Intro:  

Broadcasting live from the Business Radio X studios in Detroit, Michigan. It's time for Detroit Business Radio. Now, here's your host.

 

The Mag

 

Lee Cantor here, another episode of Detroit Business Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today we have with us Tom Bartholomew, and he is with Bartholomew Media Group. Welcome, Tom. 

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Hey, thanks, Lee. Glad to be here this morning. 

 

The Mag

 

Well, before we get too far into things, tell us about your work, who you're serving, and what you're up to.

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Well, yeah, so I am in the digital marketing space. And I work with contractors, home builders, remodelers, plumbers, people in the service trades, and I help them with their website, their search engine optimization, and social media management.

 

The Mag

 

So how did you get into this line of work?

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Well, that is what started back in 1999. When I was working with my dad, we had a construction business remodeling. And I built a website for us, you know, just kind of learn some HTML saw that that would be a new advertising branch back in 99. And kind of have been building websites and doing marketing ever since.

 

The Mag

 

So now, do you find that by specializing in this type of industry and these kinds of local businesses, that gives you an edge maybe of some of the other folks that are out there doing a similar kind of work?

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I made sure that when I started my business, I really wanted to make sure I had a niche. And it was just obvious that I worked with contractors because I was a licensed builder here in Michigan for 20 years.

 

The Mag

 

And then what kind of challenges does the local kind of builder Contractor have that maybe the layperson doesn't realize?

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

You know, I think that a lot of times the what I hear from all the contractors, they have a hard time generating enough leads, you know, that's there certain times a year, they get a lot and other times where they don't get any leads. And one thing that I helped them do is they even listeners can do is claim an optimizer Google My Business listing, it's really easy to do, they can just search for their business. And over to the right-hand side of Google search, if their business is listed, it'll say, they'll have their name there, it'll say claim this business right there on the right-hand side. So they should do that, make sure they have all that filled out, and optimize that listing just as much as they can with photos and their name and business hours. And that way they can just that will show up in the Google three-pack in a Google search. When somebody's doing a contractor near me listing, then they'll be able to show up in those listings.

 

The Mag

 

Now, is there anything you could be doing so that you can consistently show up with more and more phrases or words that are related to the exact work that you do?

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Yeah, and that's a lot to do with, you know, a couple of different ways that you can do that. One is your on-page, website optimization, you know, I really recommend content creation or blogging for my, you know, the builders that I work with, so that way they can, they can really target those keywords into a blog post, right. So you do keyword research and find out what you want to write about. And then you can put a blog post on and that will help you show up in search engines for those keyword phrases.

 

The Mag

 

Now, there's so much stuff you see on TV, they run ads all the time of these kinds of do it yourself, oh, it's not hard to make a website, you just kind of buy this thing. And then it just, it's just easy. Is that really the case? Is it that simple? Just for anybody to just kind of do an off-the-shelf website that'll get people coming to their business?

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Lee, I get that question a lot. And it's a yes and no answer. Because yes, it is that simple. You can go to any of those, you know, page builders that advertise it, you know, you can do it for free, and you can build yourself a web page, but a lot of time what I see that happens and where I ended up fixing or rebuilding somebody's website, is they don't get the right on-page search engine optimization that we were just talking about, you know, and they don't fill in their meta descriptions, which is what helps you kind of control what your search engine show so you have a meta title and meta description. And a lot of times those aren't even filled in or they're not filled in correctly. So so they don't really teach you the nuts and bolts, they just give you a simple way to maybe put a brochure-style website.

 

The Mag

 

And that's probably one of the misconceptions that a person thinks a website is just kind of like a digital brochure. And there's a lot more to it than that.

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Yeah. Absolutely, you know, when when I build a website for someone, you know, we start with customer profiles, that way we knew we know who they're going to target and what type of keywords we're going to put. And I make sure that it's interactive. So it has things that, you know, maybe moves, or you know, a lot of times, I'll put a chatbot onto the website. So that way, when a customer or potential customer stops on your website, they can actually contact you and interact with them in real-time. So it's, you know, you can make it a lot more interactive and appealing for people to reach out and get a hold of you.

 

The Mag

 

Now, since you've been doing this, do you have any success stories you can share? Maybe I wouldn't name names, but maybe explain kind of the problem this client had, and then how you were able to fix it and what the result was down the road after they started working with you for a while?

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Yeah, absolutely. So I have one, in particular, is one of my first clients did when I started back in March when I broke on on my own and I ended up they do construction, they kind of do remodeling, just like I did, so it was real easy to connect. And they just had they had a Facebook page house profile and a website that they built themselves. But they weren't getting the traffic, they weren't getting the business leads that they really wanted out of that they were they're really feeling they've tried Facebook ads, and just things weren't working. So we talked about it, we figured out who their customer profile is, and we put a marketing plan in place. And after we were able to build their website and you know, rebrand their company across the different social media channels, Iran, they really started seeing a lot more people take an interest, and they started getting people connecting with them on a chatbot that, like I was just talking about they people would come on there and you know, reach out to them, they were able to talk to that person, right away set appointments to get out and give them leads. And they noticed a 138% increase just in their website traffic just now since March.

 

The Mag

 

Wow. So by doing some of these things, right, it can make a dramatic difference in your business.

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Yeah, absolutely. You know, it can really, you know, especially with contractors, they run into slow times, in fact, a lot of time right now is coming into a lot of contractors slow season, because it's winter. And you know, a lot of people don't always want to generate, you know, they don't want to get their projects done in the winter, or for whatever reason. But you know, if you do the right things with social media, you get on to Facebook, you joined some local Facebook groups that, you know, we're, we're the people, your customers are hanging out and you interact in those groups, just some simple things like that, like we already talked about the search engine optimization on your website, can really help you stay busy all year long as a contractor.

 

The Mag

 

So now if somebody is kind of going to take the plunge and start working with you, what does that first conversation look like? What is it? What are some of the questions you're asking them? And is there homework they have to do to be prepared in order to have you know, have you helped them? Kind of be more successful?

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Yes, absolutely. And the more input I get from the customer, the better their results are going to be. I tell them that right away. So that's the first thing I tell him. You know, if we kind of get the niceties out of the way introductions, I tell them, I say I let them know that the more information you give me, the more photos, more videos more information you give me, the better our results. And we start off first with a customer profile Worksheet A buyer's persona because you have to figure out who your customer is before you can even find out where they are or where to put your marketing budget towards.

 

The Mag

 

Now, do they even know that? Like, how do they like, you know, they might have a picture in their head, but it may not be accurate if they kind of drill-down and actually look at their customers in their checkbook. You know?

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Yes, you're right. In fact, a lot of people don't even realize they should be targeting a customer and have a customer profile. A lot of times I hear well, my customer profile is anybody that owns a house? Well, you know, that's not necessarily the case. So I actually have a customer profile worksheet, a buyer's persona worksheet, that with some examples, and they can either fill it out on their own, you know, with their staff, or you know, their team or I can even walk through it and kind of go through with them, whatever they prefer. I tried to help out as much or as little as a customer feels necessary.

 

The Mag

 

Now, have you ever had the case where you're, you're kind of coaching up maybe a client or potential client, and you start asking them these questions, and they're like, Well, I'm positive. Like you said, my ideal client is somebody who owns a house and then you start kind of getting layers and layers deeper and then they realize Well, you know what, maybe it's someone that's about to buy a house. Like, it's totally different than that. In their head. It was one thing, but in reality, it was like an eye-opening experience for them.

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Yeah, absolutely. Especially once they fill out that, that worksheet, that customer profile worksheet that I have, they really, it really asked a lot of questions about, even you know, what your customer's interests are, if they have kids, where they live, so it really goes in-depth, you know, into, you know, what do they do, you know, what are their hobbies. So once you can figure out all of that stuff that really puts it into perspective, you know, with you going back in your database of who your past customer was, and that's where you can get a lot of information from a lot of times, it's right there, they had the information, they just don't really know how to dissect it.

 

The Mag

 

Now, when you're working with them, and you develop this persona, does a light bulb go off in their heads of you know, what, if I don't get this right, everything else is going to fall apart? Because if I don't know who my right customer is, then I don't know where to look for them. And then if I don't know where to look for them, then I might have been wasting a lot of money looking in the wrong place for them.

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Lee you know, whether or not the light bulb goes on, I make sure that I emphasize that point enough times that I think I may be flipped the switch for their light bulb because I don't really I won't start a marketing campaign without knowing without having that customer profile worksheet done a really defining who that person is. So as definite Moston, the beginning when working with me.

 

The Mag

 

Now, do you find that most of the time your clients have some sort of web presence, but it's just ineffective? And then you're kind of tweaking it? Or do you have clients that haven't even gone on the web yet?

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Well, I kind of have a little bit of both. I've, you know, there's three different types of sites, there's a site that you built yourself a DIY, a site that you're that somebody, you know, that does web design like your nephew built, and then one, that without a website like you said, so those are kind of the three areas, you know, the people that built their own. Those that are, you know, those are the clients that I work with a lot. That's kind of my ideal customer, right? Because the carpenter that built his own website, because he's the one that really needs that extra help, you know, he built website, he's not happy with it, and he's not getting the results. You know, if your website's not optimized, it's not going to do any good. I hear a lot of builders say, you know, websites are not even worth it. And we know, that's just not true in today's day and time.

 

The Mag

 

Right, I mean, I'm sure they'd be shocked to know how many people are searching for contractors near me just search results. And they'd like to have one or two more of those folks each time.

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Yeah. And you know, that could be just as simple Lee as like I said at the beginning claiming their Google My Business page, and they wouldn't even need me to do that your listeners have any business, any business that wants to get local traffic, local business, you need to claim your Google My Business page.

 

The Mag

 

Now, is there any before we wrap? Is there any kind of advice you can give the folks that are maybe experimenting on Facebook, with trying to get leads through Facebook? Is Facebook a good investment for most folks? Or is it just too complicated?

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

No, I think it's it's a great investment, there still is leads to be had on Facebook, even organically without having to pay for leads without having to pay for their advertising. What I recommend is that once you get that customer profile, we were talking about Lee is to join and find local Facebook groups where that customer would be hanging out, and then you want to join those groups. And then when you put a post out, so you want to interact in those groups, of course, you want to, you know, when people come in, you don't want to just self promote all the time, it wants to be helpful. You know, when somebody asked a question if it's related to contracting or not, you want to interact with them. But the thing that really will help with their engagement is when they make a post on their Facebook business page if they share it within the first 10 minutes to all of their groups. So you want to share it to your groups within the first 10 minutes. And what happens is that'll tell Facebook, that your post is very popular, because it got so much engagement and that'll expand the reach not only share it with your that group that you just shared it with but also Facebook will start showing it to more of your feed because it had more engagement.

 

The Mag

 

And that's something folks may not realize that when you have a feed, it doesn't matter if you have you know 100 People in your feed or if you have 1000 or 10,000 it doesn't every message doesn't go to all of them.

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

That is correct that you in fact I read something that you might get 4% of your list if you're lucky on just an organic post. And that's why I think that's why I recommend this to people this strategy is you want to get join applicable Facebook groups. And then when you and Facebook doesn't know this, you sharing your posts, you know, you want to make a post on your business page, and then you share it to those groups. So now all of a sudden, instead of just one organic post with no shares, you have a post with, you know, 1, 2, 3, 10 shares if you belong to 10 groups, and Facebook sees that as engagement.

 

The Mag

 

Right? So and that's why you pay an expert for this, right? Because this is all you're thinking about 24/7 and you're there to help them be more successful so they can focus on what they're good at, which is, you know, doing the work in the contracting business.

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Yeah, you know, it's just like a contractor. They, want people to hire them versus do it yourself, right. They don't want somebody to build their own deck they want you to know, a deck builder wants you to hire them to build your deck because they're gonna do it faster, better, the finished product is gonna be better, more stable, and go to all the codes right? Same thing with doing a website or even you know, digital marketing. You know, an agency is going to be able to do it faster, better, they understand it like you said, that's what I'm thinking about it day in and day out is how to help builders generate more leads.

 

The Mag

 

Now if somebody wanted to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, what's the website?

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Website is bartholomewmediagroup.com

 

The Mag

 

And then I'm sure they can find you on Facebook and other social media platforms as well. Right? 

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Yeah, Bartholomew Media Group on all the channels Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, all Bartholomew Media Group.

 

The Mag

 

Good stuff. Well, Tom, congratulations on all the success you're doing important work and we appreciate you.

 

Tom Bartholomew: 

 

Hey, thanks, Lee for having me on today. I really appreciate it.

 

The Mag

 

All right, this is Lee Canter. We will see y'all next time on Detroit Business Radio.


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