10 Most Common Mistakes in Marketing (Home Services Edition)
With so much conflicting information, how can you avoid royally screwing up your business? Start here.
Time to do the Opposite
My first reaction was, “Who does this?” It doesn’t make sense… until you really digest what’s transpiring. This applies in business just as well as sports.
KFC – The secret 11 herbs and spices
He never gave up, put crazy miles on his car, promoted and sold Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), and worked well into his seventies.
Once upon a time…
Great stories have three principal roles: hero, victim, and villain. These roles need to be filled: Prince Charming, Stepmother, and Cinderella.
THE WIZARD (bi)WEEKLY
Twice a month we’ll send our best advice, no strings attached.
Let’s grow your business.
No spam. No nonsense.
Learn These New Words and Be Ahead of the Pack
By introducing new ideas, you attract people’s attention, cementing your brand into a household name. You rise above the Sea of Sameness.
Higher Margins & Elevated Messaging
Sell to people who see you as their first and best choice, and your premium pricing will be gladly accepted as “reassuringly expensive.”
Personality Prescription, Part 8 – Your Company’s Reputation
Reputations take years to build through word of mouth but can be built in only months through consistent advertising.
Click Through Rate(CTR): Improving Your Ad Clicks
Did you know that the average click-through rate (CTR) for display ads is a measly 0.05 percent?
Partner Book of the Month
Latest Monday Morning Memo
Find Advice By Tag
adspeak bad times billboards bonding brandable chunks branding case studies customer behavior design digital direct response entertainment Facebook Ads inspiration leadership managing marketing costs mass media media buying misconceptions mistakes origin story persuasion print radio recruiting relational buyers research sales salespeople share of mind share of voice social media standing out targeting television transactional buyers whiskey writing
James Watt – The marketing story of horsepower
Cars are marketed today using the term horsepower. Find out why James Watt invented the term and how it helped.
When advertising is the LAST thing you need.
Most businesses are blind to friction points that may be holding their sales back. Here’s the solution.
Improve Sales Effectiveness & Company Culture With One Simple “Hack”
It’s important for you to seem like the same company in-person as on air.
The key to happiness
This year’s team only has two returning players from last year. One of them is my son. He thinks I’m full of crap.
Transactional vs. Relational Shoppers
Transactional shoppers illustrate lower average sales and closing ratios, and smaller profit margins.
Fox 40 – From referee to whistle entrepreneur
They all go, “Can I buy one?” Now he doesn’t say, “Oh, I haven’t made it yet.” He says, “Nope, they’re on backorder, but I can take orders.”
Personality Prescription, Part 7 – Company Culture
As each company grows, employees observe and work out the actual rules of survival for their job.
How to “Pick Up the Pace” with Your Branding Campaign
Jingles, sound effects, or just interestingly pronounced phrases stick in our brains with amazing power and longevity.
Skunky Beer is the Worst (Part the Third)
For his chocolate-coffee stout, he used pounds of Wilbur Buds dark chocolate (a local delicacy). Then the brewer made a tragic mistake.
Origin Story: How Your Story Should’ve Successfully Been Told
Most ads don’t work. Why? They’re missing the key ingredient.
The world’s most honest used car salesman
I like making people the hero in the ads. People are more interesting when they stop pretending.
The Paradox of Customer Dissatisfaction
How you can leverage it to create rabidly happy (as opposed to merely satisfied) customers.
Wrigley’s Origin – You buy the baking powder you get the gum
How the power of premiums created an empire.
Google Local Service Ads, Anyone?
For example, searching for “plumbers near me” or “lawyers in Los Angeles” will both return LSA at the top of the results page above the other listings.
Influence This! (Part the Second)
When it comes to influencers, or when it comes to chicanery in marketing, color me skeptical.
5 Hard Truths About Advertising Every Business Owner Ought to Know
Your ads are an annoyance to your future customers. Unless you make yourself otherwise.
Personality Prescription, Part 6 – Uniqueness
The pursuit of uniqueness is a huge source of frustration. Of wasted money. Of non-persuasive advertising.
Who you gonna call?
Halloween 1985 would have been forgotten if Chris hadn’t brought the Roman candles. But in business, Remarkability and Memorability are often rejected for the safe.
Factors That Affect Your Conversion Rate [+ CRO Statistics]
Businesses with more than 40 landing pages produced 12 times the number of leads as those with 1-5 landing pages.
Nike – It took them seven years to break $1M in revenue
Nike goes from distributor to shoe manufacturer to work directly with the customer.
Doubling Down on Schtick That Sticks
It’s been over 40 years — and I can still sing the lyrics. Here are my quick and dirty takeaways.
All Hat and No Cattle (Part the First)
Being an authentic leader is as simple a concept as there is: Be who you are, warts and all, at all times to all persons.
What firefighting taught me about business
Once we helped the fire department roll out their hoses, Kenny started acting like Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump.
How To Avoid Bad Hires – And Its High Energy Cost
Did you know that the average cost of bad hires is $18,000? And 2 in 3 newly hired people later realized they were a poor fit.
IMG – International Management Group. Who are these people?
Mark McCormack started with Arnold Palmer and was named 1990’s most powerful man in sports.
Shared Stories and Advertising Magic
Why do so few stories end up being about vulnerability, setbacks, or scars? Because it takes an uncommon level of guts and skill.
Are You A Wiener Dog? Last Chance to Commit
People say, “follow your passion, follow your passion, follow your passion.” Those people are idiots.
Personality Prescription, Part 5 – Let’s Sell Something
There’s a saying that “Business goes where it’s invited.” What should we put in our ads to get that invitation from Ms. Homeowner?
Google’s Algorithm and Modern SEO
Modern SEO combined with adherence to Google’s algorithm can ensure a significant increase in sales. Let’s dissect how it works.
Love is a game of catch.
Understand your customer, and you will never sell to them. They will buy from you over and over again because you care about them.
Wanna Be Seen as “The Best”? Don’t Brag, Do This Instead
Lead researcher, Neil G. MacLaren, set out to test the “Babble Hypothesis.” Turns out, there’s a deceptively simple answer.
Wiener Dogs Forever: The Power of Crowd Promotion
This is about a community movement where the stars are everyday people. Most businesses that attempt to do something like this do it badly.
Personality Prescription, Part 4 – Other Homeowners’ Motivations
Value Conscious Homeowners are shopping, too. But not for the best deal. They are looking for an expert they can trust.
Advertising Candy Bars – Why spend millions to gain 1% more market share?
The secret to why someone would spend millions advertising a $2 item. How to grow market share.
A childhood bribe taught me about bad marketing
Bribing a customer does not have the same effect as bribing a child. The campaign works, but the strategy fails.
“Unique” Is Overrated — And Far Less Powerful Than…
Do you care whether you get a “unique” plumber to fix your flooded house?
Best Local SEO Tools: Secrets Revealed
You’ll lose a chunk of precious prospects unless you optimize your website to appear in local listings.
The Heart of a Wiener Dog: Character Diamonds
Most business owners are hesitant to share anything remotely vulnerable through their advertising. But wiener dogs have no fear of looking ridiculous.
Personality Prescription, Part 3 – You’re Choosing Cheap Ones
You’re probably attracting Price Sensitive Homeowners without even knowing it.
What a fool believes
The gatekeeper job does not belong to Facebook or Twitter. You are the gatekeeper. Keep fools away from your airwaves.
What’s in a Name?
When I walk into my local Starbucks, I feel like Norm Peterson walking into Cheers. What do you do that makes customers feel comfortable?
Forget TL;DR — it’s TB;DC you gotta worry about!
The art of ad writing requires the creation of ads that work even for an audience that’s half-paying attention.
Once a Wiener… Repurposing the Proven
Peter: How is it that I’m going to tell people the story of the wiener dog? Roy: Ok. It’s actually, it’s called cheating.
A High-Converting Landing Page’s Anatomy
These eight essential landing page elements create the perfect recipe for success.
The Personality Prescription, Part 2 – Never Cut Price
Dropping price to be competitive means we’re only working harder to put ourselves out of business sooner.
Left turn to Albuquerque
Last year, a lawyer put up a billboard. He used the same graphics as the tv show with the headline, “Better Call Bob.”
Follow the Wiener Dog: How Employees Become Wiener Dogs
“I’m the business owner. I don’t have to believe in you. You have to believe in me.”
Amazon Style? Opening a brick-and-mortar clothing retail store?
It appears they are taking a page out of Canada Goose’s book.
Piña Coladas & Persuasion
This is what separates the heroes from schmoes in branding: The ability to use entertainment & humor to drive home the message, rather than obscure it.
The 3 Foundations Of Exponential Profitable Growth
How you motivate your employees affects everything downstream.
A smile that could clean dishes
There’s a cliché, “hire for attitude, train for skill.” Clichés don’t require us to think. Marco isn’t cliché.
Magical Wiener Dogs and Storytellers
The Power of Someone who Believes in You More than You.
Time To Get Crazy
I stand against best practices because it locks you into a way of thinking. You do not defeat the leader by following their playbook.
The Personality Prescription, Part 1 – Stalled Growth
Stalled growth is an outcome of a growing dependence of home service contractors on digital media. They’ve bought into the “wasted circulation” concept.
What’s Working Well?
Ever heard the phrase: “Don’t know what you’ve got, ‘till it’s gone”? Reinforce the right stuff, and you’ll get more of it. It’s a natural law of the universe.
Lead Generation: The Who, What, Why, and How
If the epic failure, Groupon, taught us anything, it was that there is no value in attracting a bunch of cheap customers.
Inflation is not the only silent tax.
I believe a 2-3% sales increase is a shrinking business. And a shrinking business should be in “All-in” mode to change the inevitable.
The Danger of Preconceived Notions
Don’t judge a book by its cover. How do you make connections with your employees, team members and colleagues?
Becoming a Wiener Dog: What it Takes to Have Enduring Success
Even if it’s not popular, and even if it costs me everything. This is who I am. This is my identity. This is my purpose.
Inov-8 -Forged in the Fells #GetAGrip
Learn how building out a niche allowed Wayne Edy to build a shoe company – Inov-8, sell it, and rebuy it.
Rebranding Made Simple (+Examples)
It’s an act of confidence and commitment — a chance for companies to give their brands new life by tweaking what they stand for and how people see them.
The Five Elements of Fame
Experts on marketing effectiveness determined that Fame is the most important element for producing extraordinary ROI.
Knuckleheads are the test for success
On the path to happiness, knuckleheads shake owners like a paint can. They are a test. Are you really going to live up to your guarantee?
Embrace Your Wiener Dog: Identity, Purpose and Adventure
It’s never about the offer. Offers can be imitated. Identities matter more than offers.
Hathaway Shirts and the most interesting man in the world, coincidence?
The picture makes you read the headline, encouraging you to read the first line of body copy.
Finding the Right Mix of Organic and Paid Traffic
A little birdie told us that companies are experiencing a decline in their web traffic. What they don’t know is actually quite simple…
What riding a motorcyle taught me about marketing
Many companies use loyalty programs, Facebook groups, and email spam to gather the troops. That’s not a tribe. It’s list building.
The Biggest Risk of Bonding Campaigns
Normally, when a business falls short, customers are merely disappointed or frustrated. Not so with relational customers and businesses to which they’ve bonded.
Wiener Dogs on the Wrong Track: Having the Qualities of Success Without Being a Success
Dwayne Johnson did this after he realized that his football career was a bust.
What Constitutes Memorable Ads? [+Examples]
It’s time to stop wasting your time and effort on lackluster ads that no one remembers.
Ford Model T – I can’t get the pig slaughter house out of my mind.
The worker stays in place putting the pieces in. Henry Ford didn’t invent that. It was an employee of Ford’s.
Small Business Social Media Limits
Facebook and other platforms can flip the switch and force small business owners into the world of being unknown.
Do You Trust Me?
You’ll earn respect if you give it. But what if you can’t trust a colleague or employee to perform in the best interests of the team?
6 Degrees of Benjamin Franklin
Doing business with — making yourself vulnerable to — a complete stranger feels bad. Nobody wants to put themselves in that situation.
All About Brand’s Visual Identity
The most well-known brands in the world. Coca-Cola. McDonald’s. Nike. They all have strong visual identities that are immediately recognizable.
Wiener Dog Focus: Helping the Customer vs. Helping Yourself
Because his commitment was to the customer, and because he never blinked, people said, “Oh, I like that guy. He’s on my side.”
The smells of your product
Asking you silly questions like the tastes and smells of products opens the real question. How does your product make customers FEEL?
Springfree Trampoline – I’m a bad dad; I never got my kids a trampoline.
The best thing that ever happened to them was Costco stopped buying from Springfree.
Are You Telling $1 Million Stories?
How do you develop the kinds of quality stories that influence people to surrender their hard-earned cash for your product, service, or cause?
3 Stages Of The Buyer’s Journey
Understand your customer’s purchasing processes so you can create content and marketing campaigns that speak to them directly.
Top Gun & The Tale of 2 Super Bowl Ads
While Tony Scott’s Top Gun was the highest-grossing film of the year, his 1985 Super Bowl spot is regarded as Apple’s worst ad ever.
The Wiener Dog Question: What Can You Count On Not Changing?
Jeff Bezos said it’s really very simple. Will people ever say, “I wish I’d paid a higher price for this?”
The hand of God
Time stopped at 9:22. I was in the middle of a presentation to a group of entrepreneurs. CLICK, the clock stopped.
Chiclets – Candy-coated gum or tree sap?
One partner runs away. The other makes millions. How not to be blinded by the pursuit of the wrong objective.
Do Your Ads Obey the Law?
The first law of advertising is quite simple: Thou Shalt Not Be Boring! And there are really only two ways to avoid breaking that law.
Google Business Profile (GBP): Frequently Asked Questions
Many small businesses are missing out on one of the most effective marketing opportunities available today.
Body of a Sausage: The Way Things Are vs. The Way Things Ought to Be
Their beliefs, values and desires are locked and loaded. Either get in step with that, or shut up and die.
Marketing in a crisis
Everything you know about business will be challenged. The time for having fun and farting around is over. You will be a Phoenix or a pile of ashes.
How to Tell Your Company Story (Like a Fox)
8 steps to effectively build a tribe of emotionally invested customers who will become your biggest advocates.
Warren Buffett – His investing strategy needed a new business model
Just because that’s how things are done doesn’t mean it will work for you or your customers.
The Grass Is Always Greener on the Side That’s Fertilized…
Of course, you can’t fertilize weeds and get lush, green grass. In advertising terms, you have to start with the truth.
Wiener Dog Marketing: For the Love of Wiener Dogs
What idea have you thought of doing, but haven’t had the courage to do, for fear that you might not do it well enough?
Lead Generation vs. Digital Presence
A pure lead gen focus leaves you a slave to natural demand cycles, and Google advertising auction prices, which is neither consistent nor affordable.
It’s the economy, stupid.
In 2004 my boss excused our poor sales performance on the Iraq war. Before that, it was a hurricane. And before that, it was the dot com bubble.
Today’s New Branding
New branding is about having a point of view, sticking to it, and having the courage to stand up for what you believe in.
You’re not one of “those” dealerships
We’ve been conditioned – when they stick out their hand out and say “trust me,” we grab our wallets and run the other way!
Not Just What, But When
When it comes time to buy, the customer’s priorities change. She might well buy from whichever store offers same-day delivery and installation.
Intel – What would a new CEO do?
Transforming a business is never easy, but when is the right time to do it? Learn a valuable question to ask yourself.
An Introduction to Wiener Dog Marketing
Roy: You can’t get attention with precision lawn chairs. You can’t get attention racing riding lawnmowers. But wiener dogs will win.
Disruptive Marketing: How Can You Use it to Your Advantage?
Some might say it’s unethical, or even dangerous. But for many businesses it’s the only way to truly stand out.