“No one wants to spend money on a website. It’s not the fun part. Let’s just be honest; I mean, like social media, I mean, all these other things are kind of more fun. If your website could be that salesperson that works for you when your sales guys are off, then what do you want to pay that salesperson that’s willing to work the midnight shift?”

-- Brittany Murphy, Marketing Director at One Thing Marketing

Digital marketing, earning good reviews, and building websites are nothing new in construction, but many businesses aren’t taking full advantage of their power. Brittany Murphy of One Thing Marketing dives into practical advice for you and your company on building a marketing plan or finding the right fit in a marketing agency.

Listen in as Brittany shares important metrics to track, exactly what to work on with SEO, and insights on marketing a construction/remodeling business right now. Learn more about Google My Business, online reviews, and working with marketing agencies to catapult your efforts to the next level.

Topics discussed in this interview:

- Building a career around a love for marketing

- Helping business owners understand the need for digital marketing

- Crafting a marketing plan for each individual company

- Making a website that works when you can’t

- Google ads and what to focus on

- Important factors in the Google Map Pack

- A breakdown of Google Reviews

- Is adding content to your Google page worth it?

- Synergy between web content and marketing

- What to look for in a digital marketing agency?

- Nailing the customer experience

- Developing your personal brand in construction

Discover One Thing Marketing and what they can do for you on their website, and check out a free ebook, too.

For more Construction Disruption, listen on Apple Podcasts or YouTube

Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn

This episode was produced by Isaiah Industries, Inc.

Intro/Outro: Welcome to the Construction Disruption podcast, where we uncover the future of design, building and remodeling.

Seth Heckaman: I'm Seth Heckaman of Isaiah Industries, a manufacturer of specialty metal roofing and other building materials. And today, my co-host is Ethan Young. Ethan, how are you doing today?

Ethan Young: I'm doing pretty good, Seth. How about you?

Seth Heckaman: Doing well. Looking forward to this conversation we get to have on this episode. It's a topic that is front and center in our industry. And in my experience over the time in the construction industry, in particular, home improvement and the things especially, and that is lead generation, because pretty much everyone needs more leads and wants them to cost less. That's what we're looking for constantly in our business and obviously the business of our customers, specialty contractors across the country. It is always a challenge, always an opportunity to be looking for new and better ways to generate leads. And you know, another component of that is it's only seems to become even a greater challenge year after year. Marketing costs continue to go up, lead costs continue to rise, and all while consumers are given more and more opportunities to avoid the advertising we're trying to show them while hearing the doom and gloom of impending recessions, too. So it's been especially noisy on the, "Where can I get more leads front?" here lately, it seems, and I'm excited that we're talking about that today and excited about the perspective that our guest will be able to bring, because I do think she's someone that can be of great help to us and our audience. And that guest is Brittany Murphy of One Thing, Marketing, an expert in web design, SEO, content creation, digital marketing, and much more. She is known for helping businesses rise to the top in terms of lead gen in their local markets. So without further ado, let's see what she has to share. Brittany, welcome to Construction Disruption. Thanks so much for being here.

Brittany Murphy: Hey, guys. Thanks for having me.

Seth Heckaman: Fantastic. Would love to just dive in and hear your story and journey to being the expert you are and serving the companies you do. And looking back on your LinkedIn profile, your degree in merchandising wouldn't have necessarily been the natural starting point. So I would love to hear what sparked your interest in this niche and what that journey has been.

Brittany Murphy: Yeah, and let me let all the viewers and listeners know that the degree is actually merchandising, apparel, and textiles; so completely opposite than anything trade and home remodeling. I luckily I, I had amazing supportive parents that I thought I was going to be a fashion designer for a very long time, participated in many fashion shows and went to school for it, went to New York City, realized that I love marketing, I hate New York City. I went during the cold, during schools and got to see a lot of amazing different brand launch points for, I mean, huge clothing retailers and then kind of just figured out a different way to get into marketing. And so luckily I found One Thing Marketing when it was in kind of its infancy. So I have been there for nine years and my background and to kind of why we're into trades is my dad's actually a retired pipefitter. So I know what it's like to have a dad in the trades. Have, you know, your mom yelling that if he doesn't wash his hands when he comes home, the entire house is covered in grease and everything else you wouldn't like. But the real more important kind of why we love and why I'm especially passionate about focusing on this is when you grow up in the trades, you really understand if your parents are getting a lot of jobs, if they are out there and busy, then you're eating well, you're doing great. But if their business is not thriving and they as a tech as a result is not getting jobs and therefore not getting paid because there's no work, then it's not as fun for the family to go through that adventure. And so basically we have always helped local businesses and mainly family-based businesses and kind of with my background and really realizing that trades have been left out of the marketing sphere, like people do not really kind of cater to them as much as they are now. So we kind of at that point, you know, years ago was like, why don't we really focus and invest in the people who we know will make a huge difference for them, And we can go against these national guys that are spending millions of dollars on marketing, but they're not giving the best experience. They're able to keep everybody. But my local businesses do care. They're passionate, they want to do a good job. So let's make these guys rise to the top was kind of the initiative we came from. And Dan is the owner and founder of One Thing Marketing. He started it a couple of years before I joined and actually the business became so because he had a separate business previous, he hired a marketer to build a website and do marketing for him. And unfortunately he was really taken advantage of, you know, someone who completely overpromised and under-delivered. And it's what you see a lot in our industry. And fortunately he was taking advantage of that situation. So kind of found a love and a passion for marketing as he learned to do it for himself. So it's really a beautiful kind of sandwich of all of our passions and kind of where we come back from that really makes One Thing, One Thing.

Seth Heckaman: Well, fantastic. That's interesting. I hadn't thought about that yet, but and, you know, nine, well, nine years ago when you started, eleven years when One Thing Marketing started, there was a lot fewer marketing firms out there catering to home, you know, construction trades, home improvements. That's definitely changed a little bit.

Brittany Murphy: It has, and especially so I'm based in Louisville, Kentucky. We have clients all across. And actually I was laughing because I was looking at a little bit more background, your Classic Metal Roofing Systems of Kentucky. And it's in my back yard, I'm right off Waterson Trail. So it's really nice to see you're right in my neck of the woods, too. But yes, I mean, we really kind of want to focus on that side of it. When when we started really marketing SEO here locally, almost nobody knew what it was nine years ago. I had the hardest job in sales trying to convince someone, hey, like, I can maybe show up on Google now. Like, what's what's that exactly? Like, what do you mean? So yes, it is completely changed. That's kind of why, as you mentioned previously, pricing has changed around and as well. And I know we're going to dive into all those topics. But yes, in one decade our marketing agency and all marketing agencies have completely 360-ed with what's available out there. And also the understanding now from clients on what marketing can mean for them and especially what the heck is digital marketing nowadays too.

Seth Heckaman: Sure, yeah. It's just all of it, methods, you know, companies, everything. It's just all changing so dramatically and the pace of change only probably makes it more of a challenge. And obviously we opened with me just lamenting this constant challenge of leads and wanting more, wanting them to cost less. Is that, would you agree with that? Is that what you hear from a lot of your clients? And then how do you come alongside and help?

Brittany Murphy: Yeah, I mean, when I started with this position nine years ago, people were gawking at the price of anything over $500 a month when it came to marketing. And 500 bucks nowadays is you would probably consider it chump change if a roofing company was like, Yeah, I'm only paying 500 bucks a month or home remodeler is only paying 500 bucks a month. They either have been well-established and have a huge referral and client base of repeat business. But most of the most of people around here are spending more and the reason for because of it, more people are in the game and everybody wants to make a buck nowadays. So Google and the biggest, easiest analogy is like eBay. So when you look at Google ads, the cost per click is actually based off how many other people are bidding on those keywords as well. So if you and eight other people in your area are trying to bid for kitchen remodel, then yeah, just like eBay, that drives the price up. So I think more people are aware of it. That kind of comes around it. So how I like to step aside them in their journey is figure out what do we need to tackle and what order do we need to tackle it in? Because not everyone I work with is going to have the millions of dollar budget that these huge other firms have. I work with guys that are spending a lot less than that. So what do we need to do to get the low-hanging fruit and to really compete with who your true competitors are and you kind of see out there? So it's a very fun journey. It's very customized for each person because every city and borough in the U.S. is completely different. The competition level could be different. So it's very fun to kind of learn with that person. What's their competition look like, what's their goal service range look like, and kind of help them piece together a puzzle that's going to help them get there, whether it's a long term plan or a short term plan. But ideally, I like to see both sides. That's what a true strategy, is what can we get now and then what are we aiming for in the long run to make the business grow?

Seth Heckaman: And you know, that's interesting. When we're talking with working with the dealers across the country or in our one retail operation we have there in Louisville that you saw online, you know, digital is one of the few opportunities we have where you can kind of flip the switch a little bit and start generating something immediately. But also we need to have that long term strategy of what you're shooting for. You know, you touched on budget there a little bit. You mentioned Google and every you know, I think most people have some experience with AdWords and hopefully are using it as part of their plan. But you also talked about some other methods in the digital space that folks may not be as familiar with. So we'd love to hear when you're starting to work with that client, how do you you know, how do you start that conversation around budget? What does an effective budget need to be for their scope of business, what their goals are, and then what are some of those other options other than just creating a ads account on Google and making a couple thousand dollar budget and start praying?

Brittany Murphy: So yeah, and that's what every marketer never wants to hear, is let's just shoot and pray and hope that this works. You know, that's kind of not our goal with that. So when it comes down to budget, you know, usually what we have heard over the decades and decades of marketing is that most advertisers tell you to spend between that 5 to 10% in marketing. It's kind of the average range we hear. What I've noticed now, especially to relation to the previous question, you're going to have to spend closer to the higher portion of that budget. If you're in a bigger metropolitan area, so if you are that $500,000-1,000,000 size, I guess what I consider a bigger area into that metropolitan where you're probably going to have enough competition that Google already sees people bidding in this area, there's already a higher cost per click associated with you. Again, there's already 18 remodelers in this area that you're going to have to go against. And although a million homes, you can easily spread the workload of 18 contractors around all the homes in there. So I always kind of said don't have the absentee mindset like always growth mindset. There's always jobs out there and kind of going with it. So when it comes down to budget, it's again, it's going to have to base on what does your area look like and what is everybody else doing in your area? You know, I I'd like to look at competition as a way of what are they doing and how could we do it better than them. And there is always, always room for improvement. Almost every marketing plan I see, there is very little times where I look at a neighborhood in a city and I'm just saying, wow, like there's no chance in hell, guys. Like this is never going to be our market. There's always some areas that we see of, Hey, like they're not utilizing this, or we can see they're really focusing on these areas. Why don't we push this instead? So I really like to make sure that when I'm talking options and budget, it's going to depend on how quickly you need leads. And that's really the start of the conversation, guys. So it's kind of the first question I ask anybody is how are you doing now? How are you managing now and how quickly do we need to see ourselves get to that next step? Because their answer is all across the board. I have some guys coming in and say, you know, I used to be booked out months. I'm really booked out two days, please help me. What do I need to do? And when it comes to that side of it, we need to look at a short term strategy. You're dying right now. So what can we do to kind of help thrive and rejuvenate the business? And unfortunately, that's going to be most times than none, straight ads. I mean, straight direct marketing of that sort. So you're going to look at your Google ads. Google LSA, I'm really starting to fall in love with. It has been a hit and miss with some of my clients and maybe that's something we dive into a little bit. I'm not that, you know, mainly I focus on ads, but look into your local service ads, look into Google regular ads. Those are easy ways to kind of get ads up and running, but they can be expensive. I do have other guys that are good with social media, and that's something where when it comes to remodeling, it's such a visual business. And so when I have contractors who take good pictures, good before and afters, have good case studies, they actually can kill it on social media and pushing themselves through Facebook ads and Instagram ads because they have good things to see. And plus their website looks good. So someone clicks on it and they check them out other places, they see a good consistent image kind of across the board. So if it comes to we need leads now, I'm going to be looking at more of those direct methods, and especially if you had a big past client base, like also going to email marketing, like you already have the contact information of all these guys. What are you doing? Those are some quick, short term wins we kind of look at, but ideally how I like to consider marketing and I'm a specialist in search engine optimization, SEO for short. And so when we talk about that, I'm really talking about the health of your not just body, but your marketing, your website, your business. So we have to look at long term strategies, which would be like diet and exercise. You know, diet and exercise is unfortunately the thing that we all hate. It's not fun, but it's what gives us longevity. It makes us feel good doing things. If you need leads right now, then we have to look at diet pills. But we need to understand that long term, if we can fix that bump, we we're going to hit it again if we don't fix the underlying cause. And that's where a lot of times I look at what the options need to be is we can have some short term wins, but let's look at a long term strategy. Your website's not converting. You have absolutely no good images or no consistent messaging. There's no information, there's no resources, no FAQ. So if I'm looking at 3 am, because I absolutely hate my kitchen, my husband won't fix it for me, and I'm scrolling through your website. This is a sales person, so we need to look at all those aspects of it to kind of make sure that they go together. So I know that's kind of a very broad answer, but it really is, it's custom to where you are. So I guess anyone that's listening, that's kind of the questions you ask yourself, Are you dying right now or are you looking for a strategy to where you can build upon this? Because we might need to worry about getting employees in place before we can handle that workload as well. So those are all kind of things you need to filter through when you're looking. What strategy should I put in place and how much short term versus long term should I put into the strategy?

Ethan Young: Initially, I wanted to highlight a point you brought up too about social media and taking good pictures. We work with a lot of contractors and I think that's something that is still kind of underrated a lot. You know, you don't have to be an expert in social media, but just getting a little bit more competency with a camera or a drone or whatever it may be for, you know, your your specific field makes such a big difference. Just easily, you can put it on social media, put on the website, like you said, it's something that a lot of contractors don't think about or maybe they're kind of intimidated by or they don't think they need it. But it's we've seen it be a really big, really big help for a lot of them.

Seth Heckaman: I liked how you said that that website is the salesperson at 3 a.m.. So what are we putting there to start pulling out that emotion, the pleasure of a beautiful project or pain of doing nothing and having that mindset?

Brittany Murphy: That's great. And one thing I like to tell everybody, because no one wants to spend money on a website. It's not the fun part. Let's just be honest. I mean, like showing up, social media, I mean, all these other things are kind of more fun. So the way I like to, again, if you're going to put back into budget in your head of what you should spend, you back me up on this. If your website could be that salesperson that works for you when your sales guys are off, then what are you want to pay that salesperson that's willing to work the midnight shift? You know, think about that way as well. It's not someone you have to pay benefits to. They don't need a 401k, but it is your website's doing a lot of heavy lifting if you make it. And that's the whole point is making your marketing do the heavy lifting for you and your sales team and everybody else involved with it. So it's a more effective machine for you and you can actually take a vacation versus just worrying like, how is it working or are the things going off when they should? You just know it's effective and it is going in the right direction.

Seth Heckaman: Awesome. Well, and I want to hear more about what your sort of top best practices are for website, both on the just organic performance as well as that conversion sort of salesperson kind of fulfillment. But before I forget, Google LSA, local service ads, I think you called them. So is that like the Google-approved program or whatever?

Brittany Murphy: Yes, that's basically the Google guaranteed program is what that is. And the reason I talk about it more. So just my opinion on this, Google guaranteed is a great thing. They have that badge badge next to you. Unfortunately, especially in the construction industry, there's a lot of quote unquote fly by night companies that people feel as if they have dealt with, have been jaded and unfortunate, took their deposit, did not come back to do any of the work. So in an industry such as that, it's not a bad thing to have that check mark beside you. And this kind of shows, you've went through the extra steps through Google to say you're insured, you're verified, and you've gone through background checks. The reason I am liking it is because it actually shows up in the Google Maps section, which we're seeing from most of our contractors, if they can show up in that map section, they will get minimum 60 to 70% of their leads from showing up at the map section. And that's one of the huge things I would talk about, like basically local SEO, because the first time someone goes to Google, if they can find you and go through the sales process, you're more likely to close them. So we really like to focus on that side of it. But if you can get that ad there while you're waiting to organically rank there, that's kind of a win-win. And the thing we do like with LSA right now is you do need to have a workforce in place who is going to be answering the phone consistently every single time because the benefit of LSA is you can dispute leads with Google and get reimbursed for anyone who's outside of your service area asking for services you don't offer as spam. Any of the things you couldn't always do with a cost per click. You don't know who's clicking your ad every time on Google and you know Google will filter out the IP address keeps coming in, but you might have already lost 100 bucks by that point versus with let's say you might lose 25, 50, 75 bucks, whatever that lead cost, but you're not losing it. You are making sure you're doing a good job. Take your notes. And they do have features that listen to these phone calls. But you are reaching out in your dashboard and saying, nope, wrong client because of this reason and you're getting reimbursed money. So that's kind of one thing to look at is why I like it. But that's kind of where as well, no matter what market and doing, you need to answer the phone and answer it well and kind of go through that process with it, even if you're not getting charged every time someone that calls that phone, This is always a good practice to have in place for any of your marketing when it comes in for that side of it. But back to your original question, you said what is the best practices for SEO?

Seth Heckaman: Yeah, I would love to hear that. But now I have follow up questions based on what you just said. But so you mentioned the map pack and you know, yeah, it's always seem like that's the magical spot to be in that top three for free. And then if you're on there organically and you have an ad, then all of a sudden you've got some pretty good real estate. But I've understood, maybe this is incorrect or correct, but reviews and your Google My Business profile can also contribute to likelihood of ending up there. Is that true?

Brittany Murphy: Absolutely. So there are, and if you don't mind, I'd like to dive into it. Just dissect this a little bit because Seth knows what the map pack is. So I'm excited that you're speaking my love language of SEO. But there's a few factors, and reviews are very important, but there's a few that come before it. So when it comes to ranking in the map pack, which as we said, if over half of your leads could come from there, why the heck would you not spend some time to make sure you're optimizing correctly for this? First and foremost is proximity. And so what I mean by that is the physical address you have listed on your Google business profile needs to be close to the clients you want to work with. What we're seeing right now and kind of bigger metropolitan areas is if you go past like a 15 mile radius, it gets very, very, very hard to rank outside of that. And what we're seeing is because there's other people popping up in Google still placing proximity is the number one factor, thinking you want the person closest to you. So again, they're still working on this. I had been at a seminar years ago and I was kind of really upset about the fact that, you know, their ranking proximity is that number one factor. I get it. But let's take, I actually did this conference in Las Vegas, and so this was very on point. Then I said, All right, guys, let's just say y'alll go out tonight. You get arrested, oops. Now you have 5 seconds to go to Google and try to find a lawyer. Are you looking for the lawyer physically closest to you or the best lawyer?

Ethan Young: Yeah.

Brittany Murphy: So it depends how long you want to stay in Vegas and stay in jail. But you were probably gonna vote for the best attorney to get you out of there because you don't want to sit next to your cell mate anymore because he's just crazy and actually a murderer, you know? So you're going to look more for those things. So what Google has done over the years since I kind of had that seminar is they've put some factors a little bit higher. However, proximity is still number one. So that's why I told my guys is if you're looking to rank in a sub city close to yours, still decent population, if it's over that half hour drive away, it would be very, very, very smart of you to look into getting just a small remote office to claim another listing in that area. So therefore you can show up. You don't have to do it. It's just going to take a longer time to get there. So I'm more of if you can do this as by the book as possible. Google does want to make sure you are legitimately doing some type of business there. You know, PO boxes don't work anymore. Co-working spaces don't work anymore, unfortunately. So Google has cracked down on this, but in a good way. But that's kind of the hard part, is it is kind of buffering you more into this box. So if you're going to go out further, you need to look at potentially getting another listing. The other factor is outside of that, really close to it is actually number two is how well your website ranks. So if you have the right content, you break down all of your service as well. Then you're going to require Google business profiles. So for example, you do kitchen, bath, whole house, and basement remodeling. Let's just say those are your four main services you're trying to target. If you don't have a separate service page for each of those services, then you're never going to rank for kitchen remodeling because you've shoved every other keyword with it. Within Google's eyes, it's not sure what you should be ranking for, what's your top priority. So that is kind of one thing we have to look at as we do have to go back into actual on-page optimization of your website. So do I have enough content? Do I answer who, what, where, when, why, how of kitchen remodeling, of bathroom remodeling, and so forth and so forth to make sure I'm giving Google enough clues that my website is relevant, the keywords that that potential client is typing in online. So that's huge. So you need to be close to your clients. You have resourceful content showing Google what you do for those clients that are looking you up and then just a little bit down that is actually reviews. So your number of reviews and the score of your review are two now neck-and-neck type of statistics that Google is going off of. It used to be the number of reviews was really high up, but yet your score was really down low, which also did make sense. If you want that attorney, like I don't care if they have a thousand reviews, if they're are a 2.0, I don't want that lawyer in Las Vegas, they're not going to get me out of jail. I want the person with a high score and a good number. So they have now kind of put these more neck-and-neck with one another, which is really on point with what your question is. Will reviews affect us? Heck, yes, they will. We need to make sure we're getting them consistently and we need to make sure we're getting good reviews. And I'd like to tell everybody, don't freak out if you get a one star. It's not the end of the world. I'm sure you probably have had moments that contractors that's what, in their life, that's the last thing they needed to hear. And please don't take a sip of bourbon or five sips and then go back and answer that because it's always not the best choice to respond to a bad review that way. But yes, it is pulled as a huge factor because it's the conversion factor now. As I just said, I'm looking for certain factors. Google is showing people based on those factors and I'm ranking them off of that. So again, I want a high score, but I do want to see that you've had enough reviews too. And what we can see is 25 is a good magic number to break into, to start to build trust where it's a psychological thing with most homeowners, if they can see, have 25 reviews or more, it gives you more authority. So a goal is to always get to that. And obviously the goal is to be as close to a 4.9 as possible. I think five is very unrealistic and I might think it's a little fake as well. So nothing wrong with being human and making sure that you just kind of keep going down that path of asking everybody. So it is a process you can put in place to continue to do this because it is really slow and steady. Do not jam pack reviews on there. Google will think they're spam and take half of them off or if not all the reviews you have on there. So, slow, steady, just doing it correctly and properly. And Google rewards businesses that do that.

Seth Heckaman: Funny you mention that because I recently, we were doing a job in Lexington and a vendor we needed to work with as part of that project had, I went and looked in the map pack and found the one with a decent number of reviews and, you know, decent looking website. So we hired him, had a horrible experience. So I began questioning what those reviews were. And then magically over like the three days since I had looked previously, he had like nine more all five reviews. He wasn't big enough to probably generate that many. So there's definitely seems like there's some shenanigans going on like that. So glad Google's able to crack down on it.

Brittany Murphy: Yes, and that's kind of where when it comes down to that location as well, the reason they're cracking down more is there's a lot of people making extra Google businesses kind of just like what I said, you're adding extra offices. So that's why, like if you're going to go down that path as well, you need to do it as by the book. And this is a quotation here, you know, air quotations as much as possible. There is no book. Google has not supplied me with anything to become an expert. I've had to do all this research and work on our team to kind of create that authority in our field. But that's what they're looking for, hands down. So this has been the baseline algorithm forever with Google. It is to do right by their visitors. So if you're supplying information, if you are doing things that seem like you're engaging with them and that's why you want to reply to those reviews, and maybe that guy was most likely buying them to have them come in that so quick and swiftly. And that's where I tell my guys, if you get that one star, that is not me, now. Go out, text one of your friends to leave you a five star review. Like, that's not the way to kind of crack down on that either. I love, so I just got married. My last name has changed, but I keep forgetting what my new last name is. But my old last name was Murphy. Murphy's Law is a true thing. And that's how I told my clients says I love to look at one star reviews and see what the business did. Did they respond to it well? Do they try to improve the situation or did they basically say this is not real? You know, And it seemed very like, okay, are you sure who's making a bigger deal out of this? I'm not sure where the drama is. I don't want to see any drama. That's the whole point. I'm just looking to make sure, hey, the business here says, you know, so sorry, Kathy. You know, if you would call us directly at this line, the owner would love to discuss with you your situation and make sure we can prove it. That's all I need to see to say, Yep, I'll call ABC Contracting, they're taking ownership of that. They're being responsible. And that's all I need to see. You know, they have a 4.7, they have 50 reviews, yep. And people are making micro decisions so quickly on Google and that's why I like yes, the map pack is such a successful place. I'm seeing who your business is. I'm seeing where you're located and I've seen your reviews and your score of that. And then from there, if I want to press call, I can press call from my phone. So I tell everybody, just take a step out of your seat, pretend you're a homeowner looking for someone doing kitchen remodel and pretend you would go down that journey and what you would be looking for and what you be seen. And if you don't like what you see in yourself, then homeowners don't like that either. So that's who you're comparing yourself to as everybody else out there and what they look like compared to your presence.

Seth Heckaman: Good stuff. Thank you. So, you know, Google My Business profile, you know, adding photos, posts, and things there. Does that really help or hurt any which way? Obviously doesn't hurt probably, but does it help?

Brittany Murphy: Yeah, it definitely does not hurt. Google for a bit was trying to use that as a way to kind of compete with social media profiles. So what they tell us is you want to be adding to it, but what's more impactful is actually customers leaving reviews and leaving picture reviews as well, because it shows more engagement with the outside environment versus you only adding to it. And that's kind of where like Facebook and Instagram and all of their social media is as well. They reward engagement. So the more popular your posts get, the more people they show that out to. And that's kind of the same way with Google. You know you're not, your Google post isn't going to get a million likes on it, but you're adding new content information to it. And when I say adding new constant, that does not mean every single week. Even when we manage Google business profiles we went through, we were adding things monthly. We didn't see a big difference with it, so we spent more time adding things to the website, which was driving more traffic to the site, which is increasing the on page, which is increasing the SEO ranking, which then increased the map pack. You know, so we were going after the second, the number two ranking factor versus, you know, kind of ones down the road where post engagement with it. So yes, if you, if anyone wants to Google, you know, factors to rank in the local map, there'll be 200 of them. But you're the bigger piece of the pie is by about a third of it's going to be spent on those first three factors we talked about. So that's where you, you know, if you have unlimited time, do it all. But we don't have an unlimited time. So focus on the things that are going to make the biggest bang for the buck. And I would say that probably wouldn't be where I'd spend my time.

Seth Heckaman: No, it makes sense. And and obviously our conversation up to this point is just the effort to really get people to your website and and then the real work starts. So I would love to now, yes, move into that next question of, you know, what are your best practices? What do you see when you're working with clients the most, you know, consistent immediate things that you're recommending need changed, you know, and yeah, based on your experience?

Brittany Murphy: Yes, so I actually had a strategy session yesterday with a newer home remodeler. He just had his one year anniversary, had his website up. He had been posting on social, doing really good. He already has, I think he said 17 jobs booked this year, which I think is awesome for only a year in to be doing so well, so quickly. So his question for me was, how do I take this to the next step? You know, I'm not really spending much marketing dollars right now. It's working for me, but I want to take it to the next level. I want to have more subs. I want to be pulled out where I'm working on the business versus in the business. So the things that I look for immediately and again, I'm, I wear two hats. When I do these audits, I'm looking at it from an SEO expert and how can I make your marketing be as effective as possible. But then I'm also looking, I've been a homeowner for a decade now, you know, so what are the things I would look for? I've remodeled every portion of my home after this last decade, and unfortunately, I bought a home that they did not take much care of. So I have replaced everything, whether I wanted to or not. And everyone's gets excited about replacing a furnace and their AC and their whole entire HVAC unit. Nobody really, you know, loves doing that. But you have to at times. And so I have been in the client side as well looking out because I didn't have clients here locally that did all these services. So you have to look at it, both of sides on this. And the things I'm looking for is if I just type in, let's just say kitchen remodel or I'm looking at the Google search results page, I must see the ads. The very top which I usually bypass and the stats show most people do bypass, I guess between a 2 to 5% conversion rate for the ads. So that's kind of why I said like this is a good short term game plan, but not a long term game plan because you spend more money than your wheels kind of get you on that aspect of it. So most homeowners, you might they might look at the ads with the kind of scroll down and you focus more on the map pack. Again, it gives me everything I kind of want to see in a nice little quick summary. That's the beauty of Google, is give me that quick snapshot. So most times I'll look through there and I'll kind of pick the top two or three, maybe scroll down some more or find maybe max, I would think people aren't getting quotes more than five people. That would be ridiculous and way too much of time to have people come in and estimate, measure. So let's just kind of cap it. 3 to 5 is what most homeowners are going to have kind of come and reach out to. I'm looking at the best practices of your Google business profile. First and foremost, do you have reviews? So all the things we just said, what's your score and how many do you have? And when you do have these reviews, are you responding appropriately to them? And one quick tip I didn't get to give previously is when you were asking your clients for reviews, please, please, please ask them to say, could you mention the service I provided for you by chance? Could you just say I did a kitchen remodel and how you felt about the kitchen afterwards? And they might say, Oh, okay, does it make sense to them? But what you're doing is you're now allowing the keywords of your services to end up in these reviews so they actually can pull up and pop more. So any little things like that can help you stick out some. So I might see the kitchen remodel words bolded on the third person on the map pack and now I'm kind of more they're sticking out to me because it really shows that. And I immediately know that Google said, these people do it. Click on these people. I mean, that's the whole point of Google and how they work. So I love seeing that side of it. But after that, most homeowners are going to really check out the meat of your Web site. And what we're kind of looking for is a, do you provide the services in which I'm looking for? So that's why I mentioned before, not everybody puts all their services on there and they're not breaking it out by page. Because the second thing I'm looking for is, okay, I do see you say you do kitchen model, but well, what's the process? What's your pricing? Who do you work with? What type of kitchens do you do like? Do you have designer? Is this just the cabinets where you go do paint or, you know, flooring? For me, I mean, I have so many questions for you, man. You're not giving me any answers, you know, But those websites that do, I click on their kitchen remodel page I see before and afters. I mean, you would see a client video testimonial of them staying in their kitchen saying, Wow, ABC Construction did an amazing job on time, on budget. I have no complaints. You should choose them now. I'm already sold, like this is the conversion stuff we're getting into as well. We'll talk about SEO best practices. So you're answering again the who, what, where, when, why, how of that particular service? So again, if I am scrolling in bed at 2 am because I have insomnia and I hate the kitchen with my life, and your website answers on those questions, that third shift salesperson is really working overtime right now, selling me on everything you do. Holy crap, this is amazing. So I want to see that. I want to see more reviews. I want to see more word of mouth. I mean, that's kind of where we say, you know, peer to peer, you know, word of mouth like fortunately, this is the new digital word of mouth is what people are saying about you online and are you sharing those experiences on your website. So I love to look at that. People really do look at team and about pages as well, especially in my area. I've noticed we we love local and that's kind of where it makes me even happier as a marketer to know that the local businesses here are supported by the community, not that the government always supports them, but the community does. And so what can we do to kind of make sure and shine a light on them? So is this a father-son business? Is this a mother and a daughter business? How long have you been doing this? Why are you doing this? What do you stand for? It all things that could potentially convince me. And I don't know who the heck you are yet, but wow, this mom, this daughter started this kid's remodeling company because they hired a kitchen remodeler that took advantage of them, and then they did it on their own and realized how fun this was to see the symbiotic relationship with our company, how it started out with how someone else could start their construction business. You know, I'm sure their situations have happened. Yeah, that's going to help sell you. And that's kind of where even in my marketing and why I want to give our story of how One Thing Marketing came into fact is because that helps you understand who we are and where we came from and why we're doing what we're doing. Those are all kind of things I'm looking for in the website and not that seeing your mission and your vision is an SEO best practice, but these are conversion things. Help me get to know you. If I'm going to spend 30 grand on a kitchen, I need to trust you. And that's really what I'm looking for, is all those little factors that kind of come together to make me feel just that good initial greeting with you. And the last thing I would kind of say to wrap up, just some standard things to look at is if the minute they are interested in you, what does the contact process look like? Do you have a contact form? Do you only want them to call? Do they speak with an office manager? Do they just get the voice mail? Like what does their experience look like when they kind of come to that? Because that's really where all the best practices can come into place. You could be spending a lot of time on the wrong things because there's a lot of basics that if you don't step out and look at it from a client's perspective, you're going to miss those. So an easy wrap-up summary if you want to know how to do best practices for yourself, pretend you need your service, Google it, check out your website and check out through the people who do what you do and what makes you feel so much better about yours than theirs and vice versa. There's, you can't really reinvent the wheel of marketing, almost everybody's done everything, so you just have to kind of recreate and make it better, like hone in how to make this wheel more round, to work more efficiently for your business. And it's kind of just to keep it not too tacky and not, you know, not too in the weeds. Those are the easiest things to look for. So if you know you're missing in your client, you're sorry your competitor is providing their client with a process, a timeline, budgets, expected estimate ranges for projects because they have project portfolio pages. And yeah, I'm going to miss that out on your website and I might trust them more because it's more transparent. So it's easier for me to make a decision as a buyer.

Seth Heckaman: Good stuff. And I love that you take that list.

Brittany Murphy: Sorry, long answer.

Seth Heckaman: Yeah, it's excellent and gives us plenty to plenty to talk about and learn. I'm taking notes here, but I just appreciate that holistic approach that you take of, okay, we need the SEO performance obviously to get them to the site in the first place, but we need them to convert. Just visiting doesn't accomplish much. And so you know that about us and the team and who we are and why we do what we do and start building that emotional connection. You know, I was talking with one of our customers earlier this week and they spent, this was not a podunk website project. It was significant, but they ended up with a firm that went and looked at, okay, what are the most kind of Googled terms in your service? You know, in the service you offer, and we're going to design the site accordingly. And I ended up with a bunch of content about doing roof repairs and storm damage and, you know, not at all in in their wheelhouse of business. And the the vendor said, well, it's going to drive traffic or it's not going to be traffic we want and they're not going to convert because we don't do what they do. So you got to have the both and right. You can't just focus on one or the other.

Brittany Murphy: Yeah, and that's why I always say when you are working with a marketing agency, please communicate with them. They should not be a rogue entity for your business. They should only be an extension of it working with you the entire time, or else they'll be marketing services that you don't even provide.

Seth Heckaman: Right.

Brittany Murphy: What a waste of money.

Seth Heckaman: Exactly. Yeah. Obviously you're going to be a little bit biased on One Thing Marketing, the service you guys offer, but I'm curious, you led into that. What how, what are some key questions people should be asking when they're evaluating a vendor? What should they be looking for when working with our customers? Over the years, it seems like they're either ending up with vendors who are so big that their individual account is just going to be a blip on the radar and they're not going to get that personal attention or this is a little derogatory, or you're going to end up with the guy eating Cheetos in his parents basement building a website. And neither of those are going to work out well. So how, what would be your advice?

Brittany Murphy: Yeah, so that's a hard find. You're basically finding high quality without feeling like you're just quantity to your marketing agency. So one thing I always, that has been easier for us. Yes, since we've niched down. But how much is your marketing agency willing to learn to become an expert of what you do? And that kind of feeds on what you said is the market or the marketing agency went rogue. They were targeting roofing because that was a high traffic keyword, but that's not what their business service was at all surrounded around. So how much are they willing to really know what you do and wanting to help push what you do. Us niching down over the past, I think it started about four years ago. We noticed over half of our clients were in trades and it's trickled where we're like 95%. We have a few people who just know us, love us and really want to use us. So like we're doing a tattoo website right now, we don't really work at tattoo shops, but they were a local client and, you know, just really knew our reputation and wanted to work with us, but ideally spent more of our time over the past four years focusing more on the realms of HVAC, roofing, home remodeling, electric, plumbing, like the guys in the trades in the main home services. So that way, you know, if someone from each that comes to me, you know, like, well, you know, I need help. And I go, okay, well, what, what services you offer? I mean, how seasonal is this business? Like, do you even offer mini splits or is it only furnaces? Like, I mean, is your AC season always much higher than your furnace or is it flipped because you're more north? Like you tell me. And they're just shocked I know the difference. Or I've even heard of the term mini split and like I get it, I don't look like a girl that would know what a mini split is, but like all we've been talking about is difference between shingle and metal roofing and what type of spine structure that roof has to have. I was like, We get that. We get some of the nitty gritty details. We're not you, we don't know everything you know, but you don't need to expect us to know every single thing, how the nail should go into the roof. But we do understand what your process looks like so we can explain it in English to your clients. So that's what we love being, is that nice liaison of what you do, putting your expertise into something that's digestible for clients to find. And then the other huge factor that hands down is actually more of my number one is does your marketing agency track? And when I say track, are they tracking what's real and what's measurable? And oh, like for instance, what we like to focus on is leads. So how many calls are coming in? Like how many qualified, unique new phone numbers are we getting in? And that's like one of the main sources we're looking at. So leads from your website, leads from the ads, leads from Google, my business contact forms, you know, all the above, kind of putting that together. And I feel that, you know, we do look at traffic, we look at engagement. I mean, we're looking at some other factors that are telltale signs of how the funnel is going to go when it gets to the end goal of leads. But I have run into a lot of people were after their strategy session with me, I say, hey, you know, I'm not going to take you away from your marketing agency, but if you would like me to have a second look and a second opinion for me to report they gave you just so I can see how they're doing. Because if they're doing great and they've only worked with you for three months, then like, I'm not going to step in here. Your expectations are just crazy for SEO to kick in after 90 days, you know, and I'll be getting reports, but the reports are only traffic in to the website. That's it. We got 1000 visitors to your website. Isn't that awesome? How many phone calls do you think you got? One if that. Well then, this is shit. This is not something you should be, you know, I don't know what you're spending. And I'm going to pretend that's a dollar a month to get that type of reporting. But I know you're spending way more than a dollar. So make sure they're tracking, make sure they're tracking it properly. As I said, I can separate people's leads from what came in organically on their website, what came in for people knowing already who they are, what came in versus their Google business profile, what came in versus their ad. Like, I mean, I can see what time they came in, where they came previously. Like this is the stuff that you need as a business owner to really make good future marketing decisions with. And it's kind of the fun part is a good marketing agency will allow you to dip your toes into anything you're interested in, but give good guidance along the way. So what I tell my guys is, Hey, I'm not a radio or TV expert, but if that's something you want to dive into billboards, print any of those things, give us the information, we'll look at it for you. And if you're adamant you want to do this, okay, I'm not going to stop you. But let's have a call tracking number for that ad. There is a special landing page people are going to go to. And there's also a very special offer that is only advertised on that TV or radio or digital print ad. That way we know we can track it. So if you spent $10,000 on this TV ad, I can see you got two phone calls. I can give you those two phone numbers and you can say, actually, those are worth 50 grand kitchens. So hell yeah, for a 10,000, you get 100k out of it. 100%, we will keep putting our money in here. And I as a marketer can say, I'm so happy for you because more money in your pockets is always a win for us. Even if I wasn't the one that delivered the lead. As long as I can help you, guide you and give you the answer if this is working or if this is not working, that's the fun part of markets. It's the not so, not sexy part analysis in data and call logs and you know, look at all the data and analytics to see what's working, what's not working. Super unsexy, but it's what at the end of the day is helping a business owner grow to the next level is because they know that ten grand went somewhere versus, hey, that ten grand. Here's two phone numbers. Yeah, both of these were like really crappy leads. Like they just wanted like new kitchen trash cans. Okay, do you want to pursue this again for the next 90 days? They're like, no, but thank you for tracking this for us. Yeah, my pleasure. Now they're not going to waste ten grand again. Like again. It's more money in their pockets that we're trying to help with. And I think that when you look at a marketing agency, it should just be an extension of if you had someone in your office that was doing this for you and had all the knowledge and expertise and all the areas to help you with it. Would they always have your back? And that's just the grounds team that comes to this. A person in your office would not go rogue and say to roofers, you're only doing kitchen remodels. So those become the grand things to look about is, are they tracking? What are they tracking? And do they give a shit about what they're tracking for you at the end of the day to make sure that they care about your business and they're invested in it as well?

Seth Heckaman: It may not be the sexy part, but it's the common sense part, right? To spend ten grand and not have the metrics in place to be able to know what return, if any, you got out of it. And you know, you mentioned tracking leads which are so important, but you also tracked that ten grand back to revenue, which we've worked with marketing vendors, or they want to get excited about leads or make a recommendation, Hey, hey, you'll get more leads if you put, hey, win a get a $50 gift card with filling out the form, then you only have junk leads. So that doesn't make any difference either. So but a big part of that evaluation process is done and you alluded to it earlier, Who's answering the phone? What does that appointment setting and vetting process look like? And obviously, you've got some expertise there as well. So what are you seeing your clients who are doing that well, what's that look like for them?

Brittany Murphy: Yeah, well, they're starting basically that customer experience journey from the very beginning. So I think hopefully what everyone gathered from my previous answer to your question was before someone even finds you, the client experience starts. So the minute I see anything about you online is what I'm going to start my time clock to judge you. And judging happens so quickly. Nowadays we have all the access to information to do this so quickly. So I am looking to kind of see first and foremost, I mean, I'm looking at reviews, I'm looking at everything kind of on here. If things look good enough and I'm starting to continue that journey. Have you answered all my questions from your content? Good, you have. There's an FAQ okay, there's either a contact form, there's a chat bot, or there's a phone number. Now how you choose which of these three is going to work best for your business is up to you. Homeowners and clients will change opinions all across the board. My roofer in Texas will have a huge different opinion on how his leads come in versus my client in Utah. People might be more callers in some areas and more kind of contact form people in others and chat bots, and it could happen around the time of the day. And obviously who's calling you? So no matter which of those they pick immediately there is the judgment could be great and they're going to continue down this or this is going to be the last needle in the haystack. I mean, like this is the last straw that broke the camel's back type of situation. So I actually do have remodeling company that I had. We were calling it check their call tracking numbers just to make sure they were working is testing, you know, randomly just to make sure these are still working through our tracking is up to date and I got their voicemail which was really not usual. So that was fine. You know, someone went up to use the restroom, like I don't judge, you know, and a homeowner might say, Oh, okay, like, I don't want to get the voicemail. So I guess I'm going to think about if you going for the more of the higher end and luxury, people expect to be taken care of pretty quickly. So, you know, I'm more likely if I to spend a hundred grand for my kitchen and bathroom model, I might not be leaving you a message. I want to talk to someone. I want someone here present, you know, like I might have bigger expectations. So again, new client base and know what their expectations are around it. But their voicemail was actually cut off at the very front. So all I heard was like the last letter of their first name and then construction, you know, Sorry, we're not here. Beep. And so I went in to their call up and was like, This hasn't been their voicemail the whole time. I would have, I would have caught this. Well I'd never gone to their voicemail for it to catch it, but I actually went in and people who call you know, overnight when they're obviously closed, I listen to the calls. There was unfortunately actually a voicemail from someone that said, Hi, I'm looking for this construction company. Not sure if I call the right phone number. And it was the biggest oof, like, I couldn't believe it. Like, here's a perfect lead that is now losing trust in you because of a voicemail, because they don't know if they landed on the right place. Like, Oh my God, like this person might not want to call back. Like, I mean, they were hopefully referred, you know, So they're going to try again. And hopefully, obviously my construction company knowing that hopefully listen this podcast and I'll come find them if they don't correct these situations. But hopefully they, as they solved, got the voicemail, called her back as soon as they did in the morning so they could say so. Sorry, yes, this is us. How can we help you? And it improved from there. We've got to think about it. How many people might have heard that message after 6 p.m. when you know they're not going to answer the phones and went, oh, I think this is the wrong number, and hung up and then just called the next number on the Google map pack? It's so easy and especially on the phone, I just push, nope, red button. Go back to Safari, push the next call button. I mean it's so simple to kinda go through that. So it starts with everything. Like what does your office person's voicemail sound like? Are they saying your name appropriately? Is it nice and bubbly? Does it make someone feel good if they didn't answer the phone? And do they know how soon you're going to call them back if you answered the phone? What does that sound like? I have seen a few office managers. I mean, we have call tracking and I tell my clients, you have access to this. Please listen for quality assurance of your office managers to make sure they're doing a good job for you. Because if I'm driving leads and I'm seen, Hey, I got you 100 calls last month, what happened? You know, they're all crap. And then I listen to your and it's the office manager saying, Oh, when do you need that fixed? Oh, okay. You think I'm on a schedule with her? No, that's not the experience I'm looking for. That happens more than none. And that's kind of where it's not just your team that's in the field doing the actual work. It's the home office running everything for you have to double check. Because, again, as a marketer's job, I am driving business to you. How do you intercept that business and convert? That business is all on you, my man. But I will 100% yell at you if you're not doing a good job about it because you make us look bad. And that's not what I'm here to stand for. If I'm driving business, I need you to step up as a business owner and help convert that. And if it's shit, tell us. We'll figure out a way to improve it to try to get better quality of calls. But that's not a situation. Usually there are some sticklers that kind of get in there and that's bad process of kind of follow for years and it's always hard to kind of keep in an office, you know, employees at times. So you're doing a lot of training and maybe we don't offer that and they hang up and I do. We actually do tiling or yeah, we do tile floor, backsplash, everything. What do you mean? You didn't know this, Nancy? Oh, sorry. It's just day two. Call them back like, you know, you know, all those things can go with with it. Other than that, yes. How your sales reps show up, the experience they're giving, it should basically replace the website. And what I mean by that is your sales representative is a resource for them. It makes them feel warm, it makes them feel understood and is just giving answers and education. And I think that's one of the best selling processes ever. The more the client can understand, the more likely they are to trust you as well. So those are kind of the initial factors that go into it. Once you have that first call in and there's a million other factors I could say that kind of go about it. But most of my guys in the trades, these are the huge pitfalls I can see happening. The other side of not really having a good CRM in place to follow through, that's something else that I know is hugely impactful and you get a lot of leads. You need to have some process in place to make sure you're not dropping leads through the holes if you're getting a lot of them.

Seth Heckaman: Yeah, and being able to track the effectiveness of all the different campaigns you're running. But then you mentioned it very early on, then it becomes the the database of leads you get to mine year after year to keep pulling business out of it. And you know, the people that pay 150 bucks to generate a lead, call it three times and then throw it away. You just with today's cost, you just can't do that anymore. Or at least they're leaving a lot of money on the table, that's for sure.

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. Not unless you want to keep working and never retire, you can keep spending money that way.

Seth Heckaman: If that's your goal, then you're well on your way, so. You know that, yeah, obviously your passion for the industry and just learning each of these steps along the way of the customer journey well beyond marketing and but that yeah that appointment-setting process it's so critical. That phone call was 150, 200 bucks and even without you can start changing those things today, right. And increase your set rate and immediately add to the bottom line of your business. But most people just aren't mindful of it whatsoever, unfortunately. So well.

Brittany Murphy: Their loss.

Seth Heckaman: Yeah, right, so leaves opportunity for the rest of us to hopefully step in and lead the way, but starting to get to the end of our conversation here, Brittany, you provided just an incredible amount of information. Thank you. And definitely positioned you and the rest of the team at One Thing Marketing as a great resource. One question that we do like to ask most people that come on the show and I think you'll give us some great, great answer here. Just again, your passion for the industry of the trades and and helping these companies across the country. We think a lot of our listeners are probably younger folks, just how podcasts tend to skew most of the time. So younger folks entering into construction in the trades or or adjacent industry like a digital marketing firm serving these type of companies. What would you tell that young person? What advice would you have from entering into this business and industry?

Brittany Murphy: Well, I want to view it from the point that maybe someone new in the industry eventually wants to run their own company, because they just kinda want to be that badass. They see that, hey, I could break into this. You know, you can find the resources to make this happen. So I kind of thought about this question coming from that aspect with it. And so when I think of that, I'm thinking to set yourself up for success as much as possible because you're only selling yourself most of the time. So when if you were in that trade and that's where kind of the path you think you might go on, I love telling everybody, take as many pictures and proof of what you've done as possible. I mean, and that's just a resume thing, you know, every where you've worked. What have you done? What did you accomplish? What did you bring to them? I mean, that's all the bullet points. You know, you're basically your obituary, your resume. That's where you're putting all that stuff with it. But this could be something that's ongoing. So, you know, making sure you're collecting videos, photos. I have seen a few guys who work for their companies but have created their own social media accounts, just sharing what they do personally. And they've now started their own company because they had a following and they're had clients who love them, you know? So it's it's really kind of that's kind of why I like this aspect of it. I would love for everybody to eventually own their own business. I think it would be a very fun world if we can live in that. You know, obviously not everybody, people gotta work for the business sometimes, you know, it's kind of going to that aspect of it. So if you're going to go down that, you know, what personal reviews could you get from your the clients you've worked with? You know, maybe you were the lead designer and, you know, you did work hand-in-hand with them a lot. You could maybe ask that client one to one. Would you mind just kind of writing like a quick review of how I personally did for you? You know, I'm just trying to learn more about the industry and I'm like maybe ten years down the road, break into my own, and I'm just trying to collect any information now that would help me grow as a leader. Oh my God, What homeowner would not eat that up and be like, Oh my God, yes. Like, whatever for you, baby boy. Like, I'll, I'll make the I'll move, I'll move the world, you know, because you have ambition and I want to help you. So the other aspect of that is, you know, if you want to get the homeowner on your side to really showcase who you are, maybe find more options because you don't like where you're at, but you like the industry is to really build a referral network for yourself. And so twofold. One, you're finding people in adjacent industries who you can network and who can help you pull resources to complete jobs. But secondly, the most valuable thing I think of is you were such a resource for the client if you were providing them the answer to their question. So let's just say you're in the in the kitchen and the bath. I mean, these are huge projects. You know, it's an amazing thing. And the homeowner ask, you know, one of the people other in there, hey, so our AC is making weird noises. It's 98 outside and it's just making weird noises. Do you all do that in-house? You know, no. So sorry, Mrs. Smith. We don't really work with HVAC, but I do work with ABC HVAC and they're amazing guys. Would you like me to go out and give them a call and have them reach out to you on behalf? Oh my god, Jason, thank you so much. Like how much you're warming this homeowner up? You know, as much as possible. That's kind of where you don't want to burn bridges. You don't you don't want to, you know, So if this is a homeowner that you think that, hey, like I'm trying to build my portfolio and they could be a helpful resource for you, then asking them just you know, you're asking them a favor, make sure you have available favors up for them if they should ask it. Because I think that's kind of most common things in the trades is once one problem happens, are usually asking for kind of more resources or they just bought the house, they're going to be doing quite a few things to it. So you're building your book of business, but also if you actually do have a referral network, then now ABC HVAC knows that Jason always refers them well, wouldn't they give Jason more jobs because they want to create that symbiotic relationship. You know, maybe that's your goal is, you are the sales with the construction company. So you do have to build those relationships. Therefore, those other companies, when they're in someone's home, you know that ABC HVAC is in their home. The latest like you know the AC in the kitchen's like the worst. You know maybe if we had a vent in here it'd be better. Do you all do vents? No, but we have remodeling companies more than happy to update your backsplash which you also mentioned earlier you hated and a vent above you. And if you had to spruce anything up, they can actually come here, remodel the whole thing. Actually, you know, how is this kitchen? You know, it's 30 years old now that you mention it. I mean, like. This is just me talking and, you know, potential aspects of what could happen. But that's ideally the goal is you're setting yourself up for success when that opportunity does arise. So as that whole preparation meets opportunity and that can equal success. So just making sure you are ready for that I think would be kind of a good thing to do and learn as much as you can. And if you are thinking of ever starting and separating out on your own, learn as much about the marketing your company's doing and what's working for them. I mean, if you're already going be in that area, you know what's working, what's not working for them. You don't have to again recreate the wheel. You can kind of see what they're doing and take some of their best practices.

Seth Heckaman: Yeah, the best practices are pretty proven at this point, so just learn them. And it's all about making the phone ring in the first place. It starts with that. So, great stuff. Thank you, Brittany.

Brittany Murphy: Absolutely.

Seth Heckaman: Anything we haven't talked about that you would like to cover?

Brittany Murphy: You know, I think we have covered all of it. If there is anything that we didn't get to cover, I actually do have, it's a free e-book download. So if anyone wants to go to our website, onethingmarketing.net on our homepage or actually is e-book and Seth and Ethan, if you're okay with it, I'll send you the link afterwards. We can put it in the show notes.

Seth Heckaman: Absolutely.

Brittany Murphy: But it is a specified e-book for SEO best practices for home remodeling businesses. So anything I've talked about today, if it seemed over your head, there is actually a nice PDF with images to explain more in English what I said today here.

Seth Heckaman: Perfect. Good stuff and definitely be checking out that resource too. So well, before we close up and say goodbye, I do have to ask if you would like to participate in something we like to do here to help folks get to know you a little bit better. Maybe outside the marketing realm, though, if you would participate in our rapid fire question round. So this is a little bit lighter than the topics we have been covering. Seven questions, some maybe serious, some more silly, would you'd be up for the challenge?

Brittany Murphy: I'm a little nervous, but I will accept the challenge. Well, I could talk about SEO for days, but myself. Oh, we'll see.

Seth Heckaman: I get it. And Ethan wrote these questions, so he will be the one to blame.

Ethan Young: I looked them up somewhere. But, yeah. I'll take the blame.

Brittany Murphy: So I have to blame you if I don't like it.

Seth Heckaman: So we'll alternate. Ethan, I'll let you go first.

Ethan Young: Okay, question one. What's the weirdest thing you've eaten?

Brittany Murphy: I would say my first trip to Paris, I actually had escargot, and I know snails aren't that weird, but snails are still weird.

Seth Heckaman: They are still weird. Were you a fan or no?

Brittany Murphy: I had two glasses of wine to go with it, which paired well, but had I just had water, I probably would have never had the first one go down.

Seth Heckaman: Yeah, just an excuse to keep having to drink the good wine probably.

Brittany Murphy: Exactly.

Seth Heckaman: Alright, question number two. What's your preferred seat on an airplane? First class may be the obvious choice, but I think the middle, aisle, you know, window.

Brittany Murphy: For the few times I was lucky enough to be like the first 8 through 15 boarding group on Southwest, I would always pick the seat. It doesn't recline, unfortunately, but it is the one near the airplane window. I feel like when I say this everyone's going to go for it, but it's the one with the airplane window that has no seat in front of it. So you get to stretch your legs out for days and I'm almost six foot, my husband is 6'6". So unfortunately he gets that spot if I get in A. So I sit in it so he can get it, but I scoot my legs to borrow that space as well, because it's it's nice, especially a long flight. You want to feel like you're not squished into those little cubicles.

Seth Heckaman: Goodness, yeah.

Brittany Murphy: Static spaces for seats.

Seth Heckaman: I, yes, I was a little envious that I did not end up 6'3" like my dad. But when I started flying all the time for work, I was much more grateful because it gets cramped quick, that's for sure.

Brittany Murphy: Yes. Oh, yes.

Ethan Young: Alrighty. Next question. How many alarms do you set in the morning and how many times do you hit the snooze button?

Brittany Murphy: Well, Britney last year would probably hit it five times. I would set it earlier. Now I set it at a reasonable time in which I know I will get up and I've set it, so therefore I can't press snooze. That was the cheat I learned. You can't, either take the snooze feature off, so if you press it, you're screwed. So you can't press it, you just have to get up.

Seth Heckaman: That's it for me. So I started pressing snooze when I was trying to get too ambitious on when I was waking up in the first place.

Brittany Murphy: So yeah, every time you're like, I'm gonna get up an hour earlier, that's when you press the snooze feature.

Seth Heckaman: Yeah, get up, read, work out, all that stuff. Then I press snooze, so. Yep, alright. Question number four. What would you like to be remembered for?

Brittany Murphy: I feel like I want something very inspirational. But really deep down inside, one thing I've always wanted to do is touch every country that's good, I guess. There are some few right now I probably won't go into, but maybe over the course of the next 50 years I live, I could step in all of them. But I would be loved to known as someone that just had a passion for life and went out there and pursued it as much as possible. And travel's the thing that really lights me up. So if I'm doing that and I'm seeing all the places of the world, I'd love to know the people. Britney went after what she wanted. And that's a good aspect that I think not everybody gets to do.

Ethan Young: Cool.

Brittany Murphy: I know, I heard some of your other answers, and I was like, I feel like I'm not going to give a Mother Teresa answer that everybody else did.

Seth Heckaman: Good stuff.

Ethan Young: Yeah, alrighty. Next one. What's something that amazes you?

Brittany Murphy: To be honest, I'm still amazed that as big as airplanes are, they fly so easily. I'm for some reason, the older I get, even though I've traveled more, I'm getting more and more nervous about being on an airplane. I don't know if that's as you age, you're more worried about longevity and staying alive and taking less risks. I have noticed that I always get just so freaked out by it, but it's, I'm always amazed that me and 50 other people who are, you know, over 100 pounds apiece are in the air. And we're flying as if we are walking on straight land. And it's pretty steady, even keel. It's why I try to talk myself out of not being afraid when turbulence hits. It's just, you know, some wind. I mean, it's all those kind of things that go with it. But I'm always amazed that once a can kind of calm down, like, how do we do this? Like, how did we create this? And then how are we getting to the moon? You know, like all the stuff, it goes with it. But yes, it just the features are created decades ago, I'm still amazed by. But let's not talk about UFOs. I could get on that for a bit, but I'm amazed by planes. And once I understand what those saucers do, I'll be even more amazed how they go up and down so quickly. What quantum physics are you working with that we're not?

Seth Heckaman: Some incredible stuff. Yeah, lots of Twitter chatter about UFOs these days, so we may learn more sooner rather than, sooner than we'd like, but.

Brittany Murphy: Yes.

Seth Heckaman: Alright, question number six. Are you usually late, early or on time? Oh, a snoozer and someone that shows up late.

Brittany Murphy: Yeah. I mean, I did pop on only 2 minutes late. So, um, I, I work very well under pressure, and I unfortunately devote, I get wholeheartedly into things too much. And so, like, I had a strategy session right before this and I was like, Hey, I got a hard stop at this time, I need to get off, set it early. And right at that time I was like, Oh yeah, didn't you need to get off? I'm like, Well, let me answer this question for you really quick. Yeah. So, yes, I am unfortunately a late person. If, if you asked my husband that question, he would have said in like 0.2 seconds that she's late. I'm a woman, so I get the excuse. Okay, y'all don't have to make your hair pretty, you know, do anything else we got to do.

Seth Heckaman: That was the...

Brittany Murphy: I had to sit down when I peed. You know, just all the things with womenhood we have to deal with. Now you're trying to take it away.

Seth Heckaman: That may have been the biggest challenge after getting married. Was that the negotiation of getting out the door to make it to church or somewhere else on time. So we in our house, we took very different perspectives on what that time needed to be. But we're still married, so barely. Alright, Ethan, last one.

Seth Heckaman: What do you think would be a good replacement for TV commercials?

Brittany Murphy: Well, this would probably help me, but I think instead of TV commercials, if it was actually. Oh, man. What's the P90X guy's name?

Seth Heckaman: Tony Horton. I don't know why I know that, but.

Brittany Murphy: Okay, if Tony or someone else could get on there and be like, Alright, people, what's up? Let's do stretches or let's do some push ups. I mean, I need someone every 5 minutes to try to encourage me to get up and stand because, you know, I hear in offices as well, we sit down a lot. And fortunately, I work with the trades and I'm actually very jealous of how physical their work is. And they're like, I'd rather be in an office with their condition. I'm like, It's so boring in here. I was like, My body's deteriorating now. Like, I have a standing desk. Like, that's the most excitement I get at my job is a standing desk. So I think if we could have little infomercials of workouts like, they could do a whole routine. I mean, in a 60 minute segment, we could do the whole, like the warm up phase, you know, the actual workout and the cool down. I mean, why not? That's my vote.

Seth Heckaman: There you go. Two birds and yeah, maximizing time. So, awesome.

Brittany Murphy: Exactly.

Seth Heckaman: Well.

Brittany Murphy: It falls in with my diet and exercise analogy for your marketing. So you got to keep your body in shape as much as you keep your marketing in shape.

Seth Heckaman: There we go. The thread all the way through the episode brought us through to the end. So good stuff. And thank you, Brittany, and it's been a real pleasure. Learned a lot. If someone would like to contact you after listening to the episode and follow up, what's the best way for them to do that?

Brittany Murphy: Best way would be to actually go to our website again. So onethingmarketing.net and at the top right button, sorry, the top right corner, there's a button that says Strategy Session. And so if anything resonates with you today and you just want that second opinion, it is no-obligation. I will be there, go through the process. We book with my calendar directly and I'll help you figure out how to get from point A to point B, And if you don't want to talk to me again, go to the show notes and download that e-book and figure out how to do it yourself or yell at your marketing agency to start doing these things for you immediately.

Seth Heckaman: Awesome. Good stuff. No doubt you can provide a lot of value and help to a lot of folks. So thanks for doing that today.

Brittany Murphy: Thanks for having me, guys. I appreciate it.

Seth Heckaman: Absolutely.

Seth Heckaman: Absolutely. And thank you for tuning in, our listeners, to this episode of Construction Disruption with Brittany Murphy of One Thing Marketing, onethingmarketing.net. Please watch for future episodes of our podcast. We are always blessed with great guests. If you would, don't forget to leave a review. We know how important those are on Apple Podcasts or YouTube. Until the next time we're together, keep on disrupting, challenging, and finding better ways to do things. So thank you again. God bless, take care. This is Isaiah Industries signing off until the next episode of Construction Disruption.

Intro/Outro: This podcast is produced by Isaiah Industries, a manufacturer of specialty metal roofing and other building products.