4 Ways To Turn Facebook Leads Into Paying Clients
“Facebook leads are crap.”
That’s one of the harshest complaints I get from business owners who use Facebook for lead gen.
“They sign up for my free offer, Andrew, but they never turn into clients. I call them to set up an appointment, and they go dead in the water.”
A-ha. Do you see the flaw in that logic?
Most business owners go straight in for the kill.
They hop on the phone with a new lead right away and try to organise an appointment to go and see them.
What they don’t realise is that, to your prospect, it’s like asking for a marriage proposal right after meeting them! No one’s ready for that kind of commitment right off the bat.
You need to “date” your prospect first. Not literally, of course. But you do need to appreciate lag time and build a sense of trust before people will be ready to say “yes.”
I worked with two real estate agents recently who are perfect examples of what to do, and what NOT to do, when it comes to “dating” your new Facebook leads and turning them into clients.
Agent #1, named Alex, got six listings from his 40 Facebook leads and made nearly a quarter of a million dollars in commissions…in three weeks.
Agent #2, who we’ll call Stan, saw no new listings from his leads, which of course led to a whopping $0 in commissions.
I’ll tell you what Alex did differently in a minute.
But before we get into that, there’s an important principle you need to understand first — the principle that underpins the whole trust-building process…
The difference between referrals and Facebook leads
Most service-based business owners aren’t used to marketing to strangers. Probably the same for you, right?
You’re used to networking and meeting like-minded professionals who refer you to their customers.
You barely have to do anything with those leads. They call you up and are ready to work together from the word “hello.”
This is all because of the transference of credibility.
It’s kind of like when you’re looking for a great burger place and your friend (who always knows the best places to eat) says “you’ve got to check out Burger Pete’s. The Fajitacos Burger is out of this world!”
You trust your buddy and you know he wouldn’t steer you in the wrong direction. So without even questioning him, you go with his recommendation.
That’s the transference of credibility.
When a new lead is referred by someone they already know, like, and trust, that sense of trust gets passed along to you…making the whole exchange pretty easy.
When you get a referral, the person who referred your customer has already done the leg work and incorporated those touch points for you so you can get straight to the sales conversation.
However, when you start marketing outside of your network with Facebook ads, there is no transference of credibility. Your new leads won’t know you yet, much less like or trust you enough to say “yes” to a sale right off the bat.
If you want to turn those leads into clients, your sales strategy needs to change.
How to bridge the two worlds
When you meet a prospect on Facebook, you're living in two different worlds.
In your world, your business is the most important thing imaginable. You wake up thinking about it, you drift off to sleep dreaming about it, and you devote 8, 10, or even more hours each day working it.
For your prospect? Not so much.
The most important thing in their world is their daughter. Or Crossfit. Or binge-watching the new season of Game of Thrones. Or their stressful job. Or their beloved cat Melvin, who they just found out is actually Melvina, who they also just found out is pregnant with the neighbour’s kittens.
The point is, your prospect’s got a lot going on in their world. And you’re only a teeny, tiny part of it.
So you need to get comfortable with bridging the gap.
You can do this in a variety of ways, which I’ll get into in just a second. But it’s important to understand that without entering a prospect’s world again and again — saying hello and reminding them of who you are — you’ll never turn them into a client.
The $250K difference between Alex and Stan
Alex and Stan, my real estate clients, each ran an ad to people that were thinking of selling their homes. They offered a free report on sales data in the area (because we discovered that ads pushing market appraisals didn’t work during the testing phase of their ad campaign.
In the first month, Stan’s ad brought in about 40 leads. He sent out the free report and waited for the phone to ring, asking for an appraisal.
And, as I’m sure you can guess, the phone didn’t ring.
Alex, on the other hand, generated nearly a quarter of a million dollars in commissions from a similar number of leads.
(I’ll be pulling back the curtain on Alex’s lead generation and branding strategy in a few weeks here on the blog. I’ll be sharing his entire strategy, so make sure to keep an eye out for that!)
Instead of simply sending the report, Alex called each prospect and built up the know-like-trust factor.
Alex knew how to follow up in a way that felt natural, never pushy. He developed a script that turned the majority of his phone calls into an appraisal appointment.
The perfect follow-up script for Facebook ad leads
Here’s the exact method Alex used to generate nearly a quarter of a million dollars from 40 Facebook leads (whilst this is obviously a real estate example, the principle works for all industries 😉 )
Step 1. Call to confirm their email.
Start very soft, with a request that’s easy for prospects to say “yes” to.
“Hi! We received your request for a free report and I’m going to organise that for you today. Can you just confirm your email please?”
Step 2. Offer to customise the report.
Keep the focus on providing value for the prospect!
“In sending that report, I can actually customise it for you. Is there anything particular that you would like to see in the report that can help you?”
The prospect will likely say something like, “Well, actually yes. I’m sort of thinking about selling in six months and my property’s got a pool. Are there other properties in my area with pools?”
Bingo.
Step 3. Have a friendly chat.
This is NOT a sales call — that’s key!
You simply have a friendly chat about their property, with the goal of serving your prospect as best you can and providing free value. This builds rapport and makes prospects comfortable with you.
Step 4. Transition into the call-to-action.
Keep it casual to make your invitation easy to say “yes” to.
“You know what? Why don’t I just come out to your property next week? I know you’re not selling for six months but I’m going to be in the area. I can pop in for five minutes, check out the property and the pool, and give you a personalised report on the whole thing — it’s on me. How about that?”
How could a prospect say no?
When you follow up in a natural way, respecting that your prospect lives in a different world to you, you can get incredible results.
4 ways to bridge the gap with your new lead
Disclaimer: These 4 strategies are NOT created equal.
They all take different commitments and have different success rates. I’ll share my favourite method at the end (along with the reasons why) but take some time to think about which of these 4 methods will work best for you.
1. Phone calls
Usually, people won’t answer because they don’t know your number. That’s okay! Leave a voicemail message.
Say who you are, why you called, and to tie it back into the Facebook ad, so the person knows that they’ve been responded to. That’s really important from a trust point of view, even if they don’t talk to you straight away.
Continue following up with a few more phone calls, with the goal of sharing value with your prospect.
2. Text messages
If people ultimately don’t get back to you via phone, you can send a text message that’s value-based as well. “I know you’re interested in XYZ, so here’s a quick tip. … If you need anything, give me a call!”
3. Video or audio messages
This one is overlooked but gives people an instant chance to be able to see you and connect with you.
It’s easy to do — just hold your smartphone up to your face, press the video recorder for 30 seconds to go, “Hey, it’s Andrew here, a [marketing strategist]] and we connected through a Facebook ad. I wanted to share a quick tip with you about how to [[do something they want to do]]. … Anyway, if you need anything, let me know. I’d love to chat.”
Then text or email them the video (or use an audio message if you’re resistant to video.)
4. Email autoresponders (the easiest method!)
This is my absolute favourite method for warming up leads and here’s why:
- You can craft the email series to strategically move them closer to working with you
- You can send the same emails to every new lead (do the work once and cash in on it forever!)
- These emails can be programmed to go out AUTOMATICALLY, without you needing to lift a finger
Your series of emails don’t have to be complicated but they DO need to be strategic.
Your email sequence is about educating people to increase likability and trust, a bit like dating. You want to share helpful tips, address different pain points or problems, share case studies, and overcome potential objections. By the end of the sequence, you’ve “dated” your prospect enough that they are motivated to take the next step with you.
What’s that next step, you ask? It’s like a sales consult but we’re going to dress it up to feel very different and enticing. We’ll talk more about that in the next blog post. (Keep an eye on your inbox!)
As for how long to make it, I recommend you build a 15-part nurturing campaign. I heard a great marketing quote once that says, “The longer the runway, the smoother the takeoff.”
The more touch points you can automate, the hotter the lead will be when you get them on the phone, and the easier it will be to close the sale.
Use an email marketing program like AWeber or Mailchimp to load up your email sequence and schedule them so they send a few days apart.
Then every new person who comes into your pipeline can get the same great 15-part warming-up experience…automatically. Talk about making the most of your time!
Oh, and one more benefit of using an email sequence to warm up your leads? (And then I’ll stop nerding out about it, I promise.)
It sifts the wrong people out of your sales funnel.
Through your 15 emails, people will get a sense of who you are and what you do. The hard truth is that some people won’t like you. But don’t worry, that’s actually a great thing!
Because if they don’t like you, they won’t sign up for a free call…and you won’t waste your time on the phone with the wrong prospects.
Not only that…using an automated system like this helps fill your calendar with the right people by qualifying prospects before they can book a call with you. Crappy leads, no more!
Scheduling tools like Acquity Scheduling allow you to ask survey questions before a new lead books in to speak to you. You can ask about your prospect’s wants, needs, and goals (which will enhance your sales conversations)…and you can also include survey questions to disqualify those who aren’t the right fit.
Maybe you want to disqualify people based on their budget, their stage in the buying process, or a slew of other issues. An automated scheduling tool helps you do that!
We only have so many hours in each day. Smart survey questions will gently weed out those who aren’t right or aren’t yet ready for your services. How great is that?!
That means you’ll only get on the phone with the RIGHT people who really want to talk with you. It’s just like when you get a referral!
At that point, they’ll be red-hot leads because they know, like, and trust you. So closing the sale becomes easy.
Remember, you and your prospect live in two different worlds and it’s up to you to bridge the gap.
Instead of lumping your Facebook leads into a pile and saying, “They’re crap,” pick one or two of these strategies to start following up.
With just a little bit of effort, you’ll build that know-like-trust factor and be on your way to Alex-like results.
I’ll be honest: Facebook marketing isn’t the magic bullet solution most business owners think it is.
But that doesn’t mean it’s a big, complicated mess, either. It just means you need a smart strategy and a smarter implementation plan.
I can help you with that!
Hop on to a Marketing & Sales Strategy Call with me to discuss your goals and your customers and choose which follow-up strategy will be most effective (and simplest!) for you.
Not only that, you’ll also get your very own Marketing Blueprint completely mapped out for you…by yours truly!
Want to get in on the action? Just click here to schedule your free 30-minute call.