Sheppard

The Marketing Engine · For PE Sponsors

Ten disciplines. One engine. Every portco.

This is what Sheppard installs in Value Creation and operates through Execution — the full marketing function inside a PE-backed home services platform. Ten specialties, run as one engine, tuned to the unit economics of HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, and the adjacent residential trades.

Inside Phase 02 · Value CreationOperated through Phase 03 · ExecutionAudited at Exit
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Why It Matters

Channels in isolation leave EBITDA on the table.

Most PE-backed home services platforms run their marketing as nine disconnected vendors. One agency for paid search. Another for SEO. A third for the website. A consultant for brand. A dashboard from the CRM vendor. None of them reconcile.

The compounding 150-400 bps of EBITDA that marketing should contribute to the hold lives in the connections between the channels — not inside any one of them. We run the engine, not the pieces.

The Ten Specialties

What we install during Value Creation — and run through exit.

— 01

Local SEO, GBP & AI Visibility

Own the local pack — and the AI answer — in every DMA you operate in.

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— 02

Paid Search & Local Service Ads

Google, Bing, and LSA tuned to booked-call value — not impressions.

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— 03

Paid Social & Creative

Meta, TikTok, and programmatic, with creative built for the trade.

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— 04

Lifecycle, Email & SMS

Memberships, cross-sell, win-back. The under-marketed EBITDA lever.

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— 05

Conversion Optimization & Web

Take what you already pay for and convert more of it.

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— 06

Content & Generative Engine Optimization

Local pages at scale, editorial that ranks, content engineered to be cited by ChatGPT and AI Overviews.

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— 07

Brand Architecture & Identity

Roll-up brand strategy that compounds — instead of eroding through M&A.

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— 08

Analytics, Attribution & Reporting

The marketing P&L your CFO and your sponsor can both reconcile.

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— 09

Reputation & Reviews

The most-undervalued channel in home services marketing.

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— 10

Direct Response & Offline

EDDM, fleet, door hangers, and the offline channels digital agencies forgot about.

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— 01

Local SEO, GBP & AI Visibility

Own the local pack — and the AI answer — in every DMA you operate in.

The single largest underbuilt asset across PE-backed home services platforms. Local pack visibility, GBP optimization, citation cleanup, schema markup, and review velocity — now extended into AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity citation surfaces. Standardized DMA by DMA, audited platform-wide.

What We Run

  • →Google Business Profile optimization across every location
  • →Citation building, cleanup, and NAP consistency at scale
  • →LocalBusiness, Service, and FAQ schema for local search and LLM citation
  • →AI Overview and Perplexity citation tracking by DMA and trade query
  • →DMA-level review velocity programs and response cadence
  • →Local-pack visibility tracking with sponsor-facing reporting

KPIs We Move

Local pack share-of-voice

GBP-sourced calls and direction requests

AI Overview and LLM citation rate on trade queries

Branded search lift

Review velocity and average rating trend

— 04

Lifecycle, Email & SMS

Memberships, cross-sell, win-back. The under-marketed EBITDA lever.

Service-trade marketing tends to chase new leads while leaving 40% of EBITDA upside in retention and cross-sell. We build the lifecycle programs that turn one-time service calls into multi-year memberships, and dormant customers into re-acquired revenue.

What We Run

  • →Membership-conversion programs at point-of-service
  • →Win-back, save, and reactivation lifecycle flows
  • →Cross-sell between trades within a multi-service portco
  • →SMS for emergency demand, appointment reminders, and offers
  • →Compliance-aware messaging (TCPA, CASL, CAN-SPAM)

KPIs We Move

Membership attach rate

Customer LTV trend

Win-back conversion rate

Cross-sell revenue per customer

— 05

Conversion Optimization & Web

Take what you already pay for and convert more of it.

Landing page architecture, call-tracking optimization, in-funnel friction removal, and site speed. The cheapest growth lever in home services marketing — and the most-ignored. The site is the most-visited storefront a platform has.

What We Run

  • →Landing page architecture for paid traffic at DMA scale
  • →Call tracking, dynamic number insertion, and routing optimization
  • →Form, chat, and call-button placement and friction removal
  • →Site speed and Core Web Vitals optimization
  • →A/B testing program with stat-sig discipline

KPIs We Move

Conversion rate by landing page and audience

Form-to-booked-call ratio

Page load and Core Web Vitals scores

Test win rate and lift

— 06

Content & Generative Engine Optimization

Local pages at scale, editorial that ranks, content engineered to be cited by ChatGPT and AI Overviews.

Local pages templated and tuned per DMA. Editorial content that ranks against trade-specific queries. Content and schema engineered for AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and the AI answer surfaces buyers are increasingly using. The content layer is where compounding brand and SEO equity actually lives — and the new layer where AI search visibility is won or lost.

What We Run

  • →Local landing page architecture and templating
  • →Service-specific editorial content with trade authority
  • →FAQ, HowTo, and Article schema for LLM citation and AI Overviews
  • →Generative engine optimization (GEO) for ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI
  • →Internal linking architecture across portcos in a roll-up
  • →Content cadence tied to seasonality and demand cycles

KPIs We Move

Organic sourced revenue trend

Branded vs. non-branded organic split

Featured snippet and AI Overview citation rate

LLM citation rate on trade queries (ChatGPT, Perplexity)

Pages ranking in the top three positions

— 07

Brand Architecture & Identity

Roll-up brand strategy that compounds — instead of eroding through M&A.

Most roll-ups erode brand equity through acquisition. Mixed identities, inconsistent NAP, divergent messaging. We design the brand architecture that protects local equity where it earns its keep and consolidates where it doesn't.

What We Run

  • →Branded house vs. endorsed brand decision frameworks
  • →Add-on integration playbooks (rename, retain, or hybrid)
  • →Identity systems: logo, typography, color, voice, photography direction
  • →Brand governance across DMAs and franchise structures
  • →Naming strategy for new platform brands and product lines

KPIs We Move

Branded search volume trend

Brand consistency audit score across DMAs

Pricing power vs. competitive set

Brand equity baselines for exit diligence

— 08

Analytics, Attribution & Reporting

The marketing P&L your CFO and your sponsor can both reconcile.

Marketing data warehouse, sourced-revenue attribution, and sponsor-grade reporting that reconciles to the financial system. The asset class buyers diligence at exit — and the one most platforms only start building in month nine of the sale process.

What We Run

  • →Marketing data warehouse design (modeled spend, sourced revenue)
  • →Multi-touch attribution methodology with audit trail
  • →Sponsor-facing dashboards with monthly EBITDA-contribution view
  • →GA4, server-side tagging, and consent management
  • →AI-assisted lead scoring and predictive LTV modeling

KPIs We Move

Sourced revenue by channel, audited

CAC trend normalized for channel-mix shift

Marketing-sourced EBITDA contribution

Reporting cadence and reliability score

— 09

Reputation & Reviews

The most-undervalued channel in home services marketing.

Reviews drive local-pack rankings, paid CPCs, and consumer trust simultaneously. Most platforms run reputation reactively — they should run it as a discipline. Acquisition cadence, response programs, monitoring, and reputation defense across every DMA.

What We Run

  • →Review-acquisition programs at point-of-service
  • →Response cadence and tone management across DMAs
  • →Reputation monitoring and reputation-defense protocols
  • →Off-Google reviews (Yelp, BBB, industry-specific)
  • →Negative-review triage workflows for operating partners

KPIs We Move

Average rating and review volume by DMA

Review velocity (reviews per month)

Response rate and time

Local pack ranking lift attributable to reputation

— 10

Direct Response & Offline

EDDM, fleet, door hangers, and the offline channels digital agencies forgot about.

Direct mail still wins for HVAC, plumbing, roofing, restoration, and pest at the right unit economics. The platforms that operate it cleanly — segmented saturation by zone, creative built to convert, attribution tracked back to booked revenue — gain a channel their digital-only competitors can't match. We run EDDM with the same measurement discipline applied to paid search, plus the rest of the offline stack: door hangers, fleet graphics, yard signs, and job-site marketing.

What We Run

  • →EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) campaign architecture and zone selection
  • →Direct mail creative engineered for booked-call response, not awareness
  • →Door hanger and neighborhood-saturation programs around active job sites
  • →Fleet graphics and truck-wrap strategy as DMA-wide brand impressions
  • →Yard sign and job-site marketing programs with response tracking
  • →Offline-to-online attribution: trackable phone numbers, QR codes, vanity URLs

KPIs We Move

Cost per booked call by zone and creative

Direct-mail-attributable revenue trend

Impressions per fleet vehicle per DMA

Job-site neighborhood penetration rate

Frequently Asked

On running the full engine.

What marketing specialties does Sheppard run for PE-backed home services platforms?

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Ten integrated specialties operated as one engine inside the platform: local SEO and AI visibility, paid search and Local Service Ads, paid social, lifecycle (email + SMS), conversion optimization and web, content and generative engine optimization, brand architecture, analytics and attribution, reputation and reviews, and direct response and offline (EDDM + fleet). Each is installed during Value Creation, run during Execution, and built so the next sponsor inherits the system cleanly at exit.

Can Sheppard manage only one channel, or is the engagement always platform-wide?

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We engage at the platform-marketing-function level, not the single-channel level. The reason: the channels compound, and the EBITDA contribution model assumes them as a system. Local SEO and reputation feed each other; paid search and CRO feed each other; lifecycle and analytics feed everything. Running one in isolation leaves platform-level EBITDA on the table. We occasionally take channel-specific projects inside a broader sponsor relationship, but it's the exception.

Which specialties move the most EBITDA in HVAC, plumbing, and electrical platforms?

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HVAC: paid search (high replacement-ticket value), local SEO across DMAs, and lifecycle (membership conversion as the EBITDA backbone). Plumbing: paid search and Local Service Ads (emergency demand share-of-voice), reputation (trust at point of crisis), and CRO (speed-to-answer as a marketing KPI). Electrical: brand architecture (pricing power for high-ticket panel and EV work), content and SEO (utility-rebate query capture), and paid social (consumer education on high-ticket categories).

How does Sheppard's specialty work tie back to sponsor reporting?

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Every specialty has a documented KPI layer that rolls up to the platform marketing P&L and the EBITDA-impact model the sponsor underwrote at acquisition. Local pack share-of-voice, cost per booked call, sourced revenue by channel, membership attach rate, branded search trend — all reported on the same cadence as financial close. Sponsors should be able to read the marketing section of a board deck in four minutes and answer 'what happens if we cut this in half.'

Does Sheppard use AI in this work?

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Yes, as a tool, not a category. AI shows up where it moves a KPI: lead scoring inside analytics, content generation inside content marketing, creative iteration inside paid social, predictive LTV inside lifecycle. We don't sell AI as a standalone offering. We sell platform-level marketing outcomes — with whatever tooling makes them move.

How does specialty performance show up in exit-ready marketing documentation?

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Every specialty produces an auditable artifact in the marketing data room: sourced-revenue lineage by channel, vendor-by-vendor performance trend, attribution methodology with reconciliation, brand-equity baselines, local-pack visibility by DMA, lifecycle program performance. Buyers' CDD teams will inspect these in 2026. Platforms that built them deliberately during the hold defend their multiple. Ones that scramble in month nine of the sale process surrender it.

Engage Sheppard

Want all ten running in your platform?

Most platforms start with diligence on the current state, then activate the specialties that move the most EBITDA first. The install is typically 60-120 days.

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