Most contractors I talk to really aren’t interested in any of this complicated “Contractor Marketing” nonsense. I mean, sure, they’re marginally interested, but only for one specific reason. And if you’re anything like them, it’s the same reason for you: You want your phone to ring with new business. Forget all the other B.S. Am I right?

I have provided a lot of marketing and internet marketing services to contractors, and after all these years, one thing stands above all the rest. If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s pretty much worthless.

So, I’ve finally found the most effective way to solve that problem.

A marketing service where you don’t pay unless you get an exclusive, qualified phone call.

How do you like them apples?

This is what we’re doing right now, and you don’t have to take it from me, but it is working extremely well. If you are so inclined that you’d like to chat about this for your business, I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.

If you’re an HVAC company looking forward to the hot AC season, we may already have some leads lined up for you. The best opportunities are in major metro areas, in regions where it gets HOT in the summer. And to qualify, you should have a 24hr call center and offer 24hr service, and be able to handle the extra call volume easily.

If this sounds like you, feel free to give me a call. My name is Seth, and I’ll just go ahead and put this here: (406) 493-0805. Leave a message about “pay per call” if I can’t pick up, and I’ll call you back asap.

To see if you qualify for this Pay-Per Call marketing service, call (406) 493-0805 or email seth@primeconversion.com

1. What kind of return on investment can I expect with your services?

2. Will you charge me per click, per call, per lead, or on some other basis?

3. As an Adwords account matures, if managed properly, the account should get a better and better Quality Score, and thus cheaper and cheaper clicks relative to the competition, right? So, with your service, who owns the Adwords account? If we part ways down the road, who gets control of the Adwords account? Do you pass the cost benefit of a high quality score on down to us, or does that only benefit your company?

4. Do you offer phone call tracking? If we part ways, who gets the phone number used for the Adwords campaign?

5. What about landing page quality? Do you set up a new website for us and handle all issues with landing page quality? If not, will you guide us on whatever changes might need to be made to our website to help our Adwords campaign convert as well as possible?

6. If you set up a new website for us, who gets control of that website if we part ways? If you keep it, can you guarantee you will pull it off line? Or will it keep getting leads down the road that do not come to our business?

7. What else do we need to know in order to ensure the highest possible return on investment?

8. Do you have any specific success stories of businesses like ours getting a measurable return on investment?

9. How much do we need to spend per week to meet our revenue goals? How will we measure this a month from now after we’ve got the campaign going, and into the future from that point on? Because the only thing that matters to us is return on investment, so we need to discuss campaign accountability and tracking that will occur once we’ve signed on the dotted line, so we may as well determine this now, right?

10. What is a reasonable Click Thru Rate (CTR) to expect for a campaign like ours?

11. What is a reasonable average cost per click to expect for a campaign like ours?

12. How many clicks will that likely generate for us?

13. What is a reasonable conversion rate for that number of clicks? (Meaning, how many new clients is that likely to generate for us?)

14. If those numbers don’t pan out after a month or two when we can clearly see the results of our campaign, what will happen then?

15. Is our campaign likely to provide us with a measurable ROI right off the bat, or will it take a certain amount of time to show a return? How long?

That should give you a pretty good start.

If you’re looking to grow your business in this less-than-ideal economy, then pull up a chair and get ready to buckle down for the next 5 minutes, because your answer is in this article.

In the next few minutes, we’re going to look at three crucial elements that you must consider before you attempt to overhaul your marketing efforts. First, we’re going to make sure your business isn’t currently shooting itself in the foot. Next, we’re going to make sure that your marketing and sales systems are up to snuff. Finally, we’re going to go over the details of the 3 ways for exponential growth in a small business.

An ounce of prevention….

First, let’s start with preventing your business from sabotaging itself.

The #1 biggest missed opportunity I see is when a business doesn’t place the highest value on it’s current and incoming customers (or clients.) When your business interacts with each customer, whether it’s on the phone, online, or in person, ask yourself this question: Are your customers and prospects being treated like the lifeblood of your business? Because that’s exactly what they are.

Did you know that after 2 rings, you lose 30% of your incoming callers? Now, how much is your average lifetime value of a customer? (If you don’t know this number, call your accountant and find out.) Take that number, write it on a post it note, and stick it on the handset. That is the amount of money you just passed up when you didn’t have your staff drop everything to answer that phone call. The solution? Make incoming calls top priority, and train your staff to do the same.

Bonus phone tip: If the person who answers your phones is rude or has a bad attitude, do you think that will transfer well to your prospective customers? How about your current clients? Think you should reconsider having a rude person as the face of your company? Of course you should.

Do you have a system?

Next, let’s talk about your marketing and sales system.

Do you have a comprehensive sales and marketing plan in place in your business? Do you know the proper strategy to implement to attract traffic to your website and then convert that traffic into sales? Do you know the proper social media strategy for busy entrepreneurs? Do you know how to use media, direct mail, and PR for the highest return on investment? And have you considered how you can do all this without wasting precious man-hours? These are elements that are not too difficult to implement if you have an expert marketing consultant in your corner.

3 Ways for exponential growth

Finally, here is a list of the 3 ways for exponential growth in any small business:

1. Get more prospects.

2. Increase your conversion rate of prospects to customers.

3. Increase the average ticket size (or frequency.)

It’s that simple. Can you think of one tactic you can implement to improve your business in each of these 3 areas? A 33% increase in each of these areas is often quite feasible. And that can add up to doubling your business in 90 days or less, if you build your business using a sound marketing blueprint.

So, check out how you handle incoming phone calls and customer inquiries. Make improvements where there are issues. Next, think about bringing in a consultant to give your marketing systems a comprehensive audit. Often a fresh eye can help you see things you can’t see in your daily grind. And last, focus on the 3 ways for exponential growth. Make improvements in all 3 areas, and you will be on the path for growth, even in a flat economy.

You can learn more about these and other marketing systems, tactics, and strategies in the Marketing Manual for Contractors.

About the Author – Seth Holdren is the author of Your Marketing Blueprint and Founder of the Local Business Development Education Association, the only governing body certifying LBDEA Certified Education Professionals. (LBDEA is an association dedicated to helping business owners increase profits.) After years of helping businesses grow, Holdren observed an epidemic of missed opportunities for growth in the arena of local marketing for small business. So he set out to cure this epidemic, by performing marketing audits and teaching workshops focused on effective and practical marketing tactics that provide ROI above all else.

How to cut the fat & waste from your marketing budget and at the same time increase your sales by up to 30% in 90 days.

The business owners I talk to on a day-to-day basis are usually in one of three categories:

• Their business is OK but they want to do better.

• Their business is stagnant, flat-lined, no growth in sight.

• Their business is declining.

Where is your business today?

Here are some of the most effective local marketing techniques for service businesses:

1. How is the business handling existing traffic? Are people getting a warm friendly welcome and excellent follow-through? This is a VERY common problem. Everyone is so obsessed with Google traffic but then they have a site that won’t convert for squat, no clear compelling offer, and terrible phone answering infrastructure. A friendly voice goes a LONG way.

2. DATABASE: Does the business have automated follow-up to it’s database of customers? A fun, entertaining, engaging newsletter is cheap, extremely effective, and can foster referrals quickly. This can be automated. If I had a database of 100 clients as a builder and could only do one marketing effort, it would be this.

3. Sales training for all staff (or the business owner). More balls are dropped in this phase than anywhere else. Everybody thinks they are just naturally good at sales, but having a sales system is paramount.

4. Asking existing clients for referrals. Don’t offer anything in return, but then thank them and maybe send a little gift if they refer people. The single most effective thing a builder could do right now is just sit down in front of the phone and start calling past clients with the intent to get into friendly appreciative conversations and then ask for 3 names. You will call their friends and offer to come inspect their home for XYZ important preventative whatever. Or you could offer an educational lunch-and-learn on a topic of “How to Increase Curb Appeal” or “How to Maintain Your Home to Prevent Lost Home Value” or “Easy DIY Green Home Makeover” or something compelling. Have them come to your local library or Whole Foods or something and talk to them for an hour about your topic and then answer questions, and leave them with a nice newsletter or guide or book.

The above can be sold to cold prospects using a very similar script to the one on page 67 of Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes.

5. Differentiate or die: Create a USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Sounds cliche, but it is a MUST. Integrate USP with all Marketing material. Integrate with all staff, vendors, customers, etc… Add USP to business cards, invoices, letterhead, trucks, uniforms, etc…

“Marketing and innovation make money. Everything else is a cost.” -Peter Drucker

6. THEN you think about your website. MUST HAVE a lead capture and compelling offer as the PRIMARY FOCUS on the website. Model after this guy: http://www.vamedmal.com/

7. The money is in the list. Set up e-mail responder. Capture e-mails on website. Create auto responders. Professionally written e-mails. E-mails can be forever, unlike a home address. Implement drip campaign.

8. Off-site online marketing: Press releases are AWESOME for SEO. Video marketing and distribution (Traffic Geyser or Tubemogul), podcasts on Apple.com and blog talk radio interviews, publish a book on Amazon.com (VERY easy to do…only has to be 28 pages long), big-budget PPC on all three major search engines, banner ads, build links.

9. Joint Ventures can be the fastest way to huge opportunities. What organization has a large list of your dream clients? Find ways to add value and serve their members or clients, and they will promote you to their list. This is a HUGE opportunity.

10. Direct Mail: use the Dunning mailer method (see this video, skip to 1:00:51 to get right to it) to your dream neighborhoods. Most people try direct mail ONCE and then quit. Direct mail works like crazy used as a CAMPAIGN, rather than a one shot deal. The keys are, mail to your dream neighborhood, have great copy, and sequence the mailer properly. It’s a campaign, not a single promotion. Most businesses aren’t serious enough about how they approach direct mail, so they fail.

Anyway, those are some of the best things a business can do to get results. If you want to have a conversation with me about how you can do this for your own business, talking is always free. Fill out my contact form here, and we can schedule a phone call.

Welcome to the ultimate small business marketing resources website. If you’re a small business owner… you’re in the right place. Grab a cup of coffee, relax, and take a look around.

There is a whole vault of resources here to help you improve your marketing skills.

• Free report: Marketing Overview.
• Guide to internet marketing.
• The Marketing Manual for Today’s Information Age.
• Educational videos.
• Audio tutorials.
• Hundreds of informative blog posts on marketing for small business.

So feel free to take a look around and see if you can find that one valuable tip you can use today to land that next project!

A Google Adwords Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign is an excellent way to get instant, targeted traffic to your website.

In fact, recent marketing studies have shown that potential customers who click on Sponsored Links on Google are more likely to make an immediate decision to purchase.

With our PPC campaign management service, you can control your own budget, and know what you can expect from day-to-day.

Benefits of PPC Management:

• You pay for your clicks at cost.

• No mark-up, just one flat monthly fee.

• We build you an asset that you own (your own Adwords campaign with a high Quality Score.)

• Your cost per click gets cheaper over time as your Adwords campaign matures.

• It’s all hands-free, done for you.

• You can turn it on and off at will.

• You set whatever click budget you are comfortable with, and you can raise and lower it any time.

• You get weekly reports showing you where your leads/customers are coming from, click data, and more.

• You can call us any time and speak directly to us to resolve any issues.

Contact us for more information about starting your own PPC campaign.

FREE – Download our Pay-Per-Click Checklist (pdf) on how to manage your own Google Adwords Pay-Per-Click campaign. To download, click here.

Download your copy now.

Get a free Pay-Per-Click consultation from a Google Adwords Qualified Individual.

Where They’re Still Building Strong in the US.

In this recent article from BusinessWeek, we get the inside scoop on America’s 20 Strongest Building Markets.

Some are due to recent storms, some because of an influx of population; and yet others are due to factors such as recovery funds and even *GASP* a strong economy.

Builders: If you’re miserable where you are and your market is in the tank for the foreseeable future…do you ever think about picking up and moving to where the action is?

Those of you who live in these areas are cursing me right now. But, well, sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands and take some action, right?

What do you think?

If you are trying to master your marketing because you want to grow your construction business, you’ve come to the right place.

This blog is a vault of resources that you can use to get your marketing plan humming along nicely, so you can spend your time focusing on your actual business, and what’s important in life. (Imagine that, right?)

Rather than pulling your hair out trying to find that next project, you can put a marketing system in place to help “automate the process” and get a steady stream of new targeted leads flowing in.

There are some great FREE resources available in the blog posts below. But don’t just take my word for it…read for yourself and decide. The goal here is to give you at least one marketing idea you can apply RIGHT NOW to your business to help you bring in new projects.