The Data Bridge Blog

Proven lead generation for repair contractors and associated pros

kellyolcott — Tue, 25 May 2010 16:53:42 +0000

Leads are one of the most important keys to a successful business. The type and quality of lead is equally important.

If you are a service company that provides renovations, maintenance or repairs to a commercial property this is an email that you should take time to review. I have a proven track record of successfully implementing a lead generation system for over 30 companies in over 15 major markets across the United States. Click here to review comments from my clients. or go to my Linked In profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyolcott or Facebook

My system has evolved over the course of the last five years. I have clients that have been using my system for going on five years straight. I also use my system for my personal contracting repair business in Alabama, Georgia and Washington with solid success.

To summarize - I have personally built relationships lasting five plus years with commercial repair and service contractors in all major markets across the country. These relationships have proven successful.

I am currently offering a live 1/HR overview of how to maximize your marketing dollars using

Email Marketing
Surveys
Facebook and Linked In (Social Networking)

Filed under: Client Testimonials - Comments, Employees, Marketing, Sales, Technology

Testimonials are important

kellyolcott — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:39:44 +0000

There is no better way to prove that a system works than testimonials from people that pay for and use it.

“I have worked with Kelly on several occasions and Kelly has provided excellent service and expertise that has contributed to the success of our company.” February 12, 2010

Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert

Max Aronow SMI Signs – Washington DC
hired Kelly as a Business Consultant in 2006, and hired Kelly more than once

“Kelly is fantastic with Constant Contact and really help launch my companies email marketing program. I recommend Kelly highly.” February 11, 2010

Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, On Time

Mark Grubb Aqua Wash DE
hired Kelly as a Marketing Consultant in 2009

“I received an email from Kelly stating that he could generate leads for my concrete repair and coatings company. I was skeptical but took a look at his references and they were good. I decided to give him a try. He walked me through the process step by step so I could understand how the program works. We released one campaign that generated five quality leads that same day. I must say I’m quite impressed and plan to follow his plan. Great job Kelly” January 23, 2010

Top qualities: Good Value, High Integrity, Creative

Kenny Cardelli Cardelli Industries Phoenix, Arizona
hired Kelly as a Business Consultant in 2010

“Kelly’s system really works after the first email campaign went out I had four leads within minutes. Great job Kelly.” January 20, 2010

Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Expert

Deo Bove Interstate Power Washing New Jersey
hired Kelly as a email marketing in 2010

“We have had great results from Kelly’s marketing services! Time and money well spent.” January 20, 2010

Top qualities: Great Results, Good Value, On Time

M Hicks – Dinyari Hicks Dinyari Roofing - San Jose, CA
hired Kelly as a Marketing in 2010

“I have appreciated Kelly’s creativity to stay ahead of the trend while providing a exceptional service to our company Somerset Painting and Commercial Services. With his prompt service he has help us keep our head above water in this tough economy. I would recommend him in any venture he suggests to you.” January 13, 2010

Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, Good Value

Tim Rottman Somerset Painting – Detroit, MI
hired Kelly as a Business Consultant in 2006, and hired Kelly more than once

“This letter is my personal recommendation for Kelly Olcott and his awesome team at the Data Bridge. Kelly is a take-charge person who is able to present creative ideas and communicate the benefits of effective online marketing. He has successfully developed several marketing plans for our company that have resulted in increased revenue year after year. We have seen an increase in profits that exceeded our expectations. The new revenue was a direct result of the plans implemented by Kelly and his team of experts at the Data Bridge. Though Kelly was an asset to our marketing efforts, Kelly was also extraordinarily helpful in other areas both online and offine in the marketing of our company. I highly recommend Kelly and the Data Bridge to anyone looking to expand their business and quickly. Sincerely, Steve Slepcevic Paramount Disaster Recovery, Inc.” January 12, 2010

Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Creative

Steve Slepcevic Paramount Disaster Recovery - Los Angeles, CA
hired Kelly as a IT Consultant in 2006, and hired Kelly more than once

“I had first found out about Kelly and his company The Data Bridge from one of our business consultants. We were beginning to expand our company into different markets and while reviewing our marketing plan with our consultant he had recommended Kelly to assist us with our marketing efforts in regard to email direct marketing. While I was visiting a customer in Florida I had contacted Kelly who immediately returned my call and while I was waiting for my plane, Kelly took about 30 minutes to go over a PowerPoint Presentation to review his service offering. I was immediately impressed and had signed up for his service on the spot. Since that original meeting in January 2008, we have been working with Kelly and The Data Bridge in an exclusive relationship for our email direct marketing. With our company opening a new office in Baltimore MD we look at Kelly and The Data Bridge as a “Partner” in our marketing program, and more importantly, our future success.” January 12, 2010

Top qualities: Great Results, Good Value, Creative

Steven Brahney New Jersey
hired Kelly as a Marketing in 2008

“Kelly has worked diligently to market my services throughout the Tri-State area. I do not have the time, as I spend my days in the field. Kelly has provided my business with great value and exposure, and it is something I never would have accomplished on my own.” January 7, 2010

Top qualities: Expert, Good Value, High Integrity

joshua ostrin New Jersey
hired Kelly as a Powerwashing in 2006, and hired Kelly more than once

“We have been working with the Databridge a little over two years now. Their contact lists, and the leads generated from them, are really first rate. We look forward to many more years partnering with them. Regards, Chuck McCrimmon President Dakota Evans Restoration, Inc.” December 15, 2009

Top qualities: Great Results, Good Value, Creative

Chuck McCrimmon Dakota Evans Restoration Chicago, IL
hired Kelly as a Marketing in 2007

“Kelly is definitely one of the top marketers in the industry. I have worked for Kelly of and on for the last 3 years and he is an innovator in new media marketing. He is constantly coming up with new ideas and maintains an awesome track record with internet and new media marketing and lead generation. Anyone looking to increase sales and generate leads can depend on Kelly to deliver.” December 11, 2009

Walker Holland, Senior Web Applications Developer, The Data Bridge
reported to Kelly at The Data Bridge and Waterproofing Services

“Kelly is a true entrepreneur and really understands marketing from a results-oriented perspective. If you are in the construction industry, Kelly will help you think in new and powerful ways about marketing your services.” December 10, 2009

Elizabeth Barbaree-Tasker, Owner / Consultant, Tasker, LLC
was with another company when working with Kelly at The Data Bridge and Waterproofing Services

“I highly recommend Kelly and his staff at The Data Bridge. They are not only creative, their ideas and concepts produce results. We have been very pleased with the email marketing campaigns we have worked on with Kelly. During this challenging time the “out-of -the-box” thinking has produced a nice return on investment and we have been able to convert the opportunities to jobs and revenue. Great job!” December 7, 2009

Top qualities: Great Results, Good Value, High Integrity

Joe Brindle Custom Coating Charlotte, NC
hired Kelly as a marketing and web services in 2008, and hired Kelly more than once

“When it comes to deciding how to spend marketing/advertising dollars, it’s all about “bang for the buck.” For each dollar you spend, how much can you expect in increased revenues? The Data Bridge offers superb value compared with other advertising alternatives. “Traditional” sorts of advetising like the Yellow Pages, print display advertising or direct mail seem to me quite obsolete. That’s just one opinion, but we have decided to drop nearly all such advertising because it is so darn expensive. They may provide some results, but the ratio of revenues-to-dollars-spent is not good enough. What we like is something that is extremely targeted and cheap! The Data Bridge offers us that. There are no printing costs, no design costs, no postage. We get our message out to very targeted recipients quickly and inexpensively. Another nice thing we’ve noticed about electronic (i.e. email) marketing is that there is a multiplier effect because people will forward our message to somebody else (or several people) within their organization. This is especially true with property managers. We’ve gotten tons of bids requests from people who were not the original target of our campaign. When Kelly approached me in 2007 about his concept, I treated it like I treat most (reasonable) advertising strategies. Let’s give it a shot, and if it works we’ll stick with it. If it doesn’t, we’ll drop it. The fact that we’re still working with The Data Bridge three years on should be the best testimony we could give.” December 5, 2009

Top qualities: Great Results, Personable, Good Value

Tom Merry Rainier Asphalt – Seattle , WA
hired Kelly as a IT Consultant in 2007

“Kelly has spearheaded multiple email marketing campaigns for my coaching practice that has produced multiple qualified prospects and a handful of valuable clients. Kelly understands email marketing for contractors far better than anyone else my business partner and I have investigated.” December 4, 2009

Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, Good Value

Ron Roberts Kansas City, KS
hired Kelly as a Marketing in 2008, and hired Kelly more than once

“kelly olcott is a highly knowledgable and intelligent marketing agent that i have used for two contracting companies with great results. we are a data bridge client for as long as we stay in business.” December 2, 2009

Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, Creative

Paul Moore Seattle, WA Commercial Waterproofing and Restoration
hired Kelly as a marketing in 2005, and hired Kelly more than once

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Filed under: Employees

Why my email marketing works

kellyolcott — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:03:38 +0000

Email marketing starts with a targeted list. You have to start with a list, big or small. I started building lists from the internet about four years ago. Since I was still in the contracting business, I started building lists of people that I could potentially sell services to. (Building Owners, Hospital Managers, Property Managers, Developers, etc.) I found that the internet provided a wealth of information about these people. I have been compiling that information into my own list (Sql database) for the past four years.

I started by sending emails (example) to these people on my list for my commercial waterproofing company in Atlanta, GA. The email campaigns did well.

I realized that this same method would work in other markets around the country. I began adding all the contacts that I could find in other markets around the country to my list. Once a customer list was compiled in a new market, I started seeking contractors local to that area to work with. We planned to create emails like the example provided and send them to the list that we had already created as a service. We compiled a list of contractors in other markets and sent them a solicitation. (example) . The solicitation produced interested contractors. We started out with Amatex Power Washing in New Jersey. I am proud to say that after 4 years Amatex is still a customer. See testimonial from Josh at Amatex.

I currently have companies that I work with in Florida, Texas, California, Arizona, Michigan, Kansas, Delaware, North Carolina, New Jersey, Washington and Illinois. Review testimonials by clicking here.

In the beginning I was creating an email in Word and sending it out of Microsoft Outlook. This process was time consuming but was the only way we knew how to get the emails out. We were definately maxing out our Bellsouth account.

Since then I have developed and integrated more sophisticated tools to deliver the emails and measure the results.

Email marketing provides information that no other media can provide.

Open and click tracking lets you see who received and opened your emails, and what links they clicked.

I have used this information to make my system work the best for me and my clients. Email marketing is something that all business owners should use.

You can contact me for help getting set up at 404-606-4122 or kelly@thedatabridge.com . If you are a do it your self person, get a free trial email marketing account by clicking here.

Posted in Employees

Bag of money

kellyolcott — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:01:37 +0000

Sometimes I feel like I am walking around with a bag of money that I can’t give away. I have long time contractor clients that are writing provocative detailed testimonials about my email marketing system and most contractor’s still seem scared to look. See for yourself on my linked in profile – http://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyolcott

Can anyone provide me with feedback? What is the problem. If something works so well then why won’t many people try it?

Posted in Employees

Bag of money

kellyolcott — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:01:36 +0000

Can anyone provide me with feedback? What is the problem. If something works so well then why won’t many people try it?

Posted in Employees

Making Email Marketing Work

kellyolcott — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:23:58 +0000

Over the last four years I have studied how to make email marketing work for contracting businesses. Email marketing provides statistics that other forms of marketing can’t provide. If an email marketing campaign is set up correctly it can tell you how many emails were opened. This number is critical when choosing the subject line of your email. You can use two subject lines and split your list to test which subject line gets the most opens. The more your email is opened the higher the chance of getting a sale or a lead. The next statistic that email marketing provides that no other media provides is link tracking. When set up correctly your email will have links that enable the recipient to link to areas on your web site. If you don’t have a web site , get one before you try email marketing. You can build your own for free using Microsoft Office Live. When a recipient clicks on a link from your campaign that statistic is recorded so you can analyze what links are clicked on the most. This enables you to predict where to place your links.

Additionally you can track if your email is opened more than once and if links are clicked more than once by the same recipient. There is no other media that can provide this.

I must say that it is very frustrating to have a system that works so well for so little money and not be able to get others to jump right on board. What in the hell is the problem? Please tell me.

What about spam? – Of course there are people who are just totally against spam. They actually get mad when they receive an unsolicited email. Fact is, it’s a pretty small group of people in the grand scheme of things. All of your emails should contain an opt out link to be Can Spam compliant. If set up correctly when a recipient opts out of your marketing that contact can’t be added back to your list at any future date. Here is what happens. Your first few emails filter out the people who don’t want or can’t use what you are offering. They will opt out then you are working with a clean list. The people who may use your product or service in the future will allow your email to pass through their inbox until they need to buy. They have looked at your website and know what you offer and are comfortable contacting you. Your periodic email follow-up has built their confidence in you subconsciously. The prospect will give you the opportunity when the time comes.

If you don’t want to spam, you can start off with a small list. All of your prospects have an email address. Get permission from them to send info about your company. Build your list and keep in touch via email.

The email marketing program that I use is Constant Contact. I make money off helping people get set up.

Set up an account under my affiliate link and I will help you all I can. By the way setting up account requires no credit card info. So really the only risk is not setting up an account. Click here to get started.

Posted in Employees

Why should I upgrade my browser?

David Harris — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:40:28 +0000

Sometimes I wonder how many people really know how many browsers there actually are out there browsing the web. Most people know Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and just recently Google Chrome, but there are actually many, many browsers in use on the Internet today. Check this wikipedia page out; it has a great breakdown of today’s web browsers and their differences. I’ll reiterate some stuff listed on that wiki page here: Wikipedia shows Internet Explorer (IE) as the leader of the pack with a 65% share of the total number of web users (as of August 2009). Number two being Firefox with about 25% of today’s world wide web users which is way up from when Firefox first came out. Safari and Chrome share about 5% and the final 5% goes to the other browsers you’ve probably never heard of (click here for a list). When I say 65% of today’s web users use IE that actually means some of those people are using IE version 6, some are using IE version 7, and some are using IE version 8. Same thing for Firefox.

Windows users have to put up with a lot when Microsoft releases a new version of their products, and IE is certainly no exception. Firefox and Safari users seem to consider IE the Devil’s browser. Just watch this video and you’ll see what I’m talking about. They go on and on about how you’ve made the right choice as if your browser preference is determining the fate of the free world. I know it’s just marketing, and I guess it’s a very good piece of marketing, but I still can’t help being a bit creeped out by the video. IE users are a tough bunch of people having to take all the big brother crap from Mac and Linux users. Pretty soon there will be Google OS users to add to the pot.

I myself actually use three browsers. IE for some business stuff, Firefox for some other business stuff, and Chrome for managing my personal email that’s on gmail. I usually use Chrome for doing anything with Google Docs because I’m guessing their stuff would run faster in their browser (and look the best as well) but that is just a guess. Sometimes when I want to be logged into the same system as two different accounts I just log in on IE for one user account and Firefox for the other. My opinion is that every browser has some good points and some bad. IE still has a lot of compliance issues when it comes to the standards that web programming languages are based on. Firefox has a lot of weird little bugs (I need to provide some proof of this but I can’t remember… what I’ll start doing is from now on, everytime I see one of these things, I’ll jot it down and add it either to this post or as a comment). Chrome can do some really crazy formatting problems but this could be due to IE and Firefox being very lax in their W3c standards compliance. W3C is the committee that makes all the decisions about the formatting standards used on the web today. You can read more about them here.

But I digress, my point here is to convince any users out there trying to stick with an older version of some browser albeit IE, Firefox, Cello, Opera, etc. that you really need to upgrade. If you are currently trying to stick with IE7 because you think IE8 isn’t stable enough please upgrade. IE7 has very buggy CSS support. If you think IE6 has what you need so why bother then please note that IE6 does not have PNG support and is very unsecure.

The basic reasons you should upgrade your browser are support for newer web technologies, security, and you not upgrading is costing you money because web designers like me have to charge more for what we do because we have to spend more time writing code for your old antiquated browser when we could do the same thing twice as fast creating code with newer technologies. Newer web technologies like support newer versions of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) which allow web developers to make websites that can be changed quickly. A website created with CSS will can be redesigned in a matter of hours, not days. Security is obvious; you remember the phishing thing that IE put out? Not available until IE7. Read about the security features of IE8.

So my point is, upgrade your browser as soon as your able to do so, no matter what any IT guy you know says. Get on board as quickly as possible and get involved with the beta testing if you can. You’ll end up with a better appreciation of the web, a more secure browsing experience, and a web developer that’s eager to work for you. Of course, if you upgrade as quickly as possible, when everyone else finally upgrades because they’ll have to anyway, you’ll be a more valuable employee and that will make any trouble you have in the beginning quite worth the effort.

Posted in Employees

Gut Check Time

kellyolcott — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:46:13 +0000

This is purely my opinion, but I think that many people who were on easy street through the 90′s and much of 2000′s are experiencing a bit of a gut check . Gut checks are a good thing because it weeds out the weak. A gut check is usually uncomfortable. I have just recently started training at an MMA gym here in Birmingham. It was a gut check prior to showing up at the first practice. Walking into a gym with the intent of fighting as competition can be a bit intimidating at first. I have been going now for a few weeks and have settled in to learning the sport. The reason I mention this is because it relates greatly to new technologies and Internet marketing. People choose not to try new technologies because they don’t know what to expect or don’t have enough pain yet to investigate further. Could this be the case for you? As an entrepreneur I have always considered myself to be very open minded and interested in learning new ways that I may propel business in a positive direction. If you are at a place in your business where it is gut check time, I would like the opportunity to see if my company can help you out. Tell me about any gut checks that you may be experiencing. Maybe we can help one another out.

Posted in Employees, Sales Tagged: Sales

Search Engine Optimization

David Harris — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:43:51 +0000

This is probably the single most requested item when I first speak with someone about web design. Over the past few months every new customer of ours has requested that their new web pages be optimized for search engine visibility. This isn’t the most difficult thing in the world of web design to do, but real search engine placement doesn’t happen over night.

Step right up folks, and get yer red hot SEO services right here!

Search Engine Optimization is a relatively new industry compared to construction or data processing in general. I truly believe that you have a lot companies out there that aren’t being honest about what SEO actually is and instead are basically using people’s lack of knowledge against them. While this may be a moral issue and I’m sure you could somehow argue that people who don’t take the time to educate themselves deserve any consquences they get, it’s just not good business to do this. It’s bad for everyone involved and hopefully these people are found and yelped to death.

Search Engine Optimization is a constant, ongoing, proactive process, and one that any website owner needs to be aggresive about, meaning you should always have something going on to promote your website so that your website’s search ranking improves. My point here is that if you as a business owner adopt a SEO plan of action and stick to that plan your website will slowly gain more of a footing within the major search engines, and the keyword (no pun intended) is slowly. You will not have a flood of new internet traffic overnight. A web search engine like google or yahoo can take as long as three months to index your page changes and their behavior is still a mystery to people. In the long run, SEO can generate an enourmous return of investment, but do not look to SEO as some kind of silver bullet for you to reach your sales goals.

Posted in Technology Tagged: SEO, Web Design

The 10 Biggest Mistakes Contractors Make

kellyolcott — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:20:59 +0000

I have a great friend Ron Roberts that is a business coach for contractors. Ron brings a wealth of knowledge about the contracting business that can help make a contractors life easier. The following is the abbreviated form of The 10 Biggest Mistakes Contractors Make developed by Ron .

Mistake #1: Not selling aggressively

Mistake #2: Not having an effective lead generation system

Mistake #3: Working for bad clients

Mistake #4: Signing bad contracts

Mistake #5: Not Having a Large Credit Line

Mistake #6: Failing to Hold Field Leaders Accountable

Mistake #7: Not Knowing the Cost of Work

Mistake #8: Accepting High Turnover

Mistake #9: Pursuing a Foolish Strategy

Mistake #10: Running the Business Without a Plan

You can get great detail about each of these mistakes at http://www.filthyrichcontractor.com/10BMCMReport.html

Posted in Client Testimonials - Comments, Employees, Marketing, Sales, Technology