18 Questions with Digital Marketing Agency Expert, Mike Stearns

Mission Control Podcast

In this episode, Mike empowers his followers by allowing them to determine the content. He solicits questions from his audience, spanning topics from the future of AI in marketing to inquiries about Mike's Admirable hair.

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Michael Stearns | Ascend Digital Agency (00:00.338) Welcome back to another episode of Mission Control Podcast brought to you by Mike Stearns and the SEND Digital Agency, sponsored by the team at Roofer. If you need clean and pristine proposals, instant roof quotes, roof measurements, hit up the team at Roofer. They're fantastic. There will be a link below. Go ahead and click it. Tell them I sent you. So I wanted to ask you guys a quick question. And that question is, what did Ben Franklin feel when he discovered electricity?

Michael Stearns | Ascend Digital Agency (00:31.054) Believe it or not, he was shot.

Michael Stearns | Ascend Digital Agency (00:35.79) Another great dad joke, another one in the books. So I made a post and I wanted to give people an opportunity to ask me questions and to give you guys answers to questions that you may have, personal, marketing. We got a blend of both, they didn't disappoint. So the first question was by Corey Combs and he asked, does Bigfoot really exist? I'm gonna go with no. If we spent all this time on energy and effort trying to find Bigfoot and he hasn't turned up yet, I'm guessing he's not around. But I've been wrong before.

So David Jared Cohen asks, what's your opinion on Google Ads versus Google Local Services from an ROI perspective? So if I'm running a company and there's Google Guaranteed, Google Local Services, I tell everybody that's the first thing that you should do. Regardless of if you do ads or not, you should 100% do Google Local Services. They provide a fixed cost per lead model. It's very transparent. It has its own little CRM where you can track the leads that are coming in. You can dispute ones that aren't necessarily legitimate opportunities.

and it's usually gonna be at a lower cost per lead than other marketing avenues like Google Ads. The one issue that you might run into with Google Local Services is that there's only so much that you can do to influence your placement. So if you're being placed seventh or eighth on the list out of 15, 20, 50 different contractors, it's very likely that you're not going to get a ton of volume and there's really not much you can do outside of fully filling out your Google Local Services profile.

documenting or dispositioning the accounts in the Google provided dashboard, and getting reviews to that very specific Google Local Services page to influence where you're going to be positioned. Conversely, if you're running a Google ad campaign and you're noticing that you're getting lackluster results, you can increase your bid, your target bid for different keywords to make sure, hey, if we're showing up third or fourth at the bottom of the page for Google ads, we can then increase our bid to make sure that we're showing up top.

which then obviously manipulates the amount of opportunities that you're gonna get by way of visibility. So that's the one benefit that Google Ads has over Google Local Services. But I will say, even if you're not getting a ton of leads from Google Local Services, one massive missed opportunity is leveraging that in your sales process, in your branding, that check mark with Google Guaranteed, a lot of people have inherent trust in Google and that's why, quite honestly, I have a company. That's a really good thing for us and it's a good thing for you guys as well.

Michael Stearns | Ascend Digital Agency (03:04.126) If you're educating the consumer as to what it means to be Google guaranteed and be part of Google local services program is, Hey, like we're, we're vetted by Google. They recommend us. The reason they do is we passed a background check. We have all of our appropriate licenses and insurances to make you sure you guys are covered. They actually guarantee our work up to a certain amount. These are very strong. These are very strong value propositions to somebody who's making a purchase from your company, especially when with, you know, contracting specifically, a lot of the times,

Credibility is called into question. So this could be a great way to develop a rapport, to strengthen your relationship with the prospect, and ultimately differentiate yourself from other people, even ones that are Google guaranteed, because a lot of the times nobody talks about it. So that would be my answer for you, David. Derek Daniels, most important question, why didn't you run with us this morning? So I'm a part of a run club, run club 54. I make a cameo appearance every 30 days or so. We do, I don't know, somewhere between five and eight miles, depending on how.

Phil feels. So I didn't go this week because I took a knee to the calf a couple weeks ago and I'm still not even close to 100%. It was pretty bad. Some significant bruising. Lack of... I'm not able to run. That's why I didn't come. And I'm sorry, I'm sorry Derek. I miss you and I'll see you again soon. Jordan Harrison, how do you get your hair to look so damn good?

Well, it's not one thing, it's a lot of things. I take care of it, you know, consistent shampooing and conditioning, routine maintenance, so I go and get haircuts, hair products, you know, like a texturizing cream. Also, I find a nice balance between happiness, anxiety, and stress, and I feel like those are the three main ingredients. And if you can strike that balance, you too could have hair like this, Jordan.

Michael Stearns | Ascend Digital Agency (05:02.698) uh... eric cohen why did the chicken cross the road he still trying to figure that one out less than men when you get there let me know because haven't scratched my head on this one for quite some time christopher scoville when you're building a website for client are you building it from the perspective of what the consumers looking for the most basic level uh... parentheses needs and wants of the home service being offered or building it from the perspective of what your client wants ego

and proudness of their company? That's a really good question, Mr. Scoville. So typically when we come into a situation, we'll talk to a prospective client or a client that signed and we have a process to go through. In many instances, we don't run into this scenario. It's typically like, you guys know what to do, so please do it for us, make us something great. But in the event that it's somebody who has very particular things that they want, we'll typically advise like, hey, based off of our history of doing this,

in our track record of success, these are the things that we would want to do. This is the way that we would want to do it. And these are the reasons why. Because a lot of the times, if I have an opinion about something, it's typically because I feel like I know enough about it to have an opinion, but my opinion is not always right. And somebody can educate me as to why they would do something a different way. And a lot of the times that'll be enough to move me off of my opinion. And it's the same thing I find with most clients that we deal with.

So I think it's an opportunity to educate. We have certain things that we incorporate into web designs that we know work for certain. And we strongly encourage people to allow us to do those things, but then there's some things that are kind of just less important from a user experience perspective. And if a client really wants it, ultimately it's their site. We'll encourage them to do things the way that we found to be most impactful, but ultimately, it's their service that they're paying for. So.

We'll acquiesce if need be. Jonathan Burrows, who's the best roofer in Tampa? That's easy, Salish are roofing in exteriors, not even close. Dema Liss, how can I lower my marketing expenses to almost nothing using AI? That's easy, Dema, all you gotta do is pull up ChatGPT, ask them this question.

Michael Stearns | Ascend Digital Agency (07:24.066) Get a bunch of content and consistently make, you know, dozens of pages on your website. You'll be ranking number one for everything, everywhere. No problem. And you'll never have to hire a marketing company again. Diego Dante, my guy Diego, how you doing, man? What really happens in area 51? I've got no idea, man. I wish I knew. And again, this is gonna be one of those things where if you find out before me, let me know, because I too have wondered this from time to time.

I'll never claim to know something that I don't, and that's one I just don't have a great answer for. Ty Cobb-Backer, what's up Ty? As someone who regularly interviews experts in these areas, what key insights have you gained that have made a significant impact on your own life or business? Whew, that's a good one.

Michael Stearns | Ascend Digital Agency (08:15.862) Well, you know, one thing that is for certain is, you know, I've always been big on systems and processes and hearing a lot of feedback from folks that I have on the show and how their business has grown and having their perspective of things, how things have been, how things are now and the impact that those things have made always keeps me at a heightened level of awareness as far as like the importance and magnitude of having sound systems and processes for sure.

A lot of it otherwise is perspective, right? You meet and talk to a lot of different people that have completely different upbringings, maybe something's in common, maybe nothing in common. And just hearing like the grind, the struggle, and the perseverance that people have when approaching their business, like, you know, and where they started, where they are now, how they got there, and the journey. It's a lot of the times easy to look at people just that are successful and like, oh, he's successful.

but you don't know the back story, so you can't have a full sense of appreciation. I won't say that you can't, but it makes it harder to fully appreciate what they've done. But when you hear of somebody who was working a daytime job and then, I was on with Eric Reno, he's like, man, I'd go over, stop at a restaurant, do a quick bird bath and then go work at night as he was getting his company off the ground and kind of all the blood, sweat and tears that have.

rolled into the success of some of these people. I mean, it's amazing and it's inspiring, honestly, right? So I can kind of pull that inspiration into productivity within myself and my company and it helps keep me going. And for that, I'm grateful for everyone that's been a part of the show and yeah, thank you. Let's see here, Dan Antonelli, what do you do when you have a client with weak branding that you know will adversely affect conversions?

Woo, Dan, coming in hot. I like it. That's a great question.

Michael Stearns | Ascend Digital Agency (10:15.638) So typically, our sales process is a bit different, right? We typically, we do a consultation where we go over a ton of things within the client's business. Very little has to do with like a send digital, doing marketing and advertising for the customer. That's maybe 10 to 15% of the meeting. The other couple hours are kind of spent on like, hey, what kind of CRM are you using? What kind of automations are you using? What are you doing?

As far as getting like co-op branding from your manufacturer, what is the hierarchy of your company, roles and responsibilities, have you fully optimized your Google business profile and those types of things. We talk about branding, like what their brand is and what they're doing to build their brand along the way. At the end of the day, we're not a branding agency. We do digital advertising, we focus predominantly on custom websites, Google Ads and SEO.

our side of the street clean is doing everything that we can uh... to make a client successful and what i will say is that we've had we've had plenty of clients over the course of i've had plenty of clients over the course of last decade where they've had what objectively would be considered weak brand and have been successful however there is absolutely no denying the impact that having a strong brand what it will do for conversions uh... and your long-term cost per acquired lead

Um, in having a sticky brand is very, very powerful. So we do our best to lead people down the right road as far as like, Hey, like if for me, this is what I do. Um, unfortunately, you know, with like investing into brand, there's a lot of kickback with contractors or not kickback pushback, uh, with contractors. So, you know, when you talk about spending 10, 15, 20, $25,000 on, you know, the, a brand kit or the things associated with the brand, things like logo, content wraps, things like that. Um,

I don't sell it every day, but when I've thrown out recommendations, a lot of the times we get pushback on it. I think that's an opportunity for the industry to grow quite honestly, is to be more cognizant of what kind of brand do you have out there? What's the messaging that people are receiving when they hear of your company? What are people like? I think a brand is like your business's reputation, right? If I take my reputation, what I say about me doesn't really matter. What I'm more interested in is...

Michael Stearns | Ascend Digital Agency (12:36.182) What are the conversations that other people are having about me when I'm not around? What do people think of me? And I often think of like Brandon the same way, like, you know, when, when people are talking about a contractor and they're not in the room or somebody's asking a group of people about an experience that they had with a contractor, what exactly are people talking about? What are they saying about you and what is the narrative? And there's, there's a lot of things that we can do to control that, right? Like, what kind of logo do you have?

Where's that logo being placed? What kind of messaging do you have? Do you have a slogan? What is the experience that customers are having when they're dealing with your company? And like that starts at the inception of a phone call, right? That start, you know, that continues on down the customer lifecycle when they're being visited by a sales rep. There's a lot of things that roll into brand. And I think that the industry would benefit as well as the customers that you're servicing. If we took

you know, the brand and brand development a little bit more seriously for sure. It's not one of those things that's as easily quantifiable as far as ROI, but you know, there's a lot of studies on it as far as the impact that it makes. And my guess is anyone listening to this has been influenced to make a purchase decision, buying decision based off of branding for sure. Maybe even today. So that'd be how I answer that, Dan. Thanks for the question, man. Chuck Allen, who does your hair? Maybe the best haircut in the industry. So.

I've got two guys, my guy Colby and then my guy Robbie over at Slawich Cut and Shave. They're in North Tonawana, New York. So if you're in Buffalo and you're hearing this, go check them out. They do some shit. It's good. Michael John Palmieri, how do I hit a 20 yard flop shot with backspin? I'm not, I'm not an authority on all things golf. In fact, if you were golfing with me, I might shoot an 88, I might shoot 110, but I can, I can't tell you what the right way to do it is, but I tell you what I would do.

I'd keep the ball far in my stance. I would open up my stance a little bit. I'd grab a 60 degree and I would just swing it. I would commit to the swing. A lot of times when I don't commit to the swing, because it's such a short distance, I end up sculling it 50 yards past the green. And that's not good. That's not what you want. So that's the best that I could give you, Michael. Hey, if it works, let me know. I want you to go try it and then I want you to report back and I'll play it out for you. Katie Honan.

Michael Stearns | Ascend Digital Agency (15:02.122) Why are you so extra? I mean, I don't know how to answer it. It's just who I am, Katie. And I hope you appreciate me for that. Pete McKendrick, what's the best part of living in Buffalo? Aside from my family being here, I would say the food. We have incredible food here. Diversity amongst the food is incredible.

You want Mediterranean, you want chicken wings, you want pizza, you want Italian, you want a good steak. We've got it all. So if you're thinking about coming to Buffalo, make sure you do some research or shoot me a DM. I can give you some really good recommendations because I eat a lot of food so that you can have the best dining experience possible. And then obviously while you're up here, shoot up to Niagara Falls. It's one of the wonders of the world for a reason. It's a great place. Well, not outside Niagara Falls, just the actual falls themselves are cool. Bring Mace.

Why is your hair always perfect? That's from Nick Capobianco. I just wake up like this, Nick. Let's see. Matthew Danskin, does Santa know you left the workshop? That's Matt alluding to the fact that I'm much shorter than him, and I don't know if it's that I'm shorter, if he's freakishly tall. I responded with a gif of the Jolly Green Giant, to which he responded with a little person falling out of a car. And I'll tell you what, though. I got a lot of love for Matt.

Even though Matthew here is attacking me being vertically challenged. It's all good, Matt. I saw you on TikTok one time, shooting some basketballs. Maybe we get a basketball game going, huh? I mean, I might be short, but I can ball. Let me know. And if you guys are looking for ways to grow your business, reach out to Matt. He has some great things as far as developing relationships that will lend to sustainable growth, and I've seen it work, so.

Michael Stearns | Ascend Digital Agency (16:58.922) Last but not least, Wes Arnold, has Google local contractor gotten better results or worse than the last year? From what I've seen, I don't know if worse would be the right word, but gun to my head between worse or better, I'd say worse for most people because year over year it's gotten more saturated, meaning that if three years ago you had 10 contractors in your market that were Google guaranteed, now you've got 20, 30, 40. And with that usually comes diminished opportunity.

I've been saying this for years, like get Google Local Services yesterday because the price is only going to go up. If you think about it, they are a business. They're very smart businesses, Google. They do billions and tens of billions of dollars in ad revenue every year. So the average cost per lead that we see on Google ads, right around 150 bucks, 200 bucks, depending on what market you're in, 125 bucks. But it's between 100 and 200 bucks, let's call it. And when Google Local Services started...

You were getting leads for 40, 50 bucks for replacement. It just doesn't make sense for them to consistently do that. So as it's evolved, I've seen prices increase as far as a cost per lead basis. And I've seen a lot more contractors participate in it. Again, one thing that you may or may not be doing in my experience, if I'm going with numbers here, you're probably not doing is, is using it in your branding, in your presentations, talking to the customers about the fact that you are Google guaranteed.

and leveraging that to ultimately get them to the finish line. So if you're not getting the results that you want from a lead perspective, make sure you're getting the secondary result from it. So with that being said, those are all the questions that we had. Really appreciate you guys tuning in. Thanks again for the team at Rufor for help making this happen. And again, thanks for you all listening.