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
So I am currently in the process. Lets get it.
@Chris Uhler....Hi Chris....if you don't mind me asking you if you are still using LeadPropeller, if so how effective is it generating leads for you? Also, are you using their REImobile application as well?
Thanks Chris!
Investor Carrot. Hands down
Are there any experienced IC users that can possibly help me out? For some reason, I get this blank square with a question mark on my home page, right next to where it say's "fill out this short form". I first noticed it today while editing my city specific landing pages. Apparently I am having the same issue on my main home page now as well. It's driving me nuts, can't figure it out. Thank you in advance for any assistance.
@Michael Sanders how is your site performing?
I am in the same position as everyone else here. Sounds like IC is a fan choice but tie-in of REImobile with LeadPropeller is very intriguing...and its cheaper...
Would love to see lead numbers for both sites posted here. That would really help out a lot.
Hey @Account Closed I saw you put in a note for help w/ Carrot so I reached out to you directly though email last week. Glad we could tackle it for you and help you dial in some of those other settings I mentioned in the email. We're here for ya! Definitely make sure to reach out to our live chat or email support for the quickest help.
We've got you :-)
Hit me up if we can help you get a marketing plan picked and get it implemented. Also there are some other things we can help you w/ to dial in the design and personalization / credibility of your site to really cut through the clutter in your market.
@Trevor Mauch I know you have a demo, but I'm wondering if you can answer just a few basic bullet questions about your site:
To generate leads from a site, it looks like there is ppc, facebook, signs, etc, to drive traffic. Setting up budgets is the biggest challenge most people face. In addition to any fee OnCarrot charges, are there plans people can sign up for with SEO or does everyone have to have their own ads running? Also, some of those seem to be best when a landing page is added, which is another fee based service. Do you have any of that lead gen and what is a low cost way to do this? I see one investor said he spends $10/day.
@Joe Yobaccio @Trevor Mauch InvestorCarrot can help you set up SEO, Facebook, PPC. There are many tutorials that can walk you through those processes.
I have first hand experience with Jake, Andre, and Alex. The staff is incredible and they are NEVER too busy to help you. They have helped me solve many problems. Most recently, within 1 hour of requested assistance, they helped me resolve a Youtube issue with associating my site, and also a Facebook conversion tracking problem. One of their programmers also made some on the spot coding to modify a landing page I was working to get the colors right. I don't imagine you are going to get that immediate service with a custom site with a programmer that is charging you hourly. It does also help they have real estate background, so they can understand problems you face. I also recently sat in on a mastermind, gave me some new perspectives, and I was able to create new Facebook ads with relevance scores 8+.
Just to be clear, I have no financial stake or any gain by making this post. I just think, if you are not experienced with web design and new to the online marketing game, it's very possible to get in over your head. InvestorCarrot will keep that in check. Of course, the trade off is you need to work within the InvestorCarrot framework.
That said, although InvestorCarrot can help you, you're not going to get anyone to manage SEO, PPC, Facebook without paying alot more than $50 to $100 per month. If you look at the "gurus" out there, they'd probably charge you hundreds per month just to manage one of those. Also, the budgeting aspects, really, that's up to you, your market, how you approach your advertising.
@Joe Yobaccio! Hope you're having an awesome day man!
Great questions man.
Ya so with online marketing like you mentioned there are 2 parts.
1) Dialing in your website (performance, credibility, etc.)
2) Traffic (getting qualified people to your site)
A lot of people (even Carrot members) toss up a site and don't take clear consistent action on step 2... so I'm glad you're asking that questions up front man!
So, we don't have an internal SEO service that we offer (except our high level Concierge level services for investors already doing 3+ deals a month w/ a budget over $3k-$4k/mo for their online marketing) but we do have a stellar SEO firm in our marketplace that is a preferred provider that has done phenomenal SEO work for our clients over the years. They're not cheap but very good.
Ya, depending on your market you could possibly get by w/ a $10/day budget... but that really depends on the type of leads and the market. If you're in a market like Phoenix and looking for house sellers... you're going to need a budget probably 5-10x + that to really compete for sellers at scale. But in smaller markets with a well honed PPC campaign... YES... you could likely get some traction and a great roi w/ $10/day.
On the PPC side of things, we do PPC internally for the large clients but we have a phenominal PPC firm that we recommend lots of our clients to that only do PPC for investors. Same thing... it's not cheap but w/ PPC and SEO you usually get what you pay for. You can definitely find someone to manage PPC for $300 - $500/mo but in our experience it's not *usually* the soup to nuts (Google, Bing, FB retargeting ads, daily management by a human being, etc.).
On the landing page side of things, like Lucas mentioned (you rock by the way man! Always awesome seeing our clients go out there and crush it!) I'd start doing PPC w/ just driving the traffic to your Carrot site home page. It's dialed in to convert well and then only add landing pages as you need to niche down your message on your PPC marketing. Which we could show you how to do it or help you do it.
I hope that helped a bit! Feel free to reach out and Pete on our team or one of our other awesome team members can walk you through everything. We'd love to work w/ ya if you feel it's a fit :-)
Are either of these platforms now integrated with Google, etc. "call ads," either directly, or utilizing a third party platform for lead generation pages? This seems a smarter approach to me than the 'cold calling' approach, IF IT WORKS effectively for RE / REI introductions?? So far I've done perhaps two hours of research on this... and see 'mixed' opinions as to receiving highly targeted inbound call leads. (i.e. If you are already branded and/ or pushing a 'vanity number' and/ or branded URL, vs. simply targeting key words and phrases related to 'generic' SE searches.)
Thanks guys any updates?
Investor Carrot or Lead Propeller/ REIsoftware?
How do these sites work in dense competitive markets like Los Angeles? When I try google searching in my area the SEO rankings seem to be the big players, or brands of buyers in the area. Are they buying up all the adspace?
I tried doing wordpress before and set up a site but I didn't get leads off of google/ SEO, I just got leads from my mailers which had a link to my sites.
I want to revamp my direct purchasing -- ie Buying preforeclosures, distressed properties, tired landlords, etc
SEO, technology, actual lead generation since this is what we all want. Anyone use it in Southern california/ Los Angeles and get leads right off the site or are they mainly from direct mail/ direct marketing. I assume a lot do and it's possibly saturated here? Anyone from LA, OC, or San diego want to chime in on how this has worked on lead generation. We're in bubble/ shark territory out here :)
Has anyone found the LeadPropeller/REI software helpful for CRM -organizing calls, texts and tracking leads, follow up etc
Questions for long time users of Carrot or Lead Propellor:
LEADS: For anyone using these websites for long periods of time how often have you had leads from the website and how many have you converted to actual purchases in the last few months to couple years?
Automation? Are these pretty automatic once set up? Did you find long term value in them?
I send direct mailers to home owners, and give my info via biz cards etc
Any updates or reviews from people who have used it and are happy after a year?
@Scott T. Great question man!
Just so we're on the same page... are you asking if Google PPC works to get people to call you from being a cold lead vs. just people searching your brand out?
@DanBarrett w/ AdwordsNerds can better attest to this w/ even more data... but we released a report on PPC effectiveness that monitored millions of searches and over 5k leads for motivated house sellers... and we can show w/ data that Google PPC (and Bing too) are producing a great ROI to attract new clients who weren't doing a brand search. How many of them call vs. opt into the website? That varies widely by market we've found... many clients report that over half of their leads come from phone calls... some report less than 20% come from phone calls. But in the end, the mixed reviews we usually see online about PPC working or not working come down to the variables that people aren't honing in correctly in their campaigns.
1. Their ad targeting: Is their targeting solid? Targeting the right keywords w/ the right ad groups setup the right way? Doing this part wrong can lead to tons of wasted PPC dollars and a low or no ROI.
2. The ad copy: Is the ad copy compelling? Does it help build credibility? Does it stand out? The higher your CTR the lower your overall cost per click... which can drive up your ROI. This is where experienced PPC experts come in and pay for themselves many times over.
3. The website you're sending them to: Most websites aren't setup to perform well when it comes to converting a visitor into a lead. This alone could make or break the campaign. Every week we hear from clients who moved to Carrot and when they do, their PPC campaigns start to perform better just because of the conversion rate side of things (especially on mobile)
But ya, PPC is continually a very effective way to get seller leads... both those who do branded search and are vetting and verifying you... and those who find you cold from searching a phrase like "sell my house fast [insert city]". Just need to make sure those 3 things above are dialed in and focused on ROI.
Go get 'em! Hit me up if we can help you w/ anything :-)
@Will F. Really great question man!
In competitive markets... we see lots of clients getting really great results w/ organic and PPC leads coming in.
In the L.A. market as an example... 3 of the top 5 results for "we buy houses los angeles" are Carrot clients right now... and looking in their accounts just now they're all getting leads.
But yes, in competitive markets it definitely takes more time, money, and patience to crack through the larger established players.
But I can say w/ experience that someone who decides to dive into driving leads online today... in most any market... w/ the right budget, team to help them, and their strategy and website dialed in... can get a solid ROI w/ both PPC in the short-term and SEO in the long-term.
We recently did it w/ clients in both Baltimore and Phoenix... within weeks had leads coming in and their first deals closed in those markets within 40 days of the start (using a targeted PPC campaign)... then over the long-term working on building up their SEO.
A few things in competitive markets though...
Great questions y'all!
As far as asking on BP for people who are getting great results from any type of marketing... my experience is that the investors who are consistently growing their businesses and getting great results at anything aren't hopping around forums online during their spare time. For transparency, I'd be happy to show you anything you want to see (except actual leads for a client) to help you w/ your research.
We publish the volume of leads that come into our Carrot clients site on our website for anyone to see (just shy of 40k online opt in leads per month... then another 20k+ phone call leads per month according to client surveys)... and ultimately as with any type of marketing... online marketing when done right works... whether you're w/ Carrot or LP or Wordpress or any other system.
If the right foundational principles are followed...
... if those principles are followed and you're patient you'll get results.
Hit me up and I'd be happy to show you anything you want to see man!
Good luck on your search and go crush it! We're here for you if you want to ramp things up and get a solid plan together.
Well I received some poorly designed/ page blocking pop- up asking if "I'm affiliated with your company?" (for the record, I'm not affilated with ANY company that isn't mine, or I wouldn't comment...) My question (as I recall?) was regarding the use of "Call Only" ads, PPC ads, hybrids (i.e. call, text, or click through to website) or standard PPC from text to site, for non 'branded' contacts, because of course like many small to mid- sized businesses, those 'leads' are from people who won't be searching for, (or even familiar with) REI vs. RE options. So it seems to me that an 'educational' website, then a service(s) specific site for targeted lead captures, then a property (specific) site, would be the way to go???
And BTW: RHS Class of '84 (i.e. Roseburg, OR 6th- 12th grade. ;-)
So I have been a Lead Propeller customer for just over 2 months and so far I am NOT impressed by their customer service, or should I say lack thereof. I respect Danny Johnson and his contributions to BP and I think that he has a very easy to use website builder for re investors. The problem is I have made several attempts over that past few weeks to contact them via phone and email and have not received a single call or email back! Very disappointed at their low level of customer service and feel "Ghosted" by the support staff, ready to take my business to OnCarrot!
@Scott T. Sweet man! Small world you're from Roseburg too! haha. Crazy. Well it's changed a bit since you were here, lots of great stuff happening today!
On the ads... giving people options is always good and if people are ready to text or call directly from the ad... sweet, let them text or call (so we do tend to turn on those settings on ads at the start to see how they perform in that market). But if they're not ready to call... they likely need more info... which is where your educational website comes in. So I know this isn't a clear answer... but some markets the call ads are performing great and picking up new leads that wouldn't have come in otherwise. But in my opinion... bringing them to your website where you can build credibility w/ them is always the best option... when you bring your unique value proposition and your credibility you start to de-commoditize your service.
@Joey Smajd We'd love to work with you man! Hit me up if we can help with anything at all and we'll get your site dialed in.
But to be fair, even w/ our stellar customer service record from time to time we've dropped the ball for one reason or another... it just happens with thousands of customers... so it may have been a hiccup in their system or something... but my guess is their support didn't "ghost" you, it was likely a systems issue or just bandwidth. Or, we've even had it happen where we were sending the client back replies but they never saw them because their email was filtering them out as spam for some reason. Anyhow, just saying this to give LP the benefit of the doubt and I know how difficult it can be to scale a company into the thousands of clients while still retaining an amazing client experience. It's not easy, but it's important and a worthy challenge.
Hit us up! We're here for ya :-)
Ya, I haven't been to a HS reunion, or visited anyone there in over two decades, so maybe soon? (My father is in Silverton, and brother, in Portland.) I believe it comes down to the individual(s) you're making contact with... As for the 'herd' (aka: half +/- of a given population / super- generalized target market) you might find that the more 'complex' (and proprietary) the niche market segment(s) the more likely the potential customer is going to need / want / desire to research the subject, product and/ or service, as you eluded to... and likewise (with say RE / REI related) the more apt they are to want an added layer(s) of distance, initially... Also generalizing (as many 'tech' marketers today do...) that say those over around 40ish will want to do numerous ongoing text, email, etc. 'touch points' vs. speaking directly to the people in the know (or in charge...) is mostly wishful thinking, particularly when BIG money and/ or clarifications, or timing, is involved. This is where the "either call > or < click or" option, should come into play.
It's fairly well documented (again, after a 20- 30+ year hiatus) that people want to discuss things either in person, or (if that isn't, an option) then as AT & T used to jingle, via the: "next best thing, to being there..." And it really comes down to what age group(s) you're targeting. Using 10- 50 'touches' with a guy in his 60s- 90s might soon prove counter productive... just as calling a millennial to 'invest' in RE as a 'private investor,' or 'venture capitalist,' probably isn't going to pan- out! (While a phone call to that 'older guy' and his wife in a three way conversation, might pay the house payment for a few months or longer, for e.g.)
@Joey Smajd I want to personally apologize for your experience with support. This is very, very rare for our support team. Our support team is in my office, down the hall from me and we have weekly meetings where we go over response times for both emails and calls. These numbers are always ridiculously low, so I was very surprised to see your message.
This caused me to immediately go down the hall to find out what happened so that this mistake can be addressed. The response times I got screenshots of are both very fast. Ticket submitted 12:47 am and we responded 6:00 am. Then back and forth emails later that day were handled within 10 minutes. The only thing I can assume is that maybe there was another support request that is not being found in the support system we use. I'd be happy to get on a call to get this cleared up.
This is just very rare for us so I want to make sure we make it up to you. We pride ourselves on our customer support so I take this very seriously.
In order to find out whether there is a problem with our support system, I will call you myself to make sure we handle this immediately.
@Scott T. Yep, so many variables there for sure... and no one ad or marketing campaign can speak to every type of prospect or the way they like to communicate.
Our philosophy is to know your primary prospect inside and out and speak to them primarily in your marketing (ads, website copy, retargeting ads, etc. etc) then make it easy for people to connect w/ you in whatever way best fits them (text, call, online opt in, etc.). And the biggest thing is to followup after a lead comes in and respond to any opt ins, calls, or texts immediately to help them during THEIR timeline that they want to be helped in.
Hit me up if you do come back through Roseburg! We'd love to show you around the Carrot offices and introduce you to our team! Good stuff!
@Joey Smajd - I was reading through this post and surprised to see the LP customer service comment. I've been with them for about a year and hands down, Matt at LP is one of the best customer service guys ever. I'm pretty technology dumb and he is always taking care of my random requests (especially getting me set up with emails and getting everything to feed into investorfuse). I can't comment on I/C, since I've only used LP, but it's kicking *** for me. Obviously marketing is a multi-pronged thing, but we are getting webform and phone call submissions, and setting up the sites was great (love the smooth clean look).
@Danny Johnson First of all let me say thank you for reaching out and doing everything you could to get to the root of the problem. Mistakes happen and I realize that even the best companies have them from time to time, but only the very best care enough not only to correct the problem but go above and beyond to make their customers feel both appreciated and satisfied with the end result!
Also I'd like to personally thank your customer support staff member Matt Martinez for making sure that I was personally taken care of with top notch communication and response times!
Thanks again Danny for taking your time to get this right!
@Joey Smajd You're very welcome. Again, I appreciate you as we were able to get to the root of it and find a situation where we didn't have accurate tracking metrics to see the problem. We've got it covered now!
Thanks for being a part of LeadPropeller and letting Matt know how much his hard work is appreciated. I've let him know that you mentioned him and he appreciates it.
Like I mentioned, feel free to reach out directly to me if you need anything and for any help with strategy.
Hi all,
Great thread, I was also wondering about the same question as @Matt Ellis. Thank you for sharing.
@Account Closed Thanks for joining the thread man!
Ya some fun conversation in here. I love it :-)
Reach out if we can help you w/ anything at all!
Happy to show ya anything behind the scenes that you need as you ramp up your online lead gen efforts man!
Just read through the entire thread and it has me wishing that I/C had an REI Mobile style solution! I think I'll try out both but if L/P is comparable at all I imagine I'll go with them in order to use their Real Estate specific CRM.
I use Podio as my CRM right now and it's terrible. I know it's possible to force these CRMs to work, but it isn't easy and even with my fully built out setup, it's certainly not elegant. That's the problem with these one-size-fits-all CRMs, they can do everything ok, but nothing well.