It is that time of month again, bills are billing up. The team is asking for vacations days. The holidays are around the corner. And your baby…your brand…it’s not exactly where you think it should be.

It doesn’t make sense right? You have a digital presence. You Tweet. You even spend some dollars on PPC. But leads aren’t clawing their way through the front door. In fact, you’ve noticed the wrong type of leads calling your office, taking you and your staff away from optimizing your business.

So what’s the deal-e-o? Why are you getting swamped with Laundromat Leads?

5 Step Guide To Avoiding Laundromat Leads

STAGE ONE: Not Every Lead Is Created Equally

This is a hard lesson but one that will lay the groundwork for this article. You only have X amount of hours per day. In that time, you can only do such much. Nothing hurts more than a poor lead draining your resources and time.

The very first thing you need to come to terms with is that not every lead is worth your time. What you need to think about is who your ideal lead is.

1. How do they speak?
2. What type of job(s) do they have?
3. What’s their family life like?
4. What age and gender group are they?

These are the first stages of creating a Buyer Persona. Look at all of your data and answer these questions, begin painting a picture of the perfect client and only make art that speaks to them.

STAGE TWO: It Is Never Okay To Just Hang One Flyer Up

Ever hear the old saying, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing right?” In this stage, I want to bring up your endurance. Your ability to see past the clouds and grind out the tough times.

Often what our agency – TREEHOUSE 51 – sees are brands that test new ideas but haven’t fully realized the plan. A perfect example of this, PPC – Pay-Per-Click. You know it can help your business. You know it’s money well spent. But let’s be real, how the heck does it work? Why does one month perform better than month two? There’s no logic to this madness, so cut it off right? Rigggght?

Well, actually PPC is one of the most underused marketing tools I see with brands of every size. The reason why, it’s not something you can setup and forget. It takes time and we’re talking months. A good month to prep. A good month to launch. A good month to test. And a good month to rinse and repeat.

STAGE THREE: Stop Chasing Bad Leads

STOP IT. No I mean, stop it now.

All of us know leads that are just not a good fit. You don’t have to say no and turn business away. I’m not saying that. Maybe down the line in a few years that relationship will blossom into a limited edition Pepsi Blue line. But right now, this very moment it’s a knock off brand that will damage your liver.

You need to refocus.

Come up with a few qualifying questions to determine the value of the lead. Here’s the ones I recommend:

1. Does this lead fit my buyer persona?
2. Does this lead understand my brand solutions?
3. Is this lead able to pay for my solutions?

Start with these qualifying questions. If the lead doesn’t fit them, it’s okay. Place them in your marketing funnel and drop them a line a few months. Maintain the relationship, but go live your life.

STAGE FOUR: You Placed Your Flyer At A Laundromat Instead Of A Carwash.

It’s a fact digital marketing will get you more exposure, fast, and often times cheaper then nailing a flyer to the wall. That’s why every brand does this.

It’s also a fact the shift to digital marketing has left flyers and direct mail channels open for the taking with low competition.

Do I recommend this? You tell me…

Situation A: I created a flyer, spent $500 printing a few thousand copies and having an assistant spend the day sharing them. My assistant went off and placed them on cars, bus stops, shops, you name it. A week passed and I got a few calls out of it. Even closed a couple deals. I can’t complain, right?

Situation B: I created a flyer that stood out from the junk mail we get every freaking day. It didn’t just tell a story or speak to my buyer persona BUT it was a popup. Yeah, now is the time to say, “WOW.” Then I went ahead and only sent out flyers to a certain targeted niche. I didn’t see the point posting them everywhere, so I focused on just businesses within 15 miles of my office. To top it off, I have three more flyers I’ll be sending out to those spots in the next coming months.

Logically speaking, if you have done some type of research,Situation B will provide more leads. It’s focused. It’s thought out. It has the bells and whistles.

STAGE FIVE: You Weren’t Honest To Your Brand.

You might have noticed a theme with these stages: they focus on YOU. The leads are there. They want to know about you. They want to pick up the phone and call. We need to enhance how we get them to call.

The biggest piece of advice I can give you, is be true to your brand. I mean that from the core of everything I am. If your brand isn’t perfect, OWN IT. If your brand has a whacky manager that curses way too often but the team loves it, OWN IT. If your brand is a morning person, OWN IT.

The best thing you can do to amp up leads is own the imperfections that make up your brand. There has to be something about your story that gives it that edge.

My story, Treehouse 51 we’re creative gurus that back up our craziness with hard data. No really we are. We have a strict policy that creativity is number one to join our family. It’s how we live and die at our agency. We OWN THAT in every stage of our brand.

FINAL THOUGHTS…

Someone once said, “Life only gets better, when you get better.” The secret to avoiding Laundromat Leads starts by washing out the bad habits, dry out the old ways, folding up the insecurities and putting a fresh shirt on.

-Happy Holidays

PS. I always like to end these articles by sharing a goodie. Today, I’ll share a piece that raised a few eyebrows: Why You Need To Cuss Like A Billionaire. Good hunting everyone!