All Forum Posts by: Trevor Mauch

they're now driving "all paid traffic" to their Carrot site vs. the custom one or one from other site providers.

@Hector Lozano Go get 'em man!

To confirm what Sean said any content written by us on our sites we own but clients can use it on their sites as long as they're a client. But any content you write is yours 100% and of course can be moved off of our platform no problem at all.

@Sean Dolan is spot on w/ the expected cost per lead in that market regarding PPC. But it's all math...

... if your average profit per deal is lets say $20k... and you close 1 in 15 leads into a deal... my guess is you'd all day long trade $5k for $20k... which puts the theorhetical "max cost per lead" ($5k / 15) is $333. So using that example... even at $333 per lead assuming a 1 in 15 lead to close ratio... you'd still be insanely profitable. Knowing your max cost per lead is critical so you can use math in your favor to really get that edge and scale up your paid marketing as you go. Go get 'em man!

@Will F. Great questions on the website development cost man! At the end of the day the parts that cost people the most (both money they should pay and money they're losing from under performance) is in getting the site to a point where it'll perform at a very high level. Either you have to become a great sales copywriter to guide the prospect on the path of converting into a lead or you have to hire a solid copywriter. Either you have to become an SEO expert or hire one to dial in your onpage SEO structure and optimizations. Either you have to become a website conversion rate optimization expert... or you have to hire a web person who truly is one. There are no wordpress themes that are dialed in to convert motivated house sellers or buyers... and if you lose just 1 deal per year... that would have netted $20k... was that site actually saving you money? The hard costs of the "elements" (wp plugins, wp theme, domain name, hosting) are all cheap. Where people get the gains is from the expertise built into the sites on the conversion rate optimization side, mobile optimization, sales copy, etc. Last that's also assuming systems like Carrot or LP are just websites. Look at the feature sets, support, strategy guidance etc. that are much more robust than a simple WP install... not to mention the tech stack that enables an investor to have the best of the best of servers, speed upload times, etc... vs. having to be on a low end shared server. Lots of things to look at.

@Parker Stiles Welcome aboard man! 

I pinged you with an email here a bit ago. Lets hop on a call and we'll dial in that strategy. I see some solid leads have already came into your account, sweet! 

As far as the PPC vs. DM vs. other strategies question... I've seen people both fail miserably on PPC and do insanely great. And on the flip side... I've seen lots of people fail miserably on DM and do crazy great. 

The main variables there are 

1. the targeting (was their PPC setup correctly? was their DM list chosen correctly?)  
2. the message on the marketing piece (was the website setup to perform backed by data and testing? was the DM copy and piece tested and proven?)
3. the  tracking / followup (was the person able to accurately track and close the leads?)

We've seen some people who were bombing on PPC... move their site over to us and their PPC started working (just the change in the site performance). 

As far as the market in Charleston, SC goes... that isn't a huge market so the lead flow of course won't be like it is in Phoenix or Dallas, but there are plenty of great deals in Charleston. 

The biggie will be to make sure to... 

1. Create location specific landing pages for each city / sub-market you'd buy in: This will help localize and focus your SEO and cast a wider net. If you'd buy on Isle of Palms... etc... create a page specifically for that. Reach out to support and we can guide you in the right direction. 
2. Add your credibility to your site: It looks like you've already added some but we can help you dial it in further. Reach out and we'll nail it for ya man! 
3. Nail your PPC budget based on the math: We've got a simple equation we teach our clients to figure out your target MAX cost per lead and your target PPC investment per deal... and use that to guide your PPC strategy. Hit me up and we can work through it together. 

Go get 'em man! 

As the market gets more and more competitive... with both more real estate agents in a sellers market and more investors (the upswing of the investor wave is in full effect since the market is good)... focusing on your credibility is a biggie and focusing on nailing your math and scaling up that PPC is crazy important. But the cool thing is the ones who nail those 2 things in this market will be much more well equipped to weather the market shifts ahead. 

@Melissa Davis great questions here! Exciting stuff... yet also probably overwhelming a bit :-) But you're in the right spot. Sooooo many amazing people here ready to help ya. 

@Sean Dolan and @Danny Johnson are spot on that most people focus really heavily on the front end... getting the things setup on the front end to get leads (the website, direct mail, PPC, etc. etc.)... but they neglect to hone those skills on how to connect with a seller, build credibility, and close deals. So as you're going and getting leads, really focus on finding the resources and/or help to continually sharpen your skills on the communication and closing side of the equation. Lots of great threads on BP and great mentors as well. 

On the website side of things Sean (above) has solid experience in that with investors so his advice is solid. Work w/ a company like us at InvestorCarrot or Danny at LP and get things setup so you don't have to worry about that side of it. Then dial in your strategy on how to nail the lead flow and scale. 

Hit me up anytime if we can help you hone that strategy! Let the fun begin :-) 

@Cody Evans Great question man! 

Some great advice above as well. 

And what it goes to show is that there are lots of things that are working... some of it varies by market... by your budget... etc. 

@Peter Vekselman is spot on that that mix consistently works for people when they nail their DM processes (their list and pieces) and make sure you know your numbers so you're sending enough to get the response you need to turn into deals. 

@Mike Pastor nailed it as well on some of the other strategies. SEO is growing in effectiveness in a big way and PPC is probably the most consistent and fast way to get in front of motivated sellers online... it's just a matter of making sure you know your numbers, carve out a proper budget to see it through to success, and committing to make it work. 

You've got this man! Just get in hustle mode and drive for dollars, knock on some doors, hustle Craigslist for a couple months (even when you're discouraged by it), and if you have a budget for paid marketing... commit to either Direct Mail or PPC... connect with the resources that'll help you cut the learning curve... and make it happen. 

Report back on how things go! 

@Steve Labus Thanks for the input man! 

The only perspective I can show from our end at Carrot is we can see the results his own business gets from his FB ads and can track the lead quality to close. So he's closing consistent deals from FB... but ya, I can't say how well he's been able to replicate that in other markets for people he works with. Again a big difference is... from FB lots of the leads people will get are retail sellers and not the highly motivated ones. So it's critical making sure the business model has a way of turning retail sellers into revenue on the listing side otherwise it makes it harder to ROI on the volume of leads that come in.

Those retail listings for Tom help him to recapture his FB ad cost and then the flips in his market are very high margin so it enables him to spend more and go through more "non motivated" sellers and still turn a very healthy profit. 

Either way, good luck Steve and go crush it! We'll make sure to take that feedback about Tom and connect with others to see if it's a pattern or just an isolated thing. Thanks for the heads up! 

@Ibrahim Hughes the fellas above are correct in that there's nothing on our end here at Carrot that needs changed, it's on the domain side of things depending on what you're wanting to do w/ your email. 

Usually godaddy and places like that offer email services, OR we just use Google mail for business... and have our mx records point over to google to handle our email. 

Reach out if we can help you with anything man! 

We've got ya :-) 

@Eric Sztanyo You're spot on man. 

Launch new lead generation channels, master them, then layer on new ones. 

I know on that CarrotCast episode that Tom was on with me... he's mainly using Facebook ads for his sellers right now in his market. We're going to be releasing our updated version of our Facebook Leads course this fall and will include some things from Tom in there and lots of new advanced things most investors aren't looking at. 

But ya, a huge key to making FB ads work well is having a very well optimized site on mobile... and once he made that move to Carrot his leads went up in a big way. 

Reach out and we can help you dial stuff in man! With that said, FB ads aren't working the same in every market. Miami was a hard market to make it ROI because a mix of low average profit per deal and high lead costs.

At the end of the day... one of the reason's Tom is crushing it is because he's able and willing to spend more to get a lead than anyone else in his market. Like he mentioned, he'll spend $1M this year in marketing in that market and he'll get more than that back in just agent commissions alone from those leads... then add on all of his profits from his flips (which his average is well north of $50k-$100k per flip) and that enables him to generate 100 leads a week with his marketing. 

So it's not apples to apples. Lots of wholesalers are going out there tossing money into paid marketing and can't make it turn a profit for them... mainly because their business model doesn't allow it (low average profit per deal + they're tossing away leads that would be great listing opportunities). 

Go get 'em! 

@Art Nava Great question man! 

Really it depends on the type of lead you're going after... and the specific area you're targeting. 

Facebook is very effective at generating buyer leads pretty efficiently and easily while it takes more strategy and patience to dial in campaigns to consistently turn out high quality sellers at or under a good target lead cost for your area. But with that said... thousands of leads per month come through our system from Facebook ads. 

The path we've seen as the most consistent and predictable no matter the city is... 

1. Start with Google PPC / Bing PPC and a realistic PPC budget based on solid math (the math is the thing that'll set you free or kill a PPC campaign. Too many people pull marketing budgets out of thin air and pick a number they feel comfortable with... which immediately puts them at a disadvantage vs. using math to find out what budget and max cost per lead will lead to mathematical success. I did a podcast on this recently where I break down the most important metrics in PPC and how to determine a proper PPC budget that'll make sure you're working with the math vs. having emotion lead your marketing budget. 

$1k-$2k/mo in your market if you're managing the PPC campaign yourself and it's dialed in and sending to a high converting site like Carrot could be plenty, or it may be putting you at a disadvantage (according to the math). DM me and I'll send you a link to that podcast episode that'll help you nail the PPC math so you know you're starting with a budget that'll help lead to success. 

2. Facebook is usually not the first place we start for sellers... but we do always setup retargeting campaigns on FB for our Google and Bing PPC campaigns. That way you can fetch back those visitors who went to your site and build credibility with your ads over the coming weeks and months. We find a very high ROI over the long-term with properly setup retargeting campaigns (most peoples ads aren't dialed in well to convert and build credibility).

3. SEO: While we're building those... we set the SEO foundation and get a plan in place to grow your rankings over the next 6-12 months. SEO is a long-term momentum building play. 

The big key is really your strategy and having the resources, team, and training there with you on the journey to look over your shoulder to make sure your strategy is sound and you have things dialed in. 

Reach out anytime man! We're here for you and can walk you down that path. We've got you :-) 

@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! 

@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!