Public Relations Archives - PowerTips Unscripted

Ep.118: How to Use Podcasting to Further Your Brand and Fuel Your Pipeline with Phil Pelucha

August 13, 2020 00:30:57

Because of the success of our podcasts (PowerTips Unscripted and The Tim Faller Show) we are often asked by our Roundtables members and contacts in the industry about the power of podcasting.

Clearly we are advocates of this medium and today we talk more about how you as a business owner can build your brand and pipeline by adding podcasting to your marketing plan.

Today’s guest is Phil Pelucha Phil, CEO and Host of Billionaires in Boxers, an international group of successful entrepreneurs. Phil is based in Capetown, South Africa and is a Creative Producer on movies, TV & events as well an international podcast host and coach who shares his insights into creating and monetizing empowering content.

Additional Resources:

Billionaires in Boxers Podcast on Spotify
Billionaires in Boxers Facebook Group

This Episode Sponsored by: Wellborn Cabinet

Wellborn Cabinet is the featured sponsor for this episode of PowerTips Unscripted. Thank you, Wellborn Cabinet!

Ep.110: Making powerful emotional connections using empathy-based marketing with Tanya Bamford

June 17, 2020 00:25:14

Current events have created an environment of incredible stress for homeowners across the globe. Remodelers have an opportunity to tap into their dissatisfaction with their home environments by using an empathy-based marketing approach to make an emotional connection.

Tanya Bamford joins Victoria and Mark to share how using the right messaging, imagery, and delivery channels can allow remodelers to present themselves as conduits for creating retreats from stress at home – filling their pipelines with homeowners who are hungry for a reprieve.

Tanya Bamford is the Managing Director of R/A Marketing–a full-service agency providing creative, yet straight forward marketing solutions for remodeling companies across the United States.

This episode will cover:

What empathy marketing is.
Practical ways to incorporate empathy into your marketing messages.
How this is this different than leveraging “pain points.”
The challenge of making an emotional connection with a strangers and how empathy marketing bridges that gap.
How remodeling companies can begin to incorporate empathy into their marketing.

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Ep.97: The Magic of Disney’s Customer-Service Strategies with Pete Blank

January 29, 2020 00:35:18

If you’ve ever visited any Disney theme park across the globe, you may think nobody does customer service and experience like Disney. Although the execution is complex, the baseline concepts are quite simple.

In this episode, Pete Blank shares customer-service strategies from Disney with Victoria and Mark, and shows you how to apply these lessons to your remodeling company to boost your own team’s customer-service performance.

Pete has been developing leaders and improving service levels of organizations for the past 25 years — 13 of those with the Walt Disney Co. and the past 12 in local government. He loves inspiring others with ways to enhance their organizational culture. You can learn more about Pete Blank at his website: www.peteblank.com, or on his LinkedIn page.

Growing up near Disney World in Orlando, Pete says he knew he always wanted to work there. After a few years as a sportscaster in Alabama, Pete went to Florida and began working at Disney World. He and his wife and family moved back to Alabama and he got what he saw as a temporary job in local government, where he still uses those customer-service strategies. The biggest challenges to providing outstanding customer service and experiences are speed and expectations. Technology has changed the speed and convenience with which goods and services can be delivered. You have to align your clients’ expectations with what you can actually deliver. Pete talks about how you and your team can consistently offer the best service possible, including:

The difference between customer service and customer experience
How social media amplifies all experiences —good and bad
Making customer service part of you mission statement
Looking for what “above and beyond” looks like in the future
Making the experience consistent
How emotional connections create relationships
Bringing creativity to customer experiences
How to measure your customer-service success
The power of follow-up surveys
And more …

Pete says remodeling can emulate the magical experiences of Disney — your clients are choosing to transform their spaces, and helping them through that can be a transforming experience for their homes and their lives.

Ep.95: Being Honest Online with Taylor Rennick

January 15, 2020 00:21:38

Honesty is truly the best policy when it comes to your website and social media presence. In a sharing economy, your prospects want to know everything about your company before they even pick up the phone.

We’re breaking down why transparency online is important, and how it can lead to more jobs.

In this episode, Taylor Rennick discusses the importance of being honest and transparent online with Victoria and Mark, and tells you how it can create more leads, and eventually more revenue.

Taylor is an inbound marketing strategist at Builder Funnel — one of our partners here at Remodelers Advantage.

As part of her job, Taylor spends hours every day looking at remodeling company websites. Some are good, some not so much. And some seem a little shady, using project photos that aren’t theirs or lying about project pricing. Remodeling is intensely personal, and has to be sold as a service, not a product, Taylor says. Being transparent is the key. Taylor talks about the information prospects want to know, and how they want to find it, and why you’ll get more prospects, including:

Developing content to educate your audience
Explaining your process
Talk about cost on your website
What you should offer on your blog
What audience data can tell you
Positioning your company as a thought leader
Updating information to stay accurate
Reaching people where they are in their buying process
And more …

Taylor says you can find free resources to help you in all your online marketing on Builder Funnel’s site.

Ep.80: Bridging the Skills Gap from an Economist’s Perspective with Mischa Fisher

September 11, 2019 00:31:54

An aging skilled workforce is retiring, and there’s a shortage of younger people taking their place. It’s a hot topic among remodeling companies, who are still searching for the right answers to solving their labor shortage.

In this episode, Mischa Fisher, Victoria, and Mark discuss what you can do to bridge the skills gap, and how to change deep-seated perceptions around joining the home-services industry.

Mischa Fisher is the chief economist at ANGI Homeservices, representing the HomeAdvisor and Angie’s List brands. Prior to this role, Mischa was chief economist for Illinois, where he served as the economic policy advisor to the governor; he is also a former legislative director for the United States Congress in Washington, DC, and is currently an instructor in applied quantitative analysis at Northwestern University.

Mischa says the labor shortage starts with s a simple fact of demographics, where an aging workforce is getting ready to retire, and the Millennials and younger Generation Z aren’t in the pipeline to replace them. Compounding that, there’s already a shortage of skilled labor. An internal HomeAdvisor poll showed 65 percent of their members could not fill a position, says Mischa, and it’s getting worse. Mischa shares his insights into what’s causing the labor shortage, and how we can all go about fixing it, plus bonus advice from his dad, including:

Why talking about it is a great start
Raising awareness inside and outside the industry
Best practices to fill your open positions
How to appeal to Millennials and Gen Z with a rewarding workplace
The importance of building a real team
Recognizing generational differences and how to work with them
How to create a clear pathway to learning
Recruiting older, experienced people
Using the student loan crisis to your advantage in recruiting
Appealing to the entrepreneurial spirit
Working with industry, government, and educational leaders
Educating parents about the advantages of learning a skilled trade
And more …

Mischa says you can find more resources to help at the Home Advisor Pro Center. Keep an eye out for a new research portal that will be live in a couple of months at www.homeadvisor.research.

Ep.74: Pheel the Love — How the Most Powerful Force in the Universe Builds Great Companies with Tom Burgoyne

July 31, 2019 00:22:35

Everyone would love to have raving fans — and today’s guest is the most popular mascot in sports.

Tom Burgoyne has had a 30-year career as the best friend of the Phillie Phanatic — the most popular mascot in sports.

In this episode, Tom talks to Victoria and Mark about what the Phanatic has taught him about the importance of customer service in business — and how it can be the difference between being a good company and being a great one.

Tom has applied what he has learned in costume and talks about how the love people have for the Phanatic can be applied to your everyday working life. He’s also the author of Pheel The Love!: How the Most Powerful Force in the Universe Builds Great Companies — Phillie Phanatic Style !

Tom was working in sales when he answered a blind ad to become the backup to the original Phanatic. He was the backup for four years before stepping up into the primary role. He realized the power of the character and the love the Phanatic generates and has applied the principles to boosting customer service and your company through love and fun, including:

Being authentic
Deciding to be loving
Noticing opportunities to share the love
Acting on the opportunities
The big smooch — making people feel special
Being optimistic consistently as a company
The Love 15 evaluation
And more …

Tom shares some of his most enduring memories as the Phanatic, including leading the 2008 World Series parade, and hot it gets in the costume, and what the Phanatic and Remodelers Advantage have in common.

Tom also has a podcast called Phillies Backstage with Brazer and Burgoyne. And you can check out his page on LinkedIn.

Ep.57: How to Capture Cost-Effective, Exclusive Leads by Blogging with Mike Foti

March 27, 2019 0:35:24

We’re big believers in the power of blogging to generate interest and business. Today we’re talking to someone in the trenches who’s also a believer, because it’s helped him in growing his business, gaining credibility, elevating customer loyalty, and — most importantly — generating cost-effective, exclusive leads.

In this episode, Mike Foti discusses his business case for blogging with Victoria and Mark, and tells you how you can do the same.

Mike is president of Innovate Building Solutions of Cleveland, OH, a regional remodeling and nationwide wholesaler of grout-free shower and tub wall panels, wet room systems and glass floors, and also of Innovate Home Org, a designer and installer of custom home organization systems. In the eight years he’s been blogging on his News from the Block blog, it’s grown to 85,000 visitors per month and 19,000 email subscribers — and he has two other blogs. Mike is a self-described DMG (Digital Marketing Geek) and loves learning how to increase traffic and leads without forking over big bucks to “Mr. Google.” He’s also a crazy one-hour-a-day runner – even after suffering two heart attacks over the last two years. Finally, Mike is a reinvigorated Cleveland Browns fan and says (just like Baker Mayfield) he’s feeling a little dangerous today.

Mike started blogging after a digital marketing consultant told him how it would help his business, and he admits his first attempts weren’t so good. Mike shares his five reasons to blog, tips for finding the time to do it, and the benefits, including:

Avoiding pay-per-click costs
Why he doesn’t do Facebook ads
Becoming known as an expert and building a following
Why it works for project-based businesses
The importance of being consistent
Attracting tire-kickers and turning them into leads
The power of information, influence, and education
If you can’t write, finding someone who can
Giving yourself permission to not be very good at first
How to generate ideas — taking questions from your sales calls and answering them
Why the weirdest jobs make the best stories
Writing awesome headlines
Sharing who you are for a personal connection
How to entertain while educating
And more …

Including Mike and Mark talking the Odell Beckham trade, while Victoria stares at the ceiling. Also, for all those wondering, capers are flower buds that are pickled in brine. It’s a wide-ranging and high-energy conversation that will convince you to start blogging if you’re not doing it already — or make you better at it if you are.

Ep.55: Why and How to Start Your Own Podcast

March 13, 2019 0:23:55

In an extremely meta podcast today, we talk about podcasting — and the top reasons you should start your own. We were prompted by an email from a Roundtables member asking why and how to do it.

Podcasting is growing by leaps and bounds — 51% of the population has listened to a podcast. Of those listening, 45% are likely to have an income of $250,000 or more — the kind of affluent demographic you want.

In this episode, Victoria and Mark kick around the reasons you should start your own podcast, with some tips on how to get started.

First thing, don’t get swayed by the idea that a podcast is too global to target your own local area. You don’t even have to cover remodeling in your podcast, as long as it’s sponsored by your company. Other things to consider include:

Making the time commitment
Being consistent
Deciding on a format
Writing a script
Equipment, set-up, and the costs
Content creation and what to cover
How to target the right market for you
The value of an internal podcast for your employees
The launch and initial push
How prepare your guests and make them comfortable
And much more …

Including Mark springing the lightning round on Victoria (completely ignoring what he just said about preparing guests, but whatever). If you start a podcast, or are already doing one, let us know in the comments below!

Ep.47: How Social Proof Can Ignite Massive Growth with Josh Kelly

January 16, 2019 0:26:15

Reviews are the lifeblood of any remodeling company. But are you getting the best social proof of your company’s performance from your clients?

Social proof is simply getting credit for what you’re already doing, says Josh Kelly. But it can spur your company to massive growth when done right.

In this episode, Josh talks to Victoria and Mark about social proof, how to use it in your business, and how it can help you weather some big changes coming to the remodeling industry.

Josh is a principal of RevuKangaroo.com, a review collection and distribution company. Before starting RevuKangaroo, Josh used the power of social proof, reviews, and referrals to grow his residential services business, Parker & Sons Inc., Phoenix, AZ, from $6.5 million to over $100 million in just 13 years.

The best way to grow your business is to keep and make more money with the customers you have — and have them tell others about their great experiences. But big changes are coming — Amazon and Google continue to make inroads into the remodeling space. If you’re not prepared to play with them, and not against them, you could lose out. And one of the ways to work with them is to show your social proof. Josh breaks down the three components of social proof, and has great tips on:

Making it easy for the customer to give you a review
Why you want an employee reviewed, not your company
How to ask for referrals in a personal way
Why “referral” is a dirty word, and what to use instead
How to screen reviews
Why identical reviews on multiple sites are bad
Why he spells Revu that way
And more…

If you’d like to learn more about RevuKangaroo or pick Josh’s brain, you can drop him an email at josh@revukangaroo.com.

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Ep.43: The Power of Public Relations with Jim Zack

December 5, 2018 00:29:20

As remodelers, public relations is often an overlooked part of your marketing mix. We spend so much time and money on online marketing, PR is an afterthought. But with the web’s insatiable need for content, placing projects to get publicity should be a part of your strategy.

In this episode, Roundtables member Jim Zack tells Victoria and Mark how and why his firm gets up to 30 articles about projects published per year, creating an overall brand awareness in his market and beyond. His projects have appeared in such print and digital outlets as the Wall Street Journal, Dwell, and archdaily.com.

Jim’s president of Zack | de Vito Architecture + Construction, an Architect-led design/build company in San Francisco. His goal is to be the No. 1 design-focused design/build company in the Bay Area. The company’s work focuses on high-value residences, renovations, and new construction with a consciously modern focus.

The push to get published comes from his Architectural background, where getting published is always a primary goal. It translates well into driving the PR side of his design/build business, with PR as part of the overall marketing strategy. Jim shares his proven method for getting great PR coverage, including:

Capitalizing on awards
How to submit work to print and digital outlets
Finding your project niche and the outlets to use
Industry vs. consumer outlets
Why to pay for professional photography
Making your projects newsworthy
Choosing the right project to promote
Getting your clients on-board
Putting the right to publicize in your contract
And more…

To get an idea of just how much Jim’s work has been published —and publicized — check out this list, which only shows a part of his PR footprint.

Public Relations