Roofing Success
The Roofing Success Podcast is a show created to inspire roofing contractors to achieve optimal success in their roofing businesses. The host, Jim Ahlin, is the co-author of the book, "Internet Marketing For Roofing Contractors, How to TRIPLE Your Sales and Turn Your Roofing Website Into an Online Lead Generation Machine", and Co-Founder of Roofer Marketers, the Digital Marketing Agency for the roofing industry. On each episode, Jim will be sitting down with industry leaders to talk about their processes, the lessons they learned, and how to find success in roofing.
Roofing Success
How Avoiding Marketing in Slow Season Costs Roofers Millions with Elizabeth Lytle
Are you letting the slow season cost your roofing company millions? 🤔 In this episode, marketing expert Elizabeth Lytle with Contractor Dynamics reveals why most contractors hibernate during the off-season—and how this mindset is holding them back. Learn how to build brand awareness, create evergreen content, and establish omnipresence so you can dominate your market, even in the slowest months.
We dive into the power of storytelling, using local events, and the secret to creating a consistent content strategy that keeps your pipeline full—even when the competition is asleep. Don’t miss out on these actionable steps to turn the slow season into a growth season!
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Why do most roofing companies miss out on the power of brand awareness? Elizabeth Lytle believes the slow season is the perfect time to rise above the competition. This episode is all about building omnipresence and ensuring your brand stands out in a crowded market, even when business is slow. Elizabeth Lytle is the head of community at Contractor Dynamics, where she helps contractors master marketing strategies that drive growth and build strong brands. As the mother of three, Elizabeth juggles family life with empowering contractors to succeed in the digital world, bringing passion and expertise to every conversation. Discover actionable insights on brand building and future-proofing your business for the slow season and for the long haul. Let's get started. Welcome to the Roofing Success Podcast. I'm Jim Alleyne and I'm here to bring you insights from top leaders in the roofing industry to help you grow and scale your roofing business. Elizabeth Lytle, how are you today?
Speaker 2:Hey Jim, I'm doing well. How are you?
Speaker 1:I'm awesome Contractor Dynamics in the house.
Speaker 2:In the house Excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my fellow marketers, I love my fellow marketers, right, like we, you know, there's just a. Just like the roofers have their community, like I think marketers understand each other on a different level too. Right, if people don't know you, if they haven't seen you around, give it, give us a little intro. Sure, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm Elizabeth. I am our head of community at Contractor Dynamics. I've been with Contractor Dynamics the last four and a half years. I'm located in Tennessee I've got three little children running around somewhere on the other side of this office wall and at Contractor Dynamics we are a marketing training company. So I do a little bit of hands-on work with our clients, where we're helping business owners really understand marketing so that when they're working with an agency, they're creating the best possible content for their agency right, they're hands-on with that process. And then for the marketing that they're doing in-house, they know what they're doing, they're creating excellent content, they're creating strong brands. So I do some of that. I work on our partnerships. I go to a lot of our events and do presentations. So that's a little bit about me.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Today I wanted to ask you a question. How can roofing contractors thrive during the slow season?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a fantastic question. There are a handful of things that I would tell a roofing company owner to do to ensure that you're really thriving now, but also that you're really setting yourself up for success when spring comes around. And I'll start with what not to do. What everyone else in your market does is hibernates, is hibernates. Everyone shuts down their ads and stops creating content and waits until the next season comes around, right? Well, no one's replacing their roof right now, anyway, or they only need little repairs and we don't do that. So there's not a lot we can do. There's no roof going up. We can't create any content.
Speaker 2:Well, that's what everyone does, right? Which means, if you do the same thing in spring, when you turn everything else on, you're going to look like everyone else. The reality is that consumer buyer behavior has changed and people are doing their research. And if you're not top of mind, you're going to look like everyone else and you're going to probably get price shopped. Or you're just going to fall into the sea of everyone else and you're going to probably get price shopped, or you're just going to fall into the sea of everyone else and you're not going to differentiate. You're not going to stand out. So, ideally, what you should be doing right now is brand awareness marketing. That's a big thing that you really want to be focusing on.
Speaker 1:For contractors. Right, that's a broad term. Sure, let's dig into that. What's brand awareness marketing?
Speaker 2:Sure, sure. So brand awareness marketing is a little bit different from specifically focusing on lead gen. Right, we know what lead gen is. We're running an ad, we're getting a lead, we're booking an appointment. We're immediately contracting that revenue, right? So that's pretty straightforward.
Speaker 2:When it comes to brand building, there's a couple of things to know. Brand building means we are simply getting more. We're pulling we've got this big, wide, open ocean, right, and we're pulling more fish into our net, and we're not necessarily pulling the fish out yet, we're just putting them into our net so they're aware of who we are. We're introducing ourselves to the market. We're staying top of mind in our market. So brand awareness marketing looks like.
Speaker 2:Here's my story. Here's what's important to us. Here's a customer story of ours. Here are the problems that we solve. Here are the events we're involved in that you are also involved in. Here are our individual people and the ways that they touch lives and impact people in our community. And that kind of marketing. I think people get a little confused or they're not interested in that because they don't see immediate return. But the reality is we need to focus on generating leads now and filling our pipeline for next month and next quarter and next year. We need to future proof the business, right, and that's what brand awareness marketing helps us do. It helps us fill the pipeline for the future, so that people are warmed up, they know who we are, they see us everywhere, right, we have that omnipresence, and when they're ready to make a buying decision, there's no way they're not going with us because they see us everywhere.
Speaker 1:That's brand awareness. Omnipresence is like my favorite word, elizabeth. That is like my, one of my favorite like words ever, because that's what I focus on Right, that's my, my, what I love, and that. So I think that a lot of times and this is that brand versus performance, brand versus lead gen there's always this struggle between the two and I think that a lot of times, the reason that brand gets pushed aside or brand awareness gets pushed aside for more lead gen, performance-based marketing activities is because it's hard to measure. How can a contractor know if they are finding success through their brand awareness?
Speaker 2:Sure, and we could do a whole podcast on that topic what measurables are important, what metrics you should be tracking, and there's a couple of different that topic what measurables are important, what metrics you should be tracking and there's a couple of different things there and sometimes it depends on the platform that you're using right. But some of the things that you're going to want to see are you're going to want to see an upward trajectory of your metrics when it comes to things like website traffic. So, for example, some people say, well, website traffic, okay, great, we had more people visit our website, but there are not conversions. But the reality is more traffic to your website now leads to conversions down the line. Maybe not immediately, but people are doing their research. People are going to look at multiple different avenues before they make a buying decision, which means we need to show up in many different places. So things like traffic to your website, things like your click-through rates, things like your video views, things like let's say that you do maybe some email marketing you want to see opens to your emails. It might be traffic to your booth at an event when you've got people conversations that you're having. So there are many different metrics that you can look at.
Speaker 2:But it's important to ensure that you're tracking brand awareness metrics like those, and lead generation metrics as well. That way, again, you're putting more fish into your net and then, when they make that buying decision, you'll be able to see a path of oh, you know what they did. They looked at that video or they clicked through to our website or they, you know, made that phone call, and so you'll be able to kind of see that they've got a journey before they actually make a decision with you. Sometimes, you know, tracking is part art, part science. Right, it's never exact, because it'd be great if every customer called in and said I saw your truck and so-and-so mentioned you, and then you were in the Facebook group and then I saw your people at the parade. But they don't do that, right, they usually say, like the internet or my friend whose name I forgot, so part art, part science. But those are some of the things that you want to look at on a regular basis.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the, the, the multi-channel marketing attribution is is probably the hardest thing. And and you know people will do that. They'll see your truck, they'll see your Facebook posts. They see a yard sign in their neighbor's yard. Then they call you, they Google your name and then they call you and you're like where'd you find us? And they're like Google, yeah, I like. One metric I like from a website traffic perspective is branded is your, is your brand name searches?
Speaker 1:right so watching for an uptick in people typing in your name not only just getting to your website, but typing in your brand name to get to your website kind of shows that you're starting. Oh, people are noticing us, they're seeing us around, they're actually interested in us, not just roofing company near me. Yeah, that's a good indicator.
Speaker 2:You've done some good work on the branding side. If they're seeking you out specifically, imagine how much better those leads are right. But it takes some other work to get them to do that actual search it does, but you can monitor it.
Speaker 1:So Google Search Console, to get technical for you guys, like that's where, that's where that that data exists, where you can actually see how people are finding your website and and that that's the thing. Though, brand is so, so important. I had a, a guest on years ago who was a branding expert, and he said you have a brand, whether you know it or not, absolutely. And I was like well, okay, go on explain. And he's like well, if you pull up to a, to a person's house in person's house, in a rusty F-150 with a magnet slapped on the side, crooked, you have a brand and your brand is you can negotiate with me, that's right. And you know, in a nice wrap truck and very well-dressed and you know, you know, as Chuck Toki would say, with your tool belt on and your, you know, your, you know, like things like that, all of those little details.
Speaker 1:Right now it's a. It's a much different experience. So that brand awareness is you, you get to cultivate that and I heard you say that a little bit. Like you get to you know it's the things that you share, the values of your company and things like that. Let's talk a little bit about that, like how can, how are we getting that brand message out to the public? I know you know that's the thing to the public. I know you know that's the thing. Maybe, like you know, how do you develop a content strategy that shows people those values of your company?
Speaker 2:Sure, you know. I think one thing that people forget about content is that we're not creating. Some of us are creating content because it's cool for other contractors. Right, we show our lifted truck and every other picture we're showing. You know, maybe the we're showing 15 different pictures of roofs that we've done, but the reality is that we need to be creating content for our most ideal customer. So it's a good exercise to sit down and think about who that person is. Where do they live, what questions do they ask, what hesitations do they have? What do they need to see that gives them certainty? Where do they spend their time? What are they interested in? And that's going to help us create content that's going to be engaging and actually attractive to those people.
Speaker 2:So, for example, someone mentioned the other day well, man, we are truly the best roofing company in our market, but we're getting undercut on price. I just feel like people don't understand. They went with that other company and that other company is not great. Well, here's the deal. If you're getting undercut on price, then there's value that needs to be created and that's the power of creating excellent content, because you can show your value. You can literally say in your content we are not the cheapest truck, you know, chuck in the truck, we're not going to. You know, put aluminum foil up on your the sides of your chimney, we're not going to. You know, not show up when you have a phone call. We're going to make sure to be around long enough to service your warranty. So if there are reasons that you're going to be a little bit more expensive because you've got the overhead, because you have that local office or you pay your people more, you use the best products, talk about that in your marketing. You will repel people who want the cheapest, and if that's not who you want to work with, awesome, let's repel them. If we want people who are looking for value, we talk about that in our content.
Speaker 2:One thing to remember with our content, too, is that we need to be thinking week over week about creating evergreen content. So, for example, a customer testimonial At the end of a job. If a customer had an amazing experience, even if all you've got is your smartphone, turn that smartphone on, have them relax, ask them a couple of questions and they can give you a powerful testimonial, similar to what they might write in a Google review, and you can use that on your website. You can use that in a social media ad, you can put that in your organic social media content. You can send that out during the sales process, meaning you can use it over and over and over in many different ways, but it's important in your content.
Speaker 2:Again to remember the average homeowner is not excited to look at 50 different pictures of roofs. They're just not. And what they are interested in is the fact that you attended that event that they also went to with our family. They're interested in the fact that you have X, y and Z values, and this is how that shows up in your work. They are interested in the fact that you are out there rolling the yard and you're using your catch-all and you're covering the bushes and you're taking care of someone's property as if it were your own. That's the kind of thing that's going to draw people in and help keep you top of mind. So those are some examples of the kind of content I would work on creating.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So for people listening, for contractors listening, you can create evergreen content or trend. Maybe the best word is trending content. Right, like trending might be a storm, just hit our market. Right, like that is trending content. There is a time limit on that content. Hey, there was, you know, one and three quarter inch hail in Frisco, texas, today. Are you? Have you been affected? Right, that is a piece of content that is not timeless. It might be timeless in Dallas, though, let's be honest, it might be timeless in Dallas, like you might be able to recycle that post every couple of years.
Speaker 1:But I love this focus on evergreen content. It's one of my favorite things. It reduces the strain on your content creation. If you are trying to post multiple times per day or multiple times per week, and you have this bank of content that you can pull from and post to stay top of mind, to get in people's feeds, to get in people's stories, to show up in their social media on an ongoing basis, to show up in front of them on an ongoing basis. Man, let's make this a little easier on ourselves. It doesn't have to be the same thing every time. What about? I think, faq kind of stuff, too right Frequently asked questions kind of stuff right that type of content is much more evergreen.
Speaker 1:So what other thoughts do you have on evergreen content? Like, I mean my evergreen content, is this podcast right? Like this is evergreen content. We have clips from shows from four or five years ago that we still post on social media today because they still have value, and so what are some other ideas for evergreen content?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. What you want to think about is this If you're saying to yourself, well, it's slow season now, we're not putting a bunch of roofs on, we don't have any content to use, well, there's a couple of things to remember. The first is everyone has a short attention span on social media and the reality is something that you posted six months ago. You have a fairly new audience now. Right, you've got some new followers. People are not going to remember that, so remember that you can recycle content At Contractor Dynamics. We're doing that all the time and we'll get this new engagement. Wow, what a great concept. And it's something that we posted six months ago, right? So remember that you can recycle content. Other evergreen content would be things like you got a new Google review Great, that's great content to share. But the other thing that people forget is that you can create some content from your office, from your truck it doesn't have to be on a job site from that networking event that you went to walking through the grocery store in your branded apparel, but content where oftentimes that's going to be maybe talking head footage, where you're maybe answering a common question, like you said, an FAQ. Maybe that's giving some education. Hey, right now it's wintertime. Here's how to take care of your property. Hey, watch out for ice dams. Hey, make sure you cover your spouts on the outside of your house. So some educational content.
Speaker 2:There are also probably 20 different pieces of content that you can get from one build site, meaning you don't have to do 15 different jobs to get 15 pieces of content. There are many different things that you can produce on a single job site. So you know you can do some content that's specific to the neighborhood. Hey, neighbors in you know Arlington neighborhood, hoa, whatever I'm doing X, y and Z today, I'm solving this problem for so-and-so. Or you do some content that says Mr Smith, here, we're replacing the roof for him. He's a firefighter. We love the fire department. Don't forget to give a gift to the firefighters this season whatever that kind of content that everyone can kind of relate with.
Speaker 2:So think about again your most ideal customer and create content that's going to be engaging to them. Some of that might be you're sitting at your desk in your office and telling your story. It might be hey, we started out in my garage and now we're here and we're going to be here for the next five years. We're not going to disappear. We're serving our local community. Here's what we care about. Or, hey, I'm a military veteran. We support the veterans, we're military owned and operated that kind of thing. But talking about who you are, it doesn't always have to be so focused on roofs.
Speaker 1:I have a couple ideas right that came to mind, especially when we're thinking of the slow season and we're thinking, man, we already posted all of the job type of content that we did this year. What, if you talk about those jobs, my top three favorite jobs of the year, my top three favorite, you know, homeowner stories of the year, my top three like now you're getting that, but still building that connection, that telling that story for those listening. Stories are going to sell much, much better than than than facts. I always tell people, elizabeth is like like when you're posting those before and after pictures, it's not, hey, look at this cool new Ico dynasty, blah, blah, blah. Right, like you have to you, you, you have to tell the story of the homeowner because you want your social media content, you want the people watching to see themselves in your social media content, in this evergreen kind of content. How can they do that? How can they advance that? How can they tell the story better in their social media content?
Speaker 2:Sure, well, it's exactly what you said. It's telling real stories. So somebody said to me a couple of months ago well, we're just doing roofing, it's not that interesting. And I said okay, I hear you, you're marketing for a need, right? Not something that people are sitting at home and they're building a Pinterest board of roofs, and it's not like that, right. So it's a little bit different.
Speaker 2:However, there is a story, right? Sometimes the story is you know, little Miss Smith had 16 different roofers come out. No one could solve the problem. We found X, y and Z. The problem is solved and for the next 15 years, this is not a worry to her anymore. She can, you know, she has peace of mind. We ensured that for her and we're going to take care of her, that kind of thing. Or the story might be hey, you know what we got up on the roof and the reality was they actually they got a bunch of different quotes, but they actually don't need a roof replacement, they need this little small repair that's going to solve their problem and they don't have to worry about this for the next few years. And we're going to tell them that we're going to get off the roof and say actually, your roof looks great because we value trust and integrity.
Speaker 2:So what you want to think about is one exercise that you could do is sit down and look at some of your past Google reviews, when people had a raving five-star experience, what did they say about you? And then that's the content that you want to create Show how you live out those values. So a lot of companies have their you know five core values on their website, and one of them is quality. Every time, right, I think every roofer puts quality as one of their core values.
Speaker 2:Well, if quality really doesn't mean anything unless you show it in your work, so you can get up and say, hey, this is one of our core values and I'm going to show you exactly how we live that out every single day and tell a story of what you just did. So, again, you want to make sure that you're creating content that really speaks to the pain that homeowners have, the worry that homeowners have when they go through this kind of process, and how you're going to ease that for them, so that, as people are on their phones, on their computers, doing some research, when they see a video of you talking about how you took care of someone they're thinking, oh my gosh, that's great. That's the experience I want to have. I want to call them Creating that certainty.
Speaker 1:I think another thing that came to mind there is you don't have to just search through your Google reviews, sure, search through your competitors' Google reviews, no-transcript, look for those things. Take all you could probably copy and paste you know the Google all of your Google reviews into chat, gpt and tell it to like find you some common themes, right. Like, if you can't get over that writer's block, that content block, like just just get it out there. So we've been talking about content, creating evergreen content, using that, using a lot of content during this slow season. I would say ramp it up, right. If you're not out on job sites right now, you have time to do other things. Let's make that post on social media. Let's make that creating content. What do you think an excessive amount of content would be for a roping contractor?
Speaker 2:Somebody asked me the other day if they should be posting as much as Gary Vee. You know, 20 times a day. Maybe that's a little much, but the reality is that, especially if you're using many different platforms, that's going to be a different group of people. Sometimes you're going to have some crossover your mom's going to see all the content, your couple, best friends, right, your employees, but for the most part it's going to be a different group of people. So we tell our clients that the goal is you should be posting every single day. That's the goal. If you can post multiple times a day, awesome. But ideally we want to be posting once every single day.
Speaker 2:Most contracting companies out there are not doing that. They might be posting a couple of times a week, maybe. Most of the time it's inconsistent. They've got a rainy week and they post every day, or they've got a week where they don't post at all. So that consistency is the key there. But ideally we want to show up as often as possible so that again we're top of mind, we are capturing attention, because the reality is that, no, I'm not necessarily on social media to find a roof, but I'm on social media, so we need to show up there, right, the average American, I think and this was last year, so I don't know what the statistic is this year but two to four hours is spent on social media every day, between checking notifications or just mindlessly scrolling, so we want to capture that attention.
Speaker 1:So so now we have the content, social media is where we're posting it, right? So let's talk about that a little bit. Social media, what platforms, what channels like? What do you, what you know? How do you look at social media for if you're that roofing contractor?
Speaker 2:Sure, well, I would say the first thing that I would do is I would talk to you a little bit about who your ideal customer is, and you're going to have many different customer buckets, right? So you're going to maybe have the homeowner if you're doing residential roofing, you might have the business owner if you're doing some commercial or if you're building out some of those referral partnerships, sometimes your ideal customer is going to be a realtor or an insurance agent or another contractor, because, again, you're building out more strategic partnerships. Who can refer you business? So think about that with your marketing, and then we want to show up where they're showing up. The other thing to remember is that you want to think about the age. So how old is our ideal customer? Is our ideal customer 18 to 25 year olds? Well, if they're replacing a roof, probably not, right? So probably that's 25 in this day and age. It might be even older if we're talking about property owners. So you know 25 plus up to you know 65 plus.
Speaker 2:Well, the reality is that demographic of people that we're looking for. They're spending time on Facebook, they're on Instagram. Some of them are probably on YouTube as well. They're watching videos on YouTube. Certainly, when they're searching thing. Youtube, you know content is showing up and then they're on LinkedIn. Tiktok is another one where we certainly have some clients who are utilizing TikTok. Of course, you know who knows what's going to happen with TikTok in January, but can that be a place where you can generate some business? It can happen, yes. However, the reminder is that that does tend to be a little bit of a younger audience and it is going to be a long term play, so keep that in mind.
Speaker 2:So I would tell you, especially if you're starting out or really looking to dominate your market, I would encourage you to focus on Facebook and Instagram for sure, as you're creating more video content. Youtube is a great place for that content to have more, more. What's the word shelf life? It's a great place too, with shorts and things like that to start. You know that weaves in with your SEO, that kind of thing. And then LinkedIn. Linkedin is a really good one to build out relationships. It's a great tool for recruiting. It's a good place for showing some of that good professional content when you're doing awesome jobs. You're involved in the community to do some networking that sort of thing. So I would say those four are the ones where I would really focus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, your core, those are the core. That's where most people are. Yeah, your core, those are the core. That's where most people are right and it's just go where people are. That's where it is. I think people get a little bit. I mean, they get hesitant with the channels and where should I post? How often should I post? What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:Sure. Well, I would say if you're hesitant, the most important thing to focus on is just consistency. If you're hesitant and you've got, what do they call it? Analysis, paralysis If you're, it's too much and I don't know what to do and I sound weird on video and I don't like the way I look or whatever the reality is. Just get started. If you haven't gotten started, you're behind. So just start today. It's okay if you feel uncomfortable on video. Most people don't wake up just feeling amazing and crushing it on every single video. That's okay.
Speaker 2:Social media is a place where authenticity is a good thing. We look for that, we want that. So you don't have to do some massive production in order to make things really work on social media. Just pull out your phone and create some content. Take some of those images if you haven't started. But the key is consistency, for a couple of reasons. Because that feeds the algorithm. The algorithm likes consistency. You're gonna get more reach. Number one. Number two consistency just creates certainty in the mind of the people who are gonna consume your content. When you're consistently showing up, people start to say I see them everywhere, man, they're busy man, look at that company.
Speaker 2:And they don't know, you might be a one-man operation, but if you're constantly showing up, that really shows that you're a more established business. You have presence where they're spending time. That helps you stay top of mind. So I would say, don't overthink it. Show up, pick an amount of time that you can commit to posting every single week and stick to that and then build on that as you can, but don't overthink it. Simply show up on social media and then, if you've been doing it already but you want better results, I'm going to say review your analytics, figure out what's working and what's not working. What's working do more of that content. What's not working Okay, then you know, maybe we do a little less of that. But remember, it's not like you're going to post a couple of things and go viral and all of a sudden be flooded with leads. It's the consistency is the most important thing to focus on.
Speaker 1:For sure it's, it's everything when, uh, one of my strategies early on with roofer marketers was I wanted to be. When someone turned on their Instagram or Facebook, I wanted to be in the story. Well, instagram first, I wanted to be in the story and in the feed, and the only way to do that was quantity, right. So the way that stories work is, once you see it, it moves to the end of the line and you start seeing it's the most recent first. So we kind of figured out a timing of the day during the day, of how many times we needed to post in stories to always be there. So our logo was always on the our customers, our followers phones, right, like, it's kind of the way that we thought about it, and so I know that it's. It's challenging to get to a point of quantity like that, but when you're using what we were talking about earlier with an evergreen strategy, man, now you can have that, or at least have a story a day, a post in the feed, a real right Like, and and then just, and then you're just duplicating that on Facebook these days, right, it's the same stuff eventually. So that brings the friction down a little bit, right, you don't we, we overthink it. Like you said, the, the analysis, paralysis, stuff, like just just get something going. Another thing you said was you know, like, don't worry about how good you are If that. To summarize that, like, if you go back and look at my content, like I've been doing video for a long, long time and I sucked Like I was terrible.
Speaker 1:Elizabeth, I truly I do this from stage at marketing event. Like when I, when I speak at marketing events, I love to show, like the, the, the videos that I used to do five years ago, 10 years ago, things like that, so people understand the journey, right. Like. I truly believe, if you are not completely embarrassed by what you did, you didn't move fast enough, right? Like, if you're not outrageously embarrassed by what you, what it looked like, you didn't go fast enough, you didn't execute, and so there's this. You know, you just have to do it, you'll get better.
Speaker 1:There's other things that you can do and maybe, like that, I've I've I've helped people with this, maybe don't post it, but do a video a week or do a video a day. Just do a video a day so that you get used to doing the video. Now you can post your customer testimonials. You can post your reviews and job site photos and things like that, but you're getting reps in. But the key thing is you should just post it but get those reps in. It's the same thing is you should just post it but get those reps in it. It's, it's the same thing as sales, right?
Speaker 1:If you're a salesperson in your roofing company, you need the reps. You're not going to crush it day one. You're not going to be the best salesperson day one. You're not going to be the best product you know, like job site supervisor, day one. You're not going to be the best day one. We give ourselves grace in other parts of our life. Like, do it here too. Like, just get after it. What are your thoughts on the algorithmic changes in social media now that it's more of an interest-based algorithm versus an audience-based or connection-based algorithm?
Speaker 2:Sure, sure. Well, the reality is that we have to play toward the algorithm, right, which means that it's never been more important to pay attention to our analytics and then to use the tools that social media puts forward. So, for example, on Instagram, use the real, create the real, because that's content that's going to be shown to many people who aren't already in your little circle. Right, make sure that you're checking in to specific locations that other people are going to check into as well, so you can show up in front of more audience. Make sure that you are doing co-branded content or like collaborative content. That way, you're tapping into other people's audiences. So there are many different. You know, there are many different things to consider and it's a little bit different depending on what platform you're talking about, but the reality is that we need to remember, especially as local businesses doing really location specific content, that we need to remember, especially as local businesses doing really location-specific content. And then content that, again, is not just focused on roofs but is focused on values and problems that we're solving and areas where we're spending time and events that we're involved in, and specific people and businesses that we support, and customer stories. That kind of content is going to help us show up in front of more and more people. There are things that change over time, but a really helpful way to make sure that we're getting better and better content is again going to be some of that collaborative content and then, on a regular basis, reviewing our analytics, looking at what's working, what's not working and ensuring that we're doing something about it. In order to optimize, we need to look at the data and then make adjustments to get better results.
Speaker 2:I do know that there are some people who talk you know they are, you know, constantly crying about the algorithm and it's always changing, and I tried all these hashtags and I did all these things. But again, just be consistent. Keep showing up. Don't overthink it. Review your analytics. If it didn't work, okay, it didn't work. On to the next thing. Just continue, keep going. Don't quit because the algorithm is hurting your reach. Keep going. That's how you're going to help overcome that.
Speaker 1:And it is that consistency. It is amazing what happens when you become consistent in your social media, like, maybe maybe you said it off camera earlier, you know, when we were chatting, but it's like you kind of want to make social media your bestie. I, like we're BFFs now, like this is this is we're, we're there, like this is us, like we're together, like these are you're a part of my life on a daily basis and I'm going to, you know, nurture this relationship. Um so so now in the slow season, we talked about, right, like, we talked about content, creating content, using evergreen content, increasing maybe the, the frequency of your content in this off season and doing it through your social media channels, right.
Speaker 1:So in marketing and we talked about this too it's the who, the what and the how is kind of the foundation for all marketing. Who are you talking to, what are you saying to them and how are you putting it in front of them? So we talked about that, like we, we, you talked about hey, understand your perfect customer, right, understand them, who are they, what is your message to them? You're talking about your values. You're talking about your quality of work. You're talking about what differentiates you from other contractors in your area and the how is. We're getting it on social media. We're getting it in front of them as often as we possibly can so that brand awareness gets increased. Those brand impressions add up. What about offline? What things can people do in their local market offline to also increase that brand awareness?
Speaker 2:Sure man, I love this one because people forget about this a lot, especially in slow season. Well, the reality is that in slow season for a contractor, most of the time people are busy, right. There's stuff going on at schools and there's parades and events and there are networking things going on and lots of opportunity to be out and meet other people and talk about the problems that you solve. I think that a lot of contractors decide they're not going to be involved in anything during this period of time because they're not able to book appointments immediately, and that's fine. I would challenge that a little bit and tell you there are some things that you can do. You can certainly still make some connections and collect some information and potentially pre-book some appointments, that kind of thing, but certainly be meeting people and collecting information. But local events we've got a contractor of ours who they're going to kind of slow down a little bit in terms of the work that they're doing, but they turn it up in terms of local sponsoring of schools and of attending local events. So they just attended an event yesterday they posted about it on their social media where they went to some local kind of holiday parade and she mentioned that the person who handles marketing there. They were the only contractor at the entire parade. It was, you know, these companies who do like they make little crafts and candles and whatever that kind of thing. They were the only contractor. And guess what? They really stood out and they had their logo everywhere and they made these Santa hats with their logo on it and they were giving them to kids. And they did a like hot chocolate station where they were donating you know, a dollar from every cup of hot chocolate to a local charity and they were talking about that. And guess what? They made a ton of connections there and created a ton of content and now people will remember and the kids are walking away with the logo Santa hats, right? So that's a good way to get top of mind, to have people recognize you. Huh, that's different. Oh, blue collar roofing I've heard of them before so that that local presence is so important. So go attend that event and make sure you've got your logo, make sure you're you've got your apparel, make sure you grab a table, go to that networking event.
Speaker 2:We've got a girl who's a part of our community. She's not a direct client of ours, but she is in the Houston area and during this period of time now you know it's, it's they don't have a harsh, harsh winter there, so they're probably still doing a little bit of business, but although a little slower. Um, she does. Every single Friday she goes to a little networking event where a bunch of other entrepreneurs go and just have a cup of coffee and they spend some time together and through that group she has a full pipeline of her own and she's a salesperson. But she does so much self-gen because again, she's getting like we like to call it five mile famous in her area. Even if she isn't building something right now, she's building those relationships and those people who love her send her business all the time because she's showing up. So that local presence is extremely important. So you can do some research and figure out where are my ideal customers spending time this season. I want to go spend time there as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's those local events. There's so much opportunity at the local events and it's just like being part of the community. That's right. I love marketing from other aspects to you. Everyone looks at marketing in terms of lead generation and I've said this on the podcast many times, but we've never had this conversation and, as a fellow marketer, I want your opinion on it. I think there's actually four places that you should be marketing to consistently. The first is for new business to consistently. The first is for new business. The second is to pass customers for repeat and referral business. The third place is to your current employees and the fourth is to future employees.
Speaker 1:So this local event where you're going and having hot chocolate and handing out your stuff, that's also marketing to your team. That's right. Your team goes and does a you know, goes and works at a shelter or something for you know for a day during the holiday season. Or if you guys do a toy drive for a local charity, right, like that's team marketing to me. Charity right, like that's team marketing to me. But it's also. It also reflects the values that you have and is and it's able. So getting creative right, getting creative in the things that you're doing your. Just your participation in the holiday season can be marketing.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right.
Speaker 1:But it's to your team also. And when you're marketing to your team, if you're on social media with your team down there handing out hot chocolate or feeding people or creating a toy drive, other people go wow, that might be a good place to work. I would much rather work there than where I'm worried about my paycheck over here, right Like there's a lot that there's so much more value to this brand awareness than people think. Give me your thoughts on my four marketing channels.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's just my thing I've been, I've been harping on it a little bit lately.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's that's so important to remember. I think that people view recruiting and this other little HR silo and they forget that that's a part of marketing, because you're you're marketing your own company, you're marketing yourselves, you're marketing the dream, the vision of your company, right? So creating that culture, content is is so important because you're creating the content that's going to look attractive to your customers but, like you said, it's also going to look like man.
Speaker 1:What a fun company to work for man Wow, they do a lot more than we do. You know not that?
Speaker 2:we want to poach people from other companies but we want to.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it happens that way.
Speaker 2:We want to poach people from other companies, but we want to. Sometimes it happens that way. We want to attract the people who are going to buy into the vision and be excellent team members and retain team members year over year over year and build something amazing that's profitable and that has an impact on the community. Then marketing is vital and that's recruiting is a part of that and that's so absolutely. When you think about that you're you're marketing for your next customer. You're marketing for your current customers who can refer you. You're marketing for that new referral partner who's gonna, who you know they're not going to do business with you, but you're going to send people your way. You're marketing for your next team member. You're reminding your own team members why we love it here and why we stay year after year. So, absolutely, that's a hundred percent right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what about those insurance agents that are at the parade Right, like, what about the realtors and the? You know, like there's so much more than what that it's really challenging and it's a frustration of mine when back to kind of our earlier part of the conversation, when people are so focused on the lead now, like you're not building a business, you're not building something sustainable, if that's all you are looking for, if that's all you are looking for. I'm thinking about this now as we're talking. And how do you recommend people get team buy-in and include the team in this off-season because they don't have as much to do? Also, what are some ways to get that that them included and bought in and, and, and you know, pushing this thing forward.
Speaker 2:Sure. Well, I will say that um team buy-in on the vision of the company, but also the the why behind marketing, is one of the ways that you're most successful with your marketing. Because when, when it's when you just have that one little marketing manager who sits in the seat and screams at everybody for content and tries to do everything on his or her own, you struggle. It's really difficult to drive revenue and build a strong brand. But when you can get buy-in from everyone on the team and sometimes that means sharing the full picture right. So, for example, our salespeople if we want them to create content because they're the ones on a job site or our project managers, well, we have to explain the why. We have to explain to them how to do it right. They don't know, they just know that you're the marketing manager who sits in the office all day and tells them to create better content. Well, first of all, they might need some good examples, they might need a little bit of guidance and then that so helping them see the big picture that, hey, when I get your face out there more and you have more recognition, your sales closing rate goes up because more people recognize you, more people trust you. When you show up at the doorstep and they've already seen a video of you, they feel a little bit connected toward you. There's some familiarity there. So it's going to be buy-in in general on marketing and on the vision of where the company's going.
Speaker 2:It's important to get that piece and then to help to have everybody get involved. So, hey, let's all create some content together. Hey, we're going to feature you on this part, this video, or on this social media post or on our website. Hey, we want you to go to this event with us. We're all going to have a great time together. We're going to create some good culture content because we know we're going to hire some new people in the spring.
Speaker 2:We're all going to do X, Y and Z or, hey, we're going to pay for you to join that local chamber of commerce. You can go. You'll go to those luncheons, you'll meet other people and when you self-gen you're going to make a higher percentage than when we feed you the leads. Maybe you know or gamify things hey, this is our goal. We want this many reviews by the end of the year. Who can go out to their past customers and get them? You know, we're going to gamify it. Whoever gets X, y and Z, they're going to get rewarded this way or that kind of thing. So it's really getting everyone involved and helping people see the why, but then rewarding, shouting out, getting excited when people are going and taking that initiative and getting involved in that process as well Does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Yeah, makes perfect sense. If you had to kind of summarize this in just a clear way, you know what you know. Back to our original question, just to kind of to kind of bring it to an end here how do you thrive during the slow season?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think my one phrase would be build your brand now, fill your pipeline for the spring and have the best possible sales year you've ever had, because you've stayed top of mind.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thanks, elizabeth. This has been another episode of the Roofing Success Podcast. Thank you for tuning into the Roofing Success Podcast. For more valuable content, visit roofingsuccesspodcastcom. Success podcast. Calm while there, check out our sponsors for exclusive offers, shop for merchandise and sign up for our newsletter for industry updates and tips. Also join the roofing success Facebook group to connect with other professionals and stay updated on the latest trends. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, like, share and leave a comment. Your support helps us continue to bring you top industry insights. The website link is in the description. Thanks for listening.
