Deciphering The Metrics - Part Four: KPI's

 

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This journey of ours comes to an end with this final piece of the four part series, but this really should be the tip of the iceberg as far as your Digital Marketing Strategy goes. These are the stats. These are what allows you to demand bigger contracts. 

It's not easy. The fact that this information required four, separate articles to effectively translate the information should give a clear indication of how delicate the digital marketing world actually is. It's not as simple as posting to social media and writing an occasional blog. It's not as inconceivable as many Marketing Agencies would have you believe either. This is not an impossible world, it's just a demanding one. It's not one you should try to "do on a budget." If you're going to play in this world, assemble your team and take the field. Just know that taking the field with inferior equipment and inexperienced play-callers can cost you more than you can recover. Get someone like Trending Up Digital Services on your side early in this game and give yourself a shot at victory. Our strategies are "Win-Win." You win. Your clients win. We win. 

Today, we look at KPI's. Key Performance Indicators are probably things that you're measuring already, even if you don't apply nerdy language to it. You own an HVAC company. Chances are you've looked at sales once or twice. That's a KPI. In fact...let's start there.

Sales - Everybody measures this one. In terms of marketing, sales need to account for the cost of acquiring that customer. How much did you spend in content to attract that customer. In order to accurately track this information, you need to know where they came from. Without a trusted Digital Marketing Partner, you're playing right into our grandfather's old "half your marketing dollars are wasted" strategies and there is clearly a better way. 

Leads - Sales Teams must communicate with the Marketing & Content Teams to know where their leads are coming from. Don't settle for a sales force that simply expects leads to multiply. Sales create ad-budgets and the cycle continues. Make sure that process is communicated or it falls apart quickly.

Profit - How much did you make? If this one needs to be explained, a marketing strategy is the least of your problems. Profit cures everything but sustainable profit comes from precision and strategy. Trending Up Digital Services doesn't do cookie-cutter marketing strategies. We get to know your company and the people within it so that we can aim at higher profits through proven marketing efforts. 

Members - If your site or business requires membership, pay close attention to any volatility in the numbers therein. Whatever direction the arrow is travelling, we want to know why. Capture success and avoid costly mistakes. Are there fake groups out there pretending to be you? Are they gaining members? Think that's something you should pay attention to? The best Marketing Directors catch that stuff in it's infancy and we have those on our team. Do you? Want to? Let's Talk.

Downloads - Does your company offer an e-book or some other kind of download-able information. Track where those downloads are happening and identify any opportunities presented in that data.

Recommendations - Make it easy for your happy customers to refer you. Invest in advocacy at all stages of your business. There is no better form of marketing out there than word-of-mouth advertising from trusted circles. Make sure your marketing team is on top of any platform that gives the public the ability to leave feedback. 

Key Pages - Always direct visitors to key pages within your site. Product pages, Registration Forms, Blogs, etc. Search Engine Optimization is not just about them finding you. It's about where they go and what they do once they're there too.

Retention Metrics - Keep the flock happy! If you've got existing customers, don't allow them to feel that you care more about getting new money than keeping theirs. New business is always the goal, but new sales can often come from existing customers if they feel that they are treated well after the credit card is run. Follow up. Respond quickly. Treat every customer as if they were a loved one. No matter how many times they call. Don't ignore them, or they'll be gone long before you realize it. 

There are a lot of other metrics that go into a successful, long term, marketing strategy but hopefully you have an idea of what goes into making this a component of your business. As we stated, this isn't a "try it on your own" kind of endeavor. You wouldn't fly a plane without a pilot. Trending Up is always ready to be your pilot.

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Friends Say "No" Too...

 

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To say that we are living in a new age of Customer Service is a gross misrepresentation of how drastically things have changed over the last decade or two. 

Yes, the Internet is arguably the greatest invention in the history of mankind. The advances that have been made possible with the omnipresence of information is  incalculable. But not all that came with the internet is good. 

Everybody thinks they're a star. Everybody thinks their opinions are to be taken as gospel. The internet provides safety where perhaps it shouldn't, but for businesses and the way we do things as owners therein, the last few decades have meant constant adaptation. 

One of the most glaring examples of this change is the fact that a "no" isn't always received in the same manner in which we have grown accustom. In the old days; in offices full of papers and pencils and machines no longer identifiable, rejection was quick. It stung. The ones in which a lot of effort had been poured and a lot of strategy had been laid....those really stung, but you got your answer at the presentation table and you moved on. 

Today, that's not the case. Your "presentation" is only a small part of the information you are expected to provide prior to the sale. Here's a few of the other ways in which you are expected to deliver "Decision-Making Materials" to your prospects today:

• Your Website must be informative - They'll spend a lot of time on your site before you ever get a chance to talk to them. Stay up-to-date on what information is being relayed by your competitor's sites because the differences in the two could be the deciding factor. 
• Social Media is a given. Your business can't survive without it, so find a voice and speak it often! That sounds silly, but the more material (Content) you put out there for your prospects to consider, the longer they spend seeing "Your" message. It doesn't matter if it feels like you've posted the same material a million times. Keep posting it in as many ways as you can think of. You never know which one will grab their eye.
• Google is the King of the web. Playing by their rules and taking advantage of the many, many resources they make available to you is essential to your success. Advertise where people are. Google IS where people are. 
• Google Maps - That's how they find you when they're actually out on the road looking for "you" or someone like you. Let that one sink in. 

Think about it...all of those ways that potential clients research you and form an opinion of you prior to your first meeting. If you have incoherent messaging across your Online Presence you're probably going to lose a lot of sales for which you never even knew you were in the running. 

If, after all of their research, you are still given an opportunity to sit down and present your case as to why you should be the HVAC company they trust for their 9 locations with 13 rooftop units each and a yearly maintenance schedule that brings a smile to your face as you read these words...your follow-up game better be the strongest of anyone they've talked with yet. 

You better make sure that you keep your name and your plan in the front of their brain without annoying yourself into a blocked contacts list. 

Let Trending Up Digital help. 

Sit down with us. In less than an hour, and in plain language, we can show you exactly what you need to improve and how you need to improve it. No industry jargon....just simple A,B,C scoring systems. 

info@trendingupdigital.com

800.852.8676

Would You Buy Your Company?

 

Once we get that first sale....or land that first client, our minds tend to get rather laser focused. As business owners, we go from "will this work" to "it worked...now what?" in the blink of an eye. Once the ball gets rolling, we're not stopping to go back and set things up "the right way." We're too busy building upon the success of the first sale to create another. 

At some point, regardless of where you stand today; you're going to part ways with the company you are currently working so hard to build and maintain. Those relationships you are nurturing with the intensity of a first time parent....they're the seeds that will help grow your company into something worthy of all your front-end investment. 

That part about "parting ways" with your company stuck in your brain, didn't it? Much like buying or selling a home....we tend to look at the destination rather than the journey. The new home will be great but first, there's the loan application process, the physical move as well as the nightmare of transferring all the utilities and bills, etc. Those visions of family traditions unfolding in that new home hardly seem worth it when you're loading up the truck, but once all the boxes are gone and the dust has settled....you get the picture. 

Selling your HVAC or Plumbing business will be a similar process when you are ready. In the meantime, there are a number of things you can do to enhance the "curb appeal" of your company. 

First, let's be honest about something. If you don't put the time into maintaining all the components of your business, no one will want to buy it. Your fancy logo....your 50 page website....your 75,000 followers....none of it means a thing unless you have a book of business. The old adage "sales cures everything" is as true today as it was when your Grandfather said it. Get your CRM setup and get familiar with it from the very beginning. Those names are what makes up a significant portion of your future value so treat each one of them like a winning lottery ticket. 

Second, you need brand recognition. Nothing increases your brand like Social Media, but it is a beast. Doing it with any measurable level of success is even more of a beast and quite frankly, it's not one that most business owners have time to do on their own. 

Third, you need to be visible. When people go online and search for "HVAC near me" your company needs to pop up near the top of those results. If they can't find you, they can't hire you. If they don't hire you, they can't leave you five-star reviews. These are all critical in determining how that eventual "parting of ways" goes. Will it be a happy, fortune-filled event, or will it be an enemy you fend off until it finally defeats you? Let's make it a party, okay?

Trending Up builds all of our Win-Win Marketing Strategies around the idea that one day you will be "parting ways" with the company you're currently hiring us to promote. If we do our job correctly, you'll be parting ways with a big check in your pocket. We like big checks as much as you do. What we like even more is watching you build up the value of your future check a little each day. 

Let's go get some wins!

www.trendingupdigital.com

800.852.8676

Top 5 Reasons Why Digital Marketing is So Important for Your Service Company

 

"Online" used to be such a misunderstood word. It was a scary world where scary things could happen to those who didn't know how to navigate it's various pathways. The mystery of the internet has been revealed over the past few decades, but it doesn't mean it's any less confusing. So, why should you even bother? Why clog your brain with statistics and trends that don't bring dollars to your bottom line?

Well, as the title of this article might suggest....here's Trending Up's Top Five Reasons you should be employing a strong, well crafted, online marketing strategy. 

ONE: Your Customers Are Online

Let's face it....you're here online reading these words just as your prospects are online reading other words on another site. Our mission is to bring the two parties together. But is just being there enough? Can you just throw up a cheap website and expect to land new clients? 

What if you're not looking for new customers or enhanced revenue? What if your desired "prospect" is a qualified employee? Well, guess where that prospect is hanging out on a daily basis....LinkedIn. Effective management of your online presence is the same as maintaining the physical appearance of a brick and mortar site. If you're physical store was in a main thoroughfare where potential business saw you everyday, would you care about it's appearance? You bet you would. 

TWO: Your Competitors Are Online

If your potential clients are online, so are your competitors. The good news is that the internet is a big place and in this Win-Win Marketing™️ world we're creating at Trending Up....there is plenty of food at the table for everyone. We don't need to worry about "beating" your competition. Our job is to make sure that your online presence is as appealing as possible. We put a lot of science and experience into the strategies we deploy. When a potential customer goes looking for your services on the Internet, the only way you can give yourself a fighting chance of landing on their radar is with a proper Digital Marketing Strategy in place. Winging it simply doesn't work in this day and age. Your investment into a marketing strategy with an established agency like Trending Up is going to cost far less than the distress, lost opportunities, and damage to your reputation delivered by a weak strategy. 

Yes....your competitors are online, but you can be a more appealing choice. You can do the things they are not doing to capture more of the vast audience out there. Many of your competitors may look big and intimidating with graphics and logos, but that doesn't mean they're active. Focus on your strategy and use it consistently. That's all you can do.

THREE: Compete Globally

You may not have ever considered a "global" presence for your service company. Most of your clients are local. So are your vendors, employees, and distributors, but that doesn't mean that your online presence should ignore the world outside your existing sphere. Partnerships are made across the planet these days. You don't necessarily have to provide a service for a client to be a source of influence. Your social media posts could serve as inspiration for a young company across the globe....your Customer Appreciation Video could get the attention of a much larger parent company with interests all over your area. Obviously, unless global expansion is on your list of goals for the upcoming future, your focus in this area will not be as intense as the others, but it is important nonetheless. The world is connected. You should be plugged into that connection. 

FOUR: Targeted Acquisition

The days of "wasting half the marketing dollars spent" are over. In generations past, marketing was done with the same concepts as an ad on the side of a bus, or Direct Mail. There was a lot of hope involved in those early strategies. Not today. Today, we can focus our marketing efforts down to a very specific group of people. Global capabilities make the potential audience infinitely bigger, but we still have to aim those efforts somewhere. Got a new service you want to push? Let's say you're a plumbing company and you know you're going to be doing some trench work for a family in a specific neighborhood. Would it hurts for the neighbors to start seeing your logo in their social feeds for a few days prior to work beginning? How about a blog article regarding the benefits of the specific service you happen to be doing for their neighbor? A before / during / after video that eases their minds about the process. You could potentially create months of work for you and your team in one geographic location and it all springs from one job. The possibilities for targeted marketing strategies are endless and somewhat overwhelming. Get a professional involved so you don't damage your reputation, but once you see the benefits, you won't know how your business survived without it.

FIVE: Brand Loyalty / Recognition

Your image is all you've got when it comes to marketing. The reputation of your brand; the future of your team; it all depends upon the effectiveness of your marketing. Like it or not, brand reputations are managed online. Respond in a horrific manner to a customer review...your brand goes viral for all the wrong reasons and that Win-Win Marketing™️ concept is out the window, Manage your online presence correctly, and your brand is a welcomed sight in the browsers of prospects around the world. Strategy. Consistency. Patience. They're all going to be tested and those who stay the course are the ones who reap the benefits. Instant success is a myth. You have to design, deploy, analyze, adjust, and commit to a Digital Marketing Strategy and see it through. Details are key. Get your building blocks in place and then put them everywhere. Building blocks for brand recognition are your logo, your colors, your tagline, and your elevator pitch. (More on each in coming articles!) Get those down and do not change them. 

Humans are visual. We see things and our mind makes connections before we even realize what it is we're seeing. Colors, Logos, taglines....they're all big examples of that. When was the last time you had trouble spotting a McDonalds? Whenever we hear the phrase "just do it" our brain automatically pictures that famous swoosh. Your brand is what makes you attractive or ugly in digital terms. The cruel reality is that few people look at anything ugly next to something beautiful and choose the former. Those who do are only doing so for weird purposes. You know it's true,

Bottom line is that you need a proper strategy for your online presence,. Whether it's a product, a service, an event, or a job posting you want people to hear about...effective design, deployment, and tracking is what makes or breaks your marketing efforts. It's what we do. 

The SEO & PPC Partnership....

You spent years learning your trade. You've learned lessons that left scars, you've adopted the language of your profession, and you've helped numerous clients do the things in their homes that they wouldn't dare try on their own. Trending Up Digital Services respects that. 

Your world is just as terrifying and unfamiliar to us as digital marketing is to you and your co-workers. Could we install a sump-pump ourselves? Sure! There's YouTube Videos galore. Everybody's an expert at everything these days, right? You know where I'm going with this, don't you? Just because the information and the "how-to's" are available, doesn't mean everything is a project you should attempt. 

The amount of skill and knowledge required to successfully execute a large-scale Plumbing, HVAC, or Electrical project is overwhelming to someone going into it with only a "we'll figure it out" mentality. That's not an insult. Do-It-Yourselfers have made Service Industry Professionals a lot of money over the years for the same reasons that Service Industry Professionals have made Digital Marketing Agencies a lot of money....YouTube Videos and How-To posts on Social Media only work a fraction of the time. 

Marketing is no different. Miss a step and your success is unlikely. Misunderstand a basic concept and it can throw off the best laid plans. Two of the most common digital marketing concepts you'll hear discussed are "SEO" and "PPC." In passing, these concepts seem competitive to one another, but they could both potentially play an important role in your marketing success so let's find out how, shall we?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization is meant to increase the organic traffic to your site through enhanced visibility and site authority. In other words...proper SEO management will put your business at the top of search lists when prospects look for services you provide. Google "HVAC Repair Near Me" and see what pops up. Do you know any of those companies? Are they significantly more knowledgeable than you? Is there a reason they should be first in line over you? Of course not. They've simply employed someone who understands SEO.  So can you..

PPC, or Pay-Per-Click generates traffic through targeted ads in Search Engines and other strategic sites. Unlike a highway billboard you pass at 80 mph, or the peeling vinyl ad on the side of a bus....PPC ads are targeted specifically to the audience you choose. Could be age specific, interest specific, or even based on geography but the point is that PPC is the aimed where you want them. 

So how do these work together?

PPC & SEO are very different ideas, but the information and data one provides can greatly benefit the other. Many of your prospects wouldn't click on a paid advertisement (PPC) if it was guaranteed to prove the existence of Santa Claus. Others love them. Some of your prospects will click on anything that pops up in their Social Media feeds because that's their safe-space but they wouldn't trust a search engine list to save their life because they don't understand how the list is built. Neither is wrong. Ignore one side of the equation and you're ignoring an enormous market with money to spend on services you provide and products you sell. 

It's important to employ both concepts in your overall marketing strategy. If it's still confusing....give us a call. We'll handle this if you promise to handle our next plumbing issue, HVAC, or electrical issue. 

Win-Win Marketing™....it's what we do fo YOU so let's get started today. 

What is Win-Win Marketing?

The phrase "win-win" gets thrown around a lot, but when one takes the time to truly define the concept, it's about as clear as mud. When one tries to apply the loosely defined term to their operational systems, it gets even more confusing. 

How can there be a "win-win" in business? Isn't the whole essence of business to conduct transactions? A transaction in which one gives....or "loses"....their money or goods in exchange for the product or service being offered by the company. Very basic, but true definition of business in general, right? But what if there was a different way to look at it?

Imagine yourself at 6 years old. Go ahead. Close your eyes....picture yourself at six years old. Where are you? Who's around you? Now...be honest; are you happy? When you were six years old, the world was full of endless possibilities. Remember the aisles of toy-stores? Did you take the time to read the P&L of the manufacturer before picking one? Do you remember one time in your life when you told your parents that you needed to run the decision by a committee before narrowing your field? Of course not. 

Now, imagine your current self guiding that 6 year old version of you through the launch of a business. Would you encourage young-you to lie, cheat, steal and do whatever it takes to make a dollar? Would you encourage a gangster mentality? As fun as that sounds, it is far more likely that we would nurture the innocence of that version of ourselves. We would use that opportunity to steer our younger self clear of the guilt delivering "shortcuts" we've regretted for so long. 

A business victory does not require a loss. Partnerships can benefit both parties. Transactions can provide value to both sides. 

Trending Up Digital Services employs a Win-Win Marketing  strategy for every client with whom we are fortunate enough to work. No deception. No manipulative practices or misleading reporting. We win when you win. We're part of your team and we do not like losing. 

Let's get together and Win-Win!

www.trendingupdigital.com 

800.852.8676