Local Roofer Masters They Ask, You Answer and Dominates Service Area

Bill Ragan Roofing's Journey

Many businesses in the home services sector spend heavily on traditional advertising: mailers, radio ads, billboards, local TV, and print. And while these forms of marketing are visible and well-known, they’re expensive and notoriously hard to track. But month after month, companies renew their ad spend, hoping they’ll see more than the trickle of leads they’ve seen in the past.

For years, Tennessee-based Bill Ragan Roofing was in the same boat.

Each month, they paid for outbound ads. Each month, there was little to show for it. “There really was not a whole lot of ROI,” says Taffy Ragan, chief visionary officer.

Taffy and her husband Bill had grown their company slowly over the years. Like a lot of small business owners, they both wear many hats. Bill was out on job sites and doing sales; Taffy was in charge of marketing and all office logistics.

Despite their best efforts, growth was steady but slow. They had little traffic to their website, leads were scarce, and the sales teams’ close rates were right around the industry average.

But everything changed when they came upon the book that would alter the trajectory of their business: They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan.

‘We can do this’

Bill and Taffy happened upon Marcus’s book, and the message resonated with them. It made so much sense: With the right content, they could attract would-be buyers to their website. Rather than blasting out mailers and radio ads, they could have potential customers come to them.

“I started reading the book,” recalls Bill. “I thought, ‘this is fantastic, we can do this.’ ” 

At first, the Bill Ragan team tried to follow Marcus’s framework on their own, but they quickly realized how much faster they’d move with an experienced guide.

That’s when they teamed up with IMPACT.

With IMPACT’s They Ask, You Answer Mastery program, the team had access to experts personally mentored by Marcus:

• A content trainer for blogging and SEO guidance
• A video trainer to ensure the right videos got made
• A HubSpot trainer to explain marketing automation and sales tracking
• A dedicated coach to plan training sessions and oversee strategy

The IMPACT team would only work with Bill, Taffy and company until they were up to speed, guiding their efforts and providing feedback and accountability at every turn.

Once the team had mastered They Ask, You Answer, they were ready to go forward without any more help from IMPACT.

This wasn’t an agency-client relationship that would go on forever. It was more like teacher and student, with a “graduation” date already in mind.

Building a business on personal connections

A new roof is a major expense for any homeowner. Without any first-hand knowledge, homeowners are at an information disadvantage when they call up a business. How do they know exactly what they need? How do they know they’re getting a good deal?

These hundreds of questions can all be distilled into one: How do I find a roofing contractor I can trust?

By following the principles of They Ask, You Answer, Bill Ragan’s team was able to become the trusted source for any question about roofing.

Bill and his team made a list of every fear, worry, or concern they’d ever heard from buyers in the past. Next, they started answering these questions on their website, using articles and videos. Then, they started a YouTube channel solely focused on buyer education.

The team quickly developed a whole library of content that the sales team could share with prospects to answer their questions ahead of time. 

“Based on what [a customer’s] issues are,” says Advisor Chris Bunch, “we can inform them with articles and videos that we’ve made.”

By the time Chris visits the home for an estimate, he’s representing a brand the prospect trusts.

This trust has translated into a 15% improvement in close rates.

‘We didn’t have enough salespeople to handle the call volume’

While the marketing team was producing content for customers in the sales process, they were also writing blog articles intended to bring in search volume. But instead of the fluffy content so often associated with inbound marketing, these article topics were also sourced from real customer questions.

People started finding the team’s content, and the Bill Ragan Roofing company website exploded.

Before starting with IMPACT, the company would see an average of 250 site visitors per month.

After a year of doing They Ask, You Answer, website traffic had grown steadily, topping off at nearly 10,000 visits per month. But that was nowhere near what was to come: 10,000 monthly visits in May of 2021 turned into 75,000 by October, which ballooned to 135,000 by the following May.

When things started taking off, the Ragan team could hardly keep up with demand.

Taffy remembers it clearly: “We didn’t have enough salespeople to handle the call volume,” she says. Now, they’re looking to double the size of their sales team.

“Now there are four [salespeople],” says Bill, “and we’re looking for at least four more.”

As a thriving They Ask, You Answer company,  Bill Ragan Roofing has long since abandoned radio spots and all other paid advertising. Their content generates a steady stream of well-qualified leads. In fact, they’ve got more work than they can handle. The company is growing to meet the increased demand.

“IMPACT has completely changed our company,” says Taffy. “We would not be here without me picking up that book, They Ask, You Answer.”