Dennis Yu

Why You Must Own Your Marketing: The Key to Control, Cost Efficiency, and Long-Term Success

This morning the owner of a plumbing HVAC company asked me how much to build their website.

$650 one-time is the short answer.

But let’s break this down and see how most home service businesses screw this up badly.

It’s no secret that a plumbing HVAC website is just a template that you can inject your name, phone number, and other details into. A reasonably competent VA following our checklist can do this for a few hundred dollars.

However, if you want a skilled American to fine-tune the site to rank on Google, ensure proper call tracking, and help get the right content in place, these folks cost $60,000 to $100,000 a year.

The real cost lies in troubleshooting performance and tuning content, which means that a “website” should typically cost around $2,500 over 6-8 weeks to coordinate after the VA has done her part.

Many of you guys see marketing companies charging $8K or even as much as $50K for a website. Does this mean our plumber friend is getting ripped off?

Not necessarily, since the agency is probably bundling in Google My Business optimization, Local Service Ads, and other services.

However, charging separately for SEO on a monthly basis is a scam, as I’ve explained in detail in other posts. The same goes for monthly “hosting and maintenance” fees, since all of us know that we can use WP Engine for $30 a month, a bit more if you opt for VIP support, especially if you have a lot of sites and need super-fast loading, security, and support.

When people ask me for help fixing their existing site, I first check to see if they have WordPress and all the necessary plugins for analytics, content, etc. If they do, then we look at what stage their business is in. If they are in a major Google local category (plumbing, landscaping, electrical, etc.) and doing at least $80K a month, tuning their site is usually easy – often doable for $1,500. But we prefer long-term relationships (think wives, not hoes) where we can put a team on it and have an American team leader actively watching and managing.

The ongoing VA cost for a retainer should be $500 to $750 a month, depending on whether the scope includes social ads and video editing, in addition to just Google-related tasks (website, GMB, LSA, SEO). Add in a senior client strategist, overhead for tools/training, and a 20% profit margin, and retainers are typically $2-3K a month per client location.

HVAC businesses may be at the higher end of this spectrum (versus karate studios at $500 a month). Clients in New York City would also be higher, since there’s more competition and, therefore, more work.

There are agencies that charge $10,000 a month (which isn’t necessarily bad, depending on what you’re getting). But then they outsource to white-label fulfillment, paying $300 a month for implementation and assigning 50 clients per account manager. That’s a pure money grab, as they’re primarily sales-driven organizations where the leader isn’t a hands-on practitioner, believing they need to know only a bit more than their client about digital marketing – which isn’t much.

So now you see why pricing in website building is all over the place. All digital services are connected through the website, so bundling makes sense.

There is so much outsourcing and “easy money bros” taking advantage of uninformed clients that the markups are insane. The solution is to understand exactly what you’re getting and work only with folks who have published SOPs. And you must own your marketing assets. No more “website is free” deals, where you pay $295 a month but lose your site if you ever leave. The same goes for PPC, where the agency owns your account, and if you try to leave, they make up some excuse about “intellectual property.”

Consider your own costs in running a service business. There are the actual materials and product (the equivalent of VA labor in our case), your various people, marketing costs, overhead, and then a healthy 20% margin.

A few weeks ago in Paris, I paid $24 for two croissants and two coffees. You know the actual cost was maybe a dollar. But what else are you paying for?

If you want to own your marketing and hold it accountable, I created a 5-step guide with Marko S. Sipilä that you should review.


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Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations. You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel. You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.
I'm a member of Blitzmetrics Academy and a friend of Dennis to boot. Not only is Dennis highly intelligent and full of great and creative ideas, he's also incredibly generous with both his knowledge and his time. Success couldn't come to a better guy. Thank you for all that you do for the world, Dennis! 🙏

Michael Pacheco

Marketer

Thanks 🙏 for being shining light in this industry. Love what your building for works overseas too network for jobs so innovative. Dennis helped me navigate having bad experiences with marketing agencies and doing dollar a day marketing which has helped my personal brand tremendously. Highly recommend.

Eric Skeldon

Founder at Kingdom Broker

Working with Dennis has been a delightful experience. After meeting him in 2015 I got to collaborate with him on countless occasions. His understanding for state-of-the-art marketing, his implementation, and his leadership put him into the top 0.01% of marketers and mentors.

Jan Koch

Ihr kompetenter Partner für innovative KI-Strategien.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dennis for my podcast in 2021 and since then we have maintained a friendship that grows with each interaction. I have seen Dennis' devotion to his friends and clients firsthand, and our conversations often result in us talking about how we can provide more value to the people around us. He is someone whom I can ask questions on a technical level, and look to on a personal level. If you have any hesitancy about hiring him, get over yourself and do it!

Isaac Mashman

Help scaling personal brands.

Geez, where do I start recommending Dennis? First, he is an absolutely brilliant marketer who understands where marketing is today and where it's going tomorrow. He also has an incredible passion for the International Worker community. The lessons he has taught me from his almost 20 years of experience hiring International Workers have been immense. Most importantly though. Dennis Yu is someone who wants the absolute best for you and is willing to tell you the truth. Dennis sat with me at a point in my business where I was floundering but did not want to admit it. He asked some very straight forward questions to get me to admit my issues, highlighted the issues, and then helped me create a roadmap to success.

Atiba de Souza

International Keynote Speaker | Video Content Superman | Superconnector |

Dennis, which I had the pleasure of working with is one of the most giving, honest and tell you as it is person I ever know. The knowledge this man has is remarkable and he just gives it out freely. He is not pretentious and always entertain anyone big or small in the industry always willing to help. If you ever get a golden opportunity to work with him or mentored by him say YES!. You will notr regret Dennis, which I had the pleasure of working with is one of the most giving, honest and tell you as it is person I ever know. The knowledge this man has is remarkable and he just gives it out freely. He is not pretentious and always entertain anyone big or small in the industry always willing to help. If you ever get a golden opportunity to work with him or mentored by him say YES!. You will not regret

Nixon Lee

The PR Whisperer

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