In this video you'll learn how we generate window and door leads at scale for our window and door company clients.
Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: A week or two ago, I was doing some research on how to market and sell doors online, and I came across this fantastic article how to market and sell windows and doors during COVID-19 on the 44 North Digital Marketing website. The article gave me some really great insight into things that 44 North is doing to help their clients adapt to this new world.
[00:00:23] I took the chance and sent an email to 44 North in the hopes of getting in touch with a person who wrote the article. I received a call back, literally within minutes of sending the email, I was actually blown away by how fast the request was responded to. It turns out that the individual who wrote the article and called me back was in fact our host this morning, the president of 44 North Digital Marketing, Corey Shelson.
[00:00:53] To make a long story short, Corey and I had a great conversation and I quickly realized that Corey and his team really know their stuff when it comes to our industry. It is with great pleasure that I welcome our guest, Corey Shelson, president of 44 North Digital Marketing.
[00:01:09] Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: Thanks for having me, Leon, on the webinar. I very much appreciate the opportunity to chat with you and welcome to everybody that’s on the webinar. It’s a pleasure to be here.
[00:01:20] Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: Corey, before we get going, can you just take a few minutes to tell us a little bit about your company? 44 North.
[00:01:28] Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: Yeah. By all means. I actually spent 13 years in the Canadian Armed Forces. and I left the Canadian Armed Forces in 2013 as a captain.
[00:01:38] During my time in the Canadian Armed Forces, I served as a combat engineer officer, or as a military engineer and I deployed in that role, to Afghanistan in 2010.
[00:01:49] When I left the military in 2010, I pursued a MBA at the Richard Ivey School of Business. And, pairing that with my background in computer hardware engineering, I really took a keen interest in digital marketing. The reason for that is when we look at digital marketing, it really is about designing and building systems that generate leads for businesses.
[00:02:12]In 2014, I started 44 North as a business, in order to support my then girlfriend, my now wife, to help her grow her fitness business and we’ve grown from myself on a laptop doing this part time in the evenings to a team of 10 full time staff with offices in both Barrie and London, Ontario.
[00:02:32]Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: Obviously our industry is very specific. Tell me a little bit about your experience with window and door, improvement retailers.
[00:02:39]Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: So I think the first time we received a phone call from a window and door company was about three years ago. Since that time we’ve been working with window and door companies very actively. So let’s say hypothetically you want to sell it, sell a million dollars in net new windows or doors in a period of time, it’s our responsibility as your digital marketing partner to figure out what is it going to take to accomplish that, build the necessary digital systems, drive traffic to your website using paid ads or SEO, search engine optimization or social media, convert that traffic into leads, and then deliver those leads to the window and door sales team so that you can then close those deals.
COVID-19 IMPACT ON SELLING WINDOWS AND DOORS
[00:03:20]Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: Okay. Great. That’s exactly what we’re here to do today is to learn a little bit about that. So tell me, what has COVID done to our industry? How do you think it’s affected our industry in terms of the face to face selling.
[00:03:34]Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: So back on March 24th, there were just over 2000 cases in Canada, and as of today, we’re up to 46,000 cases. If we look at worldwide, we went from 400,000 cases back on March 24th to almost 3 million cases today. So, I mean, there’s no surprise. and I’m no different than anybody else on this call. I’ve got a wife, two young children. my grandparents are in their mid to late eighties and this has been, I think, scary for everybody.
[00:04:03] When I think about how I personally feel about COVID-19 is it does resonate with me like a deployment. I deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 in a very, kinetic role. And the risks of life and limb were very high.
[00:04:18] And I think everybody across the board feels that when they go to the, the, the grocery store these days. You know, when you leave your home and go to the grocery store, you feel at risk that you could possibly contract COVID-19. And people do not want strangers in their homes anymore.
WHAT’S WORKING NOW – GENERATING WINDOW AND DOOR LEADS
[00:04:34]Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: So digital marketing obviously is going to be huge over the next, six to eight to 12 months. When it comes to digital marketing what’s working right now?
[00:04:43]Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: Here’s what seems to be working really, really well right now, and that’s interactive tools.
[00:04:48]Let’s talk a bit about what I know is not working. We’re finding that the generic home page with no reference to COVID-19, and no reference to what you’re doing as a business. That is definitely not working. So if you’re a company that has not gone onto your website lately and put a banner across the top that says we are open and fully operational, and here are the steps that we’re taking to protect our staff and to protect you, then I think there’s a massive miss there and we are seeing it over and over and over again.
[00:05:19] Second to that, you’d be amazed at the number of companies that when you go to their website, it’s hard to find their phone number. You know, we are all very impatient people and we need to think about marketing to ourselves when we’re creating our marketing campaigns. Your phone number for your website should be front and center right at the very top right hand corner so that people can easily click and call you.
[00:05:43] Something else that’s not working very well is a generic contact form. And I actually have a couple of examples here I want to show you. So I picked a couple of window and door companies out of Florida. But you can take a look at both of these websites and although they’re not very large, you should be able to see a phone number jumping out at you on these websites.
[00:06:03] Neither of these websites, and these are both operating companies, mention anything about COVID-19. And I think if we’re going to market and sell in this period, it’s really important to, let’s, let’s call a spade a spade. Let’s address the situation we’re in right now and let people know that we’re there to help and support them through these times.
[00:06:19] Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: Yeah, exactly. Like what we were saying. it’s important, I think what you’re saying on the website, you gotta let the customer know that you can do virtual meetings, that you can, you don’t have to wait to get into the showroom or you don’t have to wait for them to come to your house. It’s important that they know that right from your website.
[00:06:37]Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: Yes, exactly. I’m going to bring up that website that I was showing you here and actually show you what I mean when I talk about these, generic contact forms. take, take a look here.
GENERIC CONTACT FORMS DON’T WORK
[00:06:46] This is that central Florida windows and doors. So again, I can’t see the phone number and if I click request estimate, it takes me to a generic contact form that asks for my first name, last name, mobile phone number, email address, address service requested. Well, what happens if they want a new window or a new door? It only sells replacements, project details and then send a message.
[00:07:08] What we’ve seen over and over and over again as these types of forms may convert traffic into leads at one to 2%, which is very, very poor. Further to that, we, we hear time and time again that people don’t like these forms because they feel like the information is going into outer space and no one’s ever going to respond to them. So this company isn’t doing themselves any favors.
[00:07:30] So let me show you what does work. Okay. What does work is an interactive, intake system. So this is an example of a, a sample mockup, landing page that I created for this presentation.
[00:07:43] You can notice the phone number is front and center right here. If I was using this format for a landing page and I wanted to communicate what we’re doing as a company to support you during COVID-19 it would be front and center in the top left hand side, something like we’re fully open and operational and can support you during these times. And then last but not least, if you want somebody to take an action on your website, then you need to tell them that.
INTERACTIVE INTAKE FORMS GENERATE WINDOW AND DOOR LEADS
[00:08:09] So either call us, email us, or start your quoting process. And like I said, interactive tools work really well.
[00:08:15]Anybody who has a multi location business, allowing people to select the territory they’re in is good for a couple of reasons. One, it lets them know that, Hey, I’m in the right spot, but two, we now have the technology to direct the lead to the right office.
[00:08:33] What services are you interested in? So do you need windows? Do you need doors? Do you need masonry? Depending on what it is that you’re selling. And we know that a lot of these types of companies sell multiple different things. Give them the ability to say, Hey, you know what? I need a windows and I need doors.
[00:08:48] Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: Perfect before, before you go along Korea. Yeah. People might think that this is crazy expensive, right, to put this, but it’s not right. Maybe just speak a little bit about that. Like, these, these type of intake forms are not expensive at all to put together on a website.
[00:09:05] Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: No. Like we built, we built out the entire demo that I’m showing you and I built a day in our team side. So, I mean, this isn’t a six month buildout. We have. You know, we use a series of off the shelf tools, and if you really wanted to get motivated and try and build it yourself, you could. But we also have learned a lot of different tricks along the way that enabled us to be a really fluid process and we can turn it around very quickly.
[00:09:30] Okay.
[00:09:31] What we try to do is make the person feel like they’re part of a, a buying journey, right? So they’re selecting the windows they want. They need two windows. They can select the types of doors they want. Maybe I want a patio and garden door. How many doors do I need? I need one. When do I want the project complete by? I can select my date. And we’re even giving people the ability to upload a photo and you would not believe the number of leads that we see come through our clients’ versions of this, where people have taken a picture of their front door that they want replaced, that is now really taking a generic lead and making them extremely qualified because you can have a very detailed conversation with them when you, when you contact them.
[00:10:14]What’s your name? Corey. What’s your email address? Right. Throw that in there. What’s your phone number? Okay. And where’s the project located? I’m an Ontario and I’m going to submit this now, typically on this page here, it wouldn’t just be a big green check Mark with a thank you. It would actually spell out what are the next steps that you’re going to take.
[00:10:41] So within the next 24 hours, you’re going to receive a phone call from us. Then we’re going to schedule a virtual meeting using Zoom or whatever platform it is that you’re using right now to communicate with your clients. And I think this is probably one that we should touch on quickly. If you’re not using a digital or virtual meeting tool, it’s absolutely time to start doing that.
[00:11:05]Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: So obviously making a website like this, upgrading your website to make it more interactive, does this really generate better qualified leads like is that what you’re finding with your customers?
[00:11:18] Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: Absolutely. Absolutely. There’s a couple of reasons for that.
[00:11:22] One, we’re asking them for a lot more information than the generic name, email, phone number. There are a bunch of companies that will advertise running Facebook lead ads where you click through , it auto fills a name and email field and you submit it.
[00:11:37] Oftentimes people are submitting it just to get out of the form. They just don’t want it to be on their Facebook feed anymore.
[00:11:43] This is an intentional buying process.
[00:11:45] We are asking for the details of what they want. We’re getting a photo, we’re getting their name, their address. We’ve even asked questions like, do you feel comfortable with us coming on site to take measurements, so as long as we stay contactless?
[00:11:57] What we’re finding right now with the leads that we’re generating through a system like this, about 75 to 80% of the leads are actually booking sales appointments. And the sales reps are extremely pleased with the quality of these leads.
[00:12:12]The other thing we’re not seeing as we’re not seeing all the spam that typically comes through a generic contact form.
[00:12:18] Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: Okay. Maybe, maybe we can ask the group what are they spending on, on getting these leads? Because obviously if they can, if they can make their website more effective to get more qualified leads, it’s going to reduce that price. Why don’t we throw out the second poll and see where they, where they are with that.
[00:12:37]Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: So what I’m asking here is for the leads that you’re generating through your digital marketing efforts, what’s your average cost per qualified lead. And I would define a qualified lead as a serious buyer who has indicated interest in buying what you’re selling.
[00:12:50] This is not just an email that’s coming into you. Right? An email for, at least from my experience, is a pretty poorly qualified lead. I’m looking for somebody that’s much lower down the buying funnel, name, email, phone number, address, the products or services that they’re looking to buy. And ideally, you’re, you’re being able to book 75% of those meetings.
[00:13:13] I’m seeing a lot of folks saying that they have no idea. And, that’s not uncommon. I would say the majority of the window and door companies that we come in contact with are reaching out to us because they know that you can quantify this type of stuff, but they just don’t know how to do it.
[00:13:29] And that’s where we come in as being able to map every single lead that’s generated back to where it came from and be able to say, we spent this much here, we spent that much there, here’s how many leads we generated, and here’s your average cost per lead, right down to the penny.
[00:13:44] Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: Maybe after we get everybody the answer, you can let us know the benchmark. What’s the benchmark really from where you were seeing?
[00:13:52] Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: Yep. Will do. Let’s share these results.
[00:13:58] So we’ve got a 26% that are spending $50 or less per lead. You’ve got 14% that are spending $50-$100 per lead, 9% that are spending $100-$150 per lead. Then we’ve got 5% that are above $150.
[00:14:16] We’ve got somebody is spending $300 or more per lead. That’s one individual. I don’t know who you are, but in that case, depending on what you’re selling, I don’t know if you’re selling a higher end product that does feel quite high.
[00:14:29] And then we’ve got close to 50% of the crowd that doesn’t know. And I think as a, as a business leader and a window and door company, you need to know these numbers inside and out because you’re going to be able to allocate your marketing dollars to where you’re getting the best return on investment.
[00:14:45]so I’m going to stop sharing this poll and let’s talk about those benchmarks.
[00:14:49] The very first benchmark would be $150 per qualified lead.
[00:14:54] So the 50% of you that are below $150 per lead, well done. I think that’s actually 49% I’m looking at – you’re $150 or lower, well done. That’s where you need to keep working in that space.
[00:15:10] If you’re in that range, you’re doing well. Those of you who are $50 or less, you’re doing very, very well and you should back the truck up and pour the money into whatever strategies that you’re using, because that sounds great.
[00:15:23] Now here’s my next point…
[00:15:26] It’s not about just the cost per lead.
[00:15:29] We need to start looking at what percentage of those leads are converting into sales appointments. If you’re only booking 1 in 10 into a sales appointment and you’re spending $50 a lead, then that means you’re spending $500 per sales appointment. Conversely, if you’re spending $250 a lead, but every single lead is resulting in a sales appointment, then you’re actually doing much better than the previous scenario.
[00:15:55] You should be looking at anywhere between 50-75% of those leads that come in, you’re booking a sales appointment with the decision makers, and ideally both of the decision makers . And then last but not least, for a good lead generation system, you want to be closing a minimum of one third of those presentations, ideally year closing 50% and that’s what we’re seeing with leading companies in this space.
[00:16:19] Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: Wow. so let’s maybe talk a little bit about platforms. Okay, we can’t see people face to face. We can’t get into the home. So tell me a little bit about what are you recommending to your customers? How they can do certain things without actually visiting the home?
[00:16:39]Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: So number one is it’s time to invest in a digital marketing strategy that actually helps people move through the buyer journey. So I gave you an example of a basic interactive intake form, something like that. If you’re not using it, I would highly recommend incorporating.
[00:16:58] Secondly, I would incorporate an automated text message response when somebody submits their information to you along with an automated email.
[00:17:09] The reason for this is when somebody takes the time to fill out all of this information and send it in, they don’t want to wait two or three days for a phone call. If that’s the case, you probably will have lost the lead and they will have gone to some other company for a quote.
[00:17:25] Okay, so getting them an automated text message right to their mobile device that says, “Hi Corey, this is Leon from Dorplex. I’ve received your information and we’ll respond to you before 10:00 AM tomorrow morning” – that level of real time feedback is very, very important for people these days.
[00:17:47] My next recommendation would be once you send that text message, use a software that allows for two way text messaging so that those individuals that just submitted all their information in that lead form, they get the automated text responder and then they can text you back and ask questions. And that software is on the market and, and it’s very easy to use and you can train your sales reps to use that quite easily.
[00:18:13] And then last but not least, I would make sure that you’re following up with those leads as quickly as you possibly can. So, Leon, you, you said that you laughed and you kinda giggled at how quickly I called you back, right? We use the same strategy for ourselves. So when a lead comes in, my goal is to call somebody back within five minutes.
[00:18:33] Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: Amazing!
[00:18:34]Just as we start wrapping this thing up, what’s the biggest hurdle people need to overcome, when it comes to marketing and selling during this period? What do you find is the biggest hurdle?
[00:18:45] Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: I think it’s technology adoption.
[00:18:47]Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: I think we put together a poll just to see what our customers think cause, I’m curious to find out what is stopping them?
[00:18:55]Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: Sure. So here’s the question.
[00:18:57] What is the biggest hurdle you need to overcome when it comes to marketing and selling during COVID-19?
[00:19:02] And this is multiple choice. So feel free to select as many options as you like, and then we’re going to go through these because I truly believe that each one of these has a solution, right? Each one of these little challenges that you might be facing, we have found ways to help our clients overcome these hurdles. And I’ll talk through some of those solutions to hopefully give you some, strategies to move forward.
[00:19:26] Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: Yeah. Cause this, this is really the crux of everything we’re trying to do here today. Cause, depending on how people answered these, we’re going to wrap this thing up trying to give people the best advice we can.
[00:19:38] Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: Agreed.
[00:19:39] So 26% of people are saying that their digital strategy is so far behind that they don’t even know where to start.
[00:19:46] Not surprising, you know, you have a lot of things to handle as a business owner or as a business leader. And sometimes if, if billboards or if magazines or trade shows are working well for you, then, then maybe you haven’t invested in this. And, I mean, this is an opportunity, to reach out. If you need support, feel free to pick up the phone. I’d be happy to have a chat with you and at least give you some guidance on, on options and some ballpark pricing on what that might look like.
[00:20:12] Number two, we lack the internal resources to do what you were recommending. 40% have said that.
[00:20:18] Again, not surprising. What we typically see is that window and door companies will get going with this, and they may have one person in house that’s managing all the digital marketing activities. Here’s the challenge with that. Typically you’re finding a jack of all trades individual that can do a little bit of everything, but they’re a master at none.
[00:20:39] And to build out a a lead generation system like that we’ve built out for our clients, it really does take a full time graphic designer, a full time web developer, a full time SEO specialist, full time paid ads specialist, and that is part of the value that we bring to the table as being able to bring all of those skill sets to the table to help overcome that challenge when you don’t have the internal resources to build this type of thing out.
[00:21:05] Next one, people aren’t buying right now – we’re on hold until COVID-19 gets resolved.
[00:21:11] This is one that I’m going to push back. We are actually seeing our clients generate a pretty significant number of leads right now.
[00:21:20] People are stuck at home. I know personally, I’m spending a lot of time doing lawn maintenance, trimming the bushes, working on the house, and, and I think that’s representative of the people in my neighborhood. So I do believe that people are buying right now and the ones who are buying are going to be the serious buyers, not the tire kickers. So I don’t think that this is the time to stop marketing.
[00:21:43] I think you want to be filling your sales pipeline so that we can address that question that I just saw here. Even if we do sell, we’re not sure we can actually do the work. That’s fair. And depending on where you’re located and the local guidance, you may not be able to do the work.
[00:21:58] But you want to fill your pipeline, so the moment that they say you can do the work, you already have deals in the pipeline and you’re ready to go, you don’t want to start your marketing efforts then.
[00:22:08] Next one, “our sales reps don’t feel that virtual selling is effective” – 21%.
[00:22:14]I think it’s time to start doing some training with your sales reps. It’s time to get them using Zoom. It’s time to build out your sales presentations and your decks and give them the tools that they need to succeed.
[00:22:25] And then with the clients that we’re working with, we’re seeing 50 year old, 60 year old, primarily men getting on board with presenting, using Zoom and closing deals very, very effectively.
[00:22:38] So, food for thought. The older folks that may not be as comfortable with the technology, you’re going to need to give them some extra training.
[00:22:46] But the younger people, right? Maybe the 20 somethings, the 30 somethings that grew up with this technology, this should be a piece of cake for them. And you may want to be leveraging some of the younger people on your sales team to work with the older people as pairs until everybody feels comfortable with it.
[00:23:05]Next one, “we don’t know what tools to use within our company”.
[00:23:09] I’m going to touch on a couple of them. Leon.
[00:23:11] And then the last but not least is “we’re actually feeling really good about what we’re doing and don’t feel like we’re in a bad position at all.” 16% said that.
[00:23:19] So good for you. It looks like you’re probably ahead of the curve on this one, and you should keep doing exactly what you’re doing.
[00:23:26] Let me touch on a couple of tools, Leon, that people may want to consider, adopting, in their businesses. And I’m just going to open up that presentation that I had again, because I’ve got a couple of slides on that.
[00:23:38]So first one would be information management.
[00:23:40] If you’re working remotely with your team, it’s critical that you can share information back and forth. You should consider looking at a Google Drive or a Dropbox solution. It’s a great way to get all of your data into the cloud and allow people to pass documents back and forth with them without them being saved on the hard drives of the computers they’re working on.
[00:24:00] Next would be online appointment booking functionality.
[00:24:05] There are plenty of options here. You want to look at a tool like HubSpot. If you’re using HubSpot for your sales CRM, you may already be using it. Otherwise, you could use a tool like Calendly. Calendly is a tool that costs $15 a month and you, each person, each sales rep can get a little booking page where, where it has the times and the dates that they’re available, and individuals can book sales meetings with them.
[00:24:30] This is a great thing to build into your marketing automation system so that when somebody requests a quote using your interactive tool, you can send them an automated text message that says, “Hey, book a meeting with our sales rep at a time that is convenient for you. And we’ll connect for a virtual call at that time.”
[00:24:48] You know, people are busy and people like to operate on their own terms, on their own schedule. That echoes my point with two way text messaging. We have a large client up in Barrie in the real estate space. They’ve been building homes up there since the mid 1800s. We had the help them generate about 300 leads for their condominiums that they were selling.
[00:25:08] And they were having a hard time getting people to pick up their phones when they would call. So we said, Hey, let’s, let’s use a text message system. And they’ve been blown away by the number of people who are asking questions back and forth by text message to the point where people are even trying to give their deposits by taking a picture of their credit card and sending it by text.
[00:25:30] That’s how comfortable people feel with text messaging. And when people are busy and in the middle of things, people don’t want to talk on the phone, but they’ll happily respond to a text message when it’s convenient for them.
[00:25:42]Skype calls or your in person calls a Skype is a good option. Zoom, which is what we’re using right now, again, is affordable, and I see more and more people in their off time socializing with their family using zoom. So you, you might want to consider picking up zoom if you’re not already.
[00:26:01]Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: A lot of people don’t know that. Zoom. first of all, it’s a free platform up to 40 minutes, so you don’t even have to pay for it. If you want to start, obviously making this a part of your business, it’s worth paying for it, but you could easily do a, you know, a product demonstration within 40 minutes and it’s free.
[00:26:25] Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: And I’ve seen recordings of our clients’ sales reps speaking to the homeowners, and they’re doing a great job of demoing the product by video and asking all the questions and it’s working and they’re closing deals. Yeah. And then they’re sending over a contract for acceptance using some type of DocuSign or e-signature functionality.
[00:26:48] The same thing that you typically see with real estate deals, right. The days of the real estate agent coming to your, to your house and you signing the paper, they’re long gone. so they use DocuSign, but a tool like PandaDoc, very inexpensive, and you can get that PCI compliant, digital signature. And again, I think it’s about $40 a month or $50 a month and you can have all your proposals be sent out with digital signatures.
[00:27:12] So again, that the idea that you actually have to go to somebody’s home, I don’t buy it. I think we can all adapt to this.
[00:27:19] And even if you have to, I mean, we’re talking Dorplex, we’re talking doors.
[00:27:24] What’s stopping you from saying the individual, “Do you mind me coming to your property? I’m not going to come inside. You don’t even have to open the door, but I’d like to just come and take the measurements of your door from the outside”
[00:27:34] And if that’s what you need to do. I think you have all the information you need to, to win deals during this time.
[00:27:41] Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: Yeah. One of our customers actually just to share what they’ve done, they’ve got a form that they’ve created where you can actually get the end user to actually take measurements on their own. Obviously all they need is length and width. Obviously before installation, we need somebody to go out there and do the final measure, but at least through the quoting stage, the customer can actually fill out a very, very simple form and you can get them a quote that’s going to be pretty accurate. I would say 99% accurate. and then at least that gets you all the way through before the final measure has to be done before they actually sign the contract.
[00:28:19] Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: Exactly. I mean, we don’t need down to a thousandth of an inch for quoting a door. Right? Is this a 30 inch door? Is it a 32 or 34 or 36? And as long as you get rough, I think rough dimensions and using an interactive form, if you’re just selling doors, ask them what is the width of the opening and what is the height of the opening.
[00:28:40] Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: Yeah. That should be enough, right? There’s less options for windows , ength and width. And you could probably give them the demo on a Zoom session, and, you can give them a quote easily.
[00:28:52] Okay. Just before we wrap up, first of all, this has been incredible. I think it’s really given our customers a feel for what they can do to kind of over the next couple of weeks, as we’re still kind of waiting for some of these restrictions to be lifted, over the next couple of weeks, they could definitely make, you know, with their website and with these materials, start getting comfortable with all these platforms.
[00:29:17] We’re going to be in this for probably the next eight to 10 months, 12 months for sure, probably till the end of this season. So, definitely the more we can do right now to get ready for that is going to be huge. So first of all, I want to thank you because I’ve learned a tremendous amount just listening to you and kind of getting your feedback.
[00:29:34] Before we sign off, if there’s any questions, you can post them now. And, we got Corey sitting here on the, in the hot seat and, let’s take advantage.
[00:29:45] Corey Shelson – President @ 44 North: So why don’t I take a minute and I’ll just, I’ll try and rapid fire through these questions as best I can.
[00:29:51] Question #1: Is there a plugin that works well with WordPress that you know of for interactive forms?
[00:29:57] Yes. Check out TypeForm. There’s your answer. Go check out Typeform and yeah, there is a monthly fee, but it does integrate with WordPress quite well.
[00:30:09]Next one …
[00:30:09] Question #2: Do you build websites instead of the things you were talking about in this webinar?
[00:30:13] We absolutely do. And, I mean, Leon, I appreciate you having me here.
[00:30:18] I think, what you’re doing at Dorplex to support your, customers is absolutely fantastic. You are leading the charge in terms of providing value added services to everybody that’s on this call. And I appreciate you bringing me into the loop.
[00:30:32] I’ve tried not to make this about 44 North Digital Marketing.
[00:30:35] I’ve tried to make this about bringing value to you, but absolutely, we’re no different than all of you. We are trying to survive COVID-19 and prosper and get to the other side with all of our employees employed and we are doing quite well. However, if anybody needs a support, I encourage you to reach out to me and happy to have a conversation with anybody free of charge to see if we’re a fit.
[00:30:58] Question #3: Is there a specific text message program that you use?
[00:31:01] Yeah. Check out a tool called sales message. A very good tool, allows for that two way interactive, texting.
[00:31:08] Question #4: How do you recommend we handle an unknown date to do the work?
[00:31:13] I think it’s constant communication, open, honest communication. Being as transparent as you can. If you could have even a weekly check in with that individual that said, hi, so and so just wanted to give you an update. Still don’t have any new news. However we have you at the top of the queue. The moment we get government approval, we’re going to give you a firm date. I think that’s all we can do right now.
[00:31:36] Leon Elmaleh – CFO @ Dorplex: And going back to what you were saying about groceries and all that. my wife put an order for groceries, yesterday that’s coming next Monday. So when she could go to the supermarket and get it right away, people realize we’re dealing in a very different period right now, and they’re going to be very understanding in terms of when that product is coming.
[00:31:59] But, so obviously that they’re going to be understanding. So we gotta get out there, quote, order the product. And, and then we’ll, we’ll install it as fast as we can.
[00:32:11]Perfect. and I think we’ve got one more.
[00:32:14]Question #5: What tools do you use to generate leads and which ones would you say are the best nowadays?
[00:32:21] So, so without risking making this a 45 minute answer, I’m going to give you the high level a blueprint.
[00:32:28] So here’s how we do it. We create a conversion optimized landing page, which is similar in terms of what I showed you previously. it’s very important that when you’re going to drive traffic to a website, that it is bulletproof easy to understand what it is that you’re selling.
[00:32:43] The days of long paragraphs of text – long gone. Don’t write text for the sake of trying to rank for Google. Keep it super simple. Tell the individual exactly the steps that they’re going to take so that there’s no question about what they’re doing.
[00:32:59] Your job here is not to sell the window and door. Your job is to get them excited, but to get them to reach out to you. And then let your sales reps do what their job is, which is to give them the full spiel that I’m sure that they have.
[00:33:12] #1 – Make a Bulletproof simple, easy to follow landing page.
[00:33:17] #2 – Use some type of interactive or advanced form. It works very, very well.
[00:33:23] #3 – Make sure you auto respond to those leads as quickly as you possibly can by text message, email, and phone.
[00:33:30] If you do that, then you’re going to hopefully reduce the chances that they go to one of your competitors and get their quote.
[00:33:37] Once you’ve got that whole system built out, make sure that all of the data that you’re sharing is getting sent into a tracker like this. Okay. Like an Excel sheet. This is Google sheets or something more advanced like HubSpot or maybe your own sales CRM. And the reason for that is you want all of your leads to be tracked in a single place.
[00:34:00]#4 And then, and then last but not least, is once you have your system built and you’re tracking all of the data. Then start driving traffic to the system using paid advertising.
[00:34:11] You can use Facebook ads, Instagram ads, YouTube, Google ads. Those four different channels to get traffic to your landing page work extremely well. But make sure you’re testing different ad copy to figure out what messaging and what images work the best.
[00:34:29] #5 Track every piece of data you can.
[00:34:32] With the clients that we’re working with. We know every single phone call that’s generated, we have a phone call recording. We know where it came from, how much it costs to get that phone call. For every single lead form submission, we’d get about 15 points of data. Again, we know where it came from, we know which ad generated it. So at the end of the month, we can roll that up into a report that says, here’s how many leads we generated, and here’s what it costs.
[00:34:58] So again, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. I’d be happy to talk about a specific implementation for your business.
