80. Baking it Down - It's All a Numbers Game

🔢It's all a Numbers Game🔢

Let's paint a picture - you need a new roof. Cool, people buy new roofs like, what - once or twice in their entire lifetimes? You have little experience in good roofing companies, so you start your online research. Let's progress through the workflow.

1️⃣ You google, "roofing companies near me." Solid start to your shingle-themed research project - wouldn't want to accidentally hire a company three states away, right? You're met with the search results (SERPs - search engine results page). Whew - about 3 roofers in the ads section, 4 in the maps pack, and another 10 in the organic results followed by another 2 in the ads at the bottom, and then the option for 10+ more pages of roofers. 

2️⃣ You click on the companies listed on the maps section. Cool - they're close by, plus you can easily see their reviews. 24 5-star ratings, 13 ratings with a 4.5-star average, 34 reviews and a solid 4-star average. These are all looking good. 

3️⃣ You got to their individual website and Facebook pages. Let's see if their website makes me feel comfy enough to call - or better yet, submit a form, who likes calling?! You swing over to their Facebook pages. Recent posts, good engagement, but... wait... what's this?!

One of these local companies has 98,000 page followers. 

That's uh - impressive? Also - slightly disconcerting. Why? Because it doesn't match with your expectation of how roofing companies and their social media presence should appear online. It's out of sync with the other companies you've researched - 

• 🤔 and frankly, who follows roofers other than people who need roofs? 
• 🤔 Are there really 98,000 neighbors of yours hiring this roofing company? 
• 🤔 If so - are all 98,000 happy?! 
• 🤔 and if they're not clients, who are these 98,000 roofing-obsessed people?! 

You see what's happening - this HUGE following is doing counter-productive marketing. It's introducing doubt.

Recently asked in the group - it brings up a good question: how many followers is enough?  

"Is it worth it to try to gain non-local followers just to increase the follower number on your business page, even if you only offer your products locally?"

The answer is as simple as it is complex - but it relies on who your target is. Let's break it down:

• ️🎯 Roofing Company -  Local homeowners within X miles of the home office
• ️️🎯 Government Office - Residents of the local with which the office represents
• 🎯 Cookie Cutter Seller - Bakers within their shippable target area
• 🎯 The Cookie College - National / international bakers with internet access
• 🎯 A Local Baker - residents within their service area
• 🎯 Baker Influencer - National / international bakers with social media access 

You see - target audiences are not a one-size-fits-all metric - it depends on what products you're selling. An influencer would want to go viral - their product is views. Whereas a local baker may want to keep their audience targeting tight to their service area - that way they're not spending time turning down leads from 3 states away.

There is no wrong answer - what your target audience is may differ from the baker next door filming ASMR flooding videos who gets paid from the Creator Fund. The only wrong answer is not building an audience that you've targeted.

So - build a following of non-bakers to build a local audience? No - focus on building a local audience to build a local audience. The 3x3x3 challenge is a great way to do that. 

Keep your target in focus and you'll hit the bulls-eye every time.