We talk a lot about leads — why you want them, how to get them, and how we can help you find them. But do you really understand what a true “lead” is when it comes to your marketing efforts?
Before you can attract leads, you have to know what you’re looking for. So let’s start there.
What is a lead?
LEAD noun (/lēd/): In marketing and sales, a lead is a person or business who may eventually become a client.
That’s it. Pretty simple, right? So why do funeral homes continue to misunderstand the concept of a lead? Let’s look at it another way.
Someone who gives you their email address in exchange for a chance to win a Visa cash card on your Facebook page is NOT a lead. A name, address, and phone number on a registration form for a free tablet or television giveaway is NOT a lead. Just because you’ve captured a person’s information doesn’t mean they’re interested in your services, or that they’re within your target audience.
It’s no different than when you fill out a form at NFDA for a golf club or bottle of bourbon (super giveaway ideas, by the way); you’re showing interest in what the vendor is giving away — not their product or service. They may be an alkaline hydrolysis equipment vendor, and you’re not even in an aquamation-friendly state. You have absolutely no inclination to talk to them further and certainly no intent to buy. You are NOT a lead.
Now what?
You get the definition of leads. Now you have to actually get some leads.
Your entire goal with capturing leads is to get them into your sales funnel. We’ve shared the sales funnel diagram before; it works just like a funnel. You want to fill the top of your funnel with potential customers — honest-to-goodness leads — and work them down to the bottom. The bottom of your funnel is where the sales transaction actually happens. The middle of the funnel is your sales and marketing process.
Sadly, 90% of funeral homes don’t have a process to nurture leads through their sales funnel — or even get them into the funnel in the first place. Trust us, these people aren’t going to get there on their own. You have to work at it.
You start by identifying who you want in your sales funnel. We’ve talked about your sweet spot before; it’s going to be the 45 to 65+-year-old consumer. Next, you have to go where they are, which today is most definitely Facebook (75% of this demographic are daily users).
On Facebook, you’ll share quality content that engages your target customer and makes them want to learn more. When someone within your target range engages with your content — they’re liking, sharing, commenting, and coming back for more — they become a soft lead.
Ready to start benefiting from great Facebook marketing? Schedule a free demo with Ryan
When the magic happens
Your next step is to get them even more engaged by keeping your story in front of them and building trust and loyalty with your brand. DISRUPT Media will help you do this with retargeting ads; we’ll gather information about where they spend their time and what they buy when they’re online and offline, and we’ll show them ads wherever they are.
There’s no magic timeline for when someone will be ready to purchase something from you, or even come in to talk to you. But when they are, they’ll think of you first, because you’ve built a relationship with them. You’ve been where they’ve been, and they trust you. They’ll fill out a form on your Facebook page or website asking you for an appointment to visit and learn more...and that’s when they become a real lead.
After this, it’s up to you to get them to the final section of the sales funnel, where they buy something from you. Using this process and the technology DISRUPT offers, it’s easy to trace that sale all the way back to the top of your funnel and see the real ROI of your marketing investment.