Q & A Episode 14 - Word-of-Mouth Referrals in Combination with Social Media will Change Your Business Forever
Episode #14 | Q&A with Mark D. Williams | Word-of-Mouth Referrals in Combination with Social Media will Change Your Business Forever
Mark Shares the role of social media influence and word-of-mouth marketing in the building industry. He discusses the varying approaches builders can take, from embracing social media to relying on reputation and personal relationships, and the importance of providing exceptional client experiences to encourage positive recommendations.
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About The Curious Builder
The host of the Curious Builder Posdast is Mark D. Williams, the founder of Mark D. WIlliams Custom Homes Inc. They are an award-winning Twin Cities-based home builder, creating quality custom homes and remodels — one-of-a-kind dream homes of all styles and scopes. Whether you’re looking to reimagine your current space or start fresh with a new construction, we build homes that reflect how you live your everyday life.
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00:00:00 whatever kind of leader you are sometimes we're not even aware that we're leading but if you do it consistently it will affect those people around [Music] you welcome to C podcast I'm Mark Williams your host today's Q&A is from Brad Robinson from Atlanta Georgia Bradford holes and his question was is do you have to be a social influencer to be a successful Builder it's a great question I absolutely not I know a lot of builders that are amazing top of their game that have very little social profile um I do think however at least
00:00:39 the ones I'm thinking of have been at it for a long time and they're very competent have a huge um Network and really they have chosen from a marketing standpoint to do very little marketing they don't Market their their way that they Market their brand is much different than I would elect to Market mine it doesn't make it less successful it just makes it different which is makes branding so interesting and this these particular Builders AR thinking of you know they develop relationships uh pretty much exclusively with Architects
00:01:10 and you only ever see images of the exterior of their homes or like a hero shot you know maybe just a handful of photos um that show up in magazines and that's about it I think most of it ends up being Word of Mouth which will'll play into our next question a little bit later um but they don't really do any sort of social campaigns about their team about their personality about you know the process or anything like that for them it is strictly about the house and you can't say it's not working I
00:01:37 mean um thinking about Ferrari you know um I think people go to Ferrari because it's the car looks amazing and you know you want the lifestyle you want the status symbol so you go and you buy that car I have no idea how they drive I assume they drive good um they you know I don't see the people behind them and what they're doing it's just like you are buying a status symbol and I think there are some builders that have reached that point that you know they are a status symbol and so people elect
00:02:03 to pick them because of their reputation and it's not about them specifically it's about their home and I think that's fine and so I think maybe the way and not specifically Brad who asked this question but I've been asked this question before because sometimes it's daunting it's like oh man you know I just want to be a builder I just want to build great stuff do I have to have a social media you know influence I think you do I think in today's world especially if you have if you plan on being around the next 10 15 20 years you
00:02:31 know for you to have zero social um media strategy at all or any sort of footprint I think you're missing a huge amount of the market um and you know a lot of people I guess I should just say how I I view social media in general as a temperature it allows me at least the things I'm interested in people I I just love people I mean I love homes too but I love people in homes and so I gravitate towards people interacting with a home or a celebration of energy um you'll probably notice a lot you know
00:03:05 at least I try to get a lot of our you know social videos maybe some of it's instructional but a lot of it ends up being like I want people to be excited like you have so few seconds to catch somebody's attention the one thing I don't like about social media is it doesn't do a very good job of long format video and so you know it's like you do you put all this effort into a small video that's like six seconds and they might just scroll right past it you're like and then you know a week later it's like they never see it again
00:03:31 so it's like very very short um where I think the website if you can start taking your social media and dovetailing it into your newsletters into your blogs into um you know YouTube If You Can you know obviously even repost videos because people often don't even see your videos um I think that was some advice that was given to me a long time ago that don't be afraid to you know if you have some great videos repost that thing like four to 10 times a year you know it's a great video and your fans will
00:03:59 just like seeing it again and and guess what a lot of people have not seen it um you know I know shout out to style and structure they do amazing videos and mainly because I'm a complete nerd from the 90s uh you know I pretty much know every Disney song by heart uh much to my uh family chrin except for my sister who will sing along with me and um back to style and structure every year they seem to do a Disney theme song to one of their parade homes they changed the words they've even flown in you know
00:04:28 professional singers to help them it's awesome you know so you should give them a look uh check them out on Instagram but they have this one that they did with Lion King and then they'll they'll modify the words um to their parade home and I just think of the amount of time and energy and money that they put into that and but that's a one-time video hopefully they use it over and over again I haven't talked to Danielle and Joe about this specifically but it'd be interesting to see their thoughts on I
00:04:51 mean their Community loves it like I love it like I look forward to it and so but it's not cheap it's not without um you might get as many follows or as many looks as just you know showing up on a job site and taking a video with your with your phone of like a cabinet install it's kind of wild what you know some videos sort of go viral or not but I think the main question is is just can you I think you can absolutely be successful without being quote an influencer or having a really robust strategy um I it doesn't mean that
00:05:19 there's not value there however and I I think it's like anything I think social media is a tool and I think it is a good tool for certain things but not a tool for everything some you know Morgan Moler often talks about you know when she's speaking and she's talking about how valuable your website is you know there's very few things that you own uh digitally you know you don't own Instagram and so what you post there is being hosted there but who's to say it's going to be there five 10 years from now
00:05:46 hopefully it is um but you know your website you own as long as you keep paying your domain Bill and uh you want to put that on autopay for sure and so you know you're I've had I've had uh people I know that don't have a website I think that is just colossally I mean frankly ignorant um unless that is their goal if their goal is to be hard to reach if their goal is to be elusive like great that's a brand strategy and it might be effective and you hear sometimes about people that are Ultra private uh there's a builder here
00:06:19 I'm I'm embarrassed to say because now I obviously know but they do so they do no advertising I've never seen them advertise in any magazine they have no social media they have like 10 posts they have their website is terrible and they do so much high-end work it's amazing and so they have devoted all their marketing dollars quote marketing energy and budget into just impressing the I think I don't actually know this but impressing their clients and impressing the you know the Architects that are feeding them work the danger
00:06:50 with that is if they ever ran a foul of a certain architect or if they ever didn't please somebody where's no one even knows who they are how are they going to get any work and so one thing that I've recognized even this last year which been a little bit slower or a lot slower than I would like it to be is having multiple revenue streams you know I think as well as do you have to be successful to have uh do you have to be a social influencer to be successful um I think it's very helpful I think it's it probably in the day and
00:07:21 age we're in that's better often than not you know some of the people I know that don't have websites I think it hurts them hugely you know not to have a website in today's world I mean honestly you could get a template and get a website up in about you know a half hour so the idea that you wouldn't have a website is either extreme ignorance um incompetence or some kind of master plan that no one knows what it is um and so in absence of the last one I I think it's just the cost of doing business you
00:07:50 have to have some presence there I think the hard part is is like which ones do you decide to post on so like you've got YouTube You've Got Tik Tok you've got Instagram you've got threads you've got all these new emerging ones and you know it's hard to keep track of them all like personally I don't like Twitter H it's just you know too much stream of Consciousness and you know you know no one really wants to know what I have to say uh in you know a sentence and I guess I'm surprised if anyone even tunes
00:08:16 into the podcast so you know but at least as long you can at least listen to somebody so I'm just personally not interested in Twitter I know obviously I'm a minority or I should say x now but um I think do something that you can do regularly whether it's LinkedIn whether it's Instagram and you know if there's something that you follow you know you might be your own client and so if you're trying to relate to people that are like you you know that is a helpful way to do it and you know I think where
00:08:42 if you're thinking about your clients you know I think one helpful strategy that someone once told me was you know if you want to you know attract a certain client you need to go where they go and from a fishing analogy is you fish where the big fish eat and so you know think about the clientele that you are trying to attract are they going to you know are they going to Whole Foods are they going to Costco are they going to you know the Mall of America or are they going to a boutique shopping experience are they going to Aspen or
00:09:16 they going to Orlando Florida you know are they a young family old family I mean so I think giving some time to think about who your client is and who you want to attract and it might be a little bit of everybody but I think that will greatly impact Which social platforms you decide to engage in and also how you engage on those platforms and then I think listen to your clients you know I think there are some people for whatever reason you know we try to spend a lot of time mainly because I enjoy it frankly um I enjoy social media
00:09:48 I enjoy the video creation I enjoy you know explaining things like enjoy sort of being on camera and talking about things just because I think it's fun I'm really proud of our team te and I'm proud of what we do and so I like to talk about it and so but if you don't like to do those things like don't do them and you can find a different way to do it um you know a lot of people are successful with you know going back to that earlier example of just having someone else document your homes it doesn't have to be you if you don't feel
00:10:18 like you have the personality or you don't want to do it then don't force yourself to do it the only thing I would say about this is if you're unsure just try it just because you don't want I guess find out if you want to if you don't like it first and don't be afraid to try it for a while because you know the whole fake it till you make it thing is super real like no one has a you know I'm sure now they do but you know no one has a little real blueprint on how to weave all this stuff together that which
00:10:44 is why I actually like social media because you can be really authentic and the one thing that I think it does really really well especially if you celebrate people and your brand and you know if you are your company and you're talking about it people get a real good sense of who you are and what your company must be like you know we were just at a team meeting the other day uh with a bunch of our our colleagues and our team members with some clients and you know we're having a great time and I
00:11:11 just said you know thank you for building our home with us and you know every six months we kind of do this lunch or this case it was a breakfast and um I just looked around the table and everyone is like really happy and and everyone's really enjoying everybody's company and contrast that with the day before we were talking about another company where we had just said you know that owner is really prickly and um you know it turns out some of their employees seem to be getting more and more prickly and just
00:11:37 really sort of aggressive and it's funny that leadership and how you treat people does matter and and it you know whether you're a warm leader a strong leader a firm leader um whatever kind of leader you are sometimes we're not even aware that we're leading but if you do it consistently it will affect those people around you so the best way to do it would be to be deliberate about it and where I'm going with this is that I feel like the messages that we put on social media if we're thoughtful about it can
00:12:06 reflect the type of leadership that we want um I have not personally had any clients reach out to me and say I want to build a home because of something that we saw on your Instagram page but I have lots of clients that do pay attention to it and maybe they come through our website and I feel like it's a really good place for you to explain who you are as a company that unlike a website you can do it a little bit but you can't interact quite as um organically and authentically as you can on different social media platforms so
00:12:37 anyway that's I've kind of gr around that question I think long enough this episode is brought to you by Alpine hardwood flooring they've been our partner now for over a decade installing all our wood floors on all our new homes as well as our remodels and on a personal level Adam and Anthony Jena the owners are just absolutely amazing people they've been so supportive of my career as well as doing anything we need to make sure that our clients are happy and they work so well with our other vendors and trade Partners at not only
00:13:03 protecting their product but also ensuring everyone else's looks great so if you're looking for a wood floor or for a refinish I highly recommend Alpine hardwood flooring uh the second question was is do you think word of mouth as is as important as it used to be I would almost argue it's more important than it used to be um I guess this just a matter of your perspective because I could really argue this question either way um I think someone said you have to be you we have to you know we're just talking
00:13:32 about social media so you have to be hit with like 7 to 12 images or 7 to 12 things before you actually engage with that that is so many interactions but you probably only have to be told once or twice by somebody in your inner circle to pick up the phone and make a decision like if somebody was looking to build a new home or remodel um what do you think is going to have more power you know a family a friend a neighbor saying oh yeah I built with Mark Williams cust homes I love my experience it was great you should give them a call
00:14:03 I mean are do you are they even going to look anywhere else are are they they're G to call because you just had somebody who's had a firsthand experience of working with you that has just recommended you and now they're going to likely call you now they'll look at your website they will now go look at your social media if they weren't aware of you before or it will reaffirm something that they already knew oh yeah you know what I follow that company they're great I like them a lot but man The Power of
00:14:29 One happy client is extremely powerful um you know I I I think uh I personally and maybe I'm the wrong person to answer this question I don't really look at five star ratings like you know I want a festar rating I believe we have one but I don't go read other comments that I'm not somebody that researches I think part of this is personality test I will I will put it out there to my friends and family and colleagues and say who would you recommend for this and then I know that let's say the person I'm
00:14:57 asking is someone who's really into research and really into figuring it out like I will take his word as gospel you know I'm a runner and so I was like I'm gonna get a new watch and Tony is someone I run with all the time and I'm like Tony which watch do you have why do you like it and he'll give me his you know third I'm like I don't even need to hear it anymore he researches like for months on end before he buys something like I don't need to do that I trust Tony Tony does all the research I'm just
00:15:21 gonna buy that watch I'm good like I don't need to see reviews I don't need to do all the research like it's I'm good I'm making my decision based on somebody I trust and that's how I do it I'm not saying that's how everyone else does it I'm sure I'm just one personality and there's many many out there uh you know I do know my wife for instance loves to read you know reviews and and she does a lot of research on different things and kudos to her you know when it comes time to you know plan a trip or a vacation like I don't have
00:15:47 to spend all that emotional Bal I think she sort of likes to do it that's part of it and so I I do always think that it comes back to like what do you like to do and what do you enjoy doing because if those two things sort of line up uh you're going to spend a lot of time there and you'll become pretty good at it as well and I think this this thing of word of mouth is how do we develop it um I I would like to think that I really well I mean I know I do I appreciate my past clients a lot um I always send them
00:16:15 you know thank you cards Christmas cards you know last year um it it puts a lot of pressure on a company and a person I I want every gift that I give them to be very unique and special but when you start getting to have a lot of clients it becomes just it it becomes a lot and I'm not saying you can't do that but last year I think we had like 10 clients and you know when I say unique like you know unique style cutting boards with you know their name engraved on it but not just like it wasn't the same for
00:16:42 every person like everyone had to be different had to mean something to them and so you know we had somebody that lived on lake minaka or Christmas lake or Medicine Lake and so I had a blue epoxy in the shape of um their lake with their name engraved on it as just like a little thank you gift that they would you know have in their home as a way to remember it and I these are things that will encourage word of mouth but honestly just how you treat people um is probably the strongest way to encourage
00:17:09 Word of Mouth you know my wife always says that people forget what you say but they'll never forget how you made them feel and I think that's really really wise words and I think if we're trying to encourage our clients and encourage those around us to have a strong opinion of us so that their word of mouth is strong um you know be more mindful of how we treat them I I need to be I need to think of that way more often than I do you know I get busy about my day and I do this that and another thing and
00:17:35 before I know the day is over and you know have I really made that client feel special I hope I have I hope they know that I do care about them we're excited to announce that we've opened up another curious Collective for the last year we've had the Curious Builder Collective we now have the Curious Builder Collective for designers the first ones will be happening in September all the details are going to be on our website we have 30 spots available half of them have already filled We additionally have
00:18:00 eight spots left in the Builder Collective if you're interested in getting together in small groups of nine with local Minneapolis based Builders and designers in separate groups and talking about your business talking about your Brands asking those questions that you wish you could ask another business owner then this is the place for you details can be found at the Curious Builder podcast.com but it you know it could be as simple as you know having something on your calendar that reminds you that you know every Friday
00:18:27 write to thank you uh notes um I used to do this a long time ago on Thursdays I used to write thank you notes to whoever I wanted to think and and I need to get back to it honestly because it was something I really enjoyed and it was something that I prioritized and you know it's been about a year or two where since I've done it and I sort of Miss it just talking about it right now makes me think like oh man I haven't done that for a while and I think this thing of Word of Mouth there's so many different
00:18:51 ways to encourage it it's doing a good job it's showing up when you're going to say you're going to show up it's your people following through on the Promises you've made as a as a as a um as a company I think um I think also asking this is something I have not done but I know would work is asking your clients what what would you need what would you need to have happen for you to recommend us at the end of this job and then check us check in maybe in the middle of the job and say uh right now if someone came
00:19:18 to you would you recommend us to to uh to your friends to build a home and I think you know designing a referral program around that you know I have it on my many to-do lists to design a referral program someone in my Builder 20 has one that's pretty cool and it makes me sort of want to spend more time developing you know what a referral plan would look like and it's always kind of a hard thing because you want people to refer you uh but you also sort of want to reward them for doing it and sort of
00:19:43 incentivize them but at the same time if you make it all about money is it really referral if they're doing it it's a tricky Nuance I don't know the answer to this one I'm still kind of figuring it out anyway I've sort of hacked my way through that question there's a lot more to talk about um but we're out of time so I'll see you next week thanks for listening to the Cur Builder podcast if you like what you listen to please give us a five- star rating and write us a review it really means a lot it's a great way for us to
00:20:13 just understand what you like about the podcast and what we can keep doing so like and review and please share with your friends and family find out more at curious Builder podcast.com [Music]
