Local SEO: How to Get Found and Chosen By More Customers [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 185]

This transcript has been generated by AI and not checked for accuracy. 

[00:00:00] Bob Ruffolo: How do you become the first company local buyers find when looking for a company, product, or service like yours? That's exactly what we're gonna talk about on today's episode. Endless Customers coach Allison Belles joins me as we talk about what it takes to be the type of company recommended by AI, search, customers, and your community, and exactly what you have to do to get there.

[00:00:20] Bob Ruffolo: Let's get into it​

[00:01:03] Bob Ruffolo: And welcome back to the Endless Customers Podcast. We have a great episode coming at you today. We've got Endless Customers coach, you guys know her, it's Allison Belles. Allison, welcome back to the podcast

[00:01:16] Allison Belles: Hey, Bob. Always great to be here

[00:01:18] Bob Ruffolo: And Allison, I am so excited to see you next week.

[00:01:21] Bob Ruffolo: At the time that we're filming this, it is the last crunch hours right before Endless Customers Live in Hartford. Um, you're, you're probably listening to this and you're probably already missed out, so the recordings are live in the Endless Customers Academy if you wanna see the great content we had at our event. Uh, Allison, I know you're crunching to get your content finished. I know I'm crunching to get my content finished, and this is a little bit of a preview of what you are talking about at Endless Customers Live. So, um, so let's jump right into it. we're gonna talk about local businesses, um, or not just local businesses, but businesses that are trying to attract the local market, which could be a local business, not a local business.

[00:01:55] Bob Ruffolo: And Allison, many of your clients, um, are hyper-focused [00:02:00] on optimizing to get found in a local market, um, show up in searches, show up in re- AI recommendations. So let's just start here, um, 'cause as we always do with Endless Customers and going way back to They Ask You Answer days, you have to start by stepping in the shoes of the buyer. And what are you seeing changing the way buyers are finding and, and, uh, figuring out which companies they should talk to, um, uh, primarily looking for somebody in their local market? What, what are you seeing that's changing?

[00:02:30] Allison Belles: Well, uh, okay, guys, let's just be real, right? How people are finding businesses in their area is leaning more into generative tools. People are searching more in, ChatGPT, open AI tools. They are also, I mean, still using Google, but right, the Google AI Overviews and Gemini are, are changing the ways that people not only search and find, but even choose the companies that they are looking to work with.

[00:02:59] Allison Belles: And so [00:03:00] what we're seeing from a, a strategic standpoint is, how do we blend that local perspective into our endless customer's journey? And so the first thing that I tell people is you have to create localized content, which comes in different forms, right? But specifically, if you don't have location pages or local service pages on your website, that's the first thing that we're seeing really impacting how humans and robots are finding companies.

[00:03:30] Allison Belles: So you need to have those local pages. Then you need to incorporate a geographic location into the content that you're creating, and so that comes in many forms. That is adding localization to your big five content blogs. seeing even YouTube videos taking that local spin because people then can see, hear their local community, uh, a- and help influence that decision, right?

[00:03:58] Allison Belles: So if you're looking at homes, and [00:04:00] you're like, "Man, that's... I know that these are the neighborhoods that this company is working in. I can relate to that. I can feel comfortable with it." So not just writing blogs, but we're talking about incorporating it into your long form videos and then also your short form videos, right?

[00:04:15] Allison Belles: This is how the algorithms are even serving content from an organic and a paid perspective. So you need to make sure that you're answering those questions in short form video, that those are landing on YouTube, that that's landing on socials, that that's also being published in the places that you know your local markets will be.

[00:04:33] Allison Belles: And so not only thinking about what is the buyer looking for, but where is the buyer looking for it? And so that could be socials. That could local community. Um, I recently even talked to a, a company about sponsoring one of their local basketball teams, And this, and this is where it's crazy, Bob, because it's-- I, I think back, you know, doing this for, uh, you know, almost 18 years at this point, [00:05:00] seeing some of these old school strategies coming back to play, where people not only want to find you digitally, but they wanna see you in the community again.

[00:05:09] Allison Belles: And so how are you making sure that local community is learning about you? Press releases are coming back. Um, another thing that I've also been talking to local businesses or that are looking to attract more local customers, right, in specific geographic regions man, news channels again, right?

[00:05:29] Allison Belles: We, we talked to a Uh, a couple of, of great clients who are reaching out to their local news stations, local daytime television to help educate people in their buying journeys in specific areas. So this is not sponsoring ads or advertisements or, um, even advertisements on streaming. Those, yes, are still ways that you can continue to build your client base, but how are you leaning into education and truly leaning into the endless customer philosophy of questions [00:06:00] honestly, openly, but doing it where people need to find you?

[00:06:04] Allison Belles: And so I really encourage folks to sit down think not only what are your buyers looking for, but where they looking for it. And, and Bob, you've like opened a can of worms here 'cause you know how I get. I get really excited about these topics, and I've

[00:06:18] Bob Ruffolo: I'm sitting here taking notes like crazy right now. I have so many things I wanna make sure I go back and ask you

[00:06:24] Allison Belles: But, but so many things, right, where, um, leaning into, you know, what, what are people really looking for?

[00:06:31] Allison Belles: And people, we know this, people buy from people that they trust, and believe are telling them the truth.

[00:06:38] Bob Ruffolo: Hmm. Mm-hmm

[00:06:39] Allison Belles: disseminate that information into our communities? And it doesn't matter if it's B2B or B2C, guys. This is making sure that your, your Google reviews, you're constantly getting great Google reviews that specifically talk about the services that you provide in the area that you provide them, [00:07:00] naming names of the people that they've worked with, right?

[00:07:05] Allison Belles: And that we're using those reviews not only as a way for people to find us, but also using them in our sales process. yes, Google is huge because we know Google Maps incorporates reviews, uh, Gemini, even, uh, OpenAI Claude, like they're using Google reviews, but I also encourage you to use other types of review platforms as well, So if you've got, um, you know, G2 is great, 

[00:07:32] Allison Belles: So even encouraging the local reviews, right? So if you are getting reviews on Nextdoor, right? People are looking for these types of c- uh, actual customers, right, that have worked with your business. They're going to go look in the places that they trust. So you're gonna hear me say it again and again.

[00:07:53] Allison Belles: only what is your buyer looking for, but where are they looking for it?

[00:07:56] Bob Ruffolo: That's amazing. Al, you just gave us so many things. You [00:08:00] talked about having local pages on your site. You talked about having geographic information in that, in your content, including your videos. You talked about, um, being on social media and, and where in social media. Um, you talked about getting not just online, but offline, getting into the community, sponsoring local things, which I wanna go into a little bit more. Local news, understanding where your customers are, where need, where you need to be at, and we just covered re- reviews. So I think we have an outline for the rest of the podcast now based on all that stuff, 'cause I have so many follow-up questions on all of it. So let's start, And actually, I, I think I wanna start right here, which is not even one of those things. Um, this is what I'm talking about at, at live, and, and I think it talks to a lot of what you just said, is especially when you're in a local market, um, and we've seen this in, in terms of any kind of community where people are close in proximity and people talk. Um, if they have a bad experience, they will tell people.

[00:08:53] Bob Ruffolo: If they have a good experience, they'll tell people. likely they'll tell if they have a bad experience, but people will talk, and when they're [00:09:00] in a local proximity, people will get together. so I think step one out of any business is saying, "How do I get more visible? How do I get more recommendations?

[00:09:10] Bob Ruffolo: How do m- how do I get more business," right? A- and this is gonna sound so, so crazy, but focus on your business first. Like, if I was gonna give anybody... Everyone's like, uh, you know, we give so much information here, uh, you know, when we talk about Endless Customers and at IMPACT. And the first piece of advice I wanna always give people is i- if you're not getting a lot of recommendations, people are not talking about you, fix your business first 'cause you already have some customers.

[00:09:34] Bob Ruffolo: How can you do a better job for those customers? How can you delight those customers more? What do you have to change about your business so more people will have success with you and will give you, um, proactive recommendations without you having to have a whole campaign for reviews or, or marketing? So I, I would say, uh, a- and Ally, I think you'll probably recommend this too, or, or you see this in your own work. a very clear difference between businesses that you work with that are incredibly successful [00:10:00] when they start doing Endless Customers and the ones that maybe don't have the same, um, success right away, and I think it always comes down to the fundamentals of the business and how well the business is operating first.

[00:10:10] Bob Ruffolo: Is that what you're seeing?

[00:10:12] Allison Belles: And it's funny that you say this because I was, um, I was just talking to Chase Sugarman, uh, of Sugarman's Bath.

[00:10:19] Bob Ruffolo: And they're a great business

[00:10:20] Allison Belles: I mean, absolutely love this team, and exactly to your point, whenever I talk with this family-owned business, right? heart of their organization is doing the right thing.

[00:10:34] Bob Ruffolo: Hmm.

[00:10:34] Allison Belles: And, and so to your point of if we decide to look inward first and determine, okay, how do we serve our clients best?

[00:10:45] Allison Belles: How

[00:10:45] Bob Ruffolo: Yes

[00:10:46] Allison Belles: that trusted voice? Not because we're here to get the numbers up, but because we're here to serve our community. If you do that first, then it becomes incredibly easy to build your messaging, [00:11:00] easy to reach out to your c- your community because they can hear it, see it, and know the heart of your organization.

[00:11:09] Allison Belles: And so when I think about companies like, like Sugarman's Bath, or, you know, even on the o- opposite side, we work with, uh, uh, Project Line Solutions who is up in Canada, and it's the same thing, Their mission and their goal is to serve their clients best. so they know that there's a right fit client, and then there's a

[00:11:30] Allison Belles: clients that work best with other companies besides theirs. And because they, they believe that, and they truly want to do their best work, and every single team member within their organization wants to do their best work, that then becomes reflective in everything that they do, right? So I- I think to your point is there's a heart of this, of where if you truly want to serve your local community and you want to build your local business, and you take the time to make sure that you are doing [00:12:00] the right thing every step of the way, will be

[00:12:04] Allison Belles: It, it's easy, The byproduct is then more customers,

[00:12:08] Bob Ruffolo: and th- yeah

[00:12:11] Allison Belles: Well, no, I just, uh, to that point you were talking before, it, it stemmed this, um, this piece around, know, you said, like, like, "Hey," like, "well, how do you do this? First you look inwardly." But then I also think one thing that people forget is the genuine ask,

[00:12:26] Bob Ruffolo: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:27] Allison Belles: for reviews,

[00:12:29] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah

[00:12:30] Allison Belles: " Hey, where are some other places that you know people would also benefit from these services?

[00:12:37] Allison Belles: Where, where does your local community go? You know, where did you find us? What were some of the things that you were looking for?" And so the customers that love you and have a really great experience will give you that information readily, Because you've done the right thing every step of the way, use [00:13:00] that as a platform.

[00:13:01] Allison Belles: Use that as the ability to gain access to that community and, and build that rapport. And that even makes me think of Aaron Gaynor from Eco,

[00:13:12] Bob Ruffolo: Oh, yeah.

[00:13:13] Allison Belles: ev- r- uh, and he... We did a podcast on this, right? it, every one-star review gets routed directly to Aaron Gaynor. This is 150-plus million dollar organization that has a CEO truly believes that they want to serve their communities and serve their customers as best as they possibly can.

[00:13:35] Allison Belles: And so therefore, he also loves the great reviews. Please, please don't think that Aaron's only concerned with the one-star reviews. He loves to hear the five-star reviews as well, be involved in those conversations and personally call people. But he also likes to personally call people when things don't go right, and he takes it as an opportunity to look inward, reflect on, "Okay, great, where did the ball fall?

[00:13:58] Allison Belles: Where, where did we miss the mark in here, [00:14:00] and how do we, because we care so much, how do we go and fix that process? How do we then fix that product? What do we need to do differently? And then how can we share with the community exactly what we're trying to do?"

[00:14:12] Bob Ruffolo: Incredible. Incredible. Um, and I couldn't agree more. It starts with having a great business that people would actually recommend. You're talking about doing the right thing, and I think that's an opportunity for the business to, um, to document what the right thing is, talk about the right thing in their marketing, talk about it with your employees, train your business around it, and operationalize how do we make sure we do the right thing 100% of the time so we actually can make a promise around that. And even if it's at the, the spear of our messaging, that means that our customers will start telling other people, "We went with them because of this or because of that," and there's a handful of things the company does really, really, really well. And that's what they want their entire marketing based around.

[00:14:54] Bob Ruffolo: They want every review around that. They want everyone talking about that, even if that means [00:15:00] we can't be the best at everything. And that's the other part of this is no business, by the way, spoiler, no business in the world can be the best at everything. You have to figure out what are the small handful of things we're gonna do differently really well, it's perfect for our ideal customers, and we're gonna forget the rest. And if it's, if that's what's really important to you, you might not be the best fit for us, and you're not ... And that's, again, we sometimes confuse we are a good fit for and who we're not a good fit for as a fricking tactic to try to get more visibility, but the reality is this is the heart of your business

[00:15:37] Allison Belles: Yep. And it-- I'm gonna use an outside life, um, example here, okay? And, and I think this... I hope that this resonates, right? But, um, there's a reason, um, in, in, in my relationship, um, in, in life, uh, I believe that in relationships, right, is there's a reason why you have other people to lean on, I [00:16:00] believe that there's a reason why there's two, um, in a marriage, in a relationship, because one person's good at one thing and another person's good at another thing, and then you come together.

[00:16:07] Allison Belles: has to be the same thing in business, You have to, one, know what you are good at and what your business should be good at and, and do your best to build that business first. Then you bring in other people to support that. You bring in the other people that maybe you're not the best at, right?

[00:16:27] Allison Belles: Which might not even need to be a new service,

[00:16:30] Bob Ruffolo: Mm-hmm

[00:16:30] Allison Belles: could be, "Hey, I know somebody that's great at building a community. I'm gonna bring that person in. Hey, I know somebody that is really good at, um, at sales. I'm gonna bring that person in." Right? And so when you lean into the fact that in, in your personal life and in your business life, there are going to be limitations to what you are able to do and what your zone of genius is, and that's okay.

[00:16:53] Allison Belles: Find the other people that will come in and supplement those areas for you so that you're building a holistic [00:17:00] business,

[00:17:01] Bob Ruffolo: Amazing

[00:17:02] Allison Belles: And that's where it's like, "Hey, I know I'm not good at certain stuff," right? Which is why I rely on other people to do it. But I also think that, and my clients and other people that know me, um, have heard me say this a million times, but, unsaid or unclear expectations are just preset disappointments.

[00:17:22] Bob Ruffolo: Hmm

[00:17:23] Allison Belles: as a business, set unclear expectations because we're trying to do it all, then we can't fulfill the promise of it. And then gosh darn it, the client has a bad experience, we have a bad experience, everybody has a bad experience versus, "Hey, this is where we wanna focus. This is what we wanna do.

[00:17:42] Allison Belles: We're gonna get really darn good at this one thing." And then it's okay to say, "Hey, you're not the right fit for this." I think a lot of times that's when businesses find themselves like, "Shoot, we got a bad review," or the client had a bad experience, and it was because we either [00:18:00] tried to do something we weren't really good at or we didn't have really clear expectations.

[00:18:05] Allison Belles: And so it's

[00:18:06] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah

[00:18:07] Allison Belles: look at your community and say, "Great, there is a niche group of people in our community that we wanna work with," and that's great. Let's own that. Let's build a business around that, and then at some point, we can bring other things in.

[00:18:19] Bob Ruffolo: Now, Ally, I wanna h- get back to the original purpose of this episode, um, and tie everything we just talked about together to this, which was, hey, how do we get found more in the local results on Google or in local recommendations and, and, and AI tools? And I just wanna remind everyone, there is no tactic you can do that's automatically just going to put you there outside of buying ads. Um, at the end of the day, these algorithms, these AI models, they are so smart right now that they are getting really good at recommending the companies that belong those top spots [00:19:00] because they are a good business, and they should be recommended, and they already are being recommended online. So that's why I wanna drive this point home. If you want to be that number one recommendation, you wanna be at the top of the local results, the best thing you can do is run a great business that fulfills your promises to your customers to the point where your customers are gonna love you, and it all starts there. why we just harped on this because there's no agency in the world that's gonna say, "I don't care if you're not a great business," and you don't care if you're a good business either.

[00:19:38] Bob Ruffolo: You just wanna be there. They're not gonna just get you there. Maybe you could buy some ads to be there, but those ads are gonna be more expensive because the algorithms also know you're still not a good business. When you're a great business and more people wanna click on you, they believe in you, your click r- rates, everything just works better by having a great business, so start there.

[00:19:53] Bob Ruffolo: Now, let's get into tactics. So now let's assume you are a great business, and let's get back to these things, and let's rapid-fire these a little [00:20:00] bit. And, and Ally, what I'm gonna ask you to do is just, um, be a little bit specific in your recommendations on what you're seeing your clients are doing right now that's working. So we... Everyone that is not a good business has already turned this off. They're gonna go work on their businesses, and the people that are still, uh, listening to this episode are like, "That resonated with me. I'm a great business. Now, where do I go tactically?" So let's start with what you said on local pages. So let's be very actionable and specific. is working for your clients right now, and what's your recommendation on local pages?

[00:20:29] Allison Belles: So local pages to be as service specific as po- as possible, right? So let's say you are an HVAC electrical and plumbing organization, you need to have local pages for each of those, right? Because somebody is not typically going to search and look for HVAC plumbing and electrical all in a specific location, right?

[00:20:52] Allison Belles: They've got a specific pain point that they start with.

[00:20:55] Bob Ruffolo: Okay

[00:20:56] Allison Belles: need to make sure that it is, right, uh, [00:21:00] best plumbing organizations or, um, plumbing services in San Antonio, Texas.

[00:21:06] Bob Ruffolo: Okay

[00:21:06] Allison Belles: Then that page then needs to reflect almost as many things as possible that a, a customer is going to look for on that page.

[00:21:17] Allison Belles: So you need to have sections that talk about how much do services cost, what type of services do you provide, right? If you've got a self-service tool, that's a great place to put that. But what you wanna try to do is answer as many questions. Go through, hey, if somebody's looking for this type of service in their location-specific area, things that they're thinking through?

[00:21:39] Allison Belles: And try to include as much as that as you can on that specific page

[00:21:45] Bob Ruffolo: So, um, I'm not in the San Antonio area, so I don't know the surrounding towns, but I am in, uh, right now I'm in Cheshire, Connecticut. That's where our office is, and the next town over is Southington, Connecticut. That's actually where I live. um, say same HVAC [00:22:00] example or plumbing ... Actually, the same plumbing example. Um, plumber in Cheshire, Connecticut, plumber in Southington, Connecticut. I need to have both pages on my site.

[00:22:09] Allison Belles: Well, here's what I was, uh-- I'd say that, sorry Bob, to,

[00:22:11] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah,

[00:22:12] Allison Belles: is, oh, 'cause I don't want you to-- I don't want companies to go and create, they're like, "Oh, a hundred service pages. We

[00:22:18] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah

[00:22:19] Allison Belles: But what you should do is think about the, uh, the largest surrounding area, and then that page can then be reflective of the specific, um, like subdivisions or suburban areas within that vicinity, right?

[00:22:34] Allison Belles: So, um, I don't know Connecticut, even though my son's named Hartford, uh, I don't know Connecticut that well. Sorry, guys. Um, but like let's just take Orlando as an

[00:22:43] Bob Ruffolo: Sure. Yeah. That's where you're from, so yes.

[00:22:45] Allison Belles: where, what you can do here is, um, uh, plumbing services in Orlando, Florida. Now, a section in that page could talk about and should talk about the surrounding areas or the areas that we [00:23:00] serve in that specific metro area.

[00:23:04] Allison Belles: would be, hey, plumbing services in Orlando, we serve Lake Mary, Winter Park, Oviedo. Um, right now I'm like trying to remember all the cities near me, right? But you get

[00:23:15] Bob Ruffolo: Yes. Yeah

[00:23:17] Allison Belles: don't need to get hyper-specific. But what you do need to do is don't do Central Florida, okay? I've had some clients do that before, where they'll do counties or they'll do too large of an area.

[00:23:28] Allison Belles: If I'm looking for a plumber near me, I'm not looking for Central Florida

[00:23:33] Bob Ruffolo: Okay.

[00:23:33] Allison Belles: is such a big area be Ocala, that could be Daytona, right? Those two areas are about an hour, hour and a half away from me. Doesn't make sense, okay? So what you need to do is, is try to group it together and really think about what is your best service area, okay?

[00:23:52] Allison Belles: Because if we start to go outside of that as well is can you really serve that? we gonna have an issue with [00:24:00] capacity or trucks or, or it doesn't even make sense, right? Where oh, shoot, now we've got one guy that could have ran five calls but only was able to run two calls because we made our surrounding area too big.

[00:24:12] Allison Belles: So just thi-- I would say think about that. Location pages, they need to try to answer as many questions as humanly possible about that specific area in that page. There needs to be calls to action, need to have schedule a service, um, schedule a discovery call. You need to make sure that people can have even a tool, okay?

[00:24:31] Allison Belles: So if it's scheduling their, um, their appointment easily on that page, if it's an estimator or a calculator, if that is a, um, a configurator, whatever it is, but what you need to try to do is think about your buyer. If they land on that page, what are all of the things that they need to know enough of in order to move forward with you?

[00:24:53] Bob Ruffolo: That's great. And then I'm gonna add one other thing to that page as well. Um, specificity [00:25:00] matters so much today, um, and proof that you are the and, and, and should be recommended, the more you could bring that to these pages as well. So, um, and then even the best of the best is that you can validate that proof with third-party trust signals or, or, or information. So for example, it might be, um, we've pulled more permits than anyone else in this area to do this type of work. That's a big claim. And then when you can show a table below it of like how many you've done compared to everyone else in the market, and to show you've actually done more than anyone else, and then you can click that out to a third-party source, um, that validates that, and now you get the back-and-forth trust signals going, um, that is really probably a 10 out of 10.

[00:25:48] Bob Ruffolo: Um, it's not easy to do for everybody, but the, the mindset is as we build out these local pages, how can we be very specific? How can we make claims that we can back up? And let's... how we actually back up those claims. [00:26:00] So that's, that's way another thing I would, I would recommend there as well.

[00:26:03] Allison Belles: 100%. And even in that vein too, right, is, you know, think about the Big Five and what you can cover, uh, i-in that page, but reviews is another great one, You should have local reviews from local folks that are naming the neighborhoods those reviews and whether it's a module or a section of that page, because when we talk about buyer proof is another piece of this, right?

[00:26:27] Allison Belles: Is so how do we even know, hey, great, they serve this area, but do people in this area trust this company to do the right things? Do they do their stuff, right? Even comparing to warranties, you should have a comparison on some of these most important things for people,

[00:26:44] Bob Ruffolo: Yes. Great

[00:26:45] Allison Belles: local competitors, right?

[00:26:47] Allison Belles: How do we compare the two? Because you know, in your area, if we're talking about local businesses, they are going to compare you to the other competitors, and you know them, the potential clients know them. Don't shy away from that. [00:27:00] as clear as possible. Truly put yourselves in the shoes of the buyer.

[00:27:04] Allison Belles: What are they looking for? What are they trying to figure out? And how can you make it easier for them to digest that information, right?

[00:27:13] Bob Ruffolo: A- and this goes right back to what we were just talking about before, Ally, which is, um, figure out what you're gonna be the best at, what you really, really are gonna focus on. Warranty might be one of them. Reviews might be another one. We're gonna say we have more reviews than anyone else. We're gonna operationalize a system that has the best reviews.

[00:27:31] Bob Ruffolo: And maybe you're not gonna do warranties or whatevers, but if you pick warranty or, or whatever it is, you know, how do you... should be all over that page, to your point. We have the best warranty of anyone in the market. We'll match anyone else's warranty, whatever you're gonna say, and you're gonna make that your number one thing, and then you want people actually saying, and, and AI and Google recommending you for your warranty, for that thing that makes you the best fit for somebody. And, and one of the best... My favorite stories to share [00:28:00] is my real-life example. And Ally, you know my basement flooded a few years ago, and it was an absolute disaster. Um, and our friend, uh, Chris, uh, Greenshields sold me flood insurance before that, but he didn't, so I had to pay for all this out of my pocket. And, um, when this happened and I had to, uh, waterproof my, my new basement, everyone kept telling me, "You should go with Connecticut Basement Systems. They're like three times more expensive than everyone else, but they have that lifetime warranty." And that's what everyone said. And if you go and look at, like, hey, to ChatGPT, say, "I wanna w- you know, waterproof my basement in Connecticut, who should I call?"

[00:28:37] Bob Ruffolo: They're gonna tell you to go to Connecticut Basement Systems because they have this lifetime warranty. They made that the thing. And they have lots of pages that talk about their warranty, what's included, what's not, how it compares to other warranties, everything you're talking about right here

[00:28:50] Allison Belles: Yeah. And I think, y-you know, well, one, what's a basement, Bob? Um,

[00:28:56] Bob Ruffolo: Okay, Florida girl.

[00:28:57] Allison Belles: But, but, uh, y- y- I think you're, [00:29:00] like-- And this is the thing too, is w- we're talking a lot about people finding you, Like we're, uh, like, okay, make sure you're in the digital spaces, you got the reviews, you've got the pages, you've got all of these things, right?

[00:29:12] Allison Belles: But there is also something to be said about your buyer experience once they click that schedule an appointment, schedule a discovery call. Your, your marketing and your customer experience does not just stop at the front end with your marketing. It has to follow through with the sales experience. reason why people pay more money is because they not only see and feel the proof beforehand, but they feel it throughout the whole entire journey

[00:29:40] Bob Ruffolo: What a great point

[00:29:41] Allison Belles: right?

[00:29:41] Allison Belles: And so the way to do that is make sure that you're educating them through the process, okay? Hey, guys, you're on an Endless Customers podcast. We're gonna talk about assignment selling and being the best in sales as well, guys. Okay? Right? So send them education before appointments, after appointments, during appointments.

[00:29:58] Allison Belles: You're educating them, [00:30:00] you're showing them videos. You are giving them the experience to help them make the best buying decision. People will remember the person that guided them through the process, coached them through, that was beside them the whole entire time, rather than the cheesy sales guy that showed up and did what every other salesperson did.

[00:30:18] Allison Belles: send them videos. Show them your face, right? Valley Roofing ha- does a fantastic job of this, right? Where they do, uh, they've got quick page videos where they're sending education, also including personalization. And I'm gonna shout out Lowell. He's absolutely fantastic at this. And what he experiences when he walks up to the door is people excited and ready have a conversation about their roofing and exteriors.

[00:30:49] Allison Belles: He says that he has people hand-- giving him handshakes, giving him hugs, just excited and pumped for him to be there. And so not only through that [00:31:00] experience are they recommending Valley, but they're naming names, and that's another piece that we wanna make sure, right? When we talk about people buying from people, you wanna make sure, "Hey, not only do you wanna go to Valley Roofing, but ask for Lowell.

[00:31:15] Allison Belles: absolutely fantastic. He's gonna guide you through it." then this is another piece, this is a full circle, y'all, is it comes back to those reviews, the, the information that people are giving when you name names, AI and humans love it because they know that there are real people that work there, there are real people that care, and that shows in your digital footprint alongside with humans recognizing and realizing that there's humans, um, also working in the background

[00:31:44] Bob Ruffolo: So Ali, we beat up a lot of this, uh, that we talked about earlier. We haven't covered all of it yet. So there's a couple things I wanna get to. Um, we're gonna hit the local, um, presence as well. I think we'll hit this quickly. Um, and then social media, um, 'cause we brought that up and the, and I think [00:32:00] that we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about that. So let's go, let's start with, um, getting off digital and being more local. Why are you recommending that and, and how does that connect actually back to the Endless Customer System?

[00:32:13] Allison Belles: Yeah. So it's, it's interesting how everything comes full circle, right? And, uh, uh, you know, post, post-COVID we went, and during COVID we went super digital, 'cause you had to,

[00:32:25] Bob Ruffolo: I had to, yeah

[00:32:26] Allison Belles: I think now as there is becoming a little bit of a trust deficit, people want to see and hear people actually in their community.

[00:32:37] Allison Belles: There is so much noise now and, and so much stuff in the digital space which you need to, to tap into. Do

[00:32:43] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah

[00:32:44] Allison Belles: get to neglect those things. But how can you incorporate a level of direct mail, building into your community, getting those banners and those posters back up, getting on

[00:32:57] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah

[00:32:58] Allison Belles: stations?

[00:32:59] Allison Belles: People want to [00:33:00] see and hear and know and trust people because it is their local voice. And if we take that as just a sales opportunity versus building back into our communities, w- we're, we're negligent in a sense. Um,

[00:33:15] Bob Ruffolo: I, I think, yeah. I think every, every community, if you really look at your local community, there are these people in the community that do a lot for the community. Um, they volunteer, they're on boards, they're, you know, every local event. and just like we always say, people do business with they, that they know, like, and trust. And when you are the good person, the, the g- good woman in the community that is everywhere, you're a business owner, but you care so much about the business, um, that's just a great way to pull in more local customers 'cause they want you to win. They w- when they have a need, they think of you first 'cause you're always there for them, right?

[00:33:55] Bob Ruffolo: So I think that's what you're saying. Sponsor the teams, be at these events. You know, it, it's a, it's a [00:34:00] commitment just like any business b- sorry, but running a business is a commitment. Um, when you get into these communities and you're the champion, whatever it is, a- and people want you to win, of course, when they like you, they're going to wanna help you more, which means give you reviews, give you recommendations for when someone says, "Hey, I'm looking for an accountant in, um, Ocala, Florida." People are gonna jump in and be like, "Go with Susie. She's the best." Like, "I love Susie. She's every..." And, and all of a sudden people are like thumbs-upping it, and it's like all of a sudden Susie, because everyone just likes her, is the one that is being recommended. So again, think we just got into social media a little bit, but it connects to what you're saying is, again, people do business with the people they know, like, and trust, and it doesn't mean everything has to be digital

[00:34:42] Allison Belles: But it's so, a- and I wanna make sure that I answer your question here, Bob, about social media specifically. So

[00:34:47] Bob Ruffolo: Mm-hmm

[00:34:48] Allison Belles: y- yes, you need to be on your social platforms that your buyers are on,

[00:34:54] Bob Ruffolo: Ya

[00:34:55] Allison Belles: So just knowing, like, the generational piece of this, right? So for [00:35:00] example, let's go back to Sugarman's. Don't do an aging in place social media post on TikTok, okay?

[00:35:06] Allison Belles: Just, I mean, may- there are probably some very cool, um, hip people that, that need that, right? But it's

[00:35:14] Bob Ruffolo: Did you just say hip?

[00:35:15] Allison Belles: Hip, yes. I'm

[00:35:16] Bob Ruffolo: Okay.

[00:35:17] Allison Belles: years old, Bob.

[00:35:18] Bob Ruffolo: Hip, hip, hip to be square

[00:35:20] Allison Belles: yeah, I'm not on TikTok, so don't, don't send me ads there. Um, right, but, but, but not, like, ma- making sure you're finding where your people are.

[00:35:29] Allison Belles: And then when we talk about finding your people and where they're looking and what they're looking for, social media specifically, find influencers. Okay, guys, first of all, influencer ads. Um, that's talking about here. I'm not talking about going too far into the sponsored space. But what you should do is find people that people trust

[00:35:55] Bob Ruffolo: Mm-hmm.

[00:35:57] Allison Belles: and start to do some kind of collaboration,[00:36:00] 

[00:36:00] Bob Ruffolo: R- build a relationship first

[00:36:02] Allison Belles: Build the relationship first, right? And

[00:36:05] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah

[00:36:05] Allison Belles: about this with local businesses that miss out on that opportunity to do, you know, collaborative posts or to work together on some kind of ad and do a direct mail piece together. I mean, when you blend these communities together and you find people that are like-minded the same values as you and your company, that's a big piece you gotta make sure, right?

[00:36:27] Allison Belles: When you tie yourself to a collaborator, you gotta do your work to make sure that they reflect who you are as a business as well.

[00:36:34] Bob Ruffolo: Oh, that hurts to soul right there.

[00:36:36] Allison Belles: Right? And, and so that's where it's, you know, find the people that people trust and that you, you know and believe and that you would wanna work with, just bring that together.

[00:36:45] Allison Belles: And I've seen that work beautifully in social. Um, y- I, I can speak a lot to my current clients, right? But I know other coaches that do the same thing. But Sugarman's Bath recently did this with a, uh, a local social [00:37:00] media, um, person that had a great presence, had a great community, and just happened to have his mother's bathroom remodeled by Sugarman's.

[00:37:10] Allison Belles: so they reached out, and they're like, "Hey, man, we know... We, we, we see your stuff. We love you. You're great. Your community's fantastic. We were just wondering, can we collab on a post to show what we were able to do and how we were able to help your mother in making sure that she has the safest but most beautiful bathroom possible?"

[00:37:29] Allison Belles: And they did a great collab, and it worked fantastically. And so that's where, you know, you know, if we're talking about building our presence and getting more awareness and more exposure in our communities, you have to think outside of the box, and you have to truly get into your community. And so now if you're a business has than one geographic area that you are working in, you're gonna have to do your due diligence to find peoples, people in those areas.

[00:37:58] Allison Belles: Do not take this as a [00:38:00] strategy where you can just easy-peasy go in without that research, without that time and energy and sweat equity into finding the right people to connect with and do the low-hanging fruit. You're

[00:38:11] Bob Ruffolo: Yeah

[00:38:12] Allison Belles: you're, gonna get low-hanging fruit results versus truly becoming that person in your space.

[00:38:18] Allison Belles: And so that even comes back to if you're going to build these communities, it doesn't always have to be the leadership team that does it. your sales team members, find your customer service team members who know and love their community and wanna help build it. how you start to build these bigger pockets in the areas that you want to because you're delegating and elevating the folks in those communities to make sure that they know and can trust you.

[00:38:44] Bob Ruffolo: Incredible. Um, people came onto this episode thinking they were gonna get, get tactics, and what they got was truth. We gave them truth. Build a good business. Build relationships. Make people want to recommend you, want to review you. That's what you do first. [00:39:00] That's how you actually win this local game. Now, Ally, I wanna share one quick story, and then we'll wrap up, um, because this is what, what you were just talking about around influencers, but really it's, it's, um, influential people in your community that you should have a relationship with. our community here at IMPACT is, is big. Um, uh, we are not local, but I think this, this, this principle applies. Um, many, many, many years ago, um, I went to the INBOUND Conference, and that was our community, a digital marketing community, people who love digital. I'm at this conference, and, um, the keynote speaker was David Meerman Scott, and he was incredible on stage. And he had a book called The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Did exceptionally well. He had a big online following, a very successful blog, and, and he was just, like, this prolific thought leader. So I'm at the INBOUND Conference, I think it was 2014 or 2015. He had just come off his keynote, and he's just walking across the, the floor, uh, the sponsorship [00:40:00] floor. I'm like, "Holy crap, that's David Meerman Scott. I, I, I, I should go up to him." And I, I was like, "All right," and I did. I'm, like, young Bob, right? And he was the nicest guy. Had a great conversation, I asked him, "Is there anything I can do to help you?" And I went out of my way. I said, "What can I do, even for free, to support you? I'm gonna go first, and I wanna build a relationship with you. I actually want to help you. How can I help you? I, I, I, I admire you, and I think you're great." And he was like, "Well, you guys do websites, right?" And he's like, "Well, I need a new website." I'm like, "I'll do it for free. I don't care." And because of that, going out of my way and giving him a free website, 'cause that's what we did, we easily could build him a website, he really appreciated it, and we helped him with some marketing stuff.

[00:40:48] Bob Ruffolo: And you know what he did? He came and spoke at our conference for three years in a row for free. And this guy who wrote one of the best-selling books on marketing in the world is sitting there saying, "This team at IMPACT is great. They do work for me." [00:41:00] And then he would go out on social media and talk about us, and we would get customers

[00:41:03] Allison Belles: Yeah.

[00:41:04] Bob Ruffolo: helped him. He helped me. We became really good friends. And by the way, he's coming back to Endless Customers Live for the first time in many years, and he's gonna be doing two incredible talks, which I'm really excited about. Again, as you're listening to this, it's gonna be, already be past, but, um, but he'll be at future ones again. But that's what this is about. And I think you could take the same principles to your local community. How can you help somebody so they can help you? But you're doing this from a, a place of real genuine care, and it's just doing great work for everybody

[00:41:32] Allison Belles: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, we followed, up with Fanocracy, and I think this ties into this too, right? About how you turn your customers into fans,

[00:41:41] Bob Ruffolo: Yes

[00:41:42] Allison Belles: you turn them into endless customers.

[00:41:45] Bob Ruffolo: That's why he's at the event.

[00:41:46] Allison Belles: And that's what it is, right? And so i- it's totally, it's totally right.

[00:41:50] Allison Belles: I mean, think about how many times you as a person have been willing to recommend a business to somebody else because of the experience that you had. And so if we [00:42:00] can, I tell people this all the time, is like, if you can, and gosh guys, I know we keep coming back to this, but like if you can just build a business that focuses on incredible customer experiences and truly wanting to just be the best that you can be, byproduct of that is going to be endless customers.

[00:42:18] Allison Belles: Instead of going the opposite way and just customers, customers, customers, and you lose potentially the culture and the experience because of that, y- you've lost the game, right? And I tell clients this all the time is sometimes the killer of a business can be growth, and it's because we lose the experience that made the business what it was because we went to scale without ensuring that those foundational pieces are still a part of the business.

[00:42:48] Allison Belles: yes, grow your business, grow your local communities, but do it in the right ways that truly does build trust and makes you that chosen business because people choose [00:43:00] you because they know that you are the right person to take care of them, their families, and that you wanna recommend time and time again

[00:43:07] Bob Ruffolo: And now you all can see why everyone wants to work with Ally. Allison, this was such a great episode. Thank you so much for coming on. I had a lot of fun here, here

[00:43:17] Allison Belles: me too

[00:43:18] Bob Ruffolo: All right. Well, this has been another episode of the Endless Customers Podcast. We will see you at the next episode 

[00:43:24] Stephanie Baiocchi: If you liked this episode, please take a minute to leave us a review. Thanks for checking out the Endless Customers Podcast.