Who Else Wants to Get More Qualified Leads

Today, I want you to think about the question, “Who else wants to start getting more qualified leads from online marketing?” I know I do.

We’re told that online marketing is the way to go but getting qualified buyers instead of tire kickers is not easy. The online world is great for tire kickers. They’ll click on any ad out there. They don’t even care if the ad is even relevant. They might just click on it because it’s something to do when they have very short attention spans. What we want to do is find ways to get more qualified buyers online.

There are three ways. One is to develop better ads that turn off tire kickers.  I’ll explain that a little bit more. The second thing is target groups in segment as much as impossible. The third thing is to consistently track your efforts; A/B test to see what’s working so you can continue to get better at it. By getting better at it, you’ll spend less and you’ll focus more of your attention on the people who are going to do it.

Let’s look at the first one. Develop better ads that turn off tire kickers. Say upfront who you couldn’t help. For example, I had a therapist who was cash‑only up in Baltimore and she did not want to take insurance.

A lot of people who are seeking mental health counseling will try to find counselors who accept that health insurance. What we’ve done with her is in the ad it says, “Only Accept Cash. No Insurance Accepted.”

This drives the people who have insurance away from clicking on the ad. No, it’s not going to get everybody, but it saved her a lot of money. When somebody clicks on that ad, these people already qualified themselves saying, “Wait. I’m going to pay cash out of my pocket to do this.” You got to find ways to say, “Hey, I don’t want to help you.”

For example, with me, if you’re a business with less than $20,000 or $25,000 or $100,000 in income, I’m probably not going to be able help you as much as you need to unless you have a marketing budget in place. I’m telling you upfront, “You don’t have a marketing budget of $500 a month or more, I’m not going to be able to help you.”

By doing that, you can get some of those people to not click on your ads, not contact you, not waste your time, because they are just not ready or able to do business with you. Find ways to eliminate those people who are not right for your product.

The second thing is, target groups in segment as much as possible. The more you can identify who your client, the better off you are at segmenting your audience and only advertising to those people who fit those profiles.

As online media is getting better with that, the direct marketing lists are getting better with that emails, so you go to list companies. I’m a bald person, I only want to market to bald people. Bald men who live in Florida, in this specific neighborhood, etc., who drive convertibles, or whatever.

You can segment your list very nice. If you do that, you’re going to spend more wisely, invest more wisely in your marketing and have a better opportunity to reach your target market more frequently at the same budget level than you just did a throw the paint at the wall and whatever is going to happen.

The third thing is you got to consistently track your efforts in A/B test and test to see what’s working, try different pictures, try different messages, try different offers, try, try, try, and don’t give up too early. That’s what happens. You expect everything to work upfront and it just doesn’t happen that way.

Theoretically, you’re going to nail it the first time, but the real world is going to tell you that you haven’t thought of everything, you’re going to spend money upfront and you’re not going to get the results you expect immediately. It’s just not going to happen. You must test. You must commit.

Say, “I commit six months.” Commit. Make a commitment that this is going to make it happen and you’re going to spend this money. You might not see results from Month One or Month Two but then you start figuring it out and then you start getting the leads to qualify leads and making those conversions. But you’ll only do it if you stay there.

It’s like going to college. You’re not going to graduate if you don’t do all the credits. You may be going for three years in college and go on, “Is this a waste? What am I going to do? I’m not getting anything out of this. I’m not going to finish.”

It’s after the fourth year when you get your bachelor’s degree and if you continue on, you get your Master’s, etc. Those are the kind of things that you really want to do. Take an approach that says, “I’m going to commit to this make this happen.”

If you do these three things to get more qualified leads, and those three things are to develop better ads that get tire kickers out of the way, target the groups in segment as much as possible, track your efforts, test them, and be willing to commit for a period of time, you’ll frequently see that you’re going to get more qualified buyers into your funnel, into your pipeline.

You know that you offer great service, great customer service, great experiences, great products and that is going to pay for itself tenfold.

If you have any questions and need some help establish your marketing strategy, getting help implementing marketing, whether it be online, offline or through social media, give us a call at 321‑613‑8476, that’s 321‑613‑8476 or you can email brad@justsmallbiz, that’s brad@justsmallbiz.com. Thanks.

 

Brad is a seasoned public relations and marketing pro with more than 20 years of experience both inside and outside of government dealing at the national and international level. In addition to his work as a marketing consultant for small businesses, he writes a monthly column on marketing for Florida Today on small business marketing. He graduated with Academic Honors from the United States Air Force Academy and attended Georgetown University Law Center. He has a Master of Science degree from Air University. He was an officer in the United States Air Force and completed all professional schools, to include the Air War College. Some of the media outlets he has worked with include the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe. NBC News, Fox News, ABC, CBS, CNN, the BBC. AFP, UPI, AP, to name a few.

About JustSmallBiz Marketing

Led by small business marketing guru Brad A. Swezey,  we are dedicated to helping small businesses get more customers and revenues using the right marketing for your business.

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