We’re switching up the format of our monthly Carrot Lead Harvest Reports to not just live up to our core value of transparency by showing our actual data so you can learn what’s working to generate leads online and what’s not… but we want to start to highlight real stories from investors around the country so you know what they’re doing with some of these leads that we’re reporting on each month… and how they’re Harvesting deals consistently online.
This month we’re diving into…
- The “Holiday season dip“
- How many leads our members generated and where they came from
- Highlighting Connor’s story on how he’s “Harvested” over $60,000 in new closed deals in the past 6 months leveraging the InvestorCarrot system and our guidance (awesome!)
The Holiday Season Dip (wait for the Q1 bounce!)
As we’ve written about before, the holiday season (especially when there is harsh weather like some parts of the country are seeing) sees less house sellers hitting the web to actively sell their home. More time is being spent with families and selling a house around the holidays can be tough.
However, the 3rd quarter of 2015 showed that flipping houses in general is up from this time 2014, and the total volume of leads for InvestorCarrot members in 2015 grew by a wide margin from Q1 to Q4. Check out the past months Harvest Reports to see the upward trend.
Below we dive into the places the leads came from in December… which shows you that Inbound marketing… specifically SEO and content marketing are still leading the charge by a very wide margin (studies show up to 60% of “direct” leads that Google reports are actually from Google searches).
December 2015 Real Estate Investing Lead Sources
So congrats to all of you Carrot members who crushed it in December and still had time to enjoy time off, some egg nog, and time with your family. Great way to finish the year!
With Fewer Leads In Holiday Months Are Deals Still Closing Consistently?
You bet. Realty Trac released it’s Q3 2015 U.S. home flipping report and in that report they state…
“43,197 single family homes and condos were flipped — sold as part of an arms-length sale for the second time within a 12-month period — in the third quarter of 2015, 5.0 percent of all single family home and condo sales during the quarter.”
Holy cow! That’s a lot of house flipping going on :-)
The report breaks down markets for the flips and covers more details about the report and the methodology for which the data was gathered.
Knowing that there are deals to be made, it forces you to step back and get the basics down first, and that is generating leads. It’s hard to do a deal without the lead.
Today, we wanted to spotlight Connor, an InvestorCarrot member who was struggling to crack the first page of Google in a crowded market. We interviewed Connor and asked what he did to get to the first page of Google for top motivated house seller keywords in a hyper-competitive market, and how those results have paid off for him.
Connor Steinbrook’s $60k Deal Harvest Story: Closing Deals In A Competitive Market
Connor is an investor in the Dallas market, which is one of the most competitive markets in the country.
Many of you reading this may be thinking…
“But if there are already Carrot members doing well in my market can I succeed too?”
Well, read this other post we wrote first, then come back here… but the answer is ABSOLUTELY YES.
Connor was brand new into the market in 2015 and got focused and implemented our system and leveraged our resources…
… and is carving out his own space in that crowded market.
The cool thing is… there were already dozens of Carrot members in the Dallas market before Connor ever entered it, but he didn’t sit back and relax and wait for magic to happen without doing anything… he busted his butt and leveraged every resource available to him here at Carrot and outworked most of the others in that market (there are other Dallas Carrot users crushing it as well!).
So let’s dive in and hear from Connor!
Q: What was your biggest problem in generating leads online at the start?
Connor: “I needed more automated leads that would come in with consistency throughout the day without taking all of my time and focus away from my daily business.”
Connor started researching real estate investing and how to wholesale properties. After trying a few methods online he realized that his biggest limiting factor was the consistency of leads.
He did some research and found InvestorCarrot and signed up a little over a year ago.
Connor: “I have closed over $60,000 dollars in deals off my Carrot Sites alone in the last 6 months”
Q: What would you attribute to your success so far?
Connor: “Hard work and following the plan. I spent 9 months studying and implementing… watching the Carrot training videos, making YouTube videos, and writing original content for every page I have. I knew it would be a lot of work so I just set goals to do a little bit every day.”
Connor attended a lot of our weekly LIVE Coaching Calls (included in our Content Pro plan), went through our trainings, and experimented a lot with is InvestorCarrot websites.
Inching up the Google rankings…
Connor says “I was nowhere to be found after 6 to 7 months within Google” for his target market of Dallas (crazy competitive and that 6-7 month timeline is expected with a fresh website in a market like that).
But after following a proven model and letting Google index his pages, he noticed he moved up to the 5th page.
From there it only took a month to get to page 3 and then another month to get up the 1st page on Google for his targeted keyword.
Connor: “The leads come in every week. The entire Carrot team is awesome. Their customer support is great. Jake has helped me every step of the way. I owe him a lot. I refer people to Carrot all the time.”
Q: How does InvestorCarrot help your business the most?
For Connor, InvestorCarrot has been fundamental for bringing a steady flow of leads. This is important for all investors, but in a crowded market like Connor’s, having a team of experts to bounce questions to and help guide him was critical.
Connor: “I even get leads when I sleep. I wake up with leads in my email sometimes. You never know when you’re going to get a text with the next motivated seller coming from your Carrot site”
Getting Real Results Requires Focused, Consistent, And Strategic Work (or outsource it to someone who will)
Reading stories like this are inspiring and awesome. We love them to.
But a key I want to hone in on here is that in competitive markets… if you’re going to focus solely on SEO and pulling in leads from Google organic search rankings… it’s going to take time and a lot of focused, consistent, and strategic work.
That’s where Connor dove right in and took the challenge head on, and we’re glad as heck we’ve been able to help him along the way to get there faster, more easily, and with a higher ROI.
Q: Do you have any advice that you would like to give other investors who are in competitive markets and want to pull in consistent leads and deals through SEO?
Connor: “It is a lot of work to get your site to the number 1 ranking. Try to not get overwhelmed. Don’t think you have to do it all at once. Set a game plan and daily, weekly, and monthly goals. Do something every day to make your sites better. And align with experts who can be there for you every step of the way”
He is right, but all that work doesn’t need to be a burden. You have many options when getting that work done. You can break it down to small tasks, like Connor said and just make small improvements weekly. Or you can hire someone if you have a marketing budget to do it for you. You can find more information about managed SEO services in our marketplace.
The Hockey Stick ROI of SEO (when you do it right)
Connor decided to focus his time and energy on SEO, leveraging our built in SEO tools and industry leading Search Engine Optimization methodology built into our system and our training. When you implement a proven plan consistently over time your return on investment from SEO can turn into your most profitable form of marketing. We also suggest launching other ways to drive qualified visitors to your website while you work on your SEO… like PPC marketing for motivated house sellers, Craigslist, etc.
But it takes time and patience. Those who can wait are rewarded.
But the biggest takeaway from Connor’s story is this…
SEO takes time, but the ROI from it is incredibly lucrative.
If you are struggling with your SEO, not sure what to do next, join us on a Coaching Calls if you are already an InvestorCarrot member. These weekly live calls are designed to help each other out with what strategies are working, how to get unstuck, and learn other ways investors are making SEO pay out big time for them.
Don’t have access to the Coaching Calls? Consider upgrading as the overall ROI from getting 1 deal under your belt pays for your Carrot membership for 5+ years.
Congrats Connor! Let’s celebrate with Connor together! Hard work and focus pays off.
Not an InvestorCarrot member yet? Consider taking a demo or joining us today and see if it’s a fit to help you grow your real estate investing business.