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SEO
![Meeting Them Where They Are](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/63924096a9b09037d66f6ecc/667ef30759ff1813338b4630_WOA%20Meeting%20Them%20Where%20They%20Are.webp)
Meeting Them Where They Are
Google rewards clear, concise answers. Are you providing your customers with the expert insights they need?
Reading that Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Christian anarchist, I had an unexpected thought, so I asked Google, “What is the difference between an anarchist and a libertarian?”
Six-tenths of a second later, The Goog told me – in a highly visible block at the top of the Search Engine Results Page:
“An anarchist is an extreme libertarian, like a socialist is an extreme democrat, and a fascist is an extreme republican. It’s like the difference between a lover and a rapist. They’re both in the same place but one uses violence to get there. Libertarians believe in free markets, private property, and capitalism.”
And included in that featured snippet was a hyperlink to ChaosPark.com, the low-budget website of a better-than-average writer named Harry Reid.
Harry paid nothing for Google’s recommendation of him and his website. He earned it by crafting the most concise, cogent answer to an often-asked question.
Google is rewarding writers of concise content, wordsmiths who get to the point.
When Google’s featured snippet is your answer to a commonly asked question in your business category, Google is telling the world that YOU are the expert of experts. It seems, to me, this should be the goal of every Search Engine Optimizer.
But this would require them:
- to be experts in your business category, and
- to be better-than-average writers.
But since they are neither of these, they will tell you the secret to becoming a featured snippet is in the microdata, and then fly into a blur of activity with a flurry of sparks and elbows.
Take a quick look at Harry Reid’s ChaosPark. com and I think you’ll see that Harry doesn’t give a rat’s ass about microdata, metadata, or SEO. He’s just a guy writing about things that interest him, and he knows how to summarize big ideas in few words.
Does your business interest you? Can you summarize big ideas in few words?
Before you can take a person to where you want them to go, you must meet them where they are. You must answer their questions –as asked– and speak to them within the frame of their own experience.
Leo Tolstoy knew this, and he used his novels as instruments for the examination of social issues. War and Peace (1869,) Anna Karenina (1887,) and The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886,) were not meant to be entertainments, but persuasive lessons about life and living. Tolstoy met his readers where they were, so that he could take them where he wanted them to go.
John knew this, too, so he framed his Good News to be easily understood by the people of the region in which he made his home. One of the 4 “first followers” of Jesus, John wrote to the people of Ephesus within the frame of their own experience.
But that’s another story.
What does your customer already care about?
What does your customer already understand?
If you will be persuasive, you need to begin your story exactly there.
Before you can take a person to where you want them to go, you must meet them where they are.
If you're struggling to craft killer direct response ads for your business, Ryan Chute from Wizard of Ads® can help. Book a call.
Entrepreneurship
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Things an Old Man Knows
Discover the key lessons from seasoned experts to align your sales process with advertising, build trust, and calculate market potential accurately
Ten days ago, at the annual meeting of the most innovative and successful small business owners in America,* I was handed a series of questions to answer during the problem-solving session. Most of the questions had to do with recurrent frustrations in business.
When I saw the group excitedly taking notes, I was a little bit surprised. Then it hit me, “I’m a lot older than most of these people, so they haven’t learned these things yet.”
If they were glad to hear those solutions, maybe you will be, too.
Here are a few of the things I told them:
Your work doesn’t always speak for itself.
Explain what you did and why you did it. Talk about a couple of ideas you considered, but rejected, and explain why you rejected those solutions. Only then will your client understand the thought and planning and effort you put into what you are delivering to them.
You have maximum credibility when you put the sale at risk.
Agreements established before money changes hands are the agreements that will forever guide the relationship. The time to explain what will not be included is when the sale hasn’t yet been made. Clearly and memorably emphasize anything you need your customer to remember in the future. To gloss over a possible disappointment during your presentation – or to bury it in the fine print – is to deceive your customer and poison their future trust in you. So say the difficult thing up-front. Don’t wait until later.
When your customer rejects the solution you have prepared, don’t argue with them, even when they are clearly wrong.
Just do the extra work. Only after they have approved your second solution will you have the credibility to convince them not to use it. To debate with them earlier will only make it look like you’re trying to avoid doing the extra work. But don’t be surprised if your second solution is every bit as good as your first. When that happens, just go with the second solution. Remember: it’s not about “winning.” It’s about making your customer happy.
Never be afraid to charge more than anyone else in your category.
And never be afraid to pay the highest price, either. The only company that can fund a customer’s hoped-for experience is the company with a fat profit margin. The services you get for half-price aren’t the same services you get for full price.
It’s harder to get attention in larger cities because there is so much more happening.
Ad campaigns take longer to get established in large cities due to the customer distraction caused by marketplace noise. The upside of large cities, however, is that the market potential is so much higher. Businesses in smaller towns often take off quicker, only to later face a sharply limited market potential due to the smaller population.
Growing a local business from 2 or 3 percent of the market potential to 20 percent of the market potential is easier (and more fun) than lifting it the next 5 points, (from 20% to 25%.)
The reason for this is because you will have picked all the low-hanging fruit by the time you are making 20 percent of all the sales in your category. In other words, you’ll be selling everyone who likes to buy the way you like to sell. Growing the 8 points between 25 and 33 percent of market potential will likely require you to make some changes you have long been reluctant to make. And growing a business beyond 33 percent of market potential is virtually impossible. The only exception to this is when the category has a shortage of committed competitors.
Here are a few different ways to calculate market potential for any business:
(Try to do it three different ways and see if the numbers agree. In my experience, they usually fall within a 10 percent window of variation. The two most reliable numbers are (1) the educated guesses of the sales volumes of each client in the category, and (2.) the NAICS totals, which are based on taxation data.)
- List every competitor in your category and attach to their name your best guess regarding their sales volume. Total these, and be sure to include your own volume. This is your market potential.
- Extract the total U.S. sales for your category from the NAICS data at www.census.gov. Divide this number by the population of the U.S. to get a per-capita average. Multiply that average times the population of your trade area. This is your market potential. NAICS data is clunky and hard to isolate, but it’s there and it’s reliable. Just keep digging.
- Most trade magazines will publish the annual U.S. volume for the category they cover. Divide this number by the population of the U.S. to get a per-capita average. Multiply that average times the population of your trade area. This is your market potential.
- Ask Google for the national and/or state sales per-capita in your category. Calculate a per-capita average, then multiply that average times the population of your trade area. This is your market potential.
NOTE: The weakness of methods 2 through 4 are the assumption that the population of every city behaves roughly the same as the population of every other city. This is why state data is better than national data, but your local store-by-store estimate (#1) will likely be the most accurate of all.
Here’s how to determine whether a service category is populated with strong competitors:
Compile the total number of Google reviews for the entire category in the trade area. What percentage of that total number of reviews belong to the company with the largest number? If the leader has only 6 to 10 percent, your category is begging for a leader to step in and bloody everyone’s nose. If the leader owns 20-or-more percent of all reviews, look to see if the second, third, and fourth-place finishers are close behind. If they are, this is going to be a tougher-than-average marketplace in which to compete in that category. If you see a leader that owns 30+ percent of all the Google reviews, these people are a force with which to be reckoned. The exception, of course, is if you’re in a small town without a full complement of competitors.
NOTE: This methodology assumes that a company’s percentage of the total reviews for their category will reflect (1.) the size of that company’s customer base, or (2.) that the company has a high degree of customer engagement. Either way, these percentages are an indicator of the relative strength and weakness of competitors in that category.
Hopefully, you’ll find some of these tools to be useful.
Have a great week.
To learn more about how we can help you, book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.
Advertising
![Do Your People Contradict Your Advertising?](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/63924096a9b09037d66f6ecc/667eebbe5525a7a5dd1209d1_WOA%20Do%20Your%20People%20Contradict%20Your%20Advertising.webp)
Do Your People Contradict Your Advertising?
Align your sales process with your advertising to boost your close rate and enhance customer satisfaction. Discover why consistency between ads and sales matters!
Day after day, business owners tell ad writers, “We just need more sales opportunities. It’s a numbers game. If you double our traffic, we’ll double our sales. Now show me what you can do.”
These business owners don’t understand that today’s close rate dictates tomorrow’s sales opportunities.
Some businesses will run customers off faster than a good ad writer can bring them in. But still they will tell that ad writer, “We just need more sales opportunities. Double our traffic and we’ll double our sales.”
What that company really needs, of course, is to increase their close rate. And the secret to increasing your close rate is to align the personality of your sales process with the personality of your advertising.
But that will never happen as long as your sales manager remains untethered from your ad writer.
It’s easier to grow a company that closes 6 out of 10 sales opportunities than it is to grow a company that closes only 2 out of 10. Straightforward math would tell you that it should be only 3 times easier, but then you’d be forgetting about the exponential impact of customer referrals.
There are exceptions, of course. A company with a truly extraordinary product can utterly botch their sales training and customer service and still do just fine. This is particularly true in technology and in restaurants.
But let’s talk about that disconnect between your sales manager and your ad writer.
This is a blind spot shared by the majority of American companies.
Think of those people in your company who respond to customer inquiries as your first responders. These first responders include the people who answer telephones and who respond to emails and to live chat inquiries on your website. And then, of course, there are your service people and your salespeople.
Your first responders are continuing a conversation that began with your advertising. And your customer has clear expectations about who they expect your people to be and how they expect your people to act.
When your first responders speak and act differently than your customer expected, that customer feels ambushed and betrayed. Remove this disconnection by being the company your customer believes you to be, and you’ll see your close rate climb faster than a happy squirrel harvesting acorns in an oak tree.
Strong ad campaigns communicate a distinctly memorable corporate “personality” that distinguishes a company from its competitors. Rippling that attractive personality through your advertising is especially important when the public perceives your products and services to be essentially the same as those of your competitors.
Win the heart and the mind will follow. The mind will always create logic to justify what the heart has already decided.
A good ad writer will cause the public to like you.
Now all you have to do is be the company the public liked.
And now you know the most important truth of advertising.
Your ads don’t communicate a distinctly memorable personality?
Then you don’t have a strong ad campaign.
You don’t have a high close rate?
Then you don’t have alignment between the expectation of your customers and the performance of your first responders.
Are your first responders using the signature phrases that made your ads famous? Do they embody the corporate personality communicated in those ads?
Or is your sales process independent from your advertising?
Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.
Corporate Culture
![How to Create a Culture of Success](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/63924096a9b09037d66f6ecc/667ee90b1e4a30f3deb4caec_WOA%20How%20to%20Create%20a%20Culture%20of%20Success.webp)
How to Create a Culture of Success
Discover how to create a thriving business culture with strong values and rewarding practices. Learn why culture is key to your retail success.
Throughout my career as an ad writer, I’ve noticed that the easiest companies to skyrocket are those with a healthy and happy corporate culture.
You know it’s a great company when everyone wants to get a job there and no one wants to leave.
Let’s talk about culture.
Definition One:
In biology, a culture is a cultivation (usually bacteria, germs, or tissue cells) in an environment of nutrients.
Culture: a cultivation in an environment of nutrients.
Do you want to create a culture?
Step One: Environment
Step Two: Nutrients
Definition Two:
When we describe a person as “cultured,” we’re saying they are conversant in the arts.
In the words of Phil Johnson, “You acquire an education by study, hard work and persistence. But you absorb culture by viewing great art, listening to great music and reading great books.”
The arts are nutrients for the heart. To become “cultured” in the arts is to know how to make people feel differently.
Definition Three:
When our friend Susan Ryan came home after 7 years of doing business in a third-world country, she said, “It’s hard to develop a strategy that will overcome hundreds of years of enculturation. Culture eats strategy for lunch.”
A strategy is made of goals, objectives, and activities.
A culture is made of values, practices, and behaviors.
Princess Pennie says strategy is today’s “do list”
and culture is all the yesterdays that made you who you are.
Definition Four:
The culture of a business is expressed as esprit de corp: the spirit of the group.
Culture: a cultivation in an environment of nutrients.
Business Culture: a cultivation of practices and behaviors in an environment of values.
If you don’t have strong values, you won’t have a strong culture.
If you don’t reward and celebrate employee practices and behaviors, you’re just mouthing platitudes and clichés. (Commonly known as mission statements and corporate policies.)
Anyone can copy your strategy, but no one can copy your culture.
Branding is nothing more than corporate culture made known.
Good advertising promises your customer a specific experience.
It is then up to your people to deliver that experience.
Shout it from the housetops.
If you're struggling to craft killer direct response ads for your business, Ryan Chute from Wizard of Ads® can help. Book a call.
Advertising
![How to Make Big Things Happen Fast](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/63924096a9b09037d66f6ecc/667ee3b51b7b61cbd77dffc8_WOA%20How%20to%20Make%20Big%20Things%20Happen%20Fast.webp)
How to Make Big Things Happen Fast
Learn the four key ingredients to create high-impact ads that drive traffic and sales quickly. Discover how urgency, specifics, and repetition can transform your retail strategy.
Ad writers hear it every day, whistling toward them like a bullet: “We need more traffic, that’s what we need; more sales opportunities!”
I spent the early part of my radio career stepping up to the plate and knocking that fastball out of the park. If your back was against the wall, I was the man to call.
I was like Coca-Cola, baby, I was everywhere.
It was the early 1980s.
My employer required me to wear a tie, so I hung one around my neck like a scarf. And to underscore my scruffy renegade look, I refused to tie my shoes. Everywhere I went, people would tell me, “Your shoes are untied,” and I would reply with a smile, “Yeah, I know.”
I looked like a young drug dealer, and in a way, I was.
I sold instant gratification advertising. “You want a crowd? Crowds cost money. How big a crowd do you want?”
It’s actually pretty easy to attract a worked-up crowd. Do you want to know how to do it?
These are the ingredients you must have at hand
To Make Big Things Happen Fast:
1. Urgency – There has to be a shortage of time or a shortage of quantity. The rule to remember is this: “No shortage, no urgency.” The best shortage is to have a limited number of a highly desirable item at a remarkable price. This is the time-tested formula that causes people to camp out on the sidewalk in front of Wal-Mart before the doors open the day after Thanksgiving.
If the number of 82-inch TVs available for $999 is too few, people will say, “I don’t have a chance,” and stay home. But if the number is too many, no one will get excited because “there’s enough to go around.” So you definitely need to name a number. “While supplies last,” is a line that only a beginner would write. The customer hears that and thinks, “They only had one of those and they sold it before this radio ad ever hit the airwaves.” Result: no response.
2. Credible Desperation – If you scream, “400 Toyotas MUST be sold this weekend! No reasonable offer refused!” you’ve got no credibility. The listener thinks, “WHY do you have to sell 400? What happens if you don’t? And what you consider to be ‘a reasonable offer’ is probably a lot more money than what I consider to be a reasonable offer, so I’m going to pass. I’ve got better things to do this weekend than haggle with a jackass car dealer.”
Desperation loses credibility as time passes. That’s why these ads work less and less well the longer you use them.
“Lost our lease, everything must go,” is another line that only a beginner would write. Specifics are more believable than generalities.
Do you want to make your desperation credible? Do you want stuff to fly out the door? Say, “We’ve been thrown out! Our landlord rented our space to someone else and a dump truck will be here at 8AM on Monday, January 7th to haul away everything we leave behind….”
3. Specifics – “…so we’re liquidating the entire inventory, every item in every department. We’re selling the showcases, the light fixtures and the cash registers. And if you can figure out how to get the wallpaper off the wall, we’ll sell you that, too. Call your friend with a pickup truck because you’re going to leave here with an ecstatic truckload of once-in-a-lifetime bargains. An $800 kayak is $179. Perfume that sells for $200 a bottle is yours for just $20. Diamond pendants worth a thousand dollars are just $129. A dozen doughnuts, made fresh while you wait, are just ONE DOLLAR and you can eat them while you’re shopping. So cancel what you had planned and get here as quick as you can.”
4. Repetition – Nothing says “urgent news” like an ad that runs twice an hour for 72 hours. If a radio station will let you air only one ad an hour, then make sure it’s a 60-second ad. If a station has a policy that allows you to air only 3 ads every 4 hours, then buy a different station. Whatever you do, don’t air your supposedly “BIG” announcement with too little repetition. Did you read the part where I tried to make it clear that one spot per hour, 24 hours a day, was a MINIMUM schedule? I meant that.
Month after month I sold urgent, high-impact schedules to business owners who licked their lips as they shook my hand.
It wasn’t long before I was visiting twitching, crowd-addicted business owners who looked at me with hard, glittering eyes and a facial tic as they said, “Just like last time, but even better, okay? Even better. That’s what I want. Do whatever you have to do, just bring the people in.”
High-frequency radio schedules and high-impact ad copy are the opioids of advertising. They’ll take away your pain, but when you come down from your high, you’re just a dark-eyed addict in an empty room. So you call the guy with the untied shoes again. But each schedule works a little less well than the one before until, finally, you have destroyed the health of your business.
Do I still write high-impact ads and air them round-the-clock? Of course I do. Opioids exist for a reason. When the pain of an unforeseen business catastrophe is overwhelming and you have no option but to blow the trumpet and bang the drum, you do what you have to do and then deal with the ravages of addiction when it’s over.
But it’s a long and painful recovery. And the thing you want more than life itself is to blow that trumpet and bang that drum one more time.
So now you know How to Make Big Things Happen Fast.
You just have to decide whether or not you want to.
To learn more about how we can help you, book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.
Customer Journey
![I’m Here to Encourage You](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/63924096a9b09037d66f6ecc/667edfcccfe9d457bfb8bdc5_WOA%20I%E2%80%99m%20Here%20to%20Encourage%20You.webp)
I’m Here to Encourage You
Discover how the Tinkerbell Effect in belief and confidence can transform your retail marketing strategy and foster consumer trust and brand success.
Tinkerbell’s light gradually dims as she begins to die.
Her only hope of survival is an audience that believes in fairies and demonstrates that belief through enthusiastic applause. Tinkerbell’s light has been growing brighter since 1904, when she first appeared in J.M. Barrie’s play, Peter Pan.
Everyone believes in fairies enough to clap enthusiastically.
The Tinkerbell Effect describes things that exist only because enough of us believe they exist, and behave as though they do.
Paper money has value only because enough of us believe it has value and behave as though it does. If we quit believing it has value, it becomes scrap paper.
Laws have power because we believe they have power and behave as though they do. If enough of us behaved as though laws had no power, we would live in a lawless society.
Our economy is robust when we believe it is robust. But when we become anxious and hunker down in financial hesitation, our economy unwinds in a downward spiral, like a kite falling from the sky.
A confident person spends money.
Uncertain people delay their purchases.
Uncertainty is an enemy of the economy.
A lot of people are feeling uncertain.
It seems as though every voice in the media believes we need to be instructed about what to believe and what to do. But I am convinced we need encouragement far more than we need instruction.
Encouragement brings hope; hope that tomorrow will be better than today, hope that “next time” will be better than “last time,” hope that Tinkerbell will continue to live and twinkle and fly.
In last week’s rabbit hole, Indiana Beagle shared a Barbara Hall quote that struck a triumphant chord:
“Belief is about collecting ideas and investing in them. Faith is about having your ideas obliterated and having nothing to hang onto and trusting that it’s going to be all right anyway.”
In the face of relentlessly negative newscasts, I have moved from belief in America to faith in America.
I am not alone.
Known for her focus on “Feel Good” news, Ellen K hosts a morning drive show that recently became the largest radio audience in Los Angeles. Evidently, people are looking for someone to make them feel good. I suggest you keep that in mind when writing ads to attract people to your business.
If you should ever visit Wizard Academy in Austin, you will notice a bronze plaque on the subterranean path to our tower that overlooks the city of Austin from 900 feet above it. Stand on that plaque in the darkness and look just above the hilt of the sword at the top of the tower. That point of light you see is Tinkerbell. It is the guiding light of the Wise Men in the Christmas story. It is the bright star in The Impossible Dream, of which Don Quixote sings, “This is my quest: to follow that star, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far…”
Now look down and read the plaque. It says, “To Calvin Laughlin.”
Calvin was an infant when his parents became major donors to Wizard Academy many years ago. His father is Roy Laughlin. His mother is Ellen K.
Congratulations, Ellen.
And thanks for the good news.
Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads®, and let's create those mind-blowing ads.
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Frequently asked questions
Questions? We’ve got answers.
Who does the Wizard of Ads® for Contractors work with?
Wizard of Ads® for Contractors work with healthy and growing Residential Home Service Contractors hungry to grow by multiples, like you.
You are ready, willing, and able to grow your business. You are open to change and are seeking a distinctive angle of approach to gain the time and attention of a too-busy public.
You know that lasting relationships take time, patience, and good energy to nurture and cultivate. We carefully enter into every arrangement with the intention of working with you for as long as you own your business. You prefer lasting partnerships.
You are already a solid operator. You have successfully grown your business and appreciate the impact the right brand story will have to get to the next level in your operation. You know a strong relational message takes time to gain momentum, but it’s worth the one-time short-term discomfort for the long-term gains.
Marketing cannot fix a failing business.
We accelerate what’s already happening in a business. If your business is on the rocks, marketing will only speed up the inevitable.
You’re focused on lasting change that leads to exponential, profitable growth, not just sales at any cost. Intuitively, you know that communication that enhances every element of your customer's experience and your employee's culture is the key to your success.
How does the Wizard of Ads® for Contractors charge?
Traditional marketing agencies are designed to capture the greatest amount of revenue from a client, regardless of results. Every last item is billed and expensed to the client. Typical agency fees can represent a whopping 55% of the entire advertising budget. That means a $5 million dollar advertising budget, you would spend $2.75 million on agency fees.
Think of Wizard of Ads® for Contractors as the Anti-Agency.
Our income is not tied to your advertising budget. Our income is exclusively tied to your growth. Our goal is to maximize your advertising impact with the lowest reasonable spend. This allows you to spend only what is necessary or to put extra horsepower into aggressively growing in your market.
The genius of this model is that it perfectly aligns our motivations as true partners for exponential profitable growth without the pain of being unaffordable. Ultimately, we are confident in taking the risk of being underpaid in the first few years because we know the results always speak for themselves.
Next, we do not accept commissions, referral fees, kickbacks, or other compensation from any service providers we recommend or engage for production work. Most agencies do. This includes the 15% agency commission for media buying. This approach is considerably different from the compensation plan employed by most advertising agencies, as it eliminates any potential conflicts of interest and allows us to focus our entire attention on helping you grow your business profitably as a true partner. For example, a $500,000 annual media buy would involve a $75,000 commission that we would have removed directly from your media providers' invoices.
This is the perfect pricing model for Residential Home Services.
By tying ourselves to gross revenue, we only have one motivation. Your motivation. We have no motivation to convince you to spend more money on marketing than what is necessary, and since we are a variable expense to sales, we NEVER become too expensive to have us on your team.
In almost every case, we end up lowering the amount of money you spend. We will stay within your planned marketing budget, including your media spend, production, and our Annual Fee. Add on the fact that you get any and all commissions back for media buys and various services provided by outside providers, and you will actually save money having us on your team.
Don’t forget, we have the largest buying power in North America for media buying, meaning for every dollar you spend buying media, we only spend 27 cents on average. This stretches your reach, impact, and frequency in a way no other agency (or yourself) can achieve on your own, saving you hundreds of thousands of dollars, eventually millions, every single year.
Clients who heed our advice and embrace our Marketing Strategy quickly add $1 million in incremental revenue to their business, making your investment a smart bet and a bit of a no-brainer.
There is no longer any guesswork, hope, or fear that our marketing strategies are going to work. If our client’s are able to abandon any limiting beliefs about marketing, deliver operational excellence, and play the long game, our marketing strategy will accelerate their profitable growth.
Wizard of Ads® for Contractors pricing model is based solely on the topline revenue of your company. It consists of an Upfront Fee and an Annual Fee. These fees are inclusive of scheduled travel, services, and all other expenditures as outlined in the Consulting Agreement.
The Upfront Fee covers the intensive Uncovery Process, the first year’s Media Buy, the Creative Process, and the Market Research while the Annual Fee goes toward implementation, ongoing creative and consulting, and next year's media buy. You get a team of 3.5 people, with direct access to a top tier Creative Lead and Media Buyer, and on-demand access to me as your Master Strategist. You will also have a full-time Account Manager keeping everything on track.
While the upfront does have an initial pinch, it is easy to amortize the investment over the many years we will be working together to grow your business. Wizard of Ads® retain clients for 10 years, on average. The sale of the business is the number one reason for termination. We actively terminate the bottom 1% of clients who are unwilling or unable to follow our strategies.
Wizard of Ads® for Contractors believes that all rewards should be directly correlated to the success of our clients. This means that the Wizard of Ads® for Contractors only receives a raise when the company achieves growth. For example, if your gross sales for the year have increased by 25%, the Annual Fee you pay us in the following year will also be increased by 25%. Likewise, if your gross sales decrease, our Annual Fee will decrease by the same percentage during the following year.
This is an exceptionally easy and fair way to track and reward success. This model was developed by Wizard of Ads® over 35 years ago and has served us well because it serves our clients well.
As a rule of thumb, we take the risk of working for considerably less than our actual value in the first few years as we help accelerate growth. This means you need to be willing to pay us exceptionally well when you start doing even better.
When should I engage The Wizard of Ads® for Contractors?
There are four key revenue stages for engagement with the Wizard of Ads® for Contractors.
- Under $3.6 million in revenue
- Between $3.6 and $10 million in revenue
- Between $10 and $20 million in revenue
- Over $20 million in revenue
Under $3.6 million in revenue is an investment in your brand. This will serve you well in establishing your brand story early on and help you with your name, logo, and truck wrap design. It's easier to create pictures from a story than it is to make a story based on pre-drawn pictures. You'll be glad you did. Everyone on a fast path to growth is.
Most clients start with Wizard of Ads® for Contractors between $3.6 and $10 million in revenue. They have often seen a natural ceiling with their leads for demand service and are looking for ways to push past the ceiling. This can only be done with a properly executed brand strategy, specifically in mass media with a sticky story.
Between $10 and $20 million in revenue, Wizard of Ads® for Contractors has some natural economies of scale. This is a sweet spot where Wizard of Ads® for Contractors can offer some added value in getting the ball rolling.
Over $20 million in revenue is actually the lowest cost point of entry as a percentage of revenue, but not the cheapest time to start with the Wizard of Ads® for Contractors. Leveraging all economies of scale aside, we have been left out of the upside along the way, so engaging when over $20 million in revenue means we have to mend a lot of fences damaged along the way. This is also where clients see significant savings in their media buys and production costs.
There are also three market sizes to consider.
- Primary Markets are the top 50 cities in America.
- Secondary Markets are the smaller cities in America.
- Tertiary Markets are the more rural trade areas in America.
When considering an engagement with The Wizard of Ads® for Contractors, consider what size market you are in. For example, a $3.6 million company in a Primary Market will struggle to get the necessary reach needed to make a splash. You either have to be more patient than a larger company or spend more money to accelerate your reach.
Alternatively, a $5 million company in a Secondary Market will look like a pretty darn big fish in a medium-sized pond.
A $20 Million company in a Primary Market will feel like a $50 million company using our strategies to potential customers.
The key to remember is that the earlier you start with the Wizard of Ads® for Contractors, the lower the investment to get started. As they say, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.
Are production costs included in your fees?
The Wizard of Ads® for Contractors Creative Lead will create the ad copy, cast the voice actors, source the production house, direct the performance, pick the music bed, manage all the edits, and provide you with the completed ad for final approval before sending to air on your behalf. This is included in our fees.
You pay for the production house, actors, royalty-free music, and jingles directly to avoid any potential for markups, commissions, or management fees.
We have many friends in the industry that give our clients good deals due to the large volume of work we provide them. We will introduce you to them.
How long before a brand-forward strategy starts working?
In approximately three months of activation, we’ll just be getting live on air. In six months (3 months on air), you’ll be getting anecdotal feedback from people that you are being heard, but there will be no direct line to revenue.
After 6 months on the air, you’ll think you made the biggest mistake of your life signing up for this branding nonsense. After 9 months on the air (12 months in) you’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel.
At 12 full months on the air, you’ll know why you did this branding thing. Two years from now, we'll be clinking champagne flutes as you wonder why you didn’t do this sooner.
How long before we’re live?
The general guideline is 70-120 days, depending on the level of production needed and if there is a name change to your business.
This includes an onsite visit, a deep dive into research, and getting things created, negotiated, approved, produced, and live on the air.
- Uncovery - 15-30 days based on travel. 1-2 days onsite.
- Research - 30-60 days based on the scope of work.
- Creative and Media Buy Process - 45 to 60 days
- Offline Production - 15 days for radio. 30 - 60 days for television.
- Online Production (if switching) - 60 days
This means planning for roughly 90 to 120 days in the proper development and production of a completely unique Marketing Strategy before anything hits the airwaves.
Are you exclusive?
Creatively, yes. During the term of this Agreement, all Creative Partners assigned to your Account shall not engage, directly or indirectly, as an employee, officer, manager, partner, consultant, agent, owner, or in any other capacity, in any competition of the client, including any company engaged in marketing consulting.
For clarity, the Creative Partner is defined as the individual Wizard of Ads® Partners who is responsible for creating your creative strategy and ongoing creative copy. Competition is defined as companies that engage in the same industry and business units (e.g., HVAC, Plumbing, etc.) as you. The market area is defined as the area where the marketing message naturally reaches through DMA or 60 miles from the city center of the client's service area(s).
Naturally, we exclude any potential future competition in markets where you are not currently active at the date of signing.
We do not limit Media Buyers in any market. Media Buyers get better deals for larger volumes, making it beneficial for the client to have the Media Buyer available to do as many buys as possible to secure the best deals on the client’s behalf.
Do you do digital marketing?
In rare circumstances, Wizard of Ads® for Contractors will provide specific digital marketing solutions. Wizard of Ads® has very specific Partners that provide digital services that serve Residential Home Services effectively. Under no circumstances will digital marketing services be offered without Wizard of Ads® for Contractors' core solution.
It is most likely that Wizard of Ads® for Contractors will work with your existing digital partners and suppliers. If you do not have a reliable digital provider, we would be happy to introduce you to a number of great providers that play nice with Wizards.
Do you do jingles?
Wizard of Ads® for Contractors can assist you in getting a jingle for your business. Like any other tactical element of a marketing strategy, we do not produce a jingle for the sake of a jingle.
If you do not have a story or a strategic reason to have a jingle...or an ad campaign to tie it to, do not waste your hard-earned money on a jingle. You are wasting your time and money.
When you do build a single unified marketing strategy that incorporates a jingle for a specific (often scientific) reason, we have a Jingle Wizard who has studied the art and science of jingle design.
He will score you an original, royalty-free jingle, including professional singers, musicians, and producers. He will not knock off a generic jingle from a publicly available music bed that sounds like everyone else's jingle.
Your jingle will serve a very specific reason and produce a very specific result. Have you guessed how much we love jingles yet?
Who owns the copyrights?
Wizard of Ads® for Contractors owns your copyright for two very specific reasons. We also provide a fair use clause in all contracts to ensure you are in no way limited to the access of your creative works, whether you are working with us or not.
The first reason we own your copyright is to ensure that we do not have to go up against our own creative works in other markets we serve. This means you are not allowed to lend, give, borrow, tweak, rent, lease, or sell your creative works to any other company at any time.
The second reason we own your copyright is that we can establish a one-time value for your creative works in the event that someone steals the content. Upon selling you the copyrights, you can go after the perpetrator for theft and make a considerable bounty in a slam dunk case.
Here is how Wizard of Ads® word the fair use of your copyright for as long as your business is in operation:
All writing and/or marketing materials we create for you are not works-for-hire. Wizard of Ads® for Contractors hereby irrevocably grants you, and your successors in interest, the non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-transferable, and worldwide right to use the Works in connection with the marketing of your business pursuant to the Marketing Strategy for so long as your business is operational.
How do I measure brand results?
There are a number of interesting ways to measure results. Some people like to get unique identifying telephone numbers, or create branded URLs that redirect to landing pages or the website. However, much of this is a waste of time and energy as it never tells the true story of the brand journey and how it affected the decision-making process.
Other indicators of brand effectiveness include tracking new customers, reactivated customers, or running a brand equity survey to get a sense of your share of mind. Digitally you will see direct search increase, which cannot be affected by anything digital, as well as branded keyword inquiries increase. You’ll, of course, need to get your digital people to add these to your campaigns if you hope to see an increase in conversions.
Wizard of Ads® for Contractors tracks the simplest of indicators. Top line revenue. When your branding takes effect, and the company responds in kind from the phone call or form fill-on, top-line revenue will increase. Efficacy is plotted on a T12, and total lead volume from all sources is tracked.
12 things you should know before signing up.
- Quality relationships take time. Branding is a long-term strategy. That’s why most contractors do it wrong, or not at all. There is always a lag between the start of the new campaign and the time it takes your customers to connect the dots. You MUST BE READY, WILLING, AND ABLE to endure this lag period. In our experience, the lag is typically 6 to 9 months, depending on how competitive the marketplace is, your company’s reputation, your budget in relation to reach, and the eight uncontrollable environmental factors. During this time, we will be helping you implement a transition plan to ease the pain. The good news is that this lag only happens once.
- Decisions by Committee. We completely reject the notion of decisions by committee. We work with a single, courageous decision-maker. We welcome decision influencers, but we only look to the Owner for the final decision. All decision-makers and influencers must be involved in the Uncovery and Marketing Strategy Presentation if they want to offer input in the future. It is critical that we have a 100% fully approved plan that can be defended and championed by all leaders in the organization.
- Proven Strategy. That means we are not the low-cost provider. With nearly 200 home service clients and a book of strategic devices, tools, and tactics, this isn’t a guessing game for us. We know what to do to make your externally triggered grudge purchase appealing to your potential buyers. If you can deliver the goods, we can continue building relationships. If you are uncomfortable with the idea that you are paying us less now so that you can pay us considerably more once revenues allow, please do not commit. We intend to be your true partners, in sickness and in health...so long as you own your business.
- Automatic Payments. Everything is on automatic payments. If you struggle with managing cash flow, figure that out in your business first. We accept all major credit cards and ACH payments.
- We Cause Problems. If you don’t have a capacity issue now, I promise you will in about 9 months. Let’s deal with recruitment out of the gate as part of your comprehensive marketing strategy.
- We Own the Copyrights. All writing and/or marketing materials we create for you are not works-for-hire. We irrevocably grant you, and your successors in interest, the non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-transferable, and worldwide right to use the Works in connection with the marketing of your business pursuant to the Marketing Strategy for so long as your business is operational.
- Brand Building. We will be steering you to limit the use of discounts, rebates, coupons, and sales to attract clients. We know this feels counterintuitive to many, and we will clarify our reasoning. Rest assured, we have considerable experience in creating similar offers that are not damaging to your profitability, your brand’s integrity, and your preferable long-term client relations.
- Creative Authority. We must have creative authority over the words. You can accept copy as written or reject it outright, but you cannot modify the words yourself. If you do not like something as written, we are happy to discuss it and make the necessary change to maintain the integrity and intention of the words chosen. Alternatively, we will scrap the concept and create new copy that you are happy to get behind 100%.
- Proprietary Algorithm. The media buy must be structured in a very specific way, including running a full 52-week schedule. It is based on brain chemistry, not P&Ls. Once we have committed to the buy, it’s important to avoid adjustments unless they are calculated additions.
- Knucklehead Factor. You should expect knuckleheads. For example, when you start running ads that are certain to get attention, you need the courage to continue running those ads, even when you receive complaints. We celebrate complaints. It means we’ve made people feel.
- Digital Weasels. In about three months from the time your advertising campaign hits the airways, your digital marketers will show you a marked increase in direct and organic traffic. Some Digital Marketers will mistakenly claim this success as their own. Done properly, you can continue to spend less and less on digital lead generation by increasing your branded keyword online presence.
- Annual Marketing Meetings. Travel permitting, we prefer to hold Annual Marketing Meetings (AMMs) outside your city. Years of experience have taught us that we get better results when decision-makers are outside their sphere of influence, away from the day-to-day distractions of the office.
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