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Wilson
This should be kind of fun. It's sort of like a. What are the weird ways that we get leads locally and maybe trends? My current favorite trend is this local newsletter to home service business. So people are building these, like, media business funnels. I think it's a fun trend. I think it's like a different take. And I think as, like, people are trying to figure out, well, how do we drive leads in like, a. In a challenging environment or, like, what are all the different ways? I think it's like an unique funnel. Welcome back to owned and operated. I'm supposed to start doing this at the very beginning, and I keep forgetting. Make sure you go to owned and operated dot com. Sign up for the newsletter. We're really growing the list. We're excited about it. We're at 40,000 and we're aiming for 100,000. So help me out. Sign up. We. We. We honestly give away good information for. For totally free. So, like, it's. It's pretty easy. Anyways, what's up? Good to see you, Jack.
Jack
What's going on? How you doing?
Wilson
Good. Good. Yeah, I'm. I'm excited for this one. This should be kind of fun. It's sort of like, what are the weird ways that we get leads locally? Or, like, how are we driving leads locally?
Jack
Or.
Wilson
And maybe trends in local leads, which I think would be kind of fun.
Jack
Yeah, I think there's a lot of strategies in this kind of realm that are really fun because it. It like, scratches a secondary itch. And that secondary itch is like, hey, Squirrel, go do this and go do that. And then it helps the core business. It helps the core business. It's a great driver. And that's the key.
Wilson
Yeah. At Wilson, we've saved a stupid amount of money by having AI help out with our call center. And the best tool out there that's making that happen is Evoca. So, look, you've probably heard the buzz about AICRs. They seem to be everywhere. But not all AI CSRs are created equal. And Evoka seems to rise to the top every time. They answer every call in the first ring, they sound just like a real person, and they don't take breaks. But here's what makes Evoka really interesting. In the real world, if a caller is getting heated, like they're getting frustrated or annoyed, Evoka knows it, hears the tone, emotion, and hands the call to a real human. So you can still save that call. And this has been huge for us here at Wilson. There's no more churn or people Yelling representative into the phone. And the back end is tight. It directly integrates into Servicetitan at the gold tier level. That means it can handle reschedules, check tech arrival times and look up customer info. It even helps with capacity planning. It's basically a CSR with perfect memory on top of all that. It consistently makes our team better. We get post call analytics, auto tagging and coaching tools so that no matter who's on shift, we deliver for our customers. If you're curious, go to evoca AI avoca oca.AI, book a demo and tell them owned and operated. Sent you. My favorite trend that I've seen that I just think has been a lot of fun. I have a couple examples of it. I think it's been like fun to witness. So it's this local newsletter trend. So okay, Ryan Sneddon, I think that's how you pronounce it. Ryan Sneddon, he's on Twitter and he, he built this local newsletter called the Naptown Scoop. He's in Annapolis, Maryland. There's 50,000 people that live in Annapolis, Maryland and his newsletter is. Has 22,000 emails.
Jack
It's like 50%.
Wilson
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's. It's crazy. And then I was listening to a podcast the other day and it was this guy, I don't remember the guy's name, but he was building a local newsletter in just outside of New York, in some county outside of New York. There's a million people in that population and he had a power washing business. He. Who's that franchise? It's Aaron's franchise.
Jack
Rolling Suds.
Wilson
Rolling Suds. So he has a Rolling Suds franchise and he's building this local news publication as like, here's what's happening in the town. Here's the new restaurant, here's the whatever. And he's using that to drive leads to his home service business, which I just thought was like kind of interesting. So like my current favorite trend is this local newsletter to home service business.
Jack
How does that, how is the actual driving mechanism work on that? Is it just at the bottom it says sponsored by X or what are they just like put a little. Yeah.
Wilson
Oh, I think actually I do have one more example. I'm sure there's a ton of them. But I do have one more example. There's a guy. Oh, I'm forgetting his name. He's on Twitter, but he buys houses. Like he flips houses and that's like his thing. And, and he has a local newsletter on like, sell us your house basically is the ad and he, I think he's in Denver. So. Yeah. So people are building these like media business funnels and I, I have a, I have a friend named Justin. He actually built out the studio, but he's here in, he's here in Kent and he has a property inspection business and he has this list of real estate agents, email list. It's like 3,000 real estate agents. And I'm like, you know, I have this trend in my head and I'm like, dude, like what are you doing with that list of three? Because like if you could harness that properly, like you could triple your. The business like just off of driving more and more leads through this like media platform. So. Yeah. Favorite current trend.
Jack
Yeah, I mean it's smart because you end up, I assume that you end up selling advertising at some point which covers the cost of running the program. Yeah. What's called negative cac.
Wilson
So like that, that philosophy is called negative cac. So you actually get paid to acquire a customer. So you have a negative customer acquisition.
Jack
Cost and then so you're getting paid to acquire customers. You're providing value. You have one person who's running the newsletter who's a good copywriter. You do some graphic design.
Wilson
Yeah.
Jack
And then I'm still confused. The mechanism on the back end though that would really draw. I mean I'm sure it's there sponsorships.
Wilson
Like I haven't popped any of these open. But you know the guy from Naptown Scoop, like I think he built like a porta potty rental business on the back of Naptown Scoop. So like he built. So you know all these people are building these like publications and then building this like a business on the back. So this localized business like painting would probably kill. And you could do like here's the like a design centric local newsletter. Interviewing local designers and like touring distinct homes in your area or like showing them on Zillow and like giving feedback. I feel like there's a fun and like an interesting way to do it. But you could be like saucy with like tearing apart house decor. Yeah, yeah.
Jack
No, that's cool. I do really like that. I heard of that as like a business model a while back with Andrew from TinyCo. He was buying and building newsletters a long time, like 20, 2019.
Wilson
Like Victor. I don't remember what it's called. Victoria something or other.
Jack
Yeah.
Wilson
And yeah, I think he spent a lot more on it because it's print. So it was $250,000 was what he had into that project.
Jack
Yeah, but still, I mean, the point being is, like, this local newsletter has quite a bit of draw.
Wilson
Yeah.
Jack
And then I remember looking at a. A business back in, like, 2021, 2022. It was three newsletters that were Houston, Austin, Dallas.
Wilson
Interesting.
Jack
They all had, I want to say, about 300,000 subs each.
Wilson
Whoa, that's a big list.
Jack
Yeah, it was a huge list. And it was. It was. They were focused around, like, the hot spots and, like, the cool restaurants and like, that. That was the value. And what do you think?
Wilson
What were they trying to sell for?
Jack
I was gonna say, what. What's your guess?
Wilson
10 million?
Jack
Nope. It was 2.1 or 3.1.
Wilson
Okay.
Jack
So it was, like, within SBA range, because I remember being like, this would be really interesting, but I don't trust myself on the copy side enough to do it. But it was really cool. I remember saying that and going, wow, this is. This is wild. Because they were just using it for, you know, advertising. But you could theoretically run your own business on the back and send the same.
Wilson
You could run it to. Yeah, you could. You could have sponsors plus your own business. You could use it for job posts. Like, there was one, the Charlotte Observer. And the reason I thought 10 million is because I was listening to a podcast the other day, and they. They had 50,000 subs and they sold for five and which, like, I was like, holy smokes, that's kind of crazy. I. I think that was the. I think that was the business, though. I don't think they had, like, a home service. That's why I didn't use it as an example. But they were doing, like, job posts. So, like, you could use it for recruiting. You could use it for a bunch of different stuff. But yeah, yeah, like, I think it's a. I think it's a fun trend. I think it's, like, a different take. And I think as, like, people are trying to figure out, well, how do we drive leads in, like, a. In a challenging environment or, like, what are all the different ways that we can drive leads? I think it's like a unique funnel.
Jack
I think an easier version, too, which, now that you're mentioning it, is something that we've paid for in the past, is we've paid for sponsorship posts on a quote unquote, new to Nashville Facebook group, and it didn't drive a huge roas, but if you owned it, you wouldn't really need to drive any roas, because you're not investing anything. If it's paying for itself through sponsorships, then you know, if you did have a 2 or 3x, like, who cares? You have a 2 or 3x on 0.
Wilson
So yeah, face group Facebook groups are like wild and, and you can buy them for almost nothing. But like John Matzner, obviously he's not home service related, but I feel like this totally applies for home service still. But he bought, he's got that. The recruiting thing and he bought a bunch of Facebook groups around it, and that's what he was using to draw recruits from. And I think he bought him for like a couple thousand bucks. Like it wasn't that big of a thing. And like, that's paid for itself a million times over because he would have, you know, had to like source those from different ways. So it was a top of funnel for him.
Jack
Nobody starts a Facebook group with the idea that they're going to sell it for $100,000 two years from now. But I mean, you know, from a distribution angle, it's a great opportunity because, right, you're providing value for new people that are heading into a. Your location. Be your location. And then from a home service, specifically on the H vac or plumbing side, you're able to hit, you know, it's the same strategy what you do with mailers, right? You hit all the new people who moved into town with mailers and then they convert to you. You put them on membership. They never go anywhere. They're your customer forever. It's the same thing with that Facebook group is you drive people to new to Dallas and anybody who moves there and clicks that and goes, oh, I'm new to Dallas. Let me see what's on. Provide great value. And then on the back end, right, you post, hey, this is, this is a great company that we use. Here's a discount. They switch over and boom, you got a lifelong customer for next next to nothing. I mean, Facebook groups are even easier. You just. There's no publication. There's no like, come over here and subscribe. You just run up a group and yeah, have people start joining it.
Wilson
Have you, have you ever looked into like, have you ever looked into buying one? I can't find out. I think you just have to like, join them and then DM the moderator, be like, hey, you want to sell it for like 2 grand?
Jack
That's what I did for supposedly it's.
Wilson
Like 10 cents of per. It's like very cheap to buy these things.
Jack
It depends the person, right? So I tried to buy an H vac one for, for like this podcast. Like, hey, can we do an H vac owners group that has 2030,000 people in it buy it. But the guy was eccentric. He was an interesting individual and he just had a number to say. He's just like120,000 for it. I was like, ah, no, I'm gonna pass on $3 on that person, because I don't. The problem when you buy them though, which. With which what I think is it's probably a quick way to scale it. But starting from ground, what you get is you get to moderate who comes in less of an issue in like a new newsletter style.
Wilson
I think that's the benefit of. Yeah. Is like, it's very curated, It's a smaller group than some of the larger ones. But like, we don't have half the group being spammy people. It's like a thousand contractors, which I think is just like, better. And like the moment somebody spams, they get kicked out. So, yeah, I like, I like our setup.
Jack
No, and that's my point is like, you can do that, have less people, but higher value groups.
Wilson
Yeah.
Jack
Without dealing with, you know, spam and other people coming in. And so same with like the. If you did a new to Nashville or you did the Nashville updates group, that's just news about Nashville or, you know, anything you could. You could really run with it. The best contractors of Nashville, I tried to buy them as well, like contractors of Nashville groups, just because there's a lot of referrals in there.
Wilson
Totally.
Jack
So if you could moderate the referrals. It was a dead group that had like a bunch of spam posts, but it still had 20,000 people in it. Couldn't get a hold of the owner, though.
Wilson
Well, yeah, I don't understand Facebook groups because it's. I feel like I don't know how they get so big because they can get big. Like, there's local Facebook groups with like 50,000 people. And I'm like, literally how. Like, I don't understand the alg. I think I don't understand the algorithm behind them. But I. I've listened to a podcast on this before because I thought about this for Wilson, I was like, oh, let's go buy like 10 local Facebook groups and like set up. There's a bunch of AI automation tools that you can use on Facebook groups specifically that like notify you if someone says plumbing, electric H Vac, and you can actually rip leads out of them. And like, you can auto respond or you can auto dm. There's a bunch of stuff you can do. Like, it's not that complicated. Yeah. With Reddit too, you can. Similar. You can do it with Reddit too.
Jack
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen the Reddit ones.
Wilson
Yeah.
Jack
Or Reddit bots. There's. There was a guy going around a while back that was selling Reddit bots that would go into the Nashville.
Wilson
Yeah.
Jack
Reddit group. And anytime someone said anything about H vac or plumbing, it would just.
Wilson
Yep. Hey, Ping Robert. Use these guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jack
I never did it because the. When I looked into it, it was a lot of like, hey, you know, my, my thing broke. I'm looking for some help or somebody. Like, not like help like as in like a job, but that's actually even a better example. Be like, hey, I'm looking for an H VAC job. I don't have one. And then it would just like auto diem. There was no. It was long enough ago that AI wasn't where it's at today. So it was just like, couldn't pick up the message.
Wilson
Yeah, yeah.
Jack
And so I was like, call them. Yeah. And I was like, I don't want to get called by a bunch of random people for random things.
Wilson
But no, I kind of. I'm into that. I'm into that idea too. This very, like community driven, like, own the list, you know, I think that's what's been kind of fun is like finding out what are the random unique. It's almost community, you know, There's a quote from. I always loved the show 30 Rock. Did you ever watch that?
Jack
No. It was so good.
Wilson
So I always loved that show. And there's a quote that I think about all the time when I'm thinking about like stuff like this, like, you know, newsletters, Facebook groups, whatever. And it's like, I think the show was struggling and they were like, what if we turned it into a magazine? And.
Jack
And.
Wilson
But I think about that all the time because I keep seeing people basically doing that, like launching a newsletter. But then like the actual monetization back end is a power washing money. Or like roofing. I know someone who's thinking about doing it for roofing. Yeah, yeah. It's an interesting thing, you know, it'd be really cool.
Jack
And this is really off of left field. It has nothing to do with us or this podcast.
Wilson
Let's go. I'm here for it.
Jack
That would be a badass service in general. It's like you just, hey, Facebook group. Local Facebook groups as a service or local newsletters as a service.
Wilson
There's a guy that does that. His name's tj. I don't remember his last name but like no, that's a thing. So. So he's helping these guys launch these local newsletters for their home service business. Like that's a thing right now. I think he's on his like fifth or sixth one. He tweets about it constantly and he's a cool guy. Like I like him.
Jack
It's an amazing idea because honestly the different. There's, there's no difference in them. The framework for one is going to be almost the same framework for the other.
Wilson
Yep.
Jack
The, the type of this for one is going to be the type of this for the other. You could probably write programs and automations that would make them all somewhat similar to an extent that.
Wilson
And you know what's crazy is like the, the CAC if we go over like CAC arbitrage.
Jack
Yeah.
Wilson
The emails are less than a dollar. So like it cost me $87 for a lead right now or $100 for lead. Let's just say 100. So if it cost me $100 for a lead and I get an email for $1, can I convert 1% of that list into a customer for Wilson or a customer for my power washing company or roofing company or whatever. But like it's the same thing. It's CACT L tv. So like am I better off doing this or am I better off going and buying that lead? And maybe the answer is both. But like if I can convert one out of 100, then I'm ahead on my lead cost.
Jack
Honestly, it's better than that too because it's negative CAC to ltv. Wouldn't it be because you're actually get sponsors.
Wilson
Yeah.
Jack
If you get one sponsor.
Wilson
Right.
Jack
Which is significantly easy at at scale. If you have 50,000, you know, newsletter subscribers, there's someone who understands that CAC equation.
Wilson
Yeah.
Jack
Pays you to also be a sponsor. And then now it's like a negative CAC to ltv which yeah. Just is it ridiculous? I think the, the end all be all is like what kind of volume do they receive from that?
Wilson
Yeah.
Jack
Because then that's where the worth is.
Wilson
I would assume it can't be much. I mean I would assume it can't be like you know, I'm going to build $100 million thing off of a local newsletter. I don't think but I do think it's different one certainly less competitive. It's an owned the same as Facebook group. Like what we both just came up with is like our obsessed was these are owned like we own a Facebook group, we own this email list and like that means we can manipulate it differently than like I go to the radio station and advertise, maybe cover the same amount of eyeballs, but like one I own and totally control, which I feel like there's something to that.
Jack
I think it's huge. I mean you've talked about getting off Google for a long time too. Or separation. Not getting off Google, but separation from our Google overlords.
Wilson
Yeah, we want to be able to like if. What happens if your GMB breaks? What happens if your LSA breaks?
Jack
Yeah.
Wilson
And like a lot of companies would just like that would be it. Like that would literally be it. I think it would damage us today. But it's not anything like woulda want would have done two, two years ago. Like today we have enough other things going on. We, we could still figure it out.
Jack
And then my, my last one that I think that we talked about this a really long time ago, we haven't been able to implement it fully yet, but I think a local community manager or local community specialist, somebody that just goes around to community events and pitches, I mean we do that.
Wilson
That's our in person marketing team. Yeah, the ROAS is good. It's, it's like, it's good. We, our ROAS last month was poor like four times. So that's obviously not good. We want to see 6 to 7, but that's, it's been 6 to 7 from January through April. May was for same amount of leads. Sales were down on it. We only sold 140. But you know what's crazy is our field marketing team is responsible for 8% of our revenue year to date. 8 field meaning that like that's canvassing and events. Yeah, the, the local people. Yeah, like boots on the ground. Like 8% of our freaking revenue.
Jack
That's huge.
Wilson
That's insane. That's like a crazy number to me.
Jack
I think it's also an important part of like what I've been obsessing about recently and I still continue to obsess about it very heavily all day, every day is the, the idea of going deeper in the community, not wider. So going wider you have that one.
Wilson
Guy as an example that like no one can get into that community.
Jack
I looked at it again actually recently because I had that tool that we were talking about that lets me view competitors and their GMBs and everything like that. And I'm looking at them again, I'm going, damn, there's nobody in that market. But the reason there's Nobody in that market is. Because they're in that market and they kill it. And how do you like how do you own a community like that? It's just so beautiful. It really is.
Wilson
Yeah. That is solid.
Jack
And the ability to continue that, you know. So community surveyor, whatever you were calling them, like I think that is a huge portion like the ability to go and sponsor for 500 bucks a pool party at an HOA.
Wilson
Yep.
Jack
That has, you know, a huge amount of that only has homeowners there in that location.
Wilson
Yeah.
Jack
You bring a bunch of stuff, you can give a bunch of goodies away. And drives. It drives. Because I do it in ours but I would love to do it in every single HOA across.
Wilson
Yeah.
Jack
Our city.
Wilson
Yeah. Yeah. These were good man. So like owning audiences, owning communities. My current obsession. Yeah. Big fan of like how do we figure out what are all the other ways to drive leads aside from just like ppc, LSA and I think it's probably on everyone's brain the more like hey, we don't know what's going on with AI and search. Like I don't know. Like we don't know and we don't know what's going on with Google. Like Google does have like a trillion reasons to figure it out which is their market cap. But like you just don't know how they're then figured out. It's going to impact your business. So yeah, we've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out what are all the other ways that we can still win regardless of like leads.
John
Just answer the phone is one of those phrases that's always easier said than done. I know it was hard for me in my business because the phone always rings while you're out in the field trying to get something done or it's 8pm and you're trying to get your kids to bed. Well, I have the solution for you. I'm extremely excited today to announce quick staffers your go to solution for building a high performing cost effective customer service team. We are placing CSRs who have been pre trained on proven home service SOPs and scripts. The same ones that Wilson and I use in our business. For a limited time we're offering $500 off your initial placement cost for the first 10 signups. See link in the description below or head over to quickstaffers.com for more information.
Jack
Yeah, especially a changing market, AI and everything, the supposed pendulum is going to swing back into a person first on site becomes more valuable. Who actually knows if that happens? I don't know. But if that does swing that way, having somebody already ready and locked up as a community, I think it'll be novel.
Wilson
Yeah, I think it'll be novel. More valuable. I don't know. The American people have tended to optimize for the cheapest solution over, you know, history.
Jack
That, that's very true. I, I definitely agree with that. So.
Wilson
But I do think it'll help you connect. I do think it'll help you connect. It'll be a differentiator.
Jack
Definitely. Interesting. You know, I might. I'm probably gonna go down a rabbit hole today on this, so. I appreciate all the, the help, John, on, on bringing this up.
Wilson
Yeah. Well, I wonder if it becomes like, Uber where that. I saw a picture the other day.
Jack
Which part? Uber.
Wilson
All right. I don't know if like Uber's in China or if they have their own thing. I assume it's like a white labeled version or China labeled version. But I saw this picture the other day of a Chinese. What do they call that? Ride share, driver, whatever. Yeah, so. But he had like 20 phones on his dashboard. Like 20 phones because it's so competitive. You have to like, you know, like get your next ride as fast as you. As humanly possible. And it, I feel like, it kind of feels like it's moving that direction because the like, what I'm imagining happens next is more and more AI, more and more enablement, which means faster and faster speed. So, you know, the games will be, well, whose AI can go faster? And then how do I have 20 phones set up to like, you know, we're going to turn into like Chinese, you know, clickbait farmers, just like clicking on leads and getting it all done. So I can see it happening, honestly, kind of fast. Yeah, because I think that it's, that's not that far off from what we're already doing.
Jack
Yeah, creators are like that. They go out, they go to market, they find leads on market through advertising and information, then they take those leads and they direct them to contractors. Simple.
Wilson
Yeah.
Jack
So. Yeah, I could see it too.
Wilson
Yep.
Jack
Changing, man, changing. Gotta grow so you can fight.
Wilson
It's changing fast. Yeah, it's changing fast. It's pretty interesting.
Jack
It'll be fun. But. Yep, that's sweet. I, I do love those ideas. I'm probably going to start one of those ideas now just because I'm curious and it doesn't feel like a huge amount of lift. So. Yeah, putting my, putting someone on that for my business.
Wilson
Putting your hat in the ring if you like what you heard Check out Owned and operated dot com. Sign up for the newsletter. There should be a link below. And thanks for joining us. Tune in next week.
Jack
Do we want to talk about the workshop or not yet?
Wilson
Oh, yeah. John tells us we're supposed to talk about. I think we just make that a re entry. So that's the end of the episode. We'll do the workshop real quick. And this would go as an ad.
Jack
That's too clean. I hope they keep all this. It's just me, like, sad that you're not making it. This, like, oh, we're dirty.
Wilson
John just corrected me, so we're now we're doing it. Okay. Workshops coming up. Make sure you check it out. Owned and operated.com workshop. I think tickets went live yesterday. Yeah. Yeah, yesterday, the day before. I think we already have like, 10 bucks in seats.
Jack
Yeah.
Wilson
Yeah. I almost want to, like, stop there like that feels like a great group size. Yeah. But check it out. Owned and operated.com workshop and the dates are August 19th. August 19th at plus three days.
Jack
So yeah. Awesome, guys. Appreciate you.
Wilson
Cool.
Owned and Operated Podcast Episode #212 Summary
Title: Local Lead Generation Strategies That Actually Work (Home Service Marketing Tips)
Release Date: June 19, 2025
Hosts: John Wilson and Jack Carr
In Episode #212 of the Owned and Operated podcast, hosts John Wilson and Jack Carr delve into effective local lead generation strategies tailored for plumbing, electrical, and HVAC businesses. The episode explores unconventional methods and emerging trends that can significantly boost lead acquisition and business growth in the competitive home service industry.
John and Jack kick off the discussion by highlighting the rising trend of using local newsletters as a unique funnel for generating leads.
John Wilson shares his enthusiasm for local newsletters, stating,
"My current favorite trend is this local newsletter to home service business. So people are building these, like, media business funnels. I think it's a fun trend."
(00:00)
Examples Discussed:
Ryan Sneddon's Naptown Scoop:
An Annapolis, Maryland-based newsletter with 22,000 subscribers out of a 50,000 population.
Local Power Washing Franchise:
A Rolling Suds franchise owner utilizes a local news publication to drive business leads.
Denver House Flipper's Newsletter:
A real estate investor uses a newsletter titled "Sell Us Your House" to attract potential sellers.
Justin's Property Inspection Business:
Justin leverages a curated email list of 3,000 real estate agents to expand his business reach, demonstrating the potential of targeted email marketing.
Jack Carr comments on the scalability and profitability of this strategy, noting,
"It's smart because you end up, I assume that you end up selling advertising at some point which covers the cost of running the program. Yeah. What's called negative CAC."
(05:32)
The hosts introduce the concept of Negative CAC, where the cost of acquiring customers is offset by revenue generated from other sources, such as sponsorships within newsletters.
Definition and Benefits:
John Wilson explains,
"Negative CAC means you actually get paid to acquire a customer. So you have a negative customer acquisition cost."
(05:23)
Jack Carr adds,
"If you get one sponsor, which is significantly easy at scale, if you have 50,000 newsletter subscribers, there's someone who understands that CAC equation."
(17:34)
Monetization Strategies:
John and Jack discuss the strategy of purchasing existing local Facebook groups to tap into established communities for lead generation.
Challenges in Acquisition:
"The guy was eccentric... he was asking for like $120,000 for it. I was like, ah, no, I'm gonna pass on that."
(11:43)
Advantages of Starting Your Own Group:
"We don't have half the group being spammy people. It's like a thousand contractors, which I think is just like, better."
(12:22)
Automation Tools:
Jack Carr further elaborates,
"Local Facebook groups as a service or local newsletters as a service... it's an amazing idea because honestly the different... there's no difference in them."
(16:05)
The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in managing customer inquiries and automating responses is highlighted as a game-changer in lead generation.
John Wilson shares his experience with an AI-powered call center tool,
"At Wilson, we've saved a stupid amount of money by having AI help out with our call center. The best tool out there that's making that happen is Evoca..."
(01:35)
Features of Evoca AI:
Implications of AI Integration:
Building and nurturing local communities through events and sponsorships is identified as a vital strategy for sustained business growth.
Field Marketing Impact:
"Our field marketing team is responsible for 8% of our revenue year to date. 8 field meaning that like that's canvassing and events."
(19:15)
Hosting Local Events:
Jack Carr emphasizes the value of deep community engagement over broad outreach,
"Going deeper in the community, not wider."
(20:16)
The hosts discuss the importance of owning customer data and communities to mitigate risks associated with platform dependency, particularly on Google.
John Wilson expresses concerns about reliance on Google,
"What happens if your GMB breaks? What happens if your LSA breaks... we want to own our audiences."
(18:07)
Benefits of Owned Audiences:
Jack Carr concurs,
"Owned audiences allow you to separate from our Google overlords and maintain direct relationships with customers."
(18:45)
Field marketing, involving in-person interactions and community events, is underscored as an essential component of effective lead generation.
Performance Metrics:
Strategies for Improvement:
AI's rapid evolution is poised to revolutionize lead generation processes, enabling businesses to handle larger volumes of leads with greater efficiency.
Future Predictions:
"More and more AI enablement, which means faster and faster speed... the games will be, whose AI can go faster."
(24:02)
Potential Developments:
Jack Carr adds,
"Creators are out there going to market, finding leads through advertising, then directing them to contractors simply."
(25:04)
John and Jack wrap up the episode by reiterating the importance of diverse lead generation strategies and staying adaptable in a rapidly changing market.
John Wilson encourages listeners to explore and implement the discussed strategies,
"We've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out what are all the other ways that we can still win regardless of leads."
(21:36)
Jack Carr expresses enthusiasm for experimenting with new ideas,
"I'm probably going to start one of those ideas now just because I'm curious."
(25:28)
The hosts also mention upcoming workshops aimed at providing deeper insights into these strategies.
For more insights and strategies on growing your home service business, visit www.ownedandoperated.com and subscribe to their newsletter.