is essentially your customer raising their hand and saying they are interested.
• For every opportunity to get a yes, you also have an opportunity to hear a no. Try to remove all the hurdles that you can and avoid answering the phone with a negative attitude in your voice. If you have phone calls coming in and they don't convert to appointments, you can't blame the media. You have another issue with the sales process.
• Everyone in your organization should understand your value proposition and why a customer should choose your business.
• You don't want to overpromise and underdeliver, but if you can be the first person to schedule an appointment and commit to fixing their problem, the better your chances of standing out and making a good impression.
• Letting the customer know you're willing to work for them by being flexible with your hours can be quite effective.
• Not every customer is basing their choice on price, for those customers their main consideration is usually how convenient you can make it for them.
• The next yes for a customer is allowing a contractor into their home. Be careful with who you are hiring, your CSR is going to be the face of your company for that customer.
• A knowledgeable and friendly CSR can be very powerful in building trust.
• The big yes is where your business lives or dies. It's where your customer trusts your knowledge over their own or their competitors. You have to maintain your designation as an expert in the eyes of your customer but be careful about selling against your competitors.
• Ask questions at that point, questions that convey that you understand their problem and also have their solution. Refocus their attention on the problem and not the cost of the service. Make sure the customer knows that you are there to help and fix their problem, not to pressure them on the sale.
• The reality is that most customers go into this conversation a little jaded and think that you are trying to take advantage of them. Do what you can to give them more confidence in what you can do for them and that you are not there to pressure them. You will probably get the work because you are there on the scene and showing them the problem.
• Your customers should never feel like you are presenting a solution with a big price tag because you are motivated by the commission.
• You also have to fight against the person's natural inertia and preference for the status quo. Paint the picture for them about the cost of their problem over time and why your solution adds more value than the cost to them.
• Make it so that there are so many benefits to choosing you that it becomes the default option. Don't oversell fear but present all the benefits of working with you.
• Remember the solution is going to hurt, and the job of the CSR is to make the solution hurt less and that the cost of not doing something will far outway the negatives of dealing with their problem. Show them the hidden costs of inaction.
• A risk reducer is a good way to get the close. Guarantees and warranties can be the final nudge for the customer to say yes.
• Don't wait until the final yes to be closing, throughout the conversation you should be getting buy in from the customer with simple questions like "does that make sense?".
• Doing an assumptive sale once it seems like the customer has made the decision to work with you is a good way to close. Give the customer options where both answers are yes. People like options but be careful with giving too many, you customer will choose none of the above if they feel overwhelmed.
• There are micro yes's at every stage of the process. Once you've got the big yes it's time to ask for the referral and if they is anything you can improve on.
• Asking what you can do better is a no-lose proposition. If they say yes, that's great. If they say no, you now have a chance and the knowledge to improve.
• Some customers will say no and that's okay. When you find you have lost to a competitor, take note on what they did and if it's something you can duplicate.
• Maybe is really just a "yes, if…". Phrase your pitch in a way that leaves them the opportunity to say what they are concerned about and that gives you the opportunity to earn their trust again.
• Remember that it's also okay to say no to a customer, sometimes you are not the best choice for the customer and that's alright. You can go a long way with those customers by helping them find the solution they need with someone else.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

[email protected]

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In this week's episode of the MegaMarketer Coachcast, host Justin Jacob interviews Mike Montano. Mike had been a contractor for over 20 years and when he started his business marketing was one of the areas he struggled with. He put in the work and learned that trust and credibility were crucial, which is when the idea for ReviewBuzz came from.

Main Questions Asked:

• How does ReviewBuzz work?
• Why are reviews important?
• What are some best practices to dealing with bad reviews?

Key Lessons Learned:

ReviewBuzz

• The customer experience is pretty much entirely dependent on your employees. For contractors, it's not about looking good, it's about being good. Nothing will move the needle more than the quality of your work.
• ReviewBuzz is both a review management system as well as a review engagement program. It incentivizes employees and technicians through gamification to deliver better customer experiences.
• Most employees will not ask for a review, but customer experience management is one of the most important things for the future of contractors.
• The simplest way to get more reviews is to ask. If you deliver a good experience, the customer will usually be happy to give a review. If they're reluctant or you think they may not give a good review, that's an opportunity to address an issue and make it right.
• If you personalize the ask, it increases the number of customers engaging and the overall number of positive reviews.
• Most people will leave a positive review if you make it easy to do so.
• A lot of contractors will be able to relate to the experience of creating positive word of mouth and how referrals can build their business. Today word of mouth is online, people will look to see what others have said about you before making a buying decision.
• Google competes against companies like Yelp and Facebook, if you want to rank highly for SEO positive reviews matter.
• Reviews will also impact your ability to upsell additional products and services. When you're selling your services, it's not just about the quality of the equipment, it's also about the quality of the installers. Review show that your installers have a track record of taking care of your customers needs.
• The most valuable reviews will focus on the experience more than the equipment. 97% of shoppers say review influence their decision one way or another. Displaying reviews can increase conversion rates by up to 200%.

The Customer Experience

• As the algorithms get smarter the consistency of the reviews are becoming more important.
• You can't just look good, you have to actually be good. Ideally from the first call to the final install.
• No one has more of an impact of the customer experience than your employees. When they don't have to protect their personal reputation, there is not as much commitment on their end.
• One way you can avoid negative reviews is by giving your potential customer options. If your CSR is booked up, offer to recommend the customer to one of your friendly competitors.
• Your employees and marketing are the face of your business. Unless there is something in place to encourage accountability in your employees, it can be hard to maintain a consistent customer experience.

Dealing With Bad Reviews

• It's never too late to go back and apologize.
• Going above and beyond to make things right can turn a bad review into a good one.
• Talking to disgruntled and unhappy customers is the perfect opportunity to learn how to improve your business. There is a lot you can learn about your business that you would not be able to otherwise from people who are more than happy to tell you what your company did wrong.
• Investigate what the issue is, many of the times you can make the issue go away with nothing more than your time and willingness to listen.
• Your customers don't care about your brand, they do care about your people.
• Being remarkable is essentially showing authentic care. If you show that you care about your customer, your customer will reciprocate with a review for your business.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

[email protected]

[email protected]

In this week's episode of the MegaMarketer Coachcast, hosts Justin Jacob and China Morissette talks about putting programs in place that will drastically change your business. Find out why the last thing your competitors want is for you to implement a customer retention system.

Main Questions Asked:

• What is customer retention?
• Should contractors focus on digital or offline?

Key Lessons Learned:

Customer Retention

• Customer retention is basically the process of keeping the customers you have spent the time and energy to acquire. You should put in as much effort to keep your customers as you did to gain them in first place.
• We often fall into the trap of assuming that once someone does business with us they will continue to do business with us, which just isn't true.
• Customer retention isn't optional.
• The first thing you have to decide is who your customer is. According to the Pareto Principle, 80% of your revenue will come from 20% of your customers.
• You have to train yourself to look at your customer database as a resource. Studies say that 11% of existing customers will leave your business for totally avoidable reasons.
• Most people don't leave because they are upset with your service or product, they leave because they just don't remember who you are and drift away.
• By the year 2022, the battleground of retail sales will not be over price or availability of product, but the experience of the customer. That can make the business of contracting tricky, you have to ask yourself what you can do to add to the experience of a person being a customer of yours.
• Are you communicating with your customers in the way they want to communicate? You have to take into account how your customers want to interact with your business and allow them to do that. Just because you may not use social media, that doesn't eliminate the fact that a large proportion of your potential customers do.
• You have to add value to your customer's relationship and not just try to sell them all the time. Tips on how to save money and conserve energy are great options.
• You have to consider the content you are posting on social media, the purpose of your posts is to create a window that allows people to connect with your business.
• Investing in the relationship will increase your ability to eventually make an offer to your customer.
• It's very easy to set yourself apart in your marketplace by going above what everyone else is doing. Don't lower your price, add more value to the customer experience.
• If your plan doesn't include some sort of customer retention, you make moves without having the foundation to support them. If your customers are falling through the bottom of your funnel, you will have to spend 5x to 8x more to buy them back.
• Don't forget your competitors, they are trying to bring your customers over to their business. It's their lead generation versus your customer retention.
• Running a loss leader offer relies entirely on keeping the customer for the long term, without a structured customer retention plan in place the offer will never pay off.
• Commercial contracts are built on the relationship you have with the principals of the business. Many deals are based on likability rather than price.
• It's not just about digital marketing, offline marketing can be extremely powerful as well. Putting effort into both approaches is a better strategy to connect with more customers. Don't let potential customers get neglected because you don't want to take advantage of a particular channel.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

[email protected]

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800-489-9099

In this episode of the Mega Marketer Coach Cast Justin Jacobs and Melissa Broadus discuss the benefits of being an ACCA member. Find out why the ACCA is the place to be for contractors and what resources are available to help you grow your contracting business.

Main Questions Asked:

• What is the ACCA?
• What are some of the tools are resources you offer?
• How do you reach out to contractors?
• What are the largest benefits of going to a conference?

Key Lessons Learned:

ACCA

• The ACCA is the Air Conditioner Contractors of America, they are a national trade association and they represent all the HVAC contractors in the industry.
• They create the standards in the industry that help contractors install equipment the right way and pick the right material to work with.
• ACCA also acts as an advocate on Capitol Hill to help explain the contractor side of the equation. The ACCA story is the story of contractors.
• They also offer training in all aspects of the business.
• Taking the good information that is available in the ACCA forum and duplicating it in your business is a great way to grow and avoid making mistakes. Asking questions will get answers from contractors all over the country and of all sizes.
• You can get access to good ideas from contractors that aren't competing with you but have still been in the same position as you. Knowing who to talk to to break through to the next level can be priceless.
• Every contractor needs to be at the national ACCA conference. It is a contractor lead mega learning event with an expo as well. Learning takes place everywhere.
• Having a different perspective is a great way to refresh your business.

Tools and Resources

• There is a lot of material available in the ACCA blog, content that is only available to members. The blog is a great way for contractors to get inside info on the industry.
• ACCA also offers webcasts that bring in experts to share their accumulated wisdom.
• For the techs in the membership, the downloads that they make available is another great resource.
• Being a member of the ACCA also gets you on their contractor locator which makes it very easy for customers to locate them.
• Contractors love to talk to other contractors. The forum gives them a place to connect with other contractors and share what they're learned.

Outreach

• Contractors are a multi-generational bunch so to reach them ACCA has to use a number of different outreach methods. For some that means the fax machine or direct mail, and for others that can be digital.
• If you send out a stunning, informative direct mail piece, you are going to see a good return on that. Direct mail works and is worth the time and money.
• You're dealing with different people that consume media in different ways. You have to use the different tools available.
• You have to tell the story, not just asking the person to buy something. Calls to action are important but you have to explain why it's worth their time.
• People don't like to be sold to on social media. 80% of your social media content should be helpful, valuable, or entertaining.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

Acca.org

Promo code: HUDSON

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In this week's episode of the MegaMarketer Coachcast, hosts Justin Jacobs brings on Allen Kent to discuss what's working and not working in North Indiana and Kent Heating and Air.

Main Questions Asked:

• What is your story?
• What are some things you did to establish yourself in the area?
• What changes have you seen over time?
• What does 2019 look like for you company?

Key Lessons Learned:

Kent Heating and Air

• Kent has been in business for 65 years and regard themselves as a marketing company. They specialize in the design and service of HVAC.
• They have a targeted customer acquisition program thanks to Hudsons Ink.
• Allen's father started the company in 1954 and Allen purchased it in 1991.
• After four years of effort, the company moved into a brand new 7700 sq ft facility and set a sales record last year with a 14% in sales. Despite the big move Allen still found the time to make sure that everyone that worked there still had fun and got things done.
• Just because you've been around a long time, that doesn't necessarily lead naturally to success.
• No matter what size your business is, if your employees are enjoying their work and feel appreciated, it will show in what their doing.
• To pull off substantial growth you have to stay focused on your core business. Your core business drives it all.
• Do your employees have the same pride and ownership as you do? Let your employees take ownership of what they do.
• When Allen took over the business didn't really have a brand identity so one of the first things they did was develop a marketing plan and line up the brand image across the company.
• In a lot of ways Hudson Adams became Allen's mentor and helped them rework their yellow pages ad that increased its effectiveness by 245%.
• Allen believes the economy is going to slow down a little bit so he's aiming for 5%-6% growth. His plans include getting ready to transition the business to the next owner and to be more timely on his Tuesday night thank you calls.
• Every Tuesday afternoon Allen calls his recent installation customers and personally thanks them. That's one of the things Allen believes has really helped build his business and generate referrals. It's a great way to find out about your business and shows that you really care.
• People will give you feedback if you make it easy for them.

Marketing

• The yellow pages used to be the go to resource for contractors. It wasn't a question of whether you were going to run yellow pages ads, it was how much money are you going to spend?
• The great shift in marketing is going from offline to online, but that also means there is an opportunity in the direct mail channel. The mailbox is less crowded now, and that means your message is more easily seen by your customers.
• Social media and websites have been one of the biggest changes in marketing in the last several years.
• You have to sell to a potential customer in the way that they want to be sold.
• Email used to be the easiest and cheapest way to reach people but then email became crowded as everyone jumped on the bandwagon. The pendulum has swung back to direct mail.
• The secret is a consistent marketing message.
• Referrals and direct mail and Allen's best sources of new customers. There is nothing quite as powerful having someone refer your business. Everything has to work together to turn your customers into raving fans.
• Don't give people a reason not to refer you.
• Cheesy offers deliver cheesy results. Don't do gimmicks.
• Try to enter into the conversation that your customer is having their own mind and when that battle.
• Any media you choose, the standard will be the same. Some portion of people will respond and some won't, the ones that won't might respond the next time.
• You make specific offers to different areas, the important point is to ensure the message is consistent with everything else you do.
• Making the transition from talking about yourself to talking about your customer is one of the biggest hurdles for new marketers. Your customers don't care about how long you've been in business, they want to know you can fix their problem.
• You have to build and earn your customer's trust, they've probably been burned by some bad contractors before.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

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In this week's episode of the MegaMarketer Coachcast, hosts Justin Jacob and China Morissette talks about how to balance your marketing holistically. They also go over how you should approach the end of the year season in preparation for 2019 and why retention may be the most important strategy you implement in your business.

Main Questions Asked:

• Did you feel like you were being sold most of the time?
• What should contractors do right now?

Key Lessons Learned:

Marketing

• Hudsons Ink coaches against spending a ton of marketing dollars near the end of the year. People are spending money, but it's mainly allocated for Christmas.
• The smarter contractors are using this time of year to figure out what they should be focusing on and getting organized for next year.
• A lot of contractors look back at what didn't work over the past year and tend to want to cut those activities out completely.
• You should try to balance out your marketing so that when one thing doesn't work, another effort picks up the slack.
• Don't scrap one thing entirely but don't go all in on one tactic either.
• You have to be willing to skip over a large portion of your prospective customer base if you go all in on one direction.
• Having a balanced approach makes it easier to adapt when things do change.
• Every marketing trend will eventually change. At one time email was very effective and exciting but is now extremely crowded. Even Amazon is circling back with direct mail and print marketing materials.
• When a customer is ready to buy, the first place they go to is the business that communicates with them the most.
• Target your message and use a bunch of different mediums to reach them.
• New customers are not the only way to grow. Your current customer base is a gold mine.
• Past customers want to work with people they know and trust, as long as they know you're there and ready to go you should be their first choice.
• There are three ways to grow your business: you can grow your customer base, increase the frequency that customers buy, or increase the average amount of money your customers spend.
• When it comes to marketing, you need to have an offense and a defense. Without making sure your customers know who you are and staying top of mind, your competitors will take your customers away.
• Be careful with your judgements of what worked. Not every message you send out will get a response.
• It's hard to measure the ROI of a retention strategy, but if you have a good retention strategy in place you will notice the benefits.
• When you look at your customer base you probably think of them as 'your' customers, but do they think of you as their contractor?
• Provide value in your marketing efforts. If every time your customer hears from you and you're trying to sell them something, they will eventually turn away. Even a small extra step can set you apart from your competition.
• Marketing is about momentum and setting up a smart plan and sticking to it.

Sales

• The sales people that China remembers most were the ones that took the time to get to know what she truly needed.
• As the marketing coordinator, you are responsible for establishing the ROI from all marketing activities.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

[email protected]

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In this week's episode of the MegaMarketer Coachcast, hosts Scott Smith talks about everything to do with your website. Find out whether you need a new site, why your current site is not converting and what you can do about it.

Main Questions Asked:

• Should I have website or not?
• How do I measure my results?
• How do I use email marketing?

Key Lessons Learned:

Web Marketing

• Everyone needs a website, even if you're a one truck operation.
• Your customers will research you online before they call you, they want to verify you first.
• Your website is your digital storefront, without one you are hobbling your business.
• Keep the content on your website up to date. Put a plan together to keep your site fresh and target seasonal keywords. You are trying to impress Google and get high rankings for the keywords you care about.
• Make sure what you are doing is in line with Google's best practices, you don't want to be blacklisted.
• Make sure you have a lead capture form on your homepage, if you have it buried somewhere you are not going to convert your website traffic to leads.
• Offer your visitors something useful in exchange for their contact information. Don't be shy about asking for that info, people aren't checking in with your website casually just to see what you're up to.
• Creating content is a great way generate traffic. If you already do radio or television spots, use that info on your website as additional content.
• Don't just throw money at your digital marketing, measure your results and track the metrics that actually matter to your business. Leads and conversions are all that ultimately matter. A digital campaign is only as good as the conversion tools on the backend.
• Live chat on your website is a great option for many websites, it gives a visitor the opportunity to connect with someone instantly or failing that, a chatbot can walk them through the process.
• Find a good company to partner up with and expand your reach. There is no better introduction than from one vendor or contractor to another.
• Keep a focus on ROI and make sure the money you spend is money you've invested. About 5% of your total residential sales should be going to marketing.
• Have a system in place to manage your online reputation. Ask your customers for positive reviews because most contractors don't bother.
• You are going to get negative reviews on your business, but how you respond is more important than the review itself. If you can resolve the issue, ask them to revisit the review. Show that you are willing to make things right because not every business is willing to do that.

Email Marketing

• Many contractors have a huge database but no email addresses, there are ways to get that info and take advantage of email marketing.
• Don't use email to always hard sell, send out useful content at least twice a month and sell only occasionally.
• There are a number of free services that you can take advantage of when it comes to email marketing.
• You need to have an autoresponder that keeps your new lead engaged. Every second that goes by after someone submits their information, the lead gets colder.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

hudsonink.com/scorecard

In this week's episode of the MegaMarketer Coachcast, hosts Scott Smith and Sara Kathryn King discuss the topic of social listening to help you identify your next likely buyer. They also discuss a number of tactics you can use to drive repeat business and encourage positive reviews.

Main Questions Asked:

• What is social listening?
• What are the platforms we should be thinking about?
• What is conversation growth?

Key Lessons Learned:

Social Listening

• A social marketer should always be on the lookout for new ways to approach and identify new buyers.
• Social listening is essentially putting your feelers out and hearing what people are talking about. It's way of solving someone's problem before they even realize it's a problem.
• For example, someone complaining about their high energy bill is a perfect target for a contractor to connect with because they can probably offer them a solution.
• Spend time on the social networks that have the highest volume of conversation about things that are relevant to your brand.
• What are some tell tale signs that you can recognize because you are a contractor that you can help people with?
• Your conversation isn't just about your brand, it's about everything your brand deals with. Just targeting your brand will leave out 90% of the conversation that your customers are having.
• Search your competitors to learn how you can differentiate your business and highlight how you're superior. You can actually advertise to a competitor's customers specifically in an indirect way.
• Hootsuite, Brand Watch, and Google Alerts are great tools to help your social listening efforts.
• Knowing your local market is an asset, you can identify what is happening and target it directly and immediately.
• There are different types of conversations that you will generally have on social media. Your customers will probably not rave about the product that was installed, they are more likely to talk about the service they received.
• People complain more than they praise the service they receive. The best way to prevent a large disproportion of negativity is to ask for a good review, don't leave it up to chance.
• Get ahead of problems and turn complaints into an opportunity for higher and better service.
• Repeat business is the name of the game in contracting, anything you can do to keep people interested and engaged will help you keep customers coming back for more.

Conversation Growth

• You have to identify which platform the conversation is happening on and which one is currently growing.
• You don't want to spend money on advertising on a platform where your customers are not spending their time on.
• It's easy to give up if you only try it for a month, you have to give time for people to talk and your skills in social listening improve.
• Pay attention to conversations and engagement drivers around your brand. Certain hashtags can be extremely valuable to your business.
• Hashtags are basically a content well that allows you to see everyone who is talking about that topic.

Influencers

• Influencers don't have to be LeBron James or Kim Kardashian. A local news anchor or even your wife can be a social influencer that has a valuable reach that you can tap into.
• Social networks are putting more emphasis on authentic connections between people and less on brands, leverage your personal connections.

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In this week's episode of the MegaMarketer Coachcast, hosts Scott Smith and Justin Jacobs discuss the basics of marketing by covering the 5 M's of marketing. The 5 M's cover nearly everything you need to know about marketing and building your business.

Main Questions Asked:

• What are the five M's?

Key Lessons Learned:

Message

• Identifying what you want to say is important. Marketers have a tendency to say everything they want to say in one spot but it's a big mistake.
• People are distracted, you have a matter of seconds to communicate your message quickly. People will not read through a piece to learn every service that you offer.
• If you're offering a service, get to the reason why they should call you for that service.
• Make sure your headlines are capturing their attention quickly.
• When you blend all your offers together, none of them stand out and they all lose effectiveness.

Media

• The media can be almost anything including direct mail, YouTube videos, Facebook, or TV.
• The consensus for the last few years is that everyone wants to talk digital but a lot of the tech giants are circling back to direct mail.
• As one media becomes saturated, it makes the less crowded channels more effective.
• You need a good balance between physical media and digital media for your marketing campaign to have the greatest impact.
• Every market is different and prices will change depending on where your business operates.
• Radio is not the best option for direct response, but it works well as a branding effort and to generate top of mind awareness.
• One of the benefits of digital is it provides a fair amount of segmentation and allows you to target more accurately.

Month

• Marketing is salesmanship multiplied by media.
• Imagine your best sales pitch being presented to five thousand people at the same, that's what marketing can do for you.
• You have to shape what you're saying and presenting to fit the time it's going out.
• Match the message match the market you are after when it makes sense for your market to hear it.
• If your timing is off, you can have a great offer with a great message and the right media and still get no return.

Money

• At least 3% of your top line residential sales to as high as 10% should be dedicated to marketing.
• You can sort the kinds of messaging you want to put out and segment your budget to the efforts you know to be the most effective.
• No two plans are the same, you have to tailor your plan to your unique local market and your unique business.
• You can have an excellent campaign but still waste money if there is a weak link in your business's ability to service the clients.
• The best way to not waste money on marketing is to track your results.
• Marketing is not money spent, it's money invested.
• Digital marketing has a bad habit of measuring metrics that don't build your business, you can't put a Facebook like in the bank.

Market

• Your market is the most important component, if you don't put your message in front of the right people, the whole effort was a waste.
• If you were to look at your database and find your twenty best customers, what do they have in common?
• Ask for the rankings of any radio spots you are considering, does that radio station have listeners that you even want to target?
• When all five components of marketing are working in unison, you can achieve incredible results.
• Marketing has a momentum, it can be hard to get it going but once you have it moving it will keep producing results for your business.

Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!

Links to Resources Mentioned

Call your coach 1-800-489-9099