Does Anyone Need 10000% Free Marketing Advice? Happy to Help

Question

i was just answering a post and I realized that I could do something pretty cool for anyone that is interested. I have over 16 years of experience in online marketing and lead generation. I realize that I could answer some questions that will help people here be a little more successful. If anyone has a question, post it here, and I will do my best to answer as soon as I can. I do not want anything in return, I figure I could just do this to help people as others have been helped me in the past.

Please do not post a question like; how do I get more leads? Try to be more specific as this question would require me to ask 20 more questions =)

My Background:

• Serial Entrepreneur for the last 16 years
• Co Founded Several Marketing Companies that have had revenues from 10-25mil/yr
• Experienced in Several Marketing Channels (email, SMS, call center, social, PPC
• Current Founder of a company Called Tendant - A Free Digital Business Card Platform

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

Nice offer.. but you will get exactly that..  How do i get more leads for less money.. !!

Douglas Petrie · Answer

@Pratik P.

Hi Pratik,

I stopped really focusing on Seo about 10 years ago. The updates were too stressful and there is so much outside of seo. I asked someone I know in Seo to respond, I will add what he says.

Ed Tamayo · Answer

Thanks Douglas for the detailed response. I'll keep your advise in mind as I work on a facebook campaign I am planning

Douglas Petrie · Answer

I think people are expecting that a switch gets flipped and all of a sudden you get more leads for less money. That can eventually happen but it requires consistency and a long term investment. There is no short term solution, unless you can get some press or wanna spend. You can spend less money but you will need to spend more time. Either way it is going to cost you something.

Douglas Petrie · Answer

@Ed Mayo

Hi Ed, its cool. That question is a good one.

I would go with Facebook as long as you are doing some retargeting and you have some sort of funnel. Selling your home is not an impulsive decision so you need to make them aware of your business, educate the user, then offer them a proposition to "see what they can get".

Facebook advertising is effective but it requires a lot of testing between ads and audiences. Also since you are targeting a small geographic area it can take a bit to see results. In my opinion boosting posts has mixed results unless you have an already established audience(page followers or friends) of potential sellers or referral sources. Google can be productive because people have a clear intent, IE searching "sell my home fast". The problem with Google is that it can get really expensive too because of the quality.

Also **IMPORTANT** if you start to just rely on Google, Facebook, or anything as the main source of your business, you can set yourself up for failure, you need a few new business sources.

Pratik P. · Answer

Do you think Google's algorithm is going to catch on to the OnCarrot platform that many investors are using and go "all these websites have the same template/content, I'm going to lower their rankings"? It's been on my mind because from what I know, Google's main goal is to provide high quality and unique content to search queries.  Thanks :]

Douglas Petrie · Answer

@Nick Britton

Hi Nick,

I owned a company called Revnet for about 5 years that hit those numbers. After that I had adnet which Is still around that was not in the 25 range but was over 10,  but I left to pursue another company called tendant which I operate now. Keep in mind these are lead generation not investing companies. I am happy to discuss any time, connect with me and we can jump on a call.

I think one important thing people do not realize is that you can build a big revenue company without a social media following or a lot of the other things(big staff) that ppl associate with success. Right now we sell to sales teams all o st the US and we see companies with 30+ mill in annual revenue that most ppl don’t know

Michael Van · Answer

Hi Douglas, thank you for this thread and just trying to give back. So much appreciated.

A little about myself, I've been reading for awhile and been a broker for 3 years but starting to try to make moves with investing. I started a direct mail campaign and have gotten a few phone calls but would like to get into the online marketing side. What would you say first steps would be and possibly a small plan? I think a website to go with my direct mail marketing for leads to either call or go online to just give them options. How do you propose I do the marketing with that? This might be a lot but anything you answer would be so much appreciated. Thank you!

Douglas Petrie · Answer

@Ed Mayo Anytime Ed. I highly recommend building some relationships with agents and referral sources. Nothing beats great relationships.