Search results for: “ppc”

  • February Harvest Report – Lead Data & Survey Results

    February Harvest Report – Lead Data & Survey Results

    2016.02_harvest-report-main

    As we wrap up another month in 2016 we are ready to bring you InvestorCarrot’s lead data for February. Despite being the shortest month of the year, the lead volume was right on pace with December and January.

    InvestorCarrot members generated 14,178 online opt in leads last month (this doesn’t include the tens of thousands of phone call leads). Which is very close to the 14,212 leads that were generated in January. Consistent lead flow is a great asset for a business. If you are driving traffic on a consistent basis it can make your marketing dollars stretch when you know which channel are your most profitable.

    During the month of February, InvestorCarrot members generated 14,178 leads across all of their sites.
    During the month of February, InvestorCarrot members generated 14,178 leads across all of their sites.

    Thanks to everyone who took our 2016 survey last month! The survey gave us great insight and data

    We ran a survey in February to get a little more information about how many deals members were closing from their leads, and to get some feedback on how we can make improve Carrot even more in 2016 (we have exciting news on the horizon).

    The general consensus among our team after conducting this survey was…we need to do these more often.

    We got a ton of great feedback from our members and got a lot of great questions from the form.

    We read through every single submission, suggestion, and question. After talking with our team, we wanted to put together some answers and share some of the data we gathered from the survey.

    Our hopes in sharing these results, is it answers a question you have, shows you where you are at in comparison to other Carrot members, and gets you excited about some of the changes we have in store for Carrot.

    So let’s get started with some data and insights we found from the survey.

    1. 74% of our members primary investing strategy is either Wholesaling or Fix & Flip

    This isn’t a huge surprise to us, but we were curious if members were using their Carrot websites for investing strategies that were new and creative. We did find a few note buyers and commercial real estate investors.

    The breakdown wholesaling came in at 43% and fix and flip was 31%.

    2. 34% of our members have closed between 1-5 deals in the past 12 months

    We are always curious about how many deals our members are closing from the leads they generate on their website. Tracking that data would be difficult and is often left to us reaching out to customers and hearing about their success. With this survey we were pleasantly surprised when a lot of members shared with us how many deals they have closed.

    Closing 1-5 deals is a huge success and we are proud as heck that our members are turning leads into revenue. Nearly 29% of Carrot member said they have yet to close a deal from their Carrot websites. We are constantly working on ways we can improve Carrot to help bring this number down.

    9% of Carrot members said they closed over 20 deals in the last 12 months.

    These members tend to be leveraging a lot of different marketing strategies and are driving a large amount of traffic. If you’d like to learn about ramping up your marketing budget and leads, consider investing in an SEO firm or a PPC campaign. Talk with us today about how we can help.

    3. We asked about what content you wanted us to write…the answer was overwhelmingly SEO

    We were curious what types of blog posts, training’s, and featured content our members and prospects wanted to read from us. Within our company, we all had our hunches, but we asked, and you answered. The highest ranked topics were SEO, Pay Per Click, and Content Marketing.

    This data excited us because those happen to be what we are great at and have a lot of data on. To better help our members with SEO we will be retooling some of our content to give more in-depth SEO advice, better PPC information, and make content marketing even better for you in 2016.

    4. The most common frustrations, plus their answers

    Probably the most important question we asked in the survey was “What is your current biggest frustration?”

    We heard a lot of great feedback and were able to quickly resolve some of the frustrations with a simple tutorial or website tweak.

    Here are a few of the top frustration Carrot members are having.

    Frustration #1: Standing out in a crowded market

    stand-out-in-a-crowded-market

    One of the recurring questions/concerns we saw on the survey were members saying they are seeing more and more Carrot members pop up in their market.

    First of all, we view this as a huge benefit. You have the same tools and resources that others do and seeing other Carrot members appear means something is working. Even Starbucks has multiple storefronts operating on the same block. So how do you stand out in a crowd? The answer is easy. Brand yourself with your unique selling proposition, build credibility, deliver value, and make your site look different.

    Carrot can help with the last one. We are constantly testing website elements and will have new features that allow you to make changes to your site.

    We wrote about 6 ways to stand out in your market. Read about it here.

    Frustration #2: Getting leads to return phone calls

    get-a-lead-to-call-back

    This one is tricky. You can only help people who want to be helped (or so the saying goes).

    But you have to put yourself in the leads shoes. There is a good chance the leads are submitting their information on a few websites. They do this to get an idea if other investors will offer more than what you can offer.

    The key to getting a lead on the phone is calling them as soon as they submit a form on your site. You MUST do this because they are in the state of mind where they WANT to hear an offer, and calling them back shows you are quick, professional, and have your business running efficiently. If you don’t have SMS text notifications turned on your Carrot forms, read more about them here. 

    Frustration #3: Having someone write unique content

    custom-content-writer

    We understand that writing 100% unique content takes time. Someone on our team is writing every single day and you know what, we know it’s hard and not everything you write turns into profits.

    If you are too busy to write content, but want to hire a professional copywriter that understands real estate investing, hang tight…

    We are actively working on a solution that will allow you to purchase content for your Carrot site within our marketplace.

    Some members are unaware, but if you are a Content Pro member you have access to our content packs. These are pre-written, SEO optimized blog posts. Each month our team writes 12 new articles that our software spins them to be localized for your area to give you a jumpstart. In literally 3 minutes you can schedule your blog content for an entire month. Learn more here.

    Content marketing takes time. In fact, if you are expecting to see results from content marketing immediately, you should shift your traffic strategy something that delivers results faster (like PPC or YouTube marketing).

    At the very least it can take a couple weeks (if not more) for Google to crawl your site and index the new content. So putting out 100% custom content is only half the battle. You need to find ways to get that content in front of people who are asking questions. This is where conversation marketing comes into the mix. If you have never heard of conversation marketing, drop what you are doing and go here to learn all about it.

    Plus, we’re rolling out a full copywriting service in our marketplace in March where you can have our “hired gun” copywriters write custom content for your website for you! Be on the lookout.

    Frustration #4: Not knowing what to do to get the highest ROI

    not-sure-what-to-do-get-get-high-roi

    This really is the million dollar question. If we knew the answer to this, trust us, you would know.

    The thing is… it can be different for every investor depending on lots of variables.

    We love sharing data with our members to help them succeed. The honest answer to this question is it depends. Do you have time to learn and implement marketing strategies? If no, then hire someone. Do you have a marketing budget to pay for someone to manage a pay per click account or your SEO? If not, you will either need to learn or close a deal to then bankroll your growth.

    You might not think you have time to learn SEO or other marketing strategies, but at the very least you should understand their basic concepts. If you are looking to hire someone you should make sure to ask all the right questions and have a good idea of what they will be doing on your website.

    If you are interested in learning more about SEO, Pay Per Click, YouTube, Backlinks, and a lot of other marketing strategies then consider our 3 Leads Per Day training. This training is the single best resource for real estate investors looking to market online TODAY.

    To learn more about our 3 Leads Per Day Training, go here.

    Be on the lookout for great new training and massive software upgrades in 2016 based on the feedback.

    Keep sending in your feedback and go out there and crush it. And when you need help… just reach out to us! We’re always here for you.

    We heard a lot of great feedback like we mentioned. We took all of it to heart and will be incorporating it into the new features, training’s, and tools we roll out this year. We sent some personalized emails to members answering the questions we could quickly help them fix on their site.

    If we didn’t answer a big question you have about Carrot, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We welcome all feedback and would love to discuss how we can make Carrot better for your business in 2016.

  • 6 Simple (but powerful) Questions A Six-Figure Per Month Wholesaler Asks Motivated House Sellers

    6 Simple (but powerful) Questions A Six-Figure Per Month Wholesaler Asks Motivated House Sellers

    questions to ask motivated seller leads

    Don’t you wish you could listen in while a 6 figure per month wholesaler talks to a motivated seller? Many real estate wholesalers focus so much on “getting the lead” that they forget that a huge leverage point in closing more deals in the first 3 minutes on the phone with a motivated seller.

    Bryan Harris

    Bryan Harris, the CEO of  Homes For 10k, a 6-figure per month investor and Carrot member from Memphis Tennessee hopped on and walked us through 6 of his most important questions he asks during the initial motivated seller prospect call.

    But first, Bryan wanted to stress the importance of perhaps the single most important (yet simple) thing that most investors just flat fail at that is costing them deal after deal without them even knowing it.

    Did You Know, You’re…

    100x-more-sales

    Talking with Bryan and several other real estate wholesalers and flippers who do $100k/mo in different markets around the country they always say they’re amazed at how few of their “competitors” call back the leads they get quickly.

    As InsideSales study said…

    ‘It’s like taking all of that money you spend on marketing and setting it on fire.”

    The bottom line there is a lot of competition, so call back your leads as soon as you get them in.

    There’s no such thing as too fast. Online leads can be a very impatient bunch. Competition can be Fierce. Leads have many other investors to contact, so they expect a very fast response to their inquiries. Ideally, you will respond to them with a phone call within a few minutes. Always be prepared to respond. Have your questions ready to go.

    You can be the best negotiator in the world… but if you’re not following Bryan’s advice above on calling back your web leads immediately… you’re competition could be grabbing deals out from under you before you even get the chance to call the seller.

    Quick Tip: Have your web leads instantly sent to your phone with a text message!

    seller-leads

    The Carrot Instant Text Message Lead Notification feature sends you a text message as soon as leads come in so you can tap a button and call back your web leads immediately.

    This feature alone could possibly save you from losing a deal or more every year and pay for your Carrot membership for years and years and years.

    Not A Carrot Member Yet? Take a demo to see why the top investors are all switching to Carrot!

    6 Simple High-Impact Questions to Ask Motivated House Seller Leads When You Call

    script for talking to motivated house sellers

    So, you got a lead that came in over the web, GREAT! You already know that you NEED to call them back immediately and that every minute that passes your chances at turning it into a deal goes down.

    Now, let’s dive into what Bryan Harris, a 6 figure per month wholesaler in Memphis says on the phone when he talks with motivated house sellers.

    Now let’s turn it over to Bryan! 

    Brendan: Bryan, it’s all, you man!

    Bryan: Awesome, I’ll just go ahead and dive in!

    Ok, so when I call back a motivated house seller I like to start the phone call very much like I’d start a call with a friend of mine. You don’t want to go straight to the numbers and the deal.

    I’ll dive into my basic structure for talking to motivated sellers in this post. I’m not really going to give a “motivated seller phone script” mainly because I feel that when you use scripts things don’t come off as authentic and real.

    So I’d be doing a disservice to you if I told you to “grab my script and just use this”.

    We’ll focus on the overall structure and mindset. Another great resource is my own coach Sean T. and this video he made about the process of talking with motivated sellers. It’s great so couple that with my 6 questions below.

    The first thing I ask house sellers when I reach them on the phone is…

    5 Signs You’re Likely To Fail As An Entrepreneur And Real Estate Investor

    Question #1: “How are you today?”

    I know you’re probably thinking, “Really? That’s one of the 6 questions?”. But it’s an important one. I ask this because I’ve found that people don’t care what you know until they know that you care.

    This question is about the RAPPORT building, that is a must when talking to sellers.

    You have to remember that there are hundreds of thousands of people doing exactly what you do, WHAT SEPARATES YOU FROM THE REST OF THE OTHER PEOPLE THAT WANT TO BUY THEIR HOUSE?

    People tend to do business with people that they like and a simple THOUGHT FELT QUESTION like “How is your day?” can separate you from the pack.

    One particular deal that comes to mind is the one that we recently obtained.

    A $170,000 property for $22,000 here in Memphis.

    That’s not a typo. 

    The seller told me she was bombarded by wholesalers. I asked her what stood out about me and our company and she said, she was about to lose her house to foreclosure and it seemed like I was the one who “cared” the most.

    Needless to say. $120,000 profit later CARING IS SHARING…lol.

    Question #2:  “What’s your reason for selling?”

    Knowing the motivation of your sellers is, of course, a big deal.

    I ask this question to determine motivation. If the motivation isn’t there, when you present your low offer, you have no purpose to reference.

    Motivation factor: The dire need for money to pay for college tuition that costs $5500 this semester.

    As an example a conversation may go something like this:

    Mr. Seller, I know you were asking for $29,000 and you may have others that have promised you more, but I can have $7,500 cash in your hand in 7 days and with that cash you can PAY FOR YOUR TUITION AND have $2,000 left for spending money

    And school starts in 3 weeks. I can close by mid next week so that you can MEET YOUR REGISTRATION DEADLINE.

    Too many investors discount the value they bring to the table with sellers and buyers and talk themselves out of a great deal. Find the true motivation and biggest pain point that the house seller has, and help them reach that goal as easily as possible. It could be a huge win-win for everyone.

    Finding the motivation allows you to take their minds off the low offer you have presented, and focus on being the SOLUTION to their problem.

    Question #3: “What is your name, number, and email?”

    Did you notice this isn’t the first thing I asked for on the call?

    A lot of people dive right in and ask for the contact info but what I’ve found is people can see it as threatening and putting the cart before the horse a bit. By this time I of course already have their phone number, but I’ll also confirm if this is their BEST phone number.

    The importance of this information is because the FORTUNE IS IN THE FOLLOW UP.

    TIP: EVERY SELLER NO MATTER WHAT GETS AN EMAILED CONTRACT OFFER FROM ME. EVERY SINGLE SELLER,  EVEN IF THEY REJECTED MY OFFER.

    And for the next year, they will receive an automated email and text from me monthly.

    Most people do business with you on the 5th through the 12th contact. So by you following up with leads, you OUT PERFORM 98% of your competition.

    Use automated systems such as AWeber or MailChimp for drip systems or do follow up emails for later dates. Or, Callfire for text deliveries.  Find a way to automate your follow up and your life will be much easier.

    InvestorCarrot integrates with Aweber and Mailchimp directly and makes it easy to get my leads into Callfire too.

    Question #4: “Are you the decision-maker?”

    This is a really important question.

    The last thing you want is to get down to it and the person you’re talking too can’t really make the decision on selling their house alone.

    I like to always double-check to make sure there isn’t anyone else on the title that need to sign in order to sell the property. If there are, find a time to discuss their options with all of the decision-makers present.

    This helps you avoid the “let me talk it over with my (fill in the blank)” 

    Knowing if you are speaking with the decision-maker is very important information needed upfront.

    Related Content: Real Estate Marketing: 8 Tips to Find Motivated Sellers on Craigslist

    Question #5: “Are there any mortgages, back taxes, liens etc.?”

    In addition to just the obvious reasons, this keeps down surprises… this question is a really great one to continue to build rapport.

    You may have made an offer based on the house being free and clear and not knowing there was a mortgage attached, you get to the closing table and find out there is an outstanding lien and the seller says, you didn’t ask that question.

    Always find out all of the details on the house so you don’t have any last-minute surprises when it comes time to close on the property.

    You’ll thank me later for this one.

    Question #6: “How did you hear about us?”

    This question is so so simple but very powerful.

    How many sellers have you asked this question recently?

    Not only does this question help them dig through their brain bank to remember what stood out about us… which helps validate their original decision to reach out to us… but this helps me spend my marketing dollars where I am getting the most bang for my bucks.

    Knowing where my leads come from is crucial information for any business.

    The vast majority of my deals come from my Carrot websites and PPC marketing

    If this question is not asked, you will need to review your business weekly.
    The majority of your leads may be coming from one specific source and the only way to effectively know is to ask this question.

    Now Get Busy + What Do You Ask Sellers When You Call Them?

    First, if you have some other things you talk to motivated house sellers about when you’re on the phone with them… let us know in the questions panel below! 

    Bryan! Thanks for dropping in here and passing along some simple but awesome advice for the newer real estate wholesalers and flippers out there looking for a script and questions to ask for motivated house sellers! We appreciate it and look forward to bringing you back and diving into even more advanced stuff next time!

    But for some inspiration, here is a Facebook post that Bryan recently posted that should get you fired up to achieve at a high level and to focus on what you do best and align with the people and systems that can help you succeed.

    bryan-harris-memphis-real-estate-coach

    So, given today’s challenging real estate market, you want to treat lead inquiries like diamonds.

    When you call your sellers… 

    1. Build rapport at the start
    2. Find out their motivation for selling
    3. Get their full contact info for followup
    4. Dig out any hidden details about the property / mortgage before they bite you
    5. Find out how they found you

    I’m sure there are many more questions you could ask, but these 6 should get you started.

    Download This Simple “6 Seller Questions”
    Checklist For Your Next Call

    [Free Download] 6 Initial Questions to Ask Motivated Seller Leads Checklist.
    Keep it near you for an easy reminder of the initial questions to ask.

    Need More Online Leads For Your Wholesaling / House Flipping Business?

    Generate More Real Estate Investing Leads And Cut Through The Marketing Clutter In Your Market.  Download our FREE Marketing Toolkit: Get Access To This Content Marketing Toolkit + Training For Real Estate Investors here!

    And take a Demo of Carrot today to leverage the same system that Bryan uses to generate his online leads and deals each and every month.

  • 3 Top Tips for Planning Your 2016 Search Engine Marketing Budget

    3 Top Tips for Planning Your 2016 Search Engine Marketing Budget

    2016.02.3-2016seobudget-main

    How much should you invest in search engine marketing in 2016? This includes SEO and PPC. Well in this post we’ll dive into the 3 things I consider when I dive in to create an effective and high ROI SEM (search engine marketing) budget for myself and the clients that we work with in the real estate industry.

    If you’re feeling beads of sweat drip down as you try to determine where to spend your marketing dollars to get more real estate deals for the highest ROI, don’t fret. I have three top tips to help you make smart decisions.

    1. Dig Into The Long-Tail Keywords, Not Just The “Broad” Popular Ones Your Competitors Are Using

    Long tail keywords are easier to leverage and often times bring a high quality visitor to your site.

    Why?

    They’re very specific – often three to six word – keyword phrases (also less competitive than more general keywords). Long-tail keywords became more important to online marketers with the advent of Google Hummingbird, Google’s major algorithm update in 2013, which gives preference to the long tail keyword.

    With a recent surge in voice search via platforms such as Siri and Google Voice Search, there’s no question: long tail keywords are more important than ever.

    People are searching just as they speak, so it’s time to pay even closer attention to real estate investor keyword phrases like, “How to sell my home fast?” vs. just “sell house.”

    But even if you’ve mastered the art of conversational dialogue and are pretty certain you know how people might search, there’s a science to figuring out how to get ranked for the right long tail keywords with the least amount of effort / cost (relatively speaking). So working with a good SEO agency to ensure you have a solid long tail keyword strategy in place is definitely going to be vital to online marketing success in the coming year.

    Here is an infographic that dives into the key differences of long-tail vs. short-tail (or broad) keyword phrases.

    long-tail-vs-short-tail-keyword-compressor

    Source: http://reportgarden.com/2015/07/09/short-vs-long-tail-keywords/

    2. SEM Done Right Is Always a Worthwhile Investment

    There are certain online marketing tactics that are a sure-bet for a long time to come, and SEM is one of them.

    Overall, U.S. marketers will spend more than $103 billion on search, display, social media, and email marketing by 2019 — growing at a 12% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) — but search will remain the largest share of interactive spend. (MediaPost).

    Based on our experience, when doing SEO or PPC, businesses are likely to get at least three to four times their money back. That’s being conservative!

    We have some real estate investor clients “harvesting” over $60,000 in closed deals, or, getting as high as 100-200x their money back, and that doesn’t even include the long-term residual ROI of SEM. But of course, results vary from investor to investor, based on a lot of factors.

    3. Think in Terms of ROI Not “Expense”

    Having the right mindset is crucial when planning your marketing budget. Many real estate investors make the mistake of thinking in terms of costs rather than returns.

    While costs are an important consideration, ultimately, your objective is to “move the needle” and get a return on your money.

    Need a little extra help getting that needle moving?  Here’s some extra real estate investor marketing tips to deliver ROI.

    Don’t focus so much about what you will spend “today”, but rather what you can expect to get “tomorrow” (ROI).

    Whatever marketing tactic you choose, you want to make sure it’s yielding the highest ROI dollar per dollar.

    If you’re wondering how the heck to figure out the potential ROI of SEM, here’s the formula:

    ROI Formula

    ROI % = $$ sales from marketing efforts / $$ marketing investment

    One good question to ask yourself is:

    “How many new deals will I need to break even?”

    If the answer is one or two, you’ve probably found a safe bet.

    It’s Not Too Late To Plan for 2016

    Now, it’s time to wipe your brow, take a deep breath, and go plan for a year of online marketing triumph!

    [Instant Replay] Watch Our Step By Step Process For Planning An Epic Year

    Take a demo of Carrot today or reach out to us if you have questions about how to plan your 2016 Search Engine Marketing budget in the comments section below.

  • January Harvest Report – Why Website Performance Matters

    January Harvest Report – Why Website Performance Matters

    high performing real estate investing websites

    The first month of 2016 is in the books. How did you do? Were you able to improve your mindset, your business, or your numbers? For a lot of our members we sensed a change in focus and finding a marketing plan that works for them in 2016.

    Across our network of real estate investor websites, there were definitely a strong number of leads coming into Carrot sites. Let’s cut to the meat and potatoes and show you exactly how many leads Carrot sites generated last month.

    Last month Carrot members generated online opt in 14,212 leads. This doesn’t include the thousands and thousands of phone call leads our members have received… which takes it well over 20,000 leads per month. Those include motivated seller, rent to own, cash buyer, and a few note buyer leads.

    Last month Carrot members generated 14,212 leads.
    Last month Carrot members generated online opt in 14,212 leads.

    As you can see, these numbers are up from last month’s 13,340… which we expect. 

    Leads aren’t the only thing improving

    We have seen a steady rise in sessions (visits) on Carrot member’s websites. As more and more members improve their SEO rankings it is no surprise that we will see more sessions.

    A Quick Note: A session is a group of interactions that take place on your website within a given time frame. For example, a single session can contain multiple page views. Another name is “visits”.

    This graph shows Carrot members' website sessions from September to January
    This graph shows Carrot members’ website sessions from September to January

    So what does this all mean? It means that Carrot members are effectively driving more traffic to their sites. This is awesome and is something that we will see continue on an upwards trend.

    When was the last time you asked yourself why?

    The last month has been crazy busy for us at Carrot. We have a lot going on and some exciting information to share with you soon. But one thing we realized in the month of January is, with all the planning, all the organization, and all the best intention in the World you really need to ask yourself why?

    Why am I spending so much time on X. Why can’t I figure out how to rank for a specific keyword. Why is my site not generating leads.

    Why are you doing what you are doing? If you can’t answer it quickly and with a one sentence that you are proud of, there is a good chance you need to revisit your priorities.

    Why are you using InvestorCarrot? To get more leads? To have a website that performance for your business? If you said yes, great. But what are you doing to get to your why? More on that later.

    We wanted to briefly shout-out some members who are seeing their websites perform for them and then break down how they got there.

    Jeff was wondering why PPC Marketing wasn’t working for him on his non-Carrot website

    Jeff reached out to Adrian our head Customer Success Hero of Strategy via Facebook after a Coaching Call and informed us that his Carrot site brought him his first lead. Yay! We love to see that stuff on a daily basis.

    Jeff was using pay per click to bring traffic to his old non-Carrot site, but it wasn’t converting. Instead of getting frustrated, he researched InvestorCarrot, signed up and found that our pages generally convert very well for pay per click traffic.

    Jeff hit us up on Facebook to tell us he received his first lead from his Carrot website.
    Jeff hit us up on Facebook to tell us he received his first lead from his Carrot website.

    A high performing website was the difference for Jeff

    For Jeff he simply needed to find a site that converted his traffic into leads. If you are struggling with the traffic side of lead generation have you considered PPC?

    If you are only using Google AdWords wait until you see what we have next.

    If you are unsure of where to start with pay per click or not sure how to optimize your pay per click campaigns we recommend watching this webinar and reading this blog post.

    Bryan found that Adwords isn’t the only player in the game – We added Bing PPC to the mix

    Bryan is a successful and highly active real estate investors in the central part of the country. Bryan has been on a roll lately and is closing a ton of deals from his leads that he generated online. In fact he did a podcast that you should listen to where he walks through how he’s had 3 $100k months in a row recently.

    Bryan’s PPC to his InvestorCarrot websites crushes it for him and constantly delivers high ROI for his business.

    But just recently we sprinkled on little a Bing love into his pay per click strategies.

    Bryan shared his results from that campaign on Facebook recently.

    website performance bing-ads-are-converting

    Breaking down Bryan’s success: PPC + High Performing Website

    Bryan has seen mega success from his online lead generation. Now that he is closing very consistent deals every month he has a working marketing budget. For Bryan his big “why” was why not try another platform to drive traffic to my website.

    Have you looked into Bing for pay per click in addition to the Google Adwords you’re running?

    If not, we would recommend you do. Check back soon for a post on how to set up a Bing campaign.

    Joy is making use of automating her business lead flow

    Joy has been with Carrot for a couple months and was finally able to reach her first milestone (getting a lead).

    We are pumped for Joy that her first lead turned into a deal. You don’t see it in the Facebook comments (and there were a lot of them).

    But Joy admitted that her lead came from her PPC campaign, which she is doing herself. So if you aren’t like Bryan with a marketing budget, you can be like Joy and roll your own campaign until you get your feet under you.

    automating-her-lead-flow

    Breaking down Joy’s success

    Sometimes the path best traveled is the toughest one. If you are struggling with getting leads, are you asking yourself, why isn’t my Carrot site performing like these other Carrot members?

    What is the answer?

    Have you tried paying for traffic? Have you tried updating the content on your website? Which SEO keywords are you targeting in 2016? How did your January 2016 marketing plan turn out? If you are able to answer some of those questions you should have a better idea of what the next move is.

    But we understand the answer isn’t always clear, and we are here for you. We spend a lot of time reading, testing, implementing, strategizing, and analyzing data. Utilize us as a resource to launch your business in 2016.

    Here is what you need to do if you aren’t getting enough leads for your real estate investing business

    If you are a Content Pro member, consider joining us for one of our weekly LIVE Coaching Calls. We host them every Tuesday at 11am Pacific. Can’t make the call? No problem, we record all of them and give you access to view them later.

    • Get on a call and ask questions
    • Watch 1 recording a week and find something to implement during the week
    • Decide how you are going to drive traffic to your website
    • Do one marketing activity this week to accomplish that goal

    If you are new to InvestorCarrot here is what you should do

    Don’t get overwhelmed and don’t think that if you aren’t generating leads in your first week that you are failing to do something.

    The most important thing you can do is get your site set up correctly, and start implementing your game plan.

    If you don’t have a marketing strategy then the first step is research how you plan to bring people to your website. If it is SEO, great, but how are you going to improve your site’s SEO? If it’s PPC, then set up your Adwords campaign and get the tracking in place.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU:

    Not sure about SEO or PPC?  Or, confused what the heck they even mean?  We break it down SEO vs PPC here…

     

    We have an opportunity for all new members to get on a “Getting Started” call.

    This is a great place to get your questions answered and have time to sit with a Carrot coach and get a strategy in place.

    Are you a current InvestorCarrot member and crushing it with online lead generation? Want to talk with us about scaling up your business and or be highlighted in some of our content? Shoot us an email to support@oncarrot.com and tell us about your journey.

     

  • A New Investor Closing Deals In A Competitive Market – Connor’s $60k Deal Harvest Report

    A New Investor Closing Deals In A Competitive Market – Connor’s $60k Deal Harvest Report

    2015.12_harvest-report-main

    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 SourcesDecember Overall Stats

    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.”

    house flipping report december 2015

    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.

    seo roi over time

    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.

  • A Year End Review – Wow, You Made 2015 An Amazing Year!

    A Year End Review – Wow, You Made 2015 An Amazing Year!

    Wow, 2015 flew by.

    It’s amazing how fast the years go by… yet how much you can accomplish in those 12 months when you get clear, get focused on your “big pumpkins” and have a mission that means something to you and your customers a core level.

    I thought it would be pretty cool to do a quick review of some of the cool things that both YOU… our Carrot community… and us… Carrot the company were able to accomplish together this year.

    All in all, 2015 was a banner year for our Carrot members and an amazing year of growth for our team and company because we focused so much on the one thing that matters… helping YOU get what you want out of life more easily and more effectively with our tools, software, training, and support.

    So what happened in 2015?

    Let’s dive into some cool stuff in this quick post!

    Carrot Members Are Crushing It With Leads!

    You guys were a force to be reckoned with in 2015. With over 20,000 leads per month coming in (when you count phone call leads… which we can’t track in Google Analytics currently) you’re pulling in more PPC, SEO, and social media online leads as a collective group than any other real estate investor lead generation platform… by far. Keep crushing it! We’ll help you get there. 

    leads-carrot

    375 “Doses Of Awesomeness” Sent In!

    At Carrot, hearing back from our clients is like fuel for us. So much so that we created an internal tool for our team members called the “Thread of Awesomeness” where our team members add the great things that Carrot clients send in to us on a daily basis. Here is a very small snapshot of some of the messages Carrot clients have sent us recently. 

    awesomeness

    Over 6,600 Live Chats + 17,215 Help Tickets Solved!

    You guys were busy! And so were we! Our team helped our Carrot members through the tough spots in 2015 in a big way. We process hundreds of tickets and live chats per week and we’re humbled by the ratings you gave our team during your interactions with us.

    We work our butts off so you can spend less time working with our software and more time closing deals. Soon you’ll be introduced to our newest addition to the Carrot Customer Success team in January… keep an eye out! 

    We LOVE Chatting With Our Customers. Keep It Coming In 2016!

    olark-report

    Or, Send Us An Email And Our Customer Success Team Will Dominate That Too! :-)

    hs-happiness

    Never Stop Improving

    Another Core Value of ours is “constant never-ending improvement“… and both our customers and us as a company sure did live that one. In addition to the dozens of features we released in 2016 to help our clients spend less time hassling with tech and marketing issues and to pull in more leads… and dozens of split tests we ran on sites to increase the conversion rates of your websites (to much higher than the industry average)… our members relentlessly showed up to our weekly LIVE Coaching Calls, asked us questions, and helped us find the best ways to help you improve. Keep it up in 2016! We have some amazing new features and additions coming your way! 

    We Helped Your Conversion Rates Improve Even More In 2015!

    There are some really cool innovations coming out in Q1 of 2016 based on our continual conversion rate optimization team. It’s this dedication to performance and ROI that has helped you pull in so many leads in 2016 (especially on mobile devices!)

    conversion

     

    46 LIVE Coaching Calls In The Books

    (Content Pro Members)

    coaching calls

    We LOVE Making Business Fun

    (So much so, it’s one of our Core Values)

    In 2015 we mailed out over 721 Carrot Bud dolls to Carrot members. That’s a LOT of Carrot love. And we just ordered another thousand for 2016 (with 2 new designs that you’ll love!). If you’re a Carrot member keep an eye out for special surprises from us. You never know… you may be the next to get your very own Carrot Bud in the mail in 2016.

    721 Carrot Clients Received A Carrot Bud In The Mail In 2015

    carrot-buds

    1 Carrot Customer Sent In A Carrot Bud Unboxing Video (haha, gotta love that!)

     

     

    You guys are awesome! Our family loved the gift! Merry Christmas!

    Posted by Justin Morgan on Monday, December 14, 2015

    Plus Tons Of Amazing Smiling Faces With Their Carrot Buds!

    carrot-shots

    Our Team Has Grown In More Ways Than One

    InvestorCarrot started out as a one-man show 3 years ago… then we quickly added our CTO, built out the Customer Success team, and the rest is history. Now the team is continually growing to stay ahead of the curve so our members can also stay ahead of the curve from their competition. We’re proud to be adding several more full-time team members to the Carrot team in early 2016 as well! Keep an eye out! 

    team-carrot

    8 Scotch Eggs Consumed (give or take a few)

    Thanks, O’Tooles for making the best damn Scotch Egg in the land.

    scotch-egg-carrot

    Countless Pints Of Beer Down The Hatch

    InvestorCarrot Company Team

    … and much more fun, challenging, and rewarding ways our team grew in size, skill, and in our relationships together.

    All In All, An Amazing Year You’ve Made It Carroteers!

    With 2016 a blink away, make sure to use this time to look back on your own 2015. Reflect on the great strides you’ve taken toward your dreams and goals… and reflect on the things you still need to improve on and tackle with focus and intentionality in 2016.

    If you haven’t had a chance to check out these 2 posts we published the past 2 weeks (both were our most actively shared and commented on content pieces in 2015 too!)… dive into them. They’ll help you make some important mindset shifts for 2016 and we walk you through how to make 2016 an epic year.

    Even better than 2015. 

    First, read this blog post:

    How A Pumpkin Farmer Changed My Perspective On Life And Business

    (the most commented on post of the year!)

    Next, carve out an afternoon and plan out your 2016 with this training:

    Planning Out An Epic 2016: Our 7 Figure Process

    (the most amazing and life-changing Coaching Calls of the year)

    Here’s to a great year, lots of successes, lots of lessons and stumbling blocks, but in the end…

    … we’re all alive, having fun, building our own lives and making a difference… together… as the Carrot Community.

    Thank you for all you do and for inspiring us every day to do great things.

    Chat with you in 2016!

  • Seeing Fewer Motivated Seller Leads Right Now? (Here’s Why + How To Fix It)

    Seeing Fewer Motivated Seller Leads Right Now? (Here’s Why + How To Fix It)

    less real estate investing leads in winter

    So, are you seeing your leads slow down right now versus the volume of cash buyer or motivated seller leads you saw in the summer? Well, you’re not alone. It’s a seasonal thing… and here’s what you can do about it to make up some of those lost leads with other types of marketing. 

    There’s an interesting phenomenon happening right now that some investors are noticing and I wanted to write a blog post about it to make you aware of it:

    Some investors (maybe even you) are noticing fewer leads right now… have you noticed that? (It’s not happening to everyone but to some).

    Maybe you’re seeing this happen and you’re wondering if something is broken on your website or if Google changed their algorithm again. So I’m writing this blog post to let you know: it’s actually very normal…

    What’s happening is kind of like what happens with the stock market:

    Look at a chart of the Dow Jones over a period of years and you’ll notice that it trends generally upward.

    DJIAdaily-compressor

    But look at a chart of the Dow Jones over a period of hours or days and you’ll notice that it has a lot of peaks and valleys.

    DJIAhourly-compressor

    The same thing is happening to investors: While Carrot users are noticing a steady increase in the number of leads they get online when you implement what we teach and stick with it, some are also noticing that there are peaks and valleys… and in the winter months leads for some types of prospects (like motivated house sellers) tend to take a bit of a dip.

    Why?

    Well, the simple answer can be summed up with a meme from the TV show Game Of Thrones…

    winter-is-coming

    Winter is coming! Well, actually it’s HERE in many parts of the country.

    No, I’m not joking. The season and how cold it is outside can affect the number of people out hunting for someone to buy their house.

    Let me ask you a question:

    If you live in an area of the country where it snows, when do you think about a snow shovel?

    Chances are, you probably don’t think about it at the height of summer, when you’re sitting on the beach and watching your kids play in the surf.

    Chances are, you probably think about it when the forecast calls for snow… or (more likely) after you look out the window one morning and see the ground covered in snow. That’s when you think, “Oh, I hope I have a snow shovel!” and then you go searching for one in the garage.

    The Home Depot knows this.

    That’s why, during the summer, you probably won’t find a lot of snow shovels (you might find one tucked away in a discount bin somewhere), but during the winter, the snow shovels are front-and-center… probably the first thing you see when you walk in into the store.

    There are seasonal fluctuations in many types of businesses (including here at Carrot) and smart businesses know this and they plan for it and deal with it.

    The same is true for your real estate investing business

    The exact same thought process that occurs with you and your snow shovel also occurs with the motivated seller and cash buyer leads who come into your business.

    Here’s Why Real Estate Investing Lead Volumes Can Fluctuate During The Year

    Motivated sellers might want to sell throughout the year, but there are months when they are more motivated to sell than other months.

    Cash buyers might want to buy throughout the year, but there are months when they are more motivated to buy than other months.

    Not surprisingly, lead generation trends correspond to the months of increased motivation, which corresponds to increased search activity.

    In short: during some months, motivation to sell or to buy increased, which increased searches for related keywords, which increased leads generated.

    We first reported to investors on this phenomenon in 2013, in the post Are There Less Real Estate Investor Leads In Holiday Months Than Summer Months? We showed that motivated seller leads tended to fluctuate through the year, with a noticeable spike in the summer and a noticeable decline in the winter. The same phenomenon holds up year-after-year!

    decline in motivated search terms in december

    The same is true for cash buyers as well. We showed that cash buyer leads tended to fluctuate through the year, with a noticeable spike in January.

    cash buyer search term spike

    There are many reasons for this, and we explore those reasons in the blog post Behind The Data: Why Spring Is The Perfect Time To Ramp Up Your Online Motivated Seller Leads. But to summarize those findings, we can draw the following conclusions from the data:

    • Motivated sellers are looking to sell when it’s nice: the summer months; with July being an ideal time perhaps to get the kids settled in a new place before school starts. December tends to be a slower month because of the holidays and people in general just have so much to do in December that they often put their sale off until the new year.
    • Cash buyers are looking to buy when they’re thinking about their financial future.  This often happens around January when we all think about New Year resolutions and the year ahead.

    Some investors might get frustrated by this knowledge, and feel tempted to shut things down in the quiet months while they ramp things up in the busy months.

    But I believe that investors have a massive opportunity to grow their business by ramping up their efforts in the quiet months!

    Here Are 10 Things You Can Do This Month If You’re Seeing The “Winter Lead Slump” That Some Investors Experience

    The solution to fewer leads is a two-pronged approach:

    You should level up the amount of marketing that you do to increase your leads right now, plus you should put some pieces in place to ensure that your leads remain stable throughout the year.

    If you’re seeing fewer leads right now, here are a few ideas to help you shore up those lead numbers and not settle for a dip in volume:

    Show up to our weekly Carrot Coaching calls (for Content Pro members):

    Each week we’ll share with you our very best strategies for building your online presence and generating more leads. Our focus is to help you get more leads.

    Keep marketing!

    There might be fewer cash buyers and motivated sellers taking action right now… but they’re still out there!

    So keep marketing.

    Don’t wind down your marketing efforts just because it’s the end of the year and you’re assuming that all of your cash buyers have flown south for the winter.

    Integrate your offline marketing

    One of the first things we teach our InvestorCarrot members in our Carrot Guide is to integrate your website with your offline marketing. Test your URL on your postcards/letters, radio ads, TV spots, etc.  

    Find ways to integrate marketing you’re already doing offline with your website.

    Accelerate the timeline

    Cash buyer leads tend to spike in January because that’s one of the times of the year when cash buyers are thinking about their financial future. So create marketing that gets them thinking about their financial future sooner than January!

    Start the conversation right now about how to get a jump-start on the new year. You can do the same thing for motivated sellers. Remind them that now is still a great time to sell and they can get cash in hand before Christmas!

    Launch a direct mail campaign that markets…

    “Cash In your Hand Before Christmas!”

    …and get them to start thinking about accelerating their timeline to sell.

    Market more to motivated sellers who don’t need to move (2nd homes, inherited, etc.)

    Winter might not be an ideal time to move but not all of your motivated sellers need to move when they sell to you. Out of state owners, probate/inheritance owners, landlords, etc. – these people are still motivated to sell and they are not at all impacted by the weather.

    Those absentee owners may want that cash injection before Christmas and the new year and may want to go into the new year without that burdensome property. Use that to your advantage.

    Do more of what you’re already doing (ramp it up!)

    If you’ve been relying on just search engine optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) then keep doing that but, of course, do more. Consider increasing your PPC ad spend during this season. Or, add more of our SEO-friendly content packs to your blog.

    The majority of PPC campaigns by “do it yourselfers” that we see have glaring things that need to be fixed that would really increase the results from the campaign. And lots of people are being held back by a PPC ad budget that’s too low. Here are some tips on making your PPC marketing dollars go further.

    Add more marketing channels

    If you’ve been thinking of testing some new marketing channels, now is the time to add them so you have them refined and humming along when the spring and summer months kick in.

    Craigslist continues to be a surprising source of cash buyers and a consistent stream of sellers for our members.

    Many investors have been ignoring Craigslist for a few years because it’s old school and it’s gotten harder to market in the real estate sections. But we have a very powerful and effective Craigslist training that shows you how to still get leads from this source. And I believe that Facebook is an AMAZING source of cash buyer leads when done right.

    So now is the time to start testing some Facebook efforts. And don’t stop there.

    Exhaust your efforts with LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube marketing, BiggerPockets… and more!

    Get creative

    Motivated sellers are far less motivated to sell in the winter because they don’t want to move when it’s cold.

    So how can you help them avoid that pain? Does it mean getting really creative by offering to cover a moving company? Some investors might scream at the potential cost… but consider this: it might make more sense to get SOME profit from a few deals than to get NO profit because you can’t find motivated sellers who are willing to move. 

    Also, you know all of those leads you generated in the past 4-6 months that didn’t turn into deals? 

    Well, send out a campaign to all of them to see if they were able to get their situation taken care of.

    You could send an email that looks something like this… 

    “Hi [name], I hope your holiday season is going well!

    If you remember, you and I connected a few months back when you let us know about your property at on our website.

    I’m going through my notes and wanted to follow up to see if you were able to sell that house yet? If not, would it be worth chatting again to see if the timing is right for me to make you another offer? I’m buying 3 more houses before the end of the year yours is in the neighborhood we’re looking for.
    I look forward to connecting with you!

    – [your name]”

    Plan ahead

    Chances are, you’ll see a bump in cash buyer leads in the new year so use this time to build some extra capacity into your business (i.e. train a new acquisitions person or estimator), which will allow you to do even more when those cash buyers spike in January.

    Also, if you’re still working to get your search engine rankings higher… the winter months are the PERFECT time to put in the SEO time (or hire it out) to grow your rankings so your website is ranked higher when the search volume picks back up.

    Think long-term

    Search engine optimization can take 3-5 months to really take effect (or sometimes longer in competitive markets) so if you level up your search engine optimization game now, you’ll help to position your site for even greater search engine result greatness! Don’t wait until March to try to rank well for a competitive phrase by the summer “traffic bump”… if you do you may not be giving yourself enough time for the SEO rankings to mature.

    Seeing Your Leads Dip Unveils A Hidden OPPORTUNITY

    Most investors will tell you that fewer leads is a frustration.

    But I think it’s an opportunity: it’s an opportunity to build a more diversified and stable business by deploying new strategies that you might not normally have time to try out. And once you build these strategies into your marketing, they’ll continue working for you to drive more leads into your business and push that trend line even higher!

    See our plans or take a demo… but above all, take this seasonal opportunity to get creative with your real estate marketing!

  • November Harvest Report – How One Investor Closed 4 Deals In 60 Days

    November Harvest Report – How One Investor Closed 4 Deals In 60 Days

    2015.11_harvest-report-main

    It’s that time of the month, time for another Carrot harvest report. But this month we are throwing a little curveball that we think you will like.

    Aside from living up to our transparency core value and showing behind the scenes of our website stats, including how many leads our members generated in the month of November, and of course where those leads came from… we are going to share an inspirational story about an InvestorCarrot member who joined less than 6 months ago and has already closed 4 deals from his Carrot website.

    We are excited to share stories about members achieving their business and personal goals and want to use these stories to help you get excited about what you can achieve.

    So here is what you should do.

    First, dive in and see the November recap on the real estate investor lead volume (motivated sellers, cash buyers, note sellers, rent to own tenants, etc.), read Tim’s excellent story and then implement the same trainings and resources that Tim used to get results.

    Let’s Get Started With Our Monthly Lead Harvest Report For November

    As we’ve posted before, the holiday months tend to level off as far as lead volume goes for many types of leads that our clients are looking for. In November Carrot members pulled in 16,616 online opt-in leads (plus thousands and thousands of phone call leads that we’re not able to track), so the month was really a very average month compared with the previous 5-6 months of leads in our Carrot Harvest Reports.

    Closing REI Leads
    A snapshot of the top lead sources for November leads through InvestorCarrot…

    SEO remains the #1 way we’re pulling in so many leads followed by Craigslist marketing (which makes up a portion of the “(direct)” lead source), Facebook then PayPerClick leads which are growing.

    So the bread and butter of what we teach in our trainings for our members is remaining to be extremely strong.

    Now, with these lead reports each month, you may say…

    “Ya, amazing seeing tens of thousands of leads each month… but are they turning into deals?“

    We don’t have a way of tracking what happens to the leads after a member gets them into their Carrot Lead Database… but we do talk with our members all of the time finding out how things are going and what’s working.

    We do know that there are tons of deals being closed every month by Carrot users with leads they’re pulling in leveraging our platform. On some weeks we may hear of half a dozen or a dozen+ deals being closed from various members… and those are just the ones we hear about in passing.

    And here’s one awesome story how one Investor closed 4 Deals In 60 Days. His PPC Marketing leads turning into real deals and real profits.

    “Before Carrot, I was spending roughly $2k in PPC advertising per month with little to no results…”

    How One Investor Closed 4 Deals In 60 Days
    Tim posted this pic last week of him and his Carrot Bud with a kick butt note about his journey so far growing his company and gaining more freedom

    Tim is a relatively new real estate investor in Delaware and has been a Carrot member for roughly 6 months.

    Tim is a regular on our weekly Carrot Coaching Calls (for our Content Pro members) where we dive into behind the scenes stuff that’s working in today’s market… and have open Q&A where we dive in and help our members with their biggest strategy related questions.

    He’d come week after week and ask us questions… then he’d go away and implement and come back the next week with more questions.

    Pretty soon he let us know he was having his first closing from his Carrot leads (at the start from his PPC campaign).

    The kinds of students/investorsPP we love :-)

    It’s exciting for us to see. Here’s how Tim did it…

    So… we reached out to Tim after hearing about some of his success flipping local properties and asked him to share a little bit more about how he found Carrot, how he uses Carrot, and some of the success he has had.

    We asked Tim to share a little about his journey, where he started and where he’s at now in his real estate investing business. 

    What were you doing before you joined InvestorCarrot?

    “I was laid off from my job in June and decided to go full-time into wholesaling and purchase InvestorCarrot even though my wholesaling business was in debt up to that point. I worked very hard to follow the 3 Lead Per Day program and implemented everything I could, along with the weekly Coaching Calls.”

    So, you focused on PPC marketing to drive seller leads, how were things working before you switched your website to the high converting InvestorCarrot websites?

    Tim said he started his investing business and wanted to use PPC to drive traffic to his website. This is a great way to get traffic coming quickly but he quickly realized he was spending too much and not getting any results with his non Carrot website.

    “After I spent $6k on PPC and didn’t get any deals with my low converting old non-Carrot website, I knew I needed a better way.”

    One of the best features of an InvestorCarrot website is it converts well. Therefore, sending PPC traffic to it is a no brainer. Plus with features like customizable landing pages and lead source tracking it makes PPC marketing easy to implement and track.

    Tim purchased Carrot’s 3 Lead Per Day course and frequents the weekly Coaching Calls with excellent questions on the best way to implement the PPC/SEO strategies covered in the training.

    Aside from implementing the 3LPD training we wanted to know what Tim liked best about his InvestorCarrot membership and how it has helped him with his business.

    How has InvestorCarrot helped you overall, vs the lower cost website you had before?

    “InvestorCarrot has helped me to streamline and automate my internet marketing. The most important thing InvestorCarrot does is to BRING ME DEALS!!!“

    We have already shared one of Tim’s traffic generation strategies (PPC), but he was able to attract a lead from another traffic strategy.

    Now that you’re using InvestorCarrot for your real estate investor websites and letting us focus on making sure it converts well, how many deals have you closed since you joined only 6 months ago and where did they come from?

    “Of my 4 deals, 3 came from PPC and 1 came from YouTube. Most of my leads are from PPC (because I’m driving traffic to a website setup to convert visitors into leads unlike my old site).”

    The 3LPD training outlines Youtube marketing strategies and implementations as well as PPC.

    If you are a Carrot member you can view the 3LPD here. 

    In closing, Tim has some parting words for any InvestorCarrot members on how to get the results you want for your own business.

    “Stick with it, have a plan, and believe in the system.”

    We are really happy Tim found InvestorCarrot and love his eagerness to dive into the trainings and tweak his website to get the best ROI he can from his Carrot membership.

    If you have a story you would like to share with other Carrot members, we would love to hear from you in the comments section below!

    Also, as always… if you’re not yet an InvestorCarrot member and you want to finally stop dumping good money into PPC sending traffic to a low performing website and not getting results… give InvestorCarrot a try. You’ll find that our plans aren’t the cheapest on the market.

    In fact, Carrot members like Tim are proud to pay much more than most other website systems. But, we focus on performance, support, and expertise in helping real estate investors generate more high-quality leads online and pulling a higher ROI.

    In the end, Tim thought he was saving money going with a low-cost do it yourself website builder and it ended up costing him $6k in PPC costs that produced no results. Just by switching to InvestorCarrot, those same campaigns (with a few tweaks we helped him with in our training and Coaching Calls) turned into 4 deals so far and tens of thousands in profits.

    Congrats Tim and here’s to an amazing year ahead!

  • Here Are The 4 Reasons You’re Not Getting The Real Estate Leads You Want Online

    Here Are The 4 Reasons You’re Not Getting The Real Estate Leads You Want Online

    2015.11.4-not-getting-the-leads-you-want-main

    I’ve got a secret to tell you about the real estate investing business: It’s really a PEOPLE business. You find sellers who need to get rid of a property, and you match that property up with buyers who want to acquire it. But the critical point is that the people make the deal happen.

    So the express lane to growth as a real estate investor is simple: Get more people of the RIGHT PEOPLE into your investor lead pipeline.

    Specifically, get more people with properties and get more people with money to buy your properties to notice you.

    If you’re struggling with getting enough leads from your website, this blog post can help you diagnose what’s holding you back and will reveal some step-by-step strategies to get you moving forward.

    Ultimately, there are 4 main reasons why you may be struggling with getting leads online as a real estate investor or agent.

    4 Reasons You’re Not Getting The Real Estate Investing Leads You Want Online & How To Fix Them

    1. Low Traffic or No Website Traffic

    traffic to real estate investing website
    Are people landing on your website? Not enough traffic to your website is the #1 cause of the “Low or No Lead” problem. See how to solve that below…

    Your website traffic volume is the first place to start.

    After all, if you aren’t actively getting qualified people to your website with your marketing, anything else you do on your site won’t matter.

    The first step is to get eyeballs on your site.

    I like setting an initial goal to get 10 – 20 people to your website each week. That’s not a large number… it’s achievable, and if you’re not getting 10 – 20 qualified prospects to your website per week with your marketing… it’s your first goal.  

    So how can you get more traffic (qualified prospects) to your website?

    We focus on…

    1. SEO (ranking high in Google)
    2. Paid traffic like Google Ads (PPC marketing)
    3. Hustle marketing (Craigslist, social media, etc.)
    4. Integrating your website into offline marketing (Direct mail, email signature, etc.)

    We’ve written posts on this blog about every one of these and have done several webinars on driving traffic… so dive into the resources at your fingertips and make that first goal of 10-20 qualified prospects per month!

    Here are some resources on driving more traffic to your websites to dive into!

    Many more free resources here on our site will also help you increase your traffic.

    If you’re already a Carrot member… hop on the next weekly Carrot Coaching Call, and we’ll help craft a traffic plan for you right there on the call if you ask us :-)

    As we’ve written, SEO is a long-term (and high ROI) strategy… so don’t expect 10-20 qualified prospects per week to come to your site from SEO alone right away. It takes time to build… but it’s worth it once it does!

    Also, Youtube marketing is a way to get your brand to the front page of Google search results (even if your website isn’t there yet), plus it’s a great way to get even more eyeballs on your brand if your website is already on the front page.

    get more real estate investing leads

    2. Low-Quality Traffic To Your Website

    high quality website prospects
    Not all website traffic is created equal… Are the people landing on your website the right ones? Ones that will turn into leads and deals?

    So you have at least 10 – 20 people landing on your website each week and still not getting the leads you want? They may not be the right people…

    Eyeballs are good… but the right eyeballs on your website are better.

    Once you’ve built website traffic-generating systems to get people landing on your website, it’s time to start refining those systems to ensure you get the highest quality traffic you can.

    Is Your SEO Optimized For High-Quality Search Phrases? While it’s tempting to drive as much traffic as possible to your website, the first action you should be taking is looking at your search engine optimization. Are you choosing the right keywords for the right audience? Not all audiences are looking for the same thing. One motivated seller segment may be more responsive to a specific keyword than another. Ensure you’re reviewing the latest version of our SEO Bible, which reveals over 71 SEO keywords that are working for investors now. Avoid altering our “baked-in” SEO since it’s been tested and proven to work.

    An example of traffic that may be low quality for the average real estate wholesaler…

    … are people who came from a search phrase or Google PPC campaign like “sell my house” or “list my house.”

    Yes, they’re looking to sell… but these keywords tend to be from people looking for retail. Focus on keywords that people you can help would be searching.

    And make sure you are using location-specific SEO on your site. Review these 6 simple tips to master location-based SEO to make sure your site is fully optimized for where you’re doing deals.

    Use Facebook Marketing Carefully. I love Facebook marketing for buyers and tenants or as a high ROI retargeting tool… but not for highly motivated house sellers.

    So consider what audience you’re looking to attract and choose your marketing strategies wisely. We’ve talked with many investors who have thrown hundreds of dollars at Facebook ads for motivated sellers only to be discouraged and think it’s a website problem. It’s a traffic quality problem. Facebook ads are a lot harder for motivated sellers than cash buyers.

    Don’t Rely on Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaigns Right Away Unless You Have a Budget of at Least $1k-3k: Pay-per-click campaigns can take a while to optimize. In the short term, they can certainly drive traffic to your site, but they might not drive the right types of prospects, and you could you run through your budget faster than you expect! (Check out these 20 tips to optimize a Google PPC campaign – and pay attention to the case study at the very beginning of the post!)

    Pay-per-click is excellent, but make sure you’re using other methods to drive the right traffic to your site while you hone your PPC campaigns.

    Build Valuable Content Everywhere! The most effective way to drive quality leads to your site is to provide valuable information your target audience wants. It’s not about stuffing the right keywords into the title of a Youtube video or website page, it’s really about understanding who your audience is and addressing the problems, concerns, and questions that they have about how to sell or buy a property and why you’re the right person to help them.

    Make sure you’re being helpful in all your content – from offsite to onsite content.

    In the end…

    …don’t just focus on driving traffic. Focus on getting the right people to your website who you can help and who can turn into profitable deals for you.“

    If retail house sellers aren’t your ideal prospect… don’t use keywords that will attract them.

    And also… don’t forget that when you visit your website, that will show up on your website stats reports… so if you haven’t done any marketing yet and see 10 visits to your website this week… those visits may be you visiting your website. So go out and actively market to get the right people to your website.

    3. Low Credibility On Your Website

    website credibility
    What’s the first impression people get when they land on your website? If your website makes them feel like you’re a fly-by-night operation or a “dark and seedy” character (or worse, like you’re hiding behind the website), your best prospects could bail and go to your competition.

    As they say, the first impression is lasting. What is your website saying about you, your company, and your ability to honestly and ethically help them solve their problem?

    Your audience will seek reasons to trust you as your traffic grows and the quality improves. Like detectives, they’ll look for clues on your website that point to your trustworthiness (or lack thereof) to assure them that they’re in good hands by working with you.

    Fortunately, there are many ways that you can assure them of your credibility (and we help you with many strategies already built into the Carrot platform).

    Just look at the first page of this Carrot member website and you’ll see that it contains subtle credibility clues for the site visitor.

    trusted home buying companies
    The typical Carrot website has over 10 credibility boosters already baked in. You can add more credibility like testimonials, info about your company, local pictures, and badges like BBB to boost your credibility even more.
    • Clean and trustworthy looking website and brand
    • Easy to find information and navigate the website
    • The company page informs the prospective lead that you are a legitimate organization.
    • The How It Works link assures the website visitor that you have a plan to help them.
    • Testimonials provide credibility from third-party “success stories.”
    • A guarantee, when appropriate, helps reduce a sense of risk
    • Further assurances such as “No hassles. No obligation.” tell a prospective lead that you’re easy to work with and you have their best interests at heart
    • Localize the website so they know you’re a local solution they can talk to
    • Make it easy to contact you (add your phone number, opt-in form, contact page, etc.)

    This is just a start. There are many more ways to add credibility.

    Here are a few:

    • Talk about how long you’ve been in business and your unique way of being able to help them
    • Fill your testimonials page with testimonials from folks who have done business with you
    • If you are accredited with the Better Business Bureau, add a BBB to your site
    • Include videos of you speaking to your audience
    • Emphasize a “risk reversal” (try to remove the sense of risk with working with you. Put the risk on yourself, not them)
    • Make sure your website is fully mobile optimized and looks great on mobile devices (test your website here)

    Even other forms of marketing spread your name around your market, contributing to people seeing your name, recognizing you, and trusting you.

    Credibility on your website is one of the most important things you can do to help make sure your website isn’t turning your prospects away. Carrot makes it easier and more effective than other platforms, or you are trying to build a website from scratch yourself.

    If you find that you’re driving great quality traffic to your site and it’s not turning into leads… it’s either number #3 (Credibility) or #4 (Conversion) holding your website back.

    4. Your Website Conversion Rate Is Dragging You Down

    Not all websites are created equal… some perform much better than others as far as converting a qualified visitor into a lead. If you’re getting enough quality traffic and you’ve built in credibility elements into your website… it’s likely that your website isn’t set up to convert very well (a very common mistake).

    We constantly harp that performance trumps all else here at Carrot. It is more important than looking different in the market… more important than a “pretty” and “fancy” site… and far more important than a fancy CRM. Why?

    Simple.

    If your website isn’t built based on scientific testing to tap into your website visitor’s subconscious behaviors to help guide the right people toward making it easy to engage in your website and work with you…

    … you’re wasting your marketing dollars.

    Time and time again… we have investors switch to Carrot (who are already driving quality traffic) because they are getting good Google rankings or putting good money into Google PPC marketing… but their website is underperforming.

    Then they switch to our science-based lead generation websites with our Carrot Conversion Methodology built into them (so you don’t have to be a conversion rate expert), and they see an immediate increase in their leads.

    “I was spending $100 a day on Google PPC driving to my other website I spent good money on to have built…and struggled to get leads.  Once I switched to Carrot & just used what you’d already built and perfected, in 3 months I’ve been with Carrot I now spend $10 per day and have over 450 rent to own tenant buyer leads. The only thing I changed was my website.” – Jim Pellerin – Home Ownership Made Easy

    The only change was how the website was structured, and the elements (often they’re ones you can’t notice) that we’ve built into our websites boost the performance and the ROI for the investor.

    So, if you…

    1. Are you getting at least 10 – 20 highly qualified visitors to your website each week
    2. Have built-in great credibility elements into your website

    … and your website still isn’t converting at a bare minimum 3-5% of those visitors into leads.

    (our average motivated seller website converts over 9% of visitors to a lead, cash buyer websites over 18%, and rent-to-own websites over 24% of visitors turn into leads. How does yours stack up? Learn more about conversion rates here)

    You have likely had a conversion rate problem, my friend.

    Again, once your audience trusts you, they’ll more likely be willing to act, but they’ll need some guidance and direction to get them to take the right action immediately. That’s where conversion elements come in.

    This is where we specialize here at Carrot!

    We are constantly testing and modifying our sites to find the best-converting strategies that work! Although you may choose to make adjustments on your Carrot site, we urge you to do so carefully so that you maintain the conversion elements that we’ve carefully placed.

    For example, the first portion of the site that your website visitor sees is strategically designed to increase conversion. Everything from the words in the menu to the call to action to the simple form – even that scribbled orange arrow is there for a reason!

    website conversion rate tips for real estate investors
    We have over 30 Carrot Conversion Method elements built into our websites… many of them you likely will never notice but they boost performance… without you having to be a conversion rate expert.

    If you want to ensure that more people take action when they’re on your site, keep those Carrot conversion elements on your site.

    For precise ways to increase the conversion rate on your website, check out these free resources:

    Implement the things in those posts above, and your website will perform much better.

    Look at your website conversion rate this way. It’ll hit home…

    Lose just 1 deal every 2 years because of an underperforming website… and that costs you $10k+. That’s enough to pay for Carrot for over 10 years.

    But you say… “Carrot is more per month than the other website guys in the market“.

    Yes, we are… because we focus on providing you with the highest return on the investment platform. Our websites are the highest-performing websites in the industry, and almost every other website builder emulates our conversion methodology for their website designs.

    So, you may be paying a bit more per month with Carrot… but you’re saving yourself from losing out on deals and leads because you’re using a low-performing website solution to “save a few bucks.” Take a tour of Carrot or connect with us for a call. We’d love to walk you through case study after case study of how Carrot has helped more high-achieving investors than any other company in the world to ramp up their ROI from their online marketing.

    It’s why more and more of the most active and largest investors (ones who understand ROI) are moving from their WordPress websites into Carrot… our focus on performance and ROI.

    If You Fix These 4 “Low or No Lead” Reasons On Your Website… You’ll Stop Losing Out On The High-Quality Real Estate Investing Leads Coming Online In Your Market Each And Every Day…

    4 Reasons Why You're Not Getting Real Estate Leads Online and How To Fix It

    Not generating the leads you want online as a real estate investor boils down to those 4 things discussed in this article.

    Find your weak spot and start implementing the changes we suggest in this article and our other free resources.

    If you look back in 3 months and still aren’t getting the results you want… there’s only 1 other reason. I call it the 5th “low lead” reason. It’s you :-)

    So go out there and focus on growing your online traffic, getting more qualified prospects to your website, building that credibility, and using a high-performing website platform.

    If you do that… you’ll be crushing it in no time. After all, our members are pulling in over 48,000 real estate investing leads per month right now… there’s no reason you can’t pull in your fair share too.

    And if you feel that Carrot can help you grow your business as well… hop on over and take a demo or reach out to us anytime. We’re here for you!

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