Ask just about any business owner—especially those in the home improvement industry—whether they want more or better leads and almost always you will get some variation of “I need both”.
The inherent problem is that often owners don’t have the patience or resources to commit to marketing programs that allow for both. So, agencies are tasked with producing “stuff” that will “get their name out there” in-front of potential customer instead of having a plan to use an omni-channel approach—hitting potential customers where they live and where they shop. It’s about relationship-building, not just sending out ads and coupons.
The “Quantity vs. Quality” argument has been around for a long, long time. While there are some businesses that thrive on a high-quantity of leads with low conversion rates, our contention is most businesses would do better with less, but much better leads.
With regards to marketing and sales, the smart business owner or executive will opt for quality over quantity every time. It’s actually less expensive in the long run. Look at it this way, the costs associated with 100 leads with low-buying intent are much higher than 10 leads with high-buying intent.
The better the quality of your marketing campaigns, leads, and customers, the better your results will be and the likelihood your business and reputation will grow and last. It’s a forward-looking, long-term strategy that builds customer relationships instead of just making transactions—it’s also the way to build a generational business you can pass down to your children or sell-off to fund a healthy retirement.
Focusing on quality should be foundational for any business and extend from the design of the website to the latest product or service offering. The quality vs. quantity debate can be relevant to every aspect of your business. Do you want to optimize your sales processes, marketing efforts, employee happiness and every other attribute of your business? Of course, you do.
Here are four components of marketing you should focus on doing better, rather than just doing more.
This can be used in many areas of life, but think about taking more time to create less. Really think about what it is you’re trying to convey as a brand. Don’t content-bomb or speak at or down to your customers. Create a conversation with them.
Don’t just tell prospective customers about your products and services, tell them about you and why you’re in the business you’re in.
We’re not sure who originally said it, but one of team member’s sales managers once told him “all things being equal, people buy from people. All things being unequal, people still buy from people”. It’s about creating a relationship and giving customers not only the information they need to make an informed decision, but the “feeling” that they’re making the right choice buying from you.
Whether social media or live events, take the time to be strategic and thoughtful—and most importantly, be consistent. It’s estimated that you are hit with more than 5,000 ads and marketing messages each day, and the vast majority of it doesn’t resonate because it quite literally is noise.
Take a bit more time to generate less—your customers want to engage with things they find truly interesting (aligned to who they are and what they value). Have fun with it. This will invoke trust in your brand as you’ll be seen as authentic, giving people that good feeling about doing business with you.
Instead of just doing things to do them and tick a box, think about what you want to convey as your business’ personality. How do you want people to view your business? Then make a plan and stick with it.
A large number of leads make owners “feel” good, but it’s often a short-lived sugar-high, unless they’re able to convert on those leads. Even then, the way those conversions happen could do damage to their brand long-term if not handled like a relationship in which there is mutual benefit.
Traditional sales and marketing strategies have long focused on lead quantity by casting a wide net to capture as many leads as possible. The ability to attract a high volume of contacts during a lead generation campaign is usually prioritized over lead quality. We’ve all heard the Sales Director or the CEO say: “The more leads we have, the higher the chance that some of them convert into actual sales.”
That couldn’t be a more outdated mindset. A recent study by The Marketing Institute showed that more than 70% of marketers believe that if you want to increase the quantity of leads coming into your campaign, focus on increasing the quality of the leads by having better creative, messaging, targeting and CTAs.
Ultimately, we understand that it’s aspirational to seek quality over quantity. But, we also know that given the right mindset, resources and time, it’s a proven strategy that will help your business flourish.
The time you take to think about your customer’s needs will pay-off in better posts, which will lead to better interaction, which will lead to a relationship with your customers, which will lead to better results for your business. It’s not an overnight thing, but it works.