Excellent marketing can get your business very far. But to implement a relevant strategy, you need the right foundation.
Plumbing Nerds is now a successful plumbing company that serves the Southwest Florida area. It’s a far cry from when John Vernoff started his business in 2007.
The economy wasn't friendly to new businesses back then. And when the recession hit a year later, the usual projects in residential construction dried up.
However, John understood that there was still plenty of service work required of a plumbing company.
He then proceeded to rebrand his company, retarget his audience, and essentially shift his marketing to get new business.
The results?
Plumbing Nerds now makes around $2 million a year, up $800,000 year over year. That’s with about 70 employees and 10 trucks.
So how did it all happen?
John attributes his company's success to having a relevant marketing strategy and adapting to new market conditions. He planned ahead, which is the only way to build a successful business.
Maybe you’re looking for the same kind of result.
Know that you can't take your business very far without a good plan. You need the right strategy if you want to attack your niche marketing from the right angle.
The good news is that results like those that Plumbing Nerds achieved are more than possible. The following actionable tips can put you on the right path for growth.
The Tips
Tip #1 – Set Your Goals Before You Start Planning
Have you ever heard the phrase 'Success is goals, all else is commentary'?
Before you can cook up a plan to pivot your marketing strategy in a new direction, you need clear goals. If you don't have them, it's easy for you to end up in commentary - always discussing or thinking about irrelevant things.
What’s the problem there?
If you’re stuck in commentary, you lose momentum. And that’s far more likely to happen when you don't have a clear target to chase. It’s something we noticed a lot in businesses that grew but have since stagnated.
The fact is that sustainable growth requires clarity on goals and objectives. And this is something proven true in other fields, too.
Back in the 1980s, a Harvard study showed the differences in income between graduates who had goals and those who hadn't.
Out of a class of graduates, only 3% had clear goals, while 84% didn't and 13% had ideas about goals but didn't write anything down.
The 3% of graduates who had clear goals wound up earning more than 10 times the other 97% combined!
We also see the same trend in home services and plumbing - businesses without clear and written goals hit a ceiling really fast.
If you want to dominate your niche, you have to take the same approach as the 3% - define your goals and write them down so you always have them in your sights.
Tip #2 – Set Your Stopping Points
Once you get the hang of setting goals, you have to learn the value of creating stopping points.
Writing down goals for the end of the year is not always enough. It's just part of the process of planning.
You can't hold yourself accountable when you only draw the line at the end of the year. The best way to do that is to do regular checkups.
We like the idea of quarterly chunking here.
Imagine you set a goal for $4 million in revenue for the next financial year.
To hit that target, you would need to hit specific numbers each quarter. You need smaller targets that you can work towards on your way to hitting that big objective.
This method helps a lot with both planning and execution. Because once you see that you missed the target in one quarter, you can identify the issues and fix them to ensure you're still on track to reach the final objective.
Keep in mind that you're not tied to a specific number of stopping points. There's much seasonality in this business, so maybe you need monthly stopping points to get extra clarity on how to reach your goals.
Tip #3 – Know How Many Service Calls You Need to Run to Make the Goal A Reality
By now, you’ve probably reached a point when you know your goal and have your stopping points. You also know when to hold yourself accountable and look for ways to improve.
But how many service calls do you need to go on to make your goal a reality?
It's one of the most pivotal answers you have to come up with if you want to put an awesome marketing plan in place.
Fortunately, the math is simple.
You have to determine the average transaction value for your service tickets. Then, you divide the average value by your revenue goal.
The result is the number of service calls you have to run to meet your goal.
Granted, this is an estimate.
Yet, it's essential to have something as a starting point.
And this exercise serves to bring you extra clarity on how your plans should look like.
Tip #4 – Work Out How Many Leads You Need to Generate
At last, you can work out the number of leads needed to make the number of service calls from the last tip.
You have to include all your marketing channels – social media, SEO, pay-per-click, local service ads, etc.
So, how do you figure out your target number of leads?
You get it by dividing the average conversion rate of a lead by the target number of service calls.
Of course, this won't be a perfect number. But it still gives you a ballpark number of leads needed to make your goal a reality.
From there, you can start to really iron out your marketing plan.
Due Diligence Can Win Over Your Niche
As you can see, there's nothing overly complicated about laying the groundwork for a new marketing plan. It all revolves around setting clear goals and making sure you don't lose track of them.
After that, you just have to pay attention to the little details. Things like average transaction value, leads, conversion rates are all numbers that give you and your team a clear picture of what you have to do to make your goals a reality.
Are you ready to start growing your business the right way?
If you'd like to discuss how you can generate better results online, let's schedule a time to chat. You can pick a time that works for you now by going to https://go.plumberseo.net/schedule
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