My ROI Obsession

My ROI Obsession

Sup,

Being an owner in the trades can sometimes feel like Glengarry Glen Ross—chasing leads is the daily grind. But here’s the reality: leads alone won’t grow your business.

And if you’ve ever been in that position, you've probably asked yourself, "How do I get the most out of my marketing dollars?"

The truth is, that understanding your numbers, tracking results, and being nimble with your strategies can make or break your ROI.

Let’s break it down.

• Track Everything: Identify what’s working and optimize it.

• Invest in SEO, and commit to a long-term strategy with consistent content.

• Adjust your marketing spend and tactics based on real-time performance.

From SEO and Google Ads to booking rates and customer acquisition, the secret to maximizing your marketing efforts lies in the details.

The biggest upgrades we’ve made in our eight years of growth have come in how we’ve attacked marketing, but also how we track that success.

Here’s how we’ve tackled it in our business and seen transformational results.

Let’s do it.

Know Your Numbers

Marketing without tracking is like throwing money into the wind. One of our biggest game-changers was source-specific tracking:

• Assign unique phone numbers to each lead source (Google My Business, LSAs, website, trucks). This helps us know exactly where every call is coming from.
  

• Analyze booking rates and cost per lead by source. Once we identified that our LSA booking rate was only 30%, we could take action. By removing the service fee for LSA leads, we doubled our book rate to 60%. That single change meant fewer leads were needed for the same amount of sales, effectively lowering our cost per acquisition.

Acting on those insights is where the real wins happen. That’s why we’ve started leveraging tools like Hatch. Hatch takes the guesswork out of follow-up by automating multi-touch outreach across the entire customer journey—everything from speed-to-lead responses to reactivating old estimates.

Here’s why we love it:

1. Faster response times: Hatch’s AI-powered CSRs handle inquiries instantly, answering questions, booking appointments, and qualifying leads without skipping a beat.
   

2. Higher conversion rates: Prompt, proactive follow-ups ensure every lead gets the attention it deserves, boosting close rates and customer retention.
   

3. Streamlined lead management: With centralized tracking and automation, you can standardize outreach, save time, and scale efficiently.
   

4. More revenue, less burnout: By automating repetitive tasks, your team can focus on high-value interactions while reducing CSR turnover.

If you’re like us—obsessed with maximizing ROI and scaling without adding headcount—tools like Hatch are game-changers.

The SEO Long Game

SEO is a lot like planting a tree. It takes time to grow, but once it’s established, it’s incredibly hard to uproot.

There’s a company in our market that started its SEO efforts a decade ago, and they’re still dominating search rankings. If that sounds wild, it’s kind of par for the course for SEO.

Despite our aggressive SEO strategy—with high-quality content, frequent updates, and targeted keywords—they’ve been tough to beat.

So here’s the lesson: SEO is not a quick fix.

It’s a long-term investment in your business. The key is consistency.

We aim for 10–30 pieces of content a month to stay competitive. This aggressive approach ensures that we’re not just playing the game—we’re in it to win.

If you’re at capacity today but want to set yourself up for future growth, start investing in SEO now.

Six to twelve months down the road, when your business needs more leads, you’ll thank yourself.

And if you’re unsure where to start, I recommend working with experts like Service Scalers. Their tailored SEO strategies and focus on high-quality, consistent content. Their focus on the details—like performance tracking and dialing in our booking rates—showed us how to stretch every marketing dollar further.

Decisions Need to Be Dynamic

The biggest mistake you can make is being rigid with your marketing. Marketing isn’t a “set it and forget it” game—it’s about adapting to what works in real-time.

For example, during shoulder seasons (those slower months like September and April), traditional demand often dips.

The solution?

Shift your marketing dollars strategically:

• Invest in outbound promotions for your existing customers.

• Focus on membership plans that bring in repeat business.

• Adjust pricing strategies to boost booking rates when demand is lower.

Dynamic strategies also mean being willing to spend where it makes sense.

For example, instead of focusing on lowering your cost per lead, ask yourself, "What’s the most I can afford to pay per lead?"

With our $12,000 average HVAC install ticket, we’re comfortable paying up to $750 per acquired customer.

That flexibility ensures we never run short on leads.

Marketing isn’t magic—it’s math. Do the formulas, do the work, get your results.

Have a great weekend. 👊

John

Disclosure: This newsletter includes sponsored content. However, all opinions expressed are entirely my own.