Internet Leads: Friend or Foe?
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Tired of bad internet leads? Ready to learn about a better sales strategy?
Internet leads seem like an amazing opportunity. What’s not to love about real-time contacts for people seeking a mover? However, movers find that their internet moving leads are terrible prospects again and again.
Below we share a few insights to help movers understand why internet leads are so bad and show that there is a better option for moving leads.
WHY INTERNET MOVING LEADS SUCK
Internet leads are purchased from a provider with a website that collects leads from site visitors who complete a form to get a moving quote.
Only a small percentage of consumers find a mover using this type of website. Therefore, if a mover relies solely on internet leads, then they only reach a very limited number of available household moves in your area. These consumers also tend to be the smaller household moves like apartment moves, so there will be much lower potential income. Even worse, because of the source of the lead, these leads may not even be looking for a full-service mover. Let us explain...
PROVIDERS USE AFFILIATES WHICH ARE UNRELIABLE SOURCES
Even huge sites need more volume than their site alone can provide—so they build affiliate relationships with third parties. A "Third Party" can be anyone, which is what makes this process unreliable. The internet lead provider pays these third party affiliates for the leads they deliver.
This is where things start to get messy. In the hunt for leads to sell, a lot of providers work with some pretty questionable folks. Bad affiliates swamp the system with worthless leads.
There are a lot of ways that an affiliate can provide poor and down-right false leads to your provider. From robots (that auto-enter info into forms), to affiliates going through Craigslist "moving sales" advertisements, these leads are practically worthless. Every name or phone number collected is sold as a lead. Not only is this process completely fraudulent, but these are also terrible leads for professional movers.
Movers have little to no control over the quality of the internet leads they are purchasing. Movers report that 30 percent of their online leads from a major provider are bogus. That high a percent failure rate is unacceptable.
PROVIDERS USE BROKERED LEADS WHICH ARE NOT A GOOD FIT FOR MOVERS
Internet lead providers also buy leads from other businesses that overlap their industry. We call these “brokered leads.” The theory is that the same customers will be valuable leads to movers too. Unfortunately, this theory is often false.
Since internet lead providers are focused on the quantity of leads and not quality, they take in brokered leads that aren't a fit for your target market. In fact, most of these brokered leads are worthless to a pro mover. How many people who visit an apartment rental or DIY truck rental website hire a professional moving company? Not many.
Roughly an additional 5 percent of internet leads are a person that has NO intention to use a full-service mover. Now we're up to an average of 35 percent bogus leads from internet lead providers.
OVERSOLD LEADS CREATE UNBEATABLE COMPETITION
When you receive an internet lead, do you feel like you need to race to be the first to reach the lead and beat the competition?
Even though many lead providers claim they only offer each lead to four or five movers, if the affiliate or brokered source has sold this same lead to multiple providers, a single consumer can get calls from over a dozen movers.
Almost all movers that have tried internet leads experienced this. If you don’t call internet leads immediately and are the 5th or 6th mover to call, you are too late and the consumer has become understandably angry. You can’t blame someone for becoming disgruntled after receiving so many calls to their personal phone. When leads are oversold, they are worthless even before you’ve attempted to call.
DIRECT MAIL MOVING LEADS ARE A BETTER SOLUTION FOR MOVERS!
When we talk to movers that are only looking for internet leads, it is often because they have never tried direct mail as a marketing option. They are usually under the impression that direct mail doesn’t work, but don’t believe the naysayers. Direct mail works and is proven to be a better solution for movers. Here is why….
Direct Mail Moving Leads are a better quality lead. These leads check off all the boxes on what makes an outstanding lead for movers:
- Best Potential Customers - To capture the largest most profitable jobs, the best strategy is to target current homeowners that are moving to a new home. They tend to be older, well-established households, and are more likely to hire a professional mover. Learn how to keep a steady stream of leads.
- Best Reach - While internet leads are only a small percentage of moves, including smaller, less profitable moves, you can effectively and affordably reach 100% of the homeowners with homes for sale in your area who are going to need a mover.
- Active Marketing - With internet leads you are passively waiting until the homeowner finds the website to fill out a form. With a postcard, you are identifying a potential customer and actively reaching out to them. Learn more about the power of the postcard.
- Timed to Win business - Timing is critical in mover marketing. You need to reach homeowners before they make a decision, and direct mail gets your contact information to homeowners quickly and right as they are making decisions. Learn more about the importance of timing.
- Fair Competition - Since 88% of homeowners will research three or more movers, when they receive your postcard you are highly likely to be included in their research. A postcard is a friendly, non-intrusive way for movers to ask for a homeowners business and provide all the information for them to research and contact you.
- Automated Contact - No need for your staff to spend time making outbound calls to bad leads. With our postcard fulfillment option, we mail postcards to your new and pending listings daily. These postcards result in phone calls to your office and website visits, so the leads come to you. Freeing your staff to do what they do best—booking moves and moving customers.
- Highest Response Rates - Hands down direct mail has the highest response rates in the industry with a 1-3% response. Learn more.
To dismiss moving leads and postcard fulfillment is like walking away from a proven way to fill your calendar with the largest and most profitable jobs.
Now’s the time to stop purchasing low quality leads over and over. Let’s get you moving again with MovingLeads.com.
To learn more about building a successful direct mail campaign visit See How it Works or watch our video: How are your leads different from Internet Leads?
Sign up today and start doing what you do best—booking moves and moving customers.
