Currently, 1.73 billion people around the world log on to Facebook everyday.  This represents a 11% increase, which I think is largely a direct result of COVID-19.

Facebook is the third-most visited website outranked only by Google and YouTube.

Most importantly, nearly 75 percent of high-income earners use Facebook which once again makes Facebook a fantastic advertising platform to consider in your overall advertising mix.

Bottom line, the market for your services is using Facebook.

Are you using Facebook for your business?

For more than 5 years, I have invested in developing a Facebook Marketing System that offers my clients these 7 benefits:

1. Increases brand awareness.
2. Creates interest in their companies early on in the sales cycle.
3. Drives traffic to their websites.
4. Increases “Top Of Mind” awareness.
5. Encourages “digital marketing word of mouth”.
6. Increases leads.
7. Increases sales.

Facebook does work!

Just recently, I launched a campaign for one of my clients and the CPC (cost per click) is only $0.12.  Compare this to the average CPC of $1.50.  After spending more than $100,000 on Facebook ads, my average CPC is only $0.50. Why? Because I know which ad copy gets the best results. Years of testing is the reason I am able to get such good results for my clients!

The ROI from Facebook advertising is significant because the cost is so much less than other methods of advertising.

If you want to learn how to increase your sales and profits using Facebook, review the 7 key lessons to launching a successful Facebook campaign.  Then book a complimentary call so I can outline the 3 programs I offer: Bronze, Silver, and Gold and show you how a campaign is set up by sharing my screen!
Need help? Have questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out and schedule a complimentary ZOOM appointment.  During this session, I will share my screen with you and show you how to use digital marketing to get more clients!

Stage 1: Tune-Up

Stage 2: Build-Up

Stage 3: Expand-Out

The goal of the Expand-Out stage is to increase your exposure and your website domain authority.

The higher the domain authority or the more “mature” your website is, the higher you’ll rank in Google. One of the biggest factors in your domain authority is the quantity and quality of links from other websites. That’s why the primary focus in this stage is to attract links.

How do you attract links? You use content marketing!

For example, blogging on your own website, contributing articles on other websites, and engaging your audience on social media are a few of the tactics you’ll want to focus on during the Expand Out stage. Those tactics will increase your exposure so your business gets in front of more prospects, while at the same time attract more links to increase your domain authority.

Need help? Have questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out and schedule a complimentary ZOOM appointment.  During this session, I will share my screen with you and show you how to use digital marketing to get more clients!

I was kind of amazed when I reviewed these stats.  Bottom line, if you don’t currently have a social media strategy for your restoration business, you may want to consider this now.  Stats below.
3.81 Billion People Use Social Media

The first thing you should know is how many people use social media. An astounding 3.81 billion people have at least one social account. This statistic means that if you’re a business owner looking to reach your customers, it’s a safe bet that your target audience is on one or more social sites.

Now, let’s break down that number to see exactly how many people visit the most popular platforms.

-Facebook has 2.5 billion monthly users
-YouTube gets 2 billion people logging in every month.
-Instagram, which is also owned by Facebook, sees 1 billion unique visitors each month.
-Twitter sees about 330 million visitors every month.

As you can see, many of the users overlap between social platforms. In other words, there’s a good chance that users on Instagram also watch videos on YouTube.

The next time you’re wondering if social media marketing is worth your time, consider how many people use these websites and applications every single day.
78% of Facebook Ad Profits come from Mobile

You can’t talk about social media without mentioning mobile marketing. You may be surprised to learn that over 52% of all internet traffic comes from smartphones. It’s nearly impossible to have a comprehensive marketing strategy without considering your mobile users.

Despite over half of search traffic coming from phones and tablets, over 78% of all Facebook ad profits come from these same users. Mobile users are more likely to click on your marketing campaigns, watch your videos, and engage with your content.

This statistic sends a clear message to marketers about how they create content for their followers. The best way to get engagement with your Facebook ads is to optimize them for people who are using their smartphones to browse social media.

You’ll want to make sure that your ad copy is short and sweet, works well with touchscreens, and focuses on your audience’s pain points and goals. If you spend time optimizing your Facebook advertisements for smartphone users, you could see significant marketing results.
59% of People Use Social Media for Shopping Inspiration

Believe it or not, 59% of consumers use social media for ideas, to seek out reviews, and ask for recommendations.

This type of consumer behavior sends a clear message to marketing teams that want to promote their products and services. Consumers are more likely to shop with brands that have a strong presence on social media.

If you’re not posting regularly, you’re missing out on an opportunity to showcase your restoration services, promotions, and positive customer reviews. Consequently, you won’t get as much traffic, engagement, or exposure compared to your competitors that are serious about social media marketing.

The next time you’re thinking about browsing social media for shopping inspiration, remember that plenty of other people participate in this activity every day. Don’t let this marketable moment escape your grasp.

Need help? Have questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out and schedule a complimentary ZOOM appointment.  During this session, I will share my screen with you and show you how to use digital marketing to get more clients!

Lately, I have been doing many ZOOM training calls with contractors who want to learn how to use LinkedIn to get more commercial business. Facebook is a great tool to increase consumer brand awareness and get residential projects. LinkedIn, however, is a great tool to get more leads from business owners. 

LinkedIn is the perfect vehicle to promote your services, recruit new talent, and share useful information with customers and prospects.

If you don’t have a Company LinkedIn Page, you should definitely set this up.

A LinkedIn Company Page is a page that can be created for individual organizations, companies, and institutions. Once a Company Page is created for a specific business, they can be found by LinkedIn members.

LinkedIn members who are interested in a company can choose to follow or connect with that company to receive more information about the company’s brand, career opportunities, products and services, and company culture.

The main goal of your LinkedIn presence should be to increase your brand awareness and trust. Think of a LinkedIn Company Page as a home base for your company to reach out to an audience to make connections while providing relevant updates and sharing interesting information.

A LinkedIn Company Page can be one of your best online assets for building your business if you approach it properly. All too often, businesses will create a page on LinkedIn, usually because someone in marketing told them they had to, and there it will sit complete with bare bios, infrequent updates, and unused career sections.

The key to LinkedIn – or, in fact, any online efforts – is to create a place where people (your customers, employees, and prospects) will go to gather information, exchange ideas, and engage with your business.

With a little work, your LinkedIn Company Page can function to build trust and your brand identity, inform prospects about your business and industry, showcase your best talent, recruit new employees, generate leads, and close sales.

Let’s explore 5 ways you can optimize your company page for lead generation.

5 Tips for Optimizing Your Company Page for Lead Generation

LinkedIn provides businesses with a solid approach to SEO and, as a result, LinkedIn Company Pages rank high on Google searches.

This means your company page has a good chance of appearing in search results if you follow these best practices. Here are some tips for leveraging LinkedIn’s SEO strategy.

1. Make Sure Your LinkedIn Company Page Is Complete.

This is by far the most important must have for your Company Page. Make sure your page contains basic information, like the industry you’re in, a link to your company website, and the physical address and contact information for your business.

Don’t stop there!

List the size of your business, when it was founded, any specialties, a header image, a logo, and, most importantly, a detailed description of what you do. Company Pages with completed profiles receive twice as many visitors than those with incomplete profiles.

2. Use Industry Specific Keywords in Your Company Description and Specialties Section.

Just like on your website and blog, using industry specific keywords on your LinkedIn Company Page can improve your search results. Including keywords on your company page will register with anyone searching for a company like yours on Google.

If you’re unsure which keywords to include, consider your LinkedIn Company Page as a secondary website to coexist alongside your company website’s SEO. The same keywords you used on your company website to get found are the ones you should include on LinkedIn.

3. Always Keep Your Page Updated.

Posting regularly is important for leveraging LinkedIn’s SEO. It’s also the best way to attract followers organically, engage directly with your readers, drive word of mouth traffic, and establish your business as an authority or thought leader in your industry.

LinkedIn suggests posting at least once a day, whether it’s a brief company update, a new blog article, or a thought leadership piece by one of your employees.

Also, don’t think that once your profile is complete the first time that it’s complete forever. Check your profile at least once a month to optimize any important descriptions, images, or keywords that may have changed the way you do business.

If your company just went through a full redesign or updated its messaging to match a new initiative, make sure it shows on your Company Page, too.

4. Personalize Your LinkedIn URL.

When you create a LinkedIn Company Page, you are given a standard URL that doesn’t help to differentiate your page from other pages like yours. But did you know that your LinkedIn URL is customizable?

Customizing your URL is a good way to boost your presence on the business social media app. A new and easy-to-read URL will help people find your page with ease, and you won’t lose traffic due to this change. Creating a new URL won’t deactivate the old one.

5. Join Relevant Communities.

You can join topic-based communities as an organization on LinkedIn. In fact, you can choose up to three communities.

For example, if you specialize in mold removal, you may follow #moldremoval to view and comment on any updates that have to do with the community hashtag.

This increases your engagement and helps to drive leads for your business because people who are interested in what you do will likely be members of these communities as well.

And the more you comment and engage, the more likely they are to click on your page to see what your business is all about. From there, they may even click on your website and inquire about your services.

Don’t hesitate to join the conversation, and switch up your community hashtags every once in a while to participate in other relevant conversations.

Need help? Have questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out and schedule a complimentary ZOOM appointment.  During this session, I will share my screen with you and show you how to use digital marketing to get more clients!

Over the past year, more consumers have turned online for communication, research, social interaction, etc.  This digital revolution in taking shape right before our eyes.

Consumers are relying on search engines and social media to research products and services.

Online customer reviews are becoming more and more relevant!

In order for your restoration business to take advantage of the consumer trend online, you need to invest in a stronger online presence.

Here are the top 6 reasons you need to follow through…

1. The Internet Is Growing!

Almost everyone has a smartphone these days.

Statistics show that Middle Aged Americans (35 to 49) are spending more time online!

If your story isn’t being shared online, then you can bet that one of your competitors is.

Investing in building your online brand will help you grow exponentially. For instance, one of my clients grew nearly 50% after investing in a social media campaign.

This client did invest in mainstream media and traditional marketing. But the owners understood that they could generate more reach and visibility with internet marketing.

Bottom line, by investing in online marketing you are making it easier for potential clients to assess your services online, check out reviews, and learn about your business before contacting you.

2. Social Media

Social media, and particularly Facebook, is one of the easiest ways to increase your brand’s exposure in your service area.

Social media users are increasing by the day.

Even if someone doesn’t need your services today, he/she might need it tomorrow.

Your goal on social media is to build brand awareness and consumer awareness of your services because potential customers often invest in products/services they’ve seen, engaged, and familiarized with on social media. 

If you cannot appeal to them, your competitors will.

Therefore, you need to leverage social media to build your brand identity and hence establish an effective social marketing strategy.

3. The Best Way To Reach A Targeted Audience

Facebook enables you reach and engage with an audience that is actually interested in learning about your services.  When someone likes your page, follows your company, and/or engages with your content, they are telling you that they appreciate your brand.  This is really important.  Building fans increases your potential lead base for your brand.

Reaching a targeted audience is more difficult with traditional advertising media like TV or radio ads.  You could spend 1000s of dollars on a campaign that may not yield any results, not to mention it is very difficult to track.  On the other hand, digital marketing ensures that you only invest in campaigns that you can track and measure.

4. Maximize Your SEO investment

One of the benefits of posting content on your website is you increase your opportunities to gain more organic traffic.

You want people to find your website online in a natural way in order to boost your SEO rankings and rise above the competition.

One way of making that happen is by using digital marketing to tell people about your website.

You can use a Facebook sponsored ad, to attract social media users to your page and direct them to your website.

5. Instantaneous Coverage

Implementing digital marketing is very simple.

It literally takes 5 minutes to place and ad on Facebook and other platforms, meaning you can begin reaching an audience for your brand immediately.

The other benefit is you can begin measuring progress immediately by measuring metrics like website visitors, cost per click, pages viewed, etc.

6. Take Advantage Of Mobile

Finally, people are consuming more information through their mobile phones.

They are accessing their social media apps on their phone, doing google searches, etc.  This means you need to make sure that your website is mobile ready and responsive to different devices and maximize the potential lead generation possibilities.

Want a free strategy session? Schedule a 60 MINUTE complimentary ZOOM digital marketing strategy discussion!

In this article, I will explain what Alignable is and why you should use it for growing your business.  Earlier this week, I sent you an e-mail asking for your vote.  Voting ends on August 24th, so I appreciate your vote…literally takes about 10 seconds if you already have an account set up.  If you don’t have an account, read on and I explain the benefits of Alignable and how to set up your account, and it’s really easy and does not take much time.  Best part, you will be able to get more commercial leads and business from other business owners in your service area.

I use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Alignable for my business.  Each has a different purpose.

I have been on LinkedIn since 2007 and have used it to network with business owners throughout the world. In fact, I have built several businesses, just with LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a great platform for B2B marketing and connecting and if you are consistent and active you can build up a following. Currently, I have over 11,000 followers.

Facebook is a great tool to sell products and services directly to consumers and this is one of the reasons I am active on this platform.  I recommend Facebook to my clients because it is a great awareness platform to connect with consumers early on in the sales cycle.  For instance, let’s say you want to market mold removal services, you can use Facebook to educate and create awareness and connect.  The whole idea is to build trust early on in the sales cycle.

Last year, I set up an Alignable account. I did this because it is a HYPER-LOCAL social media and networking tool.  If you are a contractor and want to network and engage with other trades and business owners and not have to do searches on LinkedIn for businesses in your area, Alignable is the best tool for this.  Let me explain further…

WHAT IS ALIGNABLE?

Alignable is essentially a version of LinkedIn with a hyper-local focus.

Previously, when you wanted to network with other small and local business owners, you’d have to turn to LinkedIn.

Well, in 2012, Alignable was created and now has over 6.5 million users.

Specifically, Alignable is designed for the local business community to connect and help each other through:

1. Discussions
2. Networking
3. Q&A Forums
4. Messaging
5. Referrals

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF ALIGNABLE

Alignable provides an excellent place for contractors to connect and refer business to each other and allows you to:

1. Expand your reach with other local businesses.
2. Create a community for your company to boost traffic.
3. Create promotions showcasing your products or services.

HOW TO SET UP AND USE AN ALIGNABLE ACCOUNT?

Joining Alignable is easy, and it is free. Just sign in on their webpage.

Because the network is aimed at businesses, there are no special steps for you to take to identify yourself as a business account.

After you sign up, you can begin to build your small business network by finding other local businesses and then clicking on the Connect button.

You can even use their messaging options to start a conversation.

Once you’ve built up a network, you’ll see posts by people in it, and even have access to Q&A forums to share advice and your experience in navigating challenges that business owners share.

By collaborating with other business owners, you (and them) can gain insights from each other and boost your brands.

STEPS TO SETTING UP ALIGNABLE

1. Complete your profile (fill out everything), and make sure it looks good.
2. Add suggested contacts from your contact list.
3. Recommend businesses that you or your company have worked with in the past.
4. Ask those businesses to recommend you in return.
5. Connect with other local companies that you may a target audience (or customers) with.
6. Engage in Q&A forums to provide value, position yourself as an authority in your niche, and further your reach.

CONCLUSION

By having a hyper-focused network that works in the same community, you open new possibilities to boost and promote your brand.

No matter what platform your target audience and customers are on, all businesses can benefit significantly from Alignable’s connections, interactive community, and other great resources.

Need any help setting up your Alignable account, or have other questions about how to market your business locally? Schedule a 60 MINUTE complimentary ZOOM digital marketing strategy discussion!

Restoration owners are incredibly busy people.

While many restoration owners I chat with recognize search engine optimization (SEO) as an important marketing tactic, most don’t have the knowledge or bandwidth to execute everything that needs to be done to optimize their website for search. At the same time, many contractors I have spoken with have limited digital marketing budgets.

There are three key reasons SEO is so important:

First, 46% of all Google searches are looking for local information (Source: GoGulf). If you’re trying to reach customers in your area, SEO is important because it enables them to find you first.

Second, 97% of people learn more about a local small business online than anywhere else (Source: SEO Tribunal). People are searching for your services, and your website is the place where they will look first. That’s why it’s important to show up on the terms they use.

Third, “Near me” type searches grew by more than 900% over two years (Source: Chat Meter). This is another important reason to optimize your local search efforts. People are looking for small businesses in the area.

Now that you know what SEO can mean for the growth of your business, what’s the first step you should take? SEO can seem overwhelming, but consider these 6 Tips To Maximize SEO!

1. Build Your Website With SEO Best Practices

One reason restoration contractors struggle with SEO is because their website isn’t built with search in mind. Sure, your website might look good, but if it’s not structured correctly, you can lose out on a significant amount of search traffic.

When building your website, it’s important to create it with a solid website structure so search engines can properly crawl and index your web pages. If your website is already created, take time to look at your website with fresh eyes and make sure it has a logical structure. Start at your homepage and see if you can logically find — and navigate to — all your important pages quickly and easily.

Be sure to clean up any broken (404) pages that don’t work anymore. Such links are bad because they waste “link equity.“ That effectively means that votes (links) to your site aren’t counted because they lead to a dead end.

It’s also important to make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Not only does a mobile-responsive website improve the user experience, but it also contributes to your SEO ranking.

2. Prioritize Keywords

Keyword research is the second most important key to creating an effective SEO content strategy. You want to make sure your website is ranking for the search phrases that people use. The higher your business website ranks for relevant keywords and phrases, the more likely you are to be discovered by relevant customers searching for your products, services, or relevant topics on the search engines.

3. Optimize The Metadata For Your Pages

The next step for search engine optimization is to make sure all of your primary landing pages are optimized for the keywords you discovered. In other words, you must optimize your titles, meta descriptions, and body content for each page. Every page on your website needs a unique meta description and title. It’s also important that your metadata description doesn’t exceed the length at which Google begins to truncate them in the search results and entices users to click-through to your site.

4. Create A Content Strategy, Content, & A Calendar!

Content is another important leg that keeps your SEO still standing. You can climb up with good SEO and content marketing, but it has to be consistent. You can’t just publish a blog post every once in a while and hope traffic pops up. You need to show Google you have authority in an area by publishing consistent content around a precise range of related keywords and topics. Before embarking on an SEO campaign, it’s important to spend time building out a calendar for at least six months worth of content.

5. Build Authority For Your Website By Creating Various Backlinks

Backlinks are another important factor for SEO. Essentially, backlinks are other places that hyperlink back to your website. Within your website, you can leverage backlinks by hyperlinking back to a previous blog post or sharing links to specific products or services.

But the real value of backlinks come from outside sources. Local directories can be a great source of backlinks to your website—provided they’re also reputable directories. Events are another great way to link back to your website.

Sharing your content on social media can also lead to backlinks.

6. Use Your Google My Business Page

It’s incredibly simple to set up your Google My Business page and it can make a big impact. You should leverage every element of Google My Business pages to your advantage — images, videos, Q&A, reviews, and posts you publish.

Have questions? Book a call and let’s get them answered. Schedule a 60 MINUTE complimentary ZOOM digital marketing strategy discussion!

Currently, social media is growing by 12 new users every second, largely because of people’s need to connect and communicate. This is an opportunity for any business owner to connect with more customers and also build brand awareness.

In this short article, I provide you with 3 steps to social media marketing success. You’ll see that one step alone doesn’t do much for your business. You need all three working together.

1. Build Your Audience

This should be obvious, but social media relies on first building an audience. If you don’t have an audience then no one is going to read your posts.

This means you need to adjust your goals in the early stages of social media marketing. If you expect to drive sales right away, then you’re going to be disappointed. Instead, focus on tactics to build your target audience first.

Distributing content by sharing it on social media is an excellent tactic to build brand awareness, followers, and establish relationships early on in the sales cycle.

If you want to accelerate this invest in some paid ads which can be effective on Facebook.

2. Engage Your Audience

The main reason people use social media is to connect with other people.  With this in mind, if you really want to turn strangers that visit your Facebook page into friends and these friends into customers, you need to engage with them.  In other words, if someone comments about a post or shares a post, respond.

To be successful, you must engage your audience with the right content, at the right frequency, to maintain the attention of your target market.

3. Convert Your Audience

Finally, we get to the step we all tend to focus on: conversion. As I mentioned earlier in step 1, it’s not realistic to expect conversions when you’re just starting out with social media and you do not yet have an audience. It’s also not realistic to expect conversions if you are not yet engaging with your audience as explained in step 2 above. As you can see, the order of these steps matters greatly.

Build, engage, and convert are the three steps to success on social media.  The speed at which this occurs will depend on your strategy.

Over the years, I have helped many contractors with these steps.

The best way to accomplish steps 1 to 3 is education.

In other words, invest in educating consumers about the services you offer.  

For instance, if you offer a mold removal service, provide your audience with information about mold, what it is, how to prevent it, health and mold, etc. The best way to begin this process is to list out all the questions that consumers have about your services and focus on creating content that answers those questions.  The best content that resonates strongly for fans of restoration companies includes written articles (blogs), before and after pictures, on the job pictures, videos, and for some contractors, inspirational posts!

Focus on finding the right types of content (informational, educational, inspirational, entertaining) for your social media, and then step 3 will occur because your followers will trust you and contact you when they need your services.