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From the operating record
Field Notes
Founder-verified strategies to build a marketing moat and own your local market. Real ledgers, real mistakes, no vendor numbers.
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How much marketing can a contractor add before the percentage breaks?
FN-42 · Field Note. It depends on the marginal return of the added dollars, and the arithmetic is one line: (current spend + added…
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Which marketing channel sells which product?
FN-41 · Field Note. Facebook runs about 90% siding by design and paid search runs roughly 40% roofing and 40% siding. One aggregator sends…
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Can a free inspection program be a lead source?
FN-40 · Field Note. Yes, if there is a crew to inspect and a rep to follow up. A free annual exterior inspection for…
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Why does my mid-year marketing report understate what I spent?
FN-39 · Field Note. The CRM records marketing cost when the invoice is entered, not when the money was committed, and broadcast, radio and…
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Which months should a contractor advertise, and which should go dark?
FN-38 · Field Note. In the months that carry under 5% of annual revenue. November plus December carry about a tenth of our year…
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Why does my cost per lead go up when I spend more on Google?
FN-37 · Field Note. The cost of marketing a report shows is an average at last year’s spend, and the next dollar into the…
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How do I measure a billboard, YouTube or radio buy before I fund it?
FN-36 · Field Note. Set the measurement before the buy: a unique offer or URL per broadcast, a geographic holdout for billboards, a dedicated…
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Why does my CRM say radio and TV don’t work?
FN-35 · Field Note. Most contractor CRMs credit a job to the last source the homeowner named. Three years of streaming TV showed $0…
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What should cost of marketing be for a contractor, and why does it keep swinging?
FN-34 · Field Note. We run to 10% to 15% of net revenue. Ours ran 14.2% in 2022 and 19.4% in 2025, and the…
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Should marketing be judged on gross sales or net revenue?
FN-33 · Field Note. Net. Gross is what got signed and net is what survived cancellation, rescission and final settlement. At the eight-figure Toledo…
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Getting Value Out of a Chamber Membership
A chamber membership is a marketing source like any other. It gets a row on the cost-per-booked-job sheet, and it earns its row or…
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Getting Consistent Photos From the Crew
Twelve real photos a month feed the Google listing, the town pages, and the social feed. Most shops have none from this year. The…
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