Main Street ROI

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

I own a real estate title agency, so I insure titles for real estate in New Jersey on both residential and commercial transactions. I also provide settlement services as well.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the owner, operations manager, sales person, and marketing lead. I'm the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Main Street ROI?

My first goal was just to do an SEO tuneup, which was a great way to get started to optimize the pages. I had redone my entire website, and it wasn’t optimized at all, so they were a big help with that. They worked very quickly. They performed overall consulting, focusing on the Google reviews, which has helped tremendously. I get a lot of calls, and I’m a regulated business, so I can’t charge more or less than other title agencies out there.

Having those Google reviews when you search for Park Avenue Title, I have 21 right now is invaluable. Every other title agency has nothing. So, that was a real edge for me. A suggestion they made was to keep asking my clients to post my reviews. That has made me stand out when people go online and look for a local title agency. None of my competitors have anything.

When people call, I always ask them how they heard about me. People won’t say that when they call, but if I ask, they'll say that they saw me on the Google reviews in Google Places. That has given me an edge.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

Part of the work Main Street ROI provided was search engine optimization. They also did a landing page for me. I wanted to have a landing page where I can capture leads through giving out title quotes. They worked on that with me for both purchase and refinance transactions. They set up the whole AdWords campaign for me. That has been relatively recent, in just the last few months. I get a lot of people emailing me for the quotes, which is all automatic. I'll get an email saying, "Request for a free title quote." I’ve given out a lot of quotes for people.

What was your process for selecting Main Street ROI to work with?

I found Main Street through a direct marketing company that I belong to. They have a monthly newsletter and seminars throughout the year. They have different representatives in each state who do a monthly meet up. I had gone to a meet up, and they were at one of the meetings. I knew they did direct response marketing, which is what I was interested in. For instance, we have to be accountable, directly reach out to people, and it's more results oriented. I knew they were the people I wanted to work with, not just because of their technical skills with AdWords, but their marketing skills as well. I talked to him, and he followed up with me via email with useful information.

After a while, when I saw their consistency, I knew I had to do the SEO work on my website. I called them because they positioned themselves very well. They also provided good, valuable information, not a hard sales call or emails. They positioned themselves as experts and gave a lot of great webinars that are very helpful. They put the information in layman's terms that aren’t over your head. They’re very accessible. I'm also a member of their Insider's Circle, which is a paid monthly newsletter that they put out with great information. Once a month, you can call their office at a certain time. Being part of this group allows you to ask any questions that you want at no charge. It's included in the membership, which is very smart.

They're nice people, too, and they're very accessible. They keep on top of this changing industry, so there is no way I could keep up with everything. They are my resource, and they are valuable to me. Other people reach out to me, but I don’t like their approach. They don’t give me any value first. They say they’ll look at my website, but I don’t know who they are. Main Street constantly gave out good information, and that’s what hooked me.

I don’t have a plan to stop the work. He's not doing anything for me right now. I had the SEO tuneup and the landing page, which was what I really wanted and needed. I have no other campaigns to give them right now.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

I pay $45 a month to be in the Insider's Circle. The SEO tuneup was $300. I thought that was a smart way to get people in the door for a reasonable price so they could see some results. I like that.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

In my business, it doesn’t close right away. It might take a few months to close, so I have a few deals in the pipeline right now. To get any kind of return on investment, I wouldn’t be able to do that until it actually closed. There’s a lag time; for instance, on a refinance, you apply for the loan, have to get approved, and it can be 60 days before anything actually closes, where I get paid.

I had one deal from the website, where they found me off the Google review. It was a half million-dollar deal, and I netted about $2,000 off it, which was great. It was an out-of-town client who was moving to New Jersey. When I asked them where they found me, they said they found me online. That was great. I had another deal through the Google reviews and optimization of my page. So, I had two deals that closed.

With respect to the landing page, I haven’t seen anything close from that yet. I can’t give you any figures or stats on that. I’m getting a lot of people emailing me, so I’m happy about that. As far as money in my pocket, nothing's close yet. Those campaigns can take months to pay off. With the bad weather, not many people have been out looking for homes. I feel my business will be pushed more toward the summer, where I'll see more activity online with these quotes, and then having the deals close. It's been slow in my business in the last few months, and the weather played a big part in the purchase transactions. People won’t go out in snowstorms looking for homes.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

Their background in direct response marketing is unique. I think that's the key. They are not just technical people. That is what differentiates them. Technology is a commodity, but you have to know how to write good headlines, create good ads, and so on. There are a lot of elements, and they have that type of knowledge from their background in direct response marketing. That’s what made me want to use them versus the other agencies that contacted me.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

No. I was happy with everything that they did. The first mockup of the landing page wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but they worked with me, and we tweaked it together to get it to where I was happy with it. Nothing is perfect on the first go-around. They were very open and helpful with the changes I wanted to make.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company, and your role and responsibilities.

I run a law firm, and I represent banks, real estate purchasers, and creditors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Main Street ROI?

My goal is to publicize our services to anyone looking online for a real estate lawyer or a collection lawyer. When they Google those search terms, my firm should come up on page one because nobody looks at page two.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

Main Street worked on Web design development indirectly because they do a lot of SEO [search engine optimization] work for me. They are very cognizant of what is on my website. They constantly tell me to change one thing or another to improve the Google ranking. I don’t use them to make the changes in my website although they make some changes by themselves from time to time with respect to the SEO. I didn’t use them to create the website. It's more of what should be in the website to cause it to come up on page one.

What was your process for selecting Main Street ROI to work with?

I was talking to Phil [Frost, founder of Main Street ROI] about it, and he said he could do it. I told him I would give him a try, and he made the phones ring.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

I pay $750 a month, but I don’t know the number of hours that they spend creating the reports that shows me what they do. All I can say is that they make the phone ring. If anything, I plan to expand my work with them. In addition to the SEO work, this year I started having them manage the pay-per-click advertising. I’ve been experimenting with that. If things go well, I will increase that as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

My practice has expanded lately. I’ve gotten a lot more clients than I ever had before. I don’t have any statistics or documentation of the cause and results. Since I started working with Main Street ROI, there has been a noticeable and drastic increase in the number of incoming calls, inquiries, and business. The quality of the inquiries is the same random mix as from before. Some of the calls are not well qualified, some of the calls are absolutely terrific, and some of the calls are in the middle. I don’t think the proportions have changed. I’m just getting a lot more of them.

Instead of getting 20 calls a month, of which five were good, five were terrible, and 10 were in the middle, I'm getting 200 calls a month, and 50 are good, 50 are terrible, and 100 are in the middle. It's a tremendous jump. I attribute it to them. I do not believe it's a coincidence that as my Google rankings move up to the front page, that the phones started ringing off the hook because people don’t look me up in the Yellow Pages or other sources.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

They do what they say they're going to do. Most of the marketing companies that I’ve dealt with in the past promise the world, and then they make excuses. Main Street ROI is the opposite. They don’t promise much. It was more, "Why don’t you try it out?" instead of "Wait until you see how your phone rings off the hook." I was the one who was excited.

One other thing that stands out is that they’re understated. They are different in the sense that I get emails and calls all the time from other SEO firms. Some of them are very aggressive. Main Street ROI’s team is quiet and understated. They’re not the strongest salesmen for themselves. They just tell me to try it out. They're not aggressive at all, which is different from the other Internet marketers. They don’t tell you what they’re going to do. They just quietly do it.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

I’m a lawyer, and I don’t know about this. I have a vague idea of what they do, but I do know that I’m getting a lot more calls and a lot more clients. I’m popping up on the first page of Google instead of the eleventh page. I'll write an article, and they put it up on the blog, which shows I’m updating my website. Other Internet marketers offer pitches that all sound alike. I have no complaints.