Small Business Marketing Secrets That Actually Work

Guy live show. It's a blue collar show mostly about my blue collar experience with blue collar people. We check BS at the door. I tell it like it is. So sit back, relax, and get ready because here it comes. And there we are guys. How do y'all like that new intro? I worked on that today. I want to work on something a little more professional. There's some guys out there there that are inspiring me to make this show look and sound like. I know what I'm doing. So that was my first effort. I hope y'all enjoyed. The young lady you see with us today is Nicole from ACIQ, but she's not here specifically to talk about ACIQ. We're going to be talking about marketing today. We're going to hear her advice about it and we're going to talk about my experience. Let me get comments up on the screen so people can We can start commenting. Well, first of all, to start the subject, I want to... mention or ask and let's talk about the significance or usefulness of a website because a lot of people think you got to have a website and maybe for a large company it's a good idea but you know my experience was not that it was very helpful. You got any words of wisdom about that? I absolutely do. A website is a necessity. Big, small, 10 trucks, one truck. I think a website is going to be a necessity with that, right? Right. One of the things that, and I've been, like I was just telling you, I've been doing this over 12 years. I've been in marketing for so long and I did a lot of consulting for small HVAC companies. That was my specialty. Thank It is better to have, for a smaller company, a small concise and clean website. It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to be expensive. It just needs to tell who you are, what you do and where you do it. you. That's it. Okay. Um, do you, do you recommend anything other than that? Like, um, links to social media or, um, selling products like filters and stuff like that on the site. Do you think that that's beneficial? Worth the effort? I would encourage you as a contractor, as a business owner, don't sell the products on your website. Say, hey, I can come install this. Hi, I can come install this, this filter for you. And I will text you and I'll remind you to do it every six months. And so that's going to lead into something that we taught that maybe we can talk about now or talk about later. But if you get involved in that, the most people trying to develop a website cannot do not. So. Yeah, it's not always the easiest thing with AI happening, right? And utilizing AI. That's always something that you can do. I don't recommend it. But if you are like really to the point where you're like, hey, I want a website. I want to create this. I want to do this myself. Utilize tools that are out there. Use AI. Use the things that the tools that you have, right? You wouldn't go to a service call. And just use your hands and not use your meters and your other tools that you have. Why are you trying to put an online presence online without using the tools that you can use? So work smarter, not harder. I did tell you I was going to be a little bit of a devil's advocate. Now, my experience with a website was that it was a waste of time. But I'm going to say I did this 15 years ago and I maintained it for like eight years. I learned. some coding. I built my own website. I kept it ranked at the top for like eight years. Anytime you Google anything about HVAC in my area, my site was at the top and it did me no good. Zero. How do you know? How do you know? I would ask customers, you know, where'd you hear about me? Um, I, at one time I had a tracking number, um, and it just did no good. The only time Y'all forgive the camera. The only time I ever even got any comments, there was a thing where people could leave comments and reviews and stuff. I mean, I did everything I could. That was like comments from friends and family checking out my website. And I'm like, not from customers. It didn't, even though I could see it ranking at the top, it did me no good, zero. So after like eight years of that, I just did away with it. What I started doing was on my Google business page, instead of a website, I have my YouTube channel because it does help me. When people click on my website, they go to my YouTube page and they can see my work and they can see the person that's going to come out to their house. And that has helped me. So looking at your website, you have to think about. What is the purpose of your website, right? So if you think about social media, you know, being like a billboard, it's the attention getter. It brings the people into you, makes them aware of you, and when they're not needing you, right? I always kind of joke with contractors, kind of joke, but it's, it's, uh, um, You know, if Joe Smith, if his heating and air, his furnace, let's say he's in Ohio like us, his furnace breaks, it's negative five degrees out. Is he going to get in his car and drive around and try to find a heating and air company? He's not. Is he going to go to YouTube and start researching HVAC contractors near him? He's not. He's not. He's going to go to Google. Or Yahoo or Bing, right? And they're going to look to see who's closest to them. Here's the kind of cool thing about this is if you've created a social media presence that engages people, like you're showing pictures and videos of your installs, the before and afters, that gets their attention. They're looking. They do that Google search. They're like, oh, I've seen that name on Facebook before. They're going to click on your link. Go to your website, and if your website can be very, again, clear and concise, it tells who you are, what you do, and where you do it. It gives, you know, putting images of your before and afters, putting your installs, pictures of you and your team, if you have a team, of your trucks. Make it as human as possible. That's the closer, because if a consumer can trust... That you're going to do a good job, then that's going to be all the things that you need to do. Google business profile is number one, though. Um, Google business profile is very important. I'll admit, as far as social media for my business, that was the first thing I started to work on. Just post pictures of the people in my office, my trucks, some of my jobs. I'm I'll be honest, for a long time I just ignored any kind starting of development of marketing of any kind because the truth is I didn't need to. I had no reason to search for new customers. In fact, to speak I still turn down customers if they're too far out of town or if it's now. Like a five or six person job, a commercial, a new build on a... A restaurant is coming or something like that. I do. I pass it on. I turn down the work because I want to work by myself. And so I haven't invested basically anything into marketing. And but I am learning like I've done my own little Google searches on the way people search for like blue collar services, electrician, plumbers and stuff like that. Yeah. The number one. It is right up there with number two. They're very close together. It's Google and YouTube. And then next is Facebook. When I say Google and YouTube, I also mean Google places because that is becoming one of the number one places for people to search for services. You got to make sure you're on there. And when they click on your business, you want photos, you want videos, you want your website and all that stuff to be there. And for me, my website, like I said, is my YouTube page. Yeah. And I get reports from Google that tell me how many people call me. And it's effective. It works. You need to develop that Google business page and keep it up to date. And it makes a difference. And I'm just now learning. That the Facebook is effective also. I have a Facebook business page that basically I ignored for probably like the last 10 years. Just completely ignored it because I wasn't looking for new customers. Yeah. But I'm getting the idea in my head that maybe you don't have to have new customers. That's Riley. Hey, come here. Maybe you don't even have... New customers, but you might want to... Right. A better clientele list. Does that make any sense? It does. It does. So many contractors get focused on wanting to service or install to everybody. And they want all the jobs. And they're so busy and they stay crazy. Thank And if that works for you, great. One of the things that I've always told the contractors and the dealers that I've worked with is, are you doing the jobs? that make you the most profit and are the jobs that you like to do. Because at the end of the day, if you don't like your job, what are you doing? you. Right. If you, if you don't like it, then do something different. But yeah, finding those ideal customers is, is the first step in, in, in your marketing. Knowing who your customer is, what kind of jobs you want to be doing. And then figuring out how you're going to tell that story to that, that homeowner, the consumer. You're right. Now, let me ask you, since we touched on the topic. Okay. The puppy just wants to be on here. It's fine. Maybe I need to tell a story. We got crab legs tonight, and he smells them in anything that they have touched. It's not... So he's going nuts. And here's another little story about Riley. Every time I go to the grocery store, I get him a toy. Okay. So when I come home, he doesn't jump in the van looking for the groceries and the food or the dog food. He's looking for his toy. Looking for the toy, yes. He does. My puppy. He gets excited when I go to the grocery store because he knows I'm coming home with a toy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mine does that too. Let me see if he's about to appear. He's right here. It's hard for me to move the camera because it is part of my computer. Um... We touched on the subject of Facebook marketing. Yeah. I haven't done any, but I'm starting to post stuff on my business Facebook page, some of my videos, and I made a commercial for Facebook, basically just saying, hey, this is who I am. I've been in this area, and if you want to check out my work, look at my YouTube channel. But because I have not over these years been... Doing anything with Facebook, I need to promote it. And one of the things I have seen that I like, I haven't done any yet, but if you wish to promote on Facebook, you can target demographics. And that I kind of like. Yeah, definitely. So when you're running Meta ads, So Meta is like Facebook, Instagram, or you can do just Facebook, or you can do just Instagram. So you can target either way. Okay. Then you can get on there. There is over, there's over 90,000, I think was the last number that I saw, over 90,000 different ways that you can target somebody on a Facebook ad. It's insane. You can target, Curtis, you can target down to a street address. Zip code. You can target people based on a lot of different things, I guess is the best way to say. So, for example. Business owners, job titles, in your area. Yes. In your area, in specific neighborhoods. So, if there is a neighborhood around you that is, let's say they have been built like 15 years ago. And you want to show your ad to anybody who owns a home. In your area that has been built between eight and 15 years ago, you can target those people. That's pretty nice. Now, at one time, I did contact a company to help me leverage because my YouTube channel is not connected to my business except for it is my website on my business page. So, I've contacted a company to possibly help me leverage what I have in YouTube. To help me over in Facebook marketing or something like that. And they were telling me some of the same things. I mean, you can target who you want. Yeah, you absolutely can. So there are different types of targeting when you're looking at social media and any really any ad targeting. There's behavioral. Behavioral. indicators and there's contextual indicators right the behavioral is they have looked at your website right so if you have a website you have the pixel from Facebook on your website which if you have a website you have a Facebook put the pixel on there It's free, it's easy, just do it, believe me, it works. But it allows you to track in analytics when people are coming from Facebook to your website and what they're doing on your website, what's happening, what does their journey look like after they get to your website. And then just different behaviors, like they they like to go boating or they live in a home that is built within a certain amount of time. And then you've got those contextual things that are that that are things that they they belong to. They they follow. They do. Right. And so utilizing those two different things. For example, I had an HVAC, one of my contractors that I worked with a few years ago up in Northeast Ohio. I was running some Facebook ads for them. I was able to target homes that had been built. And if you haven't noticed, this is like, I really like homes that have been built between 8 and 15 years ago. So, um, That says something. The average life span of an air conditioner is 10 to 15 years old. So we want to get them. We want to get in front of their eyes. Two to three years before, they're probably going to have a problem, right? Always want to be two to three years ahead of the curve. Um, I targeted those homes that were built in a certain time, in a certain neighborhood, and let those ads run for about three weeks. Do you still do this? Yeah. Well, no. So I do this for ACIQ. This is some of the stuff that I do for ACIQ, not for contractors. However... I guess maybe that's a point that I was going to bring up a little bit later is that if you are like, oh, look, HVAC is chiming in here. I know who that is, too. But if you're to that point where, you know, you want to partner with an HVAC distributor or wherever you're going to buy your parts and supplies from, right, make sure that they're going to help you do all of those things. If they have a partner that they work with, they have a preferred marketing vendor. If they have somebody in-house that can give you some guidance. Okay, very few do. That's really important. Very few actually do that. In fact, the people that I've been using for 15 years, the only thing that they might do is co-op with maybe wrapping your vehicle if you'll put their logo on your vehicle or something like that. That's about it. That's all they'll do. Yeah, yeah. When I came to ACIQ, and here's just a little plug for them, right? When I came to ACIQ, I was told, hey, Nicole, we want you to develop this whole program. Let's focus on our dealers. And my mindset with this is I have done consulting to small HVAC businesses for so many years. That I can say, hey, all right, let's do this. And so when you work with us, it's not just buy from us, buy all of our parts, buy all of our equipment, right? Get the top discharge, the best thing ever, you know, the side discharge. Oh my, I said top discharge. My goodness. I think some people are going to be upset with me. I meant side discharge, friends. Um... But, you know, you don't just get a salesperson who wants you to buy equipment. Right. You you get me. I'm part of the team. You can if you want my number, you can have my number. I'll give you my number. I have some of our dealers that call us that call me two or three times a week saying, hey, I think we want to do this. And I'm like, I don't think I would do Google AdWords yet. I don't think you're ready for that. I don't I don't think you're ready for that. Maybe you should start on Facebook. Dip your toes into Facebook and then, you know, make sure you have the right partners. It's really hard. Because that's where I came from, it's really hard to say that there are a lot of good marketing agencies out there or companies that provide marketing services. It's really hard for me to say that because I know them. I know a lot of them. But there are a couple out there that I would put my name behind. I noticed one thing that you are not mentioning, and neither have I, and that's television. Yeah. Nobody's mentioning television. Is there a reason? I just haven't gotten to that in my notes yet. It depends. Um. If you're going to do television ads, again, it goes back to who is your ideal customer. If your ideal customer is that 35 to 50-year-old husband and wife or man or woman, whatever, don't do linear TV ads. These are people that are watching the news every single night. Um, you know, You know, if those are the type of people you're trying to reach, then go for it, right? If you really want to utilize the best way of doing television ads, it's going to be streaming TV. See TV. It's good. It's good. I'll be honest. I did television ads for about six months. And that is basically like having somebody on payroll who is not producing anything. Anything, yes. Okay, so you're paying, okay, six months, $30,000. Easily. So you need to have a return on that quickly or it's not worth it. Yeah. The only television ad that I ever did that had an effect. Was when I offered a $49 tune-up and it got the phone to ring. How many jobs did you get? I don't even know. And we're talking about 10 years ago. Okay. But I could tell every time that commercial ran because my phone would start ringing. I'd be at the restaurant and my phone would start ringing. And I was like, this is before the 6 o'clock news. It was normally running. The prime news is 6 o'clock, local news. So it would run before that because the 6 o'clock news is even more expensive. And I could tell when it would run. So, I mean, nobody wants to go out for $49. I'm just saying. Right. And I'll touch on that again in just a second. But that made the phone ring. It did. And we got some change outs for it. A lot of people, for example, they know they have a problem, but they will call for a tune up because they think they're going to pay less in labor. Yeah. Yeah. That happens a lot. I mean, you think you're going out there to do a tune up and you like within 10 minutes, you're like. Hey, I need to charge you for a service call because you don't need a tune-up. I mean, the conditioner is not even running, buddy. You need some help. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. You know, I think I need to take a step back and say, you know, when you're thinking about your marketing, whoever is listening, right? You need to tell the story of why a consumer should pick you. You need to do that. Where the consumer is going to, where they're going to be, you need to tell them who you are, what you do, and where you do it. Why should they trust you? And if you can get really good at doing that, whether it's on your website, social media, whether it's on TV, your phone is going to ring. People are going to be asking for you. People are going to be referring you. Thank you. So just always keep that in mind. You be ready to tell your story where people are, not where you want to tell the story because where you want to tell it doesn't matter. Cool things about streaming TV. So if you do like a streaming TV, the cost is like a fifth of the cost for linear TV. Um, you can target different, you could, there's probably 150, 200,000 different ways to target people there. Um, but you can target people. If you know your customers, watch the hunting channel or the outdoors channel, you can target those channels. You can like, you can target those types of shows. Well, that wouldn't be bad in my area. This is a very rural area. Don't ask me to say that rapidly or too fast. But it's basically an agricultural town. So everybody around here likes to hunt and fish. And that's not a bad idea to tell you the truth. Yeah. I'm going to mention one thing because I want to warn people not to do. And that is to pay for leads. I did that. I did that for, I don't know, two weeks. Yeah. Paying for leads and they will send, sometimes it depends on the company. They are real leads, but they're sending that same lead to a dozen different people. Yeah. And sometimes they're completely fake. It's just somebody in your area and you're cold calling them. Say, hey, I'm calling about air conditioning. Can I come over? And they're like, who are you? Do not pay for leads. It is a waste of money. Um, and And there are several kinds of like, I hate to call out some of these big box companies. For example, there are two of them who have approached me to be their AC guy and installer. You know, the places where we go to buy our tools and stuff and home improvement. I don't want to call them out by name because I don't want to get on their bad side. Sure. But, um... They offer, basically, they sell to their customers a $49 tune-up, and they're going to take 11% to 12% off the top of that, and if you get out there and find a repair, you don't get all of that repair. They're going to take 11% to 12% off the top of that, too, and if you do an install or something, I just told them they were crazy. But actually, the blue one approached me first, and I thought it was a half joke. I was like, really? People actually do this? Yeah, they do. And then the orange company approached me, and they had a representative come all the way up from Tallahassee, Florida. They were so excited to talk to me, and they told me all the details. And literally, this is what I said to them. Give me one reference of a contractor that you're happy with and who is happy with you, and they could not do it. They couldn't do it. So I was like, okay. Because, you know, sometimes I'll give you an example like home warranties. There's kind of a trick to it where you can make your money, but you're kind of stepping all over the customer when you do it. So I was like, well, maybe there's a trick to it with these big box companies that there's a way to make your money, but no. Yeah, yeah. You know, there are some very much like those big box stores that are saying, hey, we want you to do all of this work for us. And, you know, because because they're trusted. Been around for a long time. So if they're so trustworthy, we should just, like, trust them. Thank And consumers go to them to ask them for those pieces of assistance. That helps, right? There are some online lead sources, and I have to be careful also. So, you know. You know, but like you said, that they get on the back end and they send, you know. you. Sally Joe calls and says, Hey, I, my air conditioner broke and I need somebody to give me a quote on this. And then she's got 10 contractors blowing her up and they're all paying $150 for the chance to get her phone number to call her. Right. Here's the thing. The first person who calls her gets the job. pretty much sometimes sometimes the second so if you don't have your phone in your hand 24 7 you're not getting that lead and then this company has just made 500 600 a grand off of Sally Joe just her air conditioner doesn't blow as cold as it used to you know it's a complete waste do not do it i can't understand where a customer you basically just do this for ACIQ now is that correct I do just do this for ACIQ right now. I'm addressing the question on the screen. Do you have classes or something like that? So call me. Email me at ACIQ and be like, hey, Nicole, help me out a little bit here, and I will do that. I have a little. My boss is probably going to be like, no, you won't. I'll... I'll give you a little bit of time, and we can talk about it, about how you can make it work. The places that I've learned, I'm really self-taught on all of it. Thank HubSpot is a really good free resource. Um, that you can go online and you can do, uh, if you just Google, uh, HubSpot certifications you or HubSpot social media certifications, you can go on their website. It is 100% free. so They will teach you how to do all of it. Like it's, it's really easy to get there. much. I want to address this question real quick. When I started my business, what couple of things did I do first? All right. When I started my business, it was either get another job or start a business. I had no customer list. I had no database. I had no advertisements out there. I wasn't in for the older folks out there. I wasn't in the yellow pages. Funny story about that, Curtis, three years ago, I was selling phone book advertising. Were you working for YP? No, no, no. I was working for the Berry Company who invented the phone book. Well, here's a kind of not so funny story about the Yellow Pages. I just recently stopped paying them. And as you know, with the Yellow Pages, you have to pay in advance to be in the book. And I was like, you know, nobody uses it anymore. It's all either Google, YouTube or something. So I just quit paying. Sure. And get this. They want to sue me for not paying them for the service in advance. I'm like, y'all are crazy. Y'all are crazy. I'm not going to pay you for something I don't want. Yeah. So listen, I'm going to play the devil's advocate here. And I'm going to tell you that depending on where you're located, phone book advertising can be really good for your business. It depends on where you're located, though. Well, one of the reasons I'm interested in the Facebook thing is because my generation. Generation X, basically, is all over Facebook. Yeah, they are. The young crowd may not be. They may be more on Instagram or TikTok or something like that. But my generation is all over Facebook, and they are more likely to be homeowners than somebody who's in their 20s or 30s. So that is my thinking when I'm thinking about Facebook ads. You're thinking right. You're hitting it right on the head. I'm not trying to be critical of anybody. That's just the reality of it. Yeah. So let me see. Basically, I'm not doing TV. I have no idea. Well, maybe we'll do streaming. What I did was my local TV station. Yeah. Streaming at that time was, I guess, streaming wasn't what it is now. We were talking about 2016 when I was doing that. Things have changed. I do see local ads. I'm streaming a lot of what I watch and I do see local ads on what I'm streaming. So I do know you can target people. Somebody's targeting me. Yeah, they are. So let me ask you a question because I already know the answer to this. Let me ask you this. So those ads that you see on streaming TV, do you also see those ads on Facebook and other places, other websites that you go to? Hmm. Well, first of all, I barely use Facebook. I almost never use my personal page on Facebook. I'm trying to get back into it just because of what we're talking about. Sure. So, no, I do not see those ads. There's a there's a pot. I don't see them on YouTube because I'm a subscribed member of YouTube and I don't see ads. Sure. So streaming TV and YouTube, that's. Top two sources of media right there. Okay. I'm trying to think what else. I do use Instagram. Instagram, um... I basically just post on TikTok. I'm trying to build an audience there. I learned just a little while ago, I stayed away from it because it was Chinese and I thought they were fixing to just do away with it. Don't even put in the effort. Right. I see that's not going to happen. And I started doing Instagram, not to make any money, but to gain influence with the companies that I was possibly going to pursue as sponsors. That's why I started Instagram. You are doing so many things right. So many things. and so thoughtful behind what you're doing them for. What I really like is you're not just trying to do all the things and do them poorly. It's very intentional. So keep doing that. Keep going the route that you're going with that. Maybe that's something else I'll tell everybody else is just whatever you, wherever your ideal customer is, go to that platform and tell your story there and be intentional and consistent in what you do. And you're going to be successful. You absolutely will be successful. I will tell you, part of what you were... Telling us to do on like a digital platform is what I did when I started my business, except in person, handing out business cards, shaking hands, most specifically with the property managers in town. I got to know them personally. I got on a first name basis with them. And I was basically saying, look, I've been doing this for so many years. I'm really good at what I do. If you'll give me the chance to earn your business, I promise you, even if I make a mistake, I'll make it right and I'll do a good job. And that's what got me started is it's a different kind of marketing. You're basically selling yourself to your customer one-on-one in person. And that's because I had nothing. I had no database, no advertisements, very little money. And that's how I got started. Yeah. So again, you told your story in the place that your ideal customer was. You went to them face to face. If your ideal customer is somebody who likes to get mail, send postcards. Postcards work, right? Direct mail works. If your ideal customer wants to get the story that way. Your ideal customer wants to see phone book ads or linear TV ads or Facebook ads or streaming TV. I think so many people in marketing say, oh, well, hey, here's the best way to do it. You should do this. Just be where your customers are. Right. And if you need help doing some of those things, then you get help trying to get them where your customers are. So, yeah. My problem is I don't have the experience you have of actually doing that on a digital platform. Sure. I don't. In fact, I've had more success. In the beginning, I was trying to get everybody in and grow my business as big as I could, which was not a great idea. Yeah. I would even go into businesses like restaurants or something, or I would see new construction sites and find the contractor. It's like the general contractor and that's what is business. That was kind of how I got started. Just one-on-one, person-to-person, making that connection. And like you said, if you can do that on a digital platform, that's great. That is taking that story and mass-producing it. Yeah, it really is. It really is. So Frisbee was asking about Facebook campaigns. How long should you have a Facebook campaign going? That, that all depends. And then the conversion rate, right? I'll get into the conversion rate next, but the length of a campaign depends on what are you trying to accomplish, right? It's like me asking you, okay, so if my air conditioner at my home breaks, like if, if it's 80 degrees in my house, that's atrocious. It's disgusting. I don't like it. Um, I. Would have no idea what to check. I turn it off and then I turn it back on. And if that doesn't work, then I'm calling somebody because I don't know how to fix it. So that's like me asking you, hey, how can I fix this? You don't know the answer because you don't know all the details behind it, right? Mm-hmm. So if you are trying to do like an awareness campaign, get your name out in front of as many people as possible. You want to, you can do that for months on end. You can do it as long as you want. I recommend changing out your creative every 30 days. So whatever the picture. The actual social media you're posting. Yeah, the social media ad that you run on Facebook, you have to have a creative or an image, right? And then you have to have body and a headline. Change that out every 30 days. Every. Four to five weeks, you're going to want to be changing that. The reason is, is once people see it five or six times, then they just start to glaze over because they've already seen it. They already know what the message is and they don't care. Change it up. Draw eyes to you as much as you can. And then for a conversion rate, typically within the HVAC industry, like. Two and a half to three and a half percent conversion is good. Anything over like five to nine, that's great. Anything over nine, spectacular. I mean, by actually getting phone calls, you're calling at a conversion rate. Um, so it can be a phone call. It can be a message, whatever you determine the conversion to be. It can be, Hey, um, so for ACIQ, what I do, what I consider a conversion is somebody fills out a form to become a dealer. That is a conversion for me. They went from just being somebody who is looking kind of interested. They filled out a form and gave me permission to reach With email marketing, with phone calls, with social media ads. I do a lot more things in a lot, a lot more places and I can tell you all about it. It would be a little scary, but you know, if you knew, if you knew the amount of information, the amount of information that somebody in marketing can get just from what websites you browse, what social media you follow, um, where you take your mobile phone, right? If you shop at a specific... Often, um... At ACIQ, we target contractors walking in supply houses in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky. We're tracking it. We're tracking it because we want to know who's walking in those stores to buy equipment because I want to serve them ads. Yeah, that almost sounds a little bit scary. Like you're making me want to move the Home Depot app from my phone because I think y'all know when I walk in. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, that's kind of what I tell my wife. Let's go for a romantic walk to Home Depot. Yeah, that's where we go. Yeah, absolutely. And what's crazy is it is completely possible to target consumers, whether they're business or just, you know, regular consumers based on what aisles they visit in Home Depot. All right, you have a direct question in the comments. Yes, Miss Penny at ACIQ, I'm still going to stick with Google is the most common place people search for and find a local contractor near them. I will mention something that is in the news. Up until recently... YouTube has become the number one search platform on the internet and it has been listed for years as the number one social media platform on the internet. But with recent lawsuits that have gone through in California, YouTube has just come out and said, y'all misunderstand us. We're not social media, but they are, but they are, but they are becoming one of the biggest search destinations for people to search for how to do something or looking for contractors or people and it's not just YouTube they might start on Google and Google leads them to YouTube yeah yeah it does yeah it does have you ever have you seen recently like if you do a search so my car my car died a few weeks ago and I said holy cow what's happening And so I went to Google and I said, 2019 Hyundai Sonata will not start. How do I fix this? And it said, okay, well, check this fuse. If it's not this fuse, then get a new battery. If it's not a new battery, then you need a new starter. Check the fuse. Not the fuse. Replace the battery. Not the battery. My Geo Metro, yeah. It was on my battery, so I got my starter replaced. And when I did that search initially, it had an AI, an AI search component into it. So AI is saying, hey, I know you asked how to do this. Here's some really quick tips and tricks and things to look at. And here's a YouTube video that will show you how to look at all of those things. It's not a Geo Metro. It's a 1989 Chevrolet Chevette. I drive a Chevette. Oh my goodness. Uh, fun story. My first car was a 1990, 1989. Um, uh, oh my goodness. Mercury Cougar. They kind of looked like the Mustangs. I remember back then. Yeah. Yeah. The Cougar. That was, that was my first car and it was, it had two doors and I could fit seven people in that car. Come on. Um, I happen to own one, a copy of one of my first cars and it's a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle. I love my Vocho. I mean, that's what Mexicans call a Beetle. Um, and it was a very popular thing back in the day for people to try to figure out just how many people they could shove into one of those tiny little cars. Yeah. Yeah. I might have one night when I first got my license, shoved a few people in my car and said, okay, I'm driving tonight. And all of us went in my Mercury Cougar to the movies. There were bad decisions. Bad decisions were made. It's fine. We're good. It's fine. Um, but you know, like people go and do this search and like you said, they might start on Google, right? But they're ending up on YouTube and they're now they're following you. They're following people on YouTube like Mikey or E or cooling with Krause, right? They're following you because you're authentic, you're genuine and they can learn from you. So... Yeah, it's doing really well. Let's see what Penny's saying. I think when people think about marketing their business, they don't do things because it's scary or expensive. What are some free and cheap things you can do on social media? I'll start off with saying developing your Google business page. 100%. Post pictures. If you have an install that looks good. Maybe get somebody to take a picture with you or with the customer beside the air conditioner and post it on your Google page. Clean up your van, make it look nice, stand next to it and take a picture, post it on your Google business page. Just little things like that show that you're active, you're in business, people can see you. Yeah, that's one thing. What else? Yeah. You know, take that. Your Google business profile is number one on my list of things that you absolutely have to do if you don't have it started now. Right. Be consistent in what you post on it. And then also, I'm going to I'll go back to what you said, Curtis, Facebook. Facebook is great, right? For finding those homeowners that are close to you. You know, you if you are in a smaller community, you know, you can you can put $25, $50 behind a Facebook ad and or a boosted post. And you're going to get a return on it, right? You don't have to spend $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 on Facebook ads. You can spend $25. You can spend $50, right? Right. Um, You can have yard signs. This is not online. Yard signs are great, great, great, great pieces. That's a great comment by Ryan. I love that. You know, whatever you do, whatever it is you do, be human, be trustworthy and be consistent with your marketing. You know, those pictures and everything. Ask for referrals. Always ask for referrals. And don't just say, don't just say, oh, hey, Mr. Customer, it was great to help you today. Let me know if I can ever help you out And don't do that. Like it's polite. It's kind. It's cool. It's adorable. But we don't want to do that. Right. So you want to say, hey, Mr. Customer, it was a privilege to service your equipment. If any of your neighbors or when your neighbors have heating and air problems, I would appreciate you giving them this business card. You know, I have had some customers just tell me they are thrilled. I'm thrilled. With the service. I mean, they're overjoyed and they're letting me know. And one thing I will tell them, if you really want to help me out, go to Google Places and leave me a good review. That really helps. And sometimes they do. Yeah, sometimes they do. And so that is one thing, easy thing they can do. It doesn't cost them anything. It's kind of personal. And sometimes it'll be fantastic reviews if you ask for it. Yeah, you have to, you have to ask, even if you have a business card with a QR card or a QR code on it and be like, if you love your service so much, I would really appreciate a review. Here's the QR code. You just take a picture with your phone and it'll take you right there. You just write it out. Do you have a minute? Could you do that for me, please? It will help me out so much. Most humans want to help. They want to be helpful. They want to do things. So, um, you know, and I'm going to kind of piggyback off that. If you do something like that, where you say, Hey, if you leave me a Google review, you'll be entered into my free filter drawing. I do. I give away one free filter furnace filter a month. If you leave me a review, I'll put you in the drawing. It works. Yeah, it works. It works. And then if, if they leave that review for you. And you have their information. You know when their filter was changed last, probably. If you just installed a new system, you know in six months, you should probably be calling them. You'd be like, hey, friend, you want a free filter, right? Like, oh my goodness, congratulations. So, yeah. So, um... Oh. Yes, I do respond. I get notifications in my email from Google when somebody leaves me a review. And I try to the same day, at least say thank you or something. Now, I want you to, we're getting close to the end. So I want you to tie this together. It sounds like contractors that sign up with ACIQ would have the benefit of somebody like you on their team if they're a contract with ACIQ. Yeah, yeah, so, and I just have to give a quick shout out to Ryan at A2L, he can attest that we are available to help people out, so, with ACIQ, yes, that's Ryan at A2L, he's, like, We, we like Ryan. Um, so when you're a dealer, when you become a dealer from with ACIQ, um, within minutes of you, you know, letting your sales rep know you want to be a dealer, you get an email from me that says, Hey, welcome to the team. We're excited to have you. Um, and then also, you know, throughout your whole process, if you ever have any questions, reach out to me, um, email me, call me, text me. I'm available. Um, You know, most, most days and most times. But yeah, there's, go ahead. If y'all are looking at this on YouTube, there is a link in the description if you want to be a dealer for ACIQ. And that's how you'll end up getting the email from Nicole. I'm just saying. Exactly. Just saying, you know, and everybody in our office, we can we all want to help you. And even the the owner of the company will tell you if you've paid attention to any of our videos lately. We want to make a little bit of money so that you can make a lot of money. And it goes from the top down. Thank So we have an entire team of marketers. If I can answer your question, I know who can. There are so many people at our company who can do that. And we partner with other businesses like a finance company. We've got some software companies that are coming you. on as partners that will help you. Market your business and help you make more money so you can be helpful to the homeowner or the consumers. Well, it sounds like it's a good idea I ran into y'all. I think it is. No kidding. For me, I have plenty of business. But if you watch my videos, you know that sometimes I go into slums. And there's nothing wrong with working in slums because those people pay me just as well. Well, most of the time. But if I can improve my clientele list and why not try? Yeah. Why not try? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, exactly. That's good. Well guys, I'm going to go ahead and wrap this up. It's been about an hour. Thank you, Nicole, for coming on and thank you everybody for coming out and listening. If you like these kinds of live shows, like subscribe. I am going to make a podcast out of this eventually. So you can find us on like Apple and good stuff like that. Thank you. Awesome. I'm going to say good night. Thank you, Nicole. And I'm probably going to be texting you because I don't remember getting that email. But I do want your help. It sounds like you really know what you're talking about. Thank you. I got you. Thank you to everybody for coming out tonight.