5 Reasons Why Concrete Contractors Struggle With Marketing Online

Audio Transcript

Hey there, concrete contractors, Welcome aboard to another episode of your concrete success podcast, where today’s conversation is going to be about five reasons why your concrete business marketing isn’t getting the results that you want. Like there are reasons actual reasons why you might not be getting the results from your concrete business marketing. Look if you’re a flat work or decorative concrete contractor, this conversation certainly applies to you. This applies to you, whether you are an established concrete contractor or you’re just getting started or you’re somewhere in the middle and you’re just figured out figuring out how to generate more leads.

And you’ve trying a lot, you’re tried a lot of things in the past. You are tired of hiring marketing people, whether that people in your family or you’ve hired agencies, professionals, quote unquote professionals that know how to do S. E. O. Web design companies, reputable facebook ads person. Uh and uh all of the sudden you get you start getting leads, but you know, it just isn’t working. you’re, you don’t know why things are just not working the way that they were promised to you. And if you don’t know who I am, my name is Danny Barrera, founder of concrete marketing Crew.

And what we do is we help flat work and decorative concrete contractors get found online, get known in their marketplace and double their lead so they can generate more of the type of projects that they love to work on. So anyways, if you have any questions, you can go ahead and visit concrete marketing crew dot com today and learn more information, make sure that you download our free checklist. Like all you gotta do is go to concrete marketing crew dot com, get our free checklist. And it’s actually a checklist.

Guys, like you can actually print this out, this is what it looks like printed out. If you’re watching this on Youtube, this is what it would look like, but it’s actually uh covers pretty much every phase of what you should be looking into. So this conversation goes right hand in hand with this specific, this specific problem, which is five reasons why your concrete business marketing Isn’t getting the results that you want. So that is the problem is you’re not getting the results that you want. So what is the result as a business owner look from one business owner to another.

I can tell you the results you want, if you want more revenue, that’s one result that you might be looking for. You want to make more money plain and simple. Let’s just be straight up here. # two is impact. You might not be having the impact in the market place that you want because in some cases you are getting found online, but you know, you are getting certain form fill outs and you’re calling those leads back and you’re getting back in touch with the leads, but they’re not picking up the phone, for example, how you ever run a facebook ad and gotten a whole bunch of leads, but no one seems to actually answered the phone or reply back to you when you reply back to their message and they’re asking for a quote, Hey, how much would you charge for?

Two car garage or what, what would it be for and patio extension or let’s say you want a new, uh, they want a new pool deck. Hey, how much would it be to get a new pool deck or resurface pool deck or driveway? Whatever the case is, it’s, it’s all the same the same situation in scenario there like you are, you are actually quote unquote getting results, but it just isn’t working because it’s not converting into real revenue. So again, you know, you’re not converting leads, you’re not making any more money and then you’re not having an impact.

And one of the other problems that I see a lot is you have a lot of competition. So a lot of new competitors coming into town. Um, and then you have prospective clients, nickel and diamond you because they have so many other bids around and you just don’t know what else to do. So again, you’re marketing, your marketing should set up the cell cells process for you, your, your marketing efforts online, should set up the self process that it should be really a very easy process for someone to respect you as a concrete contractor, as a decorative concrete contractor and know you’re competent and capable of doing and they are not going to waste your time, right?

Wouldn’t that be a dream country? So, I mean, that’s the possible that’s the possibility right there. If you have it all together guys, someone thinks that that that need to happen in order for for for you guys to get to that point is really looking at every area of your business online and see how you can really tackle one by one and start getting that together. But the possibility is you, number one is you get a positive R. O. I from your advertising, so you’re investing money in advertising, you’re paying an advertising agency, maybe you’re paying an S. E. O. To optimize your website and you’re getting traffic, but you’re not getting any elites.

So what’s the problem? There is no positive ri right. So there’s no positive return there. So the possibility if you get this right is number one, there is a positive R. O. I like you’re getting Elite and Elite are converting number two is you get exclusive and highly targeted leads that turn into high paying projects. Like wouldn’t that be a dream country? If you actually control that and you knew how to dial it up, dial it down. So one of the things that we do here are concrete marketing group is we partner up with flat work and decorative concrete contractors that are established and they want to know how to figure this thing out online.

They want to know how to grab the bull by the horns and how to position themselves as market leaders as high quality flat work or decorative concrete contractors. So they can generate more leads and they can win those leads into actual paint projects. So let’s go ahead and talk about the five reasons. And recent number one is, your website is not your cells machine, your website is not yourself stool, your website is not generating leads for you. That’s really recent. Number one, right? There is reason number one why your concrete business market isn’t getting the results you want is number one, your website is not selling for you.

It’s acting more of like a brochure. Now, I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve been to trade shows, you know, we we actually do the world of concrete. We do the concrete core, the northeastern decorative concrete expo. And I can tell you that we have actually brought in a lot of brochures and a lot of marketing material, a lot of things for a concrete contractors to take home with them. But you know, it’s just there, it’s just sitting on desk, it’s not generating the lead. And we also have other marketing efforts and advertising, advertising, um, efforts to generate leads.

But one thing is something being a brochure, as in information, uh, piece versus having the process be an experience for the customer. And what does that experience intel? Well, well, number one is, it should set you apart from every competitor. Your website should convey that you are very different than every other competitor out there. It should showcase why you’re different than the competitors and not just focus on you as a concrete contractor, but focus in the problem that you are solving. So there are a ton of problems.

So if you are in a very, very saturated area, that’s actually a very good problem to have because you can actually pick one thing that you want to stand for in the marketplace and set yourself apart from the rest right. If you know that there is a problem in your service area and you know, you know that the majority of of your competitors are actually struggling that one area and you have the solution. Well, there you go, showcase that in your website. So your website should not just be selling for you, but it should be generating cells opportunities for you.

So that’s one of the main reasons why why your website, it’s just not helping you out. It’s probably just sitting as an online brochure in that, doing anything as far as generating leads. So, if you’re thinking about your market networks, well, guess what? You’re putting yourself out there, you’re sending out flyers, you’re doing the postcards, every door, direct mail, you’re doing the trade shows and you’re handing out your, your, your marketing material. But people are coming back to your website and I can tell you just for prospective purposes, I want to tell you if I send 100 clicks to a an average website, the conversion on an average website is 2 to 3% Out of the gate, 2-3% out of the gate.

So 100 clicks. That means you get 2-3 leads for those specific unique visitors. On an average website. An average website is a website that’s assigned by a web design shop that looks beautiful but doesn’t have conversion mechanisms in. There is not high response, etcetera. So, uh, that’s one of the issues now, uh, website that is target and it is built to convert clicks into customers can convert at 10% 15%. We’ve seen it upwards of 30% in some cases and you do the math. They’re getting to leeds versus getting 10 leads from the same amount of traffic.

That can change your world. Getting 15 leads instead of two leads can change your financial world significantly. Getting 30 leads instead of two leads, can change your business and your financial ri an outcome significantly. So make sure that you look at your website and if you’re not sure what to do, go to concrete marketing crew dot com and go ahead and download our free online marketing checklist for decorative concrete contractors. And yes, I am saying this not just because we put it together for you guys, but because it actually covers everything that you need to go through uh, in order to build a complete marketing plan.

And then if you’re ready to get some help and you want someone to examine, its a professional company that does this for a living, go ahead and schedule yourself into our calendar. We take a couple of days, every single week, couple of strategy sessions. There is no charge. Uh, there’s actually a lot of value that comes with it. So go ahead and schedule yourself if you’re interested. So Problem # two is poor lead follow up. So this one, we’re going to hold you accountable here. So what if you’re getting leads, what if you’re getting inundated with leads to the point that you actually are overbooked?

That’s a very good problem to have that. That is a very good problem to have. And we’re in 2021 right now, June 22 and I can tell you that poor lead follow up is probably one of the biggest problems that a lot of contractors face. And what does that mean? And what does that entail? Well, here’s the thing. You should have a system, a mechanism That helps you. # one is weed out the good prospects From the bad prospects. That’s number one, you should be able to know who is a great prospect versus are not so great prospect.

And you should build some sort of criteria where your prospective clients come to you and automatically they are directed through a process of whether that is through your website and filling out a survey, a quick survey or form or sending them an automatic response via text message when they call you and saying, hey, thank you for calling us this moment. We cannot take your phone call. We’re going to send you a quick text message with a couple of details in case you’re interested in getting a lead. Right?

So we’ve had that scenario also part getting a call center to answer the calls on your behalf is very affordable. Number one and number two makes you look professional and also getting people to respond to your, to your, to your to your messages That way, uh, you know, you can follow up later on. So again, number one is port number one is your website working against you by not being optimized to convert, generate leads or not selling for you. Number two is poor lead follow up and the lead follow up happens right instantly.

If someone comes to your website, they submit their information, No one ever calls them back or you know, you just look at the form submission and you can see that that project is probably not worth a lot of money to you. So you never call them back, makes you look bad, etcetera. So one of the things you can do is have a system in place on your website. We have a lot of recommendations from some of them which we create for you, others, which are other vendors for for this type of systems.

And what they do is they help you weed out the good prospects versus the bad prospects. And it also helps create an estimate for how much a project can be worth without you ever doing anything on your part. Like that’s just leads coming already to the website. So again, if you’re getting inundated with leads, you should certainly have that in place right now. And that’s what that’s going to help you do is whenever you get into the slow season and you go ahead and go into the slow season, you can open up for promotions and you can send an email blast to your entire database and go ahead and book some of those jobs that just didn’t come through because you were too busy during the hot season. Right?

So anyways, that is what you can do right now. To fix your follow up. Now, poor follow up for those that are not inundated means that you’re getting leads and you’re simply not following up because you’re actually working, you’re an operator, you’re actually operating the business, you have a lot of hats to wear your on on site, you’re given estimates, you might have a salesperson or two and you’re just not following up accordingly. So one of the things that you can do is have a C. R. M. That that follow follows up with the leads but helps you really look at the stage where that prospective client is that they just request to quote, did I provide an estimate to them?

They uh did anything ever happened with them? Um you know, did they ever get back to me uh after the estimates etcetera? So there is a sales process that is professional. So again, the poorly did follow up that can be partially automated and that can be optimized and adjusted very easily with systems and processes. And if you have questions on how to be able to implement this again, we have solutions That are just dedicated for concrete contractors. You can go ahead and visit concrete market include. com and get yourself into a complimentary concrete marketing strategy.

Call number three is poor reputation. Your reputation is either making you money or costing you money. So by not having any positive reputation, you are actually losing potential clients. Look even with referrals online like that. I know there’s a lot of concrete contractors and that kind of concrete contractors that you know brag about how much the reputation means and you know, well, my entire marketing depends on reputation and I get it guys and you should feel that way and you should completely 100% take pride in your work.

However, we are in 2021. Your prospective clients and your clients are constantly looking to uh to to see what’s out there based on reviews based on reputation. So if you don’t have anything in place, just make sure that you are constantly growing that one aspect of your business, which is growing your five star reviews. Uh and that is not just on google my business, but also on facebook, also on yelp, also in these different areas. Uh that that can help you just wherever your perspective clients are hanging out can help you gain that advantage over your competitors.

If you are in a saturated area, you are in an area that’s competitive. Your reputation should be on top on top of the list when it comes to your marketing plan. Right? Number four is no lead generation efforts. So that means your business marketing, it’s not generating and isn’t working for you because the advertising that you’ve done is just brand advertising. Let me tell you brand advertising versus lead generation advertising. Those are two different, completely two different animals. One is going to help you get known. The other one is going to help you generate leads.

Both of those are completely different. And I can tell you, uh, there’s a lot of concrete contractors that say, hey, I’ve tried facebook cats and it didn’t work well, it probably didn’t work because you either didn’t target the right individuals or you just wanted to get known and you never had a call to action. You never had a lead generation mechanism to actually get the phone number, the name, the address, get the project details. You didn’t have anything, it was not lead generation based, but it was more Brandon bass.

Um, going back into the, uh, the uh, the trade show trade show is partially brand. Uh, if you don’t have any regenerating assets in there or you don’t have any mechanism to generate elite via the trade show and you’re just letting people walk by and you don’t have any lead capture mechanism. I can tell you that you’re probably losing a lot of opportunities and for those of you guys that are giving away a gift card and raffles and all that stuff. That’s awesome. That’s good for you.

Those are you guys given out $250 referrals for anyone that, that they refer to you. I mean, that’s awesome. That’s amazing. That’s, you know, that’s a lead generation effort right there because you’re capturing names. So no generation efforts will cost you business again, no lead generation effort, you should be focused in generating leads, keeping the pipeline full and healthy and that will help you in the short term and long term guys. Uh, and number five is not having a concrete marketing plan, not having a plan to actually market yourself and your concrete business throughout the year.

And what I want to show you is go to our website here, concrete marketing crew. And if you’re watching this here on Youtube, uh, you know, you can go ahead and look at this right now, which you see here, that the step number one is our concrete marketing plan is a proven process, is a proven marketing plan that takes the entire year into consideration. It doesn’t just take one little piece, it’s not one little piece of the puzzle. It doesn’t leave you hanging in one area. No, it’s an entire marketing plan.

I can tell you you can go back and download our internet marketing checklist if you just go to concrete marketing crew and then it’s gonna ask you a couple of questions that pertain to each and every area. So number one is your website, your website is, your foundational element is the one piece is the hub where for concrete contractors, consumers are going to check out. They’re going to look at your work. They’re gonna look at either if you offer stained concrete or staining finishes, you know, they’re gonna look at all those colors galleries.

It can help you sell projects, you can help prospective clients navigate through your website and and when that’s the case, you end up winning because you don’t have to resell them. When you show up at the at the actual site, you know, you can actually talk to them at a different level and you can walk them through and use your website as a cell stool instead of just a brochure. So your website has a lot to do. Number two is your website is actually traffic generators or it should be, it should be attracting people to to itself with the proper optimization.

So what we do is step number two, is get you found on the google maps, which, which partially is optimization, partially is part of the website optimization as well and generate reviews for you as well for the google my business. So get you on the maps. It’s not just getting you on the maps, but it’s constantly helping you generate more positive reviews and answering those reviews as they come along. Now, once you have your group with my business optimized and you’re showing up for all these services in your service area.

Number three is right along. This is happening simultaneously. Like this is happening in real time, optimization is happening for all your services in all your service areas and this works. Guys like this absolutely works. Uh so sdo dominance is about getting found for all your services in all your service areas. And once you start getting traffic organically, you’re going to see that the type of clients that come to you when they submit a form, they’re gonna remember who, you know, where they found you, they’re gonna remember.

Oh yeah, I remember I submitted my information there, so making sure that you are getting found on google search is, is a big plus there. Uh and also for the right keywords. So number four, this is number four burning reality. It’s almost right in hand with number one there, which is having a concrete leads on the man program. That means lead generation advertising via facebook, via google search, via search media via Pinterest via youtube. And what happens at that point is uh Is having pay per click advertising running not just to get more clicks but to convert those clicks into actual clients for some areas, we’re generating leads as low as $20 in other areas, as low as $30.

For certain projects. In certain service areas, leads are going for $50. But I can tell you those Are the same leads that home advisor is selling to conquer contractors $400. So again look, your leads should be able to turn into profit projects but they should be exclusive to you. Nobody else. Right. As part of the concrete marketing plan here is a consistent growth in reviews uh, to your google my business, to your facebook profile and your Yelp profile and then not just that. Like what about your social media?

What about staying type of mind with those who visited your website and they connected with you on social media? What are you doing then? Well, we have our social media management program which brand you professionally, you provide the pictures, we do the rest. You don’t have to tell us what services you offer. You just send us the pictures and we know what to write. We know what prospective clients uh, like to share. We know all those things. So again, you don’t have to worry about none of that.

We handle it for you. But your marketing plan should also take care of that for you. Right? So, uh that being said, uh, the next step is you’re generating leads, You’re getting all this traffic. What’s happening to the lead? Well, there should be a conversion mechanism. We have what we call the contractors apex Crm, which is the crm, the lead management system that helps us helps our clients and helps us help our clients stay accountable with the lead and make sure that they manage the new opportunities as they come in.

It does the follow up the follow through, it helps you build great self system that’s automated. Again, partially automated and then partially alleviate a lot of the the the manual work that’s needed on the sales process and last but not least, is your concrete marketing plan. Your concrete marketing plan should produce results for you. The positive ri So again, that’s a possibility when you have the right type of marketing plan for your concrete business. And this applies to you if you’re a decorative concrete guy, if you’re epoxy flooring, concrete coatings contractor, if you’re just getting started or you have been in business for a long time and you’re trying to figure out what to do online.

Well I just show you right now what you can be doing. So I want to thank you for listening into today’s conversation. This has been Danny Barrera concrete marketing crew. If you want more information, go ahead and go to concrete marketing crew dot com and hit that contact page or schedule a call so that you can, you can book yourself into our calendars, we schedule a couple of calls per week and when you get yourselves into the calendar, when you’re gonna find out is you just got to select the time that best fits you.

You’re just gonna answer a couple of questions and once you’re booked into the calendar, you’re gonna get a reminder with all the details. So all you have to do is go to concrete marketing crude dot com right now and schedule call until next time, guys. This has been Danny Barrera, your Concrete Success podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. We’ll see you in the next one. Have a great rest of your day.