From Call In Question To Client – Interview of Business Owners Bryon and Nicki Hein – 186

Bryon Hein: I found you because I was really looking into, how do we do our best version of SEO to be found? And I don't know how you guys do it and I'm glad you guys are, but the way you guys hone in and just zero in like a predator, which is not a bad thing, but how you get where we want to be and it's almost like magic. It's incredible. I love it.

Jesse Dolan: Welcome back to Local SEO Tactics, where we bring you tips and tricks to get found online. I'm your host, Jesse Dolan, here with a great episode. We've got some clients of ours, Bryon and Nicki, with Party Favor Event Rentals. Also, I should mention Sue Ginsburg, Bob Brennan, you're with us today. Big crowd in the virtual studio, and we're going to be talking about Bryon and Nicki's journey finding us, engaging with us and telling a great story here. Sue, would you like to set the stage and give us some formal introductions here?

Sue Ginsburg: I would love to. So, Bryon and Nicki came to us a couple years ago through a podcast call-in question, which was asking when they could expect to see metrics from their SEO firm. Because if I remember, it had been close to two years. They had been asking and hadn't gotten them and were asking when they could expect those. That being a very sensitive topic for me, to say the least, we turned that into a podcast episode, which you can look up and see when you go to our Local SEO Tactics episodes page. And Bryon and I started talking about what they were and weren't getting from their former SEO firm. And if I remember right, many of the things that are standard in what we provide our clients, they weren't getting. And so when their agreement ended, they hopped on and began working with us and they can tell you about their experience.

But it has been wonderful from our part because they are not only business partners, but they are a family and it's great working with family-owned businesses. And they actually talk to each other and respect each other and work together what looks like from our end really, really nicely. Their business has grown. They have great new ideas. They're on top of things with the metrics that we provide and that they take and turn into action. And it's just fantastic to have you both here today. So, Bryon and Nicki, welcome and thank you for being on the podcast.

Jesse Dolan: Hey Sue, I'll interject too. If everybody listening wants to check out that episode, it was episode 146 where we had Bryon's call-in question and had a great discussion around that. So, that's the epicenter where it all started.

Sue Ginsburg: All right. So, Jesse, before I hand it over to you, I'm just going to say we do have a quote of the day today, which is, "A goal is a dream with a deadline," which is from Napoleon Hill. And I think that that's really appropriate for these business owners because they take their goals and they put them into actions and I think that they do that diligently and well and the results speak to that. So, that's our quote for the day.

Jesse Dolan: Let's start off here from Bryon and Nicki about... Just rewind. I know it's been a while, but if we can go back, you started doing some research on your own, checking out podcasts, obviously, about SEO while you were employing an SEO agency. Bring us right back there to the beginning with you two, where you're at in the business, the SEO journey, quote-unquote, on your website, and what was going on back in that time.

Bryon Hein: You want to kick off?

Nicki Hein: I guess. So, when did we start? I'm sorry.

Bryon Hein: Our business?

Nicki Hein: Yeah.

Bryon Hein: 2018.

Nicki Hein: So, 2018 we started, and then we were in a Facebook group with other event rental and event industry people. And then we wanted to grow and people mentioned SEO, so I guess because we were growing and everything, he was researching it a little bit and then we found somebody local here to do it. And she was doing our SEO and it was good. She did some content and stuff and then we felt like we were growing.

We didn't know if it was just natural because we were new and because we did a lot of stuff on our own out there, like putting up yard signs and just Facebook posts and all sorts of stuff trying to do it. So, we didn't really know what the growth was. And Bryon also did some research in his downtime. I think it was like a hobby you did. I don't know. It seemed like a hobby because it was more fun. He wasn't super serious about it, but he did his own little SEO research and we hired her, but communication was off. We didn't really hear so much from her. And then, I don't know, did we reach-

Bryon Hein: We would reach out. We wouldn't get pretty much any communication back on what we're reaching out on. We'd ask where we're at rank-wise, what kind of stuff should we be focused on or is she focused on. What was the other things too? If we should be gathering keyword research, some technical stuff. And just got-

Nicki Hein: And then when we first went to hire her, she did a short video. She's like, "I did a audit on your website and this is what I found." And that was probably the best work out of her, is that video. That's the most effort we feel that she put in is on just getting hired. And then that's when Bryon and we were like, "Well, is this normal for SEO? I don't know. This is a mystery." And then he's like, "You know what? I'm going to ask Intrycks. I watched this and they are really detailed and they're super technical and I don't see any of this stuff that they talk about on our website." So, that's when he reached out to you and asked.

Bryon Hein: Yeah, my biggest thing was just not providing any... It doesn't really have to be a spreadsheet. You guys do a very good job of explaining and showing where we stand and what to expect. And we weren't getting that one bit. And it was disheartening because I feel like we were devoted and loyal almost to a fault and we didn't feel like we were getting that in return from our previous SEO firm. And I figured with you guys always answering questions and being very detail-oriented that, who better to ask? And I got the answer I was looking for even though I kind of knew what you were going to say, but I just needed validation.

Nicki Hein: Yeah.

Jesse Dolan: You wanted us to either validate it or lie you and say that was normal so you'd feel better.

Sue Ginsburg: Business owners don't know. That was your first time working with an SEO firm and you didn't know, "Do we get it every two years? Do we get it every five years? When do we get it? What's normal?"

Bryon Hein: And we worked with her for two years. So, I think if we didn't press anything, we didn't see anything from her or the firm. And it was like pulling teeth just to get communication. We'd send out an email because that was the only way we could communicate. I don't even know if we had her number. I don't recall.

Nicki Hein: I don't remember.

Bryon Hein: I don't recall that.

Nicki Hein: I think another thing, the reason why we carried on for so long is because we knew that SEO is a-

Bryon Hein: Long term.

Nicki Hein: ... long term. What do you call it? It's a marathon, not a sprint. So, we were being patient and we were like, "All right, she's doing her thing." And I think that's why we dragged on so long. But then there was no, the communication. Yeah, nothing.

Bryon Hein: And it wasn't like we were looking for something overnight, but we didn't see much. She did some good blogs and we got some stuff out of that, but it wasn't enough. We weren't converting to real customers, and that was our biggest concern. We needed customers. That's why we're here. We're a service business.

Jesse Dolan: And how did the business look, let's just say over that two year stretch, when you started it and then when you ended that relationship after two years? Growth, flat? And just give us a little bit of a context on your operation during that time.

Bryon Hein: We were small. So, we do inflatables and tents and the first two years I think we were basically just a truck, right?

Nicki Hein: Yeah, just a truck. Me and you.

Bryon Hein: Just one truck. We didn't have a trailer or nothing. And we would just flip these things. Well, inflatables at the time, we would just flip them in the truck. And-

Nicki Hein: I think our first year we did 145 events and then our second year we doubled. But that's not shocking for the small amount we did. Then when we stepped up another notch trying to keep doubling that, it's... I think now we're at 60% growth and we don't... I mean, doubling it would be very hard, but we increased. And then we got a new website, which was very, very scary. Like a reboot. What was it? A redesign, and then you guys came on. So, you guys came on to a rough time because a new website and I guess, what was it, 2020, COVID?

Bryon Hein: Yes. Yeah.

Nicki Hein: So, everything was mystery for us. We didn't know what was going to happen. I was very nervous. I was like, "Oh, gosh."

Bryon Hein: Part of our growth, I think too, was we were very aggressive. We put business cards in our units. We put yard signs in at these parties, and to this day we still do this,. But after an event we would have, I don't know, 20 or 30 yard signs in the truck. And after we would set up at an event, we'd go to the nearest main intersection or the corner of a highway and we'd plant it and we'd just throw a yard sign there and then leave it there all weekend and then come back Sunday night, pick them all up yard-sign-wise and then just try... We just wanted to hit the ground running and advertise on Facebook. I think you did some Marketplace too.

Nicki Hein: Google Ads. Yeah, Marketplace. And then that's when you start learning where you want your customers from. And that's where, moving forward with you guys, everybody in the local Facebook groups that we're in for our industry, they say hit for the largest local or the, what do you call it, like Cleveland, the biggest city. Hit for that. Aim for that. Aim for that. And then now we work with you guys and we know that we don't necessarily want Cleveland. That's not so close to us. We have designated cities that we want to be in, and we have meetings with Sue and T.J. and we're like, "This is what we want to do." And they're like, "Okay." And then the game plan goes from there. I don't know, it feels like we can create a game plan with you. I don't know. It's just really nice. So, that's the big difference that we've really enjoyed is that we now can pick our-

Bryon Hein: Communication.

Nicki Hein: Well, yeah. And well, for the business-wise, we can pick our customers. We want to be in these cities and you guys are able to do that for us. So, that's one thing that I think is really helping us grow, is being efficient with our routes. And that all starts from getting the customers we want.

Bryon Hein: And I don't think we were working local either at the time with our previous-

Nicki Hein: No.

Bryon Hein: I think we were buried local.

Nicki Hein: Yeah. In our own backyard.

Bryon Hein: So, Cleveland is about what, 45 minutes roughly?

Nicki Hein: Yeah.

Bryon Hein: About 45 minutes from us. So, we were showing up more 45 minutes away than in our own backyard, and it was a little frustrating. Since you guys have been on, that's flipped and that's what we wanted. We call it windshield time. We don't want so much windshield time in the vehicles and just event, event, event, event instead of event, drive, event.

Jesse Dolan: You say vehicles now with the plural. Maybe fast-forward a little bit and share with everybody. We've been working for a while now. Business has changed. We're talking about some growth. What is it like today? We're early 2023 here too for context for everybody when we're recording.

Bryon Hein:

We ended our '22 season with, she has her own truck and a trailer. I have a truck and a trailer. And then we would do a short term lease with Enterprise, so we had a box truck as well. And this year we're pretty much setting a goal to run four every weekend, probably two during the week I'd imagine. So, we've added more inventory too. Not much, but enough to keep us busier through the week. And I would say four solid Friday through Sunday, correct?

Nicki Hein: Yeah. During what we call our water season, which in Ohio is, what do you call it?

Bryon Hein: Memorial.

Nicki Hein: Memorial to Labor Day is pretty much water season for us. That's when all the pools open and close around here and that's when we go full force. So, I think we're aiming for four trucks and I feel like we could do it. I feel like...

Bryon Hein: I mean, we started last year thinking of a possibility of going with a third. And as we were thinking about it, the customers were rolling in and it pretty much just told us that's what we're doing.

Nicki Hein: We shut down weekends because we didn't have that extra truck to accommodate. Because our customers, we have it set up in a way where we say, "Okay, all of our events are going to be 2:00 to 11:00. That's your rental timeframe. If you want it earlier, we could try to accommodate that. There's additional fee." So, our game plan is, start at 8:00 delivering and be done by 1:30 so that everybody's parties usually start at 2:00. And that gave us the best way to-

Bryon Hein: Accommodate.

Nicki Hein: And make our routes most efficient. A lot of companies let their customers pick their time. Like, "Yep, give me 10:00 to 2:00." We don't do that. We say, "It's going to be 2:00." And most people are good with that, but that allows us to be up north and then one truck down south and then one truck on the east side. That allows us for that. And then after doing numbers and everything and looking... I think in the winter when we do our meetings with you guys, you're like, "What's our focus?" And so during fall we're like, "Well, it's going to start slowing down. Tables and chairs, photo booths, that is going to be our big ones." And then that's where you guys go in and dive into that and make sure we're optimized for each season that we go into, we're ready. So, that's a nice part that's helped us, I guess, keep rolling and stay busy. But yeah, I don't know. I'm getting off track. There's a lot. I mean, I just-

Bryon Hein: Like where we're planned at for the-

Nicki Hein: Yeah, where we're planned and everything. And it's so much more efficient now that we can work with our local cities and get zoned in on our customers and it's nice to pick them.

Bryon Hein: I was just going to say, and our customers keep them overnight. So, the next morning is we will pick them up. And so if it's a Saturday, not as many go out on a Sunday because most moms, dads, grandparents work or got other plans Monday through Friday. So, we have to flip something. If it was at a party for Saturday and it's going back out Sunday, we can route ourselves to be where we need to be within reason.

Jesse Dolan: I love to hear you guys talk. Nicki was mentioning a little bit ago about getting the right type of clients. I'd love to hear you talk about all the different forms of marketing that you've done over the years and then the type of stuff that comes in with SEO and those local clients and how do they make better clients for you? What is the difference there you're seeing? Why is that attractive?

Bryon Hein: We're advertising.

Nicki Hein: Okay, so when we first started, you always, not always, but a lot of people, your budget's low. So, you go with the cheapest thing.

Bryon Hein: For you.

Nicki Hein: So, it's Marketplace. And those customers on Facebook Marketplace is what I'm referring to. Those customers on Facebook Marketplace are not necessarily on their looking for, say, bounce house rentals. They're looking for a cheap used refrigerator somebody wants to get rid of. So, I feel like their mindset is budget, and then-

Bryon Hein: A tight one.

Nicki Hein: A tight budget. Or they're not specifically shopping for us. I mean, now that the years have went out, a lot of people are advertising inflatables on Marketplace, so some people go there to look. So, we no longer do that because the customers we got with that, they want a discount. They are, I guess, harder to deal with.

Bryon Hein: A little more needier.

Nicki Hein: A little more needier. I guess, so, when somebody rents from us, we want them to be happy at the end of the day. And not everybody can afford us. So, bounce houses is 225 bucks.

Bryon Hein: In our area.

Nicki Hein: Somebody, that could be a half a paycheck. So, we get certain customers to rent from us and they blew a half a paycheck, and sometimes I feel like they're like, "Oh I shouldn't have done that." It's like a regret purchase. And we've never had anybody complain, but they don't come back, I feel like. So, we want the customers who value our service, who are going to take good care of our products. So, I feel like the way we have found those are through, before our SEO was better, was through Google Ads. So, we find them through Google Ads and they specifically want a bounce house. And then now we have, what do you say? We've done it for so many years, we can see where our customers spend the most money and are repeat. So, I guess that's where we target it in and we say, "Well, these cities, they spend at least $450 every time." On every ticket, we call it. So, then we zoned in on those and we feel like it's better. Pickup's better. Items are cleaner. It's a better neighborhood.

Bryon Hein: It's a tighter route.

Nicki Hein: It's a tighter route.

Bryon Hein: It's efficient.

Nicki Hein: A lot of the moms are very social and we end up going to the same communities. We call it a sub-development. All of a sudden we're like, "We've been in the sub-development 30 times this summer." Those are the customers you want, the ones that share with everybody.

Bryon Hein: And they also recommend, and word of mouth is probably still, in my opinion, I might be old school, but in my opinion, word of mouth is probably the best advertisement you're going to get because you're getting it firsthand from a previous customer.

Nicki Hein: Yeah.

Jesse Dolan: Yeah. That's the best right of referral, word of mouth. I mean, the trust is built in. Not that they're not asking you what the price is, but they're like, "I need a bounce house next weekend. I heard you can help." That's a whole different situation than somebody messaging and everything else. So, bar none-

Nicki Hein: Totally credible.

Jesse Dolan: ... you're right there. I know, Bob, we talk a lot about, as business owners, the power of. Directing your marketing, like Nicki and Bryon are talking, for whether you want to test something out or enter into new market area geographically speaking, or even just, I know we've talked with you folks, Nicki and Bryon, in the past about certain types of inflatables that are popular for certain niches. And this is the power through your guys' story of good digital marketing. You can pinpoint what you want to go after, get ranking for it and then let the leads come in.

Bob Brennan: So, how do you go about measuring the metrics for the yard signs versus Google AdWords versus dropping business cards and some of the other things? Do you do anything call tracking or anything like that?

Bryon Hein: So, our website actually has, "How Did You Hear About Us." And then at delivery we've got two drivers. So, myself and Nicki and then our guy Josh and a guy Brandon, we always say, "Hey, when you're there..." Not everybody fills it out online. So, we just ask them, "Hey, how did you find us? Where did you find us at?" Stuff like that. And that helps us say it's either word of mouth or Google. So, we know the past year has been right.

Nicki Hein: Only thing we really, with yard signs, I mean, when we go pick up the next day, some people will be like, "Oh my gosh." We have big water slides. I call them show stoppers. They're themed. They're jaguars. They're fire. They're look like tropical. They're different themes. You drive by and you're like, "Wow." And a lot of customers say, "You had so many people stopped and took a picture of your sign." So, we can't really track that part, but I mean, we've intrigued something there. But as far as metric, I mean-

Bryon Hein: We don't really-

Nicki Hein: ... analytics we do for-

Bryon Hein: I wouldn't say.

Nicki Hein: I can do our Facebook and I could go through-

Bryon Hein: But we're not really tracking-tracking.

Nicki Hein: No, I guess I go off organic. I want to say 80% is organic for us.

Bob Brennan: So, I would just throw out, and Jesse and Sue can talk to this, because being a business owner, I will go after a certain market or we'll go after a certain market, a certain suburb we've never had before. And so we either create pages or some other dynamic that will have a separate tracking number that can actually record the call or at least that it's coming off that site. So, the point is, sometimes that information will surprise you. And I mean, it makes sense in that, don't get me wrong, you know you're doing work in that business.

If it's a new suburb, all of a sudden you're getting business in that suburb, you know it works. But I'm a huge fan of tracking numbers on different things that you might use to advertise your business because you may find out, I got to believe those yard signs are the right ticket, but you may find out they're not. Or you may be surprised that 50% of your business comes from those yard signs. And if you put a tracking phone number on there other than your standard one, you'll know that within short order. I don't know if that makes sense.

Bryon Hein: No, that makes total sense. Yeah.

Bob Brennan:

And Jesse knows how to do this and whatnot. But it is one suggestion as your business grows that you can find out, did that Facebook ad work? Because if it's your traditional number for a lot of years, I'd like, "I don't know. I think it works." And then you're throwing all that money at it. And likewise with Google Ads. There's landing pages and phone numbers you can put on that. Because as a business owner, I haven't had the greatest luck with Google Ads. I've had more luck with Jesse's efforts than Google Ads to a point where, "Here, just take my money," so to speak. The only other question I have is reviews. How are you guys doing on your reviews?

Bryon Hein: I think we do pretty decent. You can-

Nicki Hein: Our reviews, we have an automation set up with our software that every time... Was it Tuesday?

Bryon Hein: Yes, it is.

Nicki Hein: Every Tuesday after a rental, a text message and an email go out and it says, "Hey, this is Bryon and Nicki from Party Favor Event Rentals. We'd like to thank you for supporting our small business. If you could please leave us a review and let us know how we did." And then it sends them to our Google My Business. So, I don't know, 50%? Yeah, I would say 50%.

Bryon Hein: Maybe a little better. Yeah.

Nicki Hein: 50 to 60% of people do leave us reviews. And then I just now caught up on responding to those over the past winter.

Bryon Hein: Well, when they changed that format on, well, it went from GMB to GBP I believe, and it's a lot harder to stay on top of the reviews when they come in. And then all of a sudden we're like, "Oh wow, we've had five." And are we getting emails? Are we not getting emails?

Nicki Hein: No. They just go just straight to our thing and leave a review. So, I think that's why-

Bob Brennan: Yeah, I mean, my advice on reviews is, if you can, you want to shoot for a 2 to 1 over your closest competition. So, if your closest competition has 20, you want to try to get 40 or more. And the reason I say that is we've all shopped on Amazon, right?

Bryon Hein: Mm-hmm.

Bob Brennan: And we may look at a product and we can see that this guy is cheaper by, let's say 10%, but he's got two reviews. This guy's 10% more, but he's got 100, 200, 1000 reviews. You know what I mean?

Nicki Hein: Mm-hmm.

Bob Brennan: And eventually the goal would be to get so many reviews that you can get a premium for your service that is 10% more at least. And that may not seem like... And you're like, "Hey, you don't understand how competitive it is" well, if you get so busy... And by the way, Nicki, do you have the better truck of the two trucks or what's going on there? Who's got the nicer truck? That's what I want to know.

Nicki Hein: No, he's got the big guy. So, I have an open trailer and he has closed, so his is a little more powerful.

Bob Brennan: I see how it is. All right.

Bryon Hein: Well, actually, she has the truck that I've wanted for a long time. It was a Ram Big Horn with a Hemi 1500. I love the red color on it. Usually I take the bulk of everything on the weekends, or the heaviest, and so my load is usually pretty heavy. So, I didn't want to beat up a 1500, so I went up to a 2,500.

Bob Brennan: Just so she has leather seats or some other nice thing.

Bryon Hein: Well she does have the app so she could access the-

Nicki Hein: I can unlock my truck from wherever and I can [inaudible 00:30:13] from wherever. So, that's nice.

Bob Brennan: But yeah, I don't want to take up too much of your time. It's just, reviews can work for you. Not only just getting business but actually getting more than your competition. If you've mystery-called your competition and you don't necessarily have to price match, at least if you find yourself at a point where, "We're working too much here," at least try to get another 10% out of the deal because of your reviews. You don't need to explain that to people. They see it. But that's just my two cents. And then do whatever you can to measure all your efforts because it may surprise you.

Bryon Hein: And it's funny that you said something about Amazon, because I was just telling her a couple weeks ago, right?

Nicki Hein: What?

Bryon Hein: With our website. Because our option right now is Add to Cart and then you go to the checkout, correct?

Nicki Hein: Uh-huh.

Bryon Hein: So, I wanted to make it almost Amazon-ish. So, we work with a software company as well. They do our booking process. I don't know if you knew that. So, they have that backend stuff for us through them. I wanted to add Reserve Now so they don't have to go through multiple steps. They can just say, "Hey, this is what I want and I want to get off here. I want to make sure it's booked and I want to do it immediately." Because if I go to Amazon, she adds to cart. I buy now. I'm more now. She's more, "I'm going to think about it." So, I want those people who are more like me and just, "Okay, this is what I'm doing and I'm doing it now and then I'm done."

Bob Brennan: Yeah.

Nicki Hein: I would say 70% of our shoppers are moms though. And I don't know, Sue, if you do, but he just dropped me off at Aldi's today to get mustard. I'm like, "I'm going down the Aldi Find aisle. I'm shopping around." Not him. Straight there, out. So, some people like to shop around on our website and some people like to, "Oh, this is it, let's go." So, I get both. We try to do both. I don't like calling companies. If I have to call you, I'm moving on. I want to do it all by myself or do it through text. So, we have a text option that comes to everybody. If they want to talk to us, somebody can answer them. Or if they call, we have an office. Well, me for now, but she comes on in early spring and she answers all of our phone calls. So, if you want to talk to somebody, they're there. If you don't, you don't have to.

Bryon Hein: And you're there after hours. So, there's always somebody that you can speak to.

Nicki Hein: Yeah.

Sue Ginsburg: So, you're meeting your customers where they are, which is what they say to do, and you're making it very easy for people to do business with you. Not everybody does that. You do.

Bryon Hein: Yeah. We know what kind of world it is. I mean, there's so many different versions of people and we don't want to feel like we're one version. We're for everyone.

Sue Ginsburg: That's fantastic.

Elizabeth: SEOspringtraining.com is the website that you can go ahead and purchase your tickets on there. You can learn a little bit more of information of what we're doing. I am absolutely available. My contact information is on there. It's elizabeth@SEOspringtraining.com. So, you're free to email me and ask questions. I absolutely don't mind. It is April 13th is the VIP, but 14th through the 16th is the regular marketing conference. It's in Scottsdale, Arizona. We have reserved an Embassy Suites

Jesse Dolan: And it's not an event where it's just... This isn't like trade show where it's just sponsors all over, tables, people throwing stuff around and everything's brought to you by this and trying to sell you a package. It's actual people practicing SEO doing it that are up-to-date with what's happening.

Elizabeth: We bring quality value to people through our events. That's the whole purpose of it, is just because when we started out, we didn't know what we didn't know. And if I can shorten the learning curve for other people, I'm absolutely happy too. Our speakers are coming from so many different areas. We've got people from social. We've got people from super technical. We've got people from sales, people from affiliates. It's any discipline within the SEO marketing realm.

Jesse Dolan: No, it's real people doing stuff, sharing, helping, and not just a one-off deal, not just a pitch-fest to sell a bunch of stuff. You're going to come to the event, learn some stuff, get back and actually make a difference in your business.

Elizabeth: We give a lot of real world practical, actionable things that as soon as you're behind the computer you can actually utilize that information and make a difference for your clients or your business.

Jesse Dolan: So, we were talking earlier about the ability with SEO to strategically pinpoint certain geographic markets, neighborhoods, things like that. Can you guys speak to a little bit about where you're going to go with the future of the business? Where do we go from here? It's been a couple year journey. You've found that the organic, the SEO, that's great marketing. You've been doing ongoing SEO for quite some time now. You're not going to stop at any time soon. You've got some business in your backyard now, so to speak, instead of Cleveland, a little bit more far flung. What is the next stage with the SEO markets to get into niches to test out? You spoke to the power of this a little bit earlier. Where are we going to go from here in the business?

Bryon Hein: As far as our business, I think we want to branch out more radius-wise. Right now our radius is 35 mile from our home location. I was telling her, I think as far as SEO, I know there's more we can do on our end. Allowing you guys to do, I should say. And I wanted to dig into more of the more technical stuff because I know there's more you guys can get into. So, probably closer to when our season picks up or right before that or somewhere around there, we want to get more technical. Because I think Schema's a different beast and it is not really an all-in-one SEO package. So, I think it would make a difference.

Nicki Hein: And in general, I think what he wants to do... We're torn. So, now that we've been into this for a couple years, I love the vinyl side, the inflatable side. I love the bounce houses and he likes the tents. So, he would love to split off and he would love to have a tent division that's more elegant. I guess those would be higher tickets, more event style.

Bryon Hein: Like a high end.

Nicki Hein: Yeah. And that would be more widespread. So, that would open up our radius because a tent event can be up to 10 grand for a wedding. So, we might dip into that, I guess. And then the inflatable part, I guess what we wanted to see first is that we as a company could hire and know how to lead a group of people and train them to take their routes. And we have great guys that have really helped us grow our business. So, now we feel much more confident that we can expand. And then I guess that's probably at the end of this year, we'll see. We've opened up our radius a little bit more to see the numbers and what area is really serving us. And then I guess we'll start focusing on those. And then we have to go back to you guys. It's like what we did in fall and be like, "These are the cities we like." So, I guess that's the plan, is we open it up a little bit more again and then see where we go now that we really-

Bryon Hein: Well, not necessarily what we like. It's what likes us.

Nicki Hein: It is what likes us. But I like looking at my numbers and seeing, even though they're all the way up there in Westlake, those customers consistently spend $600 every rental. That's their average ticket price up there. Where in, say, Parma, their rentals are about-

Bryon Hein: 250-ish.

Nicki Hein: Yeah, 250-ish.

Bryon Hein: And the yard sizes matter there too.

Nicki Hein: So, I like Westlake.

Jesse Dolan: No particular reason. Just better clients at the end of the day. And yeah, I appreciate the answer because I think that really highlighted what I was hoping to tease out, which is that strategic power of what you want to go after and what market. I mean, you are going to attract the type of clients that you're putting yourself out there for at the end of the day. And this just shows the strategic nature that we can do with SEO. Last question I have for you guys. I'm curious, all the business owners listening, whether they're fortunate to be a great husband and wife team like yourself starting up or maybe they're going solo, whatever it is, what you've learned the last couple years with your marketing, running the business together, things like that. Is there any bit of sage advice you'd want to impart on everybody listening? Not as a commercial for Intrycks here at all. That's not at all my point or I'm not baiting you for that, but just what have you learned with where you've been, where you're going and some things you'd like to help everybody else with?

Bryon Hein: Well, she did a lot of research prior to us diving into this. So, I would say you spent three to four years just researching this, right?

Nicki Hein: Yeah.

Bryon Hein: That helped out a lot because we weren't going in blind either. We already knew some things without the experience. But I think as a husband and wife or two best friends, I think what we do best might not work for everyone, but what we do best is she does social media stuff. She does the booking process. I'll do pretty much most of our physical stuff and I'll tell her ideas like, "Hey, this is what I'd like to do with our website," or, "Hey, this is what I think we should do as far as the booking process." So, we pretty much just stay in our zones and when we delegate amongst each other, what her job is and what mine is, and we never really overstep. So, if it's her thing, I'll say it to her and if it's my thing, she'll come to me, and then we leave the website to you guys. Because that's your magic. You guys are the secret sauce really.

Jesse Dolan: Thank you.

Bryon Hein: I found you because I was really looking into, how do we do our best version of SEO to be found? And I don't know how you guys do it and I'm glad you guys are, but the way you guys hone in and just zero in like a predator, which is not a bad thing, but how you get where we want to be, and it's almost like magic. It's incredible. I love it.

Jesse Dolan: That's great. That's the most aggressive review we've ever gotten.

Bryon Hein: I feel like they did exactly what they said they were going to do. I mean, that you guys hold to your word. So, that's important to us.

Nicki Hein: I think we compromise a lot on a lot of things.

Bryon Hein: Amongst each other?

Nicki Hein: Yeah. So, I have-

Bryon Hein: I have.

Nicki Hein: Even right down to small things, like our tools. We use electric dollies because we don't want to kill our guys or ourselves. And we have six 700 pound units. So, I feel like I try to save the money. I may be cheap. I don't know. I don't try to go cheap, but there was a half the price of what we usually get for our electric dollies. And the one that we got, it was local. I don't know, we always try to go local and sometimes it burns us. And it was half the price. I'm like, "Look at that one. We're saving two grand." "Okay, let's get it." He didn't really want to. He wanted to stick with what we always get. And that was a mistake.

So, I guess I try to save money or I try to say, "Oh, we can't do that right now. We really shouldn't." Last year it's September and he's like, "We need two more units." I'm like, "No." I'm like, "We're not doing that right now. I'm not going to go and spend the money on two more units." He's like, "Nope, we're doing it and I already did it." And I'm like, "Okay." And then at the end of the year, I look back in our software it shows return on investments and sure enough it paid for ourself and then some, and now this year it's-

Sue Ginsburg: Fabulous.

Nicki Hein: ... pure profit. So, we balance each other with that.

Bryon Hein: So, like Bob said, Cleveland, we love our Browns and there's 50% of people either hate analytics and the other 50 love it. So, I'm the 50/50, but on this end, I love analytics. Everything stat-wise or anything analytical, I love all the numbers. So, I look at all that and then that's pretty much what my deciding factor is. So, like Bob, I love the analytics side. And I believe that's what you were saying earlier.

Bob Brennan: Yeah. Yeah. Because a lot of clients we work with we'll ask them, because there's that honeymoon stage or whatever you want to call it, the first month or three where we see ranking increases and stuff like that, and we're expecting to get big hugs and stuff from our clients and it's like, "Is it working?" And they're like, "I don't know. I think so. I ran a ad in the Sunday mass at church and I think that's really where it's coming from." It's hard to get business owners to focus on getting tracking numbers and stuff on things. Because you say, "Okay, well, the stupid tracking number costs quite a bit." And Nicki, you're trying to control costs and the last thing you want to do is spend more money. And you don't have to go nuts with everything, but you know what I mean.

Where you pick and choose, your gut will tell you, "Hey, I think these signs are working." You know what I mean? And you can do that. But when we go with our gut, I get in trouble personally. And it's like that's where Jesse has to, "Hey, knucklehead, do this, this, this, and this." So, it's when you can do that. One other thought, and I don't want to ramble too much here, have you guys networked with or partnered up with wedding planners? Because I'm just thinking, when somebody has a big wedding, get one of those bouncy houses in there. And here's where I think you could value-add is, I don't know what you would call it, a babysitter, you got to watch your liability or whatnot, but these people are focused on getting drunk. So, the last thing they want to do is watch their kids. This isn't like a daycare babysitter, but somebody that's this, "Throw all those sugar-jacked kids in that bouncy house and Emma will watch them while you go get your drink on and dance on and whatever the deal is." That's my big vision.

Bryon Hein: Pretty much. We got people like that that will reach out to us when they're hosting or planning something for somebody. We also have a balloon lady around us that does the same thing, but that's exactly what we tell them. At least have somebody monitoring the children, and we try not to hear anything bad. Like, "Oh, they were seeing how far they can rock the bounce house," or something. We're like, "Oh, oh. Don't tell us."

Bob Brennan: Yeah.

Nicki Hein: I think I told Sue this before. In the winter it's slow and I wanted to do local related people, cupcake places, face painters, balloon people, caterers that tend to do birthday parties. I wanted to interview them and get the low down. Like, "What's the behind the scenes of your business? What do you hate when customers do? What do you want customers..." Just the parts that customers want to hear that feel like they shouldn't hear that part, but we allow it. But it brings awareness. So, I wanted to do something like that and I don't know why I haven't., I just haven't. But I think that would be interesting just to network that way. Because all of a sudden now you have this one space where all your local favorites are. "Oh, that's the balloon people and they're talking with the bounce house people." And I don't know, I think I should probably look more into that.

Sue Ginsburg: I think it also would be-

Jesse Dolan: Yeah, and they serve the same-

Sue Ginsburg: ... fun for you, Nicki. I can see you really enjoying that. And yeah, it's engaging stuff to have people look at.

Jesse Dolan: It's same client base too, for attracting the same people with the same budgets or desires and needs. Yeah, that's a lot of synergy there. Absolutely. I think that's probably long enough. I know, Nicki, right before we started recording you were talking about your phone starting to ring and here we are compromising you for longer than we thought. So, we can put a wrap on the episode today. We definitely appreciate you two coming on to share your journey of where you started with SEO, getting frustrated, needing some help, how you bumped into us,, sharing the story, which we really appreciate on how we've been able to help improve your brand and grow your business for you. And we're excited to keep working with ya. And I don't know, maybe we'll check in next year and see where you guys are at and keep this journey going. It's been fun watching you from this end and we're happy to be working with you. Appreciate you guys coming on.

Bryon Hein: Thank you.

Nicki Hein: Yeah.

Jesse Dolan: Everybody listening, hopefully this was a great story for you to see their journey, where they're going, get some good business insights and some strategy along the way as well to help you out. Check out episode, what was it again here? 146. Like I said, Are You Getting Metrics From Your Current SEO Agency, if you want to go back to the beginning on Bryon's call-in. And yeah, until next time guys. Appreciate you coming on. We'll catch you on the next episode, everybody. Take care. Thanks, Bryon and Nicki.

Bryon Hein: Bye.

Nicki Hein: Thank you.