Strive For Good Life Podcast Ep. 29: Effective Marketing Strategies for Local Businesses with Joseph Connell
Introduction
In this episode of the Strive For Good Life Podcast (SFGL Podcast Ep 29), Joseph Connell, the Founder & CEO of Lavahot and Chief Revenue Officer at MyCORE, shares his invaluable insights on effective marketing strategies. Joseph, also the host of the Lavahot Entrepreneur Podcast, reveals his entrepreneurial journey, starting from his time managing a lumber yard to becoming a key player in helping local and mid-size businesses enhance their marketing strategies. Tune in to discover how data-driven marketing and clear messaging are essential for navigating today’s dynamic business environment.
Joseph dives deep into the challenges companies face in today’s rapidly changing landscape, emphasizing the importance of adaptability in the face of evolving marketing technologies and shifting consumer behaviors. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a young professional, this podcast offers actionable advice on how to succeed in the competitive marketing world. Don't miss this chance to learn from Joseph Connell’s success story and gain insights that will help you build your own successful marketing strategy!
Connect with Joseph here:
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@lavahot?si=WA9gmXgEZpeM0haE
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LavahotJoeConnell?mibextid=LQQJ4d
Instagram: https://instagram.com/josephconnelljr?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
Tiktok:@josephconnelljr
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Strive For Good Life Podcast Ep. 29 Transcript:
NOTE: This transcript was computer generated and likely contains errors
Nino Pingera: Okay, All Welcome everyone to another episode of the strive for Good Life podcast. My name is Nino pingera, and I'm sure with Joseph Connell Jr. Who is the founder and CEO of lavahot a marketing agency got lots of fun things to talk about so welcome to the show Joseph.
Lavahot Podcast: Thanks. Thank you for having me.
Nino Pingera: Yeah, no, it's a pleasure. I really enjoyed our last conversation and just excited to talk about your Evolution and what you're doing not just with lavahot. I mean, obviously you have a podcast and you're involved with my course, so I want to get into all of that but let's start at the beginning with business or how did you get into business? And why did you decide to go out on your own?
Lavahot Podcast: Yeah, so I feel like I should give some context kind of like my background and then kind of how my career involved but right out of high school. I did not go to college. I started working for 84 Lumber which I guess there are Regional maybe a National Lumber Company and through that job. I worked my way up fairly quickly through their management structure and I had developed great relationships with the subcontractors the contractors that would come in there and I think that job initially started this desire to help local to mid-size companies. so then if you fast forward after I left 84 Lumber
Lavahot Podcast: I really stumbled into the marketing industry. I got hired for a local Yellow Page company and initially I didn't even know what it was that was going to be doing. I didn't even understand that there was advertising involved with the Yellow Pages and through that job. I really started to develop.
Lavahot Podcast: really the skills to be able to help businesses market and the sales process that was taught very on really aligned with me which was this more or less consultative sales process where you're really trying to dive under the hood of the business trying to understand their profit centers. They're different verticals of business how they drive their customers their message and I spent about 10 years working with a couple of different companies one is a company called Thrive which is a national marketing agency and then I transitioned over to USA Today and through that career. I've worked with thousands of different businesses of all walks of life. I think the main thing that I discovered is most business owners.
Lavahot Podcast: They're really good at doing a thing meaning They're really good at that if they have a hair salon, they're good at that but what they're not really good at is the marketing side and they might have some generalized knowledge, but oftentimes what was happening is they were letting their marketing go to the vendors that they would work with. So they're working with a web team. They would let them kind of guide them and how the website should look if they were working with the TV station or radio.
Lavahot Podcast: Their marketing approach was not just fragmented but oftentimes the message of their marketing was fragmented. So I guess through that 10 years of working with a variety of companies. I saw this need to be able to help companies one optimize their marketing. So we take a deep dive and look at their marketing budget and we try to figure out where they're spending it how they're spending their marketing budget. And what is the biggest driver of their marketing in terms of lead flow? The other thing that we try to do is align the messaging to make sure that it's not, a fragmented message going to all these different verticals. And then lastly that the most important part is making sure that they don't have to manage these relationships so they don't have just
Lavahot Podcast: Just like fragmented marketing approach and we just really try to bring that all together.
Nino Pingera: Yeah, okay, that's amazing. So when you talk about fragmented and managing relationships, are you talking about how people use a different CRM platform that doesn't integrate with, their email marketing or what do you mean by that to give people a better idea?
Lavahot Podcast: Yeah, yeah, and that's a great point. I mean on the digital front there was definitely some of that, they might have their CRM over here. They might have their social media obviously within those platforms email marketing might be powered by MailChimp or some other technology. So there was some of that in we figured out a solution to be able to fix that part but oftentimes the fragmentation came from really just allowing different marketing vendors to come in and just tweak their message just enough to where it's not consistent across the board. So the best example, I always give to this is if you look at a company like Domino's when they roll out of campaign It's consistent whether it's on radio TV billboard social media. They just roll out a very consistent campaign.
Lavahot Podcast: And local to mid-sized companies because we'll just say the barrier of Entry of having somebody come in and manage your marketing the most local event size companies. they can't take on the expense of a marketing director to come in and manage all of their marketing and compete at the same time with these National and Regional size companies that have big marketing teams and they have all the tools to be able to work around that so often times that's what happens is they rely on the expertise of the vendor themself meaning if it's the TV representative will come in with a certain program and package and then they'll make recommendations and in
Lavahot Podcast: unfortunately in the world of media buying typically the approach of the recommendation is fueled by what is in the best interest of the media company rather than what's in the best interest of the actual client. Because if they dig deep enough and this is what I saw is oftentimes the Not only was the message fragmented but there would be multiple vendors running different Facebook ads for companies.
Lavahot Podcast: And none of the ads were consistent and it was almost like what fueled that was the packaging of how they sold the media to them to begin with. It was almost like it's a throw in but they're paying for it one way or another and when you died deep enough into the contracts of these marketing campaigns, we would see, a large chunk of money going to things like digital display multiple Facebook ad campaigns, in multiple local listing claiming it was just a bunch of different pieces that they already had and there was all this overlap and it was just because of the way it was packaged and bundled in your typical business owner Doesn't know how to one drill down far enough to say hey, I need this. I don't need this. what can we do within this program to specifically fill the other side of that is
Lavahot Podcast: oftentimes the contracts were anywhere from a year to two years and it's not that I'm like anti-contracts. I'm just anti-being locked into that specific thing because in 2023, I think it's important that a business owner could be nimble in their marketing approach. If a new platform rolls out, there's a new style of ad that gets launched by Google or Facebook or what have you you should have that ability to really pivot that budget to meet the demand of the market and to drive as many leads as humanly possible. what I often try to look at Beyond where is the marketing going? How much are we spending?
Lavahot Podcast: And for me. It's one of the biggest pieces as I try to put transparency into the marketing meaning I want to have tracked programs to know how many leads are coming in from Google AdWords. And how much is coming in from their Facebook ads if we're doing local service that Google screen. I want to be able to track that. Because then we can make real decisions on where we're placing the money within the marketing. And in my experience of working with thousands of different local to mid-sized companies. Oftentimes they don't even know to ask for some of these things and to be fair. I mean, they really shouldn't know to ask for these things because they're busy running a business. So, you…
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Lavahot Podcast: what we try to do is help them structure their marketing agreement that allows them to be nimble consistent messaging and transparency to be able to track. What is the most effective use of their money?
Nino Pingera: That makes a lot of sense. I mean obviously you need good data to make good decisions. I like that you getting locked into contracts because technology is Shifting rapidly. And so if you is locked up in a year contract, You can't adopt the new AI Tech that's coming out if you don't have the money to spend for it.
Lavahot Podcast: right
Nino Pingera: I think that's incredibly important and valuable what you guys do in terms of, kind of getting into a little bit some of the more Nitty Gritty things like, you mentioned messaging how do you start unifying messaging it? Is that come from having a clear mission statement and just good branding or How do you get into that?
Lavahot Podcast: Yes, so often times I'll look at I always start with what I call the profit centers. and really every business has a profit Center. and I'll use HVAC is a good example because they have very clear and defined profit Center. So it might be there Meaning the crew that goes out there and does new installs when somebody needs a new heating's HVAC system. Then there's the service and repair side of the business and then they might have a whole maintenance division, but I try to look at those profit centers to try to figure out. if your phone rang every single day off the hook and it was one type of customer, who would that be more often than not with HVAC. It's going to be new installs.
Lavahot Podcast: Because it's the high ticket item typically seven nine ten thousand dollar install below that is typically the service because that's what's going to drive, down the road more installs and it's very quick cash flow and then the maintenance side kind of goes hand in hand with the service. So I try to look at those profit centers to figure inside of that if that's you What is your capability and capacity meaning? How many are you doing now? And how many are you capable of doing if we did not hire another person did not put another truck on the road right now, what would that look like and I try to figure out because the worst thing you could do to a business if you don't understand that. Is drive more leads than they can feasibly handle. Which again is where the Nimble thing comes in? Because if we turn on a lead flow and they get too busy or they're getting too many leads now. They're just throwing leads out the window.
Lavahot Podcast: so I try to look at that initially what do they really want to be known in the marketplace for? the next thing that I try to look at is why are they different? what's their unique sales proposition? there's five or six other HVAC companies right in the same area. They've been around seemingly just as long as you what makes you different. So I try to identify that and oftentimes we'll try to carve out the message based on a combination of things, maybe the years of service. if they do same-day service, so it really depends on each business. But if you dig deep enough, you'll really start to get to what their unique sales proposition is. so often times we'll try to center it around that, if they want to be known as the company that gets out there the fastest for a new install we try to
Lavahot Podcast: Cultivate that message so that we can try to drive that. They're the fastest people to come out for new installs. It also depends on their customers as well. Which even goes down to the media if I meet with the company even now in 2023 and there's some people that listen it's be like this dude's out of his mind. I live in Ocean City Maryland, which is a retirement community. and the people that have the most disposable income are typically in older demographic
Lavahot Podcast: So there are some cases where traditional print media will still do Direct Mail. We'll still do some newspaper. We'll still do even some Yellow Pages if negotiate in packaged, right some of the stuff actually becomes free within the media Buys so in and that's where the tracking comes in like you put a tracking number on it and you're able to see how many leads actually came from this media source. So with the messaging itself. It really does get crafted out based on who it is. They're trying to Target what type of product they're trying to sell and then what they're unique. miles proposition is
Nino Pingera: Yeah, I love that. It's funny that you bring up the mail because just the other day. I got mine from the mailbox and I remember thinking to myself. Why does this still exist? why am I still getting out but it wouldn't if it didn't work. And so I think it's valuable to bring up that point that if it's working. Why not, right?
Lavahot Podcast: yeah, to that the one thing that I try to tell business owners is don't be so emotional about the media source. oftentimes local to mid-sized companies will make buying decisions based on a feeling of what they feel. Is the thing that works real statistics on it. No real tracking no real evidence to whether or not it's working. I have a great example of that company I worked with was in the glass industry and I remember the owner I was sitting down with them and we were discussing renewing certain ads for the Yellow Pages of all places and he was like, yeah, I want to pull that away because I don't feel it works and I was like, hey, I completely understand what makes you feel that it's not working. He said, I just don't think people are using it.
Lavahot Podcast: So none of its statistic analytic based. It's all feeling right. And I said,…
Nino Pingera: right
Lavahot Podcast: the good news is we track this. Why don't we take a look at the tracking we can figure out how many people actually went to the Yellow Pages up and called the number inside the book. And when we looked at it was 1400 people for the year. And the average cost per lead was about five dollars a lead. and it's like mean at least 1400 people are going there. So I mean it might be worth keeping, at the time. I think the ad was a hundred bucks a month. So it's like the cost was crazy stupid.
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Lavahot Podcast: The amount of leads that were coming in more than Justified the cost provided we can convert 24. 1400 leads that come in. So when you look at the numbers,…
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Lavahot Podcast: that's where it's It's no longer. About what I feel because here's the real data and it shows how many people called and then in that tracking Source. We're actually able to listen to the phone calls to be able to figure What were they calling for? it auto glass was the shower glass. So that's why I say don't be emotional about the media Source. I think that's something that happens often. I'll periodically see a business owner who will go online and say hey who uses this anymore though that's like a barometer for whether or not it works and it's just not like who still uses Facebook ads and the people that just don't like Facebook ads will be like, I never buy from ads. that's not how you should measure the success of a campaign based on.
Lavahot Podcast: the loaded opinions of people on social media It should be driven by data.
Nino Pingera: right
Lavahot Podcast: It should be just tracked very simply this ad ran. This is how many leads this is how many customers like that's the only way to truly do it the worst way to track it would be my staff asks how they found us every call that comes in. We ask them where they called us from. Which is highly inconsistent because half the time they'll never ask the question. If 25% and…
Nino Pingera: right
Lavahot Podcast: of that 25% They may say the source that they use to make the phone call, but won't track it back to the source that originally prompt them to actually pick up the phone which might be they saw a TV ad they saw a Facebook ad, but they eventually went to Google. And made the phone ring. So really it comes down to tracking.
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Lavahot Podcast: for the record, I think that all three of those should have maybe gotten some level of credit like Facebook, but then if they went to Google, they captured the lead so there should always be a part of that but
Nino Pingera: If people tell me that email marketing doesn't work I'm pretty sure it's the highest converting marketing method there is so it just blows my mind. right
Lavahot Podcast: For Portion and again, It's a feeling that maybe they don't like being marketed to through email. But I'm willing to bet if you dig deep enough they have probably made a purchase from their preferred.
Lavahot Podcast: maybe vendor or preferred Clothing line whatever it is, like a special that came to them. But email is just one of those very effective ways to be able to, stay in front of a potential customer and I'll touch points convert them into a customer that stays around and keeps coming back.
Nino Pingera: Yeah, and that's another part that people don't realize It's not necessarily about getting the sale right away. It's about the touch points that nurture that lead and help it actually become a sale eventually down the road, right? And so you got to think about the long game.
Lavahot Podcast: right
Nino Pingera: It's not just about kind of a hit and quit mentality. Let's talk about okay, so we get messaging in place, dialed in on what the offer is and the value proposition. what kind of systems do you install next? Because there are so many different ways to Market. I mean you start with running ads To run email campaigns like where do you go once the messaging is established?
Lavahot Podcast: Yeah, so internally we have a marketing software called slingshot. So that's one of the first things that we do is set them up in there because it has call tracking systems that has text capability. It has email capability. We claim their listings to make sure that listings are claimed effectively. We Link in my business and Facebook. We set up processes for them to be able to do reviews. one part of that is just being able to set it up so that you can send a review request and then we call them slingshot tap cards. We just, set it up so that when they're out in the field and even provide a script or those technicians. It's very simple. Mrs. Jones on a scale of one to five. How would you rate your service today? And then the goal of that is if they say five great. Would you mind leaving us a review if it took less than 30 seconds?
Lavahot Podcast: and if they say yes, great you tap it give them a quick option to be able to pick Google or Facebook and either way we capture review. If they say a four or lower. We encourage that you say great. What could we do to get to a five try to figure out what you could fix What the problem is that got you to a four?
Lavahot Podcast: So yeah, so we try to set up I say it's creating a solid foundation for your digital presence. Sometimes it might even be they've had a website for the last five years and it's okay, but they're not in love with it. So ll typically more often than not we end up either completely rebuilding their website, especially if it's completely outdated or will work with the web team that initially built the site and see if they can make some adjustments just to maybe add chat, modify the message a little bit maybe minor weeks just to maybe the Aesthetics and then we'll also run an SEO audit just to see how well it's performing and we'll try to get an idea of how well they're coming up within their core Market.
Lavahot Podcast: We didn't really hit on that but that's one thing now so to look at as well in addition to what is the ideal customer your typical local event size company, and it Normally has this one set geography if they could dominate that one market. They wouldn't need to go past that market. And I see this happen all the time where a business might. really be able to like 2x3x4x their revenue just within their current Marketplace, but they're trying to spread their marketing budget. Well beyond. Where it is that they really want to dominate. And if they were to really just Focus that message turn up their budget in that local market rather than spreading, let's say something like Google ads or Google local service ads rather than spreading it across Two Three Counties.
Lavahot Podcast: If you could just hone it in and dominate locally, it's like why not? let's get every piece of the pie. We can right here at home where we get to, beyond before the point of diminishing returns because What happens in this multi location marketing strategy is oftentimes. you're going well beyond where you would like to be going. Let's say it's a 45-minute to it an hour long drive to do one service call. And then when you did that service call you've now set yourself up to where in the future if that customer needs. You got to go all the way back out there which sometimes isn't the worst thing but it's like why not if capability capacity, we could manage to handle, seven eight installs a week.
Lavahot Podcast: Why not try to get those seven or eight installs right here at home rather than dragging ourselves to other markets? so
Nino Pingera: Yeah, I love that point. It makes a lot of sense right to you just focus and really dial it in instead of spreading those marketing dollars thin elsewhere where you might get clients here there but yeah,…
Lavahot Podcast: Yeah.
Nino Pingera: you're gonna be driving back and forth all day long. Very good point.
Lavahot Podcast: Yeah.
Nino Pingera: Let's talk about So we've talked about positioning messaging we've talked about the system that you install the slingshot software. That's awesome. Just to get all those pieces in one place pretty cool that you guys can do that. Where do you guys? from there in terms of advertising.
Nino Pingera: because a lot of people I mean obviously it's important to track the data to track where the leads are coming from like we've already talked about but obviously there's so many different platforms. You recommend Google and Facebook is kind of the big ones. Have you seen success elsewhere? What about that?
Lavahot Podcast: So a lot of the businesses I tend to work with and I don't know if this is just because of the bye bye put out or if it's just how my career is just called debate it home service companies tend to just gravitate to me which is great, always take on more home service companies. maybe it's the content I put out or maybe reputation a lot of it kind of gets referred to me. So if I'll give it to you from that perspective. So often times Google is going to be the first thing that I look at. how well do we come up on a search result searching on this device because when somebody has an immediate need, if they have termites if they need a new HVAC system because it's not working if they're hot water heater goes up. They're not going to turn on the TV and flip through until they see an ad.
Lavahot Podcast: They're not going to go grab the newspaper. All that stuff is good for that initial branding into put out there maybe a new message. if you're in the pipeline of figuring out the right company to go for a new HVAC system. if it's only on its last leg. but when stuff happens and that emergency Realm they're going to just pick up their phone and they're gonna search so the biggest thing that I've seen especially this year where we've been slowly pivoting and navigating in certain verticals and in our Market Google local service ads have not always been opened up for every category and I think this is the general just across the country is that When it first started it was for your top categories. It was for
Lavahot Podcast: Plumbing HVAC. It wasn't really laid out there initially for your tree service companies your pest control companies. So they've evolved that program really good even down the power washing companies. They've evolved that program very well in a combination of Home Services and Professional Services, like lawyers and dentists and so on and so forth. So what I've really been looking at especially in 2023 is I've been looking at what are our conversions on Google AdWords? And what would it look like if we incorporated Google local service ads so, anybody that's listening if you're in the home service space, I would say Do a search in for your market for your industry. And if you see an ad that has a green little check next to it. It means that it's Google guaranteed. So.
Lavahot Podcast: Those ads what I love about them as opposed to your traditional Google AdWords is that it's paper lead. It's not pay-click meaning if you're not getting an actual lead meaning they're calling or chatting or booking. You don't pay for it. They could click on it all day long. They could read the information about your company. They could go even further to go to your website, maybe in another search, but if they do not pick up the phone and call and ask you specifically to come out there to help service them or give them an estimate you do not get charged.
Lavahot Podcast: Which I love so you get the better positioning. So you're imprinting on that customer the moment they do the search and if you are running Google ads at the same time, it's almost like you're gonna double dip because they'll see your ad here. Then they might see in Google ads and God willing especially when you have this local marketing approach you're showing up in the map section as well. So that's three times. That customer has seen your business. and ideally they'll hit you on the map section, but I'm in what we've been tracking. By introducing Google and I' add Google set. I'm saying look at your current Google ad budget and maybe shift it down slightly and add Google. I'll say that way. and then track the two over that next month, look at how many leads you get from Google ads then look at how many you get from Google say and see what the performance is.
Lavahot Podcast: and what we have been seeing is With certain Google ad campaigns that we for a better I would say maybe inherited or maybe a business was already locked into a contract. The highest case scenario I saw was a business that was getting their average lead for one campaign was a hundred and eighty dollars with Google ads And we introduced in the same Market I'll say and that lead cost went down to 40. So at while they're and…
Nino Pingera: Wow.
Lavahot Podcast: if you think of that from a budgeting standpoint, let's say your budget was 1800 dollars a month and your lead cost is a hundred and eighty. You're getting 10 leads a month.
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Lavahot Podcast: And if you look over in this bucket, if that same 1800 dollars was over here. At $40 a lead. I just backed myself into a corner mathematically, but what for say four or five four four and four and a half leads for the price of one.
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Lavahot Podcast: It's a brainer and the way that we've been doing it because we haven't wanted to just straight up cut out a lead Source because Google ads does still drive lead so we didn't want to fully cut it out. But what we tried to do is almost weigh the difference and then incrementally make those adjustments and in some cases, what we've seen is a 40 to 60 percent increase in lead flow for the same exact budget. Which is a huge difference especially as it's any lead Source like that was when we initially started that campaign.
Nino Pingera:
Lavahot Podcast: But you add in more reviews which increases the amount of times appears you add in that you have a great response rate on Google local service ads, which is important for Google. They want to see that you respond back to the customer. add in maybe an increase in budget add in more pictures, there's these things that you can do to fine-tune Those ads to just make them perform better and better so, for me on the home service standpoint to go back to it. that's what I've really been looking at is how do we help businesses pivot? some of this large spend Google adword money into Google local service ads and there's plenty of businesses out there that are doing Google local service but oftentimes what I see is
Lavahot Podcast: They just set the budget and they just let it run. They don't know that there's these little things that they can do to really maximize the efforts of that campaign simple things. just focus on reviews the more reviews you get the more photos you place in there and do it consistently putting more photos into that campaign better. Having a great response rate when somebody comes in as a lead. Way better because think of it from Google's perspective. their job or their mission and their company is dedicated to helping connect information to people When people do a search, they want to connect them to that information and for Google they want to connect people to more or less like the authority of that information the best qualified for that information. So if they're connecting a Searcher for HVAC
Lavahot Podcast: And they connect them via a Google LSA ad and this company over here never even makes it an effort to disposition that ad tell Google hey, we booked an appointment, they're going in and communicating and really giving information back to Google's gonna eventually be like, okay doesn't seem like they care to even interact with this customer even…
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Lavahot Podcast: if you are it's just they want to see it. So I would say, going disposition it like let them know that you booked an appointment. Let them know that you close it let them know that you did a pit or an estimate let him know that the interaction because that's what they're looking for and I can guarantee the more you tell Google what's happening with the customers? They're driving to you the more they're going to reward you with maybe consistent placement.
Nino Pingera: I love it I feel like we're doing a master class here. You've got so many nuggets of wisdom that I think are really valuable for our audience. So this is fun. okay, talk about advertising. let's talk about converting the leads and the role that a website place because a lot of people don't understand the difference between a website and a funnel. So what are the elements you need on your site to really make it a funnel and…
Lavahot Podcast: Yeah. Yeah,…
Nino Pingera: not just a website.
Lavahot Podcast: so I definitely think you should have right at the top of your website. You should really speak to what it is you do and how good you do it with a call to action tied to it. So if you want to be known in the marketplace for Being let's say HVAC, the company that has the the best speed meaning something breaks. You're out there within an hour. Then you should try to spell that out right away. Especially if that's the type of customer you're looking for if it's installation. It should maybe speak to that. It should speak to the type of warranties you offer. Whatever your USP is. But often times.
Lavahot Podcast: There's just these little tiny things like maybe having a great lead form on the home page of the site nowadays incorporating chat, which is extremely easy web chat is something and there's so many different companies. You don't have to use mine but there's so many companies out there that you can go to for web chat and it's fairly inexpensive for us. it's a hundred dollars a month. to incorporate chat, which engages that customer 24/7
Lavahot Podcast: So, it's just these little subtle things to get them to convert and just from that Chad can increase your conversions by 20 to 30 percent just on its own just because if somebody's doing that search at 6pm and you close at five, maybe they call on leave the voicemail, but we're in a age where they want to be able to order doordash and go on Amazon. They want to do everything from here, and there's a huge demographic I even think that it's worth in some categories even in home service…
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Lavahot Podcast: where You should give them an option to be able to just buy. and not that every customer you have is going to go to your website and buy maybe it's a service call or maybe it's a hot water heater install or a pest service the first time service. Not everybody's going to do that. But the ones that will do it. Can't do it. If you don't allow it. So, really start to explore that because we really are in that age of marketing where people they're just getting so used to just hitting the button maybe going to Apple pay and checking out and just being done with it. I would even say that for your local to midsize restaurants really try to dial in a way to be able to do that because companies like Domino's in Chipotle, they're just always gonna eat your lunch as long as they're the only ones That are leveraging these tools.
Lavahot Podcast: And the other Beauty side about where we are digitally now is that there's so many sources to be able to add these things to your media mix and it's not as expensive as you think and oftentimes. if you're pairing with the right software company. They're not just going to get you signed up for a subscription where you have to just go It Alone. There's a lot of great companies out there that if you find the right ones and feel free to reach out I'll point you in the right direction, but there's a lot of good software companies where they can tie this technology into your business like tracking and chat and click to pay.
Lavahot Podcast: And you don't have to go to loan like you they'll walk you through the roadmap of how to implement it and in some cases, they'll help you place it. They'll help you execute in. You're just bottling customers there. You just sell them if you want to purchase this go to my website. so
Nino Pingera: yeah, I love it. you talk about Innovation And keeping up with those Trends because we're in a day and age where people don't want to have conversations face to face anymore. Let alone on the phone and it is just this, everyone wants it now, right? Everyone's adopted that Amazon mindset where they can just hit by and it'll show up on their doorstep the next day sometimes the same day so that whole conversation is really fascinating and it is tough. I can imagine for businesses that rely on getting on the phone to be able to give quotes or whatever. So I love that even in those types of businesses. There are opportunities if you really think about it to innovate and make that an easier experience for your customers. I love that. I'm curious about
Nino Pingera: Content we haven't talked about that at all. where does that play a role? Is that even important because we've talked about a lot of different things to generate leads without even creating videos and doing the social media brand. So how does that play a role in this?
Lavahot Podcast: yeah, so content especially for your local to mid-size guys it's an acquired taste. Meaning I am a huge fan of it and there's certain industries where I really think that inside of your local market now use me as an example. So my entire agency was able to cultivate and launch from starting the podcast just in some case. I don't even know if it was from a direct listener or if it was somebody that listened it just expanded the reach of what my agency could do. And what our capabilities could be. and I know I'm not the
Lavahot Podcast: the solid case for that because I can work with companies all over the country. That's the beauty of marketing and digital marketing and I know an HVAC company cannot help a company in California. But there are simple things that you can do on a localized level. That can really set you apart from your other local competitors.
Lavahot Podcast: Meaning, and maybe it's podcasting or maybe it's just doing consistent videos talking about tips about maybe your service or how to identify termites or how do I identify a leak from your plumbing? All of these things can compound and there is to a degree doing video content even all local level. There's ways of being able to SEO that content in YouTube for instance where it could potentially come up in the search result and you can backlink your website to it. So there is some of that I think for other Professional Services like let's say you're a realtor.
Lavahot Podcast: In a certain Market, I think you should consider doing a podcast where you're interviewing the local restaurant owners the local nightclub owners the local kid venues. maybe even local school principals because doing that type of content where you're interviewing these people, one it gets you connected to their Network. So if you think of the guy that owns the best pizza shop in town and you just interview them hey, I want to interview you to hear about How you've been in business for the last 30 years, what is really set? You apart blah blah. That business owner knows people that you do not know.
Lavahot Podcast: and when they share that episode on their Facebook business profile and their personal Pages, it's going to reach people that you did not know and they now Know Who You Are as a realtor because you interviewed this individual the other thing because you can take that content and you can SEO it On YouTube is if somebody starts searching into that Marketplace realtors in Houston, Texas or Pick Market. If they are just going to YouTube to try to find information about maybe the school district like you're going to start stacking this content that makes you become the authority within that market. And yeah, you might.
Lavahot Podcast: Find an audience that goes beyond that and tiktok is a great example where there was a ton of realtors that would put out this content and we go well beyond where they are locally and it would attract people that were coming to the market. So, I think there's a lot of that that happens I think. we've seen companies be successful in all verticals of business throughout the last three years on tiktok where whether it's a local lawyer. It's a pest control company HVAC realtor, it's just one. Do you have the stomach to do it? and can you do it consistently because that's really the two things to look at you've got to look at it over a long enough time Horizon and me personally when I set out to create this show that I launched with lavahot.
Lavahot Podcast: I was in it for five years. I was just like I do it for five years. If nothing happens inside a five years then maybe I'll call it quit. So more than likely I won't just because now just I enjoy when I get to have great people onto my show. so in the other big thing is measure the right thing. Because I think when it comes to content. And this was something I learned from Grant Cardone and his team. They were like when you do an episode or when you do a video don't measure the metrics of it, look at it five years, look as a five year plan the thing you measure is revenue
Lavahot Podcast: And for me, it was very easy, when I started my agency because it was the only marketing vehicle that I had. I was not, paying for Facebook ads and I still don't like literally everything that comes to my agency is usually just attracted through the podcast or maybe through, reposting it in short form. So I always look at that what Revenue has been generated from my podcast. did I get Joe Rogan levels of downloads this month and my Alex hermosie now none of that matters. What matters? Is one am I enjoying the process am I able to bring on great and valuable people to the show? And does it drive Revenue?
Lavahot Podcast: but if I had to really now it down to is it worth the time and money and investment to build a studio and record and take that usually one episode, from to post-production you got about three four hours invested into it. So it's a Time Time investment to get everything set up get ready to roll and thank God, my wife has just really taken on a lot of I call her the executive producer because she coordinates every episode she helps put everything together. We'll set up everything for me. So it's big time safe for me which even publishes it most episodes I never look at which is inside or tip. if you just don't like you want to do a podcast or you do want to put out video content. but you're like
Lavahot Podcast: every other human being where you're like, I don't want to publish it. don't even look at it. just record it have somebody else do it. Just fine. Maybe a workout partner. Maybe it's another person who also wants to do video content. You're like Hey, we're gonna trade off We're gonna publish each other stuff. And I'm gonna look at it, and really for me. That's how I got started because I was like every other person, I hate the sound of my own voice. I hate, looking at me on camera. Did it anyway? The little secret was I just did it and I just had other people just take care of posting it for me. So yeah.
Nino Pingera: I love that gives me a lot of good stuff to think about. So I appreciate you sharing that it's been great for me so far and I'm just getting started so It gives me a lot of Hope for the future as well to see how well you've done with the podcast and it's just fun to think about let's briefly because I know we're starting to push up on time. I'm curious about where you see the future of marketing going. I know AIS, a Hot Topic right now. are there other things that you're kind of looking at you? What are your thoughts on that?
Lavahot Podcast: Yeah, I have not fully gone down like the AI rabbit hole with exception to one thing, inside of our platform. We simplify the review process by making it so that AI will simply reply back to the review read who wrote the review what the review was about and it can read that and it's just a beautiful process. It would just read it who is from and really write a nice response which is usually a great response to begin with but it's way better than the non-responses of the last, 40 reviews that a business owner got which is a very slept on area.
Lavahot Podcast: In terms of a Google business profile and enhancing your Brand's equity in the marketplace is just something as simple as replying back to reviews has both a Google impact meaning because you're giving Google more information believe it or not replying to a review Gibbs Google more information to know about your business, but equally it gives your customer a sense of appreciation. For the fact that they took time out of their day to write a review. And it also gives your next customer a sense of appreciation because they can see that It matters the feedback of your customer. and
Lavahot Podcast: that person and neither does the person who's going to read the review none of them know if it was replied to by Ai and on the surface, we have a simple way if you want to be able to manually go in there and respond, we have that tied in integrated to the software but I say, if you're gonna experiment without AI can help your business. That's probably one of the first places I would go is letting AI do the one thing you're not doing now anyway, which is replying back to reviews. Other than that, I no doubt. It's definitely going to become more and more of a thing as we go. I mean we use AI constantly even just within our podcast if I get I guess that comes in I'll drop their bio into Chachi PT and say
Lavahot Podcast: Give me some ideas of questions. I could ask this individual, really shape out, especially if it's an area of business that I'm not. overly knowledge then. I'll give me a structure of questions that I can ask and it's not like it's the end all be all but it really gives some insight on what to do. And if you talk about in the content standpoint if you're In individual that is like hey, I do want to start making content. I just don't know where to start.
Lavahot Podcast: There's a lot of great sources one of which would be Chachi BT, just like give it a topic. Let's say it's give me great video ideas to discuss a termite inspection or how do I identify termites? it'll spit out enough to get you started? It might not be like the full video and really you could ask it to give you a script of hey, how would I hook the customer? what would the core of the content and how would I call to action them just within chat GPT. So definitely on a Content basis we can tell that The only thing is try not to make it too obvious. I think we're about to see a shlew of Authors Hit the market right that have.
Lavahot Podcast: just rather than ghost writing their cheat PT right in their entire books, So, I mean, there's definitely that side so to try to fine-tune anything that you're having Chachi PT create for you to make it more personal, but yeah, I definitely think it's not going anywhere and it's only going to get better and better for sure.
Nino Pingera: Yeah, yeah, it's pretty amazing what it can already do. so if you just kind of extrapolate that out a few years I mean, I can't even imagine right where it's gonna take this and that's actually why I'm such a proponent of Entrepreneurship because It's replacing jobs left and right already. I can't even imagine what the future is going to look like and the biggest job security you can have is To Be Your Own Boss. And so Yeah,…
Lavahot Podcast: Yeah.
Nino Pingera: I love the conversation. this has been so much fun working people go to connect with you.
Lavahot Podcast: Yes, so I have a couple of different spots on pretty much every social media platform. I'm at Joseph Connell Jr. Or for the podcast if you want to check out any of our episodes, it's lavahot podcast.com right on there. We have, every way that you can listen to it be a audio you want to watch anything YouTube videos. if you want to try to find a specific guest that we've had you can do a search. but we barely consistently upload the videos to YouTube. We're working on publishing more and more. in terms of if you're curious what a marketing optimization would look like meaning you want to have us take a look at your marketing. I would say just go to go lavahot.com
Lavahot Podcast: And then for all things else business wives, I'm actually the cro for a company called my core. So we help with one is marketing. But we also help with payroll employee benefits bookkeeping so Myriad of different things that we actually have great resources for businesses as an advisory firm. So that's my core.io. So, really any of those places and then I had an offer for every one of your listeners. So these slingshot tap cards. I have 25 of these that I'll give away for free. So if you're interested in being able to just set up one of these cards link it right to your Facebook business profile to increase reviews. You just go to slingshot my business.com
Lavahot Podcast: And just fill out the form we'll get you linked up and we'll get you all set up with one of these cards.
Nino Pingera: That's very generous of Thank you so much. And I feel bad. Yeah, we didn't get to talk about my core, which maybe we'll do on another episode because I think
Lavahot Podcast: No, I think I linked you up with our CEO. So I promise you…
Nino Pingera: yeah.
Lavahot Podcast: because we're new and are partnership this has been a recent thing. I can promise He will definitely give a way better breakdown of my Core Company then I would be able to but yeah and…
Nino Pingera: Yeah.
Lavahot Podcast: a very passionate way like he's definitely gonna be a great guest if you have line that up.
Nino Pingera: So I've already spoken to him are gonna try and get them on the show. But yeah all the stuff you've mentioned. We're gonna Link in the show notes if you're listening just go there to connect with Joseph
Nino Pingera: What's your final message to our audience?
Lavahot Podcast: Yeah, and I'm actually going to take this from my core, message and there's three core principles that we operate by which is walk by faith lead with you who and A lot of what I talked about today was measure what matters. try to see if it's on the marketing standpoint try to put some sort of measurement into your marketing. Whether it's the calls. The forms maybe it's chat try to figure out what is actually driving the most leads and then make the most educated decision. You don't operate. Just from a gut or a feeling don't get emotional about the marketing Source measure. What matters I think is one of my favorite of the core.
Lavahot Podcast: foundations of my core and I think it's just because a big part of my career has been really measuring it and look at the data to be able to figure out what the best decision is.
Nino Pingera: My love that is invaluable advice. Thank you so much for being on the show. This has been amazing for anyone listening out there. Make sure you go and connect with Joseph and obviously subscribe to our Channel, whatever your platform you're listening to this on and share this content that helps us out a lot. But thank you so much again Joseph and forever listening out there. We'll see you guys in the next one.
Lavahot Podcast: Yes, sir. Thank you.