LeadPropeller or Investor Carrot?
Sumter, SC · Member since 2013 · 105 posts · 10 votes
I am looking to invest in one of these 2 website companies to start my online marketing but I don't know which is better. What do you prefer between the 2?
Hey Matt! Thanks for taking a look at InvestorCarrot!
The coolest thing about this thread is the support the community has thrown our way :-) Thanks guys! Means a lot.
Anyhow, LP is a solid product, and I don't know Danny but it looks like he's out to do the right thing and he'll keep innovating on his product, so it keeps us on our toes :-)
Our prices aren't the lowest and never will be, but the long-term ROI that people are getting are insanely high.
But the main reasons people join InvestorCarrot and the reason people stick w/ us...
Anyhow, we'd love to connect w/ ya and see if it's a fit.
We have some really cool innovations coming out over the next several months that you'll love.
Hit me up if you have any questions.
As a last tidbit, what we found when we started InvestorCarrot was that our best customers are the ones who value and understand the long-term ROI really well. They tend to get the best results and implement what we teach. Our pricing when we launched was about half what it is now... but we found that high achieving investors cared more about real results and personalized help than they did about that extra few bucks a month. So we beefed up our product and support even more, added that weekly mastermind call, added our Content Marketing System... and have focused on investing more money back into our customers success. Our prices are higher... but long-term ROI for customers who leverage the tools and resources we have is much higher than the alternatives.
Good luck on your decision and whatever way you go you'll be in good hands!
- Trevor
Hi there! I am deciding between building my own site on Weebly (I have used Weebly before and am pretty proficient with it) and utilizing Carrot or LeadPropeller. My main concern with Weebly vs your service is SEO and actual lead generation. I know nothing about SEO besides a bit about keywords, so I fear that, unless I hire an SEO person, I will not ever get any leads.
My question is - if I choose the Core plan with Carrot, how quickly might I see leads coming in? From the posts I have read on BP, it seems like most people talk about great results a year or so in...and they all have a Content Pro account. But a CP account is not in my budget at the moment, so I am wondering if a Core plan is even worth it in regards to SEO?
Thanks!
My first year of using Investor Carrot I was on the "non-content" plan. All I did with my website is go through the provided content and reword the articles (same ton and same structure). I did this for two reasons..1 to give me more unique content; 2 to better say what my company does. In total it took me 10 to 15 hours. Other then that I really didn't do much else.
It took my site about a year to see roughly 15 to 20 leads per month. The first 4 or so months I got piddly squat (1 to 2 leads).
Hope that helps
That is helpful information, thanks @Scott Costello!
Hey @Melissa Searing! Sorry on the delay, I just saw your question!
So... you're 100% right in that you're right to be concerned with using weebly if you're focusing on long-term results and ROI. Yes Weebly and those cheap website builders are easy to set sites up and the designs can be pretty... but they focus on ease and speed of setup not on performance and results. We focus on performance and a high touch support team to help you get the highest ROI over the long-run.
We have a lot of people who took that quick and easy route with one of those website builders because of the cost and it ended up costing them thousands in lost leads and deals because of a lack of performance. We find the same with other real estate investing website companies in the space as well... a lower performing site can make a big difference over the long-run when you're driving traffic to your site.
So as far as "how soon can I be getting leads" w/ the Core plan.
Basically the Core Plan gets you our full website system and our amazing support for 1 site. Like @Scott Costello mentioned he used to be on that plan and actually that's how we started the company.
Then we added on other things to really beef up the support level and advanced features and created the Content Pro plan about a year and a half ago. The Content Pro plan enables you to setup up to 3 sites on our system, access to our weekly live mastermind calls (which if you're not an SEO or lead gen expert... or even if you are... these calls can be the difference between you crushing it and struggling), and our Content Marketing system.
So for only $50/mo more you get all of that.
Many find that extra amount worth it just for the mastermind calls each week (they give you a forum to talk w/ us on a webinar each week, ask questions, we can diagnose your strategy and give you action plans, etc.)
But... w/ SEO all of our sites no matter what plan are built the same and have the same SEO capabilities. The Content Pro just gives you the ability to add more sites, get on our weekly mastermind call, and our Content Marketing system.
Timeline To Get Leads
Really the timeline to get leads is up to you.
There our many ways to drive traffic to your Carrot sites.
There are things that are almost immediate like PPC marketing, Craigslist (if you do it right), etc.
And there are things that take time but can build up to be very powerful over the long run like Scott mentioned (SEO, video marketing, etc).
What we teach to all of our members in our Carrot Guide (free to all members) is to have a short-term traffic plan and a long-term traffic plan. We walk you through Craigslist strategies and other short-term strategies... then guide you through the SEO path over the long-term.
It takes patience and investment (either time or money or both) but the payoff can be amazing. Our members are pulling in over 20k leads per month right now (including phone call leads) and closing lots of deals... which is fun as heck to see them putting our system and strategies to work!
To Finish...
When you're looking for a website for your business look at these things.
1. Performance: Is the site proven to effectively convert qualified visitors into leads at a high rate. Some sites will say they're set up for high conversion but when we test things we end up finding it's usually not the case. If you lose just 1 deal a year because of an underperforming website (even if that site saved you a few bucks per month) it could cost you $10k+... so that few dollar a month savings actually cost you thousands in the end.
2. Support Structure: How much do you value your time and are you an expert in online lead gen? If you value your time and are not an expert in it... having a team by your site who do this every day and have done exactly what you're looking to do is priceless. We have the different levels of support to help you as much or as little as you need. Live chat and email support (you can search online and see what people say about our support, we're proud as heck of it! :-), our weekly live mastermind calls w/ me or Adrian on our team (he's actively using Carrot very successfully in 2 markets closing consistent deals), and even 1 on 1 strategy phone calls as needed. We're here for you. If you can't succeed with us I'm not sure how you'd be able to anywhere else.
3. Long-Term ROI vs. Short-Term Savings: Look at the time and money you'll save and make over the long run vs. the money you'll save over the short-term. Even a $50/mo savings from weebly to Carrot Core Plan is only $600/yr... but how much time are you possibly going to waste trying to figure out how to build your site effectively, how much will your site underperform because it's not set up specifically to perform and convert, and what happens if you get stuck in your lead gen efforts... who do you turn to and how much money / time will that cost?
We always focus on ROI vs. cost savings upfront, our monthly price is higher... but it lets us invest more into our support structure which helps our clients succeed at a higher rate.
haha, apologies for this long reply!
We wish you luck and here's to a great 2016!!!!
- Trevor
Thanks so much for your response @Trevor Mauch. I can't wait to have the money to have someone else take care of web marketing & SEO. It is SO not something I want to embark on learning. I know it would be invaluable, but I'm just being honest. The thought of listening to the mastermind calls and learning all of this ON TOP of trying to find deals and learning how to be a smart investor makes my head hurt. But I digress. I gotta do what I gotta do. ;) Thanks again!
Wow, I am going to try Carrot. I went to the site and it seems user friendly and highly recommended. Great Post!
Thanks
@Melissa Searing Wow, somehow missed your post from last month. Oops! Need to check my BP alerts more often!
Haha, ya really we've taken the "a la carte" approach at Carrot.
You can do as little or as much work as you want to do... and we've got you covered every step of the way. For those who have less money and more time... thats where the trainings come in and the mastermind calls are there for you each week as you have questions. For those who have more money than time... the Carrot Marketplace is where you can go to get most everything done you need to do.
The key here is... you DON'T need to come on all of the mastermind calls... nor do we recommend anyone does. Treat them like your direct access to get your high level strategy questions answered by us. Or if you get stuck in your marketing or SEO... just hop on and ask your questions... we'll dive in in detail with you... the hop off the call and implement. Don't treat these like you have to show up for 90 mins each week. But they are there as you need them.
@Loretta Owens we're here for you!
Success isn't easy, but we're the quickest path to help you get there. :-)
Hi, I have a question specifically about the competition within Investor Carrot sites in a particular area. Is there a concern about saturation? If 30 investors use your service in my area how do you determine who is ranked higher, etc.
Thanks!
John
@John Broaddus Great question man!
In it's essence, Carrot isn't an SEO service, it's a software that is built to streamline the SEO process and increase the conversion rate performance on your Carrot websites (in addition to our great strategy support for our members). So we don't really determine rankings for any website or client.
Technically 1,000 investors could all be using InvestorCarrot in the same market if they wanted to... and they would all have the same advantages over building a site on wix, or godaddy, or squarespace, or building their own Wordpress site (if they're not experienced in how to properly setup and optimize a site for SEO and conversion rate performance), etc.
From there, it's just like anything... it's what each investor chooses to do with the tool that makes the difference.
Everyone starts with the same headstart and the same resources... from there some investors may choose to just do PPC and that's it. Here are some scenarios we see:
The investor just wants to do...
Basically we provide a great tool that we're continually innovating on that is optimized well from the start to give you a jumpstart on your SEO and convert visitors at a rate much higher than the industry average.
From there every investor chooses (with our guidance if you need it) how to use the tool. Just like with anything most people don't put in the work and focus to crush it. So even if there are 100 investors using Carrot in your city, you have the same chance as they do to crush it... but everyone using Carrot has an advantage over the majority of people who aren't using it.
An Example...
One of our high end clients in Phoenix, a very very active investor who buys in 2 states, just recently switched to Carrot from his custom wordpress site he paid thousands to build out. That site looked great, but wasn't built correctly technically speaking to make it easy for him to rank well in Google for search phrases sellers were typing in in that market. So he never got past middle of page 2. Also, the traffic he was getting wasn't converting very well so his leadflow was low.
Once he made the switch (which there were dozens of Carrot customers in Phoenix before him) he had us customize his site for him with our Concierge Quickstart Program so he could be hands off... his site is unique to him now... and the technology side of our system gave him the edge his previous wordpress site didn't give him. Now he's ranking on page 1 already (within 2-3 months) in Phoenix for search phrases and he's getting some leads now... and things are improving even more every couple weeks.
For him, this wouldn't have happened if he didn't make the switch to Carrot and trust the plan (and implement the plan and engage us when he needs help).
My thoughts on competition...
So, in the end you're going to have competition no matter what you choose to use for your website. But when you move to Carrot we'll give you the best possible platform to give you the highest ROI on your online marketing.
From there, it's your choice to implement the plan (or hire someone to do it) the way that fits your business model... and work the plan harder than the next guy (or gal).
The cool thing about the web vs. direct mail lets say... is if 100 investors are using the same direct mail list and sending a similar mailing... the sellers are going to have a stack of 100 postcards on their table they have to deal with.
With the web, where sellers go to Google and are seeking out solutions to their problems... the traffic and trust is skewed to the websites that are in the top 5 results of a Google search and some of the ads. And a seller rarely ever does just 1 search... they usually search many phrases. This means that those who work their way to the top of the search engines and/or effectively do PPC well with a high converting website have the edge... even if there's 100 other investors below them in the search results.
And we give all of our members the same level playing field and resources... it's then up to them to take those and run with them and engage us for help and strategy advice as they need it. The 80/20 rule totally applies... prob 90/10. If you're in the top 10% and apply the strategy relentlessly... you'll get a great ROI... and so will the other Carrot members in that market who are tackling it.
Hope that helps!
My philosophy is recognize that there is competition... but we don't base our business decisions on what our competition is or isn't doing... we always base it on what the customer needs and how we can best get our message in front of them. We suggest investors do the same. Use the tools that are shown to work... know there are others using it (because it works) but just focus to best implement the plan and get your message in front of your client and you'll be ok.
Have an amazing week!
I still have yet to have any one who's put up or sells lead funnel websites give documented results:
- leads per month
- leads converting to deals with numbers.
I've been around for a while. I just don';t believe putting up a lead funnel website will get you sellers clicking "buy my house" button.
Folks can you post your results? What maters is deals per dollar and deals per hour spent. Both are limited commodities.
My view is that direct marketing in all it's forms is what one needs to do today. Even Pay Per Click (google and FB) are very expensive per converted deal per credible BPers who spend a lot of cash per month who I believe. I don't believe carrot or any other service "touters" without numbers.
Hey @Curt Smith !
Great question man.
Tracking down to the deal on our end as the website provider is pretty hard since most of our extremely active investors are using podio or a system like that to manage their leads with their Carrot account (we integrate with most CRMs so our users can choose what works best for them).
But what we can track and are extremely transparent about are the aggregate leads that are coming in each month.
We post them each month in what we call our "Lead Harvest Reports" and case studies.
You can find them here:
I'd be happy to show you inside our Google Analytics account anytime and show you anything in there you'd like. Just let me know and we can hop on a call anytime!
As for the other numbers about closed deals and profit per dollar / time, that's not something we're able to track on our end currently. But I do know just from our quarterly customer surveys and corroborating those with the lead volume in their accounts that there are hundreds and hundreds of deals closed each year from Carrot leads.
But I totally get your skepticism and it's healthy to second guess stuff you see online man! There's a lot of crap out there.
One quick note as well... the most active investors closing the most deals tend not to be inside BP forums all the time... so finding ones that are closing 20+ deals a year from Carrot (or any other online lead gen system) in this thread is probably a slim chance.
Just reach out and I'd be happy to open up our data to anyone anytime if it'll be of value.
Have an amazing week!
@Scott Costello Thanks for that A/B comparison. That's what I need to know. How does it perform when compared to a professionally built site with professional SEO. I was thinking about building my own site, but it seems like a better use of my time and money to let someone else do that work for me so that I can focus on my other marketing and talking to sellers so I can get more deals.
@Scott Costello Thanks for that A/B comparison. That's what I need to know. How does it perform when compared to a professionally built site with professional SEO. I was thinking about building my own site, but it seems like a better use of my time and money to let someone else do that work for me so that I can focus on my other marketing and talking to sellers so I can get more deals.
That is exactly my feeling as well.
So would it be wise to subscribe to ... both services? Or would that be competing against yourself?
@Jim Foil would you give a little more info on Reilmobile? Thanks!
Investor Carrot
@James Green Thanks for your interest in REImobile. We've just moved out of beta and are excited to have people experience the system. I'm a very active house flipper that uses the system and that's what allows us to innovate (innovations for both REImobile and LeadPropeller).
We use REImobile daily for my house flipping business. It's still a new system but we are adding new features and building it out daily. I'm actually blown away often when I realize how much we already have in the system. :)
I can't wait for you to have a look at it.
You can contact Josh in my office using our sales phone number (found at the bottom of the LeadPropeller.com website) and he can give you a live demo and answer any questions you have.
Wow, with all I see here, obviopusly Carrot is the way to go....
Personally I use LeadPropeller because it was cheaper, I was able to get three sites for only 49/month. The support is awesome usually you work with one person and at this point we know eachother personally. The support will help with ANYTHING you need and complete it in a timely manner.
Hope this helps :)
Hey @Robert Orrigoni we'd love to have you man!
We always say to focus on results and performance... those at the end of the day always trump an upfront cost savings over the long run. But ya man, we're here for you if you feel it's a fit! Just reach out anytime and we're here for ya.
@Courtney Kamdar glad you're using LP and you love it. Go out there and crush it!
Have a great week y'all!
- Trevor
I know this is an old thread but I just recently found this tread while trying to choose between the 2. I ended up signing up for Investor Carrot.
Just got it up and running. Will do more editing and starting a starting a PPC campaign.
So @Michael Sanders can you provide an update? How has your experience been? Can you provide any stats on leads, conversions, etc?
Great thread and I've been having this same internal debate. So, it's been 4 months @Michael Sanders. Can you provide an update on how IC is performing for you? How many leads are you getting? Have they increased? How easy has it been to maintain?
Id like to hear from @Michael Sanders too
@Michael Sanders how are things coming along with IC?
Is IC user friendly? I dont have any experience with websites etc. Looking forward to making that jump to IC