Episode Outlines

Who Is This Guy?

Read this script in OBS:

You found Tradecraft. If you're here, you're probably a roofer who's tired of being sold marketing fluff by people who've never set foot on a job site. Good. You're in the right place.

I'm Brandyn Buchanan. I'm a video editor, I've been doing this for 20 years — corporate video, direct response, sales funnels, the whole thing. I've built businesses slamming the Yellow Pages back in the day, I've written books you can read for free, I run a newsletter that doesn't waste your time, and somewhere in there I also organize community stuff in Atlanta. The through line is I build things that work without the hype.

And Tradecraft is the thing I'm building now. It's marketing for roofers. Not the kind that sounds like a used car salesman. The kind that actually makes sense for someone who runs a crew, answers their own phone, and doesn't have time to become a content creator.

This podcast is six episodes — real questions from real roofers, answered in about five minutes each. No filler. No "like and subscribe" nonsense. Just a system that gets you more leads, closes them faster, and keeps your customers coming back.

If you want to see more of what I'm about, I'm at @heybrandyn on YouTube. I make videos about video production, direct response, and building things that actually work.

This is episode zero. The real ones start now.

Your GBP Has Cobwebs

• 81% of consumers rely on Google Reviews when choosing a business [BrightLocal]. Your profile is often the first impression
• Yet the average roofer profile: 3 photos, 0 posts, a pile of unanswered reviews
• 88% of consumers use businesses that reply to all their reviews [BrightLocal]. Every unanswered review is a signal you don't care
• You do not need more leads. You need the leads you already have to actually call
• Three things, 30 minutes, this week:
  1. Post a photo of a finished roof with a caption. Once a week
  2. Respond to every review — good and bad — inside 48 hours
  3. Add services as products with prices. Gives Google something to rank
• 62% of home services customers called during their purchasing journey [Invoca]. The profile drives the call — make it worth picking up
• An active profile with regular posts gets more visibility. Google ranks freshness

Your GBP Is Great — Now What?

• 79% of homeowners seek word-of-mouth, 62% search online [Roofing Contractor 2025]. They're cross-referencing. Your profile gets you on the list, it doesn't close the deal
• Three things your GBP can't do:
  • Show your face and voice — video does that
  • Build trust before the first conversation — a walkthrough of a finished job does that
  • Give them a reason to choose you over the other roofers they're about to call — content does that
• Here's where the text system comes in: when someone clicks your profile, what if they got an automated text within 30 seconds with a photo of your last job and a link to your process video?
• Callers convert at higher rates and larger order values than web leads [Invoca/Forrester]. The faster you get them into a conversation, the more you win
• Your competitors are doing the same thing you're doing. To get a different result, you have to do something different

The One Thing That Makes Homeowners Pick Up

• The first responder wins 78% of leads [MIT Lead Response Study / CallJolt 2026]. Not the best price. The first one
• Responding within 5 minutes makes you 100x more likely to connect and 21x more likely to qualify than waiting 30 minutes [MIT/InsideSales 2007]
• Average contractor takes 4-8 hours to respond [CustomerFlows 2026]. That gap between 5 minutes and 4 hours is where revenue leaks
• What builds trust faster than anything:
  • A real photo of your crew on a real job site
  • A 45-second walkthrough where you talk like a human
  • A response time under 5 minutes — and this is where an automated text system handles it for you
• Tradecraft's text system: when a lead comes in, they get a text from you within 60 seconds. You don't have to be glued to your phone. The system handles the first touch
• "The roofer who answers in 20 minutes books twice as many jobs as the one who calls back tomorrow. Same price. Same quality. Just faster."
• You're competing on price when you should be competing on presence. Be there first, price stops being the deciding factor

Stop Asking for Reviews (Start Getting Them)

• 81% of consumers rely on Google Reviews when choosing a business [BrightLocal]. If you don't have recent reviews, you don't exist
• 88% use businesses that reply to all reviews [BrightLocal]. Responding matters almost as much as getting them
• What actually works:
  1. Text them the same day the job is done. Include a photo of the finished roof
  2. Don't ask for 5 stars. Ask for "your honest experience." People give 5 stars when not manipulated
  3. Make it one tap. If they have to log in, find the button, type — most won't
• The roofer with 200 reviews at 4.9 stars can charge more, close faster, and spend less on ads than the one with 20 reviews at 4.5. Same skill. Better system
• Every review you don't get is a review your competitor gets. There's no neutral ground
• Bonus: that same text system follows up in 6 months — "Hey, it's [roofer]. Checking on that roof we did last spring. Everything holding up?" That text keeps you top of mind and generates referrals and repeat business for the high-average work

Your Website Is a Brochure — Make It a Salesperson

• 62% of homeowners search online when looking for a roofer [Roofing Contractor 2025]
• What they need in 5 seconds:
  1. You exist — name, city, logo
  2. You're real — a photo of you on an actual roof
  3. You're good — reviews visible immediately
  4. You're reachable — tappable number, simple quote request
• "A photo of you on a roof with your crew makes you look like a roofer. A stock hard hat makes you look like a franchise."
• One page changes everything: "How much does a new roof cost in [city]?" with real ranges. Answer the question everyone has but nobody says out loud
• And here's where the text system connects: your site should capture phone numbers and trigger an immediate text. Not a "we'll get back to you" email. SMS gets a 45% response rate vs 6% for email [Gartner] — a text within 60 seconds with your name, a photo of your last job, and "want to talk?" That alone crushes your contact rate versus email

One Job, Five Pieces of Content

Read this script in OBS:

I gotta be honest with you — I don't always love it when people tell me how to do things I already know I should be doing. And if you're a roofer, or any kind of trade business owner, you already know you should be taking photos of your jobs. Every seminar tells you. Every Facebook group tells you. Some marketing guy you met at a networking event probably told you too. The gap isn't knowledge. It's a habit you haven't locked in yet.

And look — I know you've got crews to manage, materials to order, estimates to write, probably six phone calls you haven't returned. The last thing you need is "content creator" tacked onto your day. I get it. But you don't have to be a content creator. You just have to be slightly less annoying about closing your work order properly.

So here's what I mean. A single job can become a lot of marketing without adding much to your plate. Five pieces from one job.

Number one, the before photo. The damage. That's emotionally resonant. Every homeowner knows that feeling — the "this isn't gonna get fixed" feeling, the "I'm in deep" feeling, the "I've gotta get this together" feeling. That photo speaks to people.

Number two, the after. The finished roof. That's your portfolio. That's what people want to see on your homepage.

Number three — and this is the one most people skip — the during. The crew working, the materials going up, the roof walk. Anything that proves you're for real. Because anybody can post an after photo. Not everybody can show the work happening.

Number four, a 30-second video. Walk the ridge, say "hey, just finished this one up in [neighborhood], turned out great." That's it.

Number five, the review request. Text them that after photo with a link to leave a review.

That's five pieces. And you don't even have to do all of them on site. The review request is a system. The video — you can cut the before, during, and after together in post and talk over it. Movies get made all the time and the actors aren't on set for every shot. Same idea.

I'll tell you about my own business. I do video production for small businesses, events, organizations. And I've got so much footage of people just having a good time, dancing, drinking, partying. That footage is the lifeblood of my business. The person who documents their work will always out-earn and outperform the person who just does the work. And by document, I mean record and publish.

Now here's the real move. That after photo and that video don't just go on your Google Business Profile. They go into your text system as a campaign. You finish a roof in a neighborhood — let's say Grant Park. Every past customer you've got in Grant Park gets a text: "Hey, just finished a new one in Grant Park. Made me think of your roof — it's been about six months. Want us to take a look?" That's how a $500 repair turns into a $12k replacement. That's how a customer you haven't seen in a year comes back.

The time it takes you to pack that truck and leave — it's the same 90 seconds it takes to grab a before, a during, and an after. And if you shoot it in portrait AND landscape, now you're really cooking with gas. That's the difference between finishing a job and building a business.

So here's where I'll leave you. If you think about all six of these episodes, what you're really looking at is a system. A system that responds fast to leads. A system that collects reviews automatically. A system that follows up without you thinking about it. A system that keeps you top of mind in every neighborhood you work in.

Marketing is an infinite task. There's always someone new to find. So find the one piece of this that appeals to you and do it this week. Just one thing.

That's the series. Go build your business.