Has Your Business Model Evolved to Meet The Standards of the New Customer?
Blog Image
Uncategorized
Author: Jennifer Bagley, CEO & Founder of CI Web Group, INC. | June 14th, 2022

Has Your Business Model Evolved to Meet The Standards of the New Customer?

CI Web Group's CEO Jennifer Bagley has spent the last decade talking to audiences across North America with hundreds of thousands of attendees (people just like you).

She'll typically start with this: Think of yourself as a consumer: a mom, dad, husband, or wife. What do you do when you need something?

Every person in the room says the same thing—Google it!

She then goes on to ask a series of questions about the search results:

  • Do you click on the ads
  • How about the map results?
  • Do you click over to page twp past the first 10 results?
  • The answers to those three questions are always:

  • No, they skip over the ads.
  • They may or may not click on the map results.
  • And no, they don't move beyond page one. Some have even said they didn't know there was a page two of Google!
  • Knowing this as a business owner, what's the strategy for showing up organically on page 1 of Google? You need a team that is skilled at creating a well-built fast-loading website and a significant amount of content. A team with an expertise in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), conversion optimization, link building, and schematic markup.

    And you can't just set up your website and leave it be; you have to continuously add unique and optimized content.

    Here's the challenge: Heating and air conditioning companies don't technically have a physical store that consumers visit like a shopping mall or a gas station. The only store they have is online, and it's often neglected.

    In fact, in a survey of 10,000 dealers—conducted by CI Web Group, Goodman, and Amana—more than 50% had no digital presence whatsoever.

    Of these 10,000 dealers, 5,680 of them had no pages at all. The problem with that is Google reads by Braille. In order for Google to identify what is in your digital store, you need to provide a page of good content for all your products and services and a page of content dedicated to all the cities you want to sell within.

    That way, when someone searches for a keyword and a target location such as AC repair in [city name], your company is associated with it. For searches like this, you might have noticed that there are millions of results that pop up, depending on where you look.

    Imagine each page as a file in a drawer. Remember that scene in the movie Bruce Almighty where God is standing in the warehouse? He tells Bruce that everything he's ever said or thought or thought about doing is in a file cabinet and then points to it. Bruce asks if he can take a look inside. As soon as he opens the top drawer, it shoots him across the room because of the vast number of files inside.

    Well, that drawer represents each and every one of your Google searches. Every new search opens a new drawer with a different number of competing pages.

    That's why it's essential to have as many pages of your website optimized so you're found on page 1 of Google. Otherwise, your website won't reach your potential customers.

    Local service companies must take on a digital transformation—that means using digital technology, AI, robotics, and machine learning in an effort to improve customer experiences, to increase productivity and profitability.

    AI marketing and machine learning will be leveraged to create personalized recommendations based on the real-time needs of customers as well as allow your customers to make simpler, instant decisions, which leads to a better customer experience.

    Technology connects all stakeholders. It fuses silos, increases economy of scales, and increases visibility and KPI reporting while highlighting what’s going well and what’s not.

    Those that do not adapt their digital platforms will continue to exist and function in a scarcity mentality. Companies that successfully digitize their organization operate under an abundance mentality, where everyone in the company thrives.

    While the first year may not be fun or easy, those who commit to meeting customers where they are will get the lowest cost per acquisition of all marketing strategies and the best and most loyal consumers.

    Small businesses can absolutely afford to invest, as they don't have the resources to perform the functions themselves. It's time or money. Large companies cannot afford to not invest as the loss of efficiencies is massive.

    Still, there are a few things holding people back from investing in their digital store:

  • Not knowing this is important or how it works
  • Not knowing who to trust
  • Not making the commitment and sticking with it
  • The need for immediate results, causing these business owners to burn through their cash on temporary advertising, PPC, and traditional media
  • When you don't invest, you can't get enough leads to see a return and you will have to discount prices. Because of that scarcity mentality, dealers are not charging enough to sustain a growing business or pay their employees well, so they have retention issues, recruiting issues, and employee issues. They also feel like they can't market and they end up in a horrible spiral.

    A recent example of someone in this spiral comes from a dealer in Arkansas who is charging just $4,000 for an AC installation. When you consider that dealers were charging $6,000–$7,000 back in 1975 and that homeowners are willing to pay $15,000 or more for the same service today, consumers might even feel the $4,000 price tag is a little sketchy.

    These dealers are stuck in the Basic/Carnal phase of business—the first of three phases in business. They're going as cheap as they can by doing trades and DIY as much as possible, and can't fathom spending money on SEO and other marketing services. Those in this phase are also complaining that they can't hire people and don't understand why their employee retention rate is so low.

    You know the phrase "Rob Peter to pay Paul"? Well, to move from Basic/Carnal to Comfort (phase 2), dealers will have to take money from somewhere else and put it into marketing in order to feel comfortable knowing they have leads coming in.

    Once in the Comfort phase, dealers can increase pricing by $1,000. Then another $1,000 and so on. Dealers in the second phase are perfecting their processes and focusing on visibility in the marketplace.

    And eventually, dealers move into the Convenience phase, where they get back the time, money, and freedom originally sought out when starting the business.

    If you're in this spiral and looking for a way through, it's time to schedule a free strategy session with CI Web Group's team of experts! We'll provide a customized plan to get you found on Google.

    Jennifer Bagley is the CEO and Founder of CI Web Group, Inc., a modern-day media and digital marketing agency, the creator of the 12 Step Roadmap to Achieve Accelerated Results. Jennifer’s international agency is proud to serve thousands of home services companies across the US and Canada as the preferred web design, digital marketing, and lead generation agency for the world’s top manufacturers and distributors since 2013.