All Forum Posts by: Trevor Mauch

Hey @Cara Davis!  Hope you had a great weekend! 

I think the best thing you can do is just check around here on the BP forums and talk to Carrot customers to see their experience with us :-) 

That's the best way to get the real low-down on what we're about. 

Our main focus is on helping our clients pull the highest ROI with us vs. other solutions (including building your own site) with a combination of our software / technology that makes the websites rank better more easily and convert visitors into leads at a higher rate, our epic support team, and our training. Right now Carrot members are pulling in more online leads than any other REI website platform (over 16,000 opt in leads and thousands and thousands of phone call leads... per month). We'd love to have you aboard! We'll never sugarcoat things... online marketing takes work and a no quit attitude for sure. But we're here for you every step of the way :-) Which is why our members get such great results. Hope to chat soon!

@Scott Costello

@Scott Costello nice work man! I knew a good solid deal like that would come soon! Great work! Happy as heck for you. That'll pay for your Carrot membership for like 15 years or something :-) 

- Trevor

Ya guys we're still working through some improvements on the InvestorCarrot > Podio integration. 

The integration itself is working great... where the issues are are on the many different ways people have their Podio apps setup. 

As an example, one person may have a phone number field in Podio... but they actually used a "text" field instead of a "contact" field in Podio. And someone may have an phone field in Podio... but they used a number field type in Podio rather than a contact field, etc. 

So that's the main issue. 

But we're researching to see if we can just open it up so customers can choose for themselves which fields to send their data to. I think that's the route we're going and we're literally pushing out some big updates in the next 7 days. 

Let us know how things go w/ it and Scott let us know how things are going w/ your Carrot > Podio setup. 

Have a great weekend fellas! 

- Trevor

Hey @zach! Man I'm a bit late on the reply here but I wanted to shoot a quick note over on your question. 

So, one thing I learned years and years ago was that what we (as the marketers) thinks looks "good" versus what performs are often two different things. 

I've been really surprised countless times by what I thought would perform the best (convert more qualified leads) vs what actually did. 

We've tested pretty sites, ugly sites, sites with little content, sites with lots, just squeeze pages vs. full "mini-sites", sites with no-sidebar and sites with a sidebar, etc, etc. 

You can see many of the tests that we run each month in some of our blog posts on our Inbound Marketing Blog

But in the end, we always follow the data. 

The website format we currently use is still that way because we haven't found a format in our testing that has out performed the current site design. 

Yes they do have lots of content on them and may be "busy"... but that's to our eye as the marketer who is looking at the page with a totally different mental frame than a buyer or seller. 

In our tests and countless heatmaps we've ran... it's a fine balance between too little content and too much in the wrong places. 

Actually... to prove this point... lets take one of the highest converting and best performing ecommerce websites in the world (probably the most). 

amazon.com Here's a screenshot of their home page below. 

They are the king of following the data and their data tells them that this format, at least currently, outperforms and is more profitable than their previous formats. 

Very busy. 

Of course though... the way most people use Amazon is by either landing directly on a product page from a Google search... or they hit the search box at the top of the site to find what their looking for. So the search box on their home page is the #1 focus (which is why it's displayed prominently at the top... see below). Everything else on the home page is there to further support the person in finding something on Amazon to buy... behind that search bar. 

Amazon's Primary Focus... 

Now Relating This To Real Estate...

We've tested simple squeeze pages (actually testing a very simple 1 page format right now on a bunch of members site who are generating a lot of traffic / leads) and more often than not the simple and low content / uncluttered landing page didn't perform as well as landing the visitor on the home page of our sites the way they are structured. 

But just like w/ Amazon... we pick the #1 focus we want the visitor on (which is what we call the Hero section... seen below)... knowing that the more attention we can put on that the easier we can get the visitor to that section to take action... and then everything else on the page and the entire website is geared to support that act of helping the seller find the solution to their problem and getting them an offer. 

If you don't have the info the prospect needs to feel good about continuing to interact w/ the page and to entice them to opt in or call... the visitor will bail and find another site that will. 

But ya, I'm with you man. I LOVE clean simple design. Our own sales website is that way because that's what our particular prospect (real estate investors) want to see. In that circumstance we've tested the ugly page and our current clean design outperformed it. 

But for motivated sellers, cash buyers, and we're finding it with tenants as well... the prospects are in information gathering mode. 

They're not doing a Google search thinking... "man, I hope I can find a site to put my email address into". 

They're doing the search in information gathering mode and are looking for info that'll help them solve their problem. Our mechanism for helping them is that we need their property address and contact info to give them the full info on what we can offer... but your site should do a good job of doing whatever it needs to to engage the visitor, build credibility, and make sure you keep them on the site engaging w/ something vs. leaving feeling their questions weren't answered. 

But ya, we're testing lots of things right now and I honestly hope we find a pretty and simple version that performs as good as our current version. But human psychology doesn't change easily :-)

To hammer it home... some of the most effective websites in their industries are also some pretty darn cluttered sites. Why? Because the target person on that site is in a mindset to consume and information gather... and the fewer ways you have to engage the person on the site to help guide them toward the goal... the more apt the person is to be unsatistied and leave the site. 

Examples:

 - huffingtonpost.com

 - Amazon.com

 - facebook.com (once you get into FB, look at all the ways they try to engage you to stay on the site. 

According to our data, the longer we can get someone to stay on the site the higher the chance for a conversion (also the more qualified the lead more often than not). Carrot members brought in over 15,000 opt in (that doesn't include the phone call leads) leads in the past 30 days... 51% of them on mobile devices which is crazy... because of the relentless testing we do. It keeps it fun and interesting for sure :-) 

But ya, follow the data man. 

Setup some tests on your own site and test some different variations and then go w/ what performs the best.  Reach out if I can help you in any way! 

Good luck!!! 

- Trevor

@Henrietta M. great work getting rolling!

That's the first step :-)

Like the other guys mentioned, the website could use some work and improvement to make it an effective asset for you moving forward. 

There are elements that we've found in all of our testing (about 13k opt in leads per month right now w/ our clients) that work well on a website. 

If you're going to stick w/ Weebly... try to see if it'll let you adjust the look of the page to have the elements I show in the screenshot below. 

• How They'll Contact You... Make It Front And Center: Like @Keith Belzner mentioned, you don't want people to have to search and dig to find out how to contact you. Make it crazy clear and give them multiple ways. You can see in the pic below the phone number is very very clear and large. 
  
  
• Clear Benefit Statement (How You Can Help Them): You've done a really pretty darn good job w/ your messaging on that page, showing how you can help them. You may make it a bit more specific to the area you buy houses in if you focus mainly on a certain area. 
  
  
• Call to Action Form: You'll see on the pic below the very very clear call to action in that form that we've built out. We've tested lots of different formats over the last 2 years... just under 1 million visitors to our members sites in 2014... and that format currently is working great. The Very clear benefit... simple info (address, phone optional, email)... big opt in button w/ benefit on the button. Then after they fill it out it works great to send them to a 2nd form that's a bit longer to see if they'll provide you any more info about their situation (the way we've built ours we see about 65%-75% fill out the longer form as well). 
• Credibility: @Aaron Montague had great feedback about finding ways to build some credibility in there. There are thousands of other "House buyers" out there... and making them feel comfortable with you is a big deal. Now, I don't agree with putting "I've done 14 deals in 2014" on the site... no need to say the # of deals you've done... whether you've done 500 or 1.  The client doesn't care how many deals you've done. We've ran surveys to motivated sellers and ran extensive tests on our InvestorCarrot websites to see where people engage on the web page... and their primary concerns (in this order from our research) was 1. How does the process work?   2. Is the company / person credible and honest?  3. Will the offer be fair? 
  
  So make sure to have a tab on your site that walks through the process and how it works. Also, either in addition to or rather than the # of deals you've done... I'd take the approach of building personal credibility. If you have done deals, get your customers testimonials and how you helped them. How you did what you said you were going to do. How they are better off now, then before they met you. Or, if you haven't done any deals... focus on your personal credibility. Pretty much everyone has "personal credibility". Even if you've never done a deal... you have co-workers who can attest to the type of person you are, your honesty, your ability to help people... your banker can attest to you being a responsible and honest person, your insurance agent, your investor mentors, etc. If you don't have any deals yet, focus on getting a few character based testimonials up there from people. Then add the deal based ones as you go. 

As far as driving traffic to your site. 

Right now I'd focus on tightening up the website first and attaching your own domain name to the website if possible. I see it's on a weebly domain still.  Getting your own domain will add a bit of credibility to the site rather than showing the visitor the site is on a free hosting system. 

Next, once you make those tweaks to the site, or hire someone to build a site for you, or join a system like InvestorCarrot if it was a fit... 

.. the first thing you need to look at is whether you'll be doing the work to drive traffic to your site (investing your time) or whether you have a budget to pay others to do it for you (investing your money). 

If you'll be investing your time and focusing on free traffic sources... here's whats working well right now for our InvestorCarrot members to pull in leads and deals. 

Free Traffic Routes: 

• Craigslist: Craigslist recently did a big update and are making it much harder to market on there as an investor. But, you can work within their guidelines and still do well in many markets.  PM me and I'll get you over some free resources. 
  
• Your Email Signature: One way people overlook too often is using their own email account. How many emails do you send each day to people just in your every day life? Put a signature line in the email that lets people know you buy houses and give a clear call to action... a way for them to submit a deal or get a hold of you if they know someone (or themselves) who needs to sell. 
  
• SEO: SEO is a bigger commitment.  In most markets it takes time to rank high enough to pull in consistent leads. But once you get there... it's awesome.  PM me and I'll get you over some free resources to get you rolling on the SEO side if that's what you want to focus your time on. 

Paid Traffic Sources: 

• Google PPC: This still works crazy good when you setup and tweak the adwords account well. You can hire people to set it up and manage it for you for pretty reasonable ($150-$400/mo) + the cost of the ads. 
  
• Paid SEO: If you don't have the time or patience to do SEO... hire someone. It's not cheap but can yield some of the highest long-term returns on investment we've seen. 

Haha, I was feeling a little spicy today so sorry for the long post! 

To sum it up, get that website improved. You can have all the traffic in the world... but if sellers don't feel comfortable putting in their info and feel it's a credible house buying site... they'll bail and go to the next. 

So that's #1. We can help you w/ that if it's a fit. Just PM me anytime. I'm here for ya :-)

#2, decide what you want to invest right now. Your time, or your money (or a bit of both). That'l dictate what you do to drive traffic to your site. 

Hope that helps! Good luck! 

Hey @Account Closed

@Matt Fisher Great convo you created here man! 

Some solid advice in here as well... and some that according to what we've found in our research and results... is a bit off from what's working. 

Our members at generating a bit over 13k leads per month and rank on page 1 and in the top 3 results of more motivated seller search phrases than any other website platform. So we have lots of great data on what's working right now for SEO (and what we feel will work now and into the future). 

But, you made the right decision for sure to buy the company branded domain. Like @Jeremy T. said, "we buy houses" is a trademarked term (which doesn't mean you can't use it in your content) so you'll want to stay away from having that exact phrase (those 3 words together) in your domain. But you can still use those words in your content in many places to try to capture the traffic to those types of phrases in your local market. 

In our research...

...the "we buy houses" type phrase is the most searched highly motivated seller phrase in most markets (behind that are the "sell my house fast [location]" or "sell house fast [location]" type phrases. The "sell my house [location]" ones tend to be more people who are less motivated and will likely go the agent or FSBO route first.... but def could down the line when they can't sell end up working w/ you (but now you're competing against a billion agents for that phrase which is a bit more difficult).

As far as the domain helping w/ SEO... Google made an update a good while back where they don't give preference to a direct match domain name for SEO reasons anymore... but sometimes having some of the keywords in the domain can be a benefit... but not enough benefit we've found to make that a huge decision on your domain. 

Content is still the #1 correlation to ranking well... links are #2 and crazy important...

No matter what people say, the content on your site is still the #1 factor for SEO... closely followed by the backlink profile (which this topic by itself could be a whole thread)... social signals are having an increased correlation to websites ranking in the top 5 results... and other factors. 

But, we get to see the behind the scenes data on our InvestorCarrot members info and we're seeing what moves the needle the most on getting to the top of Google. The content on the page has to be relevant, solid, and engaging #1... the backlink profile social signals... and tons of other offpage signals (time on page, clickthrough, page load speed a tad bit, domain factors, etc. etc.) are also part of it... but less so. 

Backlink stuff

We've been able to get plenty of websites ranked in the top couple results for motivated sellers and cash buyers with as few as 2 or 3 solid links... but w/ the content that is optimized well on their site (of course this is for markets that aren't the large ones). Just really depends on the competitive nature of the keywords you're going after. 

If you have a ton of great backlinks on the page... but the content on the site isn't directly related to that specific keyword phrase... how can Google tell where to rank you and what your website is about? So content is still #1... and you do still need the page to be content relavant to the searches you're looking to rank for (don't stuff the page w/ that keyword... but use variations of the phrase that show the same searcher intent... i.e. - that theyr'e looking to sell their house quickly). 

So ya man, focus on great content that engages people.

What I'd Focus On

I'd focus your content on the search phrases sellers are typing in in your local market first... then make sure your company name is on the site in places that makes sense (of course). 

From there if your company name is unique enough like you mentioned... you shouldn't have a problem ranking well for your company name at the same time your site is optimized for the phrases sellers are typing in. 

Feel free to reach out. Our clients / members control more page 1 rankings for motivated sellers than any other platform and we publish weekly free content on how we do it for anyone to read and implement (link is in my signature). 

Good luck!!!!! 

Just catching up on this thread. 

Thanks @Michael Cardini I appreciate the kind words man! We still need to connect! Time got away from me. Would love to see what you're doing and see if it's something of value to our members long-term. 

@Nettles Mason Haha, we LOVE having you around man. People who take action like you are always fun as heck. We can't wait until you close that first deal. I know you have a couple under contract now from your Carrot sites and marketing you've implemented, so when you close one we'll have to have a celebration on our next mastermind call man! 

@Michael Rogers Ya the training and weekly mastermind calls for members are fun as heck. Like you say, that's really where the rubber meets the road. Our system makes it easier for you to rank well... and we focus on conversion rate optimization (that's built into our system and we're continually improving)... but ya to get leads ya have to have traffic. And to get traffic ya have to do some sort of marketing (SEO, PPC, craigslist, offline, etc.). And that's where we focus the training and mastermind calls on. Glad you enjoy them! 

It's been a fun ride with our members and will be a great 2015 for you guys! 

Ya, with websites it really depends on what you're looking for and what you're looking for that website to do for you. 

If you want a brochure site and something to post content and properties on and don't care much about the performance, wix, weebly, and those low end priced solutions are perfect. You can usually get those launched decently quickly, but then you have to write the content yourself from scratch, etc. 

The services like LP and InvestorCarrot are specific for investors and have features, benefits, and support that you'll never get w/ a wix or weebly site that in the long run could save you far more than the per month "savings" you see on the pricing pages. 

If you have the time to write your content from scratch and are less concerned about conversion rates and performance on that site, and are looking for low monthly price, wix will do the job for sure. 

Where InvestorCarrot (or LP to an extent as well) come in is for those people who don't just want a website up and online, but want a system that is built specifically for that purpose. 

@John Steele totally value your opinion man but it's quite a bit off from what we've experienced. Yes, if you are really good at SEO, writing your own content for SEO and conversion, conversion optimization, have the time / knowledge / patience to sit through hacking through your making your own website and you're comparing our monthly fee to the monthly fee of basically a web host w/ a website builder (which is basically what wix, weebly, godaddy, etc. are)... then it looks over priced for sure. 

But if you look at the long-term ROI rather than short-term ROI...

... the extra leads our system converts from your traffic vs. a wix or weebly website (because we're constantly testing and tweaking on the traffic on our customers sites to find ways to improve results)... the time saved because of our platform and our support, and the training and support we give on helping our members drive more traffic and convert more leads... the ROI on a system like InvestorCarrot or LP vs. a wix site isn't even close.

@Scott Costello wrote a great blog post on his personal blog comparing a site he had built w/ one he did w/ InvestorCarrot (shows the actual data and conversions, etc.) Yes, he's spending less on a monthly basis to "host" his non Carrot site... by a lot. But he's converting 5x more leads through his Carrot site and doing deals from it... his non-Carrot site is ranking well but not performing. 

It's less a decision on comparing the monthly price of LP vs. wix or IC vs. wix... it's more of a decision on the value you want out of the website and what route will give a higher long term ROI on your time and money.

The hidden costs people don't consider are the leads you're *losing* (that you don't even know you're losing) because of lack of performance on a website system not built and honed to perform in this market... and the extra time you're spending building the site and trying to figure out the right strategy to move forward w/ to get the result you want for your business. 

1 deal lost could be $5k+ minimum... that would pay for LP or Carrot for 5-10 years. 

Some of the largest investors in the country with plenty of money and sense to know there are other options have moved to Carrot (guys who have done 1500-2k deals each) because of the increased performance and they don't have to hassle w/ tech issues... 

... which to them their time is more valuable than the $50/mo they may be saving on the monthly payment. 

Any marketing decision should be a long-term ROI decision rather than a short term expense calculation.

But ya @Sheryl Gurvey , wix is a great website builder and low cost. Just weigh what the important factors are for you and your business and go the route that fits the best for the long-term. Whatever direction you go trusting your gut you'll be good! 

Good luck on your search and reach out anytime! 

@Bruce Dalis this sparked an awesome thread! 

Great convos in here. 

People had great feedback on different options. 

The main thing w/ a system like LP or Investor Carrot (I'm the founder of Investor Carrot, just for disclosure) vs. setting up a site on wix, godaddy, wordpress, etc... 

... isn't the month to month cost or the technical ability and ease to get a site up. 

Anyone can launch a website on wix or wordpress. That's not what drives results for people on their site. 

I always like to equate websites to other types of marketing as a great analogy. 

Direct mail. 

With direct mail you have the paper, the list, the strategy behind the list choice, the mailing strategy / timing / etc, the the words on the paper, etc. 

The paper is like the website platform is to websites. 

The technical part of the CMS you use, or website builder you use, isn't the biggest part of the success or failure of your website pulling results.

No more than the paper is the driver of the success or failure on a direct mail piece. 

It's one of the smallest contributors to the website being effective in generating leads.  

On direct mail it's a mix of things that actually make the mail piece profitable:

 1. The copy / words on the mail piece (high converting sales copy)

 2. The strategy behind the mailing list and timing

 3. The followup system when a seller calls

If you're not a great sales copywriter and don't know the proper strategy on how to make a direct mail piece work in your market, it's likely not going be profitable. 

With websites...

1. Words / copy on the website can make your site sink or swim conversion rate wise

2. The physical and visual structure of the website (conversion elements) play a huge role. We've ran 200+ split tests on our customers sites and are improving conversions every month on our system... which is why they tend to convert higher than the majority of real estate investor websites out there.  Just throwing together a general real estate template, without the conversion rate optimization elements built in and continually honed... will get a site up but it may not convert very well. w/ 100 visitors to a website, a 2% bump in conversions is 2 extra leads per 100 visitors. If 1 of those extra leads turns to a deal... how much is that worth? $5k+ likely. 

We've had people try to copy or emulate our websites at Carrot and they don't perform as well because they often miss subtle elements that we've tested and found increase conversions. 

3. The support and the marketing strategy. If you were looking to do a direct mail piece, would you rather go to the printer, write your own words on the paper, try to get the right list, then test it? Or talk to someone who has successfully been doing direct mail profitably for motivated sellers and have them guide you?  Most people it would be the latter. 

Building your own site is phenomenal for those who... 

 - Have the basic technical skills to navigate the website builders out there (wix and godaddy are really easy). 

 - Can write the words on the website that are built to convert high and structure the site so it converts high. 

 - Those who have the time and patience to build that stuff out and try to focus on SEO as well

Those who don't have those, in the long-run will be better off going w/ a solution that is proven to rank well in competitive markets and convert really well. 

There are web guys and gals out there who can do this (just ask them for references for the industry specific type of leads you're looking at getting), or going w/ a system like LP or Investor Carrot. 

You'll make the right decision for you whatever you make! 

Don't hesitate to reach out to me anytime w/ a PM if you need help w/ anything or even if you want me to take a look at the SEO stuff on your site (even if you don't go w/ Investor Carrot). We're all in this together :-)

Have a great 2015! 

Hey @Lily Boudon , welcome aboard! 

Great points in this thread for sure. 

In the end, every solution out there is right for certain people for different reasons. 

There are huge pros and cons w/ owning your own code (building your own site) vs. leveraging a platform like InvestorCarrot. 

The biggest long-term cost most people aren't figuring of building your own website or going with a low priced option is the potential loss of revenue over the long term by lack of conversions. 

Scott wrote in a post of his how his Carrot site is pulling about 5x more leads vs. his site he owns that he hired an expert to setup. 1 extra deal w/ the Carrot site pays for the membership for years. 

Plus over the long-term w/ your own code you have... 

 - Wordpress updates

 - Plugin updates

 - Hosting fees

 - Potential hackers (one of the larger investors in Birmingham had his non-carrot site hacked in Jan and switched over to Carrot as a result. He's ranked #1 in Google... another Carrot member ranked #2 in Google... for the top 3 seller keyword terms)

 - Updating the website design when technology changes (like mobile, etc.)

 - etc. etc. 

InvestorCarrot (and other hosted versions like LP as well) handle these things for you. 

Our weekly mastermind calls alone will be worth the value for your Carrot membership Lily so we look forward to working w/ ya and getting you results quicker! 

See you on tomorrows call and we're here for ya! 

===

@Antonio Coleman Great work you're doing man! 

Lets connect sometime. Would love to dive in and learn more about what you're doing to see if there's any synergies there. 

Like @Scott said above I'd love to connect offline (or on here, either one) to discuss some of the things you feel aren't good on the SEO side w/ Investor Carrot. Carrot members hold more page 1 and top 3 rankings for motivated seller keywords around the country than any other website platform (over 13k leads per month right now)... so things are working pretty decent. I'd love to show you what we're doing behind the scenes to make that happen. On the front it looks like people have the same content, behind the scenes it's not the case. Some pretty cool SEO stuff we're doing behind the scenes w/ our content... plus our training and support that is driving those results. Cool stuff! 

The main drawback from a platform like ours is of course that you don't own the code. There are pros and cons there for sure, but more often than not unless you're an SEO and conversion rate optimization expert, it can be a burden building your own site and hoping it'll convert well, and maintaining that site, the plugins, etc. 

But that's why there are many many options for peeps! Something different for each persons needs. 

Keep up the great work man! Your blog posts here on BP are great! Solid stuff.

Lets connect!