Deck Builder Adds $2M In Revenue Each Year ($1M → $3M → $5.2M)
Case Study: Deck Bros, deck building company in Omaha, NE
Table of Contents
The Background
In the summer of 2020, Luan Nguyen embarked on a journey to build Deck Bros from the ground up.
But when winter came, reality hit him like a ton of bricks. The initial momentum of the summer months was replaced by the harsh truth of seasonality in deck building.
Despite hustling hard, Deck Bros needed help to get ahead, and Luan started second-guessing his marketing game plan.
Listen to Luan describing his experience with Contracting Empire and Deck Bros, one of the biggest deck-building companies in Omaha.
Thousands of dollars poured into advertising and direct mailing campaigns seemed to evaporate into thin air with little tangible results.
For Luan, it felt like throwing money into a black hole.
When Luan hit us up in February 2022, he was already feeling the itch with his current marketing crew.
He wanted to level up without breaking the bank. We didn’t even plan to sell our services to Luan; we just showed him some numbers and were very transparent about where his business was at that moment.
The search volumes for deck-related keywords in Omaha were alarmingly low, signaling a need for a strategic approach tailored to his local market — something his other agency wasn’t doing.
- His competitors were dominating the local searches.
- His brand was completely unknown, and there was no competitive edge.
- His website wasn’t converting the users to opportunities as best as it could.
- His organic traffic was lacking
- He was donating money to Google for ads and wasn’t seeing the data and the results.
But fast forward to today, and Luan surpassed the 5 million/year mark in 2023, and he’s living the dream:
- He’s dominating the local search game in Omaha
- Has 5 sub-crews producing all the jobs (221 jobs in 2023!)
- Training a sales team to run sales for him
- Disneyland trips with the family once a year
- Month-long trips to his home in Vietnam
- Buying a house every year to build his passive income dream
- Flexibility to do what he wants, whenever he wants it
- Leaving a legacy for his kids
In the end, getting you leads is great – but our vision here at Contracting Empire is to get contractors to win not only in business but in life as well.
The Challenges
Low Keyword Volume
When we took Deck Bros under our wing, we faced a major roadblock: deck-related searches in Omaha were as scarce as shade in a desert. They were 6x times lower compared to those of remodeling services.
For a business, this is like fishing in a pond with few fish – you’re less likely to get a big catch. Low keyword searches indicate limited demand for your services in your area, making it harder to attract new customers and grow your business.
Poorly Spent Marketing Budget
Imagine tossing your cash into a bottomless pit, hoping for a windfall, only to watch it disappear without a trace. That’s what a poorly spent marketing budget feels like – a frustrating cycle of wasted resources and missed opportunities.
Luan’s experience mirrored that of many contractors – dabbling in various marketing tactics without a clear strategy or understanding of what works and what doesn’t.
Market Seasonality
If you run an outdoor contracting business like roofing or decking, you’re also conditioned by seasonality. Way more than interior contractors are.
As the temperature drops and winter sets in, the phone stops ringing, and the inbox goes quiet.
Since people aren’t looking to build decks in winter, it’s important to adapt the marketing strategy to counteract the effects of seasonality and create steady, predictable growth, month after month.
As you can see in the image above, while there are obvious peaks based on season, there is also an overall growth from one year to another.
That means that even when people run away from deck building, Luan still has more clients, more jobs, and more money compared to the same months of the previous year.
The Strategy
The truth is, your business isn’t alone in the market it serves. There are competitors, and their strategies will affect your outcomes. It’s essential to adopt a proactive stance toward dealing with competition.
Our first step was to give Luan a brand image he could be proud of. We’ve built the new logo, business cards, shirts & caps, yard signs, door hangers, and everything else he needed to leave his mark in both the online and offline world.
Building a system that makes you a CEO requires very intentional action. On all aspects of your business: marketing, sales, operations, and production.
Luan was open to building this machine, removing the emotion out of it, and treating it as a real business.
We were attacking brand awareness on multiple fronts: building his website while also doing brand work and creating a long-term online strategy to serve the business and set him apart in his local market.
Now, long-term strategies are useless if you run out of money. Our top priority is always to get money in the business and create free flowing cash-flow to pay the bills and reinvest back into marketing.
You make more money, you pay us more for longer – everybody wins.
Then we have this piece that hits all contractors in some form or another. I’m talking about the pride in their craftsmanship and the work they do.
The thing is that if you want to build a multi-million dollar business, you need to develop a particular set of skills and stop romanticizing about the work. You have to treat business like a business.
There’s nothing wrong with having a lifestyle business, one that just pays the bills and gets you a vacation every year. But don’t kid yourself; that’s just a glorified job with extra perks.
You don’t see the CEO of Renewal by Anderson, a billion-dollar company, going out to people’s homes and installing windows.
We created a 3-year plan that would make him the leader in his space. We built an offer that nobody else in his market could compete against, and we played the game. We’re now rolling out year 3, and we’re on pace to hit 7 million in 2024.
The Results
SEO
You know how sometimes you’re facing a question and you need a quick answer, so you pull out your phone and ask Google for relevant information?
Google does everything it can to bring you the best answer in record time, so it showcases what we call a featured snippet. It’s a highlighted search result that gives you the information you want without making you click on a page to get it.
For Deck Bros, we identified a major opportunity based on extensive keyword research: people in Omaha wanted to learn more about Trex deck problems.
We put together a comprehensive blog post that gives you solid information on the topic.
Because we use a variety of tools to let us know what your target audience wants to read, we were able to make a blog post so valuable that Google decided it deserves to be a featured snippet.
This brought a series of advantages for Deck Bros:
- Increased visibility, as featured snippets are shown even above paid ads
- More authority and credibility among homeowners
- Higher click-through rates and more traffic to Luan’s website
- Increased brand exposure and awareness
- Competitive advantage over other deck companies
And to show you one more example of brand supremacy at its finest, here is Deck Bros ranking first in the search results even when people are looking for one of the biggest competitors.
Securing this top position means that when a homeowner searches for Luan’s competitors, they are now likelier than before to consider Deck Bros the best choice. We’re intercepting potential customers, which leaves Luan with a larger market share.
377% Increase in Clicks
In the table below we can see the growth in organic traffic for deck bros even in off-season (we’re comparing the same off season months in two different years so you can see the exact growth).
We constantly adapt the strategy to combat offseason effects and help our clients pile up orders half a year ahead.
In the world of online marketing, numbers don’t lie. And for Deck Bros, those numbers tell a story of growth. And it’s all because Luan dared to trust in the power of strategic, data–driven marketing.
You need someone in your corner who knows the game inside out, who knows how to turn clicks into cash, and who won’t stop until you’re sitting pretty at the top.
It’s time to level up, break free from the pack, and claim your rightful place among the elite. With us by your side, the sky’s the limit – and we’ll make damn sure you reach it.
Crushing Local Searches
Our ultimate goal is to help you get more leads and make more money. In fact, one of the core things we believe in here at Contracting Empire is to “make more to give more.”
When we help you make more money, we empower you to make a positive impact on your family, friends, and community. You can put the money towards what matters to you.
To make it all happen, we have to get your contracting business to dominate the local search results. No homeowner is going to look for your business on the 2nd page of Google. You have to be among the top results on the first page.
In the image above, you can see how Deck Bros is on the number 1 spot in the local map pack – which is like the digital version of a busy street corner in your neighborhood – for “deck repair Omaha NE.”
Just like how the most eye-catching storefronts attract the most foot traffic, the top spots in the local map pack draw the most attention from homeowners who want your services.
Do you want to get lost in the crowd?
Or do you want to rise to the top and take control of your business?
Marketing is a marathon, and the finish line isn’t just a marker – it’s a gateway to endless possibilities. That’s how we see the journey to the top of the local map pack.
Right now, Deck Bros might be second in the race for “deck building Omaha NE,” but rest assured, we’re not stopping here. The number 1 position can alternate as Google is always testing the rankings between businesses.
Just like you plan every step in your construction project, good marketing requires strategic thinking, patience, and consistency. We’re not here to promise overnight success or magic shortcuts.
We’re here to help you create a business that stands for your legacy, an asset worth millions.
If you’re a good contractor and do amazing work that makes your clients happy, you deserve to be at the top. And we’ll do everything in our power to get you there.
What if you could see your business growth laid out before your eyes, like a blueprint to success?
That’s exactly what we have here with BrightLocal screenshots from January 2022 to August 2022 for Deck Bros.
The green dots mean that the business is shown on the first page and gets the most exposure. Orange represents places 4-10, and red is 11+.
In January, before we joined forces, Deck Bros’ map on BrightLocal was mostly red with a few orange spots and just one lonely green dot. He was only ranking in the top 3 search results in one very limited area.
But fast forward to August 2022, just seven months into our SEO partnership; the transformation is nothing short of remarkable. The map is now a landscape of vibrant greens, signaling not just growth but dominance in the areas Deck Bros serves.
Even in the short span from January to February 2022, you can witness significant progress in terms of rankings. It’s like laying the foundation for a building and watching it rise floor by floor.
Record-Breaking Leads and Revenue Growth
Each month, we brought Deck Bros closer and closer to towering over their competitors.
In this cutthroat world of contracting, it’s all too easy to get lost in the shuffle.
But not with us. We play the long game.
While others might promise quick fixes and overnight success, we’re in it for the long haul.
Google’s algorithms are constantly evolving, and your competitors are always fighting for that top position. If you want to remain visible, relevant, and competitive, you need to keep feeding the engine that got you there in the first place: marketing.
Stay proactive.
Stay engaged.
Invest in marketing on a constant.
We work with numbers here and make all our decisions based on what we see. We don’t rely on guesswork or empty promises; every decision we make is grounded in data.
Notice how leads are coming in from multiple channels?
That’s the power of a well-rounded marketing strategy.
We’re casting a wide net and putting all these marketing systems together to create a well-oiled machine that will fill your calendars and your bank account.
In 2023, we brought Luan $2.7 million in revenue just from all the organic traffic systems we’ve created for him. This is the true essence of local marketing.
- Not merely appearing but dominating search results.
- Not just drawing leads but transforming them into steadfast, paying customers.
- Not merely expanding your business but turning it into a revenue-generating machine.
Here’s what Deck Bros did with advertising in 2023…
They invested in Google Ads and Facebook Ads, spending a total of $61,171. Those ads pulled in over $2.5 million in revenue from sold jobs.
That’s the power of targeted advertising done right.
Sure, there’s a bit of a learning curve when it comes to ads. You might not see instant results, and that’s okay. Algorithms need time to work their magic, and data needs time to paint the full picture.
Consistency is key.
We refine our approach. We tweak the campaigns. We track the data.
The payoff is worth it.
And this is not just a one-time fluke.
Month after month, Deck Bros is bringing in leads like clockwork. That kind of consistency isn’t easy to come by, but with the right marketing partner, it’s more than possible.
Other notable actions and results
We keep saying over and over again how you need to play your part if you want your business to thrive. Even when we do everything we can to harness all the digital power and give you leverage above your competition, you still have to crush it offline.
Luan understood the assignment.
He reached out to us for a custom-made digital banner to showcase at one of the local events he sponsored, and also started a podcast!
- That’s how you build brand awareness.
- That’s how you let your community know you care.
- That’s how you draw in word-of-mouth leads.
- Coupling great marketing with excellent owner involvement, Deck Bros is going to make more than $7M this year.
Luan is, without a doubt, our biggest fan. He always recommends us to other contractors because he sees the value in everything we do for him constantly.
The truth is that Luan’s leads come from multiple channels and consistent efforts we make on all fronts: both organic and paid. All the leads are helping him make more and more millions in revenue every year.
Key Takeaways
When you put all this together, what do you get?
- 221 completed jobs in 2023
- Local map pack domination for all Deck Bros services
- Ranking #1 in search results for a year straight
- $5.2 million in total sales in 2023
The goal for 2024?
$7,000,000+ in revenue for Deck Bros.
If it’s possible for a service with low search volume, it’s highly likely possible for you, too.
If you want to call the shots, build something incredible, and rake in the kind of dough that says, “Screw you, I made it.”… you’re closer than you think.
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