At the tail end of January, my Growth Leader site, servingblaine.com went active. This is my first experience with a lead generation system so I had no preconceived notions of what to expect. My expectations were high based on the results other agent were getting from their Growth Leader test sites around the country that had started a few months earlier. On January 23rd, I had my first lead. Not so great as it was specific to a downtown rental but one day one lead. Not too bad. Now after just four weeks in the program, I have had 106 prospects sign up at my site. Last week, I had 16 leads come in during one 24 hour period. That is an attention grabbing amount of leads!
Here's the drill down:
Of the 16 active leads, I have been in contact with 6 via email answering questions and of those I have spoke with two. Both were given information to get in touch with a loan officer for preapproval but only one so far has made contact. Of the retry prospects, I have received email questions from two and have been in contact with both. One of the 71 inactives has been referred out to another agent and is now actively working with her.
Over the past few weeks, I have been working with the Growth Leader team to tweak my site to get more leads that are in my specific area. Unfortunately, to get Blaine leads I am also getting many more for Minneapolis. But is that such a bad thing? Maybe not as I have a strong referral network throughout the Twin Cities.
When I first get a new lead, I assess as to which part of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area they are searching in to figure out if I can help them directly or if they are a potential referral. Then I start the follow up specific to their search criteria.
One thing I do with new prospects, is activate the addresses and send an email to announce the new functionality. Currently, new prospects are automatically set to search the site without the ability to see the address or exact location of the homes. I think this is why over 90% of the prospects come to the site and never come back. Why should they when on other Twin Cities search sites, the address information is immediately available? I have had more new and retry prospects flipped into active since I discovered this in the third week.
I strongly recommend that users of the Growth Leader system be given the option when building their sites as to whether they want the addresses to show or not. If you are in a market where this information is readily available on competing sites, it may keep more registrants coming back if they have it available here.
Another thing...According to the Growth Leader performance evaluator, with over 100 leads, I should have at least one sale. That was good for a laugh after barely four weeks in the program. But there are some leads with good potential. It just may take a bit more time for that first sale.
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Copyright 2009 Teri Eckholm http://www.terieckholm.com/
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Dedication to customer service has made Teri Eckholm/REMAX Specialists the REALTOR® of choice for families in Blaine, Forest Lake, Ham Lake, Lino Lakes and Wyoming areas. Licensed in MN.
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Terry that is absolutely incredible. I hope a few of these leads turn into sales for you!
Bill--I hope so too! So far most of those I am talking with are going to have to be referred but there are a couple in my area.
WOW sounds like lots of activity. I talked to the salesperson and we don't have it here in Grand Rapids Yet. It will be interesting to see how many come to close. Good luck
Hi Teri, This is an excellent report and one that perhaps I should emulate as I have not been as clear in the status as you are with the category of the leads. I have spoken on the phone with quite a number and have regular conversations with a few. I think I will use this post as a guide for my next update but hopefully people don't mind that share some of the pleasant experiences I am having.
Teri, I agree with you that as many as 90% don't return due to the lack of listing address. My IDX site from my MLS has it so they can incorporate it for me. I asume the same info is available on an IDX site in your area, Karen and Art
Teri, How wonderful to read such good news. I'm sure some will turn into sales for you and much more work! Wonderful to read this!!
Hi Teri, thanks for the update. The 1 sale out of 100 prospects is what we've seen as an industry average, of course. I hope that one of your active prospects will turn into a close for you soon!
Hi Karen, whether or not the address shows up is merely a click in the settings changes within Vision. As the agent, you have the ability to turn the feature on or off.
Hi Teri, this is good to read today. I am just getting started with this and the website is being built. I might need your imput.
Terry--Stay tuned...I will let you know how things progress. So far the bulk of the leads are not active but I have been aggressive in trying to get the ones searching for higher valued homes in my area back to the site. I would love to get a sale or two out of the trial.
William--I appreciate your flattery! :) With my marketing background, I tend to give the numbers and a summary of the situation. I love your reports with details about a specific client and why they are choosing to work with you. The bulk of inquiries is impressive but the amount that are actually converting is not. But then I used to work in direct mail. Anything over 1% was good there!
Karen--I didn't realize the addresses weren't on the site for the first two weeks. I found out when someone called for more information and I ask them the address of the property and they said it wasn't on the site.
Then I went and started to click ALLOW to activate the address function as soon as the prospect signed up. It seems to get people to come back as more are returning in the third and fourth week.
I have talked with Will about this...I think when an agent signs up and has their site created they should have the option to allow or deny the addresses for all registrants to the site. That way if in your particular market the addresses are not available everywhere, you don't have to show them. But if you are in an area where every other real estate site has address information, your site will have them from the time of sign up. It is a pain to have to log on several times a day to activate addresses for each new registrant. Will said he would write up and discuss the recommendation.
Jennifer--I just thought it was a little humorous considering that the site has only been up four weeks. :)
As for the note you left Karen; it would be nice if we could turn on for ALL prospects at one time in markets where the address information is readily available on competitive sites. (I understand that some may not want to turn them all on so it should be optional.) Right now after I get a prospect, I have to log into Vision, allow the addresses and send an email notifying the prospect that the addresses are available. (If I don't sent the email and they don't return, they will never know I have activated the addresses.) Many more steps for an automated system than I would like to have.
Lizette--I had a few bumps along the way when things started...some won't be resolved until after the trial is over but I am making things work for me. I hope to get some good leads out of the system and leave some good feedback information for the Growth Leader team in the process. Let me know if you have any questions. :)
Carole--I missed you in the list...sorry. Thanks!! I hope that I can turn some of these prospects into clients and help them find great homes! :)
I will keep checking for your analysis of this program. They called me and I asked for a call back in April when I more know what my agncy offers and what I really need and can afford.
Kathleen--If Bob called, it is a free trial to start for about 3 months. Great way to jumpstart the leads into your real estate business.
Teri, I'm not exactly sure what this growth leader is, but I have seen a few agents here on AR using it. It seems to be that everyone is still experimenting with it. It seems to also be generate leads. Hopefully these leads will turn into transactions for you soon.
Troy--Growth Leader is a lead generation and tracking system that is new. Several AR bloggers were given trial accounts to test it out and write about how it is working. I am in that three month trial. It does generate leads...now if the leads pan out, it will be awesome. Subscribe and find out how it goes in the next few weeks.