The Sharp Edge Podcast

With so many different ways to communicate with customers, it can be difficult to juggle them all. The good news is that a recent survey sheds some light on how consumers prefer to be able to contact local businesses. The better news may be that the results of the survey show that you can focus on a smaller number of communication methods, especially if you are in a market with older potential customers. Martin and Bekah walk through the survey results specifically in relation to painting contractors.

Google recently made a change in their search engine results pages that could exponentially increase the importance of actively managing your Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business). It's likely to significantly reward painting contractors who put the time into optimizing the profile and thoroughly punish those who don't. Martin and Bekah dive into what they know about the up-and-coming Google Business Profile and how to best utilize it as a professional painting contractor.

In this episode, Martin and Bekah chat about reframing one of the biggest challenges in the professional painting industry - recruiting and hiring. As an employer, you are competing for employees not just with other painting contractors, but with everyone else who is hiring in your area. That's what makes employer branding all the more important – it can give you a big advantage in the labor market.

Martin and Bekah had their first guest appearance from Emily Howard, the Editor-in-Chief of American Painting Contractor, and also from the podcast - Paint Radio. Emily covered everything from issues within the painting industry today, creative approaches to hiring, and their upcoming TechFest!

Google reviews are often the differentiator between you and the competition in your area. Your customers rely on reading reviews to make their decision. In this episode, Martin and Bekah cover how to ask and what to ask for in your painting businesses' online reviews.

What is the Local Pack and why does it matter for professional painting contractors? When it comes to your web presence and search engine results pages (SERPs), it can be easy to confuse the many different elements. You may even be suspicious that Google does it on purpose so that normal people can't figure them out. Today we are going to focus on one of those elements – the Local Pack – and why it's so important for your painting business.

When it comes to leveraging your website to help you be found and chosen online, you have to think of the steps a potential customer takes to get there. In this episode, Martin and Bekah go beyond SEO and talk about the three-step process that consumers use to find and contact a local service business online. You won't want to miss this!

Did you know that there were 2,244 cyberattacks per day in 2020? That is one every 36 seconds. You might think small businesses like your painting business are not targets. That's exactly what cybercriminals want you to think. In this episode, Martin and Bekah talk about four warning signs you need to watch out for to protect your painting business from a cyber attack. Listen today!

In this episode, Martin and Bekah cover how to optimize your website for voice search. They walk through the difference between voice and text search while providing key examples of how to optimize for both. Unfortunately, there are a number of “marketing firms” out there that would have you believe that you should pay them a lot of money to help you optimize for voice search. Please don't give them any of your money. Instead listen today for your answers on optimizing your website for voice search!

In this episode, we talk about a subject that we get a lot of questions on - SEO – search engine optimization. If you have questions you've been wondering about, here's an opportunity to learn a bit more about SEO. Martin and Bekah cover the top 5 most common SEO mistakes that professional painting contractors make.

In this episode, we are hitting on key factors for recruiting employees... specifically for your painting business. There's no doubt finding the right people and hiring them is a hard job. We cover the importance of knowing your employees' wants and needs, why you always need to be recruiting, and why you definitely don't want to go into the grocery store hungry.

In this episode, we are talking about Pay-Per-Click and Google Ads. We ask in-depth questions related to utilizing Google Ads and what that could mean for your business. We provide some basic tips and warnings for those who are thinking about starting with Google Ads from scratch.

We take a deep dive into Google My Business. Why do professional painting contractors need a Google My Business (GMB) profile? How do you set up or update your GMB profile? How can you optimize your GMB profile to be found online? In this episode, we are answering questions about your Google My Business Profile and what it means to have one.

In this episode, we are going to take a deeper look at the other side of your paint roller – your customers and what they are looking for when it comes to great customer service. We walk you through three specific areas of customer service. Take a listen now!

Why are your online reviews so important for your painting business? Because customers write feedback and potential customers make decisions based on those reviews. In this episode, we focus on the importance of having Google Reviews and how to effectively use them.

Have you taken the time to think about the personality of your painting business and how it affects your ability to attract and keep customers? How do you represent your business on your website, through reviews and in the community? Does it represent reality?