What do you pay for a lead these days?
I don’t know about you, but it seems my lead costs are going Up and Up and Up…
Depending on the business you might pay anywhere from $0.50 to $20 for a lead.
And if you want actual buyers of your products and services, your costs might run from $40 to over $3,000!
Regardless of your lead source, you’re probably spending a lot of money at the top of your funnel to drive leads.
The problem is, you’re leaving money on the table if you’re not managing these leads in just the right way…
Here’s what the marketing gurus tell you to do…
Most marketing gurus tell you the same thing… though I’m sure they have a fancy way of labeling this process.
You start by running an ad, and offer something for free.
A lot of people call this offer a lead magnet.
When you get someone to click on your ad, you send them to a squeeze page. This is where you squeeze some contact information from your prospect… you might ask for an email address or phone number.
Once they signup to get your free lead magnet… you start following up.
Now that you have someone who is interested in your product or service, you start educating them and start sending them offers.
Many marketers load this information into an auto responder or drip sequence… so the information and offers are delivered over time.
I’ve met some marketers who have a follow-up sequence of 3 or 4 days… and others who push their follow-up for 9 months or more.
Talk about a lot of work!
Eventually, some percentage of these prospects end up pulling out their credit card and buying your product or service! Congratulations, you’re on the cutting edge of modern online business.
Once you know how many people buy, and what your profit margins are… you can dial in your numbers. If you’ve done it right, you have a nice profit and you can start buying more and more traffic… generating more and more leads… leading to more and more sales!
It’s a wonderful system.
But you’ve missed out on a huge opportunity…
Spinning Gold from Forgotten Leads!
If you stopped there, you’d be like 99% of marketers out there…
To really supercharge your results, you’ve got to find a way to reach out to your forgotten leads and turn some of them into buyers.
Remember, you’ve already paid to get them as a lead… so every new customer who buys your product or service is like found money!
So, what do you do?
You put on your thinking cap and you figure out how to approach these forgotten leads in new and unique ways.
New Ways to Approach Old Leads
Here are a few quick ways to think about your old leads…
The first step is to identify what your original offer was… and repackage the same offer and get it in front of the prospect at a later date.
Look, not everyone who expresses an interest in something will jump in and buy at the first offer.
I know, I spent a ton of time researching golf clubs. What got me to move was the rapidly approaching golf season here in Phoenix.
Sometimes getting a prospect to buy is all about timing!
If that doesn’t work, we move to step two…
Do you know how many millions of abandoned carts there are every day?
People have a nasty habit of starting the buying process, then stopping just before making the purchase. It’s a process that allows people to think about purchases (Especially big purchases) be for hitting the final “BUY” button.
How do you get people to move?
Step Two – Give prospects a reason to take action.
Maybe you put up a deadline. Does a special offer go away soon?
Is your product almost sold out? Simply reminding prospects they were interested… and they might miss out if they don’t take action… is enough to get them to buy.
Another idea… if you’re anticipating a price increase, let prospects know so they have time to act.
Or, you might simply add something to sweeten the mix… this is where bonuses come in handy.
You can make anything a bonus… from a token product (pen sets, coffee mugs, t-shirts) to digital giveaways (bonus reports, check lists, fast start guides)… to exclusive access (free consulting time, one to one guidance).
Regardless of what your cattle prod is, make sure the prospect knows they need to take action!
You can also offer a coupon that expires – but I hate to discount my product.
I’d rather offer a bonus, rather than cut prices.
If that doesn’t get forgotten leads to move… try the next step…
Step Three, Reach Out In New Ways
I know this will come as a complete surprise… but not every prospect gets (or opens, or reads) your email messages.
I know it can be frustrating when communicating with prospects.
You spend hours writing the perfect email… you send it out… and “crickets!”
Nobody responds, nobody calls, nobody orders.
You’d think the word had come to an end!
This is where alternative communication methods really start to shine.
If you normally email people, send them a text message.
Or call them…
Or write them a letter…
Or DM them on Twitter….
Or message them in Facebook…
Or message them in Instagram…
Follow-up with every client in numerous ways. Why am I a big proponent of alternate communication methods?
Because I know how many billions of messages get caught up in spam filters every day… and how many physical letters go unread… and how many social media accounts are all but abandoned.
Look, every prospect is different… and everyone communicates in different ways. Think about your own family… you probably have a relative who only calls you on the phone… they don’t text or email.
You probably also have a relative who won’t pick up a call, but will spend three hours texting back and forth with you. (They’re probably a millennial!)
Figure out what method of communication your prospect prefers and reach out to them that way!
If you’re still seeing lots of forgotten leads on your list, I have one big final suggestion…
Step Four, Do Something Shocking!
Many business owners can’t wrap their heads around this idea, but it could make you big money over time.
I want you to do something shocking…
I want you to take all your forgotten leads and offer them something completely different.
Let’s say you sell home good products online. You’re probably sitting on contact information for thousands or tens of thousands of clients who have never bought a single product from you.
So, switch gears… offer them something different.
Partner with a food products company and offer your contacts a deal on imported french cheese, or Italian Olive oil, or British sausages.
Partner with a cooking school and offer your customers a discount on an online cooking class… or a specialty cookbook.
Ideally, you’re looking for products you don’t offer that would be complementary to your prospect list.
For example, if you sell software for small business online… offer a different type of software, or business consulting, or phone services… or text marketing systems!
Here’s A Real World Example
I’ve worked on an off over two years with a high end cabinet company in Scottsdale Arizona..
They have a fantastic lead funnel. (I helped set it up!)
They start by running Facebook and Google ads. The offer is a free consultation and kitchen design for qualified customers.
As soon as a prospect signs up, we ask them a number of questions to prequalify them.
After jumping that hurdle, the designers reach out (via text and phone) and schedule a one on one consultation.
We know that a certain percentage of those consultations and designs leads to formal “bids” on new high end kitchen cabinets… and eventually paying customers.
But what happens to the forgotten leads?
What happens to a lead that goes cold?
After several months we have a follow-up sequence that involves reconnecting with the customer, letting them know about new product offerings, and connecting over updating their kitchen designs.
This is where it gets interesting…
A certain percentage of customers just never respond – they’re the dead fish, and we quickly purge them from the follow-up sequence.
However, a small percentage of clients it turns out put the cart before the horse.
They started seeking out kitchen designs before looking into the building or remodeling process.
As a result, a few months later, they come back around and rework their kitchen designs and eventually buy.
This is why the follow-up sequence a few months later is critical.
Here’s another interesting point.
In this line of business about every 6 months the cabinet lines change, and 6 months later prices are modified.
It gives the company a perfect reason to follow up every few months with prospects. They get to discuss new offerings, and changes in pricing.
Just last year, they sent out a price increase email to a prospect. Their project was still 6 months out… but they signed a contract and dropped off their deposit, just to avoid the nominal price increase.
One email got a customer to move, and drove a $50,000 sale!
Is this process time consuming?
You bet.
It takes time and effort to follow-up with each and every prospect (because we use email, phone, and text).
However, when you consider some high end kitchen cabinet packages can run $150,000 or more, the follow-up is well worth the effort…. And very profitable.
I hope this article gave you a few ideas about how to turn your forgotten leads into gold!
If you have a unique follow-up idea, shoot me an email, I’d love to hear what you’re doing. Maybe we’ll feature you in a future blog post!
Did you find this marketing article interesting? If so, you should download our free book about text marketing for business…
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