There are plenty of strategies to bring customers to your business. From social media awareness to mailers to television ads and third party leads, it may feel like the well is perpetually full. After all, more exposure has to be better, right?
Unfortunately, there are some marketing “strategies” that have given the contractor industry a bad reputation. This was a hot topic when our team spoke on a panel at the 2023 Lead Generation World Conference in San Diego back in January. You can read more of our co-founder, Matt’s, discussion in our last blog post.
Although there will always be bad apples in the bunch, there seems to be a consensus among many reputable contracting companies that generating legitimate leads – and working them – improves a company’s bottom line as well as the industry as a whole. So today we’re diving into consent-based marketing and how this marketing strategy will help your bottom line.
First, What Makes a Lead Source “Bad?”
If you or your sales team have a low conversion rate on your leads, it’s possible you are working with a bad batch – whether you realize it or not. It may seem like more leads are better for your closing rate, but that doesn’t hold true when you are working with low-quality leads to begin with. If you are working with a leads partner, it’s important to ask where your leads are coming from. Some red flags may include:
The reason these less-than-reputable lead sources exist is fairly simple: it keeps a high volume of leads coming in the door. However, you are still paying for those leads. Now, your sales team is talking to people who never consented to being contacted by them. Which is not only a waste of time and resources, but it is a frustrating process for everyone.
Benefits of Marketing to Qualified Buyers who actually give consent
We have likely all been on the other end of a call, text or mailer where someone is trying to sell us a service we either already bought several months ago or never needed to begin with. We know instantly that our name is on some list somewhere and we mark the number as “spam” in our phones or throw the large glossy mailer straight into the trash. Our co-founder Mike Symonds refers to this type of marketing strategy as, “Attempting to squeeze more juice out of the rinds that have already been thrown away.”
When your business’ name is attached to that kind of marketing, it doesn’t necessarily build trust with your audience. That’s part of the reason why marketing to qualified buyers who have raised their hand asking to be contacted about your service will not only increase the likelihood of more qualified sales, but it will also increase your business’ brand reputation – setting you apart from your many competitors. Qualified buyers do not fit into the above buckets we mentioned. These are real-time buyers who are actively looking for contractors with your services. So why don’t more contractors use this type of marketing? Unfortunately, the answer is usually about bandwidth and talent.
Changing the Industry… One Bad Lead at a Time
When sales teams are working with volume-based leads sources, they are essentially churning and burning through their contacts in order to reach all of the leads. As a result, good leads may be left on the table while a sales person pursues other, less qualified leads.
Our agency, along with many others, are attempting to change the industry and clean up the “bad” lead sources that are giving companies (yours and ours) a bad name. As a result, we focus solely on consent-based marketing: marketing to leads sources who are actively looking for a contractors’ services and consent to being contacted.
Generating these leads is not about volume: it’s about strategy and know-how. There are several layers of review that consent-based marketing agencies like Home Appointments will monitor in order to get the most qualified leads from their media buyers. This includes a thorough background check on leads sources. What are we looking for?
Through this background check we often end up filtering out 50%-60% of the leads that are brought to us as “qualified leads.” That’s not to say that they are all “bad” leads, but they have red flags that disqualify them so we don’t send them to our clients.
Even with all that preventative filtering, not every lead that gets through to our clients is going to be great. No system is 100% perfect. But unlike some of our volume competitors we don’t believe our clients should pay for bad leads which is why we have a generous returns policy in place.
Bottom line: our clients know they are receiving a highly-vetted lead that will connect them to a buyer who is actively looking for their services. When your sales team picks up the phone to speak with said buyer, they are already ten steps into the qualification process. The likelihood therefore increases that they will close more leads with less effort.
Next Steps for Your Business
With up to 10,000 ads infiltrating our daily lives each day, it’s important to partner with businesses who share the same values and goals as you. When you are running a business, you don’t have the time to analyze every lead that arrives at your door – this is one reason why volume-based leads have been the default for so long! As we work to shift the nature of our industry, our goal is to provide a service that contractors can’t do on their own.
If you’re looking for more leads who have given expressed, timely consent to being called about services you offer, book a discovery call with us today.
