SEO Rockstars 2026: Day 2 - Bradley Benner

[00:02] Thank you so much, Mike. That was

[00:04] amazing, dude. Thank you. I don't know

[00:06] if I can live up to it, but So, guys,

[00:08] I'm going to be here talking about not

[00:10] SEO, but how to generate more leads for

[00:12] your agency. Uh, you know, there's a lot

[00:14] of other really smart SEOs in here that

[00:16] have been giving out a lot of amazing

[00:17] information. So, I wanted to contribute

[00:18] in a way that I feel like I've got a

[00:20] quite a good, you know, understanding of

[00:23] and handle on. I've been using cold

[00:24] email now to generate leads for my own

[00:26] agency for five years. uh for both of my

[00:28] agencies, my white label link building

[00:29] agency as well as my own local marketing

[00:31] agency and cold email still works

[00:32] incredibly well. So I developed and in

[00:35] fact if I only had one channel to

[00:36] generate leads for my agency, it would

[00:38] be cold email 100%. And uh I developed a

[00:41] process specifically for targeting local

[00:43] marketing clients. Um, I do it out as an

[00:46] industry specific like I I run a local

[00:48] marketing agency called Treeare HQ where

[00:50] I serve tree care contractors. And so I

[00:53] developed a process for using

[00:55] directories to do outreach and initiate

[00:58] a conversation with my chosen prospect.

[01:00] And it's a much lot less confrontational

[01:03] way to initiate a conversation and to

[01:04] get uh you know start having that

[01:07] conversation and build rapport because

[01:09] we're giving something of value which is

[01:10] a directory listing and communicating

[01:13] with them through multiple channels

[01:15] before we ever get on a sales call with

[01:16] them which I call the listing delivery

[01:18] call but it's also the start of the

[01:19] sales sales conversation. So I'm going

[01:21] to be talking about kind of the process

[01:23] today as to what you know how this

[01:25] operates. It's simple to set up now

[01:28] because of AI tools. It makes it a hell

[01:29] of a lot easier. I'll talk about my tech

[01:31] stack, but there are better options out

[01:33] there that uh now again to have I wish I

[01:36] could have started now instead of five

[01:38] years ago because I'm kind of married to

[01:39] some of the tools that I'm using just

[01:41] because they're so integrated into our

[01:43] uh operations. But you can do it a lot

[01:45] more lean now with AIdriven uh CRM and

[01:48] such. And so I'll mention a couple of

[01:50] those. But why does this work? Well, the

[01:53] way that I start with the and I'm going

[01:54] to go through the whole sequence and

[01:55] show you guys. Um, but what I do is I

[01:58] just go straight, you know, contractors,

[02:00] uh, tree service contractors in whatever

[02:01] city I want to target. And typically, I

[02:03] I go after low competition.

[02:05] Not sharing the screen, is it?

[02:08] I'm sorry, but it's not sharing.

[02:09] I don't know if we're on Goto Webinar on

[02:13] and we can't see your SC the screen.

[02:18] You I'm gonna continue if that's all

[02:19] right. You guys can. Okay. So, uh, what

[02:21] I do is I just scrape cont try to target

[02:24] low competition areas because I like

[02:25] easy. So, so if I'm going to land

[02:28] clients, I'm going to actually go out

[02:29] and kind of try to snipe clients, right?

[02:31] Um, and try to find clients in a

[02:32] particular location. I always go for low

[02:34] low competition areas, but it doesn't

[02:36] matter, okay? It really doesn't matter.

[02:37] And then once I scrape the leads, then

[02:39] go they go in a cold email system. I use

[02:41] instantly for that. It works really

[02:43] well. Um, matter of fact, I was talking

[02:44] to somebody the other day about, I think

[02:46] it was Dan, uh, at lunch and, uh, you

[02:49] know, I've got domains that I've been

[02:50] doing cold email from for four years

[02:52] that are still operating today that have

[02:54] not burned the domains. Now, I do low

[02:56] volume. I'd run about 80 emails per day,

[02:58] cold emails per day, um, which is very

[03:00] low, actually. You can go a hell of a

[03:02] lot more aggressive if you want, but the

[03:04] whole process is really just outreach to

[03:06] say, you know, here here's your uh

[03:08] company listing and we need to verify

[03:10] your company's contact information

[03:11] before we can publish it or promote it.

[03:13] And so we just have a series of emails

[03:15] that go out, you know, every other day

[03:16] for five days or excuse me, 10 days. So,

[03:18] it's five emails that just is basically

[03:21] asking the prospect to confirm their

[03:23] information. There's a couple things

[03:25] about that is we uh we put in the name,

[03:27] address, phone number, um and we leave

[03:29] the website field blank. Like even if we

[03:31] have the website, we always leave it

[03:32] blank so that it enti it it incentivizes

[03:34] the the the contact to re reply back and

[03:37] say, "Oh, no, that information is

[03:38] correct, but my website's missing or

[03:40] whatever. We're trying to get a reply."

[03:42] Okay, that's it. As soon as we get a

[03:43] positive reply, it pipes it into the

[03:45] CRM. Um I use instantly, but for for the

[03:48] cold email, but I use high level for the

[03:50] CRM, but again, there's better options

[03:53] for sales CRM than high level now. Um so

[03:56] we'll talk about that in a minute. But

[03:58] what happens is once they reply now I've

[04:00] got because of you know AI makes it so

[04:02] much easier to integrate voice uh email

[04:05] SMS both inbound and outbound voice

[04:08] calls to the prospect to continue

[04:10] warming them up. So once we get that

[04:12] positive reply where they're confirming

[04:13] their information or adding additional

[04:15] detail or correcting information that we

[04:17] have then we through a series of

[04:19] automations we contact them to ask them

[04:22] additional questions. Since I work with

[04:23] tree service contractors they're service

[04:25] area businesses. So, I'm going to walk

[04:26] through the sequence and show you guys

[04:28] the process that we go through to

[04:30] continue communicating with this

[04:31] prospect before we ever get them onto a

[04:33] call. And that's again what we're doing

[04:35] is we're developing rapport and we're

[04:37] doing that on an automated fashion where

[04:39] we're not trying to ask them anything.

[04:40] We're not trying to sell them anything

[04:42] yet. But I'm fully transparent about my

[04:44] sales process, too. When I get on the uh

[04:46] uh listing delivery call with them, I

[04:48] tell them right out of right out of the

[04:49] gate, we're as soon as we get on, we're

[04:50] going to accomplish two things on this

[04:51] call. Number one, we're going to review

[04:53] your listing, make sure it's

[04:54] everything's accurate, it's ready for

[04:55] promoting. Number two, I'm going to

[04:57] introduce some problems that we

[04:58] identified while optimizing your listing

[05:00] that are preventing you from getting

[05:01] jobs online and we're going to introduce

[05:04] some solutions to you to help you to

[05:05] start uh to resolve those issues. Does

[05:07] that make sense? Should we continue? And

[05:09] I always nod and and they always every

[05:12] single time I've not one time had

[05:14] somebody say, "No, let's go ahead and

[05:15] end this call now." They've all said,

[05:16] "Yeah, that sounds good. Let's go." you

[05:17] know, and so it's a very non-salesy way

[05:20] to initiate a conversation with

[05:21] prospects and again enable school

[05:23] transparency

[05:25] about your intentions. That's what I do.

[05:26] I'm 100% honest with my clients right or

[05:28] prospects right up front. I tell them

[05:30] exactly what my intentions are and

[05:32] because we're delivering something of

[05:33] value, they typically are a lot more

[05:35] open to the conversation. Okay. And so

[05:38] here's just some I like I said, I run

[05:39] about 80 roughly 75 to 80 emails per day

[05:42] um Monday through Friday. Actually, I

[05:44] think I do Monday through Saturday. Now,

[05:46] we don't don't mail on Sundays. But

[05:48] here's look at our open rates, guys.

[05:50] This is cold email, right? Our open

[05:52] rates are insane, right? It varies. Our

[05:54] I think our average open rates probably

[05:55] around 65% across all the different

[05:57] campaigns we've been running now for

[05:58] years, okay? And that generates, you

[06:00] know, it varies as far as the response

[06:01] rates. You see, sometimes we get very

[06:04] good response rates. Sometimes they're a

[06:05] little bit lower, but these are, you

[06:07] know, these are all uh contacts that are

[06:09] now in our system in warming. And we got

[06:12] a full not just the pre-sales or you

[06:14] know pre-all nurture sequence, we also

[06:16] have post call nurture sequences as well

[06:18] that automates and continues

[06:19] communication. And what's really

[06:21] interesting about this is after uh you

[06:23] know I don't I don't do any hard sales

[06:25] pitches on or closing tactics on a call

[06:28] at all ever. I just tell them right up

[06:29] front, look, I'm going to introduce you

[06:30] to some lowcost options or whatever the

[06:32] conversation because we've got front-end

[06:34] offers that are very inexpensive. I

[06:36] found with tree guys over the years, a

[06:38] lot of them have been burned by SEOs and

[06:40] marketing professionals, right? So, a

[06:42] lot of them are real hesitant to jump

[06:44] into a full-on retainer package. So,

[06:46] I've got front-end services that I will

[06:48] offer oftent times just to get them in.

[06:49] Like, for example, review solicitation,

[06:51] a list come uh list reactivation and

[06:53] review solicitation campaign through

[06:55] high level. Uh, that's one of the best

[06:57] things as a kind of a front-end service

[06:58] because we can show them results very,

[07:00] very quickly and continue to build that

[07:01] trust. So then we can send them up to a

[07:03] full-on retainer marketing package at a

[07:05] later time. If that makes sense. Um, but

[07:07] you know, it's it it it's a lot easier

[07:09] to uh uh sell the client if not on that

[07:13] call, which again I don't if they're

[07:15] ready to check out, I send them a

[07:16] checkout link. You know what I mean?

[07:17] Like here, go go go subscribe here or

[07:19] whatever. But if they're not ready to

[07:20] check out, I say that's fine. I'm if

[07:21] it's all right with you, I'm going to

[07:22] plug you in, you know, a couple of

[07:24] emails just kind of sum, you kind of

[07:26] talk about what we talked about on our

[07:27] call today. And when you're ready, we'll

[07:29] be here. And what happens guys is you

[07:31] fill your pipeline full of leads like

[07:32] this and you nurture them and you don't

[07:34] push. You don't push. You pull very very

[07:38] softly, gently. And uh what happens is

[07:40] over time you start getting leads or

[07:43] like the leads that you previously

[07:45] communicated with will start contacting

[07:47] you and closing. And what I found is

[07:49] it's amazing. That's why I said 75 80

[07:50] emails per day is all I send. And I get

[07:52] all the clients that I need. I mean, I'm

[07:54] not even really actively trying to grow

[07:56] my local marketing agency right now this

[07:58] year because I'm going to focus on my

[07:59] white label services, but I'm still

[08:01] closing clients. I closed one earlier

[08:02] this week. I got a sales call scheduled

[08:04] for Monday. And again, from previous

[08:06] messages, they're just in the nurture

[08:08] sequence. So, it works really well. Uh,

[08:10] this is the macro process, basically a

[08:12] high level view of it. We send cold

[08:14] email to verify company details. Um,

[08:16] again, as I mentioned before, guys, I

[08:17] always uh omit the website specifically

[08:20] because we want them to reply. That's

[08:22] all we're looking for is a reply. Um, we

[08:24] use a uh sentiment analysis and uh in

[08:28] instantly, excuse me. And so when it is

[08:31] a neutral or positive reply, then it

[08:33] will send a web hook and pipe the the

[08:35] contact into high level. And then high

[08:37] level takes over with the automations,

[08:39] but instantly you can do all that now.

[08:41] It has a CRM. So high level is actually

[08:43] not even needed for this. Um, unless

[08:45] you're using it for your own CRM anyway.

[08:47] Okay. Once we get a positive, sorry, go

[08:49] ahead say something. Forgive me, I

[08:52] thought I heard someone answer a

[08:53] question. Uh, positive reply adds

[08:54] contact to the AIdriven free call

[08:56] nurture automation, email, SMS, and

[08:58] voice. Um, both inbound and outbound

[09:00] voice. So, if the prospect calls during

[09:02] any of those sequences, the AI takes

[09:04] over. Um, we also have outbound voice.

[09:06] If they don't respond to email and SMS,

[09:08] then we we the AI will do outbound calls

[09:10] to try to extract additional information

[09:12] from that contact as we are optimizing

[09:15] their listing. That makes sense. So, uh,

[09:18] you know, when they first respond with a

[09:20] positive reply, we have an acknowledge

[09:22] an acknowledgement to that reply. Then

[09:24] we we follow up about seven minutes

[09:26] later with a [laughter] a text message

[09:28] and an email. And then if they don't

[09:30] reply to either of those, again, an

[09:31] outbound call goes out. It asks for

[09:33] permission to text for additional

[09:35] information when optimizing listing.

[09:36] Essentially once that first reply comes

[09:39] in, we acknowledge it and seven minutes

[09:41] later another you know set of uh

[09:43] messages goes out email and SMS that

[09:46] says like hey by the way since we're

[09:48] going to be working on your listing over

[09:49] the next day or so if we have additional

[09:51] questions would would it be okay if we

[09:52] text you? Is this the appropriate

[09:54] number? And so that again we're asking

[09:55] permission to continue to contact them

[09:57] and they give it to us. Okay, most of

[10:00] the time. Um, then then we follow up

[10:03] later that same day, we have another

[10:05] kind of set of messages that go out

[10:06] again, SMS, email, and if they don't

[10:09] respond to those, voice, and it's asked

[10:10] for service area radius. Again, I work

[10:12] with tree service companies, so uh

[10:14] they're all service area businesses. So,

[10:15] we always service or sales territory is.

[10:18] And then they again, they just reply

[10:20] back with like, you know, 10 miles, 25

[10:22] miles, whatever it is. And that

[10:24] automatically then adds them into the uh

[10:26] it creates what I'm going to show you

[10:28] guys is the problem agitate solution

[10:30] sequence that we use because when we

[10:32] start to once we have all the

[10:34] information from the client and the

[10:36] listing has then been published by my

[10:38] one of my team members it's now ready

[10:40] for review. Now we publish it but when

[10:43] we contact them we say listen we've got

[10:44] your listing ready for review. We want

[10:46] on a quick call with you to confirm all

[10:48] the information make sure everything's

[10:49] accurate before we promote it. That's

[10:51] what we say. And so once all that's

[10:53] done, you see how we we we continue kind

[10:56] of warming the prospect through just

[10:58] communication without asking them for

[11:00] anything. We're not trying to pitch them

[11:01] anything yet. And so once the listing is

[11:05] ready, again, then it goes into that

[11:06] sequence where then we we try to book

[11:08] the call with them for what we call the

[11:10] listing delivery call. And sometimes we

[11:12] get some resistance from that. So we've

[11:13] got some automations in there that I'll

[11:15] show you on how we can get them to book

[11:16] the call as well. Okay. And so that's a

[11:19] lot of that comes back to that service

[11:20] area radius uh question. All right. So

[11:23] when we get on the review uh the listing

[11:25] delivery call, we review and deliver the

[11:27] listing and then we transition to the

[11:28] PAS presentation, problem manage

[11:30] solution presentation. Um and it works

[11:32] really well for closing tree

[11:34] contractors. Uh it would likely work for

[11:36] pretty much any other type of service

[11:38] area business as well. And by the way, I

[11:40] do niche specific stuff like my agency

[11:42] just works for free contractors, but

[11:44] this could work with a local like a

[11:46] local business directory. Like in other

[11:48] words, a particular city or region if

[11:49] that makes sense. It doesn't have to be

[11:51] industry specific. That's just how I

[11:53] prefer to operate an agency, but it

[11:54] could be done on a local marketing level

[11:56] too. If somebody's just trying to

[11:57] collect clients from a particular city,

[11:58] you can do it this way as well, right?

[12:00] [snorts] Um, so closer, close the sale

[12:02] or move to a post call nurture

[12:04] automation. Again, I don't push any of

[12:05] the prospects on the call. off, they're

[12:07] ready to check out, I'll send them the

[12:08] checkout link. But most of the time, I

[12:10] just very very gently just say, "Listen,

[12:11] I'm going to send you continue sending

[12:13] you some additional messaging about this

[12:16] uh about what we talked about on today's

[12:18] call. Then when you're ready, we'll be

[12:19] here." And I always tell them, just book

[12:20] a quick call with me. Got any follow-up

[12:22] questions before you pull the trigger on

[12:24] anything? By all means, just book a call

[12:25] with me. I try to be very open and

[12:27] available to prospects because, again,

[12:29] trying to develop that relationship.

[12:31] That's where most of these guys get

[12:32] burnt like these tree guys especially

[12:34] but a lot of local clients they you know

[12:35] they don't have proper communication

[12:37] with their vendors their uh you know SEO

[12:40] or marketing agency and so I think

[12:42] keeping at least initially that con that

[12:44] communication open when being very

[12:46] available helps to build that trust and

[12:48] earn that trust so that we can then

[12:50] close the sale that's clear. So uh again

[12:54] once we get off the call I just put them

[12:56] into a post ner if they haven't checked

[12:57] out which most of them do not on the

[12:59] call and then we have emails socials etc

[13:01] where we you know continue targeting

[13:04] them sending them messages and things

[13:05] like that but we do it very kind of uh

[13:07] conservatively we're not real aggressive

[13:09] about it okay um if you also if your

[13:11] target industry is on LinkedIn hey reach

[13:13] with instantly integration is great um

[13:16] because it fully you know you can

[13:17] there's so many awesome automations you

[13:18] can use with hey reach for LinkedIn now

[13:21] tree service contractors aren't active

[13:22] on LinkedIn. So, it doesn't work well

[13:23] for that. Uh, but a lot of industries

[13:25] that have active, you know, the the

[13:28] business owners are active on LinkedIn.

[13:30] That's also really good way to continue

[13:32] kind of a post call nurture messaging

[13:35] sequence. Okay. Okay. So, here's the

[13:37] example guys of the pre-all nurture. So,

[13:40] this is this is the automation once they

[13:42] get the cold email reply. So in other

[13:44] words, when they reply to the cold email

[13:46] asking to us them to confirm their

[13:48] information or to correct any inaccurate

[13:50] information, this is what happens when

[13:53] they reply. So it pushes the uh and

[13:56] instantly the way that my setup is and

[13:58] instantly it's positive or neutral

[13:59] reply. It creates a a contact through

[14:02] web hook in uh high level, excuse me,

[14:05] creates the opportunity card, puts them

[14:06] in the automation and here it is. So it

[14:08] says thanks for adding in this case the

[14:10] urban arborist directory to treeare or

[14:12] arborist excuse me the urban arborist to

[14:13] the treeare hq directory now and then

[14:16] here's the question about the service

[14:17] area radius. Okay so we do this via text

[14:19] it also goes out you can see via email

[14:22] as well and that was the client or the

[14:24] prospect's response. Okay so and we get

[14:27] that a lot and they always tree guys

[14:28] always have these massive service areas

[14:31] which is nuts because their DVPs never

[14:32] ran for that. Um, but it says, you know,

[14:35] then we acknowledge the reply and then

[14:37] we, you know, basically just say,

[14:38] "Thanks. We got it. Okay, we're going to

[14:40] be working on your listing. We're going

[14:41] to send it to you for review when it's

[14:43] ready." That's basically what we say.

[14:44] Okay. So, there's the listing delivery

[14:46] message after. Now, usually about 24

[14:48] hours later, the um all my VA does is

[14:51] once she publishes the listing, she just

[14:53] adds a tag and contact uh you know, in

[14:56] high level the contact record listing

[14:57] ready like listing ready. Boom. and

[14:59] added it to the automation sequence for

[15:01] to book the uh schedule the listing

[15:03] delivery call. So there's the first uh

[15:06] email that goes out. We also do that via

[15:09] SMS and then as I mentioned before if

[15:10] they don't respond to either email or

[15:12] SMS then they go into a queue for

[15:14] outbound AI voice. So they get calls

[15:16] from that. So, they'll get two calls, I

[15:18] believe, six hours apart, um, the

[15:20] following day if they don't respond to

[15:22] the emails and the SMSs, and then

[15:23] they'll get another two calls the

[15:25] following day until they either DND us

[15:28] or tell us to f off or whatever, in

[15:29] which case we we just don't contact them

[15:31] again. Okay? Um, but that's it. So, we

[15:34] ask them, so you know, the the next

[15:36] question is then, well, why would

[15:37] somebody want to book a call with you to

[15:38] look at their directory? Okay? And so,

[15:40] if you understand what I'm showing you,

[15:41] see what I'm showing you here is this.

[15:44] These are kind of the the the the

[15:46] typical situations. Some prospects are

[15:49] going to just book the call immediately.

[15:51] Um some of them are going to ask

[15:52] questions. And so they're going to say,

[15:53] well, why do I need to book a call?

[15:54] Here's an example. Why do I need a call?

[15:56] Just send a listing for me to review.

[15:58] And so then I go there's some if else

[16:00] conditions, you know, in a workflow and

[16:01] uh high level that says, you know, hey,

[16:03] thanks for following up. We prefer to

[16:05] review your new company listing with the

[16:07] business owner before we promote them on

[16:08] our directory to make sure everything is

[16:10] accurate and you're happy with how it

[16:11] looks. So I say also we identified some

[16:14] problems. Here's the problem. Agitate

[16:15] solution is where we introduce that.

[16:16] Okay. We identified some problems that

[16:18] are preventing you from getting jobs in

[16:20] your service area and would like to

[16:21] review it with you. Please select the

[16:22] time on account. Okay. Well, they're

[16:24] either going to book the call or they're

[16:26] going to follow up with another

[16:27] question. What problems? Or some

[16:30] iteration of that, right? And so it

[16:31] says, Trey, you told us that you want to

[16:33] get jobs within this 50 mile service

[16:34] area radius. And so we send them a link

[16:37] to that because that's what they again

[16:39] that's why we asked for that service

[16:40] area radius earlier. So that's just a

[16:41] short link in the high level contact

[16:43] record. Again, it's all automated. So

[16:44] boom, there's the short link and it

[16:46] says, but here's where. So what we send

[16:48] that to them and in two minutes later or

[16:50] a minute later, whatever it is, 90

[16:51] seconds later, whatever it is, it sends

[16:53] out the next one. It says, here's where

[16:54] Google says that your jobs are actually

[16:55] coming from. Boom.

[16:58] Only the areas in green. And a lot of

[17:00] the times you Yeah, there might be a

[17:01] speck of green in the middle of a sea of

[17:03] red. And I'm like, okay, this is what we

[17:05] want to talk about. Let's get on a call.

[17:07] You know what I mean? And so this works

[17:09] well because then most of the time we

[17:11] will then get a booked call once they

[17:13] see that and sometimes we don't. And so

[17:15] then they just go into again a kind of

[17:17] longer term follow-up sequence to try to

[17:18] get to the booked call. But that's it.

[17:20] And that's what I said like you know

[17:22] once we get on the call I I I'm 100%

[17:25] transparent about my intentions right

[17:26] off the right out of the gate. So first

[17:28] thing I say to them is like we're going

[17:30] to accomplish two things on this call.

[17:31] Number one is we're going to review your

[17:32] directory listing. Make sure

[17:33] everything's accurate. You're happy

[17:34] about it. We can make any changes right

[17:36] here on the spot. I'm so I'm just logged

[17:38] in. We're currently use WordPress, but

[17:40] we're getting away from that very

[17:41] quickly. I promise. I'm g show you guys

[17:43] something in a moment. Um, but then I

[17:45] say once we once we are, you know, this

[17:47] should take five to 10 minutes. And then

[17:48] I say and once you're happy with that,

[17:50] then I'm going to introduce the, you

[17:51] know, go over the problems that I

[17:53] mentioned in the if it depends on what

[17:54] the messaging sequence was. If they

[17:56] booked the call up front, they're

[17:57] unaware of it. Um, if they've seen the

[17:59] PAS sequence, then they're aware of it.

[18:01] So then I'll just depending on, you

[18:02] know, how they came into that call, I

[18:05] will structure my uh call it that way to

[18:08] kind of promote whatever it is that I

[18:10] they're either aware of or aren't aren't

[18:11] aware of yet, if that makes sense. So um

[18:13] but it's quite it's it works well

[18:15] because I always ask them, "Does it make

[18:17] sense? Should we continue the call?" You

[18:18] know, and they always say, "Yeah, let's

[18:19] go." You know, and so we spend five to

[18:21] 10 minutes talking about their listing

[18:22] and then I go right in and I start to

[18:24] present to them the issues that we've

[18:25] identified. By then I usually have

[18:26] Bright Local reports pulled up. So, we

[18:28] do organic rank tracking, local search

[18:30] tracking, citation tracking. So, we have

[18:32] all that data when I'm on the call with

[18:33] them. I just have those reports open and

[18:35] I just talk through the stuff and I show

[18:36] them examples of other clients that I've

[18:38] worked on, stuff like that, and just

[18:39] answer their questions. And, you know,

[18:41] like I always say, I don't do anything.

[18:42] I don't try to push them at all. If

[18:44] they're ready, then I'm actually send

[18:46] them a checkout link for whatever it is

[18:47] that they're ready for, but most of the

[18:49] time they're not. They say, "Oh, well, I

[18:50] need to think about it's fine. I'm going

[18:51] to send you some emails, some follow-ups

[18:53] about this with additional information.

[18:55] And when you're ready, feel free to book

[18:57] a call with me again or just sign, you

[18:58] know, check out, whatever. Okay. So,

[19:01] here's the text stack guide that I use.

[19:02] Um, I use Google Workspace accounts for

[19:04] email only. Um, for my white label

[19:07] agency, we also I have a company that

[19:09] actually manages the cold email for that

[19:11] and they they also use Outlook uh emails

[19:13] as well, but I just get a Google

[19:14] Workspace retreat contractors and it

[19:16] works um instantly uh as my email code

[19:18] emailing application. trying to do that

[19:20] through high level. Um, and I did for

[19:22] quite some time, but the inboxing, even

[19:24] with Workspace SMTP, just does not work

[19:26] nearly as well when it goes through high

[19:28] level. I have no idea why. It just

[19:29] doesn't work. Um, but instantly I've

[19:31] got, like I said, I've got domains in

[19:32] there. I've been sending gold emails for

[19:34] four years on and haven't burnt yet. No

[19:36] kidding. It's still inboxing health of

[19:38] those domains are 98 99%. It's nuts. And

[19:40] sometimes if a if the kind of health of

[19:43] a domain goes down below like 95% then I

[19:46] will take it out of rotation and leave

[19:48] it in the warm-up system until the

[19:49] reputation comes back up and then I just

[19:51] plug it right back into the system and

[19:52] it works again. And so uh instantly is

[19:54] outstanding for that. Um I use out

[19:56] scraper for scraping contacts but you

[19:59] know you can use any of them. Another

[20:00] good one right now that I started

[20:02] testing which is called browse AI.

[20:03] That's that's a good one too. I like

[20:05] that. Um out scraper has a lifetime deal

[20:07] on Absumo today still. I just check well

[20:10] two days ago I checked it was there uh

[20:12] which is good. It's like $129 a flat fee

[20:14] but you get $30 a month in credits. They

[20:16] don't roll over but you get $30 a month

[20:18] in scraping credits. So it's great

[20:19] because like I like I said I usually

[20:21] scrape maybe a state or two at a time

[20:23] and we go through a cleaning and

[20:25] filtering process of the list and then

[20:27] load that in instantly. And that's

[20:28] that's you know so about once a month

[20:30] maybe once every six weeks we'll go in

[20:32] and run another scrape job. So $30 a

[20:34] month is plenty and that's that lifetime

[20:36] deal we'll give you that. Uh the CRM,

[20:40] like I said, I use a high level as my

[20:42] CRM, but that's just because, you know,

[20:44] it was my CRM before all the AI stuff.

[20:46] Now, I've done a look at I've looked at

[20:48] a couple of other more salesoriented CRM

[20:50] that aren't, you know, complete

[20:51] marketing automation tools like High

[20:53] Level is. Um Adio, I'm sure some of you

[20:56] guys have heard of Adio. Another one's

[20:57] called Break Cold. I've looked at Break

[20:59] Cold. Um if I wasn't so kind of married

[21:02] to High Level right now, I would

[21:03] probably use a different CRM. Instantly

[21:05] has a CRM now as well. So I think if you

[21:09] can reduce the number of tools it's

[21:11] better. You know what I mean? So if you

[21:12] don't need high level then uh for your

[21:14] CRM if you can get away with just using

[21:16] instantly it's probably better. Um for

[21:18] directory I currently use and have been

[21:20] since I started this WP geo directory.

[21:22] Um geo directory I I can't stand

[21:24] WordPress guys. I absolutely hate

[21:26] WordPress. And so I've been wanting to

[21:28] get away every time I log into my

[21:30] directory site or any WordPress site for

[21:31] that matter. It makes me sick because

[21:33] there's all the goddamn, you know,

[21:35] updates and everything else. It drives

[21:36] me nuts. And so, um, a friend of mine,

[21:39] Jeremy Nolleman from Press Advantage,

[21:41] uh, you know, he I asked him a couple of

[21:44] months ago now. I said, "Look, man, I

[21:45] want to replace WPG directory." So, and

[21:48] I was asking him if he could build me a

[21:50] directory site builder that ran on HTML

[21:53] basically, uh, created HTML pages and

[21:55] everything so we get rid of all the

[21:56] bloat and all the hassle that we have

[21:57] with WordPress. And he built a whole

[21:59] application called sites.co. Um, you can

[22:02] see, and here's let me give you a little

[22:04] evolution on this. So, directory

[22:05] forge.com is originally what he built as

[22:08] a new directory builder. Now, it's it's

[22:10] not I don't even have access to it yet,

[22:12] okay? But it's in development right now.

[22:13] You can go look at directory forge.com.

[22:15] And that's Jeremy's answer to replacing

[22:18] WPO directory. And by the way, guys, the

[22:19] directory platform doesn't matter. You

[22:21] can use any of them that you like, okay?

[22:23] Brilliant directories, whatever. It

[22:24] doesn't matter. That's just a tool,

[22:25] right? Um, but Jeremy built directory

[22:28] forge and then from that kind of spawned

[22:31] a couple of additional ideas. Number

[22:32] one, one of our front-end services at

[22:34] Treeare HQ is we do what we call no lead

[22:36] generation sites. They're just simple

[22:38] lead genen sites that we build for the

[22:39] client. Uh most Tree Center service

[22:41] contractors have shitty sites or no

[22:43] sites. Um and so I typically and I don't

[22:45] work on other people's sites. It's a

[22:46] policy of mine. If you're going to be a

[22:47] client of mine, either we build the site

[22:49] or we don't touch the site like we we'll

[22:51] send you instructions for your web

[22:52] master to optimize the site, but we're

[22:54] not touching other people's work. I just

[22:55] don't do it. And so, uh, I either sell

[22:58] them one of my sites or we work with

[22:59] whatever they got if they have a web

[23:01] master or we just don't work with them

[23:02] at all. Okay. Um, but so anyways, local

[23:05] lead generation sites is one of the

[23:06] front-end services that we offer. And

[23:08] uh, so I asked Jeremy then also if he

[23:10] could create a site builder on the same

[23:12] platform, right? And uh, which is HTML

[23:15] pages, very quick, lean uh, code so they

[23:18] load incredibly fast. And so he

[23:20] developed a site builder, a local local

[23:22] site builder that's part of the direct

[23:24] reforge like you know site builder that

[23:26] he built and then also um a blogging

[23:29] platform now because as my for my white

[23:30] label services I get questions all the

[23:32] time from link building clients if we

[23:34] can do content marketing for them. We

[23:35] don't do that. We do link building and

[23:37] so uh uh but you know you get enough

[23:39] people asking that can you do this for

[23:41] me? Can you eventually say yeah I'm

[23:42] turning money away all the time. You

[23:44] know what I mean? So the other thing

[23:45] that we're going to be doing is now

[23:47] offering soon once this is available for

[23:49] me um content marketing services where

[23:52] we'll have the client map a subdomain

[23:54] over to like blogdomain whatever it is

[23:56] and it will manage the content marketing

[23:58] and distribution on a blog subdomain of

[24:00] the client's site so we don't touch the

[24:02] site go ahead one thing I'm helping is

[24:06] in the finally baseball circuit that

[24:08] they're putting in some new teams and

[24:10] they're actually they've never actually

[24:12] leveraged the domain authority whatever

[24:15] they have nationality and sports plus

[24:18] local government chamber of they have a

[24:20] combination of both national local and

[24:22] they don't even realize from the SEO and

[24:24] genetic potential that they're usually

[24:26] in the top 20 [clears throat] most

[24:27] powerful sites in any of their local

[24:29] markets

[24:30] they were open finally to testing one

[24:32] market on your team to bring in new

[24:34] sponsors to do something like this where

[24:36] we say we build 300 business categories

[24:39] but be in that market but under the team

[24:42] so you know the the Dallas.com

[24:47] local business or directory. How would

[24:49] you append it with just adding a

[24:50] subdomain? They're currently on

[24:52] WordPress. Is that still better at that

[24:53] point this geo directory and build it on

[24:56] so you keep the domain authority like

[24:58] like the subdomain option you were

[25:01] talking about?

[25:02] Well, what I mean for the subdomain

[25:04] option that I was talking about is like

[25:05] for my link building clients because we

[25:07] don't touch their clients, but my my

[25:08] link building clients are SEO

[25:10] professionals that have clients, right?

[25:12] And so we don't touch their sites. Uh

[25:14] we'll do on page optimization, analysis,

[25:16] audits, recommendations, etc. We won't

[25:18] touch the sites. Okay.

[25:19] And so, but if they want us to do

[25:21] content marketing, we we we got two

[25:24] options. We can either well three

[25:25] options. We can either publish content

[25:27] on their site, which we'd have to have

[25:28] access to their blog and all that. Don't

[25:30] want that. We don't want that. Number

[25:31] two, we can do publish externally on

[25:33] branded assets, etc. So, web twos, G

[25:36] sites, things like that, which we do a

[25:37] lot of. Um or a blog on a subdomain. So

[25:40] that any other content publishing and

[25:41] distribution we do by the way part of

[25:43] the reason I do that is because it

[25:44] doesn't compete then with content from

[25:45] the root domain. Remember Google treats

[25:47] those as two separate sites. So there's

[25:48] no competing page issues uh

[25:50] cannibalization etc. Does that make

[25:52] sense? I think most because you know say

[25:54] for example I think the market is down

[25:56] south Bont

[25:58] so if you had something like commercial

[26:00] roofers or something like that if

[26:01] someone typed in commercial roofers

[26:02] Bulma it's quite possible that that the

[26:04] team's website forward could rank number

[26:07] one at least in the organic AI is TVA so

[26:11] I was just curious but at that point I

[26:13] may make some notes if I ask

[26:15] yeah sure no worries thank you very much

[26:16] yeah so science form guys anyways I'm

[26:18] not here to promote anything guys it's

[26:20] but it is if anybody's interested and

[26:21] you get on a waiting list sites.co is

[26:24] what he rebranded directory forge now

[26:25] that it has the two additional kind of

[26:27] site builders in. Again, I don't even

[26:29] have access to it yet, but I'm excited

[26:30] about it. So, I just wanted to bring

[26:31] that up because I'm not I'm not here to

[26:33] promote any certain kind of a directory.

[26:34] I don't care. It doesn't matter. The

[26:36] directory is just a tool to initiate a

[26:39] conversation. That's it. Right now, by

[26:41] the way, for my directory or my clients,

[26:43] whenever they become a paid client, like

[26:44] I don't sell paid listings on the

[26:46] directory, but if they become a paying

[26:48] client at any level whatsoever, then we

[26:50] use their directory listing to optimize

[26:52] further. We'll add schema, add the map.

[26:54] We also a lot of their link building

[26:56] budget will go to my directory like

[26:57] their directory page. So, I'm actually

[26:59] using their money to build up my assets

[27:01] on their behalf to benefit them as well,

[27:03] but it also benefits me. So, the

[27:05] directory doesn't matter. It's just a

[27:07] it's just a mechanism or tool. Okay. Um

[27:09] but there's plenty of others out there

[27:10] as well. Uh the process again I I say

[27:13] select an industry because that's that's

[27:14] the way I prefer to do is industry

[27:16] specific um agency work instead of you

[27:18] know uh just working as a generalist. So

[27:21] I prefer to do it that way but you can

[27:22] do it at a local level if that's you

[27:24] know your thing. Uh set up G Workspace

[27:26] accounts. Add accounts to instantly for

[27:28] warming. Scrape contacts. Clean and

[27:29] verify the contact list which can be

[27:31] done on the scrape. It can also be done

[27:32] on import. Like you don't have to use

[27:34] external uh email verification services

[27:36] at all anymore. Um, you can, but you

[27:38] don't have to. Add the instantly

[27:40] campaign, push contact replies in the

[27:41] CRM, unless you're using instantly for

[27:43] the CRM, in which case it will already

[27:44] be there. And then you nurture the

[27:46] prospect until the book call. So, um,

[27:50] here's the kind of one step by step,

[27:52] guys. I'm just going to go through.

[27:53] These are all in the presentations that

[27:54] I make available or whatever for

[27:56] everybody. Um, those are actual SOPs.

[27:58] Uh, that's on Flowster. Flaster is the

[28:00] SOP application that I use. You do need

[28:02] a paid Flowster account to access those,

[28:04] but you can get a paid account for, I

[28:06] think, $14 a month. Go ahead.

[28:07] One question about the the labels when

[28:10] you you just create data.

[28:12] I mean, I built a couple directories and

[28:16] I get obsessed like how many labels you

[28:18] have manage, right? Yeah. Phone number.

[28:21] I want more rich content, you know, like

[28:23] adding more images. Sometimes I even

[28:26] create a Python script to add more

[28:28] images like go to shirt stuff, add more

[28:31] images, created I don't know just for

[28:33] feeling, right? A lot. Well, when we

[28:35] when we do the like initially when you

[28:37] create the directory, I recommend that

[28:38] you only add a few dozen directory

[28:42] listings. These are unoptimized listings

[28:44] that I mean you can with you know chat

[28:46] or whatever you can do even sheets

[28:47] integration you can make unique business

[28:49] descriptions everything super easy but I

[28:51] only recommend adding a few dozen

[28:53] listings to the directory as an initial

[28:55] kind of seed set of listings because we

[28:58] want our directory to stay high quality.

[29:00] So, we only add contacts to the

[29:02] directory if they reply to cold email.

[29:04] See what I'm saying? Now, don't get me

[29:05] wrong. When I first started, I uploaded,

[29:07] you know, thousands of tree contractors,

[29:09] but over the years, I've learned to just

[29:10] go delete all them because it help it

[29:12] hurts with indexing. If you've got a

[29:13] bunch of unoptimized listings on the

[29:15] site, the the directory site's not going

[29:16] to index well. So what we do is we only

[29:19] we only add the p or publish a listing

[29:21] or add a company to the directory if

[29:23] they respond positively to cold email in

[29:26] which case my I have a VA that goes and

[29:28] literally just opens up you know Google

[29:30] and does a brand search and just pulls

[29:32] out all the relevant information that

[29:34] they need and we haven't automated that

[29:36] part of it yet but I've got a a team

[29:38] member that does really well on it. So,

[29:40] okay. And so, anyways, it, you know, we

[29:42] get all the information from their

[29:44] website, their GBP, Facebook. A lot of

[29:46] tree guys are on Facebook, but that's

[29:47] about the only one. Um, so that's where

[29:49] we get most of the information. Okay.

[29:52] But anyways, those SOPs guys will be

[29:54] fully available for for you. So, uh,

[29:56] check it out. But basically, select an

[29:58] industry. There's an SOP. I go very very

[30:00] thoroughly into, you know, how to select

[30:02] a particular industry if you're going to

[30:04] go that route. Um, I think it's

[30:05] important to kind of vet the industry.

[30:07] make sure that it's uh uh you know

[30:09] viable for this sort of a service. So

[30:11] it's a very very detailed SOP on that

[30:13] create brand. Um I typically recommend

[30:16] you start with at least three domains.

[30:18] One you know one for the directory and

[30:20] then like for for example treehq.com is

[30:22] the directory site that I use but I've

[30:25] got treehqmail.com

[30:27] treehqmail.net treehmail.org

[30:30] you know what I mean? So just go out and

[30:31] buy a handful of additional branded

[30:32] domains for the directory brand. I

[30:35] people have asked me before, well, you

[30:36] know, should I use my agency domain? No,

[30:39] no, no. Because you don't want to say

[30:40] marketing or SEO or anything in that.

[30:41] And my signature line in all the cold

[30:44] emails says tech specialist at Triare

[30:46] HQ. It doesn't say SEO, doesn't say

[30:48] marketer, it says tech specialist. I'm

[30:50] contacting them as a support tech with

[30:52] the directory just to confirm their

[30:54] information, right? That's basically

[30:56] what how I approach it anyways. Um, so

[30:58] then we have the email set up. Again,

[30:59] that's workspace accounts with adding it

[31:01] to instantly. That's the tool that I

[31:02] use. So, um, very easy setup. Uh,

[31:05] contact list, scrape contacts, excuse

[31:08] me, uh, scrape contacts, cleaning

[31:09] format, verify emails. Again, that can

[31:11] all be done on both the scrape and

[31:13] scrape your contacts.

[31:14] Uh, those I use out scraper. That's what

[31:16] I

[31:16] And I also mentioned browser AI is a

[31:18] pretty good one, too. That's that's a

[31:20] nice one.

[31:21] Cold email prospecting, that's the

[31:23] sequencing, setting up the campaigns,

[31:25] adding the list, etc., and then starting

[31:27] the sequence. Uh, that's a three-day

[31:29] cold email sequence. Uh, we actually use

[31:31] a fiveday code email sequence. So, it's

[31:33] it's one every other day for 10 days.

[31:35] And guys, just I'm sure you all heard

[31:37] it. You know, we get the highest

[31:38] response rate on email four and five,

[31:40] just to be clear. Okay.

[31:43] Uh, got questions or need help. Um,

[31:45] Humpday Hangouts, guys, we've been doing

[31:46] that for over 11 years on Wednesday. Um,

[31:48] over 11 years. So, if anybody ever has

[31:51] any questions about anything like this

[31:52] whatsoever, come check us out Hangouts

[31:54] on Wednesdays at 4 PM YouTube Savannah

[31:57] Mastery um channel. And uh we're happy

[31:59] to answer any questions or you could

[32:01] always book a a call with me. So any

[32:03] questions guys?

[32:05] Wow. Um

[32:07] more questions.

[32:09] Oh yeah, I got question.

[32:11] Where uh where's the other?

[32:13] Oh here

[32:16] and then repeat the question

[32:19] for the for the people online.

[32:21] Okay.

[32:24] You had the question Dory or

[32:26] Yeah. Uh, do you ever do email blasts

[32:28] and if so, what do you use?

[32:30] What do you mean email blast?

[32:31] Big email blast like to your whole list?

[32:34] Yeah. Well, I so I have a newsletter. We

[32:37] just switched to beehive and I've got

[32:39] somebody in house now, but I was using a

[32:40] company called the newsletter pro. They

[32:42] they managed it and everything for three

[32:44] years both for semantic langare hq every

[32:46] other week, every two weeks. Um, we just

[32:49] switched over to beehive. So that's what

[32:50] I use as kind of a newsletter.

[32:52] So once once they get

[32:53] email out beehive does that. Okay. Yeah.

[32:56] Yeah. So, we use emails as our broadcast

[32:59] email system.

[32:59] What's your open rate on those?

[33:01] Um, I don't know because we just

[33:02] switched this month. Okay. Just switched

[33:03] this month. So,

[33:06] but by the way, the newsletter works

[33:07] great, too. I mean, like every other

[33:08] week I get tree guys that will contact

[33:10] me and they say, "Well, I've been

[33:12] getting your newsletter for a year and a

[33:14] half and finally decided to reach out."

[33:16] So, that's why I said you just you set

[33:17] this in motion, guys, and you just let

[33:19] it run. And then in six months from now,

[33:21] you're going to have deals start popping

[33:23] just like that. And it's not from

[33:24] anything. It's not from hard sales

[33:26] closing tactics or none of that. It's

[33:27] not high pressure, nothing. I don't do

[33:29] that to my tree guys. It turns them off.

[33:31] They'll cuss you out in a heartbeat, you

[33:33] know. And so I I I very gently pull them

[33:36] to to me by just staying in

[33:38] communication and trying to offer

[33:40] something of value.

[33:41] So what do you use as a conversation

[33:43] starter when sending out leads for your

[33:45] link building?

[33:46] Uh now it's, you know, question type

[33:48] quick question types emails. Do you are

[33:50] you looking to take on more SEO clients?

[33:52] And you know, now we use a lot of the AI

[33:54] SEO angles in our pitch.

[33:57] So, and uh that's that's a really

[33:59] popular thing. If you talk about AI SEO

[34:01] with any SEO agency, most SEO agency

[34:03] guys, I'm sure you know, don't know what

[34:05] the hell they're doing. Okay? As a white

[34:06] label service provider, I see the

[34:09] shittiest work you can ever imagine on a

[34:11] regular and daily basis. And uh these

[34:13] the we were talking about this the other

[34:15] day. I think agencies should be ashamed

[34:16] of themselves being out there selling

[34:18] the shitty SEO work that they're

[34:20] selling. Um it's it literally is

[34:22] unethical in my opinion. So

[34:23] agree 100% guys. That's why I commend

[34:27] all of y'all. I'm very proud that y'all

[34:29] taking steps always continuously to try

[34:31] to be better because I'm always doing

[34:33] the same. I'm forever learning too,

[34:35] right? But the unethical part like

[34:37] taking someone's money and not being

[34:39] able to deliver. [clears throat] Just

[34:41] think about if it was your mother or

[34:42] your father or your aunt, you know, like

[34:44] that's all your grandmother. That's

[34:45] that's what I always tell people. Like

[34:47] you got a question, Charles?

[34:48] Yeah. Uh you mentioned um looking up

[34:50] industries, finding a growing a growing

[34:53] industry. Are there certain data points

[34:54] you're looking for to determine that

[34:56] this industry is growing certain places?

[34:59] Google trends, Google trends, the

[35:00] easiest thing in the world. Just go and

[35:02] just look at category level terms. Um

[35:05] category level terms like again local

[35:07] focusing.

[35:08] Oh, I'm sorry. We asked the question.

[35:11] I'm sorry. Um I just want to know the

[35:14] data points for determining if an

[35:15] industry is growing.

[35:16] Okay. Yeah. So, I use Google Trends.

[35:18] Like I said, it's super easy. I just go

[35:19] look at the Google business category

[35:21] terms like, you know, that's broad

[35:24] terms, right? So, I always just look at

[35:25] that and see is it is the and set the

[35:27] time frame to five years, the last five

[35:29] years. And all you want to see is either

[35:31] steady evergreen demand or increasing

[35:34] demand. If you see it declining, don't

[35:35] go after that. Just looking at simple

[35:37] SEO.

[35:38] And quick tip on that with Google

[35:40] Trends, right? Make sure you put enough

[35:42] of a time period on it because I'm

[35:44] telling you, I manipulate Google Trends.

[35:47] all the time. Like I I

[35:50] can't do it too short of a time. You're

[35:51] not gonna get realistic data.

[35:54] One of I don't know if you guys have

[35:56] seen like Bradley has goes really deeper

[35:59] in Google Trends. I recommend to reach

[36:01] out to him because I've learned a lot a

[36:03] lot. It looks like a simple tool but you

[36:06] can get a lot of data.

[36:09] What a gem. [laughter]

[36:11] And one question here is for when you

[36:14] have a directory you used to get

[36:16] traction by itself because it's like

[36:19] you're you're getting long tail keywords

[36:22] right but do you apart from that some

[36:25] link building to your your homepage or I

[36:28] mean like

[36:28] for the directory?

[36:29] Yeah. Yeah. I mean initially of course

[36:31] uh now I I you know I don't do any

[36:33] intentional link building to the

[36:34] directory other than through the client

[36:37] listings. Like in other words, if I have

[36:38] a client, we do link building to their

[36:40] listing as part of their retainer

[36:42] package, their link building services.

[36:44] So my directory gets list links from

[36:46] from client listings. But that's that's

[36:48] basically it. And you know, there was a

[36:50] period of time where I ranked number one

[36:51] for tree care or tree uh uh tree service

[36:55] directory. I ranked number one to number

[36:57] three for like two and a half years and

[36:58] I got a lot of leads from that. But it

[37:00] doesn't even matter whether it ranks or

[37:02] not. It it's like on page three for now

[37:04] for some reason. I don't even care. It

[37:05] doesn't matter. That's not the point.

[37:07] The point is to initiate the

[37:08] conversation and that's all it's for.

[37:09] You know what I mean? So,

[37:12] do you uh sort of strategically

[37:15] think about the seasonality of your

[37:17] industry and when you're sending this

[37:19] out outreach so it catches them at the

[37:20] right moment?

[37:21] Yeah. And what's it's it's funny. It's a

[37:23] great question by the way because it's

[37:24] tree service is very seasonal. Uh so in

[37:26] the winter months we'll stick to the

[37:28] south southern climate where it's less

[37:30] seasonal change or uh you know the

[37:34] industry is affected less in the south

[37:36] and in the warmer climates. Um but I've

[37:39] also experimented with that a lot.

[37:41] What's crazy is, you know, in the winter

[37:43] time, treat in the industry that I'm in,

[37:45] you know, I'll land a client in the

[37:46] spring and they'll be a client all the

[37:48] way until November, December. And in

[37:51] November, December, they always want to

[37:52] pause their SEO services because it's

[37:55] the winter time and it slows down. So,

[37:57] well, we'll be back in the spring.

[37:58] Problem is, if you do the SEO good

[38:00] enough in the spring, they don't need

[38:02] to. they oftentimes don't have to come

[38:04] back [laughter] and so I've got a lot of

[38:06] turn in my agency and I try to and if

[38:08] they do come back by the way we somebody

[38:10] was saying this the other day the

[38:11] comeback rate is higher

[38:12] yeah it's always higher he was paying

[38:15] five now you're paying 10 uh we got two

[38:18] questions online I'm come back to Pete

[38:20] quick and something just hit me from

[38:21] what Charles asks um a nice way I like

[38:24] to do niche research what I want to get

[38:26] into is go look at what VC is starting

[38:28] they always been buying out certain

[38:30] industries right roofing A drag. Uh you

[38:34] could look it up. I don't want to talk

[38:35] too much, but that's also a good way to

[38:37] look into where you want to set a

[38:39] directory because if BC is investing,

[38:42] it's [clears throat] for a reason.

[38:43] They're doing that market research. Let

[38:45] them spend the money.

[38:47] Do you try to in those off season those

[38:49] people that see like, hey, it's

[38:51] December, let's pause. Do you have like

[38:53] a lower level service? And do you ever

[38:55] try to build that into your initial

[38:56] thing that like, hey, this is how we

[38:58] work is in December we dial it down to

[39:00] X. That's a good good option. I hadn't

[39:03] even thought about doing that. Uh we

[39:05] typically would just try to keep them on

[39:07] reviews, the reviews plan, you know, uh

[39:10] we just do that through high level

[39:11] anyways. It's 99 bucks a month is our

[39:13] bill for that for just reviews

[39:14] management. Uh we try to keep them on

[39:16] that because that, you know, that has

[39:18] the biggest influence on GBP performance

[39:20] right now. As long as your on page is

[39:22] good, then you know reviews and activity

[39:24] engagement signals are the most

[39:25] important thing. So

[39:26] if you if you send them reports in the

[39:27] offse, it might just look Yeah. and like

[39:30] back up.

[39:32] Or if you're charging for reporting, you

[39:33] know, like you keep them at a little bit

[39:35] of a level.

[39:35] That's right.

[39:36] There's two ways you could do this, too,

[39:38] right? Uh

[39:40] maintenance. All right. So, you can

[39:41] charge a client, hey, look, it's going

[39:42] to cost this amount to get you there.

[39:44] Once I get you there, it's going to cost

[39:46] you this amount to keep you there,

[39:48] right?

[39:48] I call it maintenance mode, right? And

[39:50] pay me more upfront. Instead of paying

[39:52] me 2500 a month for three months for me

[39:54] to do what I really need to do, the

[39:56] first month is 7,500. Bro, let's get to

[39:58] it. It's your work that needs to be

[40:00] done, not mine. Now, if it's seasonal,

[40:02] because I do some season seasonal stuff

[40:04] rev share wise, then it's, hey, look,

[40:07] this is what I want during this part of

[40:09] the season, and then I know it's hard

[40:10] for you to eat during this part, so we

[40:12] going to tame that [ __ ] down, right?

[40:15] Swing like a mini max, 10% when it's

[40:18] cold, 20 55% whatever it is. So, those

[40:20] are two options. You could do the

[40:22] maintenance mode or seasonal mode.

[40:23] Build it in.

[40:24] Build it in from the start, which gains

[40:26] trust. Because if you go to a guy,

[40:28] right, and you're like, "Yo, bro, look,

[40:29] I work with this [ __ ] all the time. I

[40:31] know how it is. We January, so we gonna

[40:34] do it." Me and my bang bang. Look at the

[40:37] proof, the case studies. Of course,

[40:38] they're going to say yes because you're

[40:39] not the marketer trying to beat them in

[40:41] the [ __ ] head, right? There's there's

[40:43] two things. I can either make money off

[40:45] of you or I could make money with you.

[40:49] And when you tell a business owner, I

[40:51] want to make money with you and this is

[40:54] all I bring to the table and I

[40:56] understand your industry

[40:58] with this. H [laughter] and I've been

[41:00] wanting to do this for so long, but when

[41:02] you first started it, the GHL,

[41:05] bro, he's been doing this FOR AND I

[41:07] PROMISE YOU I'mma get on this [ __ ] and

[41:09] I'mma help it. I'mma make it easy for

[41:11] all of y'all because remember that's

[41:12] part of what I said I was gonna do. So

[41:14] very excited. Uh did you you had a

[41:17] question, sir? Let me let me just one

[41:19] more thing I want to add to what you

[41:20] asked specifically about seasonality. Uh

[41:22] what I found was really interesting is

[41:24] tree guys during the winter because it

[41:26] is slow they're not really receptive to

[41:29] additional marketing services until

[41:32] right about the start of the spring

[41:33] season starts to come in and then

[41:34] they're frantic about like and so I've

[41:37] learned that's an actually really good

[41:38] way to target the tree guys or on a

[41:40] conversation with them because we're

[41:41] still prospecting through all the winter

[41:43] months too. And so when we get them on a

[41:44] call, I tell them like, "Look, yeah, I

[41:46] understand. Right now it's middle of

[41:47] January. You probably don't got a lot of

[41:48] work, but March and April are coming.

[41:51] You know what I mean? And you got to get

[41:52] started because if you wait until the

[41:54] busy season to start, you won't get the

[41:57] performance that you need until the end

[41:59] of the season, you know, or sometime in

[42:01] the middle of the busy season. So I

[42:02] always try to convince them like just

[42:04] you know make it make it logical for

[42:06] them like hey we need get give us at

[42:08] least 30 days six weeks prior to the

[42:11] start of the business season so we can

[42:12] kind of get a jump start on this for you

[42:14] and then that typically is they're like

[42:15] okay yeah that makes sense you know and

[42:17] that's why again I always guys I always

[42:19] pitch one of my frontend low offer

[42:20] services we got local lead generation

[42:22] sites we charge $99 a month for that so

[42:24] if they if they just need a site we'll

[42:26] do that for them uh uh the Google

[42:28] business basic SEO which is just

[42:30] optimizing the listing publishing Google

[42:32] business post for them and yes power

[42:34] listings that's all I do for that it's

[42:35] $99 a month and then we have the lead

[42:37] gen excuse me um sol what I call shaking

[42:40] the bushes so if you shake a bush shake

[42:41] the bushes money falls out that's the

[42:43] list reactivation and review

[42:44] solicitation campaign again that's $99 a

[42:47] month and if they I also have a AI

[42:49] answering service so that's $1.99 a

[42:52] month and 15 cents per minute usage and

[42:54] so on the call I've got front-end offers

[42:56] that likely they're going to need one of

[42:58] those if not a combination of them but

[43:00] if they're not ready to pull the trigger

[43:02] on multiple services at one time or a

[43:04] full-on you know retainerbased package

[43:06] that includes everything then I always

[43:08] lead with reviews and because again with

[43:11] reviews I can if they have a contact

[43:13] list a customer list within 30 days I

[43:15] can show most of the time performance

[43:18] gains in the GBP and I don't tell them

[43:19] that that's not what I pitch on the re

[43:21] about the review service the review

[43:23] service is we're going to help you

[43:24] generate more reviews and then as an

[43:26] unintended consequence right when

[43:28] whenever their GBP kind of blossoms

[43:30] because we do a high velocity review

[43:32] campaign, then I use that as an upsell

[43:35] point because then I show them, hey, by

[43:37] the way, we you see your reviews and

[43:39] they're like, yeah, this looks great.

[43:40] And I say, well, let me show you what

[43:42] else happened. And then I show them the

[43:43] local search grid report that is now a

[43:45] hell of a lot more green than there used

[43:46] to be. And I say, you understand this is

[43:48] because of the review velocity, but we

[43:50] can't keep this pace up because we were

[43:52] contacting. So, if you want this to

[43:54] stick, we've got to optimize your

[43:56] listing better. we got to have a better

[43:58] site or optimize better site, you know,

[44:00] all that kind of stuff. So, we use that

[44:01] kind of performance gain from the $99 a

[44:04] month service to then upsell them to

[44:06] higher level retainer packages. That's

[44:08] clear.

[44:11] Yeah.

[44:12] Okay.

[44:14] Well, I really wasn't going to ask a

[44:16] question. I was just because this is

[44:18] really kind of like we're not supposed

[44:20] to be pitching. I'm pitching for this.

[44:22] Okay. I I've been through this for this

[44:25] course. won this. He, you know, like

[44:28] just what he just said. Did you realize

[44:31] how much [ __ ] he just gave everybody in

[44:34] just that little big answer, you need to

[44:36] get on one of these calls with him and

[44:38] you need to get

[44:38] Well, thanks, man.

[44:39] Find out more. Go into it deeper and get

[44:42] the real info. So, there you go. Thank

[44:45] you, man.

[44:46] Your checks in the mail.

[44:49] [laughter]

[44:50] Two quick questions. the uh you said you

[44:53] were doing the link building to build

[44:55] links to your own asset while you're

[44:57] simultaneously helping them. Do you do

[44:58] that for each individual listing you do

[45:01] external links building into so like I I

[45:03] just pulled up I haven't even checked

[45:04] the back links I I saw a great name here

[45:06] in Dallas for arborist Leatherface.

[45:09] So pretty cool. So, I haven't even

[45:10] looked at the URL, but do you build

[45:12] links to those deeper pages or more to

[45:14] like just the arborist category or just

[45:16] or back to your your root domain to

[45:17] build up the brand authority for HQ?

[45:20] Uh, for from Street HQ? Yeah.

[45:22] Yeah. Again, I did link building for

[45:23] about a year and a half to it

[45:24] intentionally and like like just to try

[45:27] to boost the overall metrics of the

[45:28] domain and everything else. And then,

[45:30] you know, last two years, three years or

[45:31] whatever, we just build links to client

[45:33] listings. That's it.

[45:34] So, so if I check other or whatever

[45:36] would have a a listing,

[45:38] right? And if I in in my white label

[45:39] services too for link building if if

[45:42] it's if one of my clients has tree

[45:44] service landscaping or excavator clients

[45:46] and if you look at my director we also

[45:48] have landscaping and excavators as

[45:49] categories but it's not it's only

[45:51] because some tree guys also have those

[45:53] as additional business categories. Um

[45:55] but we really just focus on tree guys u

[45:58] tree services. Uh so anyways uh the

[46:00] directory site um you know we'll we'll

[46:03] build links to the directory site

[46:05] through the listings for clients and

[46:07] then also for semantic links clients if

[46:09] it's a landscaper excavator for tree

[46:12] service contractor we also use that as

[46:14] another citation point if that makes

[46:16] sense and then build some tier 2 links

[46:18] to that as well.

[46:19] Got it. The other question I was Thank

[46:20] you because that that helps because I

[46:22] was gonna ask

[46:23] on that I'll when I schedule a call I'll

[46:25] go in just questions regional local

[46:28] directories as well. So say Dallas Fort

[46:29] Worth about

[46:31] I I I didn't realize I forgot I bought

[46:33] it one night you just angry by some

[46:34] domains. Okay. Yeah [laughter] we might

[46:36] have that once

[46:37] might have had some alcohol

[46:40] [clears throat]

[46:41] buying Dallas Fort Worth crypto.com so

[46:44] local business directory like that. So

[46:46] let's say at best 1% of local businesses

[46:48] and might even be less right now would

[46:50] accept it. Have you seen that work yet

[46:52] for currency based motivated purchases

[46:54] as a justification for a local

[46:56] directory? Did you do exactly?

[46:57] I haven't seen that but it sounds it's a

[46:59] great idea. Why not?

[47:00] Okay. I just I don't know if there any

[47:01] best practices for something because

[47:03] it's it's a regional and it's multi-

[47:05] niche [clears throat] but so it it it's

[47:07] going wide and deep and then but it's

[47:09] narrowed by the modification of the

[47:12] purchased desire by the customer using

[47:14] some form of currency.

[47:16] Thank you. Yeah.

[47:17] Yeah.

[47:18] I think that's especially in the age of

[47:20] AI people are especially in the age of

[47:23] AI people are going to be asking those

[47:25] questions to the AIS and if you're the

[47:27] only one answering that

[47:29] Yeah. That's true. Yeah,

[47:30] that's family like those like the close

[47:32] rates on those are going to be

[47:33] fantastic.

[47:39] Uh we have a question from Peter. Can

[47:42] you use subdomains as separate domains

[47:44] for cold email instead of

[47:50] unique domain domains? Are they treated

[47:52] differently?

[47:53] I don't know because I use workspace

[47:54] emails and it's always be a root domain,

[47:57] not subdomain. I don't know if anybody

[47:58] else can answer that,

[48:00] Brian.

[48:01] Yes.

[48:01] Yes, you can. Okay.

[48:03] Works no different than

[48:06] Hold on, Kait. Hold on though because

[48:08] the guy the question was from online.

[48:09] So, you can you can create a subdomain

[48:11] email on a workspace. No kidding.

[48:14] Well, so workspace is a little bit

[48:16] different because you have to have a

[48:17] separate subscription for that. But if

[48:19] you're using something like a pop three

[48:21] email, anything like that, you can

[48:23] create as many subdomains as you want.

[48:25] No different than if you have like a

[48:26] subdomain on your uh just regular, you

[48:30] know, primary domain. You could create,

[48:32] you know, dubdubdub, you know, leads,

[48:36] you know, right online. That you do the

[48:38] same thing with emails. So, one other

[48:40] thing that I I will echo too is that,

[48:42] you know, if anyone isn't following you,

[48:45] I I would definitely echo your your

[48:47] statement as well. Like

[48:49] I got uh you know I I've been following

[48:52] Bradley for years and as far as like I

[48:55] mean as far as like this kind of stuff

[48:58] it works and it's foundational to a lot

[49:01] of the kind of stuff that we do.

[49:02] Yeah. Absolutely. Look, I mean the

[49:04] biggest thing, guys, you know, we've

[49:05] been coaching local SEO, like a lot of

[49:08] entry- level people to be honest with

[49:09] you, for for years. And uh the biggest

[49:11] issue that we hear on my onboarding

[49:13] calls for my mastermind community, I

[49:14] always give 30 minutes one-on-one call

[49:16] with the the new the new member. And

[49:18] it's just that get to know them, right?

[49:19] And um and to find out about their

[49:21] businesses, their challenges, etc. And

[49:22] the most common thing that I hear, the

[49:24] two most common things I hear is lack of

[49:26] ability to get clients. Number two is

[49:28] lack of confidence in producing results.

[49:29] Those are the two biggest issues that I

[49:31] hear the most often. And so, uh, you

[49:34] know, this is specifically addressing

[49:35] the lack of clients. I mean, it's just

[49:38] such a good way to do it. I'm not

[49:39] getting like even my goal for 2026 is

[49:42] not to continue growing through J HQ.

[49:43] I'm not going to shut it down, but I

[49:46] want to focus on my white label

[49:47] services, but and yet I'm still closing

[49:49] new tree clients because I just got this

[49:51] pipeline that's just full of leads,

[49:52] right? And they're just I'm not going to

[49:53] turn it down, you know what I mean? So,

[49:55] of course, and it's systematized. So,

[49:58] managing tree guys quite easy for me. uh

[50:00] because we got you know we've been doing

[50:01] it for so long. So

[50:03] um Bernard is asking what are the

[50:05] benefits of using Google Workspace and

[50:08] what does your first cold call letter

[50:11] talk about?

[50:12] Well again it's just it's a it's five

[50:14] emails uh go out every other day across

[50:16] 10 days that are basically and instantly

[50:18] you set up spin tax and all that which

[50:20] makes increase deliverability a bit. So

[50:21] they just it's it's the same email. Same

[50:24] email just multiple variations just

[50:26] saying hey you know what is your uh we

[50:28] are trying to confirm or verify your

[50:30] company contact information for your

[50:32] listing on the tree HQ directory. Here's

[50:34] what we have. Is this accurate? If not

[50:36] reply back provide any corrections or

[50:38] any missing data. And again we

[50:39] intentionally leave the website field

[50:41] blank every time. Okay. And we get

[50:43] almost

[50:45] probably half of our replies are are

[50:47] just to give us the website which now

[50:48] that's positive reply. Okay. um as far

[50:51] as why do we use workspace because from

[50:53] my testing that has the highest

[50:55] deliverability in inboxing if it's a

[50:56] healthy domain and so getting back to

[50:58] the other question where he was asking

[50:59] about subdomains I just mentioned on you

[51:01] know previously the top of the call or

[51:03] uh my session here that we've got

[51:05] domains that I've been using for four

[51:07] years no kidding cold email and they're

[51:09] still inboxing no problems occasionally

[51:11] that that so you don't need many I've

[51:13] got about maybe eight cold sending

[51:15] domains that I use and I just cycle

[51:17] through them I'll select four at a time

[51:19] for each campaign aign and so I'll have

[51:21] two campaigns running simultaneously and

[51:23] then I have a handful of domains too

[51:25] always in backup in the warm-up system

[51:27] that are not being used other than just

[51:28] in warming so that in case one burns

[51:30] I've got one to replace it with and when

[51:32] I say burn all it does is when I see my

[51:34] health score drop and instantly b down

[51:37] below 96% when it gets to 95 that's when

[51:40] I take it out of rotation and just leave

[51:42] it in warm-up and over the course of the

[51:43] next four to six weeks it's usually

[51:45] ticks back up to 99%

[51:47] So,

[51:49] any other questions?

[51:53] Don't make me walk all the way back

[51:55] there. I got you. I got you.

[52:02] So, I know you focus on the tree

[52:04] trimming industry for your agency.

[52:07] Do you have a lot of times where you'll

[52:09] ever have clients have an address versus

[52:12] a service area? Because you mentioned

[52:13] they're all service areas. or do you

[52:15] ever change it to an address to increase

[52:16] rankings? I know we talked a little

[52:18] about the other day, but I mean some of

[52:19] the clients we talked to that we

[52:21] recommend putting an address. They're

[52:22] worried about being suspended in that

[52:24] industry.

[52:25] Yeah, we'd love to hear your feedback on

[52:26] that.

[52:27] Great question. And so, yeah, all tree

[52:29] service companies are service area

[52:31] businesses, but it doesn't mean their

[52:32] GBP is treated as such, right? We if you

[52:35] publish a street address, I mean, like I

[52:36] always tell my tree service contractors

[52:38] and I talk in their language, right? I'm

[52:41] a former electrical contractor, so I can

[52:43] I can hold my own with tree guys, you

[52:46] know what I mean? And so I always tell

[52:47] guys, it's like, look, if you got if you

[52:48] unpublish your street address, it's like

[52:50] going into a fight with one arm tie

[52:51] behind your back. And tree guys

[52:53] understand that. You know what I mean?

[52:54] They're like, "Oh, I know that sucks." I

[52:55] said, "Well, then look, I recommend you

[52:57] publish your street address, but there's

[52:59] always the danger of reverification or

[53:02] suspension occurring." So, I always tell

[53:04] them, "It's a roll of the dice, man."

[53:06] But as long as if you got a proper uh

[53:08] you know if you're actually operating a

[53:10] business from that location whether it's

[53:12] a home or not it doesn't matter and we

[53:13] can ver validate it. It's very likely

[53:15] we're going to be okay. You might have

[53:17] to go through a period of reverification

[53:18] or whatever but it's very likely. But I

[53:20] always tell them it's up to you

[53:21] ultimately because we can do it without

[53:23] the publishing address but it's going to

[53:24] be a lot more difficult and it's going

[53:26] to take longer. It won't perform as

[53:28] well. And so I let them make the

[53:29] decision because that's fully it's fully

[53:31] on them if they if we do it and it

[53:33] suspends it but they were aware of it.

[53:35] That's why I'm very transparent about

[53:37] that upfront, but I do encourage them to

[53:39] publish a street address when possible.

[53:40] Thanks everybody. [applause]