Remember when we used to hate the yellow pages? We hated them because they bullied us, they extorted us, and a mistake on their part could wreck out entire year. Then the Internet came along, made them irrelevant, and gave us a lot of new things to hate.
We hate search engines with their ever changing, double secret rules for listing one company ahead of another. Figure out one of their double secret rules and break it and the search engine buries you when the figure it out. "Poof" — you don’t exist.
In today’s Internet review and referral laden environment, you must similarly take charge of your marketing.
We hate paid search, which is costing more and more, for less and less. Like the yellow pages, the results were pretty good when only a few contractors were participating. Now, everyone’s in the game and the price to play is getting bid up and up.
We hate the restaurant review sites that decide they can review all contractors. They practice a whole new level of extortion. Advertise with them and good reviews percolate to the top. Stop advertising and good reviews disappear, while the light gets shined on bad ones. It’s especially irritating if the bad review is a fake, written by a disgruntled former employee or a sleazy competitor. Unless you’ve got indisputable proof about the ownership of the fake reviewer’s anonymous email account, you’re merely making allegations. Allegations get ignored.
We hate what’s-her-name and her list. Consumers are charged to access it and believe they get unbiased results. What’s-her-name even goes on national television and lies like a presidential candidate, claiming businesses do not pay to be on her list. The reality is more than 70% of What’s-her-name’s revenue comes from businesses. Pay and get pushed to the top of the search results.
We really hate the referral sites. These sites lure contractors promising leads. They promise consumers multiple companies will bid on their work. The predictable outcome is a race to the bottom to see who can underbid the next guy. Few contractors manage to make money through these sites. Few consumers get to hire quality, reputable companies because they tend to avoid these sites. Only the referral site wins, skimming as much as 25% off the top of the work in one case.
Stop the Hate
The Internet has changed the way business operates. Good or bad, review sites are here to stay. Some consumers will use them, which may make it worth your while to suck it up and pay up. Some of your customers will use the review sites to blackmail you. Decide in advance how you want to handle these because you are unlikely to make a good decision when your emotions are running high.
Some of your customers will use the review sites to blackmail you. Decide in advance how you want to handle these because you are unlikely to make a good decision when your emotions are running high.
Referral sites can be useful if you are starting out or have some excess capacity, but you should never become dependent on them. Never allow your company to become dependent on another organization for leads. When you do, you are putting yourself in a position where you can be exploited and held hostage.
Find the Love
Back in the days when the yellow pages drove most new business calls, they would occasionally make a mistake. They would get a number wrong, leave a contractor out of the book altogether, whatever. When this happened it was devastating for the subject of the error. For the next 12 months, the contractor had to find another way to generate new business. For the contractors who responded to the challenge well, the yellow pages mistake became the best thing that ever happened to them. It forced them to become self-sufficient. It freed them from their yellow pages addiction.
In today’s Internet review and referral laden environment, you must similarly take charge of your marketing. This includes old fashioned direct mail, vehicles, outdoor, radio (including Internet radio), cable, broadcast, social media, networking, guerilla marketing, events, email marketing, SEO/SEM, public relations, trash and trinkets, and more. To run a truly independent, self-sufficient, contracting business today, you must learn to love marketing. Find the love.
He who knows the most influential people, wins.
