Mauricio Cardenal, Founder of Roofing Marketing Pros | The SMB Marketing Agency Show

In the latest episode of The SMB Marketing Agency Show, Mauricio Cardenal discusses his digital marketing journey and the trends reshaping the industry. 

Tune in to the full episode for an enlightening conversation on the ever-evolving home services marketing landscape. We've covered a few of the episode's many highlights, plus Mauricio's responses to 5 of the episode's most impactful questions.

Top episode highlights

• “The traditional digital agency is going out the window. Agencies that are offering PPC, Facebook advertising, or SEO are going to struggle to compete against those offering appointments and customers."
• “Don't get lost in the metrics and KPIs. Your clients don't care about that stuff. They care about revenue.”
• “Focus on a vertical that provides a lot of value.”
• “Agencies have to be involved in their clients' CRM. It's mandatory. Leads are not enough. You need customer acquisition."
• “The digital marketing industry as a whole is going to get more expensive.”

About Mauricio Cardenal and Roofing Marketing Pros

In just 3 years, Roofing Marketing Pros has achieved outstanding results for its clients — nearly $4 million in ad spend, 80,000 leads and calls generated, and 15,000 appointments booked. 

That success is just the start for the agency. Mauricio is currently repositioning Roofing Marketing Pros to focus on the revenue the agency generates for clients. One of Mauricio's main aspirations is to become an industry leader within the space and eventually expand into other verticals.

How did you get started? What is Roofing Marketing Pros about?

I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur ever since I got out of high school. I studied civil engineering in college because I thought that's what most people expect you to do, right? Especially during my era.

But I had that bug of starting a business. It took me a long time to actually start a company because I thought I had to learn different skills to get to that point.

I don't have any background in marketing, I didn't study marketing in school. While I worked my regular job, I studied copywriting, SEO, pay per click advertising.

And then I just decided I wanted to take the leap. I saved enough money. I quit my job. I moved out of Miami to just focus on my business for a bit.

I saw a big opportunity in roofing a few years ago. I had tried other verticals before — they weren't as successful. After I graduated college, I worked in construction for a couple of years. So I knew the industry, and I knew there was a big opportunity to disrupt the space.

When I started 3 years ago, I just had one roofing client. Since then, we've generated close to 20,000 inbound leads and $50 million in sales for our clients.

What opportunities did you see to disrupt the roofing space and where do you think those opportunities are?

The way a lot of roofing companies generate leads today is through traditional methods. The number one way is hiring salespeople to knock on doors in specific neighborhoods to sell roofs. They still do a lot of telemarketing.

They also use lead brokers, companies like HomeAdvisor, Angie's List, to buy leads. Now a lot of companies are moving into the digital space or they're hiring digital marketers, but it's still a slow adoption process.

A lot of roofing companies are now starting to do Facebook ads — but if you look at other verticals, they've been doing Facebook ads for 6 or 7 years now.

What are some things you wish the marketing industry in general would stop or start doing?

There's a big problem with the mechanics of the space. There's no barrier to entry to start a digital agency. Anybody with a laptop can start a digital agency.

What that does is muddies the field. Every single day I go on Facebook and I see a new roofing marketer popping up. And a lot of these guys don't have any experience, but they're selling their services as if they have a lot of experience.

They're using clients to test their skills. That happens a lot, and it's hard to prevent it. If you want to start an agency, you've got to be aware which vertical has untapped potential. I would just look for hitting opportunities in whatever market you're trying.

What's something you wish you would've done sooner in your agency?

One of the mistakes I made is hiring. I would've implemented the model of hiring from the book Topgrading. It's a short book and I really recommend it because I hired people and put them in the wrong position.

Topgrading is a corporate strategy that helps you get A-players. You create an employee score and employee scorecard for different positions. First you do a pre-screen interview, then you do a formal interview. And then you ask for references. Ask for past experience and if they actually produce results at whatever pace you're looking for.

What do you want Roofing Marketing Pros to be known for?

I want to be known as an industry leader generating revenue for roofing companies that are making at least $1 million in sales a year.

Unlock the full conversation in the full episode

Discover more of Mauricio's keen insights and favorite resources on business in marketing in the full episode. A big thanks to Mauricio for taking the time out of his busy schedule to chat with our growth evangelist, Philip Kuehnen. And thank you for reading, listening, and subscribing to the SMB Marketing Agency Show! 

Stay tuned for the next episode, featuring Lindsay Halsey, Co-founder of PathfinderSEO.