The Digital Heroin Trap

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What if everything you believe about digital marketing is leading your home service business down a dangerous path? In this eye-opening conversation with digital marketing veteran Jonathan Bannister, we uncover why the constant chase for Google rankings has created a generation of "digital junkies" in the home service industry.

Bannister doesn't hold back as he reveals the uncomfortable truth: digital marketing has made business owners fat and lazy. After a decade helping HVAC, plumbing, and roofing companies navigate the digital landscape, he's witnessed firsthand how the addiction to leads has replaced fundamental business practices like excellent customer service and effective sales processes. His provocative new book title says it all: "F*** Digital Marketing: Why Building a Memorable Brand Matters More Than Rankings."

The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Bannister predicts Google's search engine will be "extinct" within 3-5 years, replaced by AI platforms that will fragment the search landscape. This paradigm shift means businesses building their entire strategy on search visibility are constructing their foundation on borrowed space.

Through compelling case studies and tactical advice, Bannister outlines a smarter approach to marketing: becoming omnipresent in your target market through a proper marketing funnel that educates at the top, builds trust in the middle, and only presents offers to already-engaged audiences. His neighborhood-specific strategy for a roofing contractor demonstrates how targeted messaging and multi-channel presence can transform results without relying on Google's unpredictable algorithms.

Whether you're currently frustrated with your marketing results or simply want to future-proof your business against the coming AI revolution, this episode offers a roadmap to build what truly matters – a brand that lives in customers' minds regardless of algorithm changes or platform shifts. It's time to break free from digital heroin and rediscover what genuinely drives sustainable growth.

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Episode Transcript

Corey Berrier (00:01):
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast.
I'm your host, Corey Berrier,and I'm here with my man,
Jonathan Bannister.
What's up, brother?
How you doing man?
Thank you, good man, good, it'sbeen a long time.
We've been trying to get thistogether for I guess, based on
our previous conversation, acouple of years now.

Jonathan Bannister (00:23):
One of us was living a different, high
lifestyle, that's right.

Corey Berrier (00:27):
Yeah, so before we, before we started the
conversation, I said he said Isaid, or jonathan said, well,
you were on my podcast like awhile back, and I said that's
funny, I don't remember that.
And I said, well, if it wasbefore march 26, 2023, then I
was probably high when I was onthe podcast.

(00:47):
And, sure enough, as you lookback on the date, it posted less
than a month later and if youknow anything about podcasting,
usually it dates back tosometimes it's a month or two or
three, depending on how manyyou get stacked up.
So, well, congratulations ongetting some.
Yeah, it was, it's been, it'sbeen, it's been life-changing,
depending on how many you getstacked up.
Well, congratulations on gettingso many.
Yeah, it's been life-changing.

(01:09):
Yeah, it's been life-changingfor sure, and I can thank Eric
Obrant for that.
Back in November before that so2022, I went to RoofCon and
Jeff Boab which I know, you knowhe was there and said hey, I
want you to meet this guy, ericObr.
He was there and said hey, Ineed, I want you to meet this
guy, eric Obrant.
I said okay, and so Eric and Istarted talking.

(01:29):
Eric's been sober for quite sometime 12, 15 years at this point
and if you know anything aboutEric, he's just going to tell
you the way it is.
Like he is.
No, could care less if he hurtsyour feelings or not.
Very good, dude, don't get me.
I don could care less if hehurts your feelings or not.

(01:51):
Very good, dude, don't get me.
I don't want to paint a picturelike he's this nightmare,
because he's not, but he's justvery forward.
I was telling him why I didn'twant to go back into a 12-step
program and he just said, in somany certain words, maybe it's
not about you, and he used a fewmore choice words than that,
and so I got back into that12-step program the next day and
I did continue to smoke weeduntil March, but I had an

(02:16):
incident where I almost ran ared light going 70 miles an hour
.
Two minutes later, same thinghappened, and I knew at that
moment I didn't need that thirdwarning from God.
And so that's what made me makethe decision to quit smoking
weed and live an honestly honestand truthful life, and it's

(02:40):
been life-changing very much.
So this is not about me andit's been life changing very
much.
So this is not about me, solet's skip.

Jonathan Bannister (02:46):
I love seeing the transformation.
I loved more than anythingwaking up this morning Super,
Because I'm on Central Time,You're on East Coast Time, so to
shoot this, at 7 am I woke upabout 545.
And when I look at my phone Ihad a really cool text message
on there and it was your wholelist of things, your gratitude
list.
So that's awesome and I'm sureyou were probably very grateful

(03:12):
for a lot of things in your lifeonce you got sober from alcohol
.
But you probably just had lessclarity in the morning times
getting high, going to bed.
You weren't waking up at 5 amlisting out the things you were
grateful for, that's for sure.

Corey Berrier (03:26):
I was waking up earlier than 5, but I was not
listing out the things I wasgrateful for.
So I send that list out to.
I think I got about 130 peopleon that list now and I send it
out every single morning.
And this is why Because, nomatter how I wake up, we all
have days where we wake up andwe're not in the best moods.
Usually I do wake up in apretty good mood because I'm a

(03:49):
morning person.
But if I don't, I know that I'mgoing to do that list.
And that list it's almost likea hack.
It forces me to think about thethings that I'm grateful for,
because quickly I can think ofthe things I'm not grateful for,
and that's that doesn't set myday up for a positive day.

(04:12):
And so that's why I send thatgratitude list out, because it's
important for me to remember Iam grateful that I don't have
cancer.
I am grateful that I have twolegs to walk on.
I'm grateful that my mind isclear, I get to go to the gym, I
get to do an ice bath, I get todo the things that I get to do,

(04:33):
I get to be sober today, andit's just.
It's a mindset shift for methat I've always been a very
ungrateful person until I don'tknow.
Maybe a year ago, I starteddoing this gratitude list and
what I found is I've just mymindset's really shifted to not

(04:55):
a victim mentality and I reallyit's really embarrassing to
admit that, because I hate whenpeople are victims but I was
that guy.
Why am I not getting this?
Why am I not getting that?
Why is this person doing that?
To me, it's just a bad way tolook at things.
Yeah, 100%, I love it.
So, jonathan, tell everybody alittle bit about, well, tell

(05:17):
everybody about the podcast, andthen also you do marketing for
the home services, and thenwe'll get into the biggest thing
, which is you've just publisheda new book.
Congratulations, thank you.
It's interesting when I tellpeople and you're going to find
this when you tell people thatyou've published a book, they're
like what You've done, what?

(05:40):
Like how, what, because mostpeople won't put in the work to
publish a book.
Yeah, and it's a really coolthing.
It does feed the ego a littlebit, if I'm being honest, that
you publish, I publish a book,you publish a book, but most
people look at that as somethingthat they're just they'll never

(06:03):
do it.
People talk about it all thetime, but then they just don't
take action.
So congratulations on takingaction, because most people
don't.

Jonathan Bannister (06:11):
I appreciate that.
So, yeah, this is.
I think this is our 10th yeardoing digital marketing for the
home service industry and thiswasn't in my 2015 bingo card to
be in to to be a digitalmarketer.
I didn't go to school for that2014,.

(06:33):
I have three kids in underthree years old.
My wife and I had kids 2012, 13,14, back to back when she's
pregnant with our first.
We go to the doctor for thecheckup on the baby and the
doctor comes back in the roomand he was like laughing, he's
like you're pregnant and I waslike I thought it was like no,

(06:55):
you're in the wrong room, likewe're here for the checkup of
this baby.
That's yeah, they're only 11months apart.
So I was like I was sittingthere thinking like

(07:19):
mathematically, like this isn'tright.
But I was a police officer then, so I was a cop and I remember
when our oldest steering wheelshe's standing out in the front
yard big and pregnant with babytwo and she just she planted a
seed that day this was 2013timeframe and she's like look,
they're shooting cops for fun.
It's a little crazy time, woody.
She's like I'll have to figureout a way to pull through if

(07:41):
something were to happen, likefor the kids but but like it's
not fair that they don't have adad, right?
So what do you plan on doing?
You make no money and now wegot baby two on the way.
So that was a seed that wasplanted, because then I was
young and dumb and I enjoyedwhat I'm catching bad guys, and
so you fast forward about Idon't know.
10, 11 months later, baby two's.

(08:03):
Here she's again and I gotcaught up in local politics and
it was like in that time frameyou talk about that victim
mentality I felt like why isthis happening?
Like I'm a great police officer, don't get in any trouble.
Why is my career being yankedaround like some kind of game by

(08:24):
the mayor and the chief?

Corey Berrier (08:26):
and and I just was like.

Jonathan Bannister (08:27):
I was angry, I was bitter, but I walked in a
doctor's appointment that dayand it and I'll never forget I
tell the story that it was liketwo glass doors to go to the
doctor's office.
You go on the first one andthere's like this four foot gap
before you go into the next one.
It actually goes into the and Iwas standing in between the two

(08:48):
doors because it was coldoutside and I called a buddy of
mine that I went to high schooland grade school with and he was
super smart, had made movies tograduate, made a documentary on
Hurricane Katrina.
He grew up with his family,were we're all artists on the
Gulf Coast of Blexie,mississippi, so he just had this
very artistic ability.

(09:09):
And so I called him and I said,hey, his name's Justin.
I said, hey, justin, are youworking on anything right now?
And he goes.
Yeah, matter of fact, he goes.
I'm building mobile apps and Iwas getting ready to call you to
see if you'd help me sell them.
I said okay, well, look, I'm ata doctor's appointment and I'm
thinking about leaving lawenforcement, so I'll give you a
call and I'll swing by when Ileave here.
And so I rode by his house andhe showed me these, like just

(09:34):
these templated apps.
This is 2014.
Apps were very new and heshowed me that like he could
build these apps super quick forsmall businesses.
And I've always been a golferand a poker player and both of
those really helped my careerbecause the golfing I went to

(09:54):
every golf course that I knewpersonally and said, hey, look,
if you had one of these apps.
Well, here's what you do We'llcreate a QR code.
It'll sit on your counter.
The golf balls that you havefor the driving range it's
already a fixed cost.
Those are paid for.
Give everyone a free bucket ofballs that they'll scan this and
download the app.
And now, whenever the weatherdoesn't cooperate and you don't
have the tee sheet as a busy butguess what?

(10:14):
It decides not to rain long,you send a push notification out
and you say everybody wants toplay today.
$40 all you can play.
I said that's money you wouldhave never had come in and they
were like great.
So I started selling them likehotcakes.
Then I went around to all theguys I played poker with that
are all business owners, and oneguy's name was Scott.

(10:35):
He owned a famous seafoodrestaurant on the Gulf Coast
where I was from.
So I went and saw Scott soldone to Scott.
I said hey, look, there's thisgeofence technology.
We'll put a geofence around it.
Anybody that has the appdownloaded that rides in that
geofence.
It'll pop up and tell them theycan have a free appetizer if
they come in.
Right.
Then he's like I'll take it.
And right when I'm about toleave, corey, he goes hey,

(10:58):
jonathan, can you help me withour SEO, because our SEO is
horrible?
And I said you got it, scott,I'll get back to you.
I walked down the little woodensteps of the two or three-story
restaurant, I got in my car andI Googled what is SEO?
And that's how my careerstarted.
I had no clue what SEO was, andso digital marketing was never

(11:19):
on the roadmap.
It was through unfortunate whatI thought was unfortunate
situations and the end of theworld.
Right, because here I was goingto jump back in with another
police department and that's thelife I was going to live.
And I'm so thankful that thosedoors shut and yeah.
So we started out asCornerstone Marketing Solutions
for about nine years and justwent through a full, major

(11:40):
rebrand to TopServe Digital.
So we've been TopServe now for2025.
And it's actually my second bookand this is going to be cool to
tell you the story, becausebook one was about four or five
years ago.
It's called the Ultimate Guideto HVAC Marketing Online.
So, yeah, the difference fromthe first book to the new one

(12:07):
that we'll talk about is itreally shows my lack of
knowledge and digital marketinghas been my way of life and put
food on the table for my familyfor the last 10 years.
Today, my message is I call itdigital heroin and I think

(12:27):
business owners home servicebusiness owners as well, but all
businesses, I think are inworse place today because of
digital marketing.
Because in the days Corey, whenit was the yellow book, radio,
tv and billboards, maybe directmail that's all there was, and
so you either had to do those,find the money to invest in

(12:50):
those have a pretty good messageor, if you couldn't afford to
do one of those and you couldonly have the little tiny yellow
book ad.
Then you had to have a greatproduct or service.
You had to do good guerrillamarketing.
You had to have a greatcustomer service.

(13:10):
You had to have a great salesprocess and digital marketing
when it came along, it madepeople fat and lazy.
So I think today, businessowners have a half-ass operation
, a poor sales process.
They don't follow up with leadsand their mindset is no, it's

(13:44):
either someone elseSA.
Google Maps, tiktok, instagram,facebook.
It just keeps going on and onand you'll hear like oh yeah, we
tried YouTube.
It doesn't work.
It's like it's the number twolargest search engine in the
world.
Like don't tell me it doesn'twork because there's billions of
people with a B that are on itevery single day.

(14:06):
So I think you're going to seethis huge shift take place in
the next year or two.
The monopoly that Google hashad is going away.
So within the next three yearsfive at the most Google will be
extinct.
Google will be somethingdifferent, whatever it is.
They know they own Gemini.

(14:27):
So it's not like they're goingaway, but the search engine will
be like the yellow book.

Corey Berrier (14:33):
I believe you're correct, actually, and so I want
to ask you and I would imagineyou know about this, but if you
don't, that's fine, because Idon't know exactly how it works.
But I noticed Josh Crouchposted the other day about
search inside of ChatGPT.

(14:53):
That's really where this isgoing.
So how do?
All right, so you can't run adsin ChatGPT, not?

Jonathan Bannister (15:03):
yet, not yet .

Corey Berrier (15:04):
We'll see what happens.
So how can one get ahead andmake sure that when somebody
Googles good HVAC podcast, thatmy podcast and your podcast show
up number one and number two?

Jonathan Bannister (15:22):
show up number one and number two.
So in my opinion, it's rightnow.
These AI machines are pullinginformation that's coming from
the internet, so it's gettingthe most relevant, authentic
information out there and Ithink it needs to be in the
abundance.
You need to have a lot ofcontent out there.

(15:43):
We're using one of the AIplatforms, now called Perplexity
.
We're writing articles onPerplexity.
We're trying to inject linking,that is, from, let's say, our
clients' videos that are onYouTube, linking it into the
article.
We're trying to get as muchinformation out there as we can.
But here's what I'll tell youcory, I think people don't like,

(16:07):
don't need to be sold on.
We're.
That's what's coming.
Is you're going to hear themarketing companies?
You're going to start saying,hey, we can get you ranking on
chat, tpt, we can get you rankedon this.
I think what you need to worryabout is your brand and brand
equity, and you're not ever likeyou don't achieve brand equity

(16:30):
ranking on top of Google.
You never have that's borrowedspace, that is not yours and at
any time they can go bye, bye.
Yes, ok, so, but that's what thedigital heroin has been.
Is that it's made people, thegoogle and facebook and these
big tech companies.
They're the drug dealers.

(16:50):
They're making it, they'reselling it, they're controlling
the price right.
And so the marketing companiesare the dealers, right, like
we're the sub distributors of itright.
We have no control.
We have to go to our boss,google, the drug maker, and say
how much is this going to cost?
Because we're going to goresell it on the market.
And so it's taken me a fewyears to meet the right people

(17:15):
that have taught me aboutbranding and advertising,
because look, I'll tell you oneof the main guys is Brian Shute
with Wizard Vats.

Corey Berrier (17:22):
Love him.

Jonathan Bannister (17:23):
One of my clients decided to use him about
three or four years ago and Iremember the client, who's a
personal friend of mine now.
He called me and he goes hey,we're talking to this company
called Wizard Vads.
I didn't know who they were, soall I heard was something ads
and I said, oh, I'm about tolose some of my client's
business to an ads company.

(17:45):
He goes I want you to be partof the conversation.
And then when we did the callafterwards, he called me.
He goes a couple of days laterhe goes OK, we're going to move
forward with them and we'regoing to be doing about twenty
five or thirty thousand dollarsin radio.
And I remember I told thatclient.
I was like, have you lost yourfucking mind?
Yeah, because on.
Yeah, because that's the way Ithought.
I said you have no way to trackthat.

(18:05):
I said but if you gave me$30,000, I'll put it in YouTube
or TikTok or Instagram and I'llbe able to show you exactly what
you made.
I'm like are you crazy?
And today, the new book we'lltalk about it's called Fuck
Digital Marketing, and thesubtitle of it is why building a
memorable brand matters morethan rankings, because, at the

(18:26):
end of the day, you have to stopgoing to the 8% or 10% of the
market that may be in the spaceto need whatever you're selling.
It's so small and there's somuch competition.
So, yeah, you need to try to bethere for those people, but
stop obsessing over that has tobe what feeds your whole entire

(18:48):
revenue for the year, or else no.
Position yourself that ifthey're a homeowner, it's not a
matter of.
If it's when they need a newroof, a new water heater, a new
air condition system, when youare the only company that pops
in their brain because you'vealready bought that space in
their mind, but that goes backto the days of radio TV

(19:10):
billboards, and digitalmarketing now has gotten people
sold on this.
You don't need that stuff.
It's not trackable.
You need this new leadgeneration tool.

Corey Berrier (19:23):
Well, okay, so let me.
So you just made me think,because if somebody said to me,
until you just said that they'regoing to do $30,000 in radio
ads, my first thought would behave you lost your mind?
But now you said that here'show you, so you know how many
times that ad's being sent out,what time it's being sent out.

(19:44):
Don't get me wrong.
Radio stations can definitelyplay your stuff at 2 o'clock in
the morning if you don't knowhow to leverage all the free
stuff and whatnot.
But you really have a strongpoint with the radio ads, even
though I don't listen to radioand I don't either.
But that doesn't mean the wholemarket doesn't.

Jonathan Bannister (20:06):
Well, this was my argument one time with
Ryan Shute.
I was like I haven't listenedto radio since 2008.

Corey Berrier (20:12):
Yeah.

Jonathan Bannister (20:13):
I've had XM radio and now I've got Amazon
Music.
I said I never turn the radioon.
He goes.
I understand that he goes.
It's the only marketing mediumthat is in every single vehicle
in the country.
Every car that's made it's gotradio on it.
And I was like huh.
And one time I can rememberthis was just this past year,

(20:36):
maybe yeah, it was, I thinkFebruary I was down at Wizard of
Ads.
I've now been invited downthere twice.
I'm the only digital marketingcompany that's been invited on
property to sit with clientinteraction meetings.
And when I leave there, ryanand I had this back and forth
debate over radio.
When I leave there, my Uberpicks me up at the Wizard of Ads

(20:57):
Academy and as I'm leaving,this Uber driver's got his radio
on.
And in my mind I'm going likehey, he's just dude's poor, he
doesn't have XM radio.
And then the dude starts goingoh man, I love this commercial.
Matter of fact their office isright here.
Yeah, they come on every dayabout this time and this company
.
He knew every company, every ad, so he was completely

(21:21):
indoctrinated with thosecompanies.
And I'm going to tell you, Iwas watching that Uber driver in
his brain and I was like, whenthis dude has a problem with any
of these companies, that's theonly company this guy's calling,
because it's embedded?
Yes, it's embedded.
And so here's what Ryan taughtme was when you have an offer
and you jump out on Facebook orwhatever with your finance,

(21:44):
offer payments as low as $89 amonth on this new system, he
said it hits the front part ofthe brain.
It's short term memory.
So if you don't, if that personthat sees that doesn't need
that offer, right then and thereit's gone.
Yeah, it's gone.

(22:07):
Yeah, if two days later thatcompany needed a new air
condition because theirs wentout, they more than likely would
not remember the name of thecompany, okay, but whenever you
touch them over and over, thenit moves to the rear part of the
brain, which is long-termmemory, sure, and so the number
Corey has always been six toseven touches Right that number
today.
There was a study done inStanford University a couple

(22:29):
years ago.
That number today is 16 to 18.

Corey Berrier (22:32):
Oh my God, I thought it was nine to 11.

Jonathan Bannister (22:34):
Wow, because , look, we can get girlfriends
if you swipe, right?
Yeah, that's right.
You can just get on TikTok andjust go boom.
Youtube shorts.
I watch my kids just like onevideo.
Dad, look at this one, look atthis one.
I'm like, holy shit, theattention span is so short today
.
Yeah, and they say that youhave three seconds on your video
ads to grab their attention.

(22:54):
Three fucking seconds, that'scrazy.
Yeah, what can you say in threeseconds?
You literally got to like ripyour shirt off and be naked.
Got to like rip your shirt offand be naked and it can't be you
or I doing it, because thatwill just like really not go
well.
So it's like it's gettingharder and harder.
So, what it is, you've got tohave more touches.
So I tell my clients now I go,look what's your service area.

(23:18):
You're like, oh, pretty muchthe portland metroplex or
something cool.
I We'll do some research, we'lluse AI.
I want to know how many homesand how many homeowners that are
occupied, not rented.
And then I'll get a number andlet's say it's 1.5 million homes
or something.
I'll go.
Let's do 1.5 million times 16to 18 touches.

(23:41):
You don't have the pockets deepenough to touch these people.
So today my message to everyoneis get your audience, make it
small, make it tight, get yourperfect avatar, find out who it
is.
You could literally take,export out your Service, titan,
housecall, pro, whatever you use.
Take your last 12 months ofpaid invoices, run it through

(24:05):
ChatGPT and say take all ofthese invoices and give me my
perfect avatar customer, becauseit knows who lives at that
address and that name of thatperson you put in there and it
may say like, oh, it's a whitefemale between 26 and 38 that
lives in a home that's worth X,y and Z.
Get that and then go find moreof that person and hit them as

(24:27):
much as you possibly can.

Corey Berrier (24:29):
You're right.
That's tremendous value Peoplethat are listening that he just
gave you the framework ofexactly how to find the person,
the exact person that's buyingyour product.

Jonathan Bannister (24:43):
We were talking about roofing with you
before we got on here.
So this was I think it wasNovember, so about six months
ago.
I'm down in Houston client ofmine roofer in Sugarland, texas.
We're shooting video contentbecause at TopServe we have
changed.
We won't work with you unlesswe shoot video content.

(25:06):
So I almost tell people I don'twant to confuse them we're
almost like a video agency firstthat does uses video to run
your digital, Because I now knowif you don't have any brand
recognition, digital is like itis such a coin flip whether it's
going to work or not.
I've seen the most perfectdigital results.

(25:27):
Right.
So there's four pieces of realestate today.
On Google, you got LSA, PPC,Google Maps, organic SEO.
I've seen clients of ours havea place on page one on all four
places and still my phone's notringing, and that was one of the
reasons I wrote the book.
Obviously, it was 10 years offrustration of us being held

(25:50):
hostage to the drug dealer, drugmanufacturer, as well, because
we can't control.
One day we wake up and all of asudden you don't have the same
targeting parameters on Facebookor Google that you once did.
Well, it's like well, that'sfucked up because Google and
Facebook selling all of yourdata out the back door.
They have all the data andtargeting in the world, but we
can't use it Like.
It just seems so unfair.

(26:11):
They have all the data andtargeting in the world, but we
can't use it Like it just seemsso unfair.
Why can't you exclude certainraces of people?
If you want to, it's yourmarketing dollars.
If you feel that something'snot your target person, then I
don't want to market to them.
You can go buy that data on theopen market.
But it's Google selling some ofthis shit to me, but Google
goes yeah, for privacy reasons,we're not going to, we're going

(26:32):
to take this targeting away fromyou and it's like that's such
bullshit, so, anyways.
So I'm with the roofer and we'rein this.
I didn't know it was a masterdevelopment, this big, huge
development, and we've got themhere in Dallas as well.
So I was familiar with them.
But because I didn't know thearea, over a three day span we
went to four different homes toget testimonials and I kept.

(26:56):
I looked around, cause it wasdifferent days, and I was like.
I asked the owner.
I said are we in the sameneighborhood?
We were two days ago and hegoes.
Yeah, I was like, huh, was thisthe same when we were the other
day?
He goes, yeah, he goes.
And this is where I live.
I live in this neighborhood.
I was like, well, how big isthis neighborhood?
He goes.
I think there's like 6 000homes total.

(27:16):
It's like got sub developmentslike the lake, so that's all
these different builders andstuff building, and he goes.
Yeah, we've probably done about150 roofs in this whole
neighborhood and I was like, whydon't you just own this
neighborhood?
Yeah, and he goes.
What you're thinking?

Corey Berrier (27:29):
there I was like you've done 150 roofs.

Jonathan Bannister (27:31):
You need to tell that story to every person
in this neighborhood and let allthese neighbors that you've
done go and sell it for you.
Basically, he goes what are youthinking?
I said, well, here's what I'mthinking, here's what we're
going to do.
We're going to create a directmail card.
On that direct mail card I'dmade my video guys, go stick him
in his front yard right now,but I wanted the street sign to

(27:52):
be visible of where he lives andI wanted all of the landscaping
that people could tell that'sthe neighborhood we were in.
And so he stood there.
We gave him the script to saywho he was, how long he's lived
in the neighborhood like 18years and that I'm your neighbor
.
We've done over 150 homes andbelow here, this is three of
your neighbors and their story,and so on the direct mail card,

(28:14):
it was a QR code with theowner's story, three of the
testimonials.
And then I said we're going torun this direct mail card every
single month.
But here's what we're going todo.
We're going to do addressablegeofencing and he's like what's
that?
I said we're going to tap intoevery home in this neighborhood.
We're going to tap into theirinternet and to their cell
phones, because we now know thatthis neighborhood is your

(28:36):
perfect customer.
And so then we started runningall of our video ads on.
If they had connected TV, onthe Roku Hulu, whatever If they
searched Wall Street Journal orESPN, we were on their display
ads.
And then Facebook and Instagram.
But instead of doing a radiusof a zip code or a city of all

(28:57):
of Sugar Land, no, we justwanted to target every home in
that neighborhood and I saidwe're going to hit them four
times a day and if a storm comesthrough and there's hail, we're
going to turn the frequency upto eight times a day.
It's completely changed hisbusiness, no question about it,
because now, when anyone has so,what it's also done is the

(29:19):
canvassing team, the doorknockers.
Well, we created video contentthat said hey, we're such and
such, and this is my crew, andwe're going to be in the
neighborhood this whole entiremonth.
Here's who we are, here's whatwe're going to come talk to you
about.
We're licensed, we're insured.
Here's our process.
So now they've educated thesepeople, so they're much warmer

(29:42):
when they open the door to talkto them, right?
So there's strategies and it'slike well, you know that
approach.
You're looking at about adollar a roof per month.
Right, so you want to do 20,000homes?
You're looking at about $20,000.
But here's what I'm going totell you Like, why spend $20,000

(30:03):
on Google PPC?
And you're targeting this largearea and you're playing this
game of clicks and conversionsand Google yanking up the price
depending on demand.
It's like go earn thosecustomers, indoctrinate them so
much that they trust you, theyknow you, they like you and when
they have a problem and theywill have a problem they own a
home.
If you're a garage door company, they got a garage door.

(30:25):
They own a home.
There's a water heater in there, whether it's tank or tankless,
just educate them and show themwhat you do.
Heater in there, whether it'stank or tankless, just educate
them and show them what you do.
Let them hear from your othercustomers how happy you are.
But people have, and I'll tellyou, the older business owners

(30:45):
get it.
Some may have eventually hadfamily members, kids, younger,
that said pops, let's get off ofthis TV radio billboard shit,
let's get into the digital world.
But the newer business ownersthat are, I would say, in their
40s, maybe even 50s, been inbusiness 20 years or so-ish.
They didn't play that TV radiogame because just starting out
it was too expensive.
So they've only been on digitaland they've been hooked on the

(31:07):
digital heroin.
And it's so hard for them toget off, corey, because when you
start saying like let's get10,000 over here to your brand
pop in the middle of the funnel,I just, I don't have it,
jonathan.
And if I turn off that platform, they start like I got to get
the leads or I just and I'mgoing like man, you're a junkie,

(31:28):
yeah, like man, you're a junkie, yeah.
So yeah, like our message haschanged, because I'm going to
tell you when it is a sad thingto see when you get like, when a
digital marketing company doesget good results and there's
good companies out there.
Josh is a great example and Iguarantee you Josh would say the
same thing that he's gottenamazing results for someone
before and it still wasn't goodenough.

(31:50):
Right, like, and that'sfrustrating because it's like
what are you talking about?
But here I remember one of myclients yesterday.
We're on a call and we havethis business coach on there and
he wanted to.
I don't know what he was tryingto prove, but he said, jonathan
, go to incognito window.
And he said put plumber in Stpetersburg into the search.

(32:13):
I said, okay, so I put it inthere.
I go to incognito and my clientcomes up.
There was three lsas.
My client was in the third spotof lsa.
And then in google maps, myclient was in the third spot of
google maps.
I said, okay, what's your point?
And he was like oh, oh, okay.
I said here, let me tell yousomething.
I said you see, the companythat's in first and second.

(32:35):
I said one's called Cornerstone, one's called the GOAT.
I said they're a hundred timesstronger brand than you are.
Do you disagree and he goes no,I agree, I said so.
Think about that.
You have to think about how thehuman brain works.
So in the book I talk aboutCorey, there's three levels of
brand equity.

(32:55):
Right, you've got low, mediumand high.
Low brand equity.
Today you can touch them notimes, or maybe two or three
times, because two or threetouches in today's time is
pretty much nothing anyways.
So if you have super low brandequity and someone has a fight
or flight moment, water heaterburst, it's 112 degrees outside,

(33:17):
their air condition's notworking, so their house is
already like 84 degrees whenthey woke up.
If they go to Google or chat,gpt or perplexity or whatever
they go Gemini, and they startsearching, you've already lost
Because they're getting ready togo to the Wild West or whatever
pops up on the screen.
So in today's day, google.

(33:39):
So the example we showed myclient if someone typed in
Plummer St Petersburg, if, whenthey saw that results, I said if
there's two brands right therewith you that are super strong,
that are spending a lot of moneyon TV and billboards, the human
brain is going to go to what'sfamiliar, right.

(34:00):
So they went there and typed inPlumber St Pete because they
didn't have any brand commitmentto anyone.
So if they look, they go.
I don't know, I need somebody.
Good, oh, I think I've seentheir TV or I've seen their
commercial.
Okay, and that's where they'regoing to go.
I said that's the way it works,right.
But the second level, brandequity, the medium level, you've

(34:20):
touched them, I believe, fiveto seven times, which used to be
the magic number, right?
And so if you've done that,they may know who you are, they
may be looking for you, but theycan't remember the name of your
company.
Again, they're going to goPlummer, near me, plummer, st
Petersburg, and then they'rehoping to see your name or your

(34:41):
logo or your colors, because ifthey see it, they're going to
know it and they're going toclick on it.
Then the highest level I callit the McDonald's effect, the
Chick-fil-A effect, theStarbucks effect, that is,
they're searching for youdirectly and so your direct
search goes up is what you want,because you want people looking

(35:05):
for you and only you, okay, andso when I say the McDonald's or
Chick-fil-A or Starbucks, youcan take almost any kid, and
we're the fattest nation in thecountry of the world, I believe.
So it's not a cool thing, but Ithink you could take any kid in
a car seat six years, fiveyears old, younger If they can
talk and you ride past aMcDonald's or Chick-fil-A, they
know what that place has andthere's not a hamburger, a
french fry or a chicken nuggeton any of those signs.

(35:26):
That's branding.
That's powerful In Starbucksokay, that's branding that's
powerful in starbucks.
You take a seven-year-old to a13-year-old who's never had a
sip of coffee and all you haveis that little weird woman.
Whatever that logo is, there'sno coffee cup on there.
But they know that place iscoffee.
That's branding.

(35:47):
So I tell people you got tobecome the chip filet of your
market for the home serviceworld and you do that by
touching people, by making themfeel an emotion and showing them
who you are, but not with anoffer and price tag.
You spend money and invest intothat person before they need
you.
That's how you have asuccessful business.
But unfortunately people arehooked on the heroin and they

(36:09):
can't get off of it.
Dude.

Corey Berrier (36:11):
Yeah, well, and this is why people don't trust
digital marketers, because it isa, it's a crap shoot.
Unless you're honest withpeople and say, like what you
just said, they think, well, I'mjust going to invest this money
and leads are going to come in.
And then, to the fat and lazyside of it, they think, well, I
don't need to follow up becauseI've got my Google ads running,

(36:33):
I'm just going to keep gettingpeople.
Well, when that thing cuts offor something changes, the
algorithm changes, the priceschange and you can't afford it,
or whatever the case may be,whatever's out of your control.
You got all these people.
Just talking to a guy yesterday,he's got a quarter of a million
dollars a month sitting inunclosed deals and I'm like

(36:54):
you've already paid for thosepeople.
Don't spend another dime inmarketing until you utilize the
people that are in your funnel.
Oh well, maybe they're two orthree months old, it doesn't
matter, because there's a chance, good chance, I've proven this.
It doesn't matter becausethere's a chance, good chance
I've proven this that you can goback to people that are two,

(37:14):
three, four, five months ago andthey just didn't make a
decision and it wasn't like theywere waiting on your call, but
you're the only one that calledthem, so now they've got an
opportunity to move forward onsomething that they knew they
needed to move forward on fivemonths ago, but they just didn't
make a decision, for whateverreason there's money sitting

(37:39):
there.

Jonathan Bannister (37:39):
Here's what I want to tell you.
I am mind blown because, look,our approach, and this has been
this way for a couple of yearsnow.
I've built out this custommarketing spin sheet and so when
we work with you, I want toknow what your average service
ticket is, your averagereplacement is.

(37:59):
I want to know what your costof goods solds are.
I want to know what youroverhead expenses are, and I'm
going to map out January throughDecember of how we're going to
get to that revenue goal youwant, because here's what I'm
going to tell you.
Most companies, if you ask themhey, what'd you do in revenue
2024?
We did 6.2.
Cool.
What'd you want to do in 2025?

(38:20):
8.2.
It's like some weird roundnumber.
It's like where'd you come upwith that?
Was it just like it felt?
good Is there a purpose behindit, because I'll start diving in
and go, well, look, okay, well,let's see, because that 6.2 is
not coming back in the door,guaranteed, so we got to make
that.
We got to make that come backplus two more million.

(38:40):
And then when we start gettingto like June, july, august,
september, the months where thedemand's going to be there and I
start going okay, well, howmany service calls y'all run a
day?
Cool, how many install crews?
And then I start running anumber as I'm going.
So when do you plan on starthiring the staff?
Because you don't have thecapacity to be able to do this
to begin with.
So stop saying you just want todo this number.
Now there's other ways to getto besides marketing.

(39:03):
I said, ok, your averageinstall is twelve thousand eight
hundred.
Let's get that up to fifteenthousand.
Your average service got at$427,000.
First off, I guarantee you'relosing money on $427,000 because
it's like they only factor inwhat they think it's costing to
take that truck out of the yard,what they think.

Corey Berrier (39:20):
You said something real important right
there.

Jonathan Bannister (39:22):
What they think.
Yep, because they never theones that really had their shit
together obviously know thatnumber, but most don't and I'm
going well you do realize thatthe average cost per acquisition
on a new customer right now,lsa it's around 350, ppc it's
over 400.
So if you factor, that into thenumber.

(39:43):
Don't tell me what it costs toget the lead, because if you
think every lead is a customer,that's bullshit.
What does it take to get atransaction take place?
So when it costs foracquisition, you're looking at
around 350 to 400, on top ofwhat your overhead expenses are
for fuel, the tires, theinsurance, that technician to go
out there.
So this $427 average ticketyou're losing your ass on.

(40:06):
Yeah, that's right, and thatwould be a zero ticket, because
I would open up their eyes towhat you were saying, all those
open estimates they have?
Yeah, I agree, I agree.
I'll hear people go well, yeah,man, the girls are the girl
Like my staff has nothing to do,like I got to get them
something to do, and I'm like,well, why don't they call, why

(40:28):
don't you have them call theseopen estimates?
Oh, they're real busy.
Wait'm like.
Well, wait a minute.
You just said you were dead andthey didn't have anything to do
and I just gave them somethingto do.
Yeah, man, I'm telling you, butthis I feel like digital
marketing has made people lazy.
It's given people excuses.
They get to blame it onFacebook, blame it on Google,
blame it on the marketingcompany, blame it on Google,

(40:51):
blame it on the marketingcompany.
And look, every marketingcompany is not perfect.
We have failed and every timewe've failed, I've learned and
we've grown from it.
But that's also why, today, Iturn so many people away.
Because if you're not willing toinvest in us coming out and
shooting video, and then, when Irun the numbers and you give me
your two or three zip codes youwant to focus on, I'm going to
tell you how many homes, howmany are occupied, how many are

(41:14):
in your target range and howmuch it's going to cost to touch
them five or six times a month,the whole area, top of funnel,
just brand awareness.
If you're not willing to spendthat, we're not going to work
together.
Because we're not just going togo get great digital marketing.
That's still not going to worktogether.
Because we're not just going togo get great digital marketing
that's still not going to work.
Because you come up in thesecond spot of Google Maps and

(41:36):
you're smashed in between theone and three spot who have a
stronger brand equity to you andthey're going to out click you
every single time.
I'm just not going to do itanymore and I'm at that place
where I can and I know it's inthe best interest of our clients
.
So it's like you're eithergoing to do it and you're going
to be willing to invest in it,or we're not going to we're not

(42:02):
going to hang out together,period.

Corey Berrier (42:02):
Yeah, I think that's a very noble approach and
one that I don't hear superoften.

Jonathan Bannister (42:06):
So the book, right.
And so this is the.
This is just the I don't knowwhat they call it the proof,
right.
So?
So this is just the I don'tknow what do they call it.
The proof, right.
So it's not for resale.
I'm going through it.
You get to see the manuscript.
I've had now for a few weeks,made changes on manuscript, but
the publishing company is like,hey, the last step is let's get
you a copy, it's easier to read.
See the format and then.

(42:27):
So now I'm going through it.
I leave tomorrow yeah, tomorrowgoing vacation, so going on a
cruise.
So I'm gonna take it and markit up and have it ready.
But look, it's called fuck.
Digital marketing, whilebuilding a memorable brand,
matters more than rankings and Ijust I want people to know that

(42:48):
your brand can't be taken awayfrom you.
But your brand is also not yourtruck wrap, it's not your logo,
it's not your mascot.
That is a part of your brand,but it's not your brand.
Your brand is what people feelabout you when you leave their

(43:08):
home.
What do people feel about youwhen they refer you to someone
else?
That thought, that feeling,that emotion they have, that
your guys were amazing.
They are so kind, they respectyour home.
Y'all are early, you call andyou tell them these sweet,
amazing things.
You send them a box of cookies,whatever it is.
That's your brand and I'mtelling you, if people don't

(43:30):
start focusing and worryingabout their brand and acquiring
brand equity in their futurecustomers' minds today, because
Google is going away, it isgoing away.
I want everyone to know it'sgoing away.
There was a time that peoplewould have never thought the
phone book was going away Beforethe internet got here and you
were to say the phone book'sdead.
In five years People have beenlike you're nuts.

(43:52):
Then there was a time that youand I were using the phone book
to start bonfires because theywere still dropping them off of
our front doorstep.
But the older people were stillusing the phone book.
I did a webinar a couple ofdays ago with Crystal Williams
from Lemon Seed Marketing andshe tells me she's in a little
small country town called Lufkin, texas.

(44:14):
She says they still have adsrunning in the phone book.
My mind literally went boom.
I was like y'all still have aphone book.
She goes yeah, and there'sstill some people that use it.
I said I didn't even know theyliterally existed or printed
anymore.

Corey Berrier (44:30):
Yeah me either.

Jonathan Bannister (44:30):
That was crazy.
So the Google search engine, orlet's just say search engines
in general, there will be somepeople that refuse, like my mom
and dad would be one of them.
If they're still alive in fiveyears, they will not be on
ChatGPT Right.
Over the last three or fouryears, they just got used to

(44:52):
using Google.
So there are going to be somepeople, but the search volume
and the traffic will be solimited and small and I'm going
to tell you, google is stillgoing to try to squeeze every
dime out of you, so the price isjust going to go up for a lower
quality lead and less trafficto try to get it.

(45:13):
So I want people to stopthinking because Google was a
monopoly.
They had everything wrapped upand so where now there's going
to be options?
There could be 200 different AIplatforms in the next couple of
years.
So the strategy you don't needto take the strategy of you

(45:36):
asked earlier, like how dopeople start focusing on trying
to make sure they reign?
They need to invest some, but asmall amount, because I don't
think there's going to be aperfect formula, like what we're
doing by using perplexity andwriting our own articles and
injecting our own links andstuff into it to try to tie back
to our clients.
It's helping, it's going tomake an impact, but I don't want

(45:57):
to try to rank on 200 differentplatforms.
That's crazy.

Corey Berrier (46:01):
Yeah.

Jonathan Bannister (46:02):
And you're going to have limited market
share using different ones,because chat GPT may be a bigger
one, but there's so many.
Chat GPT is expensiveT isexpensive for the founder, the
company OpenAI.
The amount of energy thatthey're using to control the

(46:22):
platform, it's astronomical.
But there's other ones that aredoing it at a fraction of the
cost.
So I don't know what's going tohappen to ChatGPT in the future
.
I don't know if it'ssustainable, to your point.
So then you've got Gemini.
It's in my phone, in my newAndroid phone.
Gemini is built into my phone.

(46:42):
All I do is hold the littlebutton, like other people use
Siri and Alexa.
Well, I have Gemini built intothe phone, but the market, the
share, is going to be spreadbetween different ones.
So now I'm saying this is youropportunity to get off of the
digital heroin and start buyingspace, brand equity, space in

(47:05):
your future customers' minds.
Get back into the days of TV,radio, billboards.
And I'm not saying you got to dothose platforms.
What I'm saying is you've gotto get into the mindset that if
you're going to use Facebook,instagram, tiktok, youtube, use
it the way that you should,which is educate and be

(47:28):
informative at the top of thefunnel, right.
So for everybody out there thatdoesn't know, like, think of a
funnel as like a real oil funnelfor your car, right, the shape
of it?
It's skinny and it gets wide.
So the top of the funnel inmarketing it's going to be your
wildest audience that has noidea who you are.
So when people they try to flipthe funnel and they try to put

(47:51):
their offer at the top of thefunnel and so they're trying to
sell someone this $15,000 airconditioning system on Facebook
that doesn't know you, like you,trust you and oh, by the way,
they didn't fucking need you tobegin with they were looking at
their grandkids eating dinnerlast night, or cat videos, and
then you're going to try to popthis amazing offer in front of
them.

Corey Berrier (48:11):
it doesn't work yes, so the video stuff that
you're talking about is thethought behind that.
Well, so is it safe to assumeyou put them on youtube?
Of course, of course, becausethen the search engine picks it
up.
And it's as crazy as this isgoing to sound to you and to me
to think that people don'tunderstand that when you're

(48:33):
putting stuff on YouTube, you'realso putting it on Google.

Jonathan Bannister (48:36):
Because Google owns it.
That's right, and it's thesecond largest search engine
today in which YouTube isactually going to eventually be
the number one search engine.
Because it's less and lesspeople use Google search.
They'll still like.

Corey Berrier (48:52):
People want the videos right and video is not
going away.
The next thing past.

Jonathan Bannister (48:57):
Video is going to be virtual reality and
I think we're still a littleways away from everyone walking
around with their crazy headgearand arm things and being in
this different reality.
Video is not going away.
And so, like, yeah, for thelast year and a half we've been
shooting video content and we'reactually the most important
pages on a website is yourservice pages, right?

(49:19):
So whatever you do you do ACrepair, you do roofing
replacement, whatever so we'veactually been shooting video
content to help support thosepages.
Meaning, if you go to one of myclients' websites, Dylan Rucker
he owns All Heart Heating andCooling and Plumbing out of
Lancaster, California you go tohis website.

(49:40):
It's called callallheartcom.
Dylan, Dylan, I know Dylan, Doyou?
Yeah, Dylan's a-.

Corey Berrier (49:47):
Long story.
We can't get into it on here,but it's absolutely no deal.

Jonathan Bannister (49:52):
Okay.
Yeah so him and I started out.
I had no idea who he was.

Corey Berrier (49:56):
We were Facebook friends.

Jonathan Bannister (49:57):
I got a lot of those that I don't know, and
it was during political seasonof 2020.
And I was frustrated with COVIDand the politician, so I was
very vocal.
And this dude kept engagingwith my posts, liking them or
heartening them, and so one dayI didn't know who he was.
So one day I looked him up andon a map where he is in

(50:21):
Lancaster but on a big,oversized map it looks like it's
in the backyard of Los Angeles.

Corey Berrier (50:27):
Like it looks like it's this far away because
there's a hill, there's amountain that goes up from Los
Angeles up to the desert Well.

Jonathan Bannister (50:33):
I didn't know, I didn't know that area,
and so I messaged him and I saidhey, I don't know if you're
trolling me, but it looks likeyou're in Los Angeles and so
you're either a unicorn oryou're trolling me.
That's what I said to him.
He thought that was thefunniest thing.
And he was like dude trollingme.
That's what I said to him.
He thought that was thefunniest thing.

Corey Berrier (50:53):
And he was like dude where I live.

Jonathan Bannister (50:56):
It ain't Los Angeles, right.
He goes.
We're a million miles away.
It just doesn't look like it.
And so eventually I got hisbusiness and we've turned into
really good friends.
The last two years my familyhas gone out to Arizona.
He's got a lake house, we goout on the boat, my kids go
tubing and stuff.
Like we've become really closefriends.
But it started out I had noidea who he was and but if you
go, to his website,callallheartcom.

(51:16):
You go to the AC repair page.
You're going to see about sixvideos on that AC repair page.
It's like five signs your aircondition needs repair.
Can you just change out thecoil?
Like their YouTube video isembedded into that page
Testimonials what to expect whenyou work with All Heart.
They're all YouTube videos.

(51:38):
So guess what?
Google is loving and supportingus because we're coming as the
expert.
Google changed the algorithm acouple years ago to EEAT
Experience authoritytrustworthiness and EE
Experience expertise authoritytrustworthiness.
So we're giving them all thosesignals by saying here's who we

(52:02):
are and why we think we're thebest and why we're the expert.
We're showing our authoritybecause we're putting videos out
there, words on a page.

Corey Berrier (52:08):
Look, people have been saying don't use AI
written content.
Well, man, we've been testingout there.

Jonathan Bannister (52:10):
Words on a page Look people have been
saying don't use AI writtencontent.
Well, man, we've been testingthis out for a couple of years
and, Corey, what we've found iswe've got content out there
written by a professionalcopywriter compared to AI, and
the AI stuff ranks better.
And I'm going why is that?
That shouldn't be that way.
That should be detected as AIand getting slapped on the hand

(52:31):
and penalized.

Corey Berrier (52:33):
I don't know, I don't have the perfect answer.
Nobody Because guess what?

Jonathan Bannister (52:36):
They're the drug manufacturer.
They're back there creating thedrug.
They don't let us in.
All they do is give us the drugto go push and sell.
So people want to say they know, we know that this isn't going
to work.
You don't know shit because youdon't work at Google.
You're not one of the founders.
But what I can tell you is thatYouTube is the second largest

(52:57):
search engine.
Get videos on there, injectthose videos into your website
and it will help you.
Here's another little trickI'll give everybody.
Underneath Google Maps there'sa section that's called People
Also Ask you want to know alittle hack.
Go to that.
Put in AC Repair, dallas orwherever you're at, whatever
Garage Doors, minnesota,whatever you do, you go, type

(53:20):
that in, go underneath GoogleMaps and you will see questions
from different locations thatpeople are asking questions
about your service in your area.

Corey Berrier (53:30):
Now think about it If.

Jonathan Bannister (53:31):
Google puts this here.
They feel that's important.
Why don't you go answer thosequestions, Can?

Corey Berrier (53:36):
you.

Jonathan Bannister (53:37):
So you can answer the questions Not from.

Corey Berrier (53:40):
There.

Jonathan Bannister (53:41):
Go and turn it into a video.

Corey Berrier (53:43):
Oh, of course, why does?

Jonathan Bannister (53:45):
being placed in an air condition in Spokane,
Washington cost so much.
Well, hi, I'm JonathanBannister with ABC in Air, and
sometimes we see people ask whyit costs so much to replace an
air-conditioned system inSpokane.
So I want to let you know whythat is and what's been going on
with the equipment and themanufacturers what our

(54:08):
philosophy is here, how we pricethings.
You may be able to find itcheaper.
They don't measure your duckingand whatever you get to be the
expert, but what you do is youtake that and you now link that
into your Google businessprofile, get it on your website,
turn it into a.
You upload that video and askChatGPT to write a blog.

(54:28):
Now you got a blog with theYouTube embed on your website.
You just got to reverseengineer and hack some of these
things and go.
What would be the best way forGoogle to see us as an expert or
the authority, instead of justputting words on a page of some
bullshit article?

Corey Berrier (54:45):
And guess what they're not going to put?
They're always going to put themost commonly asked questions
under that section.
They are Dude.
That's worth any amount ofmoney, just that piece of
information right there.

Jonathan Bannister (55:03):
So here's how a funnel should work.
Top of funnel people don't knowyou, you're just trying to get
out there with a message.
So here's how we build a funneland how it should work.
We ask our client hey, what doyou want to sell At the end of
the day?
What is this thing that you'retrying to produce?
Oh, it's replace someone'sgarage door.
It's replace a new roof, it'ssell a generator.

(55:25):
Okay, but does it make sense toonly run that ad as this price?
Because you're playing thisRussian roulette lottery where
you're just hoping that you getin front of enough people and
that the stars all align andthat you find a magic person
that happens to need a newgarage door at that minute and

(55:47):
your video is captivating enough, or your price is so great that
they click on it, or what youdo is that's the bottom of the
funnel.
The bottom of the funnel iswhere you put the offer.
But if you start at the top,the right way, what you do is
you educate.
So let's take a generator.
If I wanted to run an offer fora client for a new generator, a

(56:09):
Generac generator, we'retalking $10,000 to ten to
fifteen thousand dollars,depending on which market.
So what you do is you createvideo content educating people
on a generator, why they need it, why it could save their family
, what it does, right, youeducate and then you build trust

(56:39):
that way, because you'reshowing people like the video,
the caption that's out there,right, like what you're.
What to get their attention isfive signs a generator can save
your family this winter, orwhatever.
Someone clicks on it and it'slike hey, it's Jonathan
Bannister here with such andsuch electric company and I just
want to talk to you today aboutwhat a generator is and how
these five things alone can makesure this winter can keep your

(57:00):
family safe.
Blah, blah, blah.
I don't know what all they are,but guess what?
All my clients that areelectricians.
They know that shit like theback of their hand.
So tell those stories, get itout there Now, spend money, go
to your target audience andeducate them.
But here's what you do.
You go okay, anybody thatwatched 40% or more of that

(57:23):
video, that's our.
We're interested in thosepeople.
The platforms will tell you,and so then you go anybody that
watched more than 40%.
We want to retarget them andpush them down to our next level
, which is called middle of thefunnel.
Middle of the funnel is wherewe want to build trust and
credibility.
So then we take those peoplethat watch 40% and we now want

(57:44):
to show them testimonials frompast customers that worked with
that electrical company and wewant to show them what we call
our story brand video, which islike a digital business card.
It's the emotional video ofwe've been in business 30 years.
This is my wife and kids andI'm a combat vet.
Whatever your story is, youneed to tell that story because
that makes you human.

(58:04):
That doesn't make you a PEgroup or the Walmart of the
industry.
You're now letting them seeyour wife and kids and your dogs
and cats and you're saying, hey, I love this community and this
is why we're here, but you needto tell that story.
But you can run that video 24-7, 365.
That could be almost top of thefunnel as well if you want, but
in the middle of the funnel youwant to build trust and

(58:24):
credibility.
Let them hear from two or threeof your past customers about
how great the experience was andthen you go okay, now the
people who've been invested inthe top and the middle videos.
We want to push them to thebottom.
That's a new audience.
Those people have now beeneducated, indoctrinated,
whatever you want to say.
But now the small little groupthat you have at the bottom,

(58:47):
that's the people you want toput an offer in front of right,
because now they know you, theyhave some connection towards you
.
So if you put a $500 off a newGenerac generator ad in front of
those people, you're going tohave a much better success rate
of closing that deal.
But if you just run it to awhole zip code of people and say
here's a coupon, $500 off man,the message has to be so good

(59:10):
and you got that three secondsand you better.
You literally better.
Like have a bomb exploding on aGenerac generator or something,
something that gets theirattention.
It's weird.

Corey Berrier (59:20):
Yeah, but you're right, you're absolutely right,
and this is really intentional,focused marketing.
What you're talking about here,this is a framework, this is a
process that you follow, that ithas to work the way you've just
described it, even from.
I know a little bit aboutmarketing clearly not as much as

(59:41):
you but what you've explainedtoday is an exact formula of how
you get to that ideal customerthat's willing to pay you money.
You get to that ideal customerthat's willing to pay you money.

Jonathan Bannister (59:53):
But it's the smart way that everyone should
be doing their marketing.
But it's a mindset shift.
We have to and I'm not sayingeverybody should go out there
and turn off their Yelp andtheir Google PPC and their LSA.
What I'm telling you is that ifyou can't be honest with
yourself and see that the leadquality and the cost has

(01:00:14):
continued to go up year afteryear, everyone's going to say
yeah, absolutely, it has Allright Google.
You can look at click costs forAC repair 10 years ago.
Compared to now, it's a 20 or30 X more expensive.
Facebook ads when they firstcame out, you could get Facebook
leads for $5 to $8.

(01:00:35):
Today it's $58 or higher $70.
Lsa when LSA it used to becalled Google Guaranteed when it
first came out.
When that came out in 2016,2017, it was $25 flat fee and
every lead was a guaranteed job.

(01:00:55):
Today it's on a sliding scale.
You have to say I'm willing tospend $100 a lead and you have
no control of how many you canget.
And guess what?
You used to be able to disputethem.
Google took that away.
Well, why did they take thataway?
Why wouldn't you be able todispute a shitty lead that came
in.
But here's what happened Aboutseven or eight months ago,

(01:01:16):
google changed the way that theyput out LSA ads.
So Google knows the intent ofthat search.
They've been doing it way toolong.
So if someone types inemergency AC repair, they know
that person needs a contractor.
So everything on that pageshould be get a contractor there

(01:01:38):
.
But if someone types in howmuch does or why does replacing
an AC unit cost so much, that issomeone that's trying to get
information and they're at acompletely different stage.
They're at the research stage.
They may not even want acontractor.

(01:01:58):
They're maybe writing a fuckingterm paper for all.
We know the stuff that shouldbe.
There should be blogs andinformative content, but now
Google started putting LSA onthose pages as well.
So think about it, if it's atthe very top and someone puts in
a question where they're tryingto get information.
If some people are going toclick and just call that number

(01:02:19):
and they're going to ask aquestion to that person, and so
now they're getting charged forit and Google doesn't allow you
to dispute it.
Google decides what they'regoing to dispute.
I, my God, I'm telling you, Ihonestly believe I will never be
convinced otherwise.
Google has been able to see thelast couple years and knew what
was coming.
And so search is going down.

(01:02:41):
They're losing real estate frombusinesses and from users, and
so they have to figure out a wayto continue to keep their
stockholders happy.
And so they're jacking theprice up on everything.
And so you just hear thecontractors like LSA sucks now.
It used to be good.
And don't blame your marketingcompany.

(01:03:02):
They're not the drug dealer,they're just the one that's
reselling the product.

Corey Berrier (01:03:06):
Yeah, that's right.
Not the manufacturer but thedrug dealer, that's right.
Yeah, I mean it's right.
Not the manufacturer but thedrug dealer, that's right.
Yeah, I mean it's really.
They do have a monopoly on thissituation.
They do, yeah, they sure do.
Jonathan, this has been veryinformative, Like if people

(01:03:32):
don't listen to what you'resaying.
You've laid it out there in away that is very easy to
understand and a process and aformula that can get you the
results that you're looking for.
So where can people find you ifthey want to talk to you about
marketing, and then we'll also?
Will the book be in that same,on that same site?

Jonathan Bannister (01:03:46):
Yeah, so our digital marketing site is top
served.
Digitalcom.
T, o, p, s E R V.
They can.
The book will be out in acouple of weeks.
I don't know when.
You'll air this, but yeah,there'll be a link on the
website to find the book.
The podcast is home servicehustle there.
There'll be a link to the bookthere.

(01:04:06):
But, yeah, this the book.
I've put 10 years of stories,contractors stories some I had
to leave names out, some causeI'm telling their horror story.
Like you get that text that Iwake up to your text this
morning.
It was great.
It's things you're grateful for.
But I've woken up to othertexts that say it's 12 degrees

(01:04:29):
outside and my phone's notringing up to other techs and
say it's 12 degrees outside andmy phone's not ringing.
Man, I hate that Because Itruly care about these clients
of mine, and so I've got to sayin that success to me is turning
clients into friends, and I'vedone it with several right, like
Dylan, like I told you, like hewas nothing more than a
Facebook stranger.
And we're already planning ourSeptember trip to Arizona and my

(01:04:51):
wife and I are actually goingto buy a house out there in the
Bulls Head Lake Havasu areabecause she's falling in love
with the Colorado River andfeels that it rejuvenates her
soul by getting in that river.
But that's because of thisfriendship that I've struck up
with Dylan.
But in order to turn clientsinto friends, you got to go
through the good, bad and uglyand you got to care and you got

(01:05:14):
to hear them when something'snot working.
And so when he told me thattime I'm going to spend $30,000
on radio and I said, have youlost your mind?
I meant that.
But he's now part of my journeyand letting me meet Ryan Shute
and letting me meet these peoplethat know a whole lot more than
me.
They're probably looking at likedigital marketing companies, as

(01:05:35):
these weirdos for years,because they knew that it's just
a, it's just a phase, it's justa trend.
You need to be on digital, butyou can't be hooked on digital.
It can't be your only avenuethat you're focusing on, but so
many people have because that'sthe only thing they thought

(01:05:56):
really existed and they've beensold that TV, radio and
billboards, direct mail, don'twork anymore and it's like well,
people still have mailboxes,bill radios and cars.
Now here's the word I want togive everybody omnipresent yes.
So you got to be omnipresent,because you and I don't listen
to the radio, right?
I don't have cable television.

(01:06:16):
I haven't had cable televisionsince 2018.
And for me, I used to have asatellite through Dish or one of
them.
And so what happened there wasI needed to get, I was getting a
second line of internet.
I wanted two different internetcompanies just in case anything
ever went down.
I had a backup.
Well, when the new internetcompany come to put the internet

(01:06:38):
in, they said, hey, we need thecoax cable and you're currently
have it hooked up to your dishnetwork or whatever.
And I was like, okay, well,shut it down.
I've got a backup internetstreaming TV.
And I said, I guess I'll justuse that.
And so since 2018, I cut thecord and I've not had any kind
of cable or satellite TV.

(01:06:58):
So, for me, if people do radioor they do cable TV guess what
they're not going to hit me, butthey may hit my neighbor.
But if they were to runconnected OTT connected TV, or
they were to run on satellite orwhatever it's called satellite

(01:07:20):
radio, then they may hit me.
So you've got to be omnipresent.
And it can be overwhelming andit can be like I don't have the
budget to afford all that.
I understand that.
And it can be like I don't havethe budget to afford all that.

(01:07:55):
I understand that.
But you can5,000 will get you alot of impressions right,
probably close to a half amillion impressions on Facebook,
instagram, tiktok, youtube,because an impression's an
eyeball right.
You're just trying to getsomeone to see your video or
something.
You're not asking the platformto send you a lead.
Lead generation is a differentstrategy, different approach, a
different cost.
If you're just trying to touchthe people, you can touch a lot

(01:08:18):
of people a lot of times for asmall amount of money, but you
can't expect the instant returnon investment.
If you do radio, tv orbillboards, you don't expect a
return on investment immediately.
So don't expect the same thingon digital when you're looking
at top of funnel just trying totouch people.
But you have to shift yourmindset to that way.

Corey Berrier (01:08:36):
Yeah, I agree, my man.
This has been a greatconversation.
I appreciate you.
Thank you for dropping all theknowledge that you did Very
impressed, Thank you, Iappreciate it.
I appreciate you having me dude.
You got it my friend.