In an insightful dialogue, Eric G and John Dudley dissect the myriad errors that contractors frequently commit in their efforts to generate leads, offering a poignant critique of the current state of contractor marketing. Their conversation reveals that many contractors fall prey to a lack of clarity in their marketing strategies, often resulting in wasted resources and missed opportunities. The hosts emphasize the critical importance of establishing an appealing and functional website that serves as an effective marketing tool, as a well-designed online presence can significantly enhance a contractor's ability to attract potential clients.

As the discussion unfolds, the hosts underscore the necessity of employing a data-centric approach to marketing, advocating for the rigorous tracking of advertising efforts to ascertain their effectiveness. They assert that without a clear understanding of how each marketing expenditure translates into leads or sales, contractors may find themselves inadvertently squandering their budgets. Eric and John strongly recommend that contractors consider enlisting professional assistance in digital marketing, particularly in areas such as search engine optimization (SEO) and online advertising, to maximize their visibility and lead generation potential.

Moreover, the episode highlights the integral role that community engagement plays in lead generation. The hosts encourage contractors to cultivate relationships within their neighborhoods and to actively seek referrals from satisfied customers. By fostering a strong local presence and ensuring that their work speaks for itself, contractors can effectively tap into the power of word-of-mouth as a formidable marketing strategy. This comprehensive exploration of lead generation strategies presents a roadmap for contractors to navigate the complexities of the modern marketplace effectively, ensuring their continued success and growth.

Takeaways:

• Contractors often overlook the importance of a well-designed website, which can significantly impact lead generation.
• A lack of understanding regarding return on investment for advertising can lead to wasted resources.
• Engaging with the local community can enhance a contractor's visibility and lead to valuable referrals.
• Investing in professional marketing services is essential for contractors to remain competitive in today's market.
• Failing to maintain an updated online presence can create the impression of being out of business to potential clients.
• Data-driven decision making is crucial for optimizing lead generation strategies in the contracting industry.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Angie's List
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Houzz
• Google
• Amazon
• Weston and Weston
• GoDaddy
• SiteHype Design

Foreign.

Welcome to the around the House Pro Insider.

This is the podcast for trades pros, carpenters, contractors, interior designers and innovators building homes, renovating spaces, or creating the next big thing.

Let's dive in with your host, Eric G. Welcome to the around the House Pro Insider.

Yes.

We are back this week, Johnny and I talking about the things for all of you people out there in the trades, whether you're building a house, remodeling, you're a designer, or you've got the next best thing out there, you've got that invention that you want the home improvement trade to have.

We're here to help you today.

Johnny, great to have you back on again, brother.

Always fun to chat about this stuff because you've done it all yourself.

Absolutely, man.

And we got some great stories from it.

Absolutely.

Some scars and souvenirs.

Plenty.

So today I wanted to talk about something that's really confusing to many people out there, and it's how consumers are looking for contractors out there and how contractors are trying to put that into their systems.

Right.

You've got a contracting company.

Let's say you're a modeling contractor.

And you've got everybody from Angie's List to everybody else out there trying to sell you stuff.

You're trying to run ads on maybe Facebook or YouTube or something, and you're just completely confused on.

So I thought, you know, today let's talk about some of the myths and how the public goes to look for these things and what you can do to make sure that you're getting the most out of how you're getting your.

Leads for sure, and making sure you're getting anything out of how you're trying to get your leads.

Oh, my God.

Keeping track of the data.

Look, data doesn't lie.

Data is king.

So if you guys are running Facebook ads or Premier spot at the top of Angie's List or Houzz or any of those, is it actually making you money?

Is it paying for itself?

Are you getting an ROI on that?

Hey, man, folks out there that are just throwing money down a hole and they don't really realize it and they don't understand why they're not.

Why are these ads not working?

You know, and part of that can be you're trying to do it yourself instead of pay the pros, like I always say, man, that seems to be my mantra on this show.

Like, yeah, get the folks that know what they're doing, that know how to run ads, that know how to amp the SEO so that you're showing up in the AI section, in the Google my business section, you're at the top three spots of Google.

That's you got to get there.

And if you're just paying for ads and you don't know the return on that, you got to get clear.

You got to get clear.

Data doesn't lie.

So you know, and here's one of the problems I see, and I know you see this too.

You know, we have people and companies that run ads on the around the house show all the time.

They're the sponsors to keep the show going, all that good stuff, sometimes we can run the best ads, but if the user experience, right, by the time they get it and they try to reach out to you or they go to your website or they're trying to figure out are you decent, how is your system, how do you work if you don't have that dialed in, you're just burning money in the street.

You got the burn barrel out there and you're just taking bags of cash and burning it because it's not even going to give enough heat in the wintertime.

Because I tell you what, if you don't have that dialed in, you're just wasting money.

You've got to look like an industry expert.

And that starts with vanity, right?

It starts with a good looking website.

It starts with a good user experience.

It starts with a very simple 1, 2, 3, click and I'm buying, you know, booking whatever the case may be.

And maybe your ads are working and your traffic's going crazy and you got 50,000 people a month coming to your site.

But you're selling, you're getting one bid, right?

Yeah, your site's confusing, your site's dated, you don't look professional, you don't look like you're again up to date, modern click, quick, easy user experience, free quote, the form works, the phone numbers are correct.

Like there's so many simple things and people notice that stuff.

Absolutely.

This guy doesn't.

I don't know, man.

Probably drive up in a 74 pickup.

And yeah, I'm not driving that thing up after the day I had today.

Anybody looking for a 95F250 project?

Mine just lost a head gasket today.

Now I sound like every contractor that's worked with you, Johnny.

Hey, I couldn't make it to the job site.

My truck broke down.

Uh huh, yeah, right next to your bottle of gin.

Yeah.

Hey now.

No, but really, aesthetics, aesthetics are so important.

I mean we all know, we all do it.

We all go to websites and we look at it for three minutes and I go, that looks like Sesame Street.

I don't even know what you're selling me, man.

You can tell because there's like a.

Little tiny square on the page, right?

It's that little tiny lo fi square box in the middle of this page that was meant for a square computer monitor back then.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's.

It makes a huge difference.

And, you know, I could go on about that all day because that's what I do, but please, especially if you're spending money, you can send all the traffic.

We just had this conversation with a friend of ours.

You can send all the traffic you want, but if it's not a functional site or, you know, only half of the page shows on phone, which is what 70% of users are using to look at your site, you're not going to sell a lot of product or no, a lot of appointments.

Because if you can't keep your, you know, it's like the shop front that's not painted, got a busted window with duct tape shut, and you're like.

Looks a little sketchy.

Yeah, exactly like that.

And that's so true.

I mean, and right now, if you look at how consumers are dealing with hiring any kind of a contractor, about 40 to 50% of those, depending on who you ask in that range.

Start by asking friends, family, neighbors, colleagues for recommendations.

Many times they'll even jump on their local neighborhood group.

Maybe your next door or your neighborhood has a Facebook closed group.

You know, your city does.

You know, there's a lot of those out there where you have, you know, the township or whatever, you've got that, and they'll jump in there.

Now, the good part of that is many of the ones on.

And I think this is one of those places that if you've got your website set up and you look like a pro, you've got all your licensing and you're a real contractor, jumping on next door, having your kid jump on next door, having your person that's working in the office jump on next door every day and go, hey, you should try these guys.

That could be a free source.

As long as you have things dialed in, be active in your community so people see who you are.

If you've got a neighborhood group, you know, one of the best things as far as referrals that I ever did was like, Johnny, let's say you and I were working on a project and I did this after kind of you and I were working together so much.

But what I did was that if we were doing a remodel on a street, I would go 10 houses away, around the whole thing, a block back, that block, each block on the side, basically.

And I would get their addresses.

I'd run around the block or jump on maps, grab the addresses, mail off things, say, hey, sorry for the construction mess.

Going to do our best to be great neighbors.

If you see a problem, if there's a piece of tar paper in your driveway, call us, we'll handle it.

We are here to help you.

And if you start out by just reaching out to those people, put out those yard signs.

How much do you spend on yard signs?

They made money.

Yes.

I think I still have a stack.

Somewhere, storage unit someplace here in the states.

Right.

So.

But you know what I mean, you have those yard signs and you've now there is nothing better than nosy neighbors.

And you're priming the nosy neighbor thing.

Now you better be pulling every permit because if the homeowner made any neighbor mad, you're not getting away with it because they're going to call into the city and go, I don't see a piece of paper on the front of the house saying you have a building permit.

So there's the backside of that.

But if you're doing everything right, nosy neighbors like to come over.

Those are your potential clients in the neighborhood.

They see you rapping in there every day, smile on your face, cup of coffee, donuts for the guys, whatever.

They look at that and go, wow, what a nicely run clean job site.

And wow, they were there every day working on it.

That is better than a referral.

Right?

They see it.

There were times I would spend a year in the same neighborhood going from house to house.

Super effective.

Yeah, absolutely.

And the other thing I would do is in on that referral thing is I was, I would always go back and do a one year follow up on a major remodel, Go back there with a screwdriver, some touch up paint, adjusting cabinet doors, Whatever we're doing, I, you know, it's under warning.

Let's get that taken care of.

Did it lead to a little more work in the house?

Absolutely.

Did we now talk to that homeowner about their bathroom model?

If we did a kitchen or if we did a kitchen, we talk about their bathroom remodel.

You're in their living room, they will ask.

And now you're on to the next project.

Not only that, you're front of house, you're in their face and they remember you.

And they go, hey, you know what?

My sister's looking to do her kitchen.

You should give her a call.

And the other thing I did was I gave out almost like, you know, Subway sandwich click cards or how they used to do with Starbucks.

I would give out a stack of business cards and I'd put a sticker with their name on the back of it to hand out to people.

And I'd say, hey.

I go, hey, who referred you?

I said, I'll send you a hundred dollar gift card.

Yep.

For every single person that you refer us to, that's a legitimate project that we're going to take.

They don't have to buy it.

If we go out, take a look at it and go, wow, that's a legitimate project and we're going to quote it, we might not get it.

I'll get you $100 gift card.

Because they're happy because all of a sudden you just bought them some kind.

Of dinner or 100 mocas.

Yeah, either way.

Either way.

Now the next one on the list when you go down to this is, is really, you know, outside of referrals, now you're getting into Google, right?

Google, Safari, Edge, whatever, whatever.

Whatever you're using out there.

Now the problem is, and you know this, and you know this better than I do, is just people jump in and go home.

Remodeling contractors near me.

And that's where your website has to be dialed in.

Yeah.

You will not, it's crazy.

Not appear.

No, that's just it.

And this is where you as a contractor should be working on getting those reviews.

Right?

Those reviews are important.

So reviews are important.

Google, my business is important.

Making sure AI is catching you is important.

And I mean I can read you a list of some of the things we, we accomplish with SEO and AI, right?

Best construction ERP software, period.

Top of Google.

Best way to protect toe of my boot.

Our client AI Overview.

Ads on the side, videos below.

Top of Google that's using.

There's nothing specific.

Best way to protect toe of my boot.

Protect toe of my cleats.

Same thing.

These guys.

Amazon sponsored AI overview.

Best accounting firm, Houston and Melton.

Oops, probably shouldn't have said the name.

Top of the list.

Bam.

And it goes on and on like that's how we test our SEO.

That's how we make sure we're doing our job.

Is I do exactly that.

Best home remodeling contractor, vancouver.

Well, there's 5,000 of them.

2.

I don't know you want to be on page 20 or you want to be at the top with an AI description and a Google my business map and a link, directions, phone number.

And my question always is as, how many pages, when you use that to go get a hold of somebody, if you're on page six, do you ever call anybody off page six?

I don't think I ever go past page two, period, unless I'm digging for a free book or something.

Somebody's got this, trying to find something, right?

You're like, nope, nope, nope.

Jeez, we're going deep dive now.

But no, 8% of the time, I never go past page two.

Yeah.

So when you think about that, if you're a contractor, business owner, whatever, you really need to sit here and figure out what is your.

What's the best tools for you to get those leads in.

And I mean, it's not like you can put yourself in the Yellow Pages anymore.

You know, that doesn't exist.

So AI is kind of the new Yellow Pages that's coming in.

And if you're not ready for that, you're already behind.

Well, especially, I mean, even if you have a newer site, if you haven't made the adjustments so that AI is picking it up, you're way behind the curve.

Those little AI descriptions that pop up that say, you know, firms like Weston and Weston, those are killing it right now.

Yeah, people, you get the brief description, da, da, da, da.

But to get picked up by AI at this point, it's not just simple SEO.

You got to really have your act together.

Well, it's interesting, you know, since you did my website, for instance, and, you know, since site Hype Design came in and took my, you know, GoDaddy one that I had, and I'm not a web designer, but it was the best that I could do.

And the problem with that was that template changed all the time.

So it ended up just getting hokier and hokier and hokier and hokier with it.

But the problem was, is that I wasn't showing up a lot of places.

Now all of a sudden, when you type in on chat, gtp, who's the number one home improvement podcast in the country?

Boom.

Every time it's around the house.

Yeah, buddy, that's really cool how that works.

It's really important because in another year, everybody's going to be jumping on that and they'll understand it and it will have caught up.

So then it just becomes a battle, just like Google is currently.

But right now, it's cutting edge.

And you get in there now and you build credibility with the AI systems and you will continue to rank higher and outrank Best Podcast because you've been on there a year and the new guys are flooding in.

You know, makes a difference legacy people.

And if you're still putting out the content domains.

Yeah.

You're still have a, a relevant website, you've got new pictures up there, you got your backlinks, all the crazy stuff you need to have.

That's where you start looking good.

Yep.

And consistent content.

Google pays attention.

You gotta.

If your portfolio of remodel projects has, doesn't have something up there from the last year, that's bad.

You gotta be updating that stuff.

And if you can't update it and you shouldn't update it yourself, you're a contractor, not a web guy.

Pay the pros.

Pay somebody to keep your website up.

Pay em 200 bucks a month.

They'll put two blog posts and change images, take pictures at every job, Keep it current, keep it pro.

People like that, people like shiny.

I'm gonna go here and take a look at some of my, I'm going to stop people out there.

I'm going to do a little audit here.

Not mentioning any names.

Right.

I'm not going to mention any names.

That's no fun.

Let's do this.

Wow.

Here's one of the people that you and I have worked with that aren't doing anything right now.

Their latest post on Instagram was 147weeks ago.

That's a spell.

I'm going to take a look at some of the contractors here.

Yeah.

And that's the thing, you know, you go start looking at some of this stuff and go, wow, okay.

If you created it, you need to continue to use it.

Because what happens is, is you look like you've gone out of business.

You get lost in the algorithm and that's exactly what it is.

If I go to somebody on my last post 2 years ago now they're probably not even in business anymore.

You have to keep that stuff current.

It's.

I can't think of the damn word.

It doesn't cost anything.

I mean it's so simple, you know, get somebody to run your social.

You automate all that stuff.

You AI the posts, they stay consistent, the branding stays consistent.

You pump them out on a regular basis and it's done.

And you pay somebody 500 bucks a month to do it on all your channels.

Game over.

And you look Current.

You look professional.

You look like a thought leader in your industry and you look tech savvy.

It's shiny.

Everybody likes shiny.

Just do it.

So here's one.

Here's one.

Johnny, this is.

This is the best one I've found yet.

This is a major kitchen and bath remodeling company out of Seattle that I am familiar with.

And I'm not going to give too much information because we're not here to bag on anybody.

Their last post predates Covid.

Yeah, see, to me, that's out of business.

Yeah.

Like I would.

I would legit look that up and go, they must be out of business.

Yeah, it's as simple as that.

I mean, if you're not staying current with your website socials and SEO to SEO to keep you visible, you're just not.

Now I gotta look at their website.

Listen, you're losing.

You're leaving a lot of money on the table not having those leads come in through various channels like that.

Yeah, you'll triple your leads just by doing a little.

Like, just by doing a little.

And one remodel project will pay for a year's worth of your marketing.

It just.

It doesn't make sense to me.

And it.

Yeah, I said I'd stop ranting.

I'm trying to.

And by the way, with.

With AI and stuff that we see out there now, if you're a contractor before we wrap this up, don't be foolish.

Like these people that I'm looking at right here and steal other people's pictures.

You're going to get nailed on that.

It's way too easy to find you.

It is way too easy to get nailed on that.

And you're going to be in serious trouble.

So I'm looking through here going, I.

Can nailed before, but now AI scans that stuff in a minute.

Yeah.

Now I'm looking at these pictures here going, wow, that's not even in the US Looking at the fixtures, but you've got them on your website.

You know what I mean?

Kind of easy to tell what that stuff is.

And I'm like, I can tell.

And they're so blurry.

You can tell they were snipped off somebody else's website.

Yeah.

So craziness.

Absolute craziness.

Well, Johnny, more leads, more revenue, more business.

Put your time into your business.

Let somebody else take the time to get you right and get your marketing dialed in and get you looking like a shiny new car.

Not a 74 pickup.

And you will have more clients and more revenue.

Yeah, Better life all the way.

Go fishing.

Go fishing.

Exactly.

Exactly.

And you know something?

It's really just that simple, you know?

And it comes down to that consistency and all of that.

And by the way, guys, you're going to hear it probably a different.

We got to.

I got to call out a buddy here.

We're going to have a different ending song this time because guess what, I don't know who.

Roger Klein or Buddy.

You're not Mutual friend.

I love promoting his music, but there's some company now that is trolling, trying to get us to getting copyright strikes by using the music that he went.

Oh, sure, man, that'd be great.

Go ahead.

Now there's some music rights company that's sending me takedown notices for stuff on YouTube.

So guess what?

We're going to change the song up here at the end and go to something that's licensed that I can use.

I think we'll have to use a Dudley song even.

Let's do that.

Oh, boy.

Here we go.

Speaking of shiny.

Yep, exactly.

Well, that way you can get your 17 cents in the mail for that check from ASCAP or whoever.

Yeah, you know, I never did get that check or any of those checks.

I know it.

Maybe I'll send you a cease and desist order.

Okay, cool.

There we go.

There we go.

Get a buck or two out of you.

Yeah, I can send you.

Let's see, what is the exchange rate to Colombia?

For a dollar, I can buy coffee.

There you go.

Yeah, you can get stuff a lot cheaper down there.

And it's probably a lot better than the Folgers.

You'd get here for a dollar.

Tree meal.

Pesos, amigo.

There we go.

There we go.

All right, brother guys, thanks for tuning in today.

Can't wait till next week when we have another edition of the around the House Pro Insider.

I'm Eric G. And for Dudley here, you've been listening to the around the house show.

Adios.

See y'.

All.

Thanks for tuning in to the around the House Pro Insider.

We are happy to be back.

Make sure you subscribe so you know to catch the next episode.

We will see you next time.

The in the balance and where it's at.

Man, I need to focus now.

What is that?