Paul Benton: If you’re a plumber or a friend in the trades, you’re in the right place. I’m speaking today with Shannon Kinney, founder of Dream Local Digital, about AI, social media, and how smart business people are thinking about marketing today. Shannon, welcome.

Shannon Kinney: Thank you.

Paul Benton: You founded Dream Local Digital 16 years ago and worked with 70,000 businesses along the way. Tell us how has marketing changed?

Shannon Kinney: It’s been such a ride. You know, there are several key things that are really very different in marketing today, um, that I think are really important for your listeners to know about. is. Always on an omnichannel, meaning people are seeing you on social media or email or search engine, and so you’re being seen in a variety of places all of the time. Now, marketing is much more data driven. Than it was before. Uh, which is exciting for business owners because there’s so much more that we can track report on, optimize, but it can at times feel overwhelming to know which are the right metrics. Um, marketing is very visual. And video first even. Um, and whether it’s video, testimonials, video of you on a job site, a picture of a before and after VI visuals really have to become a critical part of your marketing.

And I know it’s hard when people are on a job site to think, oh, now I’ve gotta grab pictures. But they’re so important, um, to, to your marketing. And that’s because. Another change is marketing is very trust focused. You know, people want to have an authentic relationship with someone, especially someone that’s coming into their home or into their business. And, uh, visuals and videos and really good reviews and a review strategy or how you can help with that. And then finally, you know, AI is enhancing a lot of marketing for businesses. And so that’s, uh, changing things even on a daily basis right now.

Paul Benton: That’s awesome. And before we drill down and you’ll tell us a little bit more about the importance of photos, especially using authentic and real photos and not stock photography, that’s so 10 years ago you are also an entrepreneur and a business. Founders so you can speak owner to owner, to our audience.

Um, along the way, you’ve built a great success. Tell us what what inspired you to found Dream local, uh, decade and a half ago, and tell us what you’ve learned along the way.

Shannon Kinney: Thank you. I will, I, I can say I really, um, I. Empathize with the clients I work with because owning a business is never an easy feat for anyone. And I was really inspired to start Dream Local Digital because I, I had helped many big companies, including Google and eBay and Microsoft really do well. the internet to change their businesses, and I, I wanted to really start working with smaller businesses to, to help them learn how to manage these tools. And when I started the business, I thought, oh, it’ll just be a. A short time period where people really need help figuring this out. But yet it keeps changing and changing and it’s overwhelming being a business owner and keeping up with it.

So that was really the beginning of, uh, dream Local and it continues to inspire me and our team today. You know, every time we help a small business really start growing and, and getting new leads and expanding their businesses, it’s just such a gratifying feeling.

Paul Benton: What’s hard that a lot of businesses are facing is where do they. Where does a small business owner start? Um, where should they be investing in their marketing? There are lead gen channels, there’s SEO and, and the like. Um, looking back and what you’ve accomplished, what is the single best marketing investment you’ve made, um, in your business that might be an, uh, of inspiration to a plumbing company?

Starting out now?

Shannon Kinney: I so can empathize there. While it’s exciting that businesses can do all of these different things, you don’t have to like buy a TV ad anymore to start a business or I. A Yellow Pages ad that’s really expensive. It’s exciting that you have all these opportunities, but it is overwhelming and none of us, when we’re starting our own businesses have unlimited budgets to do every single thing under the sun.

And I totally get that. And the thing, um, while I wish that I had some. Advanced marketing tactic. That was the answer to this question. The answer is something everyone can do, which is I really, um, boots, I was bootstrapping and I established myself as a thought leader. I shared my knowledge regularly. I used social media and tools to do that. I traveled, I gave. Free set webinars and sessions, uh, all over the us. Um, and I did that through a partner network, which is, you know, a unique thing to dream local digital. But if I was starting a plumbing company or if I were in the shoes of your audience right now, it was a lot of hustle. Chambers of commerce meetings, um, networking meetings, um, anything that I could do to sort of be a resource.

You know, I just thought of myself as many people can I serve today, even if they’re not paying me yet. Like, how many people can I serve who will see my face and think of me when they need help? And that’s really where I started. And um, you know, I think doing that with content marketing on social media or. On a website or in a networking group is some of the best ways to get started. And for those that have children, you know, there are a lot of parents at all those sporting events. Like how can you like, reach as many people in your community, um, as possible and be a resource to them so they were, remember you. Um, that’s really how I got Dream Local off the ground.

Paul Benton: That’s a good segue into the next question, which is social media. When you started Dream Local, and we’ve known each other for over a decade now, it was grounded first in social media, which was consistent with what you just said for a. Plumbing company, the social, uh, me. Social media has a very important role to play, certainly.

To get started in getting your name out and tell us about what you would recommend a social, a, uh, plumbing company do to start in social media and which channel.

Shannon Kinney: So I, yeah, it’s true and, and I, a lot of times when we’re working with plumbers and other people in the trades, social media is the last thing anybody wants to do, and I understand. But your customers are there and your customers are asking their friends when they have a leak, they’re reaching out to each other, they’re talking about their experiences, and it’s a conversation that you really want to be part of to build your brand. So while you have listeners. In many geographic areas. Um, today it does change a little bit depending on who your target audience is. But for most of your audience, it’s going to be Facebook, uh, is where we’ll find the broadest demographic. Um, the largest age range, the largest income range, and people really think of. business pages on Facebook the

Paul Benton: Just.

Shannon Kinney: would a,, Google Page or a website and many cases they’ll check that first and they’ll definitely ask their friends. So if you have a presence there, then that allows other people to recommend you and tag you. And it doesn’t mean you have to be there every day, um, but a couple of days a week, or at least once a week was something that’s really valuable. Can can change your business significantly.

Paul Benton: And, um,

Shannon Kinney: Um.

Paul Benton: social media is important because it. It, it can get your name out with the least cost. If you start out thinking you’re going to kill it in Yelp or in Google, you’re talking about thousands of dollars a month. You’re gonna ultimately need to do that to get the growth and scale. But if you’re just starting out and you want to get your name out, there is, um, no more cost effective way than in doing a targeted, Facebook campaign specifically to the neighborhoods or, uh, zip codes that you’re interested in.

Um.

Shannon Kinney: And depending on your community, nextdoor might be another option. Um, you know, if you join nextdoor in your community or in the communities that you’re serving, it’s a constant stream of people asking. I have a, like, I saw one this morning in my town. I have a leak. Does anyone know someone? So that’s a secondary one. Uh, but depending on where your listeners are, that could be one to look at.

Paul Benton: Excellent. So that was certainly, that’s the foundation stone that, all plumbing companies should, should have in the, in their toolkit. The next question though is we’re in 2025 and AI has crashed ashore. Um. Dream local has now built an AI practice, and how can plumbers start using ai to get their, uh, marketing off the ground?

Shannon Kinney: It’s such a fast changing, um, thing, but I think it’s, it’s a critical part of the experience when it comes to helping a business. So people talk about AI all the time. It is like a new buzzword, but. I want you to just think about it, like the chance to have someone working for you that you can train and teach to do things for you, um, in, in a fraction of the in seconds.

Really, I. And one of the primary ways we help businesses with AI is in content creation and distribution. Um, you know, that creating posts for social media, you don’t know what to say. Uh, there’s ways we can use AI to help you do that. And, um, uh, blog posts or emails. It’s very helpful. It’s also helpful when you’re stuck and can’t think of ideas.

Um, we had one, uh, person in the trades that I was helping this morning using a tool called Perplexity, I said, you know, what are the big, the 10 biggest problems, um, plumbers solve in. Blank state. Um, and it instantly comes up with, here are all the things, and it real, the person was watching it going, wow, like, I do this job and I would never have said it that way. And so just the idea that a tool can help you, um, is fantastic. But what I can say is. any employee, it really needs to be trained. You have to teach it who your business is, what your voice is like, you know, are you serious? Are you really conservative in your language? Um, who is your target customer?

Is it commercial? Is it residential? Um. Because how you talk to them and the kinds of projects you work on are very different. The problems you’re solving as a plumber are very different. And so we take, we find the right tool and the workflow to save you the most time, and then we train it just the way we would train an employee so that when it creates a list like that, it sounds like you, um, and it sounds like your target customers, like it’s speaking to them.

In a way that they’d really resonate with, and I think that’s really the key is it doesn’t replace people. It just makes us a lot faster, better, and cheaper actually.

Paul Benton: It’s amazing how, much it feels like you are having a relationship. I had to chuckle when I got the endorphin rush when it complimented me and I said. Uh, artificial intelligence just, it complimented me and I’m feeling something because of that. How weird can that be? What is amazing is that it remembers you over time and it starts thinking and bringing your ideas into focus.

Some people are even creating, an imaginary board out of AI asking. Uh, Chat GPT , for example, to imagine Steve Jobs as your advisor. It’s a brave new world. Um,

Shannon Kinney: certainly is.

Paul Benton: so Shannon, how would you recommend people get started? You know, there’s the old saying, what, when’s the best time to start?

It was, um, 30 years ago. The next, the, uh, second best time to start is today. How do you get started in the right way?

Shannon Kinney: I, I would recommend playing around with a few tools to solve the problem that you have on your desk currently. Right? Um, and some of the best ones to try are Google has Gemini, um, and if you use Gmail, you’ll see that Gemini is weave, trying to weave itself in there and ask if you need help analyzing your emails. You know, I, I usually use the search box today. I’ve typed into Gemini. I need the past three emails I’ve had from this person on this topic, and then I started to do something else and I looked over and there they were. and another one, which you mentioned was Chat GPT, um, where you can type in, um, you know, something like Mar top, uh, top marketing strategies for plumbers in 2025 in.

Blank zip code, um, and see what it comes up with. I think the key thing to know is it’s amazing and fast and really speeds things up. It’s not right. I just need to say that like out loud. My daughter and I, like, I tried to show her, a concept in math and twice it was wrong. Like it’s not perfect. So, uh, and it’s important that you don’t just think you could plug something into there and replace yourself or your voice, but. It certainly can serve as inspiration to help you cogitate ideas to find five great headlines for emails that people will open. You know, uh, there’s a million kinds of queries you can put in there, but marketing isn’t your jam and you’re interested in football or um, or soccer or some other hobby that you have, um, cars I used to restore cars. Type, type and search on that in there because then you’ll really get passionate about the answers that it’s giving you. Um, and then you’ll start to really figure out, um, what, what options you might have using the tools.

Paul Benton: All right, Shannon. Well thank you.