Capturing Leads using TEXT Messages!

Seems like any of the major SMS services could do this.

As for the realitor version of this you linked to. Why would they want to do this?
To me this is a classic example of people thinking like an internet marketer in the offline space.

If I am looking for a house why do I want a free report on real estate scams? Also why would I text you to get it? It's one thing to give a fake email to get a report it is another to give out my real number.

My point is that all marketing should start with thinking about how the prospective customer will react. Does it even make common sense. If it does try it and test it.

Also I wonder 5x more lead than what?
Also since I am in a sales company I know their is a big difference between a lead and a buyer.

In our industry there is what they call the Go RVing campaign. This collects "leads" when people have to imput their info to watch a video. As you can guess these "leads" are worthless.

Any sales person worth a crap will want qualified leads. We don't have time to waste calling someone who isn't expecting a call (problem #1 with Go RVing leads) and who are not looking to buy.

So before you try to replicate this service you linked to. Stop and think.. will it provide qualified leads to my clients? Can I show the value to my clients?

you could just handle that yourself. make a mobile website where users have to enter their mobile number/email to receive your download, gather that info into a database. and then you can work with mobile messaging/email delivery services to get continued material sent to your lists.

to aaron... why wouldn't a prospect want an article related to the services they're interested in? also they're not as stingy with their information as you are as an internet marketer, giving a phone number or email is no big deal, ESPECIALLY dealing locally. it would probably be exciting to them, innovation always is.

I wouldnt mind giving this a try around the colleges in my town. Offer some cool discount or report/guide and then upsell them on cpa, affiliate or even offer them to local businesses for solo ads.

Honestly I would say I am more willing to give my info than most people I know.

And most everyone will take something free of value.

I'm just saying texting to get this report feels like too much work to most people.

Also as I pointed out are the people who agree to this qualified leads? I personally don't think they are. I wouldn't waste time with this is it was presented to me in my industry (RV sales).

So the method creates two problems.
1. Getting the "lead" to see the value in the free item you are offering so they will text their number to it.
2. Getting the potential clients to see these as "qualified leads".

And putting myself into the shoes of both I don't see the value.
1. A free report isn't worth my time and effort. Honestly the on I see in their picture on the main page sounds like soemthing I would see on MSN weekly.
2. As a former salesperson(and sales manager at another company as well) who still works for an RV dealership I question the value of these "leads". They are not qualified. They are busy work for me or my staff. Now if I need busy work maybe I buy into it. Or if I see the post cards as branding and the "leads" as a bonus from the branding.

Finally those who do request the report. Do we believe they will be expecting a phone call? Or are we creating a situation where we may be potentially creating negative branding for our client? Basically they call these people who end up pissed they called (our client likely would not know their name and only have a number), and have a negative view of our client.

As I pointed out before for many professional services referrals both from customers and from those who know of them from branding is a key to new clients. It is how we work as customers. When we need a realitor, lawyer, doctor, or etc we ask those in our social circles who they recommend. So do we want people out there saying don't use Aaron Doud as a realitor because he called and harassed me on my phone when I wasn't even looking for a realitor? Professionals need to build an image that they are the best. And to do that they need the image that they are busy. If they are calling people who don't need realitors that speaks of being desperate and hurts that professional image.

Now do you want a post card idea that offers something free that would get qualified leads?

Make up a post card and use the every door method (Bob Ross method) to mail them to mail routes the realitor wants to target. Offer a free home valuation. Basically this is the same thing a realitor would do when listing a house. The key here is the free item has value but only has value to a segment of "qualified leads" basically those starting to think about selling their homes. These are great leads as most home sellers are also home buyers so this is two half commission at least from these clients. The realitor likely has quick tools where the valuation could be done in 5 mins or less as well so it is not time consuming if he does get a few bad leads.

Like I said stop thinking like an internet marketer and start thinking like a marketer.
How can I get my client leads?
How can I make sure they are qualified?
Do I know someone who is in the targeted group that I can get feedback from on my idea?

Think about this from other offline busineses.
Do you see car lots offering free reports to get leads? Pizza places? McDonald's? Wal-Mart? Hotels?
Why don't they?
Because the customers they are targeting and the products they are selling do not match up with this method.

Not every client and their targeted market will work for every method. I've already spoken about how many of us here seem to push marketing that we like vs. marketing that will work. Many here have a habit of talking smack about old school marketing methods that have worked for decades and continue to work. If you don't know how to market to the targeted market you need to talk to the client and see what has worked in the past. Or if you are just focusing on one or two methods (social media, web design, ect etc) understand how to show them the value they will get by adding this into their current marketing mix.

To put myself in the realitor's shoes again. That website offers 5 times more leads.
So I ask vs. what? Vs. just the post card on it's own?
And does it provide more qualified leads?
I know every lead that calls me off the post card is qualified. They want to talk to a realitor either as a buyer or seller.

But about the free report?
Just because they wanted a free report on real estate scams doesn't mean they want to buy or sell. Also can we be sure that every qualified lead I would have gotten with a good post card would request the free report.

Lets say I mail out 10,000 post cards and get 20 "qualified leads"
Now let's say we send out 10,000 post cards and get 100 to request the report.

The 20 qualified leads all turn into clients for our realitor.
But we have no idea how many of these "leads" who requested the report are qualified. What if he only gets 15 clients from these.

He literally is doing more work and may end up with less clients even though he got more leads.

Leads only matter when they are qualified.

Think about it this way let's say we are selling an info product to C4 ZR1 Corvette owners. This is a super targeted niche. Our product is a techinical manual on the LT5 engine (what made a ZR-1 different from a base Corvette). On a PPC campaign would I want to target people searching for "Corvette"? Of course not. How about "Chevy Corvette"? No again. In both cases the vast majority of people who would see and maybe even click the ads would not be qualified leads.

How about "1990 Corvette intake". We might want to target this as we know the 1990 had the most ZR1s sold and intake clearly means they are looking for engine help. But I syspect the person looking for that intake would actually search "1990 Corvette ZR1 intake". "LT5 intake", or "Corvette LT5 intake", or similar. And we would want to target those long tail searches.

I used Corvettes here for two reasons.
1. I know they so could make it realisitic.
2. The vast majority here would not know them as well. Thus they would stop and think about how even online and thinking like and internet marketer they would need to think about the target audience of the niche. Hopefully that helped you visualize how you can take that same research skill and use it offline.

Once again no matter what you are selling.....
Only qualified leads matter!
1 qualified lead that is ready to buy is worth 100 unqualified leads if only 1 in 100 converts. Hell myself I would take one qualified lead over 1000 unqualified ones that only 1% would convert. I don't need "busy" work. Most successful people don't need busy work. But all of them no matter how much business they currently have are unlikely to turn away qualfied leads ready to buy.

I know some might ask, but Aaron why would you take one sale over 10 sales you could get from the 1,000 leads? Simple answer is my time is worth more.

I might get 10 sales from the 1,000 but if every phone call takes 5 mins to disqualify I have wasted over 80 hours calling them. And all that prspecting time with unqualified leads ate into my time taking care of real clients. I don't need two plus weeks of busy work, do you? And the better question is do your clents need busy work?