Roofing Success
The Roofing Success Podcast is a show created to inspire roofing contractors to achieve optimal success in their roofing businesses. The host, Jim Ahlin, is the co-author of the book, "Internet Marketing For Roofing Contractors, How to TRIPLE Your Sales and Turn Your Roofing Website Into an Online Lead Generation Machine", and Co-Founder of Roofer Marketers, the Digital Marketing Agency for the roofing industry. On each episode, Jim will be sitting down with industry leaders to talk about their processes, the lessons they learned, and how to find success in roofing.
Roofing Success
Secrets to Becoming a Roofing Industry Influencer with Andrew Itnyre
Ever wondered how to go from a roofing sales rep to a trusted influencer in the roofing industry? In this episode, we chat with Andrew Itnyre, a second-generation roofer who’s turned his roofing expertise into a powerful personal brand. Andrew shares his journey from managing sales at his family’s company to creating content that connects with homeowners, roofers, and industry brands alike. Learn how Andrew uses social media to educate, engage, and inspire his audience while leveraging his influence to secure brand partnerships and land clients.
🔑 Key Takeaways:
- How to create a roofing company marketing plan that resonates with homeowners and industry peers.
- Andrew’s tips for using video marketing to boost roofing sales and generate leads.
- The secrets to building a personal brand while scaling a family roofing business.
- Why email marketing, customer testimonials, and local SEO are must-haves for roofing companies.
- How influencer partnerships and social media engagement can transform your business.
Don’t miss Andrew’s insights on storytelling, content creation, and building community trust—all while navigating the roofing industry’s challenges.
🔗 https://www.instagram.com/mastersroofing.memphis
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What happens when a second generation roofer decides to turn his daily grind into a social media phenomenon. In this episode, we chat with Andrew Ittenauer about his journey from traditional sales to becoming an industry influencer, leveraging content to connect with homeowners and roofers alike. Andrew Ittenauer is a decade-long roofing expert who started by showcasing his family's company work on social media and ended up building a community of engaged followers. His innovative content strategy has helped him land clients and inspire others in the roofing industry. What sets Andrew apart is his genuine passion for educating others while constantly refining his craft, whether it's helping homeowners navigate insurance claims or mentoring new roofers. Get ready to learn how to leverage social media to amplify your business and influence. Let's dive in with Andrew Ittenauer. Welcome to the Roofing Success Podcast. I'm Jim Alleyne and I'm here to bring you insights from top leaders in the roofing industry to help you grow and scale your roofing business. Andrew Ittenauer, welcome back, man. How are you Good? How are you doing? Jim Appreciate?
Speaker 2:you having me back on. It's been a minute.
Speaker 1:It has. Man, I love your journey, I love chatting with you, so I wanted to have you back on, because I love the progression of things. I really love seeing people that put in the work and get an outcome on the other side right, and then go man, I'm getting some good results there. Let's go in a little more, let's dig in a little more. Let's continue this evolution. So I want the audience first to hear your story. What we're going to talk about today is becoming an influencer right From going from content creation to being an influencer. So I want people to hear your story and your journey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely so to kind of speed everything up a little bit. You know I've been selling Roost for the past 10 years. July 14th was my 10th year anniversary selling roost for Master Proofing and during that time, about the third or fourth year into selling roost, it got kind of to the point where I was really good at selling roost. I was doing really well. But as far as keeping entertained with what I was doing and kind of going through the motions each and every day, roofing sales just kind of got a little bit kind of boring for me. And so you know I it's my father's company, so I have an obligation to be here.
Speaker 2:You know, it's not the normal thing where people can say, hey, I just want to switch up and do something else, and we were going through at that time, back in 2017, we were going through some growing pains as well, and one of the things I was told my father is that if I could show people what we do each and every day, I feel like even if there was a price difference, people would do business with us each and every time, and so that is what started the wheels turning in my head as far as getting on social, and I started my journey on social media back in 2017.
Speaker 2:What I love about my content is that you can go back to that time and you can actually see how humble of a beginning it was when I started. And you know, what's funny is that you always think you're producing your best content, but looking back, I mean I can even go back four or five years. It wasn't the best stuff that, that I thought it was revolutionary at the time, but it really wasn't up to par to what I'm doing today.
Speaker 1:You are, though. You're producing the best content with your skillset at the time right.
Speaker 2:Yes, yep, and just over time, it's like I've always enjoyed documenting around the roofing process and talking about selling roofs, because when I first started in sales, there was no one really to guide me other than my brother, who was the general manager at the time, and he left back in 2018 to start off his own consulting business, and now he owns his own exterior company.
Speaker 2:They're one of the top 25 hardy installers in the United States, does very well for himself, but when he left, there was kind of a void there, because my father he's a very stern individual, you know, and he's more about hey, listen, go out, do what you do, perform at a high level and make money, you know, and for me, it was just always a little bit more than that, you know.
Speaker 2:Uh, I always needed something to feed off of, and so social um became my way of pouring into the roofing community, uh, being able to help other people on their journeys, you know, selling roofs or, if they're in the roofing industry, owning their own roofing company. Because I have so many mentors, from roofing salesmen to my father, who's the owner of the company, to my brother. I kind of get to see the ins and outs of the business at every stage. And so I have people till this day that come to me, you know, and I'll have the 30 minute phone call, the 45 minute phone call, where we're either walking through a claim that they're having a hard time getting approved through State Farm or and you know, we'll go through the systems and processes that I have in place to ultimately be able to help them in whatever difficulty they're having, whether it's an insurance claim or whether they're dealing with issues with a sales rep and how to kind of navigate, that I can kind of help them in their journey.
Speaker 2:And that's always what I wanted when I first started. And so over time I think that genuineness and being able to go ahead and put that out there for people and document it around what I do each and every day, not only does it give you kind of validity when you've been doing it for as long as I have, but also you know people understand that I'm always there for them and that has just built up a community to where, even though the algorithm as a whole has been much more difficult to deal with recently, I'm still blessed enough to still be able to get to people and stay relevant because the community is there. So pouring into the community over time has just kind of built the community that I have now, and it's kind of been life changing over the past six to eight months.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember in one of our maybe it was a couple of years ago in one of our first conversations it was you had become surprised at the amount of followers. Instagram was your platform. That was your thing, instagram, and it probably still is. I'm assuming there was a point in time and I remember a conversation with you and we were talking you were very surprised at the amount of roofing industry people that started following your content because the content was being created for more, for the homeowner right.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and yeah, that's kind of when I kind of got hit to understanding how engagement works, right, and we all have what's called a base engagement, right, and that dictates how your content performs as a whole, right? So the amount of people and the thing that's crazy about the algorithm now is that it's gotten more simpler for us as creators. There's no longer hacks or using a certain audio or you know different little things that you can do that will skyrocket your views, right, and getting you in front of more people. Now it's just you post and either it's good or it sucks. One of the two and the people engaging with it will let you know that. You know, like the algorithm is so good at dictating whether a post will perform or not, you'll know by the end of the day whether that's a good post or not. And so the funny thing is back in 2000, I think 19 is when a lot of the growth came in, right before the pandemic, and then throughout the pandemic, I had a tremendous amount of growth in that time period. One, because I think I was one of the only roofers out there that was actually selling through the pandemic, so I did a lot of content around that and and kind of let people know once again, going back and pouring into the community, a lot of people reaching out and saying, hey, listen, you know we're going in through this pandemic. We can't go out and work. How are you navigating that process? You know, at that time I was doing a lot of virtual phone calls with homeowners. You know, signing them up that way, going out to their house and sitting on the back patio picking out sheet of colors. So I feel like a lot of people reached out for advice back then. I just poured into those people and were just honest and genuine with them and that just kind of I started seeing the contractors come in and follow at that point in time and my numbers started to jump and I said, ok, I can sit there and target homeowners Right, which that's ultimately what I want. I want more jobs out of this. But how do I get to more homeowners? Well, if I have more people engaging with my content organically, then ultimately it'll get me in front of more people, which means that potentially there's some homeowners in there that need new roofs. Which means that potentially there's some homeowners in there that need new roofs. So it's like, okay, how about I start making content that not only homeowners can get value out of but also people in the industry can get value out of, and then also, you know people that are home enthusiasts right, the HGTV mothers of the world can get value out of, and so that's when I started making content that kind of hopefully gets to all of them in a certain way. Obviously, I want people to do business with me and I have a lot of people that Sue Hall is a recent one that I just did a four square roof out in Collierville, where she actually found me on Instagram and she was having a hard time with.
Speaker 2:State Farm Saw a video around where I was talking about how I was having an issue with a.
Speaker 2:It was a three-tap shingle that wasn't matching or maintaining a uniformed appearance. State Farm ended up saying that it was a charcoal shingle that was on the roof and saying that we had to do a repair attempt with it. But it was a gray shingle that was on the roof. So I was pointing out the hilarious aspect of like I'm out here doing a repair attempt with a shingle that they identified as black, but it's actually gray and I'm doing the repair attempt and that homeowner still didn't get a new roof after that, and so she was having difficulty with State Farm at that time, and so I ended up getting her a new roof that way. But she found me on Instagram and so I still get customers that come up from Instagram. But the thought process when it comes into the content is I want to make content that one that's entertaining, that people want to watch but also they can learn and get something out of, whether they're a homeowner, a roofing contractor or a home enthusiast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great intention behind your content, right? And did it take you a while to develop that intention? Or was that like something that just came natural? Or in the beginning days did you just kind of hope for the best, put stuff out and hope for the best. Now you've kind of refined that over time.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of the times when I was going through content creation at the beginning of it, I was looking for hacks and looking for ways that I could leverage the algorithm to get to more people, and then now it's just to a point where the content has to be great. There's no way around it, and it can't be one dimensional either. So that's the big issue with a lot of the especially the experts in the industry that I feel like they fall into a rut where the content is just the same thing that they're putting out each and every day. The information might be different, but the content you know, the pitches, the delivery it's all one dimensional.
Speaker 2:And at some point in time, people want to see something else, a different view, a different lens. They want to see it from a different point of view, and so for me it's like, ok, I can sit here and have these things that I know will perform well. You know I can, I can document in a certain way that you know, whether it's my drone videos or or on site shooting, I know these things work, and sometimes I'm even creating for myself, right? You know, I'm not even worried about what, what I'm getting off of it, it's just I'm having fun, but I try to make it fun, enjoyable for me and then also be like aware that at some point in time, people want value out of what I'm doing too.
Speaker 2:You know, I can't just sit here and do what I want to do all day, like there. There are questions that come into my direct messages, there are comments that I see where people are saying, hey, please elaborate on this. Or I loved the fact that you broke down the shingle collar and gave me two roof Ivent products, that two different color Ivent products that I can go out and purchase, and I know that's going to look good because you gave me that information. And can you do a series on that? So you know, I think being aware of what you're, having, that dialogue with people first of all with your community and then also coming up with tactics and different ways that you can navigate and just being creative, will ultimately get you to the point where you're able to create content that's engaging.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that relatable, engaging, educational. Give me more thoughts on that. What you had said. Like a lot of times people get caught in it maybe and I'm paraphrasing here but get caught in a loop of kind of doing the same thing over and over again and maybe that gets boring to an audience versus like what do you, you know, go into more of that?
Speaker 2:that's an interesting one yeah, and I say this because, like, I study the industry as much as I, I am active in it, right, and I genuinely love going on and listening to people talk about. You know, some of my favorite creators of John Cenac, you know, love his stuff Adam, of course, dimitri, of course, right. But even when I'm going on and I'm listening to those guys, right, if I'm at home and I'm doing creative stuff on my iPad and I'm editing for the day, a lot of times I'll have a podcast on in the background, or the roofing news or whatever the case is, and it's great content. You know, the production value is high. Everything resonates, right.
Speaker 2:But the problem is is like when you're only seeing that you know, rather than behind the scenes or you know something else that's outside of what they're doing, it just gets repetitive and at some point in time it's like, okay, I need something else in the loop. So you go and find different pieces of content. So the way I study content is I studied it as a consumer too, you know. So I'll go on Instagram and I think we talked about this before where I'll scroll through and I'll just kind of understand what, what is being favored by the algorithm and why it is. You know. A lot of times that will lead to technical hacks that you can do, but more importantly, it just lets you know, gives you a pulse on what, what, what is resonating with people as a whole on these platforms.
Speaker 1:You know, from a marketing perspective and you know understanding and some of the coaching that I've had like from from YouTube experts and things like that it's really defining your avatar of who you're speaking to and just keep speaking to that one person. But what and maybe I'm wrong here, but you're kind of you're speaking to multiple avatars. Yes, yeah, and I think that's it.
Speaker 2:I think that's right, building out one avatar, right. And then you know, like once that you find a successful way to communicate with that one avatar, right. Then it's like, okay, who's the second avatar? You know who's the other person that's viewing my content and then once you find a way to speak to that person, then you speak to the next one, you know.
Speaker 2:And the good thing is, when you have an open dialogue, which is one of the things that I think still to this day, people don't comment enough on their posts, they don't interact with their audiences enough.
Speaker 2:You know, the good thing is like the way I communicate with people and how open I am to having conversations. People will tell me what they want and I'll ask some of my closest friends, like I got a guy that flies drones out in New Mexico. I'd be like hey, you know, what do you like about my content right now? What do you don't like about my content right now? Be brutally honest with me, like nothing. Like don't worry about hurting my feelings, because my feelings don't get hurt, you know, just be honest with what you think about my content and they'll tell you. You know, and the funny part is like a lot of times it will be met with nothing but praise, but you will get a few insights that that kind of you know, kind of lets you in on you know things, that that you're not doing right or that you could be doing better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and maybe ask a little bit deeper too. You like everything I do, are you sure?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did a pitch video. I did a pitch video that I plan on running sponsored ads around out in a neighborhood out in Mississippi and I like going on the Facebook groups like the hardcore door to door guys and I'll say, hey, roast this, Let me know everything that's wrong with it.
Speaker 1:Right and people sit there and say like hey, I love this Like the pitch.
Speaker 2:The delivery was great. Or they'll say hey, you're speaking entirely way too fast, the intro was way too long. That's insight that will ultimately help me build down the road. And could they be right?
Speaker 1:Could they be wrong.
Speaker 2:Either way, that's their thoughts and that's what we have to be conscious of as creators.
Speaker 1:That's an interesting thing, that's a mindset shift right there. Instead of being frustrated with the negative feedback that you get, because if you go online, I promise you you're going to get some negative feedback Like it's going to be, there's going to be, it's going to happen, and I love that you're going out and intentionally creating a negative feedback, like, hey, give me some. Not that it's all negative, but like you're okay with negative feedback. Oh, you're talking too fast, oh, okay. Well, let me let me take that Right.
Speaker 1:Like you're. You're actually creating a feedback loop for yourself to learn from the negative feedback, where a lot of people will get very frustrated with the negative feedback and and make seeing people quit altogether because they're like I don't even want to. I don't even want that in my life, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the funny part about it is like if you ask them for the feedback a lot of times, there'll be a lot nicer, you know.
Speaker 1:That's right. Yeah, so that's right, man, I think that being relatable, though right Like, how do you, how do you feel that that being relatable? Because it has built that, that trust in becoming more of an influencer than just a content creator always been for me.
Speaker 2:It's like what you see is what you get. You know, I don't really have that filter, you know, which kind of hurts me in some situations. Like you know, I had a big interview a while back and and I didn't even realize it was really an interview, you know, and I kind of you know once that I kind of walked it through. I went to a marketing meetup the next night and I was talking it through with one of the ladies and she's like that was an interview.
Speaker 1:You know, and she's like you, don't know how to interview.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, no, I've been working at Masterproofing for 10 years, you know like what. And either way, like if results are results, that's my whole thing. It's like either it works or it doesn't work. And so for me, when I'm talking to someone getting on to the I, I, if you ask me for my opinion, I'm going to give it to you 110%, you know, because I want you to grow, I want you to get better, and it's, it's awesome because you get to see that growth. But when you're brutally honest with people and say, hey, listen, this is what you do to get better.
Speaker 2:I have this one guy out in Cleveland having a Lawrence, that's what his name was, but he's a handyman contractor and we first met this guy had a car that was broken down, you know, and he couldn't get to work every day and you know. But he was just so into what I had going on and, you know, constantly asking me for questions on claims and this and that, and I just sat him down. I'm like, hey, listen, this is what you do. Right? This is how you win a state farm claim by doing a repair attempt. This is the argument I will put forward. Here's the email that I sent recently that won me one right. And he did it went out, did the repair attempt, ended up getting the roof and he's threw the roof about it, just losing his mind.
Speaker 2:And I said, now that you had some success, let me tell what you do next. Right, you go to these apartment complexes. If you're a handyman, go to these apartment complexes, say, hey, listen, I'll give you a great stellar deal on fixing these roofs that are in bad shape, you know, and so slowly I started working with him and you know he got better. You know he started working with real estate agents and people that were flipping properties and the next thing, you know, the guy's buying a new truck. You know he has his life on the right track and he got better. And so that's my whole thing is never. I don't want anyone to sugarcoat it for me, and I feel the same way if I'm talking to someone else. It's like I'm going to give you my honest opinions, whether it's on a podcast or whether it's somewhere else, and I want the same thing in return, that's right, yeah, because it's all.
Speaker 1:It's all lessons, for it's all lessons, man. And like, if you just take it as a lesson, like there's no one, that is, that is at the pinnacle of it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like, yeah, you can always get better, and that's like I may be an influencer, quote-unquote online, but in my household I am just, you know, in the family business I am grew, you know, and so, like my father could, he could be done with all of it tomorrow, he would be perfectly fine with it. You know, like I'll never forget, I went out to the International Roofing Expo last year and he was giving me grief about going. You know he's like why do you go? He's like I'm like well, dad, I have, you know, 60, 100 people come up to me and further my relationships with them. I get to have conversations with other contractors, experts in the industry, and he's like well, don't you think that people on stage, if they could run a $7 million roofing company, probably wouldn't?
Speaker 2:they do it, you know like.
Speaker 1:Wouldn't they rather do that?
Speaker 2:He's like I'm a half owner of this company. I would much rather do that than get up and speak on stage, you know. So you know, why do you sit here and put yourself like go out and sell roots, you know. So everything is very frank on a individual basis with my family company and what we do, and so yeah, so that's kind of it's worked out very well for us. So I try to do that with everyone I interact.
Speaker 1:But there's a lot of opportunity that happens and that's where, for him, it's not an opportunity that he that he's interested in. Right, which is fine, right, not everyone that you know. It reminds me of a book that I read years ago, and it's it. Was it talked about the people online? 1% are creators, 9% are contributors. Those are the people that are liking and commenting and interacting with you. 90% of people are just lurkers. So it's not, and, to that point, there's not a lot of people that want to do the content creation. There's not a lot of people that, and maybe some of them want to, but they don't execute on it, right.
Speaker 1:There's not a lot of people that'll go out to the events and speak on stage and do it Like it's just, it's a. It's a different thing, but it's okay. How have you kept your personal brand kind of separate from the from from master's roofing, but also together with it, like, how have you balanced that?
Speaker 2:I think just the individual interactions. You know when, when, when the brands that I work with come into town, they speak with me. They don't speak with master, they don't. My father's not in the room with me, you know. So, on individual interactions, I just always make sure that you know. People know that I'm the. I don't want to sit there and say I'm the face of masterproofing, but people know that, that I'm the guy that represents what we do here. You know, and you're still only seeing a percentage of what we do. You know most of the jobs I'm filming each and every day unless it's something crazy are my jobs. Rarely do I go out to someone else's job other than mine. So what I document around is what I do each and every day. So I think people see that, but they just know that it's a part of a bigger scheme that we've got going on here in Memphis.
Speaker 1:So you said something there that I want the audience to understand. You said when brands I work with come to town and this is where I think now why I've differentiated you as an influencer versus a content creator right, explain what you mean by when. What brands are coming to town to meet with Andrew? Right, like what are you talking about, andrew? Like people listening are like don't you sell roofs? What do you mean? Brands?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I never really saw this until recently. But I had a few brands reach out to me and say, hey, listen, you know I have this product. I think it's going to revolutionize the industry. And I decided to look into those brands and say, ok, do I think it's something my audience could get value out of? Does it think it? Is it a product that I could use each and every day and you know, and put my name behind? Once that they came in and presented to me and we worked out a deal, I kind of said you know what? This is kind of something that we want to do, you know, and so getting people on board with that, as far as my father and everything else, was a little bit challenging at first. Ultimately, people see the brand that I've built online and they know that I do the content productions, whether it's a drone video or whether it's going through a product. I think people get value out of that. I've been able to not only sell roost each and every day, but also get paid by the brands I'm representing to put on the product.
Speaker 2:Now, unfortunately, I always thought that I could get a deal with like a GAF or Owens Corning right, but they're big already, you know. So they got their own things going on and they're more worried and I've had those meetings but they're so corporate that they're looking for any little thing not to have you represent their brand, whereas the smaller guys are just like, hey, I love your stuff and a lot of times they're fans before I even you know they're fans of the content before I even talk about the products. You know, those are the people that really want. They just want eyeballs on their products and they're a fan of the content to begin with. And then, when we worked out those deals, I said you know what? It's kind of cool One. These are awesome products that I think are game changers.
Speaker 2:But also it's helping the mom and pops of the industry. You know the people that don't necessarily have millions and millions of dollars to flood the market and just put money behind things to get things going for them. And the results have been great. You know, I think they're happy with what I'm doing. You know they sold out. Both products have sold out neon nails when we initially launched many this was two, three years ago. I mean that's been a project that's been many years in the making. But we put the information out there initially and within 48 hours they were completely sold out of their stock. And then same thing with Roof I-Bits. Like you know, we have several contractors that are lifetime customers now because they see the benefits of the Roof I-Bit product.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's an evolution and I wanted, I wanted people to understand this because, like, when you start doing the content creation, I would say, do it for your business, right, or for your sales, for it to to generate, you know, a presence in the marketplace, that in the market that you're in, and and then I feel like your evolution started there. Right, let's, let's get homeowners to buy. Let me show people I, let me show people I'm a trusted individual, I know my stuff and that I can help you with your roof. And that evolved to wow, man, there's industry folks that I'm helping along the way and they're catching on and stuff. And now there's this next level of things. It's like there's the brand deals, that, that that you've accomplished in it.
Speaker 1:It's like, oh, wow, that this is a whole, a whole nother aspect of this that that most people would never even think of, right, and I really want people to understand that. That it's not, man, this, this can lead to much more. Putting yourself out there, picking out, taking out the camera, picking up the phone, start, start talking into it 10 years from now, leads to a whole different there. You know, if you do it consistently and with intention, right, I think you do. It's not that you don't do it with intention. You're you intention. The content that you create is now more. It has become probably more and more intentional in the way that you do it, and more and more professional, and, and and with higher production value and all the little things. But. But it's crazy where these things can go Right, like I think that's a good point to bring up.
Speaker 2:but the secret sauce there, right, and what you said right is that a lot of people in our industry whether they're trying to sell roofs or doing what I'm doing with the brand deals and stuff and how it's kind of evolved the secret sauce for me has always been taking it from hey, my name's Andrew. Now we're with Massive Roofing. I need you to buy a roof for me, right To. Okay, here's what we're doing today. We're addressing this dead value on the front, right-hand side of the house and we're going to use this TPO product, right, and this is how the TPO product works. So, being able to break down and understand that is not only what you're trying to accomplish, but how you accomplish it is what differentiates you from the market. There we go. That's the word I was looking for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's what it is, it does, and it shows your that you have a higher level of knowledge and and, and people want to work with people who they trust Right, and that's that that I think that that showing your expertise is is is you know, helping that, that trust Right, and that's that that I think that that showing your expertise is is is you know, helping that, that trust. But the other parts of that is know you, like you right, like, and if no one knows you, this is a way for people to get to know you Like. Social media has been a way for people to get to know you. And then you know they're like I, like Andrew, I mean those 60 people that walk up to you at a roofing show. You know it's like wow, they like Andrew, they might have only seen your videos, but they like you and they trust you and now you know.
Speaker 1:So it really to me the content creation strategies that work well for people. It really follows that core, that same core thing, right, it's just the know you, like you, trust you. It just works very, very well. Mm-hmm, what have been some? I think a lot of people struggle with getting audience engagement right. What things have you done to help with and increase your audience engagement?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think the biggest thing is just having conversations, which is still the one thing that I see neglected more than anything. It's like people do not want to talk to people, whether it's in their comments section or in their direct messages. And I mean, I've had experts, I've reached out into the industry, you know, like just on different things, and I'm sure they're busy, you know, and I get it, you know.
Speaker 2:but it's like when you're left on rev for an hour, you know, or two hours or or the whole day, and then it's like three days later they get back to you and say two hours or the whole day and then it's like three days later they get back to you and say, oh sorry, I've just been busy, it's like I get it, but you know, just making sure that you always get back and you're always willing to have those genuine conversations. You know you got to give something away, not necessarily for free, but you want to give something of value to people. You know that people can take away of. And if you're in a position to where you can sit there and help people through the processes they're going through, like I am, it takes, you know, 30 minutes to respond to someone in my direct messages, you know, and a lot of these comments or questions that I get are repetitive.
Speaker 2:You know, it's just one of those things that you know, I hear over and over again and I know what works. You know, it's just one of those things that you know, I hear over and over again and I know what works. So I go in and I fix the problem, you know. But being able to have those conversations is the most important part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that response time. Yes, right, I think of from a marketing perspective. I want to communicate with people where they want to be communicated with, right. So if they pick up the phone, that's fine with me. If they fill out a form on my website, that's fine with me. If they want to chat with me on my website, that's fine with me. If they want to send me a message on Facebook or Instagram, that's fine with me. That's the way that they're choosing to communicate with me. So I think that that's great. But then what I hadn't thought of is what's your response time on your Instagram messages?
Speaker 2:right On your Instagram.
Speaker 1:DM. What's your response time on your Facebook messages? It's something that I hadn't really considered, but I definitely consider that on the, you know somebody fills out a form on your website. Boy, you better be on that. You got, you know, minutes, minutes. This has to be done in minutes, so I love that you take it there right, like yeah and.
Speaker 1:I'm getting back to people quickly and that response time creates that loop in there. I wonder how much the algorithm likes that. Oh, yeah, yeah. I think a while back I mean this was probably a year and a half ago they said that they were going to start measuring response times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know two direct messages and if you're having those intimate conversations. Yeah, so one of the biggest metrics, biggest metrics right now is as far as the algorithm and what it favors is whether the algorithm, whether whether your content is being shared or not. Right, you know being shared, whether it's in direct, private messages or if it's being shared to stories. So that's what no longer is comments, good enough, or likes, you know now it's more is whether it's being shared or not. So that's something to be aware of too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that really it's. You know, I refer to it as the tick tockification of platforms. Right, it's the, it's the move from, from a connection based algorithm to an interest based algorithm. And and what a way to show that it is an interesting piece of content to share it with someone else. Right, like that would be a big indicator that this has value, this has value.
Speaker 1:Check it out right, like that. You know. It's like you know, from an SEO perspective, it's backlinks. If people are linking to your website, it's telling Google well, this is a good way. Like there's something valuable on this website. It crosses over there. What are some other metrics you look at when you're figuring out if something is good or if something sucks? Watch time.
Speaker 2:Watch time is the most important metric there is whether it's being consumed or not and whether people are watching it, and a lot of times if you have a, let's put it into perspective here. So if you have a 45 second video, you know a good watch time is between 20 to 30 seconds, you know. And if you get 20 to 30 seconds on that video that people are consuming, that then you'll get to. You know, 25,000, 50,000 people, you know because it's being engaged. But if that same video only gets six to eight, 12 seconds worth of watch time, it's not going to perform well, you're only going to get 2000 views.
Speaker 1:So what do you think that like? Is it a percentage basis, like 50% watch time or greater, or 30% watch time or greater? Like because the videos are going to vary in length? Or does it like, let's say, you have a four minute video, is it the first minute that matters? Have you found a video?
Speaker 2:What are your just to?
Speaker 1:go deeper right.
Speaker 2:Especially with like Instagram, tiktok, facebook. Shorter videos are favored within the algorithm right, so anything under 60 seconds is automatically going to do well.
Speaker 1:If I do, if I do a reel, that goes to 90 seconds, right.
Speaker 2:I just know, inherently, that's going to get less views than if it's under a minute or if it's under. If I can keep it to 30 to 45 seconds, especially if I'm talking in it, right, which that's hard to do. I mean, talk about. Something that's difficult to do is be able to get that information out in a short period of time and for it to be good enough to people to be not swiped right through it. You know, but it's kind of like one of those things where you know the length of the video, especially with YouTube, all these other algorithms, the longer they are, you have to be able to keep someone's attention through it.
Speaker 2:So, if you're only seeing a minute watch time on a and that's one thing that I had an issue with with a podcast that I was doing was like, hey, listen, you got a 30, 45 minute podcast. People are only listening to five, 10 minutes of it, you know. And it's like, oh man, they're missing all the good stuff, you know. So what do I do? Put all the good stuff at the beginning. Well, that's not authentic to me, like you know, like I just want to be able to go out there and speak. I don't know why I can sit there and, on the other hand, when it comes to Instagram and Facebook, I can sit there and make that adjustment, but in a long form conversation, I just feel like you should be able to talk.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, if you have a longer form video, obviously the closer it is to fully being watched, the better. You know, but it's a yeah, it's a percentage Like I said I, if I have a 15 second video and it's getting 12 seconds of it's getting watched, usually that video performs really well. So the greater the watch time, the better it will perform.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's that that essentially. Again, we're just thinking like, thinking like the algorithm would think. Well, that means that this is a this is a good piece of content right, like valuable piece of content. It's the way for a computer to know if it's good or not. Would someone enjoy this? And so now I think you told me like you're getting, you get like five to 20,000 views a video. And how long do you ever take videos down that aren't performing well to redo them, stick back up? You just stick it up there and let it go. It is what it is. Yeah, I heard of people doing that Sometimes they'll take something down and they'll put it back up, and sometimes it goes, it does better, and I'm like I don't know, and that's true, like there's.
Speaker 2:There's a couple of videos Like I thought about taking down a reposting. Like I have this video where I'm I'm stomping on Vince, promoting a product, roof I Um, and so you know that one didn't perform all that well and I only got, uh, 2000 views, you know, somewhere around there, and I felt like it was too good of a video to not perform well. Like it's one of those videos where I was shocked that it didn't do well and I thought about taking it down. But then I was like, you know, like my whole purpose and what I do is to be authentic and show what it's like being a creator in the roofing industry, you know.
Speaker 2:So, whether it performs well, whether it doesn't perform well, either way, I'm going to post it, you know, you know, and so I can make another video that's in the same realm, you know, maybe change a few things differently and address certain things that I think to myself because that's one thing that I always do do is that if a video doesn't perform well, I sit there and ask myself why didn't this perform well? You know, and if you answer that question, you can always try it out in the next video that you do. Maybe you might do a video in the same style, but change the things that you didn't like or what you feel was the reason why you didn't get the response that you wanted out of that video. Right, I can do a same themed video and change those things and see how it performs. Now maybe it might do better, maybe it does the same. Maybe it was just a crappy idea to begin with.
Speaker 1:We all have those. You know, and that's what I think we got to. Everyone has to give themselves some grace in that right. Like man, give it a shot, test it out, see what happens. If you were going to start over today, what would you do differently? That's a tough one.
Speaker 2:I mean, I would definitely focus more earlier in my career on understanding video in depth and understanding the editing processes. Right, I do all the editing myself. I don't outsource any of it, so I like being at the helm of it and I understand my editing apps very well. I create all the content on site myself and I break it down and I do everything myself, and that's kind of cool because it doesn't cost me anything, right, if I'm a new roofing company starting today, that's where I start, because I want to be able to have the ability to create content at scale in my own hands, and so that's kind of the cool thing. And probably the reason why I've been so successful over a long period of time with it is because I haven't had to sit there and outsource and pay for it, which that goes.
Speaker 2:That's the exact opposite of what the industry recommends. You know, industry recommends hey, have a camera guy come out Monday, wednesday, friday, film, have your stuff prepared before you, and that's cool. And especially if you're a business owner right, if you own a roofing company that's a lot more feasible. But for someone like me, that's the heir to the throne rather than the head of the throne, you know, you know, I had to be very smart and just be very conscious of how much money I spent on this adventure over the years, and what I kind of found is that, by not having a marketing budget right that was set out for me and saying, hey, this is what we're going to allocate to it, towards it Acquired these skills that allowed me to create content on the spot. So the other night we're having a Christmas party and there's this magician there and this guy does it as a side hustle and I'm sitting there talking and he's one of the nicest guys you know, just started going to church.
Speaker 2:I has this amazing story about how he turned his life around and he has a full time job and he has two side gigs as a rapper and as a magician and he starts doing these car tricks and it's just blowing my mind, right. I said, you know what? I'm putting it on the ground, right, so I pull out my phone, I do the video, I post it. It gets 30,000 views. The guy goes crazy about it, you know.
Speaker 2:And it's like to be able to have that power in your hands at all times, whether I'm going to a roofing expo or whether I'm on site creating content each and every day. It's extremely cost-effective for me to create content, because it doesn't cost me a single penny to do it, you know.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, man. All it costs is time. That's right. It's time. Put in the time, you'll reap the rewards. This has been an Appreciate your time today, man. This has been another episode of the Roofing Success Podcast. Thank you for tuning into the Roofing Success Podcast For more valuable content, visit roofingsuccesspodcastcom. While there, check out our sponsors for exclusive offers, shop for merchandise and sign up for our newsletter for industry updates and tips. Also join the Roofing Success Facebook group to connect with other professionals and stay updated on the latest trends. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, like, share and leave a comment. Your support helps us continue to bring you top industry insights. The website link is in the description. Thanks for listening.
