This article includes 3 tips to give you context around HTR's lead gen program to ensure that your team is setup for success as you get started generating leads.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Tip #1: Focus on Your Reputation First
TIP #1: Focus on Your Reputation First
Key Takeaway π We strongly advise against accepting any matched leads until you have a solid reputation better reputation on HTR
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There are 2 types of leads on HTR--direct and matched leads. Direct leads have directly asked for info from you, so its always worth accepting these ones (and make sure to do so as quickly as possible to maximize your success rates...lots of vendors setup auto-forwarding to CRM and instant nurture sequences for this reason).
On the other hand we recommend not connecting with any matched leads until you have a solid reputation on HTR. How do you define solid? At a bare minimum you should have 25 verified reviews on your profiles with an average likelihood to recommend of at least 80% before you start connecting with matched leads.
Not only does collecting reviews improve your rankings and reputation to boost your visibility, but it in turn also helps you generate more leads organically so this should your primary focus above all else when getting started on Hotel Tech Report.
Why having reviews helps you improve your chances with leads
HTR's audience of 250,000+ monthly hoteliers comes to HTR for verified client reviews, so if you reach out to a matched lead you should expect that they WILL check your HTR profiles and if your reputation/profiles don't show strongly, they will likely ignore your outreach so you'd be shooting yourself in the foot a bit (more on why reviews are so critical to your success on HTR here).
Tip #2: Have a Realistic Strategy & Budget in Place
Key Takeaway π Allocate enough budget for at least 30-50 leads to ensure a large enough test sample size
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Start out at a high level by considering/benchmarking against your other acquisition channels to develop your lead budget and strategy on HTR by comp'ing to other channels like Google PPC or CPA campaign strategy and budget.
Budget appropriately: Just like you wouldn't throw $5 at Google and say "here's 5 dollars to get me a click so I can try the program and see if the click converts to a customer", you shouldn't expect to buy one lead and close that first lead right away. Time and volume are the key and you should go in full well understanding (and expecting) that not all leads will convert to close deals (or this would be an affiliate model which typically costs 10-15% commission on the value of the contract into perpetuity). Instead if you want to test viability of Google PPC for your business you set aside let's say $1,000-$2,000 budget to test a few campaigns and setup conversion tracking knowing that some clicks will convert to lead capture, and of those some will convert to demos and some will convert to customers. If you don't set aside a reasonable budget to run a few campaigns and get some click volume, Google PPC on a click by click basis you'll never get to enough scale to find out if this is a lucrative channel for you. Similarly with HTR, we recommend (1) make sure your reputation is strong per #1 above and (2) make sure you have setup a strategy and reasonable expectations for leads along with a reasonable budget to get some volume
TIP #3: Review the Best Practices
Key Takeaway π Make sure any members of your team who will be following up with leads understand each of the types of leads and how to tailor their followup for each
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This tip is absolutely critical. You may be the marketer accepting leads and you may understand the types of leads but to be successful you need to make sure any members of your team who are following up with leads understand what the types of leads are and how to followup to optimize your response rates and conversion. We highly recommend that each member of your team that is engaging with leads has skimmed HTR's Lead Optimization Guide which can be found in the help center article: Tips to Improve Your Lead Response and Success Rates.
Next Steps to Getting Started
STEP 1 Accept any pending direct leads asap | Accept any direct leads ASAP since they are requesting info specifically about your products/services (these will trickle in here and there until you have a better reputation on the site)
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STEP 2 Get 25 reviews to unlock matches
| Focus on getting to 25 reviews and ideally becoming top 3 in your core categories to have credible and trust worthy profiles that are enticing and build trust with buyers (improving your rankings also garners more visibility + more direct and matched leads |
STEP 3 Understand the difference between direct and matched leads
| Make sure you understand the types of leads and followup best practices before you devise a lead gen strategy and reasonable budget to get some volume to properly assess the program similar to how you might if you were assessing Google PPC as a paid acquisition strategy/channel
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STEP 4 Enable CRM Forwarding & Instant Connect | Enable Instant Connect to get 50% off leads and reduce your time-to-followup and add a CRM forwarding email to save time and reduce manual entry into your CRM |
STEP 5 Review and share the lead followup best practices guide with your team
| Share the Lead Followup Tips & Best Practices and Lead Optimization Guide with any members of your team who will be responding to leads and make sure they know that its REQUIRED READING! |