Regardless of the industry or the type of business you run, we are all after leads. Leads- which can also be considered potential clients- drive your business forward and allow you to keep growing. However, garnering new leads isn’t always straightforward, especially when there are different types of leads and different ways each prospect enters your ecosystem.
Here, we’re exploring the difference between digital leads and referral leads, and how to make your digital lead generation efforts successful.
The Difference Between Referral Leads and Digital Leads
It is very important to recognize that digital leads are not the same as referral leads; they are at the very early stages of their process and they require multiple touch points before consideration. “One of the common pieces of feedback we hear is that digital leads are not always the best quality…however, we have seen first-hand, that when there is a tight process in place to vet and nurture a digital lead, that conversion rates are actually pretty strong,” says David Broudie, CSO of SocialEyes Communications.
It is all about recognizing that not all leads are created equally, and we have to stop treating them as such. Let’s define:
Referral leads are from past or current clients. When a paying patron of your business gives you the name of someone they know, it means that the lead has already been vetted and qualified to some capacity by the referrer. There is a higher chance that that lead will eventually buy from you than someone window shopping your offerings.
A digital lead enters your sales funnel through one of your inbound or outbound digital marketing strategies. For example, a follower of your brand’s Facebook Page reaches out to ask a clarifying question about your offering. Or, a user on your website gives you their email address in return for an e-book. Another example could be a user who clicks one of your Google ads, lands on your website and considers buying one of your products.
Because digital leads aren’t vetted before entering your funnel like referral leads are, they need a system and process to move them through.
Digital Leads Need a System
There are several steps you need to take when you receive a digital lead. These steps are important not only to verify the quality of the lead allowing you to decide if it’s worth your time and effort pursuing but also for nurturing them through your sales funnel. Here are the four steps we highly recommend:
Verify the leads are REAL
One of the downsides of marketing your business digitally is that you may occasionally garner the attention of spammers and bots. You must examine the authenticity of these leads to ensure they are coming from real human beings.
If the majority of the leads coming from your paid ads are not real people, you need to re-examine your ad strategy.
Contact the lead within 12
The best time to contact a lead is actually within the first hour of submission – though we aim at the very very most, 12 hours. This is an optimal time because it is fresh!
Consider the time of contact
One of the frustrations with contacting digital leads is the fact that sometimes leads will not answer their phone, even if they have given you their details. Consider that most people work during the days, so you may want to consider following up at different times, send a follow up email to ask what time is best, use SMS messaging to reach out – try different ways and methods to reach out to the lead
Enter Leads into Your Database
Every business that conducts digital lead generation efforts needs a database to store their leads’ contact information and record of communication or contact with them. The leads that you determined weren’t ready to buy in the short term must also be entered into the database with reminders to check on their status at a later time.
Remember that digital leads require MULTIPLE touch points
A lead is not “dead” if they have not been responsive to you. It is all about timing and making that connection at a time that is convenient for the lead. It may take several reach outs.
A process is 100% necessary in dealing with digital leads – and business owners have to realize that there is a different process and vetting system that is required in dealing with digital leads. Setting up that process and system prior to launching any digital lead generation campaign is a very important step and should not be missed.
If you have any questions, or are interested in setting up a successful digital lead generation campaign, feel free to contact us.
There are four more months in 2022 to hit your sales and marketing goals. Now is not the time to take your foot off the pedal, it’s time to double down on your goals and the steps to achieving them. Not only are you thinking about the quarterly goals you want to hit, but also the goals you set for the year.
Here, we’re detailing the best ways to prepare for the last quarter of 2022 so you can end this year with a bang.
Get Clear on Your Goals
This is the last push of the year for you and your team. Being aligned with your company’s vision is key for everyone on the team to give their best.
Spend some time evaluating the goals you set for 2022 and what is left to accomplish in quarter four. Are your goals still attainable? Does your team have the manpower, time, and resources to accomplish them? Do you need to increase your goals due to having achieved so much this year already?
Get crystal clear on the goals for these next four months and make sure your team is on the same page.
Connect with Big Clients First
According to Sales Gravy, you should spend more time this quarter on the 20 per cent of clients that create the most business for you. Perhaps they pay for your highest tier package, account for the most billable hours in your firm, or have the most valuable connections you want to tap into.
Focus on how you can sell to them, nurture your relationship with them, and garner referrals from them. Sales Gravy also recommends coming back to leads that you had earlier in the year that didn’t quite happen. Go back to the leads that told you to contact them later in the year or to leads that didn’t have the funds back then.
Plan Your Remaining Marketing Budget
How much is left in your marketing budget for the year? If you work with a digital marketing agency (which we suggest you do!), discuss how you can make the most of the remaining budget. Decide where that money could be best spent to get the most ROI from it.
Working with marketing professionals is important here because that remaining money in your budget could lead to massive increases in website traffic, hits, and sales if delegated effectively.
Focus on the Prize
What if you’ve fallen behind on all of your quarterly goals this year? Maybe your business faced unforeseen circumstances that made staying open a challenge. Now is not the time to throw in the towel.
Quarter four is your time to focus on the prize, on ending the year with some type of goal achieved, even if it’s not what you originally planned. There are still four more months to turn things around, double down on your efforts, and make this year a success.
Interested in Optimizing Your Marketing Plan in Quarter Four?
Let us take care of your quarter four marketing plan while you focus on your business. Reach out to us today to get started.
With a new season comes new trends in digital marketing. Fall is when parents think about back to school and Thanksgiving get-togethers, businesses think about their quarter-four goals, and brands start preparing for the holiday shopping season.
Whether you’re a firm owner, realtor, or another type of professional service provider, you don’t want to miss out on these five digital marketing trends for fall.
Plan Campaigns Around Fall Themes
Holidays and events are great for pairing with your upcoming campaigns and promotions. Maybe you’re rolling out a new service offering, providing a veteran’s discount around Remembrance Day, or planning on promoting your highest tier offering. Here are some important events to keep on your radar:
Back to School
Thanksgiving
Remembrance Day
Halloween
Check out this blog on holiday campaign ideas for professional service providers!
Update Your Social Media Pages
Celebrate the change in seasons with your followers. Update your social media graphics, profile pictures, banner images, and logo with a fall theme. You could change your colours to include browns, oranges, yellows, and burgundy. Consider adding a frame around your profile pictures that depict fall imagery.
Updating the creative features of your brand’s social media pages isn’t just for fun. Doing so helps you stand out from your competitors, promote seasonal campaigns, and connect with your followers on an emotional level.
Tease Holiday Shopping
The months leading up to the winter holidays are lucrative for many businesses, especially if you sell a good or service that people want to gift to others. 27 per cent of consumers start holiday shopping at the end of September. Your fall marketing plan could start with teasing the deals consumers might get in the coming weeks and months, followed by full-on promotions of your holiday deals.
Launch a New Referral Program
Since consumers are starting to shop for the holidays in the fall, now is the perfect time to launch a new referral program. You want to incentivize customers to shop with you, and to influence their friends and family to shop with you too.
Perhaps any existing client who brings you a new client can get 10 per cent off your next service, for example. There are lots of rewards you can give in return for customers bringing you more customers.
Assess Your Marketing Goals
The last digital marketing trend for fall may be the most important: evaluating your marketing goals. If you set goals for the last quarter of the year, start the season by assessing how attainable they are. Do you want to double your goal? Do you have a leftover marketing budget to spend this season?
Decide what your final goals for the year will be and create a marketing strategy that will help you achieve them.
Need Help Creating and Executing a Great Marketing Plan?
We can help! Our team of expert digital marketers will create a custom marketing plan for your business and execute it to completion. Contact us today to learn more.
Having a budget for marketing, and specifically, digital ads is incredibly important in today’s market. Digital ads expand your reach, bring in new clients, help establish authority, and so much more.
However, when a business is looking to cut costs, the first place they mistakenly look is at their ad budget. We have seen the power of a highly customized and effectively managed ad strategy, and you don’t want to miss out on the benefits that this can bring.
If you decide to reduce your ad budget, here are three of the things that can happen.
Your Brand Visibility Decreases
One of the biggest challenges faced by every law firm, real estate business, or any other professional service is getting in front of new potential clients. Growing your database is integral to growing your business, so putting yourself where fresh eyes can see you is paramount. Digital ads are one of the most cost-effective ways to do this.
Digital ads allow you to target specific sectors of the population to ensure those people see your advertisement. For example, social ads allow you to set parameters around the physical location, relationship status, education status, profession, and interests of your ad’s viewers. Without a budget for these ads, you lose out on hundreds or even thousands of new potential clients entering your funnel.
You Fall Behind Your Competitors
If you decide to reduce your ad budget, you will be saving money. It’s true. However, your competitors likely won’t be reducing theirs. This means that the gap you leave in the online ad space will be quickly filled by your competitors. Their ads will be in front of your potential clients.
Staying competitive in your market is crucial if you want to generate high-quality leads. Digital ads keep you front of mind for potential clients. Without spending on ads, you miss out on brand exposure.
Your Goals Become Less Achievable
When you create a marketing plan for the year, you likely set some goals you want to achieve. You may want to triple the traffic to your website, increase your database by a certain percentage, or simply increase online sales. No matter what your goal is, online ads are a lucrative stepping stone to achieving it.
Additionally, online ads allow for intricate data monitoring and managing. You get instant feedback on whether an ad was effective or not, and what you can do next time. Whether you’re paying for social ads or Google ads, the ability to track their efficacy is invaluable to your marketing strategy.
Need Help Managing Your Online Ads?
No business owner wants to spend hours each week creating, managing and tracking their online ads. You have a firm or brokerage to run, and that’s where your focus needs to be.
Let our team of digital ad experts take care of your ad strategy. We’ll ensure the best ROI for your budget and that it leads to growth in your business. Contact us today to learn more.
Most businesses have a slower period of the year when fewer new clients are entering their databases and fewer sales are being made. If you’re in real estate, the spring and summer months may be busier with open houses and new clients wanting to buy or sell. The winter could be slower, but that doesn’t mean you should slow down.
Here, we’ll explore three different ways to make the most of your slow season so that your business continues to grow no matter what quarter you’re in.
Review the Previous Quarter
What worked well last quarter that you want to continue? What was a total flop? Now that you have some extra time, evaluate the effectiveness of your previous marketing strategies. Include your team in these discussions and brainstorm new strategies.
The busy season doesn’t give you much time to sit down and analyze your processes. Perhaps your team needs more detailed SOPs or updated processes altogether. Maybe your physical office is in deep need of organization.
Consider hiring a digital marketing agency to run your online ads. They can analyze what worked well in previous quarters and optimize your strategy to work even better in the next.
Quarterly reviews are useful no matter what industry you’re in. Plan to review your numbers from the previous quarter and your projected numbers for the next.
Prepare for Your Busy Season
Just because fewer people are walking through your doors it doesn’t mean you can take your foot off the pedal. The work you do now will significantly impact the success of your busy quarter. For many businesses, quarter four is their busy period and there are lots of things you can do to prepare for it.
Start by setting new goals for the next quarter and breaking them down into tangible steps. What kind of marketing do you need to start now to see a return next quarter? If you want to increase brand awareness, what kinds of online ads should you be creating? Consistency in marketing is key, so the effort you put in now and continue to put in will pay off later.
The slow season is also an excellent time to build out your team. You have the time to find the right candidates for your positions, vet them thoroughly, and provide in-depth training.
Update Branding
Have you been meaning to revamp your website? Are you curious about making it SEO-friendly? Do you want your branding to extend to your promotional products and social pages?
Creating the right branding for your business is extremely important and requires sufficient time to get it right. Now is the time to schedule team photoshoots, update your marketing videos, and consult branding experts.
Let’s Make Next Quarter Your Best One Yet
Here at SocialEyes Communications, we know how to ensure your digital marketing is always bringing a high ROI no matter what season you’re in. Contact us today to learn more.
To compete in your industry, whether it’s law, real estate, or professional services, you need an online presence. Moreover, you need to actively participate in the online spaces where your clients spend time, effectively advertise your services, and make the most of all the amazing opportunities the internet provides for growing your business.
However, most of these opportunities aren’t free.
That’s why it’s crucial that businesses budget for digital and social media marketing. Here’s everything you need to know about creating your budget.
What Should You Budget For?
Budgets for digital marketing strategies can vary based on what they include. Contrary to what you might think, a marketing strategy consists of more than just throwing money into Facebook ads and hoping you garner some leads. Every aspect of your marketing strategy should be intentional, well thought out, and budgeted for.
Here are some of the costs that might need to be included in your budget:
Website hosting platform
Social media content creation, management, and ads
Google ads
Email campaign software
Branded video content
Staff training for maintaining an online presence
An expert digital marketing agency
You may be asking, “should I really pay an agency to market for me when I could do it myself for free?” Although you might save money by not hiring a team of experts, you’re actually costing yourself much more in the long run. Not only will you need to spend ample time doing market research and understanding different marketing tools and tactics, but you’ll be taking time and energy away from actually running your business and focusing on your clients.
We highly recommend you budget for a professional digital marketing team to save you time and money in the long term.
Decide How Much Your Budget Is
The BDC published an article with general guidelines for helping you decide how much to budget for digital marketing. If you have a B2B business, they recommend spending 2-5% of your revenue on marketing. If you have a B2C business, they recommend spending 5-10% of your revenue.
That article also shared results from a 2019 study that found that small Canadian businesses spent, on average, $30,000 on marketing per year. Companies with 20-49 employees spent, on average, $60,000 per year.
Choose Your Marketing Goals
The amount you allocate to your marketing budget should be driven by your marketing goals. What do you want to accomplish through your marketing? Here are some common marketing goals:
Find X more high-quality leads
Increase website traffic by 20%
Increase brand awareness
Increase customer retention
Increase revenue
An expert marketing agency can help you decide which goals are most important and how to achieve them in the most cost-effective way.
Are You Ready to Invest in a Customized Digital Marketing Strategy?
SocialEyes Communications handles everything from market research and content creation to marketing plan strategizing and execution. We’ll take care of your online marketing so you can focus on your business.
