This guest post is part of a series on the topic of online lead generation for CRE brokers and firms. It is written by Greg Schraff, Managing Director, digetry, LLC – digital strategy and marketing company. The Massimo Group has had much success working with digetry related to their digital strategies.
In last week’s post we talked about the benefits and value of talking with your customers to look at your business from their point of view. Moving away from what you think to what they think allows you to create online marketing that will more naturally resonate with your audience and convert them to leads.
In this post, we are going to look at what needs to happen after you generate an online lead.
Best practices dictate that you contact the lead quickly (ideally in the first couple of minutes of receiving it). Responding quickly takes advantage of their current level of interest and improves the chances of moving them to the next phase of the buying cycle.
However, only 5%-15% of the names you collect on your website or from your marketing campaigns will be ready to buy from you right away.
Pursuing a hard sell right off the bat, for example, may serve to drive the prospect away completely, ruining any chance for a sale.
So, how do you know the best way to initially respond to a new lead?
What you need to do is determine where your lead is on the buying cycle in order to deliver the appropriate message.
One way to do this is to separate what you are using to capture the lead – your offers – into the three stages of the buying cycle: Consider, Evaluate, Buy
The type of offer your lead responds to then becomes an indicator of where they are in the process.
For example, review all of your current web-based offers and determine which offers fit into the top of the sales funnel, the middle of the sales funnel, and the bottom of the sales funnel.
Top of the Funnel
This content should address the needs and questions of someone who is initially considering your service and wants high-level information or guidance. Offers such as tip sheets, whitepapers, answers to common questions; how-to guides or infographics work well here.
Middle of the Funnel
After your prospect considers your offer, they are ready to move on to the evaluation phase: deciding whether or not to invest their time and money in you. More detailed information about your specific service is appropriate here. Offers at this stage should consist of webinars, videos, fact sheets or consultations.
Bottom of the Funnel
When your prospects are ready to buy, they want to get a taste of or experience the product. They also want to validate their decision. Case studies, referrals and testimonials are all good examples of offers at the bottom of the funnel.
Match the specific offer your new lead has responded to with the respective phase of the buying cycle or funnel. Then, follow up with a response relevant to what they want and expect at that phase, in effect providing the right message at the right time, which is the goal of all good marketing.
Our second live, ultra-exclusive (yet all-inclusive) event, The Massimo Immersion: Your Prospecting Playbook, is coming up! Can you afford to miss this? If you would like more information please CLICK HERE, or just give me a call!
One Response
This was a helpful article!