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Mastering Marketing in the Trades with Brent Oberlink & Travis May
89 Plays2 years ago
Join hosts Brent Oberlink and Travis May on The Better Contractor Podcast as they dive into the world of marketing for trades industries. In this episode, they explore the critical role of marketing in shaping a company's reputation, attracting customers, and recruiting top talent. From engaging content creation to leveraging social media and the latest AI technologies, discover practical tips and strategies to elevate your marketing game. Whether you're in lawn care, landscaping, tree services, or building trades, this podcast provides valuable insights to help you stand out in a competitive market. Tune in to learn how to effectively tell your story, promote your unique strengths, and build a strong, professional presence online.
#Arboriculture #TreeCare #SafetyTraining #UrbanForestry #TCIA #ISA #ChainsawSafety #ClimbingTechniques #WorkplaceSafety #TreeIndustry #TheBetterContractorPodcaast #entrepreneur #businessgrowth #marketing
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Transcript
Introduction and Quote Discussion
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of The Better Contractor. Today is me and my co-host Travis. How are you, man? The quote master. I was just thinking the last podcast we filmed, you only had two quotes. So I don't know if that qualifies as a quote master. I'm not promising that, uh, that there will be a quote, as they say, uh, less is more. So you got to keep, you got to keep, you got to keep the line there. You got to keep it coming. Them wanting.
00:00:38
Speaker
I did like the one from Henry Ford, though. That resonated. I like that one. So when my career took a bent into the training part, me being the one who like studying history and look at that was one of the ones that stood out to us. I get it. That's a perfect response back. Like, I mean, simple, effective. So this is a different podcast. The one that we threw out was Henry Ford's during the time of turbulence and a lot of change in the industry and competition.
00:01:08
Speaker
they needed to train their staff. And so the management team had come to him and said, well, the fear was, what if we give them all this training? And then they take that training and the time and money and effort that we poured into them. And they take that and go work for a competition. And Henry Ford's response was, what if we don't train them and they stay? And the implication to that is, I think whether that's a deliberate or intentional thought that people have within their industry or not, if you're not training your people,
00:01:38
Speaker
and they're staying, there's consequences, whether you're thinking about it or not, but yes. Yeah. No, I love that one.
The Role of Marketing in Business Success
00:01:45
Speaker
Uh, so today we'll talk a little bit about marketing. So something we've not touched on. So maybe a little bit, but not in the depth of any sort. Um, so to me, it's important in this industry for a couple of reasons, but one of those being there's so many companies that don't do it well. And if you think.
00:02:08
Speaker
What is a good way to get my message out there? Well, that's social media. What is a good way to build culture with people that maybe don't see me every day? But that's social media. What is a good way to make my company at least look professional? And hopefully you actually are professional once we get to know you. But again, that's social media. So the quality of your marketing, what you're putting out there matters so much because it's usually people's first impression. We always want to talk about first impressions.
00:02:36
Speaker
In 2024, if I'm looking you up, I'm probably gonna get a first impression from either the quality of your website, your social media, your videography, your photography, whatever it is. I'm getting a little bit of a, you know what, these people appear to be a little bit type A, because look at all this, like this is well done. Or they clearly made their own website. They really, like their social media looks like, you know, their high school son is the one doing it.
00:03:03
Speaker
it gives me a different impression of what I can expect once you show up to the job site. So I think people need to realize the marketing is actually that important, that that is the person's first initial response or reaction to you is what they're seeing right there. So if you look at that, you know, think of content. So, you know, to me, your content needs to be engaging.
00:03:30
Speaker
and also still helpful, you know, so I look at, you know, we've added somewhat recently with Landercorp, we've added, you know, our own videographer photography, we did a lot of stuff in house, and we recently switched marketing firms because we see the value in marketing.
00:03:47
Speaker
But just the difference of having that high quality video and that high quality photo, along with more of that engagement that comes along with that, it's so huge. But I see so many companies simply just not doing that. What do you think, Travis?
00:04:04
Speaker
I was gonna say the marketing is happening whether you're pushing it or not. People have either a positive or negative opinion about you and your only real way to help manage that and expectations of what people know about you and the things that you do and why you do them is if you're taking control of it. But I mean that I guess is partially true because if you're not doing anything and people
00:04:31
Speaker
Maybe you have a good reputation, maybe you're regional or you're just not pushing, you're not in the public eye a lot. Maybe nobody's talking about you. And that's got consequences too. And you can't say good or bad, just nobody even knows you exist. And when they search you, because everybody's going to search nowadays online, you don't
00:04:55
Speaker
you don't even exist, you're a ghost and you're wondering why you can't get sales. And then I
Impact of Marketing on Company Perception
00:05:01
Speaker
think there's also, just like most industries and everything that's happening across all industries, including this one is there's a lot of change, a lot of technology, there's a lot of cultural things that change as far as who we're appealing to and the clients, the people that work for us and things that, how you do things and what appeals to the customers and how you should.
00:05:25
Speaker
There's been marketing sense, there's the traditional well polished, there was a time and there still is to certain demographics where it's polished as well put together, it's well thought through, it's crisp, it looks like you spent some money on it and it's very professional done videos, photos, content.
00:05:48
Speaker
And then there's the other side where it's ad hoc. Somebody's got their iPhone or smartphone out and there's no real structure to it. They're just recording themselves live for a minute and a half on a site or walking through some hallway and they're just talking. And that's deemed as very authentic and people connect to it and it goes viral on the internet, maybe more cases than the super polished stuff.
00:06:18
Speaker
And then whether it's funny or dynamic or straightforward or serious, but I think there's so many nuances and it seems like it's opposing each other and it can be confusing of which one do we do. The answer is probably yes, in that you probably need to have a balanced approach to all of it.
00:06:36
Speaker
Depends on who your customer is, but do you need to have authentic content out there where they're seeing the human side of things and where it's a little bit messy and they see that you're real or that you have problems or challenges and you're working through it? The answer is probably yes. Do they need to see professional that you take yourself seriously and that it's not just a fly by night? I'm just always on my iPhone recording myself, but I'm a little bit more polished. I've thought things through.
00:07:04
Speaker
Probably yes, the consequences, the benefits are both there, but the consequences are too. If somebody looks at all your content and none of it seems professional, there might be inferences in some parts of your potential customer base that maybe that translates to their job or their work too. Maybe it's all kind of I'm flying by the seat of my pants and I just don't have experience versus if it's all polished, then what are you trying to hide?
00:07:34
Speaker
Maybe you're too expensive. Maybe you're too serious. And I want somebody that's a little bit more real or I want to feel connected to the community or that I'm helping the underdog or the up and coming. And I want somebody who's a little bit more genuine and authentic and say, I think.
00:07:52
Speaker
that the answer is probably yes. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you're kind of doing a mix of like the professional, like here's the, obviously the more professional shots, but then also that authentic where a person is just talking to the camera and maybe it's an experience he just had, maybe it's a new piece of equipment they just bought. Um, you know, people like to know what you're walking through. So I think there's an authentic, that realism there that, that business owner or
00:08:16
Speaker
you know and ideally I guess you can kind of have that person that doesn't mind being from the camera that's a little bit more authentic raw or like a mascot almost for your company is ideal. The couple things I wrote down you know marketing should tell your story and marketing should also promote your cool factor so I think as contractors we kind of think you know what there's we're just mowing yards we're just doing trees we're just doing this or that
00:08:42
Speaker
Is there a cool factor? Actually, there is, you know, um, you know, we were on job site last week with a company that had like, you know, one of the nicer grapple salt trucks that I've seen. And they're reaching over the top of a house and taking a tree down on the other side of the house. That's cool. You know, like people are driving by and kind of looking out the windows to see what in the world this machine is.
00:09:05
Speaker
That's actually social media worthy because it's not something you see every day. Not every tree company can afford a 500 to $900,000 grapple saw truck. So the fact that you've got this and you got a dude with a remote control sitting here doing all that work,
00:09:22
Speaker
That's cool. That needs to be on social media. It's an awesome video to create. That's going to get people to stop for a second. What's this? You know, so find out kind of what makes your business unique and then use social media, video photography, whatever, to highlight that cool factor. You know, going back to telling your story, you know, I think a lot of people think that, you know, marketing is only about I'm selling to a customer.
00:09:49
Speaker
It is to an extent, but not anymore. It maybe used to be that way. It was used more for sales. But really now, and here again, it's the word culture. Now it's actually more culture-based, I believe. You know, I'm selling, or you shouldn't be anyway. I'm telling you through social media who I am. I'm telling you who my company is, what we stand for, our core values, our beliefs.
00:10:10
Speaker
I'm showing you what's cool about us, but I'm not just doing it for a customer. I'm also doing it for current employees and future employees. Because I want to find those people that, hey, I like this guy. I like what they stand for. I like who they are. I like what they do. I like that they have this equipment. I kind of think I want to work there. So your marketing needs to be not just to make the sale. It needs to be culture. It needs to be future employees as well. And are they getting into
00:10:40
Speaker
telling that story and then the different modalities that you would use, whether it's super crisp or professional or more authentic. The more authentic ad hoc stuff is a little bit less controllable as far as staying on brand and best is because you're kind of in the spur of the moment versus if you polished it and you got a release schedule and things like that is very scripted on brand, having that holistic
00:11:09
Speaker
I guess approach, but that content, so showing the grapple saw truck, showing the remote control, whatever, showing the autonomous mowing contraption or robot going through the yard. One, giving a sense of your, so if you're marketing to the client, potential client, you're innovative, you're fresh, but then also telling that story, well, the reason why we're using this is we improve safety, which we care about.
00:11:38
Speaker
We do things more efficiently, which actually cuts down the cost to the individual client overall. We can do more with less. We can charge less. Our crews are safer. So it does have that marketing. But at the same time, that is advertising to the potential people who would work for you. And then exposing to aspects of the industry that they might not ever know about or care about.
Marketing for Talent Acquisition in Trades
00:12:02
Speaker
And the more viral you can get those videos, the more exposure. But we definitely got
00:12:08
Speaker
across the trades industry in general, there has been a disconnect over the past couple decades of where the younger generations didn't even know that some of the stuff existed, and that there was a career path or what it was truly like. And so through that and marketing yourself and marketing what you do and showing kind of the behind the scenes and what technology you have and how you do things and
00:12:31
Speaker
It can attract those that, one, want to be a part of something bigger than themselves that's doing the right things, but then also.
00:12:40
Speaker
opening up career possibilities to them that they didn't even know existed by showcasing these things in the people in your industry and that they can connect with. Yeah, I think that's a good point. I think the trades industry as a whole, not just lawn care, landscape tree, but building trades and everything needs to do a better job of promoting. Because the fact is, honestly, a lot of these industries, the trades industry, skilled trades, they pay more than most college people make or college graduates make right off the bat. Without the debt.
00:13:11
Speaker
Uh-huh. So there's a whole avenue there that should be promoted more than it is. And honestly, it's rewarding work. Is it hard work? Yeah. I mean, I've done a lot of these different things over the years, but to the day you actually visually see, Hey, I just completed, I built this, or I did this. You actually have a tangible thing in front of you that you just did with your own hands. It's really rewarding. And again, you can use social media marketing or whatever to help highlight the cool factor of that. There's a.
00:13:39
Speaker
builder, there's a builder in the landscape, or I have to come to mind as we talk about this, I follow on social media. The builder, the reason I follow him, he's an engaging dude on social. It's all him. And he basically goes through, he's jacked, like he's, he's a good looking dude, like this is to be honest, but he builds these insane, beautiful, high end luxury homes.
00:14:02
Speaker
And the reason I follow him is because he doesn't think like a normal builder. So his whole highlight reel, every single thing is, this is something unique that the client had me do in their kitchen. And he'll walk into the kitchen and show you this. I'm like, I've never seen that before. That's awesome. And he'll go through and he'll kind of highlight, you know, the brands, which most people have never heard of. They're super high quality, super high end.
00:14:25
Speaker
But the home themselves, I mean, they're just gorgeous and the attention to detail in his build quality is I've never seen anything like it. So he's got a ton of followers just because he's got a bunch of people like me sitting there saying, you are the person in your industry. And if I needed that home, I'm definitely calling this guy.
00:14:46
Speaker
He's out of Texas as well. My mind is blank on the name of his actual handle right now. But again, he's another Texas guy, Travis. I know you're partial to Texas. I'm just saying, there's something about Texas. There's something about Texas. But awesome social media presence, though. But it's helpful and it's engaging. It's something you just don't get to see every day. You don't see those type of homes on the regular.
00:15:10
Speaker
Um, the other dude is a landscaper that does like backyard oasis is what I'll call it. Um, so it's hard scapes and his is one where honestly, it's just need to go through for inspiration of ideas. You know, so it's a lot of after photos before and after building this out, you know, the client wanted this. We thought this was going to be tough, but here's the end product. And honestly, it's just cool to just scroll like, ah, I could do that in my backyard. Oh, that's cool. I can do that in my backyard.
00:15:39
Speaker
So it's different styles, but again, it's that helpful and engaging marketing, but both of them are telling their story through at least decent content as well. Like this decently produced, obviously the one who's got a videographer falling around. The other dude either really knows how to take good photos himself or he's paying someone to come do it at the end of every job. Either way, it's quality, it's engaging, it's helpful to the customer. And so those are examples of
00:16:06
Speaker
they probably existed or equivalent personalities and companies existed before the rise of social media and the ability to record off of your phone quality enough to launch type videos and things. So the reach that we have and the importance and the ability to, I mean, prior to the social media and prior to the rise of the internet, we probably, he's in Texas, you're in Illinois, you probably would have never heard of him.
00:16:36
Speaker
I probably wouldn't have heard of him. And then even if you did, we probably didn't have access to the visuals and the in-depth, like... You would have never had the idea because you probably, like, I've never seen both like that. We'd have seen it on a commercial or a postcard in our mailbox or something. And so it just doesn't register. So the impact that we can now have if, and we've talked about this, but you and I are not necessarily extroverts.
00:17:07
Speaker
And, and I guess companies and owners and managers and people, there were, I had no desire to be on camera or be videoing or, or do any of that type of stuff. I
AI and Technology in Marketing
00:17:19
Speaker
would bet that you have somebody on your team that doesn't mind it. And maybe it's reallocated and partially part of their work because this is such an important component of your business. Maybe it's finding that talent and maybe that talent, so hire for talent, train for skill type thing of,
00:17:35
Speaker
Maybe you need to reallocate some of that talent into an area where they're good at. Find somebody else who can maybe backfill the work that you had them doing and reallocate a portion of their time or maybe pivot them towards marketing. So find that person who can be authentic, who knows the technology. One, you're creating a different career path, but it's so important that
00:17:59
Speaker
you explore this and understand it because of the power of it. We've just been able we're able to do things to get our brand out to get our story out. So I think we were talking about the backyard was ponds. Is that what you're referring to? Hardscape, so outdoor like kitchens and fireplaces. But they do water scapes as well. There's one guy that the pond guy I think is what I didn't know that I needed a pond over a
00:18:29
Speaker
swimming pool. Now I do. I never want to swim a traditional swimming pool over a pond. But the way that they go through and the YouTube channel and stuff they have where they go through and can showcase their work and the build and the customer impact and the stories is unlike anything we've ever been able to do. It's so powerful. And then we already said, but the reach of being able to do that.
00:18:57
Speaker
You have tools at your disposal for marketing and telling your story and recruitment. Everybody should be doing it. And don't be fearful of it. It could explore it. Oh, yeah.
00:19:08
Speaker
Yeah, having the, so we've mostly talked mostly about engaging content, but the whole other thing that we won't go into it too much today, but is the behind the scenes stuff. So the website, the SEO, running your ad words on Google, all the analytical and data stuff. A lot of people don't want to pay for that. But as I'm finding out too, a little bit through the last year or two, it's important. Like that stuff matters a lot.
00:19:34
Speaker
Google and Apple and Facebook and all of them, they are pay to play platforms. Obviously the algorithm will reward you for good quality content, but they also are there to make money. So understanding that I think also will help realize that, hey, that stuff's important as well. I got to put a little bit of money to some of this stuff. I'm going to throw this out there. I mean, we couldn't have one without talking about edge technologies, but AI.
00:20:02
Speaker
You have to start looking at AI because the AI personal assistants and the chatbots are here. They're in early stages. But I think as those progress, it's going to very quickly become AI personal assistants talking to other AI driven chatbots who are going to monitor your distance, what you need. This goes for the consumer side too.
00:20:27
Speaker
And they're going to be tailoring content for you so you need to understand how those algorithms work, because it's going to be the AI personal assistants that are going to pick and choose what your customers see and who they see and how they see it, and it's already starting to happen in pockets.
00:20:49
Speaker
Yeah, I think we're talking about like, hey, you need to get with the basics and get with your iPhone and record your own stuff. There's already deeper levels being worked with AI. Yeah, you need to pick the stuff up quick. But the AI, people need to start paying attention to that and the marketing too. It can do some things that we've never been able to do before. It can make it cheaper. But
00:21:11
Speaker
There's, there's stuff being worked on now that will happen and you won't even realize it's happening because it's happening behind the scenes that it can be, it can be extremely impactful in a positive way for you. If you're taking advantage of it, you know, it exists and how to take advantage of it, or it can be happening against you by your competition. So pay it. Definitely need to be paying attention to that kind of stuff.
00:21:34
Speaker
Yeah. What do you think the issue is with most companies that are not paying for marketing or doing marketing, right? You think it's costs or you think it's time or something? I think it's like, it goes back to training and learning and safety is these are things that sometimes it's really, so it's Peter, here's my quote. Uh, it's Peter Drucker's quote of, um, you can't manage what you don't measure. And so,
00:22:00
Speaker
A lot of people don't measure training. A lot of people don't measure safety. A lot of people don't necessarily measure and look at data for marketing. It's either they're getting leads or they're not, and they don't understand the nuances. They almost see it as a nice to have, and they don't understand how important it could be. Same thing with training.
00:22:22
Speaker
When you're working for large organizations or the company owner, it's extreme ownership in that you should be looking at the metrics. You should be able to articulate the benefit of implementing some of these things. And if you're not, it quickly gets relegated as to it's a nice to have.
00:22:41
Speaker
And so people don't invest in the marketing because they see it fluff. And it can be, it can be a gimmick if you're not doing it correctly. But if you're looking at the data, you'll see the gimmicks from those that are actually producing ROI. If I've poured money into a certain Google ads or Facebook, whatever program or some sort of marketing strategy where I'm sending out postcards or things, I'm either getting leads, which are then turning into
00:23:10
Speaker
uh paid clients or not and if you're not able to track that if you're not able to measure it you're just kind of throwing it out there and and you're not actually measuring it you know yeah and a lot of it is measurable now like people don't think it is like on the marketing side yes if you're doing it right you can measure an insane amount of stuff and know hey i spent x dollars this month last year whatever it is
00:23:33
Speaker
And I did get these leads and these leads equated to that. Like it is actually fairly quantifiable. We've still got a lot
Challenges in Modern Marketing
00:23:39
Speaker
of legacy mindset and thinking still in the industry. And, and that's where it really benefits to go hire somebody, hire a group that really understands this, especially in the modern sense. And I always get, so I'm very forward thinking when it comes to technology, uh, forecasting, looking at timeline horizons.
00:24:01
Speaker
one, two, and three, three, five, and 10 years out, even a year from this perspective. And so I'm always looking at where should we be in planning for that as opposed to constantly bandedding. Here's another quote of, there's nothing so permanent as a temporary fix. So a lot of the times we get in the mode in a lot of different areas, including marketing of where we're just banded things, it's a temporary fix. And that just becomes, and so,
00:24:28
Speaker
We do a marketing strategy where we have a marketing plan where we're sending out emails. And that's just been our thing for the past five, seven years. And we never really go back and visit it. And maybe it was effective in the beginning, but it's not as effective now when we just attribute that marketing is just a poor waste of money and poor use of money and it's wasteful. Well, if you're using a thing that's maybe no longer applicable,
00:24:59
Speaker
in the marketplace, you got to constantly go back just like everything else and revisit things that you've done every six months, quarterly, whatever. Is it still the most effective? But that's part of it. You've got to look at the data. You've got to look at the metrics. You've got to go into it knowing that you're going to measure and you're going to pivot if it's working or if it's not.
00:25:19
Speaker
But I think part of the apprehension of investing into marketing is there's still legacy, there's still legacy thinking of thinking it's a nice to have and not really understanding. And that maybe has been a part of, it's been difficult to measure in the past, but then it goes to my second area. If things have evolved and if you're not looking at it, you're missing things that you could be doing or things that are maybe being done incorrectly and you do have new options.
00:25:49
Speaker
So if you're marketing strategy, you haven't been able to peer into, well, now you can. There's a lot of different tools and things out there that you can see the impact and the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of certain strategies. But there's new tools out there. There's new strategies. There's new techniques. There's new methods. There's so much out there that you have to be looking at
00:26:14
Speaker
what what have I been doing or not doing and what's available and what's out there maybe in the future and constantly doing future planning as far as marketing but I think that's it's more legacy thinking
00:26:29
Speaker
that's attributing to the lack of engagement because there's way more here, way more that we can measure and impact and effectiveness and ways that we can see the effectiveness and that if they're not engaging in marketing, it's probably legacy thinking.
00:26:48
Speaker
I would agree with that, and I think you brought up customers for our customers competitors earlier. And I kind of think, you know, and that even in that situation where I have a business and I have another business, you know, a competitor has a business down the road. Unless you're driving by.
00:27:05
Speaker
If you're driving by, you're going to see both companies. You know we're there, but most likely you're not driving by. If you're going to Google it and they come up and they've got a robust marketing program, photo, video, and engaged, you know, good customer basis, engaged with them online. And I have nothing because I'm afraid to spend the money. Website made by a friend or whatever that is, you know, not much of a social media presence, not really engaging content, just a photo from 2022 or 21 was the last one I actually posted.
00:27:33
Speaker
My customer has a huge, or not a customer, my competitor has a huge leg up immediately on me online. You know, so if I'm searching for a tree service lawn care company, whatever it is, immediately they have that presence that I do not have. And I think there's not enough people that think about that and how many people you're losing or potential clients and even employees that you're losing by just not spending that whatever dollar amount per month. And to me, I know like with our business,
00:28:04
Speaker
one or two good jobs will pay for the marketing that we spend. You know, that's all it takes. So to me, that's worth it. You know, I'd rather be busy. I'd rather have a backlog of customers because I've spent the money on marketing. But again, go back to one of the earlier points. At minimum, it tells your story, who you are as a account for your culture, to two customers and two employees, both.
00:28:30
Speaker
So in
Experiential Marketing Innovations
00:28:31
Speaker
line of the future forward thinking marketing campus. So I've had the unique opportunity to work with and for some really innovative tech companies in the marketing space. And there's experiential things that can be done. So beyond just the traditional marketing of
00:28:56
Speaker
I'm going to do facts and figures and cool graphics and some videos. So if you're thinking that's the pinnacle and I aspire to get, there's whole other levels even beyond that. And so virtual reality, augmented reality or similar. So augmented reality is one that years ago, 10 years ago, I was exposed to and I was in charge of a
00:29:19
Speaker
large global corporations, immersive technology, like roadmap and virtual reality, augmented reality and future of work and future training. And I didn't really see where augmented reality came in and how it could actually, I thought it was more of a gimmick. Uh, ended up going to a different company that was more focused in the marketing space for this. And they ended up doing a lot of augmented reality and virtual reality, but, and just experiential.
00:29:47
Speaker
And I'll be honest, at that point, I honestly thought marketing was truly just a gimmick. Cause a lot of the stuff that I had been exposed to in the major corporation, they do some just wild stuff with marketing and spend ungodly amounts of money that I truly, I still to this day don't fully understand how, how that translated to ROI, but that had been my experience. And so, but I'm a data guy and a metrics guy and I want to, I want to see it
00:30:15
Speaker
ROI, I don't want to see impact. I was not a gimmick person. I think putting gimmicks out there maybe has this place, but as a whole, it's got diminishing returns.
00:30:29
Speaker
I had viewed augmented reality to that point, it's kind of a gimmick. And then I got the peer behind, so they produced content and produced builds and products for industries across the board. And the first one that I'd actually seen that I got to really see the metrics and behind the scenes was for a major beer company. This is a company that's global.
00:30:53
Speaker
And they ran a campaign for the Day of the Dead celebration. And they picked four cities that they launched a mural. So this is something that's painted on the side of a building, and it would run for, I think, two months in four different cities. And it was an augmented reality experience. And so it was just some artwork that it was painted on the side. You go to a website, you hold your phone up to the mural, and the mural would come to life.
00:31:21
Speaker
The mural came out and it was really artistic and flowy things. And this lady, this caricature grabbed a beer, popped the top and hand it to you. And it's all in 3D and it's got some fun music with it. And so you get to walk around and look at it and it comes to life and it's kind of an experience, but it's, it could be as small as 10 seconds. You kind of look at it to as long as you wanted to stand there. So.
00:31:47
Speaker
traditional things that they looked at for effectiveness of marketing was dwell time. So when they did a magazine ad and they published it or a television spot or just any 2D stuff, that's how long does somebody dwell on that was effective marketing. And so I think they had like a 30 second, 45 second dwell time was average for traditional 2D prints and things. So for this augmented reality experience, it was over two minutes.
00:32:15
Speaker
that people were choosing to just kind of walk around and look at this thing. And then you can even do things where people could step in and you can take a picture and it looks like this 3D thing is around them. And so one of the, and it's like, well, that's insane that they got two minutes out of something that was completely optional as far as, so they ended up having over 7 million social media impressions and the four markets that were in for the two months,
00:32:43
Speaker
any market that they were in had a 16.5% increase in sales for this little mural thing. And so there was one other component that just kind of blew my mind on it was there was no words. There was no, our beer is the best beer, whatever. Our water comes from the aquifers and whatever, foreign countries. There was no traditional marketing, no words, no graphics, no, it was just a,
00:33:13
Speaker
3D experience for this thing came out of the world as fun music and pops a beer and hands it to you. But so what
Consistency and Long-term Marketing Benefits
00:33:20
Speaker
the told me looking at I dig into the psychological stuff is it just made an impression it had it was engaging enough so they spent two minutes with it. So it either did it changed user behavior in the back end without any type of prefrontal cortex where I'm driving my marketing message. It was just a fun experience.
00:33:42
Speaker
But it changed user behavior to the point where they either went deliberately out, went out, bought that beer, or the next time they were in proximity to it or buying beer, it was still top of mind. So your marketing can be creative. It doesn't have to be, I've got to go look up, there's a place for the statistics and the metrics for somebody who's analytical and really wants to look at ROI or potential impact just on the surface.
00:34:10
Speaker
those things would be appealing to them, but there's a whole other component where being engaging, being fun, being memorable, imprinting your brand or your message on them in a positive way can be top of mind. So that way it either drives them to go purchase your products or want to find out more information, or the next time that it's relevant to them, you're top of mind. And they want, because that's another piece too of the marketing game.
00:34:39
Speaker
Not everybody's ready to buy your services at the moment that you're pushing your content out to them. But you need to be memorable enough in a positive way. So when they do? Yes. Because other pressures are in there. Maybe it's budget. Maybe the time that you pushed out your amazing marketing campaign was off the budget cycle for them. Or maybe they actually didn't have funds. Or maybe it wasn't top of mind or they had other priorities.
00:35:08
Speaker
when that cycle comes back around where they're looking at vendors or like I'm really unhappy with my current one or I've got to find a solution or I really wish I had XY, you need to still be present in their mind in a positive way. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so much of marketing is that. Yeah, so much of marketing is also just brain recognition. So establishing brain recognition. And I think back to one of our first years with Landicorp, we used to have these brochures. So we work a lot with oil and gas.
00:35:35
Speaker
And we used to make this really nice, like I put thousands of dollars in these brochures we'd mail out. We did the thick paper that was like textured and like it was, it was legit. So we were mailing these out to customers and I had one specific customer that I know I've mailed stuff to them for four years, emailed them, called them, never not wants to get a response of any sort.
00:35:56
Speaker
But we just kept doing it one evening, uh, like four years later, if you started this, I get a call from a number in that state and I'm like, eh, I'll take it. It was after work hours and it was a duty. He's like, Hey, I'm sitting in my office. Um, I've gotten all of your information over the years. I always thought it looked really good. You guys seem legit. I stacked it away for when I get mad at my current contractor and.
00:36:19
Speaker
I'm mad at my current contractor, so you're up. Do you want to bid the work? I was like, thanks for letting us know. I didn't know that you even got there. You just toss all this stuff in the trash. I had no idea you actually were keeping it. But that's a good example of the brand recognition. So you may not have an immediate return, but the whole idea of it is be top of mind when that person is either in the spot to make a decision.
00:36:43
Speaker
or mad at their current, because that's going to happen for most people at some point. They're going to get upset. You know what? I need to try something different out. I'm not happy with this. But it's that being top of mind. And long time. Yes, 100%. Because even looking at the metrics, you can't really count on those. But they're there, because those are kind of the outliers that they come back for years. If you're strictly looking at the metrics, you kind of write that one off. It's like, hmm.
00:37:12
Speaker
So how big was that job? Was it a big... So that would end up being a multi-year, multi-million dollar job. Pay for essentially the four years of marketing that... They pay for every brochure we printed. You can't count on those, but they're legitimately out there. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. We're about 40 minutes in. So one thing I did want to make sure we hit on, so we talked about customers, we talked about employee engagement,
00:37:41
Speaker
One thing, and even doing TBC, adding this to the mix in the podcast is building partnerships, which is not something I really thought about when I first started doing all this. But look at the connections we've made, you know, in the past two or three months of just doing the podcast. Like we've talked to some people that are, honestly, they're cool, you know, and it's led to partnerships and how, hey, you need to connect with this person, you need to connect with this person, this person who was my mentor,
00:38:07
Speaker
That's just a few months in, but the power of those partnerships through marketing in a way has been super powerful and super awesome. I'm someone who likes to, again, I'm an introvert.
00:38:19
Speaker
But when I do connect with people, I need it to be something with some depth where I don't want to do it. These type of connections, you know, obviously we have a similar interest line of work, but we're finding people though that's like, hey, you believe all these core values in this way of doing business is great. You need to talk to so-and-so because that's also what they're doing. So the power of those partnerships and that engagement has been honestly awesome, but that's stuff that people don't think about and think of marketing.
00:38:48
Speaker
is building those partnerships. So maybe your feed is actually interesting enough to be like, hey, I like this company. They're very like-minded to me. I'm selling this piece of equipment or whatever tool, whatever it is. Maybe I should work with them because I think we're pretty similarly aligned. But if you're not telling that story, they're never going to know you exist and that partnership is never going to happen. So Travis,
00:39:15
Speaker
What do you think any closing thoughts as we wrap this one up? Yeah, but the community that's built out of this and that I think it's still it's aligning with the original intent of finding those in the community that are winning that are doing things correctly doing things.
00:39:35
Speaker
in a spirit of advancing the industry, and there's a lot of questions, there's a lot of problems, and then there's a lot of challenges and people who aren't making it, and pressures that are forcing companies and individuals to struggle, and part of the intent of the podcast was to help answer those questions. The virtual mentorship
New Marketing Services Announcement
00:40:00
Speaker
through people who are
00:40:02
Speaker
are truly winning, who are doing things winning in the appropriate way and helping peel back and humanize and find the nuggets out of their story and help amplify those people so that we can promote more of that same mindset, culture,
00:40:23
Speaker
And I think through this, we've done it in ways that we really didn't anticipate. I mean, it's still early, so, but just like... Oh, it's still early. Yeah, no, I think if you go back to the origins of why we started Better Contract or podcast specifically,
00:40:42
Speaker
And really, the better contractor it was to elevate the industry, to make some improvements, to highlight, call out some things, and build the entire industry up and help it. And honestly, that led to some of this marketing. So we're launching right now with the better contractor the ability to sell marketing services. So video creation, photography, helping people create this engaging content that we just talked about. So this is a little bit of a plug, but I'll call it what it is. It is a plug.
00:41:12
Speaker
But we're doing that partially because we saw the opportunity, but we also saw the need. So, you know, helping the industry, this is still the same thing. Yeah, we're going to charge for it, but people need it. It's not something that you can just find anywhere. And the cool thing about like with ours, we're contractors.
00:41:31
Speaker
We know the angles, we know the job sites, we know all that stuff. That is valuable too when you're trying to find someone to shoot content and do your creative as someone that actually understands your business. And before we did this and took some of this stuff in house.
00:41:45
Speaker
That was always something we battled finding was finding an ad agency marketing agency that actually understood what we were actually doing here. What need to be promoted, what didn't, what is cool about it. And right now, like the team we have here and the marketing firm are using for more of the data side. Like it's awesome so far. I love it. So anyway, little plug for the better contractor. If you guys are needing some video and some professional, you know, shots and, uh, editing, we do that. So check it out.
00:42:16
Speaker
Travis, anything else that we wrap up? I think I'm good. Good podcast. Thank you, Travis, for your time today. Hopefully this was helpful to you guys. If you liked it, please share it. If you didn't, turn it off. But until next time, see you, Travis. Thank you.