245. The $0 Marketing Strategy Makes "Boring" Businesses Earn Millions

Speaker A: In 2021, a plumber said four words nobody in the trades had ever seriously said before. I went to TikTok. His marketer said yes. And what happened next quietly changed how an entire industry thinks about social media. Today we're sitting down with that marketer. She went from running social for restaurants and bars to becoming the go to agency for home service companies, building brands for plumbers, H Vac techs and roofers that rack up thousands of five star reviews and organic volumes without spending a dollar on ads. Her name is Jen McKee, founder of Key Heart Marketing, and her philosophy is simple. If people do not notice who you are, they cannot work with you. I'm Ryan Atkinson and you're listening to Upload Podcast where we interview entrepreneurs to hear their advice on how you can start a business too. And I am so excited to welcome Jen to the podcast today to talk about all things reviews, content, branding. So, Jen, thank you so much for being here. So excited for you.

Speaker B: Thank you. That was a great intro.

Speaker A: Yeah, I appreciate it. Well, I'm excited for this today and I want to lay the groundwork for our audience. Give us a quick synopsis. What exactly does Jen do?

Speaker B: So I own Key Art Marketing. We specialize in social media for home service companies. I mean, now I'm the leader of that company, but I'm still obsessed with, uh, what social media. The impact that social media can have on businesses is the coolest thing to me.

Speaker A: And that's what the whole conversation is going to be day. And I love this topic here because we really haven't had social media specialists for the trades here. So excited to talk about that. But before we do it, let's go to early, like 2021, because you looked at that trade space and virtually Nobody was on TikTok. What did you see that, like, owners were missing in early 2021?

Speaker B: So funny. I love that intro. And I'm just going to correct you because it wasn't a he, it was actually a she. It was a husband and wife team, but it was the wife that I was originally talking to. And a, uh, little backstory is that TikTok really blew up in 2020. So I know now it's like so normal to us, but before 2020 it was just early adopters, which happened to just be really young people dancing, which is why, like, that was the young people dancing app. And in 2020, a lot of millennials started using the app as just like a way to share things that they were doing. And so there were definitely like plumbers and technicians that were just sharing their work, but there wasn't anybody creating content for the homeowner. And so that was what we really saw as the opportunity, is that they had a plumber that was creating a lot of, like, plumbing content for other plumbers. And I was like, okay, I love that you're creating content, but let's create it for homeowners. And so we started just, like, creating, like, videos that were helpful for homeowners. Just simple things that he would share about what he would see and what he was doing and what homeowners could do to avoid, like, big plumbing mishaps. So we were really, like, not sophisticated at all as far as, like, we weren't doing these crazy edited videos or trends. We were just providing value. And it, uh, we got a lot of attention for it from the beginning.

Speaker A: Yeah. Well, let's talk about, like, those early results, because I'm super curious. I remember back in, like, 2019, I was, like, the manager of a pool, and I remember a lot of, like, the lifeguards are, like, teenagers at that time, and they're like, oh, my gosh, like, Tik Tok's, like, back, back, like, whatever. Like, this is, like, the new trend, and I didn't really take it seriously, and I kind of regret doing that. But I do want to talk about, like, 2021. What were some of, like, those earlier results that you saw where you're like, okay, this, like, is the future.

Speaker B: We were able to grow followers super fast. And so, uh, like, when you had a video go viral, you got a ton of followers really quickly, which was cool. But what was really cool is that they started getting calls from people who said that they were seeing them on TikTok. People wanted to work for them because they saw them on TikTok, and then they started getting a lot of attention in the industry. They, uh, were a part of best practice groups where people were like, okay, like, I want my social media to be like that. They got to be on industry stages and talking about the marketing strategy that they were taking. So I feel like it got to the point, and especially now where you don't have to convince people that this is a good idea, but people were like, clearly, like, this is a good idea, and so more people should be doing it.

Speaker A: Uh, that's so good. Well, let's talk about how more people can be doing it. So for someone that is interested in, like, the home services space now, they're starting a company there. They have a company there either way. And they have never posted Like a single piece of content. What is, like, the very first thing that they should do, like this week to like, get started on it.

Speaker B: Document something that you're doing and post it. And like, you don't have to edit it, you don't have to overthink it. Literally, like selfie at a job site, if you're going to a BNI or chamber meeting, anything that can, like, hey, this is me and this is what I do. Basically, um, here at the job down the street, doing a maintenance call before it gets too hot out here or had a drain clog, had to clear it. This is what we found. And they could have avoided it by doing this. Like, I look at social media as, like, three stages or phases, and so many people don't want to post because they're like, well, I don't know how to edit. I don't know, like, what I would post. I don't know how to make it look like these people with millions of views. Okay, that's like, you're not going to figure that out without starting from the beginning. So, like, phase one is literally just documenting what you do and, and posting it and not overthinking it, not worrying about strategy, not worrying about editing it, literally just getting in the habit of documenting and posting.

Speaker A: What would, what would phase two and three mean?

Speaker B: Then phase two would be more like having a little bit of strategy. Maybe you're learning more about what social media could look like. Uh, maybe you're even, uh, taking what other people are doing and trying to emulate it. And then phase three would be like looking at your data, trying to create more content based on what you're seeing is working. And so you're kind of doing all three of them at that point.

Speaker A: Interesting. I want to talk about a little bit of the strategy of like, the phase two part, because, like, I feel like, as you said, like, everyone who isn't on TikTok now, like, I could think of a million people just like the. There's so many. Who is it on TikTok now? Essentially my question is like, what's that unique angle, though, that, like, someone could take or, like, think about that like, so they just don't get, like, categorized with everyone else. Like, should people be thinking about that unique angle they have or should they just, like, be posting? What's your take on that?

Speaker B: There's a couple of things. Like, right now, what we're seeing work in the H Vac industry, which is so silly, but I've seen it a couple times because we'll Just like look at what other people are doing is like these dancing videos, like literally lip syncing and dancing and it's like getting tons of views and followers that you don't have to do that though. But like, that's what I mean. Like you can see what other people are doing. And how could I take that and make it my own? Uh, that's where like trends come in. That's a really easy one to jump on. It's a fun way to create content. It's just like you see these, you know, lip sync trends or just trends that other people have done and how can I do that myself? But I think that the best part about short form video is that you have the opportunity to just be you. Like, and so just sharing who you are and seeing what people resonate with is it probably your unique angle that you could take is like what makes you different? What do you know about. I just saw and you know, Gary Vee post stuff and I don't know how long ago he said this. It could have been like three years ago or it could have been yesterday. But he did say something that is true. And it's like, you're probably gonna get the most followers on like your most random content. So, like, you're not gonna get a ton of followers talking about H Vac. Like, for me, I had a video where I was talking about this theory I had about Vanderpump Rules that went super viral. It's like one of my most viral videos and I'm like, well, how else am I gonna talk about that, you know, like, what else am I gonna do around Vanderpump Rules? But when you have, you know, really specified knowledge on something that people can relate to, that's one part of your content. Like when I talk about building your personal brand, 50% of your content is about who you are. And so that's where that comes in. Like, what do you know that's interesting? And then, you know, then you tie in all the other stuff.

Speaker A: Are you ready to launch, grow and scale a business? Inside the upflip Academy, you'll get a complete roadmap to shortcut your success rate with 25/step by step programs taught by active business owners, not gurus who share their step by step blueprints. Plus ongoing live workshops, skills training, a business idea database and community to share resources and celebrate your wins. Click the link in the description below to join the Uplift Academy today and start surrounding yourself with the people and tools that can change everything for your business. That's actually what I want to ask. And it's really timely because, like, I'm kind of in this stage where it's like, you know, I have my own business. Like, I get to do a bunch of upflip interviews. Like, I've interviewed over like, probably like 400 people and I've done some like, very fun interviews and stuff. It's like, maybe I should start like, actually like building a personal brand. Do you think about like pillar content or content pillars for people to like, post about so they can do it like consistently? Or like, what advice would you have for like, me that like, wants to post, like, has like some decent knowledge? I like to think, what advice would you have when it comes to that as well?

Speaker B: You can think about it however you want. So we do everything around the 3S framework, which is, uh, that's how you make sure that your content gets into the newsfeed and you're still sharing what you do at the same time. So like, it stands for show up standout scale. So 50% of your content is show up content. So that's like who you are. So yeah, you might have some pillars in there. Like for me, I talk a lot about my fitness journey. Uh, I talk a lot about things I might do on the weekends or with the kids. I don't share my kids on social media, but it's still something in there. I talk a lot about mindset. And then your standout content is your thought leadership content. So that's like what you know. So, uh, depending on what kind of business you have, uh, for me it's a lot of social media stuff just around like, what to post or whatever. And then your scale content is 20% of your content. And that's like what you sell basically. So your services or offerings or anything like that. From, um, a personal brand standpoint, depending on like how big your marketing ecosystem is. Like we sell things at keyhard Marketing that I might post about, like content calendars or master classes or things like that. But it's still, it's like, it's such a small part. It's like 20% of your content because people don't really care. That's like the least thing that you want to post about. And so who you are is like the most interesting thing. And so that gets to be 50%. And so you can create some pillars around there. Like, what are the things that I want to talk about? What do I want to be known for? Who am I? That is relatable to other people.

Speaker A: Yeah, that is A ah, really good advice. That's what I did when I was like doing like my three or four like content pillars that like I want to do there. But um, what's the way to like systemize? Because I feel like social media and like, especially for someone that's just starting out, it's easy to post three times in a week for the first week. But maybe week two you post twice, week three you post zero times, week four you post one time. It's hard to be consistent. So how should someone that's starting with short form content think about consistency and like systems so they can be consistent?

Speaker B: The only way to really be consistent is to have a plan. And, and so that's like, even for our clients, we plan a month at a time. And so we start off, we have the four Cs of content creation. So like the first one is uh, your consistency. And so it's how often are you going to post and how much time you have really plays into that. Do you have four hours a week to spend on social media? Because recording content, editing content, creating captions, uh, uploading or scheduling, it all takes a lot of time. And so you have to be realistic because what happens is a lot of people are like, I'm going to post like six times a day. That's like six hours a day. Is that what you're. I mean if you want to be a content creator, then great. But if you don't have a team and you're doing this on your own, maybe, uh, just three times a week to start off with is a really great place to be. Like, okay, I can consistently do this. I can create one video a week and two Sally posts a week. And that's where I'm going to start. And so then your next C is your calendar, which is looking at what do you have going on this month. Like what are you doing? Are you traveling for work? If you work in H vac, do you have an install next week? Are you going to a chamber meeting? Is it your birthday? Like, what are these important dates that you know that make great content that you can like take pictures of or get video of or whatever, and then you fill in the blanks with the 3S framework. And so something else about you, something else about what you know, something else about what you sell. And then the third C is your content. So like, if you're going to record four videos, put that in your calendar, get it in your, you know, record the videos and um, get it out there. Or if you need to get Photos and you need to put yourself a reminder so that you can do it. And then, uh, the 4C. I don't know why I can't think of it right now, but what it is, is having accountability. And so it's like maybe joining a group or letting somebody, you know, or just getting it in your calendar right now. But like, if you don't have a plan, you're not, it's never going to work. Like you're always going to just like get to it and then lose it. Oh, it's your commitment. Commitment and consistency.

Speaker A: Yeah. And that's uh, something that I've been doing is like I planned like a whole month of content that I wanted to just like write on LinkedIn, just to like start. It was like a two hour thing and it set me up for like a whole month. And it's like, okay, I can do that consistently and I can like commit to that, to like once a month, two hour activity for a whole month. So someone's listening. I think they could learn something about that as well. The part that I want to hit on is the team aspect. So one way that can help with the consistency of systems is to hire editors, hire script writers. Obviously you can't do that from day one. Maybe you can if you're lucky enough to do it, but people will get there. How should people think about like hiring someone for, to uh, freelance it? Like, what are some like key aspects of like actually putting a team in place for this?

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think that you have to determine like what you're bringing to it or how much support you actually need. So like, for me to hire somebody, I'm going to lead the strategy. I know what I'm looking for. I could hire somebody to edit my videos because I already know what videos I'm going to record. I already have someone to help me record them. I already, you know, and so then to just hand them to somebody over to edit. They might charge $30 a video to edit, but if you don't have that piece, uh, and you're looking for strategy or maybe you need to hire a videographer. There are videographers who specialize in the hooks and the scripting and the shooting and the editing, you know, so you really have to determine like what support it is that you need. We at keyhard Marketing do all of it. Like we do all of the scripting, we bring the videographer out, we do all of the editing and we do the posting. So the investment is going to be much higher than someone that is just doing the editing. Or a lot of people, especially in home services, I find people, like, are like, oh, well, could we get an intern for the summer that could do it. Or my niece likes to take videos, so let's bring her in. And you can. But it's the same thing. Like, so who's leading the strategy? Do they have a background knowledge in this? And then the other thing that I find is, like, getting people comfortable to record on camera is a skill also. And, like, young people struggle with that. Like, you're asking somebody to get way out of their comfort zone, go up to somebody that they don't know, who's older than them, who's working, and say, hey, I need you to, uh, do this trend for me. Like, so some people have the right. They can do that. They have the right personality for it, and some people don't. And so that's really where you're. You got to figure out your investment level.

Speaker A: Yeah. And I feel like the editing piece is like, is that the most time? What is. I should ask, what is video editing?

Speaker B: For sure.

Speaker A: Video editing forever. Talk to us about that and what are some good resources for that.

Speaker B: A really cool one is Opus Clips. It is paid, but it's great. You can take, like, a long form content like this. Um, you could even, you know, record yourself with your phone for 30 minutes doing different topics, and then put it into Opus Clips and it'll split it up. So it's not like the greatest stuff, but it's someplace to start and it does it for you. Opus will even schedule for you. Like, you can set it up to schedule onto YouTube and TikTok and. Yeah, so that's super cool. It's an AI tool and AI generates captions for you. You can put some B roll in there. So that's a really good one. Uh, we use a ton of Cap Cut. And I've had my team test everything, and they tested like, Premiere Pro and they test it and like, they're like, capcut does everything that everything else does. And so Cap Cut is a great option for video editing.

Speaker A: Cool. I like it. Another question that comes to mind that I want to ask here is about, uh, scripts and hooks. That's an important part of, like, the whole process. How do you think about writing, like, the scripts and, like, the hooks to, like, be effective on these platforms?

Speaker B: That's a skill, and it's a tough one. Like, it's hard. AI doesn't really do a great job with it. It's really like, what we find is if you can get somebody to just answer a question then we can find the hook in there usually. Or like kind of if we're sitting with somebody and they're talking then we can pull a hook or ask them like okay, now say this at the beginning or something. But a hook is just for anyone that's listening, that doesn't know it's just something that's going to catch their attention. So we also want our clients to uh, like if you're talking about H Vac like go stand in front of a unit and talk about it in front of it. That's a lot more interesting and intriguing than like sitting at your desk and sharing information. So that can visually can be a great hook too.

Speaker A: Yeah, there's so much that like goes in like the whole process of it of like strategy, execution, editing, all of that. But another really key piece of this is that like multi platform strategy because your team's posting on the TikToks and Instagram Reels, LinkedIn, YouTube, really all of it. Walk us through like why that matters, uh, from a distribution perspective and why everyone should be doing that and be thinking about that. Instead of just posting only on TikTok,

Speaker B: we cross post everything so we don't have separate strategies for all the platforms which you absolutely can do. But that comes back to like how much time do you have and what is your goal here? What's great about cross posting is that it takes less time but you get a lot more visibility. And so instead of just it uh, getting visibility on Facebook, now you have Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn to reach more people or reach the same person multiple times. And so all of that can help uh, with brand recall. I was meeting with uh, another vendor in this space that does a lot of brand awareness and they do geo location targeting for households, household targeting. It's super awesome. But they found that it takes 121 days for somebody to convert uh, to a customer. That's their average 121 days of seeing their content. So I just wonder like how much shorter you can make that process when they're seeing you more, you know, or how many times they saw you in those 121 days. And so we just like the amount of content that we all consume throughout the day of you know, picking up our phone in between meetings or at lunch or in the car at a stop sign and like we're just seeing so much content that it's really hard for just like one thing to stick in our or something that we see one time to stick in our head.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's crazy. And I think another key aspect of us this as well is like when you're thinking about the broader strategy because it's one thing to get views. Who doesn't want views? It's a whole nother thing to like actually get leads and like gets results that like actually moves the needle and can get an ROI from video. One way that video is playing a big key in this I feel like is like SEO through video. Tell us more about that and why people should be aware of this and kind of break that down for us.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's super interesting. So uh, Google started indexing videos, I want to say like TikTok videos probably like three or four years ago. It was like big news that TikTok was being indexed. For those of you listening, YouTube is owned by Google. So like anything that goes into YouTube, it's like you're putting it into Google. So we assume that Google is using YouTube as part of its search. TikTok and the Meta platforms are not a part of Google. But when there are now in Google, when you search, obviously, or maybe not so obviously but like AI results pop up first and actually now just like completely shut off. You can't even see anything else, which is what's so tough for marketers now. But videos are being indexed as well. And so you can search for like air conditioning repair in Camarillo, California and go to video or short form video and you'll see videos From Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube video websites are all being indexed there. So I encourage everybody to go and search in your area, like whatever it is that you do and look at what videos are popping up and see if yours are and if they're not, start to play with a lot of it. It looks like it's being indexed from the bios of the social media account. So like your bio needs to say what you do and where you're at. Don't make it cute, like make it helpful for SEO search. And then also in your description of your videos, in your captions. I used to really hate being like too uh, wordy in those, but now I'm like, okay, we need to have like the description of the video in this. We need to say where they're at and we need our hashtags to really correlate with the location.

Speaker A: Social media in the, even the past five years it's been, has had to change like so much, especially with like trends. What advice you have for people to like Stay on top of, like, all these trends because, like, there's always social media platforms and, like, Instagram launched Threads, I believe it's called. I don't know if that's really taken off, but, like, how do you, like, stay on top of these trends of, like, actually know what will work and what's just kind of smoke?

Speaker B: Oh, that's hard. We have teams that are researching these things so that we can stay on top of it. And usually for us, like, if it's brand new, it's not worth, like, jumping on right away. Which sounds kind of silly, right? Because, like, you said, oh, if I would have jumped on TikTok early, it would have, like, changed things and. Definitely. But I mean, Threads was a meta platform, so, like, how much reach can you really get? It's coming directly from Instagram. If a new something comes out, like, we'll have to see. I don't know. Like, right now it's all about AI and AI Search, and then soon we'll have AI ads and, like, what is that gonna look like? Uh, so I think that's, like, the biggest trend right now is, like, how do I show up in AI Search? Uh, which. Or how can I use AI to, like, replace all of my content creation so that I don't have to do it? Which I don't think is possible yet, but I'm sure it will be in the future.

Speaker A: That's, uh, so good. Few more questions before we end here. I want to talk about just kind of, like, imposter syndrome, because I feel like a lot of people, especially in, like, this home services industry, could be like, oh, like, I shouldn't be on camera. Or, like, I don't really deserve to be on here. Tell us about imposter syndrome and how someone that's just getting started with social media can, like, get through that. Tell us more about that.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think that all of us have so much to offer one another. And, uh, there's like, a poem. I was just telling somebody else about this too, because it's one of my favorite things to consider. But people sometimes ask, like, well, isn't it just egotistical for me to, like, talk about myself? And, uh, you know, it's like, what did you start your business for? What was your purpose for this? And what are your goals? And, like, what are you willing to do, uh, to make those goals happen? Because, uh, putting yourself out there is, like, one of the least selfish or egotistical things you can do. I was talking to my coach, and she. My Fitness coach. And she was struggling with this. And she's, you know, an awesome, strong woman. I was asking her, like, we came down to, like, uh, if, uh, other people were feeling the same way, you know, like, that they don't know if they can do this again. They don't know if they can put theirself out there. Like, why did you choose to be a fitness coach? So that you can encourage others to get into fitness, too. So that you can make sure that they're doing it for the right reasons in the right ways. So that they live a, uh, stronger, healthier life. So that their kids get to be with their parents more. You have the opportunity to be that inspiration on social media every single day for free. You help people change their life. I posted about not drinking. I stopped drinking, like three years ago, and I post about it every once in a while as something that's a part of my story. And, uh, maybe six months ago, this woman posted that she had quit drinking. She was an old boss of mine from, like, years ago. And I was like, oh, my gosh, that's so great. Good for you. And she said, yeah, you really inspired me whenever you posted that.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker B: That's the opportunity that we have whenever we post on social media to change people's lives. And it's free and it's all just around sharing what we've done. And it gives other people the opportunity to know that they can do it too.

Speaker A: So crazy. Yeah. That is the power of social media and the reach of social media. So this has been amazing. Let's jump into our fan blitz questions and then these are questions submitted from our community listeners. If you want to join in on worldclass entrepreneurs like Jen, email us at podcast upflip.com we'll get all your questions answered there. But, Jen, ready for our last five here?

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker A: One piece of content, a photo, a video, a caption that you have completely seen blown up for a trades company that nobody would have expected. What was it?

Speaker B: Oh, um, asking multiple people what it they keep their thermostat temperature at.

Speaker A: It's so crazy. Um, you have one minute with a plumber who has been putting off social media for three years. What do you finally say to get them started?

Speaker B: Waiting isn't getting you any. It's not getting that visibility any faster.

Speaker A: I, uh, like it. Best piece of business advice you ever got. And who gave it to you?

Speaker B: I read the book, uh, you are a badass at making money, which taught the law of attraction. And that completely changed my life.

Speaker A: That's Great. If you had to pick one platform to build a home service brand from scratch today with zero budget, which one would it be and why?

Speaker B: Probably TikTok, because you're still able to reach people without ad spend with a brand new account.

Speaker A: Then last one for you. What is the biggest lie the marketing industry keeps telling small business owners?

Speaker B: I guess that, uh, like you could, you should, or you could do it yourself. Uh, not to say that you can't, but like, what are you trying to do? Are you trying to be a marketer or are you trying to grow a trades business?

Speaker A: Jen, this has been amazing. I absolutely love the content or the content of social media. So it's always fun to talk about. If someone's like, oh my gosh, I need to learn more about Jen, ask her a few questions. Where would be the best place to reach you at?

Speaker B: Yeah, thank you. You can, uh, find me on Facebook, Jen McKee. I'm on every platform, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. Keyhart Marketing is also, uh, everywhere. K E E H A R T Marketing. And then I also have a podcast called the key to growth podcast which is also the K E key to growth where I interview marketers and trades experts and learn all about marketing for home services.

Speaker A: Everyone, that was an amazing episode with Jen. Three quick takeaways for you. Number one, to get started on your very first video, just document something. What are you doing during your week? Are you going to a client meeting? Are you having to take away from something? Just document something. And, and that's the best way to go from zero to one in this business. Number two, I love her three S's of show up standout scale. It's a really nice breakdown of exactly what you should be posting and you guys need to go back to that part of the episode to hear more about that. And then number three, to stay consistent. Plan a month at a time. I'm personally doing this for my own personal brand as well. You need to plan a month at a time. It's the best way to commit to something, to plan it out. Plan a month at a time. Amazing episode here with Jen. If you guys learned anything about social media content for your business, Please use a 5 star rating wherever you listen to your podcast. It gets more amazing entrepreneurs like Jen onto the show and we will see you next Monday. Jen, thank you so much for your time today.

Speaker B: Thank you. Um,