Overcoming the Groundhog Gaff with Justin Jacobs

Apr 25, 2018

In this week’s episode of the MegaMarketer Coachcast, host Scott Smith interviews Justin Jacobs.

Today's podcast explores service and how to partner with the weather rather than being dependent on whether it is currently hot or cold. They also dive into retention marketing and how to get your past customers eager to work with you again and again.

Main Questions Asked:

• Do you notice a time of year where the weather really matters?
• Do you notice any trends about the best time of year to market?
• What should you expect for a response rate?

Key Lessons Learned:

Partnering with the Weather

• The effect weather has on the industry varies across the country and depends heavily on the month and the area. You have to track the cycles for your business.
• You should be planning for when your calls naturally start dropping off, the smart contractor starts marketing before the calls stop, not after.
• You have to identify where the slowest point of your season is going to be and then market around that. Back up from that day by 21 days and that’s when you begin.
• Identify your target market, people you have serviced before, and market to them to get in front of them and on top of mind.
• 14 days out from your slowest time, push your marketing out towards your ‘like’ audience, people just like your target market. They are your second most likely to buy group.
• 7 days out, this is when you start to target geographic areas and aim for a broad market. Once you reach the slowest day of the season, that’s when you begin marketing to the world with media like radio and television.
• Have your service techs look out for opportunities when they go out on service calls. Focus on maintenance agreements and older equipment.
• When the weather's nice, it’s not that your customers are opposed to calling you. They just aren’t thinking about you at the time. That’s when you have to get your business in front of them and present your message that shows them it’s smart to call you now rather than later when they are in an emergency situation.
• Putting the right message in front of the right people at the right time generates results. Craft your message so that it speaks to what they care about that season.
• When things are slow, reach out to your past customers. People generally want “their guy”, remind them of that.

Retention Marketing

• Quality touches are different from a sales piece that goes out to everyone in the neighbourhood.
• Your existing customer base is your most valuable asset. Tend to your customers and let them know you appreciate them.
• You are recommended to have six or more quality touches per year.
• Quality touches shouldn’t be a pushy sales piece, offer value and something that will help build your relationship. Make your customer feel special by sending them something unique from your business and they will be more likely to work with you again.
• These pieces can be a thank you card, an email, a phone call, there are a lot of options.
• Send out educational material once a season to stay in contact with your base.
• Don’t buy email addresses, they are a waste of effort.
• A one off marketing piece will almost always perform poorly no matter how well designed or well written the copy. You have to integrate your marketing on multiple channels and platforms. Your direct mail piece is the most powerful, but it needs to be supported.

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Links to Resources Mentioned

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