Browse all resources
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Business
Teamwork: Another Look
Ready to boost productivity, minimize errors, and accelerate your path to success? It's time to take another look at teamwork.
I want you to:
be more productive,
reduce your mistakes,
shorten your learning curve,
and elevate your success.
If I am going to help you do these things, we must first look at what’s hiding in your blind spot.
Are you ready?
Teamwork in Business is Highly Overrated.
Teamwork is never the answer.
Individual responsibility is the answer.
A relay race is really just a series of individual runners, three of whom begin their efforts with an advantage, or a deficit, handed to them by the previous runner. If a runner increases that advantage or shortens that deficit, he or she was successful.
When individuals are rewarded collectively, we create the illusion of a team.
1: Individual responsibility brings out the best in us.
2: You create a committee when you remove individual responsibility.
3: Every bureaucracy begins as a well-intentioned committee.
But we love to be members of a tribe. Being part of a team – a tribe – gives us a sense of identity, purpose, and adventure. These feelings help us to perform as individuals.
Americans love football. But it isn’t the teamwork that attracts us. It is the tribalism and the tribal leaders.
Quarterbacks, running backs and receivers – the tribal leaders who score the most points – are paid a lot more money than the rest of the team. So why do coaches tell players that every member of the team is “equally important”?
I can’t help but hear the “Animal Farm’ voice of George Orwell, his tongue about to punch a hole in his cheek,
“All animals are created equal. But some animals are more equal than others.”
The role of a tribal leader is to instill the values, beliefs, and culture of the tribe into each of its members and each of its fans.
Tribal leaders are different from tribal managers.
A Manager – a Coach – holds each individual responsible for delivering the outcome that he or she has been assigned.
Steve Jobs did not invent the Apple computer. Steve Wozniak invented the Apple computer.
Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were not a team. They were partners, each of whom had specific responsibilities.
“Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me … they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone …. I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone… Not on a committee. Not on a team.” *
That is Steve Wozniak’s advice to you.
“Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy… Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.”
– John Steinbeck, East of Eden
Wozniak was the first runner in a relay race. He handed the baton to Steve Jobs. When Jobs was forced to hand that baton to John Sculley in 1985, Scully stumbled and handed the baton to Michael Spindler who stumbled and handed it to Gil Amelio who fell on his face and left a 20-foot skid mark on the track.
Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1996 and brought it back to life. After he died in 2011, tribal manager Tim Cook lifted Apple to a $1 trillion stock valuation, the first ever in history.
Professor Scott Galloway made a piercing comment about the power of tribal leaders when he was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour,
“As societies become wealthier and more educated, the reliance on a super-being and church attendance goes down, but they still look for idols. Into that void steps technology leaders because technology… …is the closest thing we have to magic. Our new Jesus Christ was Steve Jobs, and now Elon Musk has taken on that mantle.”
Although I admired the abilities of Steve Jobs, he was merely the popularizer, the face, the dynamic leader, the pitchman, the philosopher, the high priest of the Apple religion. Without Wozniak, Steve Jobs would likely have been just another California techie bouncing from company to company in blue jeans, a black turtleneck, and sneakers.
I will leave Elon Musk up to you.
Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads®, and we’ll hook you up.
Business
Does Your Company Have Core Values?
There are only three reasons to have a list of core values.
There are only three reasons to have a list of core values.
1: Inspire and reinforce “on-brand” behavior from employees.
2: Assist in the orientation and onboarding of new hires.
3: Inform investors, customers, and other interested parties of what they can expect from you.
PROBLEM: When your core values include aspirational words that describe attributes rather than actions, your core values list will be interpreted differently by different readers, regardless of any clarifying language that might appear beneath the aspirational words.
Use descriptions of actions
rather than create a list of attributes.
These are a few core values
that describe aspirational attributes
rather than observable actions:
“Transparency”
“Integrity”
“Quality”
“Accountability”
“Respect”
“Passion”
How do you know if a person is transparent, accountable, or passionate?
It is hard to know what a person is being, but it is easy to see what they are doing.
Actions are easier to recognize than Attributes.
This is why lists of attributes rarely ring true in the hearts of employees.
When you list aspirational attributes instead of observable actions:
- Employees aren’t exactly sure what to do.
- New hires are intimidated and confused.
- Investors, customers, and other interested parties will not be able to clearly observe your core values manifested through the actions of your people.
If your employees do not see your core values modeled by their fellow employees and reinforced by management each day, you don’t have a core values list; you have a wish list, a poster on the wall that will quickly become invisible.
An actionable Core Values List will improve your company culture as well as the experience you deliver to your customers.
Ray Seggern teaches:
Your core values list is the STORY you are telling,
the daily experience of your employees determines your CULTURE,
and the reactions of your customers will be determined by the EXPERIENCE you give them.
If you have a Wish List of aspirational attributes rather than a Core Values List of observable actions, here are a few examples of how attributes can be expressed and described as actions:
Rather than say “Transparency,”
we might say, “We make only honest and accurate statements about our products.”
Rather than say “Integrity,”
we might say, “We always follow through on our promises.”
Rather than say “Quality,”
we might say, “We will only sell products that are expertly manufactured from the finest materials.”
Rather than say “Accountability,”
we might say, “We never make excuses for our shortcomings or try to shift the blame to others.”
Rather than say “Respect,”
we might say, “We use courteous language at all times and maintain eye contact when others are speaking.”
Rather than say “Passion,”
we might say, “We smile and display energy, attention, and enthusiasm at all times.”
In conclusion: A core values list, by definition, should contain only your core values. Don’t let it morph into a comprehensive list that feels like a sermon or a pep talk. Short, tight lists work better than long, rambling ones. Your core values list should not exceed 100 words. (The “actions” list in bold letters is 71 words.)
If you aren’t a showman or a storyteller, you’re still in good company. Wizard of Ads® can help you create the brand or marketing story you need to drive your user experience. Book a call.
Team
Is Your Ladder Too Short?
Is your business stagnant? Are you tired of reaching high and finding nothing? Step up.
I meet with dozens of people each year who tell me how they grew their companies to an impressive size, but then the growth slowed down. And then it stopped. They can see a lot more business out there; they just can’t figure out how to get it.
I used to call this, “hitting the glass ceiling,” but I don’t call it that anymore. Now I say, “You need to add more steps to your ladder.”
Here are a few things I’ve learned over the years:
- It is easy to pick the low-hanging fruit.
According to the US Census, there are 17 million owner-operated businesses in America that have no employees other than the owner. I imagine them as 17 million guys named Chuck and each of them has a truck. All of these Chucks-in-Trucks live off the lowest of the low-hanging fruit. They provide pest control, plumbing, electrical work, window cleaning, gutter installation, A/C repair, junk hauling, roofing, remodeling, swimming pool resurfacing, cement pouring, and tax preparation. They make a living, but their businesses are not scalable. In fact, it’s not really a business at all. When Chuck isn’t behind the wheel of that truck, Chuck is unemployed. But Chuck survives because it is easy to pick the low-hanging fruit. - Most of the fruit on the tree requires a step-ladder for you to reach it.
The steps on the ladder are preparation and planning, procedures and processes, recruitment and retention of customers, recruitment and retention of employees, vendor relations, profit margin monitoring, cash management, lines of credit, and then of course there is advertising and marketing. - Every successful person has a superpower, a core competency, an area of excellence.
And when the growth of the business begins to slow, the instinct of these people is always to double-down on the things that got them to where they are. This is a very seductive mistake. - The steps that got you to where you are… will not take you to the next level.
The business owner knows the steps that got them to where they are. They can name the reasons for their success. This is why they believe that doing what they have always done – but with greater intensity and deeper commitment – will lift the company to a whole new level. But it never does. - To get to the next level, you need to add more steps to your ladder.
You’ve got to start doing things you’ve never done before. You have to identify your limiting beliefs. You have to go outside your comfort zone.
It usually takes business owners about 3 years of pushing and straining plus motivational talks, accountability partners and invigorated compensation plans that result in zero growth before they realize that they have already found all the customers who like to buy in the way the business owner prefers to sell.
Do you want to hear something really weird? I have learned that it is almost pointless to suggest meaningful change to a business owner until their business has been flat for about 3 years. It has been my observation that they will always resist adding more steps to their ladder until they have utterly exhausted their confidence in their superpower.
Has your business been flat for awhile? Are you tired of standing on your tiptoes at the top of your ladder reaching as high as you can with your strong right arm and finding nothing there?
Add more steps to your ladder.
To learn more about how we can help you, book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.
Advertising
How to Purchase Your Customer’s Attention
Today's currency is entertainment. Effective ads create immediate recall and positive associations, actively reach out to potential customers and establish a strong connection with them.
Hungry people look for food.
Sad people look for hope.
Ambitious people look for opportunity.
Oppressed people look for escape.
But if food is available and you are neither sad nor oppressed and your ambition is – for now at least – satisfied, you are contented.
Contented people look for entertainment.
The company that wins more of the customer’s time is the one most likely to win their money.
What currency do you offer your customer in exchange for their time?
Do you offer them information?
Information holds little interest for persons who aren’t currently in the market for your product.
Information is valuable only to a customer who is currently, consciously in the market for a product they haven’t already chosen in their heart. This is when the search engine optimization energy of all your competitors will wiggle and wink at your customer from 46 different directions.
SEO is a last-minute, last-ditch attempt to win the affections of the undecided and uncommitted.
Why not win your customer’s heart before they need your product?
Great ads make customers think of you immediately – and feel good about you – when they finally need what you sell.
Would you like to win your customer’s time and attention?
Give them entertainment.
ENTERTAINMENT: “A thing to which a person chooses to direct their attention due to the pleasure it brings them.”
We direct our attention to many things each day that do not bring us pleasure: the obligations that come with employment and the ambushes that come with life; tax returns and kids in trouble, lawsuits and medical problems.
Entertainment is a currency.
You would be amazed at what you can buy with it.
You may recall that last week’s Monday Morning Memo ended with these lines:
Weirdly, Wizard Academy doesn’t advertise. The only way you’ll hear about the Academy is from an alumnus who thinks you belong.
And guess what?
You do belong.”
I was able to say “you belong” because you were entertained enough by the subject matter to read it all the way through to the end.
And now you’ve done it again.
This makes me happy.
It’s a clear indication that you are a self-selected member our tribe.
Welcome.
To learn more about how we can help you, book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.
Home Services
The Wizard’s 2024 Predictions for Residential Home Services
Last year, I predicted three things that all came true for residential home service companies.
- Customers will be more cautious.
- Replacement opportunities will not change.
- Customers will be more price-sensitive.
We saw customers looking for repair solutions over replacement more often. Buyers were more inclined to leave the repair to the bitter end, sometimes to their own detriment.
We also saw many customers look to DIY and handymen solutions as many residential home service companies struggled to shift to a repair mindset.
We saw finance options used more often, more shopping around, and more customers trying to squeeze out every last drop from their home's equipment.
In 2024, we are walking into one of the toughest years in your company's history.
With household debt DOUBLE that of the 2009 housing crisis, even people with good credit will struggle to get approved on finance terms this coming year as they run out of runway.
With inflation persisting, people simply don’t have any more money and are not earning enough to catch up with the cost of living.
And a looming election year always causes uncertainty, lowering consumer confidence.
Companies who’ve not invested in a strong mass media brand story to build and grow trust, will face a tumultuous year of lead generation.
If you're thinking of cutting your marketing budget in 2024, be sure to cut your revenue expectations in league with that decision.
For those companies who haven't worked on their efficiencies and productivity, will face razor-thin margins or simply fail to close the sale.
And for those companies who haven't shifted to a repair-first mindset, will face the inevitability of lower replacement conversions and, thus, revenues.
Now, this doesn't mean that you won't have replacement opportunities. It just means that chasing replacement opportunities in your advertising is going to have you fishing from a small pool with small fish.
2024 Action Steps: Slow down your sales process and love the customers you are with.
Don't try to smash your database too heavily. Be a farmer, not a miner.
Look for opportunities to buy mass media. As your competitors retract, there will be deals to be had in speaking to the masses in a less noisy market.
Build trust BEFORE they need you, and win the game before the game has even started in Google search results.
You don't need more leads this year. You need more good leads to run your limited resources out to.
A powerful brand campaign will get more people to know, like, and trust you BEFORE they need you.
With rising costs of acquisition, a mass media campaign will eventually 4X your marketing spend. All you have to do is deliver on the promises made in your advertising.
If you need help growing your business in a shrinking economy or improving your marketing efficiency for a higher Net EBITDA, give me a call. I specialize in helping residential home service companies become BIG brands.
To learn more about how we can help you, book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads™ today
Paid Advertising
Fierce Competition, Long Buying Cycles, and Great Advertising
My colleague, Johnny “FM” Molson, recently wrote that “most people don’t know most businesses.”
For example, how many brands of hearing aids can you name?
You and I are happily oblivious to almost all the so-called “brands” in any category that we don’t routinely shop.
And that goes double for what I’d call Ugly Ducking Businesses.
Yet there are exceptions. Take insurance.
You’ve likely only shopped insurance a few times in your life, yet you can easily name a half-dozen insurance brands. Why?
Advertising.
Every major insurance firm runs a heavy-duty, well-crafted, TV branding campaign. To include:
- The GEICO Gecko (and Caveman)
- Allstate’s Mayhem
- Progressive’s Flo
- Jake From State Farm
- Liberty Mutual’s Limu Emu
- The “We Are Farmer’s” campaign with J.K. Simmons
So what can we learn from that?
To Compete with Great Advertising You Need Your Own Great Advertising
The major insurance houses brand with passion ‘cause they can’t afford not to.
If they sat on the sidelines while their competition dominated the Mental Availability and Top of Mind Awareness game, they’d go out of business.
So, if you don’t have any competition running great branding ads, you could wait until they do and then be forced to respond…
Or you could launch your campaign before the competition.
I recommend the latter, ‘cause branding into a messaging “blue ocean” is far easier than having to fight it out in a red ocean of persuasive advertising.
That said, if you are forced to enter that red ocean, it’s better to do so sooner rather than later — and with the highest impact ads you can muster.
Long Buying Cycles Greatly Benefit From Great Branding
Most people associate heavy-duty branding with what the industry calls “Fast Moving Consumer Goods” (FMCG)
Think soft drinks, chips, soaps, fast food, beer, detergents — stuff people buy every week or several times a week.
Coca-Cola certainly does spend a lot on advertising.
Yet branding is even MORE important for products and services with longer buying cycles, bought far less frequently.
Lose a burger sale to a competitor, and you’ll have another chance at selling to that customer later that week.
Lose a roof or AC sale to a competitor, and you won’t have another chance with that customer for fifteen years.
Lose a barn sale, and it’ll be fifty years.
So for long buying cycles, it pays to pre-convince customers before they ever need what you sell, as the cost for reaching them too late is so high.
Conversely, successfully boxing the competition out of consideration hurts them dearly — and profits you even more.
For these reasons, insurance companies know that they have to be on your shortlist, or they’ll lose you as a customer, perhaps for decades. That makes a strong branding campaign a must-have.
If you also have a business with a long buying cycle, it’ll pay to follow suit.
Interesting Characters Make For The Strongest Messaging
Pretty much all of the insurance branding campaigns star and spotlight strong, identifiable characters.
Think of the GEICO Gecko (or caveman), Flo, Mayhem, Jake From State Farm, and the Limu Emu.
Heck, even Farmers has the recognizable spokesperson of J.K. Simmons
There are multiple reasons for this, but the top two are:
- Interesting characters are dynamite entertainment and ensure better audience engagement.
- People bond with people faster and more easily than with faceless corporations.
Since 95% to 99% of your ads’ audience won’t be in the market for what you sell, your ads will need to offer entertainment to capture and keep their attention.
Fortunately, characters and character-driven storytelling is the best and most surefire way to provide that entertainment.
And this is especially the case for an episodic or serialized content, such as a TV campaign.
Look at any movie franchise or novel series and you’ll see: people may come for the plot, but they stay for the characters.
You go to a James Bond film to watch James Bond, after all; the plot is secondary. Works the same for branding ads with strong characters.
And not only do the characters engage the audience, they help foster trust in the company.
This works fine with fictional characters, as the insurance campaigns demonstrate, but it works even better for business owners as spokesman, such as Frank Perdue and Gert Boyle.
So if you’ve got a strong Origin Story, you really ought to be telling it — through your mass media advertising.
What’s Your Buying Cycle? And What’s Your Plan for Winning It?
Whether you’re selling burgers or bookkeeping, you’ll want a plan for winning over prospective customers whenever they DO need what you sell.
And it boils down to this:
- If they’re not aware of you…
- If they don’t think of you when they need what you sell…
- If they don’t think well of you…
- If you’re not easy & pleasant to do business with, and…
- If you don’t make & close the sale when the customer calls or shows up, then…
… you’ll lose the sale.
If you wish to win the sale, you’ll need to make sure each step is in good working order.
And nothing on Earth is so effective at improving the first three steps as a character and story-driven, long-term branding campaign.
If you’d like to launch or reboot your business’s story-driven branding campaign, I’d be happy to help.
No results found!
Frequently asked questions
Questions? We’ve got answers.
Who does the Wizard of Ads® for Contractors work with?
Wizard of Ads® for Contractors work with healthy and growing Residential Home Service Contractors hungry to grow by multiples, like you.
You are ready, willing, and able to grow your business. You are open to change and are seeking a distinctive angle of approach to gain the time and attention of a too-busy public.
You know that lasting relationships take time, patience, and good energy to nurture and cultivate. We carefully enter into every arrangement with the intention of working with you for as long as you own your business. You prefer lasting partnerships.
You are already a solid operator. You have successfully grown your business and appreciate the impact the right brand story will have to get to the next level in your operation. You know a strong relational message takes time to gain momentum, but it’s worth the one-time short-term discomfort for the long-term gains.
Marketing cannot fix a failing business.
We accelerate what’s already happening in a business. If your business is on the rocks, marketing will only speed up the inevitable.
You’re focused on lasting change that leads to exponential, profitable growth, not just sales at any cost. Intuitively, you know that communication that enhances every element of your customer's experience and your employee's culture is the key to your success.
How does the Wizard of Ads® for Contractors charge?
Traditional marketing agencies are designed to capture the greatest amount of revenue from a client, regardless of results. Every last item is billed and expensed to the client. Typical agency fees can represent a whopping 55% of the entire advertising budget. That means a $5 million dollar advertising budget, you would spend $2.75 million on agency fees.
Think of Wizard of Ads® for Contractors as the Anti-Agency.
Our income is not tied to your advertising budget. Our income is exclusively tied to your growth. Our goal is to maximize your advertising impact with the lowest reasonable spend. This allows you to spend only what is necessary or to put extra horsepower into aggressively growing in your market.
The genius of this model is that it perfectly aligns our motivations as true partners for exponential profitable growth without the pain of being unaffordable. Ultimately, we are confident in taking the risk of being underpaid in the first few years because we know the results always speak for themselves.
Next, we do not accept commissions, referral fees, kickbacks, or other compensation from any service providers we recommend or engage for production work. Most agencies do. This includes the 15% agency commission for media buying. This approach is considerably different from the compensation plan employed by most advertising agencies, as it eliminates any potential conflicts of interest and allows us to focus our entire attention on helping you grow your business profitably as a true partner. For example, a $500,000 annual media buy would involve a $75,000 commission that we would have removed directly from your media providers' invoices.
This is the perfect pricing model for Residential Home Services.
By tying ourselves to gross revenue, we only have one motivation. Your motivation. We have no motivation to convince you to spend more money on marketing than what is necessary, and since we are a variable expense to sales, we NEVER become too expensive to have us on your team.
In almost every case, we end up lowering the amount of money you spend. We will stay within your planned marketing budget, including your media spend, production, and our Annual Fee. Add on the fact that you get any and all commissions back for media buys and various services provided by outside providers, and you will actually save money having us on your team.
Don’t forget, we have the largest buying power in North America for media buying, meaning for every dollar you spend buying media, we only spend 27 cents on average. This stretches your reach, impact, and frequency in a way no other agency (or yourself) can achieve on your own, saving you hundreds of thousands of dollars, eventually millions, every single year.
Clients who heed our advice and embrace our Marketing Strategy quickly add $1 million in incremental revenue to their business, making your investment a smart bet and a bit of a no-brainer.
There is no longer any guesswork, hope, or fear that our marketing strategies are going to work. If our client’s are able to abandon any limiting beliefs about marketing, deliver operational excellence, and play the long game, our marketing strategy will accelerate their profitable growth.
Wizard of Ads® for Contractors pricing model is based solely on the topline revenue of your company. It consists of an Upfront Fee and an Annual Fee. These fees are inclusive of scheduled travel, services, and all other expenditures as outlined in the Consulting Agreement.
The Upfront Fee covers the intensive Uncovery Process, the first year’s Media Buy, the Creative Process, and the Market Research while the Annual Fee goes toward implementation, ongoing creative and consulting, and next year's media buy. You get a team of 3.5 people, with direct access to a top tier Creative Lead and Media Buyer, and on-demand access to me as your Master Strategist. You will also have a full-time Account Manager keeping everything on track.
While the upfront does have an initial pinch, it is easy to amortize the investment over the many years we will be working together to grow your business. Wizard of Ads® retain clients for 10 years, on average. The sale of the business is the number one reason for termination. We actively terminate the bottom 1% of clients who are unwilling or unable to follow our strategies.
Wizard of Ads® for Contractors believes that all rewards should be directly correlated to the success of our clients. This means that the Wizard of Ads® for Contractors only receives a raise when the company achieves growth. For example, if your gross sales for the year have increased by 25%, the Annual Fee you pay us in the following year will also be increased by 25%. Likewise, if your gross sales decrease, our Annual Fee will decrease by the same percentage during the following year.
This is an exceptionally easy and fair way to track and reward success. This model was developed by Wizard of Ads® over 35 years ago and has served us well because it serves our clients well.
As a rule of thumb, we take the risk of working for considerably less than our actual value in the first few years as we help accelerate growth. This means you need to be willing to pay us exceptionally well when you start doing even better.
When should I engage The Wizard of Ads® for Contractors?
There are four key revenue stages for engagement with the Wizard of Ads® for Contractors.
- Under $3.6 million in revenue
- Between $3.6 and $10 million in revenue
- Between $10 and $20 million in revenue
- Over $20 million in revenue
Under $3.6 million in revenue is an investment in your brand. This will serve you well in establishing your brand story early on and help you with your name, logo, and truck wrap design. It's easier to create pictures from a story than it is to make a story based on pre-drawn pictures. You'll be glad you did. Everyone on a fast path to growth is.
Most clients start with Wizard of Ads® for Contractors between $3.6 and $10 million in revenue. They have often seen a natural ceiling with their leads for demand service and are looking for ways to push past the ceiling. This can only be done with a properly executed brand strategy, specifically in mass media with a sticky story.
Between $10 and $20 million in revenue, Wizard of Ads® for Contractors has some natural economies of scale. This is a sweet spot where Wizard of Ads® for Contractors can offer some added value in getting the ball rolling.
Over $20 million in revenue is actually the lowest cost point of entry as a percentage of revenue, but not the cheapest time to start with the Wizard of Ads® for Contractors. Leveraging all economies of scale aside, we have been left out of the upside along the way, so engaging when over $20 million in revenue means we have to mend a lot of fences damaged along the way. This is also where clients see significant savings in their media buys and production costs.
There are also three market sizes to consider.
- Primary Markets are the top 50 cities in America.
- Secondary Markets are the smaller cities in America.
- Tertiary Markets are the more rural trade areas in America.
When considering an engagement with The Wizard of Ads® for Contractors, consider what size market you are in. For example, a $3.6 million company in a Primary Market will struggle to get the necessary reach needed to make a splash. You either have to be more patient than a larger company or spend more money to accelerate your reach.
Alternatively, a $5 million company in a Secondary Market will look like a pretty darn big fish in a medium-sized pond.
A $20 Million company in a Primary Market will feel like a $50 million company using our strategies to potential customers.
The key to remember is that the earlier you start with the Wizard of Ads® for Contractors, the lower the investment to get started. As they say, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.
Are production costs included in your fees?
The Wizard of Ads® for Contractors Creative Lead will create the ad copy, cast the voice actors, source the production house, direct the performance, pick the music bed, manage all the edits, and provide you with the completed ad for final approval before sending to air on your behalf. This is included in our fees.
You pay for the production house, actors, royalty-free music, and jingles directly to avoid any potential for markups, commissions, or management fees.
We have many friends in the industry that give our clients good deals due to the large volume of work we provide them. We will introduce you to them.
How long before a brand-forward strategy starts working?
In approximately three months of activation, we’ll just be getting live on air. In six months (3 months on air), you’ll be getting anecdotal feedback from people that you are being heard, but there will be no direct line to revenue.
After 6 months on the air, you’ll think you made the biggest mistake of your life signing up for this branding nonsense. After 9 months on the air (12 months in) you’ll see the light at the end of the tunnel.
At 12 full months on the air, you’ll know why you did this branding thing. Two years from now, we'll be clinking champagne flutes as you wonder why you didn’t do this sooner.
How long before we’re live?
The general guideline is 70-120 days, depending on the level of production needed and if there is a name change to your business.
This includes an onsite visit, a deep dive into research, and getting things created, negotiated, approved, produced, and live on the air.
- Uncovery - 15-30 days based on travel. 1-2 days onsite.
- Research - 30-60 days based on the scope of work.
- Creative and Media Buy Process - 45 to 60 days
- Offline Production - 15 days for radio. 30 - 60 days for television.
- Online Production (if switching) - 60 days
This means planning for roughly 90 to 120 days in the proper development and production of a completely unique Marketing Strategy before anything hits the airwaves.
Are you exclusive?
Creatively, yes. During the term of this Agreement, all Creative Partners assigned to your Account shall not engage, directly or indirectly, as an employee, officer, manager, partner, consultant, agent, owner, or in any other capacity, in any competition of the client, including any company engaged in marketing consulting.
For clarity, the Creative Partner is defined as the individual Wizard of Ads® Partners who is responsible for creating your creative strategy and ongoing creative copy. Competition is defined as companies that engage in the same industry and business units (e.g., HVAC, Plumbing, etc.) as you. The market area is defined as the area where the marketing message naturally reaches through DMA or 60 miles from the city center of the client's service area(s).
Naturally, we exclude any potential future competition in markets where you are not currently active at the date of signing.
We do not limit Media Buyers in any market. Media Buyers get better deals for larger volumes, making it beneficial for the client to have the Media Buyer available to do as many buys as possible to secure the best deals on the client’s behalf.
Do you do digital marketing?
In rare circumstances, Wizard of Ads® for Contractors will provide specific digital marketing solutions. Wizard of Ads® has very specific Partners that provide digital services that serve Residential Home Services effectively. Under no circumstances will digital marketing services be offered without Wizard of Ads® for Contractors' core solution.
It is most likely that Wizard of Ads® for Contractors will work with your existing digital partners and suppliers. If you do not have a reliable digital provider, we would be happy to introduce you to a number of great providers that play nice with Wizards.
Do you do jingles?
Wizard of Ads® for Contractors can assist you in getting a jingle for your business. Like any other tactical element of a marketing strategy, we do not produce a jingle for the sake of a jingle.
If you do not have a story or a strategic reason to have a jingle...or an ad campaign to tie it to, do not waste your hard-earned money on a jingle. You are wasting your time and money.
When you do build a single unified marketing strategy that incorporates a jingle for a specific (often scientific) reason, we have a Jingle Wizard who has studied the art and science of jingle design.
He will score you an original, royalty-free jingle, including professional singers, musicians, and producers. He will not knock off a generic jingle from a publicly available music bed that sounds like everyone else's jingle.
Your jingle will serve a very specific reason and produce a very specific result. Have you guessed how much we love jingles yet?
Who owns the copyrights?
Wizard of Ads® for Contractors owns your copyright for two very specific reasons. We also provide a fair use clause in all contracts to ensure you are in no way limited to the access of your creative works, whether you are working with us or not.
The first reason we own your copyright is to ensure that we do not have to go up against our own creative works in other markets we serve. This means you are not allowed to lend, give, borrow, tweak, rent, lease, or sell your creative works to any other company at any time.
The second reason we own your copyright is that we can establish a one-time value for your creative works in the event that someone steals the content. Upon selling you the copyrights, you can go after the perpetrator for theft and make a considerable bounty in a slam dunk case.
Here is how Wizard of Ads® word the fair use of your copyright for as long as your business is in operation:
All writing and/or marketing materials we create for you are not works-for-hire. Wizard of Ads® for Contractors hereby irrevocably grants you, and your successors in interest, the non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-transferable, and worldwide right to use the Works in connection with the marketing of your business pursuant to the Marketing Strategy for so long as your business is operational.
How do I measure brand results?
There are a number of interesting ways to measure results. Some people like to get unique identifying telephone numbers, or create branded URLs that redirect to landing pages or the website. However, much of this is a waste of time and energy as it never tells the true story of the brand journey and how it affected the decision-making process.
Other indicators of brand effectiveness include tracking new customers, reactivated customers, or running a brand equity survey to get a sense of your share of mind. Digitally you will see direct search increase, which cannot be affected by anything digital, as well as branded keyword inquiries increase. You’ll, of course, need to get your digital people to add these to your campaigns if you hope to see an increase in conversions.
Wizard of Ads® for Contractors tracks the simplest of indicators. Top line revenue. When your branding takes effect, and the company responds in kind from the phone call or form fill-on, top-line revenue will increase. Efficacy is plotted on a T12, and total lead volume from all sources is tracked.
12 things you should know before signing up.
- Quality relationships take time. Branding is a long-term strategy. That’s why most contractors do it wrong, or not at all. There is always a lag between the start of the new campaign and the time it takes your customers to connect the dots. You MUST BE READY, WILLING, AND ABLE to endure this lag period. In our experience, the lag is typically 6 to 9 months, depending on how competitive the marketplace is, your company’s reputation, your budget in relation to reach, and the eight uncontrollable environmental factors. During this time, we will be helping you implement a transition plan to ease the pain. The good news is that this lag only happens once.
- Decisions by Committee. We completely reject the notion of decisions by committee. We work with a single, courageous decision-maker. We welcome decision influencers, but we only look to the Owner for the final decision. All decision-makers and influencers must be involved in the Uncovery and Marketing Strategy Presentation if they want to offer input in the future. It is critical that we have a 100% fully approved plan that can be defended and championed by all leaders in the organization.
- Proven Strategy. That means we are not the low-cost provider. With nearly 200 home service clients and a book of strategic devices, tools, and tactics, this isn’t a guessing game for us. We know what to do to make your externally triggered grudge purchase appealing to your potential buyers. If you can deliver the goods, we can continue building relationships. If you are uncomfortable with the idea that you are paying us less now so that you can pay us considerably more once revenues allow, please do not commit. We intend to be your true partners, in sickness and in health...so long as you own your business.
- Automatic Payments. Everything is on automatic payments. If you struggle with managing cash flow, figure that out in your business first. We accept all major credit cards and ACH payments.
- We Cause Problems. If you don’t have a capacity issue now, I promise you will in about 9 months. Let’s deal with recruitment out of the gate as part of your comprehensive marketing strategy.
- We Own the Copyrights. All writing and/or marketing materials we create for you are not works-for-hire. We irrevocably grant you, and your successors in interest, the non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-transferable, and worldwide right to use the Works in connection with the marketing of your business pursuant to the Marketing Strategy for so long as your business is operational.
- Brand Building. We will be steering you to limit the use of discounts, rebates, coupons, and sales to attract clients. We know this feels counterintuitive to many, and we will clarify our reasoning. Rest assured, we have considerable experience in creating similar offers that are not damaging to your profitability, your brand’s integrity, and your preferable long-term client relations.
- Creative Authority. We must have creative authority over the words. You can accept copy as written or reject it outright, but you cannot modify the words yourself. If you do not like something as written, we are happy to discuss it and make the necessary change to maintain the integrity and intention of the words chosen. Alternatively, we will scrap the concept and create new copy that you are happy to get behind 100%.
- Proprietary Algorithm. The media buy must be structured in a very specific way, including running a full 52-week schedule. It is based on brain chemistry, not P&Ls. Once we have committed to the buy, it’s important to avoid adjustments unless they are calculated additions.
- Knucklehead Factor. You should expect knuckleheads. For example, when you start running ads that are certain to get attention, you need the courage to continue running those ads, even when you receive complaints. We celebrate complaints. It means we’ve made people feel.
- Digital Weasels. In about three months from the time your advertising campaign hits the airways, your digital marketers will show you a marked increase in direct and organic traffic. Some Digital Marketers will mistakenly claim this success as their own. Done properly, you can continue to spend less and less on digital lead generation by increasing your branded keyword online presence.
- Annual Marketing Meetings. Travel permitting, we prefer to hold Annual Marketing Meetings (AMMs) outside your city. Years of experience have taught us that we get better results when decision-makers are outside their sphere of influence, away from the day-to-day distractions of the office.
Ready to transform your world?
(do it - you
deserve this)
deserve this)