Q: How to get more Water Damage Jobs?

We’re asked this weekly.

So what’s the trick? Or is there one?

Working with Restoration companies for well over a decade has given us a very strong opinion on this. 

A: Do every possible marketing outlet existing, if it works, persist, don’t quit.  

There is no mystery about it. It isn’t some “secret” that only the “big companies” know. I’ve worked with small local shops and the Goliaths of the industry to find out – there’s no big secret. 

Here’s where you learn the real lessons though: I’ve watched the companies who’ve bankrupted over the last decade. Probably well over one hundred. You learn what NOT to do, and quickly. 

Here’s my top 3 list of reasons companies went under as opposed to succeeded wildly:  

1. They Relied on only 1 to 2 forms of marketing.
2. They did not persist at any new form of marketing they employed. 
3. When finances got tough, they canceled their marketing programs, which eventually shut down all future business and closed their doors for good.

Let’s examine these more.

1. They Relied on only 1 to 2 forms of marketing.

Look at the big guys, they’re everywhere – Google, Yelp, TV, radio, billboards, wrapped trucks, flyers in papers, postcards, Plumbers refer them.  Some of those things will generate more business than others.  But they become KNOWN.  This generates referrals which should make a larger portion of your business eventually. 

Companies that went under tried to find “one magic bullet”.   That is always short-sighted and a very amateur move. No big, strong service business was ever built on a “magic bullet.”  And if you did, technology changes (phone books to Google for example) and then you’re gone.  

I find there’s an average of 6 major forms of marketing strong service businesses rely on today (2022):

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Pay-Per Click (PPC) 
3. Social Media Marketing
4. Lead Generation Companies selling them leads
5. Referrals (customers, plumbers, etc.)
6. Boots-on-the-ground people knocking on the doors of plumbing houses, property mgmt. companies, etc.)

If you’re not familiar with the above, get familiar, you need them all.

2. They didn’t persist at any new form of marketing they employed. 

This is like a plague. They say “I tried that, it didn’t work.”  This tells me that the owner of the company didn’t persist, he tried for a week or two and then quits because he didn’t see results…yet.  Nothing successful ever works like that, especially marketing.  You’ve gotta put in the work, jump through the hoops.

3. When finances got tough, they canceled their marketing programs, which eventually shut down all future business and closed their doors for good.

You know what the real survivors do when the going gets tough? Market & sell more…WAY more.   Those that shut their doors, 10 for 10, cut off their marketing programs to “save money.”  When an elderly person is in the hospital sick and dying, nurses know when they stop eating, it’s only a matter of time until they pass.  What feeds your company? Marketing. If you stop it, you eventually die.

Sincerely,

Dan York, Founder and CEO

SEO Surgeons, Inc.