If you have been running Facebook Lead Generation campaigns, you must have been wondering and asking yourself, why your Facebook leads have not been buying from you. Follow my Blog to find out how Lead Qualification, can raise your rankings, to gain more customers.
You have also more than likely been pushing a lot of money into your Facebook lead campaign, leads are pouring in…
But almost none of them are opening your emails. They also are not picking up the phone when you’re calling them, and the ads have been running for 30-60 days already!
So, all the money you have been pouring in has also more than likely shown no ROI.
By now, you have started asking yourself:
- Does Facebook Advertising even work?
- Should I even keep wasting my money on the ads?
- And why is this happening when I have heard such amazing things about using Facebook Advertising to gain leads?
- Should I go back to using Google Ads, or just plain run my ads in the newspapers again?
Lead qualification
Take a deep breath and relax!
So, firstly, all is not lost!
I am going to share what is actually going on behind the scenes of your Facebook Ad campaigns.
While you have been stressing and thinking nothing is happening, things have actually been falling into place. This is based on the clever programmed, dynamics of Facebook’s design.
So, basically, each time you run an ad, the AI (Artificial Intelligence), is strategically refining your audiences based on each ad.
You have to realize that Facebook cannot give you higher-quality leads if it has no audience to work with.
And that is why you have to keep running ads.
I know it’s pricey…
But the more money you spend on your Facebook leads, the quicker Facebook can run through all the people (audiences) out there. Then provide you with high-quality leads, based on a close-to-perfect audience.
Let’s now break down the above into a more detailed process, so you can understand the process as a whole…
This will help the stress behind the thinking “What on earth is going on here, I’m seeing zero return on my investment!”
Before I tell you that you should not worry, and just keep pushing onward…
We need to first look at a couple of things…
At RAS Digital Marketing, we have been using Facebook Lead Generation to gain new leads. Not only for our own business but for our customers as well.
Right!
But you need to take a step back and understand what really is going on, and what makes Facebook different from traditional marketing, and Google Ads.
Traditional Marketing
Let’s use a basic flyer as an example.
When it comes to using flyers to market your business, you would most likely get someone to stand at a busy intersection and walk between the cars. Hoping that someone would open their window and take one…
As well as hoping they don’t get taken out by a car or truck obviously.
This is very time-consuming and costs a lot more than you might think!
Google Ads
Google ads can be seen as the salesperson for your business. You create an ad, then when people search for your product or service, your ad pops up in the search results. The person can click on it, taking the action to either become a lead or a customer.
It works extremely well, it can just be a little costly, depending on your keywords.
Facebook Advertising
You create a stunning ad and then select a market that which this ad needs to be presented. Your ad is then pushed to the people who you have selected in your targeting, to view the ad. Then, if it hits the sweet (solution to their want or need) spot, they then take further action to either become a lead or a customer.
By using Facebook ads, you can target your audience like no other, and the cost per lead is the cheapest on the market to date.
The only downside is that Facebook leads take longer to convert into paying customers.
So, what is the difference between these marketing channels?
Looking at these different marketing/sales channels from old to new, digital marketing still comes out on top, but you need to understand that this channel takes longer to sell a product or service than others.
It all depends on your marketing funnel, and in which stage of your funnel you will be using what channel or marketing platform.
Personally, I love Facebook, we gain leads at a very low cost and grow our brand at the same time, but as mentioned, a lead that comes from Facebook takes a lot longer to convert into a customer.
It really pays off in the long term!
Nothing in life that comes easy is ever worth it, and the same applies to marketing.
Keep reading…
I am going to break this all down for you and explain how to handle your Facebook leads in convert a percentage of them into qualified leads and even sales.
When Facebook Ads covert
Your Facebook leads will convert into sales if you understand & follow this process.
You need to understand your lead source before you can say that your leads are rubbish and you’re not getting any sales from Facebook.
From prospect to buyer’s intent
As I have mentioned before, Google is sales, and Facebook is marketing.
When we run a campaign to potential customers on Facebook, we are targeting them based on interest…
So, firstly, they have not gone onto Facebook today, hoping to find the solution to their problem with your business campaign.
What this means is, is that we are disturbing their experience on Facebook, by pushing our/your campaigns to them, making sure to give them value first, and then selling to them at a later stage.
Otherwise, you might as well be cold-calling!
Facebook should never be used as a sales tool, it will cost way too much, as we are charged per impression on Facebook, and not per click.
What does the quality of your leads look like?
It’s important to remember that just because prospects have converted into new leads, it does not mean that they are waiting for you to call them and sell to them.
No, not at all!
Facebook leads need nurturing and engagement over time.
Remember, the unsubscribe button is only a click away for them, and they are itching to push it!
Let’s break down the quality of your Facebook leads so that you can understand how it works.
First, we need to remember that we gain leads in batches for 24 hours.
Each batch of leads needs to go through a qualifying process, and I am not talking about a qualifying process that happens overnight, remember your Facebook leads are cold very cold almost icy cold…
You need to nurture them before selling!
I am going to break this whole process down for you below. It will lead into our final stage of this blog, where I’ll explain a process to you, that you can use and implement.
You have a Facebook Lead Generation campaign running for 90-365 days.
This campaign has one goal, and this goal is to turn prospects into new leads that can be placed into your nurturing and qualifying process/funnel.
Each batch of leads enters your process in different stages during the day but will fall under the 24-hour batch.
Breaking the 90-days into batches
As an example, let’s say you gain 100 new leads every 24 hours through this campaign, and place them into your email nurturing and qualifying journey.
You need to understand what the quality of these leads is, what they could look like, as well as their potential buying intent.
Take note, not everyone who joins this journey of yours will buy from you, so make peace with that for now.
Statistics have shown that 76% of people who become your leads might never even buy from you.
So, if you running a campaign and expecting that every lead you get is going to buy from you, good luck as this has never been heard of.
This is not to say that a percentage will not buy from you and help your brand grow, as well as even go on to influence other people to buy from you.
This data has been captured over years of campaigning and is based on our own high volume of data from RAS Digital Marketing data.
Remember that each industry is different, and stats could differ.
Segment 1: The Hot Lead
This type of lead is extremely happy to have found you. What you have to offer has been on their minds for months now, and they’re almost ready to buy from you. They usually just need a quick call for the deal to be done.
Segment 2: The Window-Shopper
The Window-Shopper lead is a person who feels that what you have to offer looks interesting, and might even be interested. However, they are not looking for what you have right now, but maybe later on, they might need/want it. Therefore, they signed up to become your lead, but they need time. They will make the call to reach out to you when they are ready.
Segment 3: The Tyre Kickers
The Tyre Kicker lead can be a real pain most times. Unfortunately, they are always going to be there. Much like someone who has nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon and decides to go house shopping to kill some time, by viewing open houses. Needless to say wasting the estate agent’s time with a full tour of the house, just because they had nothing else to do that day.
Segment 4: The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead lead can be a mixture of spam, bots, or people who for some strange reason have forgotten how to spell their own names. As well as email addresses, and complete the lead forms with incorrect info. Sometimes they just download the free brochure to gain access to whatever you have to offer that might be free.
You as a business owner or us as a digital marketing agency can’t control everything that will come into your lead funnel. All we can do is prevent most of the wrong types of people from finding your ads. But a couple will still slip through the cracks from time to time.
Let’s make peace with that and move on with our lives.
Okay, so I have 4 different leads in my funnel. What is the percentage of these segments?
The 4 different segments can change over time. It all depends on the length of the campaign and how well the segmentation of the audience has improved over time. As well as the amount of money that is being spent on the campaign.
Facebook audiences can take up to 3 months to improve and be refined, depending on ad spend.
The more you spend, the better and faster the quality improves, and you should see an increase in sales over time.
Below you will see images that will show you the quality of leads that you might have in your list. Remember that this is based on an average of different industries, so it might be different to your list.
Segment 1: The Hot Lead at 1%
This segment is a hot lead that is mostly in the low numbers but needs instant action from your side. This lead can maybe be converted into a sale, instantly depending on your team’s sales skills and offer.
This segment could make up 1% of your list.
This segment could make up 20-30% of your list.
Segment 3: The Tyre Kickers at 60%
People who will more than likely never buy from you, don’t really open your emails and you can forget about trying to call them. We need to encourage this percentage. To at least open your emails and get them to follow your Facebook page. Maybe encourage them to share what you have to offer and help share and spread the word about your business at least.
This segment could make up 60-70% of your list.
Segment 4: The Walking Dead at 10%
Forget about them, this segment of people or bots needs to be cleaned out of your list every 30-days.
What’s the game plan?
Your game plan is to instantly add these leads to your email journey. Then follow up with the leads who engage with you from the first email ASAP.
Remember that early engagement from your leads could mean that they are from Segment 1. We have just spoken about it.
Also note that the longer you take to engage with your new leads, the less engagement you will get from them. I am not talking about days, this drop could happen in a matter of hours, so act fast when you get leads!
Close that sale or qualify them as a potential as quickly as you can!
Leave segment 2 leads in your emailing journey. Keep working with them over time to help convert them from cold leads, to warm leads.
I recommend that you spend most of your time on Segment 2 leads.
Segment 3 leads are leads that you don’t spend any time on. Leave them in your emailing journey for at least 3-6 months, before cleaning them out. Unless they wake up and decide to engage with you.
Segment 4 leads, need to be filtered out within the first plus-minus 30 days. This is based on them never opening any of your emails. Or if you find them to be stuck in the bounce section of your autoresponder, you then also need to follow the same filtering process as above.
MailChimp
MailChimp has a great system that could help you do all of this. I recommend using them if you don’t have an email automation system yet, by clicking here.
Qualify your cold leads into hot leads
Now that you understand what type of leads you have in your funnel, you need to design or edit your email journey. This must match your offer and the audience entering it.
At RAS Digital Marketing, we specialize in this, contact our team for a free quote on having us do this for you by clicking here.
Overview
I am going to give you a basic overview of this process. It can be a rather complicated section which might even require you to do a full course, to learn how to do this properly.
Now you want to create an email automation that warms your leads, as well as helps you to qualify them.
Remember that each industry is different. The message you have in your journey will need to be adjusted according to your industry. This is the audience and the offer you have used to gain their email addresses.
I have left out all the details, but you will get a basic understanding of the email calendar process in the image.
My apology for the quality of the photo, it was taken late afternoon in one of RAS Digital Marketing’s boardrooms.
An email journey consists of seasons, episodes and cycles, much like your favourite TV show on Netflix. An email journey can be the same. You have to generate a “want” for your next email.
Each season has a trend, and each episode is connected to that season with a recap of the last episode. It mostly ends with a cliffhanger that makes the viewer want to view the next episode.
Creating a habit, and engagement over time
Back in the day, when we all still watched normal TV shows we had ads between the shows. The more engaging and captivating the TV show, the more products and services would sell through the ads. Your email journey needs to be the same.
Obviously don’t kill it by overselling!
Your emails should be like the shows, captivating, interesting and engaging, and your email blasts are the ads.
Let me show you what we use at RAS Digital Marketing for ourselves, and our customers.
In our email journeys, we use 5 different email seasons, each having its own set of episodes.
7-Day Season
We introduce ourselves and explain to the new lead who we are and what we can do for them. As well as push the new lead to reply to any of the emails within the next 7 days. In the last email of those 7 days, we will present them with an offer.
21 Day season
In this process, we want to build habits, if the leads have not purchased yet. As most habits are formed in 21 days, we want to get the leads used to our brand and build mind share with them. Getting them to engage with our content in a fun way, not a sales way. After 21 days our last email, known as email 21 will be sales orientated.
90 day season
If we have not made a sale in the first 21 days, we place all leads on a nurturing journey. This keeps adding value and positions our brand as the leading expert in our field of business. We also introduce a sales email every 30 days in this process.
180 day season
Over the next 180 days, we keep repeating the 90-day season. However, we added some special email blast campaigns with special offers. We will only send out the email blasts on a selected day of the month. Most times this day will fall on payday, depending on which country your audience is located.
And lastly, our 365-day season
After the first 180 days, the chance of these leads ever becoming customers is low. So, we will push the last season of this journey in the direction of brand awareness. Therefore, helping our leads spread the word about what we do. Also what we can do for other people out there in the industry? We will still offer a sales email to them every 30 days. One will never know when someone might just take you up on your over, even if it’s months or years down the line.
That’s the beauty of creating mind-share. When they need or want something similar to what you are offering, your business is the first one they think of.
NOTE:
Each season will end for a lead if for example a purchasing action was taken. All leads that convert into customers need a dedicated email journey known as a buyer’s journey. This is a blog for a different day.
As you can see a number of different seasons from 7-days all the way to 365-days were strategically designed. Each season has a number of episodes that have a different end goal in mind but still work towards one main goal. Hence this is to create engagement and qualify the leads. Thereafter, eventually, try and convert the leads from cold to hot, and then customers.
Each of your seasons and episodes should always end with a CTA (call-to-action). You are going to want to form habits with your leads by getting them to click on the buttons or links provided in your emails.
I am not going to tell you what needs to be in each season, as we will be here for days.
If you want to do this on your own then you need to create this journey for your leads, or if you don’t have the time and strategic knowledge…
You could ask our team at RAS Digital Marketing to help you, as we design and create unique email journeys for our customers and could do the same to help your business.
So, the bottom line of this story is…
Yes, Facebook Advertising works, and it works very well.
Your leads could really buy from you!
But it takes time, with constant engagement from your side. By following the process above, what will you gain? I have shown you in this blog you can increase your chances of converting some of those leads into hot leads. This eventually leads to sales.
Remember that right now Facebook gains leads at the best price. The only downside is that it takes longer to close a deal with a Facebook lead. However, by building an outstanding relationship with your leads you will not only grow your own brand but also gain new customers from doing so.
Remember, it’s a long run, not a sprint.
So, play the game wisely!
Going forward
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