Learn How to Make Waves on Google! - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Danny Braught from LMH Agency. You can Read the transcript, Listen to the podcast, or Watch on Youtube.

Intro: Welcome to Roofing Road Trips with Heidi. Explore the roofing industry through the eyes of a long-term professional within the trade. Listen for insights, interviews and exciting news in the roofing industry today.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Hello, and welcome to another Roofing Road Trips from RoofersCoffeeShop. This is Heidi Ellsworth. And you know what? We're going to talk about something that everyone has a question about, and that is Google My Business or Google Business Courses. I'm telling you, it's something that we're all... We want to know it. We know we need to. But we got to find the right information. So we have today Danny Braught from LMH, Lokal, who knows this stuff. We've been learning so much from him. Danny, welcome to the show.

Danny Braught: Thank you for having me.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: We are super excited to hear about all this because it is rather confusing for people. But before we get started, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your business.

Danny Braught: My name is Danny Braught with LMH Agency, which stands for Lokal Media House. We help home service contractors, plumbing, HVAC and roofers to be found online so that they could generate better quality leads from their online sources.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: You have a great culture there at LMH. Danny, talk to us a little bit about your mission and just your culture overall as a business.

Danny Braught: So, our mission is really to help our team, our clients and everybody to live the best life that they possibly can through making sure that we're making a difference and making waves here. And so that's actually our tagline is, "To make waves." We want to make waves in the lives of our clients, in the lives of our team and really make it so that everybody has a good time working, which then supports their life that they're building outside of work as well because that's the most important thing, is making sure that you're living a life well lived.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. I agree. I agree. And the roofing industry, it's a life well lived and people have... It's all family here. But I think when it really comes to a lot of the new technology, the SEO, everything that's going on, contractors, roofing contractors, aren't always getting the real story or really getting it explained in a way that they can understand, which is why we've loved working with you so much. So let's talk about Google Business Profile and why it's import... What it is and why it's important.

Danny Braught: So, Google Business Profile is essentially the piece that people see first on the internet now. If they're looking for, "A roofer near me," if they're looking for even just to find a restaurant, I'm sure that most people that have listened to this have seen a Google Business Profile, because as soon as you go on, it's going to show you there the name, the phone number, the address, the hours that they're open, all of that information without them ever having to go to your website. So it's a very important thing for small businesses to have up-to-date.

And even large businesses, you go in and you go to some restaurant... I was actually in Boston a couple weeks ago and I went to a restaurant and it said that they were open until 11:00 PM and it was 9:00 PM and I walk in and they tell me, "I'm sorry. We're closed." And I was like, "I'm confused. It says you guys are open." And so I walked all the way over to this place when I was at this conference just to go eat there to find out that they were closed because they didn't have the same hours that they had on their Google Business Profile. So it's really important to make sure that you have those because if people are trying to call you and it says that you're open, but you're not answering the phone, 80% of the time, people are not going to leave a voicemail. And so you're not going to have a chance to call them back because they're just going to look for the next person who answers the phone.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Because I mean, when you're looking for a restaurant, there's a lot of restaurants. When you're looking for a roofer, there's a lot of roofing companies out there and people work through it fast. So you have created a course on Google Business Profile. Let's talk about that. What does that course look like?

Danny Braught: So first, before I get into the course, I'm going to share my screen real quick just so that I can show you how it looks as far as the SERP right now, which is the search engine rankings page. And that is what you find on Google. So as you see a search engine rankings page, if somebody's looking for this example, I have, "HVAC near me," but if you're looking for, "Roofer near me," first, you're going to have show up is going to be considered your local service ads. Those are going to be the ones that are at the top and it's a pay per lead basis. And then next is going to be the pay per click, which is more expensive, but you get a little bit more real estate. And then you're going to have your map pack, which this is where the Google Business Profile lives. Actually your local service ads play off of your Google map pack. The more reviews that you have on your Google map pack or Google Business Profile, the better you're going to show up in local service ads too.

And so now on the search engine, it used to just be that you had PPC ads up at the top and then you got right into organic listings. Now before somebody even comes to a link that would be on SEO to your website, they're going to see multiple other places. And normally it takes you a full scroll at least on a desktop to get to anything that's a local organic ranking other than the map pack. On a phone, it can take two to three thumb scrolls to get to the organic listings.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow.

Danny Braught: So that's why it's really important to have your Google Business Profile for the map pack updated for desktop and also for mobile because it's the same thing that shows up when you go onto Google Maps, is your Google Business Profile. So making sure that you have that all updated, make sure that you have how long you've been in business, what services you do, what your hours of operations are, all of that information in here, so that way you can show up top without all of these additional ones down below. So something that I just wanted to share real quick, just as a visual. I'm a visual person. Makes it a little bit easier to see.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. And for everyone who's listening to this on a podcast, it's also on YouTube so you can actually see this, what Danny just showed us makes sense. I mean, also now I'm going, "Oh. Okay. I get it. I get where everything goes." So showing us that layout and how that's all working, Danny, is that kind of what inspired you to start really thinking about, "We need classes."?

Danny Braught: Yeah. So I get a ton of questions about Google Business Profile because everybody's trying to figure out, "How do I get mine to rank higher?" And so there's certain factors within the Google Business Profile that you can do as a business owner yourself without having to have an agent work with you. And so some of those different factors and the reason that we came up with this was to give people a jump off start, somewhere where they can start and even if they're an established business, "Here's things that you can do to optimize it."

So the way that the course is set up is it's actually a seven-day course. So it's seven emails to break it down into bite-sized chunks to make it easy, so you can just take 15, 20 minutes out of your day and spend it on that because we know that you're busy running your business. So instead of just giving it all at once and you're looking at it and it's an overwhelming thing, it's seven different emails that you get with a couple tasks each day to perform on your Google Business Profile so that that way you can start ranking higher.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow. Okay. That makes sense. And with this busy world having it in bite size, that makes a big difference. So as you're... Just talk through those bite sizes. Talk through the course. And I know they're going to get it every day and it's about Google, but what can... As you walk the contractor through that kind of explain how that's going to work.

Danny Braught: So each day, it's going to have a different task that you're going to go through from making sure that your account is verified to making sure that you have the correct service category selected because there's your primary category, there's a secondary category, to make sure that you're uploading your images correctly to Google because there's also a correct way to do that, you want to make sure that you are uploading images, to the way that you're asking for reviews from customers, you want customers to leave reviews that have pictures and videos, those are going to show up at the top, to making sure that you have all of your products on there.

So there's a piece on there that's called products, but it also works for services. So you can have pictures inside of there with the description as well. That's going to signal Google, so when people are looking for those that yours will show up as well and higher in the map pack. As well as making sure that in your description of your company, that you're using keywords that people are going to be searching. Same thing when you're asking for reviews that people are actually talking about the service that you perform, not just that, "I got great service." "Well, I had great service. They came and repaired this piece on my roof," so that if somebody is looking specifically for tile roof or a metal roof or that they came and took care of some flashing, make sure that your customer knows it and ask them to leave those things inside of their review because it'll help because Google looks through that sort of information as well.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Yeah. Excellent. So this is really... Google Business Profile is free for contractors. And so this is really some important, not just for... Anybody who's listening to this, you need to get this to your marketing folks or to the people who are in charge of your website to make sure that you are doing this free web presence. What are some of the common missed opportunities when it comes to Google Business Profile that you've seen with contractors?

Danny Braught: So, some of the common ones are people not adding photos, not having photos, not having a logo on there, having a header image. Then also, like I said, the products and the service categories, those are also things that a lot of people aren't filling out, and also making sure that their hours are updated. A lot of people don't look at the hours that are on there. And the fastest way for you to get more business for free is through Google Business Profile. I actually had somebody in my office who came to me and he's like, "I didn't believe you of how fast you could generate leads through Google Business Profile until we opened two new locations for one of our clients." And he's like, "They did $30,000 out of this location based..." And this was a plumbing company, "Based on opening a new location that they were paying $300 a month for having the location."

And so they had one person that worked out of that office, but other than that, it was just another office for another area. And he's like, "I couldn't believe how fast they got so many calls and got so much service out of that area."

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow.

Danny Braught: And he's, "It definitely works." And so that's why Google Business Profile, it's the fastest way because when somebody's looking for, "Near me," it goes off of a radius of where they're located. So if you have a location near there, you're likely to show up higher. Also, you need to make sure that you have reviews. A lot of people don't ask for reviews. Reviews are one of the biggest factors. You need to minimum have at least 10 reviews on your page. And make sure that they're real reviews. And so you can ask customers.

We create specific business cards for some of our customers that their team can leave behind to ask for a review that has a QR code that takes them directly to where they leave a review on Google. So that way you can generate more leads, as well as there's a lot of different things out there that you can use as a review company that allows you to reach out to your customers, like TrueReview, Buzz Reviews. There's a bunch of different companies that allow you to be able to reach out directly via text message, via email, asking for it after you've completed a project.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Wow. You're making me think, Danny. I'm like, "We got to work on ours. We need to have these out there." I know we're there, but I don't think we're right. And I think we are the ones who are missing a lot of opportunities. So this is really great. And to take that course, in fact, I'm thinking we're going to have someone from RoofersCoffeeShop be... They'll be signing up to take this course because this is really... You just need the small bites. So if you have contractors out there who maybe just really this has not been their thing, but like you said, it's free, it can bring immediate leads, but they're just a little bit on the low technology side, how's your recommendation for them to get started with this using your course?

Danny Braught: So, if you just go to RoofersCoffeeShop and then go to the directory and look up LMH Agency, you'll find us on there. Logo's black, white and yellow. The yellow really stands out. So you'll see that. And then once you click on our profile, there's a call to action right there or a little box that says, "Enroll now for GBP Course," because Google Business profile is GBP and a lot of things in terms of marketing. Everything's an acronym. People get so confused on all the acronyms we have from marketing. It's the same thing in every single industry. So if you see GBP Course, that's Google Business Profile. And click on that and then just sign up and we'll start sending you the emails automatically so you can find it on RoofersCoffeeShop.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Now, I'm going to do something a little crazy out there, but what if we have somebody listening to this who doesn't have a website? Does that matter? What should they be doing?

Danny Braught: So, if they don't have a website, you can still have a Google Business Profile. That is one of the first things I would actually recommend that you have. Even if you don't have a website, make sure that you sign up for a Google Business Profile. But if you're looking to get a website built, we build custom websites for roofing companies that are driven to provide conversions for your business so that that way you can get more leads coming in. It's all about lead generation. That's everything that we do here is based on getting more leads.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: I love it. I love it. And I love the fact that you're saying, "Get your Google Business Profile first, then start working on the website and everything else." I mean, it's all important, but there are steps, and sometimes being able to have those bite sized steps makes a big difference for the contractor.

Danny Braught: I was just talking with somebody right before I jumped on with you and he asked me about, "I'm just not sure that my SEO guy's doing well." And I was like, "No. I was just looking at your stuff. He's doing well." And he goes, "That's one of the things that I love about you guys." He goes, "You're a no BS company. If you think that something is doing well, even if it's some other company, you've told me multiple times to stay with different vendors because you don't want me to stop doing something that's working just so that you can have the business."

And that's why we get a lot of referrals actually, is because we're going to give you the straight honest truth. And if we don't see something that we can really do better, because there's a lot of great companies out there, we're not going to tell you that, "Oh, yeah. You should definitely join us." We want to make sure that we're going to be able to provide you the best results. And if you're getting great results already, we're not going to try and tell you to switch. We're going to tell you that there maybe is another avenue that you can look at as well.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's excellent. That's excellent. That's what everybody needs because at the end of the day, you want to work with people who you can get the real story and honesty. And then it always comes back around, Danny. We find that all the time. It always comes back around when you're doing the right things. So we know the... It's really easy. Go to RoofersCoffeeShop. Go on the directory for LMH. You're going to find it. It's also on the ads. You're going to see articles about it. It's on social media for RoofersCoffeeShop. So this is something special for RoofersCoffeeShop that the team at LMH is doing. And so, Danny, just overall, as you are kind of getting feedback from the roofing contractors out there who you're working with just... And I know you gave us one example, but I would love another example of just how is the GBP making a huge difference in contractors on business?

Danny Braught: So, the Google Business Profile is the number one thing, like I said, even before a website because it's going to be the number one piece that people see when they're looking for somebody. So make sure that you're taking advantage of every single piece of it so that it's fully optimized, so that you can get more leads. Multiple different examples of it, of people that we've worked with and opening more locations.

So even if you only have one location, you can go to a Regus or some other area and get yourself another office for $125 a month, something like that and then you can open up an additional location. You do have to have an actual location to open additional ones. And then you're going to have to do a video verification. So Google changed... It used to be that you did a verification via post, and so they would send you a number in the mail and that's how you'd verify it. Now you actually have to do a video verification to verify your Google Business Profile. So making sure that you're able to do that, get the video verified. It will definitely help to get you more calls because people are searching every single day. It is the largest search platform out there.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Okay. I am going to show my ignorance here, but how does that work? How does a video verification work? I mean, I've gotten the mail in the post with the numbers on it before, but I've never seen this video. How does that work?

Danny Braught: So, inside your Manager, there's actually a piece where it says, Verify Your Business, and then you click on that. I recommend doing it from your phone. Don't try and do it from a computer. And then from there, it's going to have you actually show you having the key and opening the door to the office. It just wants to see some marketing materials that you have inside of there with your company name on it. And so you use the app on your phone to go through and walk through the office that you have. It could be one conference room that you have for the business, but you're going to need to be able to do a verification on video.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Well, I guess I'll be doing that real soon because we are updating ours as we speak. So watch out for that video of us with our RoofersCoffeeShop on the outside of our door and coming in.

Danny Braught: It doesn't go public anywhere. It's actually just something just for verification.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Just for verification. Geez. I tell you what, this is why I love these podcasts. I learn something every single time, every day. Danny, talk real quick about... Because I'm telling you right now. Some folks are listening to this and they're thinking, "Well, Heidi's sitting there going, 'I don't know about this.' We don't know about this. We need some help." How can they, besides taking the course, which I think is the first step? But talk a little bit about your onboarding, your consultation. When people call in, how do they interact? And what can they kind of expect?

Danny Braught: So, first thing that we would do would be to have a discovery call. We want to talk to you about your goals, where your business is now, what's your goals three years, what's your goals five years from now. So we can really put together a plan that actually makes sense for you and figure out where you're wanting to go. And so that's how we start everything is we first get a bunch of information so that that way we can make sure that what we're proposing or what kind of quote we're going to give you is going to be something that would actually be beneficial for your business and if it's realistic with the budget that you're looking at.

And so that's the first step. And then from there we go through actually providing you with a quote. Once you onboard there is about a two week period where we go through and making sure that we have access to everything because most people don't realize how many different tools are there that are out there for us to measure all of the marketing and make sure that everything is working correctly. And then from there, we get the campaign started and rolling and continue to optimize the campaign. Or if it's a website, it's going through an entire process where you're seeing what the website's going to look like prior to us even developing it. So you get to really see what the website looks like, and then from there you'll be able to see what the difference is going to be as well compared to other companies that build off of templates. We build everything custom.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: That's great. That's excellent. Well, Danny, thank you. I have learned a lot on this podcast. Everyone, please go to the LMH local directory on RoofersCoffeeShop. Also look for it on your social media feeds, like I said. It's going to be across the site everywhere. Sign up for this email course. I just think this is brilliant. And then get that consultation because this is the way you make your business go to the next level. Danny, thank you so much.

Danny Braught: Thank you again for having me. I appreciate it.

Heidi J. Ellsworth: Thank you. And thank you all for watching. This is another prime example of how we can take this kind of information and help you grow your business, help us grow our business. It's across the board. So check out the directory for LMH. And also check out all the podcasts under the Read, Listen, Watch initiative under Roofing Road Trips. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast channel and hit those notifications so you don't miss a single episode. We'll be seeing you next time on Roofing Road Trips.

Outro: Make sure to subscribe to our channel and leave a review. Thanks for listening. This has been Roofing Road Trips with Heidi from the rooferscoffeeshop.com.