Marketing & Advertising

Passion Above All

June 6, 2019 by Darren

Steve Jobs said, and I’m paraphrasing, you have to love what you are doing because if you don’t when it gets really hard, you will quit.

That’s where passion comes in

When you find it hard to generate new business, find the right talent, get that prospect to sign, you have to have passion.

Passion is what is going to get you through the hard times. It’s what made you start your business in the first place.

I’m sure this isn’t opening any new eyes, it is meant to center you, to refocus you on why you did all this in the first place.

Funny story. I started a non-profit to help kids who want to participate in the performing arts. When I built the website, I used the code for my newsletter as a placeholder expecting to change it once the site went live.

Well, I forgot

And for 60 days now, I’ve added emails from parents who want their kids involved in the theater to my construction marketing email list.

Guess what…?

When I realized it and I sent out info to some of the people subscribed, about half said they wanted to stay on it, and that they could use the information in their jobs.

Having an email list that you can talk to on a regular basis is awesome. Having one-on-one communication with people who want to hear what you have to say helps you rise above the noise.

Just make sure to make your emails mobile friendly, since 66% of all email is now being opened on a mobile device.

How Facebook Determine the Cost of Your Ad

August 20, 2018 by Darren

There are so many factors that come into play when Facebook determines the cost of your ad. In fact, Facebook doesn’t really charge for your ads. Instead, you set the amount that you are willing to pay for your ad to be seen. While a lower amount may allow your ad to be seen a thousand times during the spring, that same amount may only get your ad seen a handful of times during the holiday season.

Hey, what did you expect? Everyone’s fighting for business at that time of the year!

Here are some of the numerous items that influence the cost of any Facebook ad:

Audience – If you are targeting a very obscure audience, then you are not going to need to have a large budget for your ad. However, if you are targeting an audience of 30 to 50-year-olds, like everyone else in the marketing world, you better have a fabulous budget with an even better marketing ad! And I mean an ad that stands out from all the rest!

High-Quality Ad – The higher quality your ad is, the higher your relevance score will be. You are going to want the highest relevance score as possible with your ad because that will mean that you will pay less for it to be shown on Facebook.

Click-Through Rate – You are going to want to strive for the highest click-through rate as possible because that will keep your marketing costs lower. If Facebook sees that you have a high conversion rate, they will continue to lower your costs.

Time of the Year – As mentioned above, the time of the year will affect how much you are paying for your ads to be displayed on Facebook. You may want to consider boosting your marketing budget during the busier times of the year for that reason.
Bidding Options

CPC (Cost Per Click) – You can save some money on your ads by simply paying for those that are clicked on by a person.

CPM (Impressions) – This option has you paying a flat fee for every 1,000 impressions. This is a great option if you need your ad to be seen by numerous people quickly.

CPA (Cost per Action/Conversion) – You are paying for each click to your website that will most likely lead to a conversion.

Cost per Like – This option is used when you are trying to gain likes on your page and you pay for each new like that comes from your ad.

Optimization Options

Conversions – Facebook will deliver your ad to people who they believe will complete the action that you want, and you will pay per CPM.
Impressions – Facebook will again deliver your ad to people, but in this case, they will get it to as many people as possible. You will pay for the impressions or CPM.
Clicks to Your Ad or to Your Site – Facebook will deliver your ad to the people that they believe will click over to your site and you will pay for the CPC.
Daily Unique Reach – Once a day, Facebook will deliver your ad to people. You will end up paying per CPM.

As you can see, there are numerous options when it comes to setting up your ads via Facebook marketing. That means that you can spend as little or as much as you want during any given month.

I do not recommend spending thousands of dollars each month on Facebook marketing, but you should spend enough so that your target group can see what you have to offer. After all, millions of people are on Facebook every day, and you and your business can benefit from proper Facebook marketing.

If you need help connecting with prospects, your website probably needs a little help. We build or repair construction websites for contractors. Contact us for more info.

5 Things That Will Help You Create Phenomenal Facebook Ads

April 5, 2018 by Darren

Creating a Facebook ad is a little like playing in a sandbox for contractors trying to figure out their marketing. You never quite know what is going to happen until you have finished the entire creative process. In the sandbox, it is a beautiful sandcastle. With a Facebook ad, it is a marketing campaign that is going to attract thousands or even millions of customers to your business.

Here are 5 items that will help you create phenomenal Facebook ads:

1. Write an Attention-Grabbing Headline: Your headline should be short, yet clear and to the point. It should also include action words like get and try, and emphasize the benefits of your services or products.

2. Create a Valuable Offer: People are always going to want what you have if there is something extra in it for them. So, I always say that you should throw in an extended trial period, or a limited time discount offer, or a freebie. No sane person is going to turn down any of that!

3. Show Proof: No one is going to believe what you have to say. After all, would you believe a stranger that you don’t know?? I know that I wouldn’t! Therefore, you are going to want to show proof. I recommend including testimonials from clients, and descriptions of how many people have benefited from your products or services.

4.Use Colorful Ads: Now before you start thinking that any colorful ads are good, you should know that certain ads stand out more than others. High-contrast images with strong colors, and light ad images with an almost white background are the two types of ads that stand out the most. All the rest seem to blend into the background and get missed.

5.Use Carousel Ads: Carousel ads get viewed more than any other type of Facebook ad, and they are perfect because they share more of the story of your business. You can share up to ten images, videos, links, or a combination of them all, so a person can get a better feel for your company. The one recommendation that I have is making sure that your first slide is amazing, so that people want to stick around for the rest of them. Then keep the story consistent, instead of jumping around, and make sure that there is a call of action in each one.

You are going to need to create a few different Facebook ads and test them out to see which one will work best for your business. Thankfully, there are numerous options available with Facebook, and it is easy to switch things up and make changes until you find the ad that reaches the target audience that you want with the conversion rates you need.

Want More?

How to Use Facebook Right Now to Generate Leads

March 1, 2018 by Darren

Life Events; we all have them. The events in our lives are what make us the people we are. Certain events, like a recent marriage or the birth of a child, are life-changing. Those types of events may also mean that we’re going to be buying or remodeling a home in the near future.

Do you see where I’m going with this now? I’m not so boring after all. Your Facebook Ads campaign has to take the life events of your target audience into consideration. Here are a few ideas for laser targeting your Facebook Ads audience based on what’s going on in their lives:

Birthday
Marriage
Anniversary
Pregnancy
New Family Member
New Pet
New Job

As you can see, people use social media to share their lives on a broad scale with their family and friends. That gives us the opportunity to market to them based on what’s really going on right now.

Let’s look at birthdays for example

People don’t stop celebrating their birthday when they hit adulthood. They simply begin wanting bigger and more expensive gifts; like a mudroom or a patio. Let’s say that you know that your local hardware store is going to have a big sale on washers and dryers next month based on the circular that was delivered this week.

Your Facebook Ads campaign can target homeowners with birthdays this month or next month. Convince them that they deserve a new mudroom for their birthday. People who were already considering buying a washer and dryer will be easily convinced.

Other Life Events

Someone just getting married may need to remodel the kitchen or bathroom whereas someone who announced a pregnancy may need to add a nursery. The owner of a new pet could be looking for creative ways to build a dog house, add a deck and pet door, or tuck a pet condo under the stairs. Someone who just landed a new job may need to add a home office. A homeowner whose child just graduated high school or college may be looking to turn the basement or garage loft into an apartment.

We never really know what someone is going through unless they share it on social media. Even then we only see a glimpse into their world. We see areas of their life and opportunities to help them improve their lives.

Facebook Ads Targeting isn’t Just about Clicking Boxes

Yes, choosing your audience based on their volunteered demographic information seems pretty simple, but the words and images you use play a big part in conversion as well. I mean, we are looking at nearly 3 million advertisers on Facebook alone. That’s a lot of competition for just a few ad slots on a single website. We can help you beat the competition and get more eyes on your ads than you can get on your own.

Besides, we know that you have more important things to do than reviewing ad campaign statistics and trying to decipher whether they’re performing well or failing miserably. Let us focus our attention on your Facebook Ads campaign so you can focus on your construction business and scheduling appointments with homeowners who want to hire you.

Target Your Facebook Audience by Using their Life Events

Every Facebook user can document major life events on their timeline, including the birth of a child, a new job, anniversaries, birthdays, relationships, and a new residence. As a business owner and Facebook advertiser, you can use that information to your advantage.

The life events features work best if you combine them with the information that you receive through your Facebook insights page. That page is where you can see who is interacting on your page, based on their age, location, and even their language.

By utilizing the information from your Facebook insights page and adding the life events of the people you are targeting, you can customize your ad so that the appropriate people sees it. This will ensure that you are not spending money that you shouldn’t be, while also guaranteeing that you will have the most conversion rates.

In addition to the life events, you can also choose to target specific interests and behaviors. That means that if you are looking for first-time parents-to-be who are interested in natural and organic products, you can customize your Facebook ad accordingly. The same goes for a business who is looking to target people in their 40s and 50s who are trying to care for their aging parents or people in their 20s who love hiking, nature, the beach, and animals.

The possibilities of choices for narrowing down your target audience is endless, and while it can be good, it can also be bad as you can eliminate almost everyone. You will want to keep your options broad enough, so that you are targeting enough people, especially in the beginning when you are figuring this Facebook ad thing out.

There are numerous ways to choose your target audience on Facebook, but the life events are one of the best features, because it is what a person has either done in the past or is doing in the present. Those life events will guarantee that you are spending your advertising dollars wisely, and hopefully you will begin to see results almost immediately. If not, you can always tweak your Facebook ads, so that you are able to reach your goals as quickly as possible.

Using Facebook’s Business Manager for Life Events

While it would be nice if you could just pop onto your Facebook page and type a few words or insert a video and have your ad go viral, that isn’t the way it works. Instead, there are a few simple steps that you need to take before you are ready to post your marketing ad. Of course, those steps include all the boring and mundane information pages that have your name, address, business name, time zone, and the ever so important billing information. Yes, Facebook does want their money!

You will have an option to add multiple payments, which I highly recommend, in case one of your cards expires, reaches its limit, or some other unexpected event occurs. If you only have one card listed, and your payment doesn’t go through, you are not going to be happy when your advertising is being paused and no new customers are being targeted.

You won’t need to worry about being billed every single day or every single week with Facebook, as they will only charge your card at the end of every month or when your threshold has been reached. Your threshold will be low in the beginning but will increase as you continue to advertise.

Now, I know that this is when many of you are going to begin to panic and fuss and throw a fit. You are going to say that there is no way that you can do Facebook marketing because you will have no clue how much you will be spending each month. At least with a newspaper ad or mailer, you get an up-front fee.

And this is when I tell you that you need to listen and hear all the facts, plus man up and put on your big boy pants. After all, running a business is a gamble and you need to spend a little money to make some money.

When you use Facebook marketing, you can set a spending limit each month. That means that you can control how much you spend on your marketing campaign. So, you will not go over your limit, nor will you lose out on new customers.

Once your business manager account is all set through Facebook, you will be able to add multiple employee users as well as different marketing ad accounts. Each employee can be assigned to specific accounts, while you oversee them all. You will have numerous choices available, yet you will also have the final say on everything that is done for your Facebook marketing ads.

The entire process is easy with step by step instructions, and before you know it, you will have your first marketing ad being seen by your target audience.

Promote Your Blog Posts with Facebook Ads to Reach a New Audience

One of the easiest ways to increase the traffic to your blog is to utilize social media. Everyone has at least one social media account, and they can spend hours perusing what is posted by others. While there is a plethora of social media platforms, one of the most popular platforms is Facebook, and that is why you should be using it to grow your website.

5 Things that Will Help You Create Phenomenal Facebook Ads

Creating a Facebook ad is a little like playing in a sandbox. You never quite know what is going to happen until you have finished the entire creative process. In the sandbox, it is a beautiful sandcastle. With a Facebook ad, it is a marketing campaign that is going to attract thousands or even millions of customers to your business.

Here are 5 items that will help you create phenomenal Facebook ads:

Write an Attention-Grabbing Headline
Your headline should be short, yet clear and to the point. It should also include action words like get and try, and emphasize the benefits of your services or products.

Create a Valuable Offer
People are always going to want what you have if there is something extra in it for them. So, I always say that you should throw in an extended trial period, or a limited time discount offer, or a freebie. No sane person is going to turn down any of that!

Show Proof
No one is going to believe what you have to say. After all, would you believe a stranger that you don’t know?? I know that I wouldn’t! Therefore, you are going to want to show proof. I recommend including testimonials from clients, and descriptions of how many people have benefited from your products or services.

Use Colorful Ads
Now before you start thinking that any colorful ads are good, you should know that certain ads stand out more than others. High-contrast images with strong colors, and light ad images with an almost white background are the two types of ads that stand out the most. All the rest seem to blend into the background and get missed.

Use Carousel Ads
Carousel ads get viewed more than any other type of Facebook ad, and they are perfect because they share more of the story of your business. You can share up to ten images, videos, links, or a combination of them all, so a person can get a better feel for your company. The one recommendation that I have is making sure that your first slide is amazing, so that people want to stick around for the rest of them. Then keep the story consistent, instead of jumping around, and make sure that there is a call of action in each one.

So there you have it. A great way to use custom audiences and how to market to them. If you are trying to establish a lead generation campaign to fill in other types of marketing, then using Facebook for leads is a great way to do it. If you’ve tried it and you just aren’t hitting the mark, let’s talk and we can look at the areas of your campaign where you can use some improvement. If you’d rather not be bothered, we can care for your lead generation with custom, exclusive campaigns that are build just for you.

Feast or Famine Isn’t a Good Way To Market

February 4, 2018 by Darren

When you hit the pause button on your marketing campaign, you set off a chain of events that follows you around all year. At some point, you find yourself playing catch up, you can’t turn the switch off for long before you realize the phone has stopped ringing…then you panic. Don’t panic. Sorry if the sound is shitty, pump up the volume.

What’s it Cost You to Make $100k?

January 21, 2018 by Darren

This was my newsletter topic sent to my community this week. If you’d like to subscribe, click here.

It’s mid-January already. hard to believe. A new season (for those who have seasons) is right around the corner. Planning is key to having a great season. Take this week’s newsletter, I came up with the topic 6 months ago while I was with the kids having ice cream.

The topic? $100,000 dollars.

How does $100k and ice cream come together to form the basis of a newsletter written 6 months later? Here’s how.

It wasn’t so much ice cream as it was one of those yogurt by the once joints, you know the ones, they sell yogurt by the ounce. If you’ve never been, you’ve never been, when they hand you the bill you will swear like I did, that you are in the wrong profession because the shit is expensive by the ounce!

It gets expensive because you can add toppings, and boy do they add up. Now, guess what topping I happen to come across? Not jimmies, not hot fudge, but chunks of the old $100,000 candy bar.

While the kids were trading off tastes from each other’s cup of frozen goodness, I got to thinking, what could I do to add $100k to your topline revenue each year.

I imagined the difference one hundred thousand dollars could make to a company. From one just starting out to a 40-truck HVAC company whose been around 30 years. I said to myself, it is still a lot of money.

But over the last few months, I changed the way I thought about the question. I started to ask myself what it would cost you for the opportunity to make a $100k.

So, I whipped up a spreadsheet with some historical data we have laying around on lead generation, and I came up with a formula. Right now, I can tell you with pretty precise detail just how much it would COST you to make an additional $100k this year.

If you are interested in making another hundred-grand for you and your company this year, click this link, fill out the form, and I’ll give you, down to the dollar, what it should cost.

Yeah, we are going to have to have a conversation to get you the info you need, but conversations are free. New trucks and employees and workman’s comp insurance aren’t. And that’s what I’m thinking you’d use the money for. So click here now and let’s see what it would take for you to get at your own $100k bar.

Have a great week!

Darren

Referrals Make You Lazy. Long Live Referrals!

January 15, 2018 by Darren

Referrals…great word. It means the reward for doing good work. Good work that over time, rewards you with an opportunity to continue doing good work. Good for you, now what?

I’ve never met a contractor who has been busy enough with referrals to sustain their business for the long-term. Eventually, you have to market your business, and 2018 might be the year.

I say that because there is a lot at stake. The Amercian remodeling marketing is at a frothy $150 billion and rising…fast.

With about $5 million dollars up for grabs in each zip code, you better be promoting your business. I don’t care how you do it; yard signs, truck wraps, mailers, or what we do, leads for contractors, but you better be doing something besides living off of yesterday’s work.

Know why?

Because you need to impress as many people as possible now (new business) so that when the market turns and you are slow, the additional new work you did provides referrals then. That’s how you tough out down markets.

Let’s Schedule a Call