What marketing specialties does Sheppard run?
+
Ten integrated specialties operated as one engine inside the marketing function. Local SEO and AI visibility, paid search and Local Service Ads, paid social, lifecycle (email and SMS), conversion optimization and web, content and generative engine optimization, brand architecture, analytics and attribution, reputation and reviews, and direct response and offline (EDDM and fleet). Each is installed during Value Creation, run during Execution, and built so the operation owns the system cleanly.
Do I need all ten specialties or can I start with the highest-leverage ones?
+
Almost every engagement starts with a Marketing Stack Audit that surfaces which two or three specialties are the highest-leverage interventions for your specific business and trade. From there, the Value Creation install scales to whichever specialties move EBITDA fastest. The full ten-specialty operating system is what compounds over time, but the entry isn't a turnkey ten-channel commitment. It's a sequenced build against the audit's opportunity map.
Can Sheppard manage only one channel, or is the engagement always platform-wide?
+
We engage at the 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 EBITDA on the table. We occasionally take channel-specific projects inside a broader relationship, but it's the exception.
Which specialties move the most EBITDA in HVAC, plumbing, and electrical platforms?
+
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?
+
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?
+
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?
+
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.
