Why Marketing for Small Waste Companies Cannot be Managed by a “Common Marketing Agency”

In the past few days, I was visiting several Facebook Groups of small waste company owners and junk removals, and scrolling down the pages, I found several posts about guys promoting their “lead generation services” or their “ability to create websites”. 

What attracted my curiosity was the fact that under these posts, many comments were saying “Interested”, “I’ve sent you a DM,” or “Please Contact me”.

My curiosity grew seeing these comments.

Indeed, as you can see here, receiving these types of comments is uncommon. 

I decided to check their pages.

Their pages, mainly Facebook pages, were built one or three months before the publication of their post on the group.

But that’s not all.

The largest part of them didn’t have a website but only a FB page or a redirect to UpWork or something similar.

Something that makes me strange is that if you have to outsource a part so important of your business, the first thing to do is to find websites, articles, news, magazines, reviews, or something similar that creates trust in the company and people behind the service.

By the way, I can understand that many people don’t know the importance of marketing for their companies… and many close their doors after 2-5 years.

Anyway, I continued to check what I saw and contacted a few of them, asking about their service.

I scheduled a few meetings.

One didn’t participate, saying that its “marketing program” didn’t have the need to meet and that to run the entire service, I should have completed a document that he forwarded by email. (Crazy).

I joined the other three that accepted.

Participating in the first one, I met a guy who was launching his service (that is what he told me) and that he found the niche interesting. When I asked him what his experience or knowledge of the field was, he replied that he learned that all the markets are the same from a marketing perspective. And he didn’t yet work with any business in the field. But he strongly affirmed that he would help us achieve $ 50K extra a month.

He worried me.

Over ten years ago, several gurus said that all markets are the same… Fortunately for us, these gurus right now are not yet gurus. 

Indeed, every single market has specified.

Anyway, I asked him what his plan was and what plans he applied in the past.

He replied that his plan is simple: paid ads on Google, FB, and Instagram and ads on TikTok that are “cheaper.”

OMG!

How is that possible?

We are talking about marketing.

I asked him if a strategy considered the size of the market or the problems perceived in the market to build something that makes a difference.

He watched me.

His eyes were searching for something…

A few seconds later, he replied: obviously, there is a strategy, but I can’t unveil it during this first meeting.

I closed the call, saying that I had to reflect on it.

I started asking myself many questions about how small waste owners can trust someone who demonstrates that he doesn’t have experience in the field and thinks that all the markets are the same…

When I finished my University degree in Toxicological Chemistry, I was only sure that "I know that I know nothing" (as Socrates said).

For that, I started to study more, taking part in several master courses focused on the fantastic field of Waste Management and Treatment…

But let’s jump on the other meeting.

My second meeting was with a guy who didn’t appear in the video.

I asked him if he could turn the camera on, and he replied that, unfortunately, his camera decided to don’t work the morning of our meeting.

I don’t know if it was true, but how can you trust someone who doesn’t show up in the video in front of you?

I was ready to close the call but decided to proceed.

I defined myself as the owner of a junk removal business, and I asked him what strategy he suggested to acquire more clients.

He asked me if I had a website and if it was a source of clients.

I replied that I have a website that receives a few weekly visits.

He promptly replied that the website had an SEO problem, and he started pitching the importance of implementing SEO to acquire clients from the website. I replied that SEO requires a lot of time to offer results. he told me that that depends, but he didn’t tell me from what.

He didn’t ask if my website has a form or not.

He didn’t ask if the website was built using a direct-response marketing approach…

After his pitch about SEO, he asked me about our presence on social media.

I replied by saying that we use Instagram and FB and that, occasionally, I publish some videos on TikTok. 

He replied, saying that he could also run paid ads on these platforms and that they perform very well. I asked him about his experience with the ads on these platforms for similar businesses. He replied immediately, “I have a book of case histories.” I immediately asked if all of them were in waste management, and he replied, “Some of them.”…

Then I asked him what was the average monthly budget to consider for this type of ad. He replied that he couldn’t share the information because it is connected with the agreements he has in place with his clients. Okay, then I asked him what is the average cost per lead. 

I started saying $ 2,00…

I replied, “Another one told me $ 10,00.” Then he corrected himself, saying, “$5 - $7”…

It demonstrated that he was uncomfortable with the cost per lead.

BTW.

I asked him what I had to do to launch the service.

He told me that the process is structured with two calls to identify the potential customer I want to target, and after that, he will send me the links to the campaigns he is launching every week. He added that if I want to add the SEO, he can offer me a very good price…

Another great case…

OMG, for the second time…

But the best is yet to come.

I joined the meeting with the last one.

He was the smartest that I found… in his opinion…

I joined the meeting with a young guy, probably 20-24. It doesn’t matter.

I introduced myself as the owner of a small waste company that collects electric waste. He watched me and said, “Great, that’s interesting. Even one of my friends does the same, and starting from his experience, I’ve crafted a blueprint that you should follow”.

I stopped him, saying that I don’t want something crafted for others, and he replied that his blueprint covers all the markets. 

I stopped him again, saying I was searching for a solution Done For You.

He replied, “Why do you want to waste money? You don’t need someone to manage it for you. To follow my blueprint, you need only 2 hours a day.” 

I said, “I need a done for you because I don’t have 2 hours a day to invest in studying and applying marketing. I’ve got to manage the company and talk with the existing clients.”.

He interrupted me, saying, “You can also invest 1 hour daily. It requires more time, but you’ll obtain the desired results.”

Okay, but what results are you talking about?

Indeed, he didn’t ask me anything about my business.

He continued with his sales pitch about his blueprint…

Long Story short, he was trying to sell me a damn blueprint for $ 6,000.

OMG…

That’s the reality.

And for that, a lot of you are closing.

For that, many of your companies are struggling with the rise of the costs…

And every single day is becoming worse…

It’s normally if you waste money following the bullshits people like the ones I met want to sell you.

The market is complex, where a typical marketing agency or a common digital marketer like the ones I met cannot support you and your company.

They can’t because they don’t know the regulations.

They can’t because they don’t know the rules of the market.

They can’t because they offer a service not built around your needs but a one-to-more service.

What types of results can you obtain?

0!

ZERO!

No Results!

Seeing all these marketers in our field worries me about you and your businesses.

Indeed, the largest part of you thinks that marketing is ads.

It isn’t.

Marketing is a complex process that starts analyzing the market where you are operating (region, area, state, country, etc.) and identifies the best platform (online or offline) to attract the audience that fits your service. 

You’re wasting your company's money, time, and reputation without creating the complete marketing process.

Indeed, you spend 5-10 times more to acquire a single lead.

You spend 2-4 times more for an unprofessional service than a professional one.

You spend 8-10 times more time restoring the bad reputation on platforms created by unprofessional people.

Seeing all these extra costs, you’ll be out of business when you start to think about changing everything…

Thinking about that, I’ve launched a series of Webinars with National Waste And Recycling to educate you about Marketing and how it can solve your market problems. 

It doesn’t matter if you decide to work with me and my Marketing4Waste agency or if you find someone to help you follow what I’ll teach you.

What is important is that you’ll use the right approach to marketing, seeing it as a process like the others you implemented in your company.

See you on October 12th at 1:00 PM EST for the first one of these webinars.

Here is the link to register you: Webinar NWRA October 12th.

Take care of your company by learning what your marketing should do for you.

We'll talk soon.

All the best

Sam

Founder of Marketing4Waste

P.S.: I've just crafted a guide on adding predictability to your small waste business (Waste Hauler, Junk Removal, Waste Treatment) and thriving. You can download it by clicking HERE.