Choosing the Right Digital Marketing Agency for Growth

In this episode, Caitlyn and Janet dive into what growing home improvement contractors should consider when choosing a digital marketing agency—especially if you're outgrowing that set-it-and-forget-it vendor relationship. If your business is scaling past the $5M mark and you're looking for a strategic partner (not just a task-taker), this episode will show you exactly what to look for.

They outline:

• The 3 qualities of a growth-focused agency: process, industry expertise, and strategic thinking
• Why you should demand transparency, ownership of outcomes, and shared dashboards
• The importance of advanced tactics like CRO, attribution modeling, and multi-channel campaigns
• What a true culture fit looks like (and why it matters for long-term growth)
• The must-ask questions to vet your next agency partner

They also introduce a free downloadable Agency Scorecard to help you compare potential vendors. This is a must-listen if you’re serious about scaling your business.

Want to find out how we can create a custom digital marketing game plan for your contractor business? Schedule a call with us at fatcatstrategies.com.

Transcript

Caitlyn: 0:01

Welcome to Digital Marketing for Contractors. This podcast is brought to you by Fat Cat Strategies, a full-service digital marketing agency based in Raleigh, North Carolina. We specialize in helping home improvement contractors just like you grow their businesses.

Janet: 0:17

Today, you're listening to a series called Build, Grow, Dominate, marketing strategies for every stage of your home improvement business. Every Wednesday, we take a deep dive into the lessons that we've learned from supporting some amazing business owners. in the home improvement industry.

Caitlyn: 0:34

In part one, we'll cover the essentials from startup to your first five million. In part two, we're shifting gears to focus on what it takes to scale your business to a successful exit and or how to dominate your market. Now let's get into it. Welcome back to Digital Marketing for Contractors. I'm Caitlin. And I am Janet. So today, if you're a home improvement contractor and you've outgrown that set it and forget it marketing vendor or in-house marketing support, now you are looking for a strategic partner that is truly understanding where your business is headed and how to help you get there faster. That's what today's episode is about. Janet, remind us, recap us.

Janet: 1:17

Yeah, so in an earlier episode of this podcast where we had a series of content all aimed at what we call that level one contractor. You're in the first early years. You're wearing a lot of hats. You're kind of grassroots, bootstrapping everything. You probably have, you know, you've got some vendors in place there. You've got some in-house people. You might have some freelancers. They're helping you with your digital marketing. Right. Right. If you're already past that first $5 million, maybe you're bumping up against 10, and you know this. If you're listening to this and you've already hit those revenue numbers, you know you can't just set it and forget it, and you know your vendors can't. If you are one of those level two contractors where you have solved all of those sort of basic foundational problems, you've got some call center people, you've probably got a sales manager, you may or may not have a showroom. You've solved a bunch of problems. problems already now what you're trying to do is you are in that growth and scale phase and you're trying to dial things in a little bit and refine them today what we're talking about is how to choose the right digital marketing agency for where you are now not where you were when you just started up but where you are now your business is different and so your agency needs to match where you are so Caitlin if we've got listeners driving in their trucks. I always like to picture people driving in their truck. Pat yourself on the back. You've done so much hard work to get here. If you're thinking about switching agencies or maybe hiring one for the first time, maybe what you have now is a combination of some local freelancers, your sister's son. You've been listening to maybe some of these episodes and trying to do it yourself. Your office manager's been doing some stuff. Or maybe you've got an agency partner in place that It's really low cost, but doesn't specialize in the home improvement industry. You've got something going on and you've gotten to where you are now, but you need to shift things up to scale beyond. So with that in mind, for our listeners, Caitlin, what should they be looking for when they're looking for an agency partner to help them really scale?

Caitlyn: 4:03

Yeah, exactly. So I think there's several qualities that it's more than just getting getting the leads. It's about getting better leads. And I think a few of those qualities, I guess that is the word, that you should be looking for within an agency is process is one of the first things. They're growth-focused agencies. They have documented, proven process. They're not just winging it every time. So they've got a proven process that works. They have proof that they've worked with other contractors just like yours, and they are growing those Can I

Janet: 4:42

jump in here? that they've helped a home improvement agency really scale. Exactly. Because there's a lot of companies out there that are like, oh yeah, we work with roofers. Exactly. But have they really helped them scale to the point where they can sell and exit? And that's the proven

Caitlyn: 5:16

process there that, I mean, I think that's fantastic. I know we surely share stats of how we've helped our home improvement contractors scale when we, you know, are meeting with prospects as well. so of course that you've helped them scale in terms of the process you have with these playbooks that work for the second talking point is your industry. So they are an expert in this vertical. They specialize in home improvement. They know and understand the customer journey. They understand seasonal trends. They understand regional dynamics. It's not just this one size fits all methodology. If you are in California, you've got a different strategy than if you're trying to sell baths in South Carolina. And that agency knows how to adapt to that. I think the last thing that you really need to look for as you're looking for an agency that's trying to help you grow is they're strategically thinking. They can challenge your assumptions and they can help you plan quarters ahead, not just months ahead, not just weeks ahead. They don't just respond to tasks. They are truly building out a long-term strategy and they know what to expect. It's just not a quick tweak.

Janet: 6:41

I love that. I love when you're saying that Yes, yes. Why would we buy, like, why would we set ourselves up for failure? Exactly. Right. So I'm going to recap Caitlin's advice here. So if you are, if you're looking, you're already successful and now you're really trying to hit that next level and you're looking for a different agency partner, what you need to look for. Do they have a process?

Unknown: 7:38

Yeah.

Janet: 7:38

Can they explain to you what their process is? Do they have expertise in your vertical? Are they really dialed into the home improvement industry and they know about the customer journey, seasonal trends, et cetera? And are they strategic thinkers that are going to challenge you and maybe say no to you sometimes? Like, no, that's not a good idea. And here's why we think it's not a good idea, but here's something else to think about. So process, expertise, and strategic. That's what you need to be looking

Caitlyn: 8:04

for. And I think it's safe to say, like, if you're not willing to get that feedback from your agency and be challenged

Janet: 8:13

Then stick with the vendors that you have. Exactly. Yeah. Because you'll save money and it'll be a shorter conversation and they'll take less of your time. And you probably won't grow. And you know, you've gotten to where you are now and you can just keep maintaining. Rinse and repeat what you're doing now.

Caitlyn: 8:29

Yeah.

Janet: 8:29

Not to

Caitlyn: 8:29

be so sassy, but that is the truth. I mean, like, it's hard and we debate that too as account managers. Like, do we push back if a client does not agree with what we're thinking? And I think you can respectfully push back and let them know, well, here's the opportunity you're going to miss. Right. So,

Janet: 8:46

um, just a couple of things to think about. Okay. So those are characteristics of an agency that you could look for. Caitlin, what are some other kind of technical things that business owners can be thinking about when they're, when they're thinking about scaling? What are like some, some KPIs for them to track? What are some buzzwords? Yeah.

Caitlyn: 9:07

Buzzwords for sure. And, and, you know, we've talked about this before. You can get lost in the buzzwords. There are some agencies, all they use are buzzwords. I think there's benefit to that, especially as you are scaling. So if you've listened to part one and you're like, wow, those ladies are giving me whiplash when we're like, hey, buzzwords, don't worry about buzzwords. If you're a smaller business right now, don't worry about the buzzwords. Just get SEO and PPC up and running. Get your website made. Get the basics in place. But now that you're advanced, those buzzwords actually do matter. Things like conversion rate optimization. You may hear it's CRO. You should be having conversion rate optimization conversations for better lead quality and lower acquisition cost. That sounds glorious.

Janet: 9:59

Yeah, that is very buzzy. I'm going to translate it. So conversion rate optimization and better lead quality, what that means is you're squeezing more leads out of your existing marketing spend and the leads that you're are pulling out of them, either more or the actual number could go down, but the quality could go up. And we've seen that happen, where if you have higher quality leads coming out of your marketing campaigns, you're having better appointments and higher closing sales for a higher ticket price. So conversion optimization, conversion rate optimization can take a couple of different flavors. But you know, at this stage of your business, you're beyond the basics. Now you're looking to dial things in. And CRO is something you should be thinking about and talking about what What's the next one?

Caitlyn: 10:48

The next one, we'll call it multi-channel campaigns. That's where you are taking meta. Google and email and you're really fully building out. Or video pre-roll. Video pre-roll and you're really building out a full integrated campaign using multiple channels. Google ads, meta ads, email. I would add direct mail into that. Direct mail. There's a lot of parts and pieces. It's not just a let's turn on Google ads and move on. You're throwing in multiple, multiple channels that you can run multiple ads to And you've got a plan where you can follow up with those leads as well.

Janet: 11:30

So I think the key word there is integration. Integration. overseeing all of that.

Caitlyn: 11:44

Absolutely. Another thing that I think is super important, our level ones, we do encourage this, but it's not necessary. Level twos, it's a no-brainer. You've got to have attribution models. You have to be able to know where your leads came from. I know you want to know where they came from. You want to know if Google ads are working. You want to know if meta ads are working. You want to know if your website is converting. You've got to SEO in place, et cetera. So you want attribution models. You want to have that call tracking, which with the call tracking, you can see where those leads are coming from. And then the sugar on top, the cherry on top of all of that is that that information is then pumped into your CRM. So you know that Mrs. Jones came from a Google Ads campaign that you were running, And this is the keyword that she converted on. Um, and you've

Janet: 12:45

got all that information and the landing page she converted on with, you know, a seasonal offer on it. So now you've got data about a promotional offer, a campaign. Yes. All of that. I always like to add this when we talk about attribution. I know we were, this whole podcast is about digital marketing, but attribution can be used with offline.

Caitlyn: 13:06

Yeah.

Janet: 13:06

If you have a wrapped truck, if you have, um, yard signs or if you're doing flyers in a certain neighborhood if you have you know you've sponsored your local baseball team and your phone number is on the back of the jersey give your agency Give your agency a heads up because they can give you a vanity number that is tracked. Exactly. So if your phone number's on the back of that baseball jersey and you worked with your agency before you got the thing printed and it's a tracked number, you can see every single phone call from that local marketing effort. So the attribution models, they're not just digital.

Caitlyn: 13:51

No. No, that's a great point. And it should integrate with that word that we just are using again, it should integrate with your CRM. You're getting more and more information. So a good growth-focused agency is going to ask you things along the lines of what your close rate is. They're going to talk to you about those customer acquisition costs. They're going to talk to you about cost per lead. They're going to report on their cost per lead. And they're going to report on return on ad spend. If they're not, you are not with the right agent who is helping you grow. Janet, let's talk a little bit about like transparency and accountability and what that looks like with a growing, you know, partnership.

Janet: 14:36

Yeah, I mean, what we've seen is if you're with the wrong partner, maybe, you know, it's somebody that you connected with in those early days and they I mean, to be fair, maybe they just don't understand the complexities of a more sophisticated organization. They are going to be leaning on what we call this vanity metrics. They're going to send you a canned report, probably via email, with a bunch of numbers on them and a bunch of charts. And at the end of the day, those numbers and charts really don't mean that much to you. They don't even explain to you what's in that. Yeah, because they're trying to hide behind it. So, you know, a good partner is going to be transparent about they're going to be talking to you about metrics like cost per lead and how they compare across different channels and what some of your goals are to get your cost per lead down to a certain amount. We end up talking to our clients a lot about total percent of revenue on marketing. Oh, yeah, absolutely. It all comes back to that one number. Of everything you sold... how many pennies of each dollar did you end up having to spend on marketing to generate that lead, to generate that sale? So all of these lower metrics end up getting rolled up into that one uber metric that tells you whether or not you are on track or not. So if your agency is willing to have those conversations with you on your monthly strategy calls, where they're really drilling into numbers that mean something to you and what your goals are, Wow. Huge. And they're doing that with 40 other customers this month. It's not personalized. Yeah, it might be time for you to look for a partner that really wants to drill into your business and personalize the service. And don't think that

Caitlyn: 17:00

that's going to take extra time. I mean, because with the right agency, I mean, sure, you're probably sitting there like, okay, that email report, that's great. That's one less thing on my list of things that I have to do. I may not even open that report and look at it. But if you can give your agency an hour for a month, they're going to give you Tenfold back, back in terms of the quality of the leads, et cetera. If you're sitting around with your, like sitting on your hands, okay, getting that email report and not doing anything, not challenging them, not questioning anything, your business, I promise you has not grown and will not grow. Um, I think it's important to say that a great agency is going to bring you both the problem and the solution before you even know it's an issue. Yes. You can't set aside time for that. I don't know. I don't even know why you're really investing in an agency. And that's just me, again, being as honest as I can be. I mean, we're going through our reports with our clients. And not only have we highlighted the bad, but we've also highlighted the good. And then we're going to tell you what we're going to do about it. Right. That is outlined in every report. And I'm telling you, some of these meetings that we have with our clients, like, sure, they could be an hour. And that's because it's a two-way conversation. It could be a 30-minute meeting. And the client is like, yep, a approved, sounds good, thank you. Just give your agency the time if you're gonna invest in them.

Janet: 18:28

Yeah, so another thing that you can think about if you are shopping for a new agency is the culture fit and a long-term mindset. So this may sound kind of woo-woo and candles and incense, but culture does matter. If they are willing to adapt to the input that you give them, do they have a growth mindset? Do they have a culture of being your partner? Or is their culture like... you know, are they in some gigantic corporation that they've got their own numbers to meet and they, they can only meet with you 15 minutes every two weeks and they've got a rigid set of reports that they're going to go over and there's no customization there. I mean, that's sort of a culture and a style and a transparency altogether, but you know, looking for a good culture fit, I think is part of the search.

Caitlyn: 19:23

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I was on a call with a prospect a week or so ago and I loved the this question. I knew in my bones, the moment he asked me this question, I was like, okay, that's a good fit for us because he asked me how many new clients are you trying to take on between now and the end of the year? Like he cared that he wasn't just going to be another number in the system. I just like, that's important. And if that's important to you, ask questions

Janet: 19:55

like that.

Speaker 02: 19:56

Um,

Janet: 19:56

you know what that question shows me as well is that he is He's been around the block. And he's thinking bigger picture. He's not just thinking about himself, but he's thinking about... you know, our business or the business of all of his vendors and wants to know, like, am I, if I, if they take me on as a client, are they already stretched to their limits or, you know, are they desperate? Yeah, you know, exactly. And so either ends of those spectrum is not good. And I think the mark, the mark of a really successful business owner is, is you want your vendors to be successful too

Caitlyn: 20:36

oh my gosh

Janet: 20:36

yeah because if it's win-win I mean I'm it's all it sounds fairly obvious but it's it literally is win for everybody if you're winning but your vendor is losing even if you love that vendor they're not going to be in business very long no if your vendor is winning but you're losing you're going to end up firing them if it's a good business fit and a good culture fit for both of you and you know you're getting success and return on investment out of it, and it's a good business and culture fit for your vendor, then that's a relationship that's a very sustainable relationship that can last for a long time. Yes. So Caitlin, what are some key questions that our listeners can ask prospective agencies?

Caitlyn: 21:23

Yeah, exactly. And we'll make sure, I mean, all of these podcasts have the transcript, but we'll make sure these questions are in the show notes as well. So when you're vetting an agency, here are a few questions to ask. How do you tailor strategies to growing companies like ours? So how do you tailor strategies? Again, how do you make sure that your strategies that you're presenting to us are going to align with our growth goals would be another way to ask that. Can you show us successful campaigns for similar businesses? Duh, no brainer. How do you measure success beyond lead volume? And then what tools are you using to track and report? I think that's pretty open-ended, but it's super critical to make sure you're asking those.

Janet: 22:13

Yeah. I love it. Yeah. Yeah, I

Caitlyn: 22:45

think that's a really important note. And we're going to say it again, and we're super passionate about it. You know, not to brag, but we have, you know, taken a lot of companies from starting $1 million to $1 million. Over 20, yeah.

Janet: 23:31

It's almost like you're in a car together, and you're going on a journey together, and your vendor is right there, and you're having conversations about where are we going, how are we going to get there. But they got the map.

Caitlyn: 23:41

Yeah,

Janet: 23:41

and you're both kind of sharing the map.

Caitlyn: 23:43

Yeah, they got the map. So super excited. We have a free agency scorecard to give you guys. It's going to be in our show notes to download. I would totally encourage you to check it out. It's got a lot of the stats, I guess– It's not stats, but the tips, tricks. Tips, tricks, questions to ask. That we mentioned. And you can compare three agencies. Because like our own, you know, your own prospects. Yeah, they're usually getting multiple quotes. Yeah, you're getting multiple quotes. We know it. We know it. We know when

Janet: 24:16

you call us or you're talking to two other agencies. So

Caitlyn: 24:18

use that free agency scorecard and get a quote from us and then go get a quote from two others. And compare. Pick the one that's best for you.

Janet: 24:25

Come on

Caitlyn: 24:25

home.

Janet: 24:26

Okay, so next week we are talking about manufacturing. I'm excited. leads I think this one's huge yeah so what they are why they matter how to use them in your strategy for maximum impact it's all about those leads that you get from the manufacturer that's that's making the products that you're installing so if that's next week so join us next week if you enjoyed this episode please don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review and we'd love it if you'd tell one of your peers maybe a contractor on the rise somebody just getting their business off the ground Thanks a lot. Thanks, y'all.

Don: 25:29

Digital marketing for contractors is created by fat cat strategies. For more information, visit fatcatstrategies.com.