A1WebStats https://a1webstats.com/ Generate leads by seeing which companies visit your website. Tue, 20 Feb 2024 10:30:43 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.5 How to contact companies visiting your website https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/b2b-sales/how-to-contact-companies-that-have-visited-your-website/ https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/b2b-sales/how-to-contact-companies-that-have-visited-your-website/#respond Tue, 20 Feb 2024 10:14:05 +0000 http://a1webstats.com/?p=8458   A quick overview of companies visiting your website Yes, you can identify companies visiting your website (sometimes referred to B2B website visitor tracking), but not all the time. No, you can’t identify the names of people from those companies. You will still need to use a range of contact methods to bridge the gap […]

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A quick overview of companies visiting your website

Yes, you can identify companies visiting your website (sometimes referred to B2B website visitor tracking), but not all the time.

No, you can’t identify the names of people from those companies.

You will still need to use a range of contact methods to bridge the gap between knowing a company visited your website, and that becoming a stronger sales lead for you.

 

Companies visiting your website – the truth

There are conflicting stories about whether you can see the names of companies visiting your website.

Through the service we’ve provided to our customers since 2012 (and available on a free 30 day trial with low-cost pricing if continuing afterwards), we prove that you can identify them BUT it’s only as good as how you use that information.

Unfortunately, there are some within our industry that portray B2B website visitor tracking as being some sort of magic solution (which it’s not, but can of course help when used effectively).

A company can often be identified by their IP address but in many cases they can’t.

Depending on your type of business and visibility online, you could expect to see anywhere from 5-25% of your total website visitors identifiable as a company.

That doesn’t mean the other visitors weren’t ‘company people’ – just that they couldn’t be identified by an IP address.

Anyone who says you can identify all companies visiting your website, or who says you can’t identify them at all … is wrong, and it’s easy to prove – here’s a simple example summarising companies visiting a website on one day (which was 16% of their total website visitors on that day):

Image showing a list of company names that visited a website

 

Can you tell WHO has visited your website from each company?

No, you can’t see the name of the person who visited – you can only see the company name (and what they looked at page by page).  Here’s an example:

Image showing name of an identifiable company visiting a website

 

There are some within our industry who claim to know the actual person who visited.  That could only be achieved if there was a prior relationship that made that person identifiable.  Anything else is just speculation and you still have to put the work in to find people within the companies that visited your website.

 

How our customers use information that shows companies that visited their websites

All our customers started with a free 30 day trial because it’s important to assess whether identifying companies visiting the website is something that can be capitalised on.

Some of our triallers discover that their culture or skillset doesn’t make it easy to follow up on companies that have been identified.

Others actively look forward to seeing which companies have visited their website in the previous day.

Whether people continue after their free trial depends on a number of factors, but mainly related to how effectively they’ve been able to capitalise on the knowledge that companies have been to their websites.

If free triallers don’t continue then it’s cost them nothing to see if it works within their business.

Although our triallers and customers receive a daily email showing the names of companies that visited their websites, most log into the system to see the detail level of what those companies looked at page by page.   This video shows how they do that:

 

So what do you do with that visiting companies information now?

Every business has their own culture and thoughts about the subject of reaching out to companies that have visited the website, but there’s one scenario that applies to ALL businesses:

If an identifiable company has visited your website …

… but you can’t identify the name of the person from within that company …

… and their page by page movement through your website implies a level of interest …

… then surely it makes sense to try and find a way to capitalise on that?

It’s very typical that your website is just one of a few that a visiting company will have looked at and even in cases where they preferred what they’d seen on competitors’ websites, you do still have a limited window of opportunity to try and gain the potential business.

In other words, they are likely to eventually buy from someone and even if they didn’t make contact with you (because your website may not effectively reflect the quality of what you offer as well as a competitors’ website does, or because they’re not yet ready to buy from anyone because it’s too early in the buying process), then that’s a warmer lead than any other form of marketing you may be focused on at the moment because you can’t get warmer than knowing a specific company has an interest in what you have to offer.

So whether you personally think that people see such visitor tracking as being ‘big brother’ or ‘creepy’, it’s legal from a GDPR perspective (a company name is not personally identifiable data) and, as so many of our subscribers will confirm, the winners are those who find ways to link a company name to individuals within that company, but doing so in a way that is sensitive and intelligent.


Just for a minute, let’s focus on your website strength

Tracking and then contacting companies that have been to your website is a bit like someone looking in your shop window (your website), not being ready to engage/not being impressed enough, and walking away, followed by the shop keeper (you) running after them down the road to see what you can salvage.

What you (the shop keeper) ideally want is for the potential buyer to spend time in your shop and engage with you.

Therefore, although A1WebStats does give you the opportunity to try and salvage something from that company visit, the majority of the A1WebStats system functionality is designed to help you make positive changes to your website and achieve more return on investment from your marketing time and budget.

When website visitors data is used and interpreted intelligently (which is what A1WebStats helps with), that gives those companies (visiting your website) more reason to ‘enter your shop and speak to the shop keeper’.

Given a choice, you would probably prefer companies to make contact with you, rather than you having to chase them.

If you agree with that point, you may be interested in our stop chasing companies, start gaining enquiries article.

If you don’t agree, then you’re either a hardcore sales person who cares about nothing apart from identifiable companies information, or you need more convincing (which we’re happy to help with via the insights we provide during our 30 day free trials).

 

Options to consider when contacting companies that have visited your website

Regardless of our view that it’s better to focus on website strength, than it is to chase companies that have been to your website, many of our subscribers use A1WebStats purely to see which companies that visited their websites.

Every business is different in their approach to potential buyers.  At A1WebStats we have dealt with over 9,600 businesses (as at 2024) and it’s clear which ones win vs which ones don’t have the required mindset.

The contact options that follow cover a range of methods for you to consider, including the subtle and the not so subtle …

 

Pick up the phone

The quickest route is to pick up the phone and call the company, asking to speak to the person in the department that you think best matches the interest in your website pages.  It’s advisable to first of all use LinkedIn to try and identify the name of the most relevant person rather than being asked to be put through to a department.

If you can get through the gatekeepers and into conversation with someone, there’s a possibility it’s the person who visited your website from that company, but most times it’s unlikely.  This requires a cautious approach and words to this effect can be useful:

Good Morning/Afternoon [Name of person], I’m [Name] from [Company] and, being a proactive company, we identified that someone from [their company name] visited our website yesterday.   I took a guess that it may have been you but could equally have got it completely wrong!   Just for information, the visitor seemed to be mainly interested in [give details of the products/services they seemed interested in].

At this point there’s a natural pause for the person in the company to consider what you’ve said and what you offer.  If it wasn’t them, then they may be able to pass you onto someone else that it could have been, or supply you with an email address to send through an introductory email.

It’s not uncommon for people within companies to completely deny that anyone from that business would have been visiting your website.  This is sometimes defensive (they don’t want to admit it) and sometimes is just being unaware that someone else within the business would have been visiting your website.   The larger the company, the more likely that people don’t communicate well with each other.

If you can’t get through the gatekeeper, then they may still give you an email address that you can send an introductory email to.

Based on discussions we have with our subscribers, there are huge successes gained from picking up the phone, especially when that phone is in the hands of tenacious sales people who just love the thrill of all the rejections before they get someone that’s interested.   We even have some subscribers who keep the A1WebStats system open all the time, identifying visiting companies and ringing them within minutes of them being on their websites.  The recipients of such calls are usually impressed that the potential supplier is being so proactive, which often leads to business being gained.

For anyone on the receiving end of your phone call they are likely to fall into one of the following groupings:

  1. They’re the right person, or they know the right person, and they’re impressed at the proactivity, which furthers the conversation.
  2. They’re the right person, or they know the right person, and they’re totally freaked out that you’ve tracked their company visiting your website, and they don’t like it.
  3. They haven’t a clue what you’re talking about, are probably the wrong person, or are pretending that they don’t know anything about it.

Most people within companies are on the receiving end of endless sales pitches for products or services.  They are also accustomed to poor customer service.  Some of those people you will never win over.  However, for many of them, to receive a proactive phone call, related to something that they, or someone they know within their business, has been interested in, and even if they didn’t like your website that much, they’re going to see that as standing out from the norm.

So what can you do when you’ve identified a larger business has been to your website and it’s feasibly numerous people that you should be speaking to?

This is tough but in reality you’re unlikely to get far from just a phone call and so have to consider some of the other methods here, perhaps utilising a phone call at a later stage when you’re closer to finding the best person to talk to.

But while we’re on the subject of phone calls …

 

Ring out of hours

Make a point of ringing the business when you believe there will be no-one there to answer calls, or at least no-one in the relevant department.

Leave a voicemail or a message with the person that answered your call, referring to the fact that you’d like to talk to the person who visited your website recently, seemingly interested in [insert here what the visitor looked at on your website].

Then follow this up during the next day, referring to the voicemail/message left.

This method is less threatening than someone at the company feeling as if they’re put on the spot.  They may still not return your call or use a gatekeeper to stop you getting through to them, but they will have had time to think and may see your approach as being proactive without too much pressure (i.e. you left a message, giving them time to think).

 

Outsourcing phone calls

If you don’t have the internal resources, or are uncomfortable with the idea of ringing up companies that have visited your website, then you can consider outsourcing those calls to external providers who make such calls as part of their day-to-day work.

The word ‘telesales’ often brings up negative thoughts but the more proactive ‘telesales’ operations are much more subtle and if they worked from guidelines agreed with you, then can often gain better results than you would internally.

Our subscribers who use outsourced resources to make calls see great success and it typically works like this:

  1. The subscriber receives the A1WebStats daily companies visited report and clicks through to look at the detail of each company visitor.
  2. The subscriber tags/emails visited companies of interest so that trusted people outside the business (e.g. outsourced phone operations) can see them.
  3. Those outsourced phone operations work from guidelines, trying to find a route into relevant people within the companies that visited the subscribers website.  For each success they get, they pass the details back.

This takes the pain of making calls away from you and into the hands of those more comfortable with the work.

You would of course have to consider the best way to pay for such services.  We would always recommend setting a small budget to ‘test’ the outsourced resources (e.g. over a week, contacting say 50 companies in that time), so that you can assess what they achieve.   Unfortunately though, there are few telesales operations that like to take on smaller jobs, which is crazy in our view because those smaller jobs can prove how good they are and then lead to more work.

At A1WebStats we hear stories of such outsourced resources that are successful, and others that aren’t so strong.   It wouldn’t be fair to name them and so if considering this method, the ‘test for a week’ is a worthwhile investment (if you can get someone to agree to that), even if you have to do it for a few weeks until you find the right match.

 

LinkedIn quick contacts

If you know the company name that’s visited then you can use LinkedIn to filter down the employees in that company until you see some that could feasibly have been your visitor.

Each identified company will display a LinkedIn symbol in the top right of the first section, as you can see in the example below …

Image showing linkedin symbol within A1WebStats visiting company data

 

 

That takes you through to LinkedIn, where you can click on the company name and then click on the link to view employees, as shown in the example below …

 

What works quite well is to use the LinkedIn filters to filter company employees down to those that match certain parameters.  For example, entering ‘marketing’ into the ‘Keywords’ or ‘Title’ fields will filter the results to people who match those parameters.

Further filtering the LinkedIn results will be particularly useful when the visiting company is larger.

When you have a list of employees from a company that could potentially have been visitors to your website you then simply do the following at a fast pace (you may prefer to allocate this daily job to someone else who may be logged into your LinkedIn profile):

  1. Click on each employee profile
  2. Click back again to the list
  3. Click on the next employee profile
  4. And continue until the end
  5. Job done (for now).

Each day you (or someone you allocate the job to) should check who has visited your LinkedIn profile in the previous day.  This is because some people’s natural curiosity will make them want to click on the profiles of people who they see have visited their LinkedIn profile.  When they do that, you can then open up the conversation (e.g. via an InMail) saying similar to:

“Hello [their name],

I looked at your profile because we picked up that someone from [your company name] came to our website [website name] on [date] and looked at our pages about [details here].

It may not have been you personally who visited us but would you know who that could have been, as I’d be interested in seeing if we can help?

Thank you in anticipation that you can help

[Your name]”

That text could be cut and pasted in easily, tweaking the editable parts as necessary.

Realistically, the hit rate you’ll get is still only going to be perhaps 1 in 10, but if you create a standard process that anyone can undertake, then it doesn’t have to become a job that takes up your own time – and the outcome could be beneficial.

Obviously, you could of course instead directly connect with/contact the people you find on LinkedIn but, being a more direct approach, it’s not as subtle as the approach above.

If you’re interested in more detail about this, please have a look at our page Using LinkedIn to follow up on companies that visited your website.

 

Contact via their website

We send an email to any identifiable company where someone has visited the A1WebStats website, seems to be interested in our service, but hasn’t signed up for a trial.  This is typically when it’s not been otherwise possible to make contact in other ways (for example, having tried via LinkedIn but getting no positive response), so would usually be a few days later.

In our case, if the company website shows someone in a marketing or sales role, including their contact details, then it may go to them but otherwise it would go to the generic email address, asking to be passed on to the most applicable recipient.  If there is no useful information at all, then a website enquiry form can be completed.

The message itself is friendly and basically refers to the fact that we’ve identified that someone from the company visited our website and seemed interested in our service.  That’s followed by reference to the free trial available, while also reassuring the recipient that their details have not been added to a mailing list.

By creating an email template that can be edited to personalise it in a few ways, you would need a minimal amount of effort to contact any companies that have visited your website in the previous day(s).   Of course, there are no guarantees of response but, based on our experience, it’s a strategy worth considering.   Even if you only got a 1 in 10 success rate, that’s better than nothing.

 

Combining options into a sequence

You will have your own preferred methods to try and bridge the gap between knowledge that companies have visited your website, and an individual that you’d like to be speaking to.

Some people respond ok to a direct contact (e.g. a phone call), whereas others (the majority, in our experience) would prefer a less ‘threatening’ approach.

Here is an example of how to structure a softer approach:

  1. Identify companies that have visited your website, focusing on those of most interest to you.
  2. Use LinkedIn to identify individuals in the organisation, filtering them down to people of interest.
  3. Go to the profiles of those people of interest.
  4. Leave it a day to see if anyone comes back to your LinkedIn profile, or comes back to your website from that company.  Make contact if appropriate.
  5. Send an InMail, email, or website enquiry form trying to reach out to the right person, using a templated but edited message.
  6. Follow up the electronic contact with a phone call referring to the electronic contact – typically a couple of days later.
  7. Consider sending a letter in the post, which may stand out because people don’t receive a lot in the post anymore.

It’s particularly important to measure results from the approach you choose to take as there will be benefits in refining the process, based on results you do or don’t get.

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Lead Forensics Pricing https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/a1webstats-vs/lead-forensics-pricing/ https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/a1webstats-vs/lead-forensics-pricing/#comments Thu, 08 Feb 2024 09:33:50 +0000 http://a1webstats.com/?p=3587 This page was last reviewed for accuracy in February 2024. Your time has a cost so let’s cut straight to the core of what interests you … Lead Forensics pricing in 2024 Lead Forensics pricing varies depending on what they think they can charge you. As at 2024 you won’t get Lead Forensics for less […]

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This page was last reviewed for accuracy in February 2024.

Your time has a cost so let’s cut straight to the core of what interests you …

Lead Forensics pricing in 2024

Lead Forensics pricing varies depending on what they think they can charge you.

As at 2024 you won’t get Lead Forensics for less than a bare minimum of £150 per month (and those are rare), plus you’ll be tied into a contract that’s typically 12-24 months.

It’s more likely that you’ll be quoted upwards of £300-500 per month and will experience a price that gradually decreases until the salesperson is unable to lower the pricing beyond a certain threshold.

That of course will raise questions in your head about whether Lead Forensics would have happily got you to pay the higher price originally).

 

How Lead Forensics pricing works

We are fortunate to have access to ex-Lead Forensics staff, who have unveiled what actually happens within the business.

Some of those ex-staff white label A1WebStats because it’s much more affordable than Lead Forensics (most people pay £70 + VAT per month after the free 30 day trial).

Some of what we’ve heard from ex-Lead Forensics staff is shocking (if you think about the film ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, you’re on the right lines).

The rest are simply aggressive business tactics that get initial results but then huge amounts of churn when customers go elsewhere after their 12 month contract has ended and they realise that the Lead Forensics costs outweighed the benefits.

It’s a cultural issue – the sales people are encouraged to sell at the highest price possible (but given flexibility to decrease, which is insulting to the potential buyer).  They also get told that they will benefit when the contract is renewed (which often doesn’t happen, leading to disillusioned sales people).

Here’s the process:

  1. Outreach phone calls and emails capture interest.
  2. Sales staff sell the benefits and set up the free trial.
  3. Sales staff are incentivised by payments linked to how high they can sell Lead Forensics for.
  4. The cost of Lead Forensics decreases in line with how difficult they are finding it to make the sale.  There is always a so-called time-sensitive ‘offer’.
  5. The buyer pays and is committed to at least a 12 month contract.
  6. The sales person thinks that they will get a bonus when the customer renews after the year.   They are often disappointed when that doesn’t happen, leading to high staff turnover.
  7. The buyer discovers (often too late) that they have paid for something that, in reality, doesn’t fully solve their problem.

 

What happens when Lead Forensics make a sale

Picture the scene: people within an office at Lead Forensics.

Someone makes a sale and then ring the famous Lead Forensics bell to denote a sale.

They then go round the whole room in a laddish way doing high fives and hugs etc.

We originally had this video on YouTube but Lead Forensics forced YouTube to remove it due to a ‘copyright claim’.

Copyright claim was just an excuse used by Lead Forensics because what they didn’t like was the content of the video.

You can understand why when you see it for yourself:

It’s ugly to say the least and sends out a very clear message of: making the sale is all that’s important – someone else parting with their money.

Whoever was stupid enough to film it has probably long since departed the company because it reinforced what their culture is.

 

Lead Forensics hide their pricing

If you’re considering buying a product or service (either online or offline), do you like to know what it’ll cost before you invest more time in research or making contact with the seller?

The majority of people would say “yes!”.

Every day of the week we have conversations with people who tell us how Lead Forensics are elusive about their pricing while trying to get a free trial set up, then try to charge a high price, followed by reducing that price to make it look like a special deal.

So we thought it made sense to de-mystify this for anyone who is thinking of buying the Lead Forensics product because, frankly, we don’t think it makes sense for companies to squander money that they could be spending on other (non-analytics) products/services that will make their businesses more successful.

 

Alternatives to Lead Forensics costs

Please don’t misunderstand us – Lead Forensics is a good product.

In fact, it’s great for businesses that have dedicated sales resources who follow up on companies that visited their website AND convert those into sales that far outweigh the costs of Lead Forensics and their time.

The biggest issues we have with Lead Forensics pricing are these:

  1. Lead Forensics focus on locking you into a long contract when the grim reality is that you may discover that following up on companies that visited your website is not actually as fruitful as you thought it would be.  End (lack of) result: you’re contracted into at least 12 months of costs to Lead Forensics but the sales don’t cover those.
  2. They will happily charge as high a price as possible, depending on how the sale is going, and then reduce it.  That’s insulting to you as the potential customer when you realise they would have charged you more if you hadn’t readily committed to them.  It’s the same product regardless of when you buy.

The very fact that they don’t display pricing on the Lead Forensics website also shouts out: TREAD CAREFULLY!

A1WebStats started at the same time as Lead Forensics (although we didn’t know who they were at the time, or vice-versa) and since then there have been many new ‘companies identification’ software providers come into the market.

Some tie you into long contracts, when you probably only want to be committed month to month.

Most offer lower pricing than Lead Forensics.

If you’re interested in identifying companies that visit your website (and what they looked at page by page) then you have plenty of choice (including A1WebStats).

 

Costs vs return on investment

Products like Lead Forensics and others focus primarily on identifying companies that visit your website.

In reality, here’s what happens:

  1. You pay for a service to identify companies that visit your website.
  2. You THINK that it’s identifying all companies (it’s not – only 5-20% of your website visitors are typically identifiable as companies – something that we at A1WebStats can easily prove to you). The other visitors will often by ‘company people’ but aren’t identifiable (e.g. they’re working from home or a location that can’t be linked to the company they work for).
  3. Of those companies you can identify, your sales people try to follow up on them.  They won’t know the name of the person who visited the website so they have to use a range of methods to try and connect to the right person.
  4. Much of the time they get nowhere.
  5. Realisation hits when comparing the cost of the software (whatever system you use) plus the costs of following up on identifiable companies, vs any beneficial outcomes.
  6. Most businesses like the idea of identifying and following up on companies, but don’t want to pay so much for the software (which is where Lead Forensics will typically see cancellations after the first year contract, and why we gain so many customers who like the idea of identifying companies but don’t want to pay a lot for it, nor be locked in for more than a month at a time).

There is also an additional HUGE problem with the concept of chasing companies that visit your website …

 

Lead Forensics costs vs using analytics data intelligently

Here’s a test you can do by taking a no-obligation and guaranteed no sales pitch 30 day trial of A1WebStats:

  1. Look at the total number of visitors to a product or service page of your website (Lead Forensics won’t show you this – they’ll only show the identifiable companies to that page).
  2. See how many of those were identifiable as companies (typically 5-20% would be the normal range).
  3. Try to follow up with those companies.
  4. Say to yourself: there’s got to be a better answer than this.

 

The better answer

Within A1WebStats you can see ALL visitors who got to a product or service page of your website.

In some cases you’ll identify company names.

In MOST cases you won’t – you’ll see just the name of their internet provider.

For most businesses, those unidentifiable visitors will still be ‘business people’ who can’t be identified because they are:

  1. Working from home
  2. Accessing the website from a mobile device (not connected to the company internet, so unidentifiable)
  3. At a business location that can’t be identified by IP address.

Those people matter.

Those are (mostly) people looking for what you offer but they (and many of the companies you CAN identify) aren’t making contact with you.

This means that your website is not performing as it could be.

Compare your numbers – how many people got to that product or service page vs how many enquiries you received?

Where A1WebStats is different (apart from massively lower costs) than Lead Forensics (and other similar products) is that we focus on using website visitors data intelligently.

We uncover lost opportunities so that you can fix them (typically with some free advice from us about what you need to do).

THAT is what gains you more enquiries from companies visiting your website – NOT chasing those companies that were identifiable and ignoring all the other visitors to your product or service pages.

You can find out more about how this works on our page 16 reasons why A1WebStats will get you more business than Lead Forensics.

 

Encouraging an end to Lead Forensics type pricing tactics

We firmly believe that the majority of businesses should at least have a pricing page on their website.

If you don’t believe that applies to you then look at our page about pricing.

Read on for more on our view of Lead Forensics pricing and why they need to come out of the 1980’s …


It’s not the 1980’s and this isn’t Peckham market

If you’re from outside the UK, you may not be aware of the TV programme Only Fools and Horses, which ran throughout the 1980’s (and the regular repeats).   If you’re not familiar, then picture a dodgy market trader who would sell anything to anyone at the best price they can get, regardless of whether the buyer would fully benefit.

Picture the scene …

You’re down Peckham market and Del Boy has something for sale.  It looks interesting, shiny, and new.  He gives you the talk, lets you handle the goods, gets you interested, and then tells you the price.   He makes a few sales to some people who didn’t want to pass up on the ‘today only’ offer.

The sensible people go off to other market stalls or elsewhere and see if they can find similar products at a cheaper price.

 

You can’t blame Del Boy or Lead Forensics for trying

In a way, we don’t blame Del Boy or Lead Forensics for trying their sales and pricing methods.  Amazingly, even though this type of website visitors tracking technology has been around for many years, many companies will get a call from Lead Forensics, think “this is fantastic” and will pay the price after the short and limited access trial they’re given.  Those companies aren’t stupid – they just weren’t previously aware that such technology existed and there’s more than one provider of similar services.

Some people would say it’s the mark of a good sales person who can interest someone in a product/service and get them to sign up for it on a contract of at least 12 months at a certain price.  That, of course, is the choice of the company selling the product or service (in any industry).

But is it ethical?

 

How much does data actually cost?

Let’s be really clear about this – data does cost money and businesses have overheads to meet.  Lead Forensics have large overheads to meet.  A1WebStats has a fraction of the overheads.

To use an example, for those who don’t understand the perfume industry, it comes as a surprise to know that the cost to manufacture the actual perfume inside the bottle is pennies.  Everything surrounding it is what costs the money (product development, marketing, packaging, etc.).  That perfume (or aftershave) smell you put on your face/body actually costs less per bottle than pretty much anything you could try to buy.

In a similar way, website visitors data doesn’t cost as much as it’s portrayed to cost.  When you boil it down to basics, to link an IP address to a company name is a tiny tiny little cost.  Pennies are what it costs to pull in a few company records.

The costs are in how the data is packaged and any other overheads (staff, technical resources, premises, marketing, etc. etc.).  And of course, profit has to come into it.

 

The changing price of data

At A1WebStats, most of our customers have under 3,000 website visitors each month.  Everyone gets a 30 day free trial and, if continuing after the trial, 94% of our customers pay £70 (+ VAT) per month (depending on the level of subscription required).   There’s also no contract (unlike Lead Forensics).   For customers with more than 3,000 website visitors each month, the costs are slightly higher and all clearly displayed within our pricing page.   And yes, we do make a profit on that.  Not huge, but still a profit.

We’ve been told by many people (who trial Lead Forensics) that prices vary depending on the amount of traffic that they have to their websites, which is something we find hard to understand within certain ranges.  After all, the core data is already stored away in a database – it’s not as if someone is having to actively go out and link all website visitor IP addresses back to company names.

What bugs us (and insults people) the most are the changing prices that people are quoted, based on circumstances.  So many people have told us that it seems like this:

  1. They’re contacted by Lead Forensics and have the trial.
  2. They’re taken through their data and are quoted a price that’s apparently beneficial to take advantage of quickly.
  3. Those same people go off to research the market and find A1WebStats and other suppliers, and decide to test what the differences are.
  4. The price from Lead Forensics starts to go down in line with it becoming clear that the business could be lost to a competitor.

In fact, regardless of whether a company decides to buy from A1WebStats, we actively encourage them to trial our system – you’d be amazed what impact it can have on pricing when our tracking code is installed on a website that also has the Lead Forensics tracking code on there!   You may still decide to buy Lead Forensics (although we have so many people who realised they’d made a bad decision buying Lead Forensics and then they come to us after they get out of their contract), but we’ll take the satisfaction that we contributed towards you getting a lower price.

 

But is it ‘right’?

Going back to Only Fools and Horses, if Del Boy down the market offers you a product for £450 and then sees that the market stall next to him is offering a similar product cheaper, Del Boy reduces his price to £300 and then £200, and occasionally cheaper than that.  So how do you feel then?  Perhaps that Del Boy was originally trying to make a big profit out of you?

Please don’t misunderstand us – we think that Lead Forensics has some great features and for some types of buyers, it’s still the right product at the right price – IF you firmly believe that identifying companies visiting your website is some sort of silver bullet (which it isn’t).  In our experience though, many businesses prefer to reserve their budget for other activities that will make them money.

Also in our experience, we often see that those companies that have money to throw at Lead Forenics are also completely blind to how poorly their website converts visitors to enquiries.

In simple terms, every £1 spent on an analytics solution is £1 less to spend on Google Ads or another form of marketing … or making your website stronger.

That’s worth thinking about.

In fact, if we see trial subscribers who have less than 300 website visitors per month, we actively discourage them from buying A1WebStats (or anything similar), and to instead spend budget on driving more traffic to their websites.  Lead Forensics wouldn’t be that ethical.

 

Come out of the 1980’s

At A1WebStats we genuinely care that businesses get the best from their websites.  That’s why our system is so much more than purely a way to identify companies who have visited.  We want our subscribers to have a cost-effective way to:

  1. Identify website weaknesses in a way that Google Analytics makes it hard to achieve (and then fix those weaknesses, leading to more business gained).
  2. As a backup, know which companies haven’t made contact (primarily, because the website wasn’t strong enough or the online marketing was inefficient) so that something can be potentially salvaged from that visit.

What we are totally against is the concept that it’s “good enough” to be chasing companies who have visited your website, but haven’t made contact.

In the majority of cases, the reasons those people from those companies haven’t made contact is simple: your website isn’t good enough, or your marketing brought in the wrong types of visitors.  It’s usually a combination of both.

For years we believed that Lead Forensics would change.   Competitors and online content have already forced the prices of this type of software down and many have prices that are highly transparent before someone has even taken a trial with them.

But Lead Forensics haven’t followed that trend.  They are stuck in the old ways of selling and will have suffered as a result, when it would have been so much more beneficial to have reduced prices and been transparent about them.

Whether it’s Lead Forensics or any other business that adopts the Del Boy from the 1980’s culture of selling, change needs to happen – come into the 21st Century where people expect transparency, can easily shop around, and want to feel that they made the right buying decision.

 

Still reading?

Well thank you for investing the time in this page.  We’d welcome you to spend a bit more time with us by looking at our page 16 reasons why A1WebStats will get you more business than Lead Forensics.

Also, if you’d like to comment, please do below.

 

 

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A Unique Business Development Idea For Recruitment Agencies https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/b2b-sales/companies-identification/a-unique-business-development-idea-for-recruitment-agencies/ https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/b2b-sales/companies-identification/a-unique-business-development-idea-for-recruitment-agencies/#respond Mon, 11 Dec 2023 12:38:57 +0000 https://a1webstats.com/?p=9511 If you knew which companies were soon going to be losing a member of staff, would you be in the right place at the right time? Currently: probably not. With A1WebStats to help you: definitely!   How to identify companies that are soon going to need a recruiter of new staff Some employees will research […]

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If you knew which companies were soon going to be losing a member of staff, would you be in the right place at the right time?

Currently: probably not.

With A1WebStats to help you: definitely!

 

How to identify companies that are soon going to need a recruiter of new staff

Some employees will research new jobs while they are at work.

That often makes it possible to identify the name of the company they work for.

Using A1WebStats (free to try for 30 days), here’s an example of someone from a company called Babcock International, who went to a recruitment agency website and looked at two jobs:

Example of someone from an identifiable company that visited a recruitment website

 

That tells you that, in the near future, it’s likely that someone from that company is going to leave and may need to be replaced.

 

Out the box recruitment agency business development thinking

Here’s the reality, like it or not:

Businesses are NOT actively searching for recruitment agencies in anywhere near the numbers you may hope they would be.

So how do you fill your pipeline of future clients who will use you to fill their vacancies?

You reach out to those companies that don’t know that they need you yet.

This video explains how you can do this (you may like to click full screen to see more detail):

 

The new business development step by step process for recruitment agencies

Step 1

Sign up for a free 30 day trial of A1WebStats and install our tracking code on your recruitment agency website.    In case you’re wondering, our pricing is low (most people pay £70-80 per month if choosing to continue after the free trial).

That will start tracking all visitors to your website, including those who get to your job vacancy pages.

Step 2

Review your identifiable website visitors data to show identifiable companies where an employee was looking at your job vacancy pages (as shown in the examples within the video above).

Of course, we’re here to help you do that throughout your free trial.

Step 3

Now that you know the type of job role of interest to an employee from that business, and can assume that the employee may well leave soon, this is the time to identify recruiting-related staff within that business (typically, via LinkedIn).

Step 4

Connect (via LinkedIn) with the identified person/people at that prospect company and then send them a printed information pack about how your recruitment business could help them in the future.

Include in that recruitment pack some examples of job roles you’re currently filling – including the roles and staff types that one of their employees was looking at on your website.

The specific mention of those job roles or type of staff (e.g. administration, accounting, sales) that you help to recruit may stay in their minds in the weeks ahead when that employee hands in their notice.

Step 5

When that prospect company has the employee hand in their notice, they may need to recruit for a replacement in that position.

They may recall that you have expertise in recruiting for those specific roles and may reach out to you.

You may even have sent them a follow up letter or LinkedIn message a few weeks later to remind them that you can help with recruiting certain types of staff.

They’ll think it a coincidence that you reached out to them at the right time.

You’ll know different.

 

Measurement is key

A 30 day free trial of A1WebStats is usually enough to identify many companies where employees have looked at the vacancies on your website.

Provided you are prepared to look up relevant people within that business, and have sent them something in the post, AND have followed up a few weeks later … then you should see a return on that effort.

The worst case scenario is that you spent a bit of time and postage on reaching out to companies where you know they’ll need to replace staff soon … but none of your activity led to results.

The more likely scenario is that your proactive communication was timely and gains you customers worth more than many future months of an A1WebStats subscription cost.

The point of the 30 day trial is so that you can experiment without paying for our software.

 

 

Looking at the numbers

Every recruitment agency has different numbers of website visitors so we’ll focus on a low-traffic viewpoint here and obviously, multiply these numbers up if you have higher numbers of website visitors …

Within one month you have 300 website visitors.

30 of them are identifiable as companies where an employee was looking at the job vacancies on your recruitment website.

Of those 30, you reach out to 20 (some may not be suitable, or are already known to you).

Of those 20 that you send letters to/nurture in other ways, five (the pessimistic view!) engage with you because you were in the right place at the right time.

You convert two to customers and carry on working on the others.

Each of those customers is worth £XXXX to you for each job vacancy filled.

 

What’s the alternative?

The alternative to trying A1WebStats on your recruitment website would be to have no visibility of which companies have staff looking for new work.

All you will see from systems like Google Analytics is that certain numbers of people have looked at vacancy pages, but you won’t have any more insights than that.

 

 

Any questions?

We’re here to help and also happy to provide a no-sales-pitch demo of A1WebStats that’s focused on your recruitment business development goals.

All you need to do is reach out to us via the details on our contact page.

 

 

 

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How to identify the home addresses of your website visitors https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/b2c-sales/residential-identification/how-to-identify-the-home-addresses-of-your-website-visitors/ https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/b2c-sales/residential-identification/how-to-identify-the-home-addresses-of-your-website-visitors/#respond Thu, 07 Dec 2023 09:27:26 +0000 https://a1webstats.com/?p=9498 How can you identify the home addresses of people that visited your website? Geolocation, a part of the A1WebStats system, is the answer. It works by installing our tracking code on your website, which then identifies the residential addresses of visitors to your website. This video explains how it works for a business that proactively […]

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How can you identify the home addresses of people that visited your website?

Geolocation, a part of the A1WebStats system, is the answer.

It works by installing our tracking code on your website, which then identifies the residential addresses of visitors to your website.

This video explains how it works for a business that proactively sends brochures to the houses that visited their website (you may like to click on Full Screen to see in more detail and higher quality):

 

 

 

How much can you see about the identifiable home address?

You can see the exact home address of the website visitor, and what they looked at page by page on your website.

Shows a website visitor that can be identified by their home address and what they looked at page by page

What you won’t know is the name of the person from the home address that visited your website, as that’s impossible to determine.

 

Is it worth following up on those residential addresses that visited?

Totally!

Here’s why:

  1. Someone has been to your website but you’ve received no contact from anyone at that address.
  2. It may be that they’re not ready to buy yet, or just need to feel more confidence that you are the right solution for them.
  3. Sending something (e.g. a brochure) to their home address (typically addressed to The Householder) gives them something in their hands that showcases more about your business and can be shared and discussed with other people (who may be part of the decision-making process).
  4. Your competitors are unlikely to be using this type of strategy and so your communication to home addresses will make you stand out.

 

Sending out introductory information about your company

What you send depends on your type of business, plus your viewpoint on costs.

A one-page letter or flyer is not going to be impressive enough though!

Ideally, you would have an information pack or a glossy brochure that ensures that people will take more notice of what you can offer them.

 

Costs and tracking return on investment

The cost of sending quality printed material to a home address is likely to be under £3/$3 including postage.

Less, if hand-posting to addresses in your local area (who you know have been to your website).

Your printed material should include something within it that proves to you that new enquiries came in as a result of what you sent to those home addresses.

For example, your communication could include any of:

  1. A discount code for people to quote when enquiring.
  2. A QR code that they can scan to get to a specific website page and make contact (which is only accessible by people who receive your printed communication).
  3. A free gift that they get when they contact you and buy (that’s not referred to anywhere else).

If you mail adddresses without anything distinctly trackable set up then it won’t be easy to prove that your mailouts made a difference.

 

But what if it doesn’t work?

You can take a free 30 day trial of A1WebStats, which will include giving you the identifiable home addresses of your website visitors.

As long as you are prepared to promptly follow up (typically with printed materials sent to those addresses) and measure what return you get from those sendouts, you will see if it worked for you within the free 30 day trial.

The worst case scenario is that you have spent a bit on postage and brochures/information packs and you got nothing from it.

The best case scenario is that you get a huge return on investment because people just needed that little nudge to further consider you beyond what they saw on your website.

 

What does A1WebStats cost?

If choosing to continue after your free 30 day trial, our pricing is extremely fair.

You are likely to fall into the category of most websites, which have under 7,000 visitors per month, which is priced at £80 (+ VAT) per month.

There is no contract (you can cancel instantly anytime).

For quick calculation purposes, the absolute minimum of identifiable addresses you would see would be 10%.  20% is more typical.  30% is often seen.

If you had 500 website visitors per month then this is how many identifiable addresses you would see:

  1. 10% identified = 50 addresses
  2. 20% identified = 100 addresses
  3. 30% identified = 150 addresses

If your printed materials are strong, and you are selective about which addresses you send to (some may not match your ideal customer persona), then it’s extremely easy to get a return on investment.

 

Conclusion

Your website visitors are also going to the websites of your competitors.

By being aware of the home addresses of 10-30% of your website visitors, that gives you an extra opportunity to impress them by sending professional printed materials to their home addresses.

Because your competitors are unlikely to be using such technology, that puts you in a stronger position to gain new business instead of them.

If you have any questions, please do contact us and we’ll be happy to answer them for you.

 

 

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How to see competitors visiting your website https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/visiting-companies/how-to-see-competitors-visiting-your-website/ https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/visiting-companies/how-to-see-competitors-visiting-your-website/#respond Mon, 02 Oct 2023 13:40:27 +0000 https://a1webstats.com/?p=9481 Competitors visit your website for a range of reasons that mean it would be useful for you to know when they visited and what they looked at page by page. The links below take you directly to the competitors-tracking information of most interest to you … When you CAN see competitors visiting your website When […]

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Competitors visit your website for a range of reasons that mean it would be useful for you to know when they visited and what they looked at page by page.

The links below take you directly to the competitors-tracking information of most interest to you …

When you CAN see competitors visiting your website

When you CAN’T see competitors visiting your website

How and why it’s good to see when competitors have been to your website

The two main reasons competitors visit your website

How you can get alerts when competitors visit your website

What to do when you know a competitor has visited your website

Not knowing when competitors are visiting your website

 

 

When you CAN see competitors visiting your website

To see the names of competitor companies visiting your website, you need software that can track such information.

Google Analytics won’t provide you with that type of information – only specialist providers will make that available to you.

As an example of how our own software works, if your competitor was Bartech Marine Engineering and they were identifiable by software, then you could see them (including what they looked at page by page) as in this example below:

Image showing a competitor visiting a website

We, and many others supply software that allows you to identify competitors, as well as the names of other companies that visit your website.   You can get a 30 day free trial of companies tracking on our website here.

This type of software identifies competitors by identifying their IP address (and other information) and linking it back to the name of the company.

However, there will be many cases where you can’t identify competitors that have visited your website …

 

When you CAN’T see competitors visiting your website

Even when you’ve got software that identifies the names of companies that visit your website, you won’t be able to identify competitors (or companies in general) in any of these scenarios:

  1. The person on your website is at the competitor location, but is on a mobile device that’s not connected to the internet of the competitor.
  2. The competitor cannot be identified by their IP address (this will often be the case).
  3. The person visiting your website is a competitor but they are accessing your website from another location (e.g. working from home or out somewhere on a mobile device).
  4. The competitor has some sort of blocking technology that stops their company name being trackable (although this is quite rare to see and will mostly be larger businesses).

In short: there is no guarantee that you will always be able to identify the competitors that have been to your website.

 

How and why it’s good to see when competitors have been to your website

There are several reasons why it’s useful to know when competitors have been to your website …

 

Competitors looking at your product and service pages

One reason they’re visiting your website is because they are trying to work out what you offer and how you present it, normally because they are not selling enough of those products or services and think they can get inspiration from your website so that they can fix their own website or offerings failings.

Another reason is that they may be bidding for the same work you are and so they’re trying to find angles they can use by looking at what you show within your website.

 

Competitors looking at your pricing

They may be losing potential business to you and so are keen to find out your pricing so that they have the option to undercut you or add additional value to their own pricing (if it is higher).

This could also apply if they are bidding for the same work that you are.

 

Competitors looking at your testimonials and case studies

This is what worries businesses most – having case studies and testimonials on the website for competitors to see.

The thinking is that the competitor will try to steal the clients.

The reality is that if your relationship with clients is strong enough then a competitor won’t find it easy to win them from you.

Being able to see your competitors looking at website pages related to your clients enables you to ask yourself this question:

How strong is our relationship with that client?

And if you feel it’s not strong enough then do something about it!

You will always win more business by showing client case studies and testimonials, because that’s what potential clients want to see on your website.  If you hide that information because you fear losing any clients to competitors then you will lose out.

 

 

Competitors looking at your staff or about pages

Sometimes you have to interpret a competitor going to the staff or about pages of your website.

While it could be someone at that competitor looking for staff to poach, it could equally be an employee there (using their employers computers/network) to see what you could offer them if they moved job.

It could also be a competitor doing more general research about your people and culture as part of their competitive research.

In rare cases it can be a competitor who may want to buy your company and who are trying to get a better feel for the culture of your business.

 

The two main reasons competitors visit your website

Overall, there’s usually two main reasons why competitors visit your website …

 

They don’t have enough business coming in and they’re looking for the answers

Whether that’s copying your website strategies, trying to steal your customers, or anything else, the fact that they are visiting your website indicates to you that you’re in a stronger position than they are.

If they were busy enough/doing well enough then they wouldn’t have time to be visiting your website.

 

They are in competition with you to win the same prospective client

They’re looking for an edge – something that you’re doing that they’re not.   Something that they find (or don’t find) within your website that they could use to their advantage.

 

 

How you can get alerts when competitors visit your website

If you are an A1WebStats customer (or take our free 30 day trial) then you can get an instant email alert when a competitor has visited your website.   This is how it works:

  1. You identify the competitor.
  2. You click ‘Track’, which sends an email to the person you’ve allocated to track that competitor.
  3. As soon as the competitor visits the website in the future, an email alert gets sent so that you can see what that competitor was looking at page by page.
 

What to do when you know a competitor has visited your website

It’s best to share that information with other key people within the business.

Multiple people will each have an idea about why that competitor is visiting your website, and many of them will be able to play a part in responding in the appropriate way.

Examples could be:

  1. Reach out to customers that the competitor has been looking at on your website (to make sure your relationship is solid enough to ward off them being approached by your competitor).
  2. Review their website to check that they’re not stronger than your own equivalent website page(s).
  3. If you feel the competitor are financially suffering, or are underperforming for their customers, you may be able to take some of their customers and make them weaker while you become stronger.
  4. Taking the opportunity to implement a bigger programme of strengthening loyalty with your customers. For example, a survey asking them what they would want more of from your business (that makes them feel valued because their responses are important to you).
 

Not knowing when competitors are visiting your website

Well, that’s a choice.

Software such as ours is not costly and even though competitors visiting your website will be a small percentage of the overall companies we can show you visiting your website, being aware of their visit can help you take actions that ensure you don’t lose any of your customers to those competitors.

It only takes one customer lost to a competitor to create financial damage that vastly exceeds the cost of the software we provide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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How to get more leads for real estate agents https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/b2c-sales/residential-identification/how-to-get-more-leads-for-real-estate-agents/ https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/b2c-sales/residential-identification/how-to-get-more-leads-for-real-estate-agents/#respond Thu, 28 Sep 2023 09:06:26 +0000 https://a1webstats.com/?p=9467 Here are 20 tips that will help you to get more leads for your real estate business. They are in no particular order and some may appeal more than others. Simply scan the list below and click on those that interest you the most. There’s a lot of ideas there so maybe  start by implementing […]

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Here are 20 tips that will help you to get more leads for your real estate business.

They are in no particular order and some may appeal more than others.

Simply scan the list below and click on those that interest you the most.

There’s a lot of ideas there so maybe  start by implementing just one of them and then come back for more.

 

1. Using email marketing to nurture future real estate leads

2. Get more real estate leads by collaborating with local businesses to expand your network

3. Leveraging social media for real estate leads

4. A professional website

5. Real Estate SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

6. Paid online advertising to get more real estate leads

7. Get more leads by offering valuable real estate content

8. Host real estate webinars and workshops to educate potential clients

9. Participate in community events to connect with potential clients

10. Implement a referral program to encourage future real estate agent leads

11. Network with industry professionals to build relationships that can lead to more real estate leads

12. Using real estate listing websites to showcase properties

13. Offer free property valuations to entice future customers

14. Organize open houses to engage with potential real estate customers

15. Utilize direct mail marketing to reach out to potential real estate leads

16. Engage in online forums and communities to share knowledge of your real estate expertise

17. Collaboration with influencers who are in related spaces

18. Customer testimonials

19. Offer free consultations to showcase your real estate expertise

20. Attend real estate seminars and conferences to network and learn 

 

 

Using email marketing to nurture future real estate leads

Email marketing is an invaluable tool for nurturing relationships and capturing real estate leads.

By curating a targeted and engaged subscriber list, you can regularly share updates on properties, insights into the market, and helpful resources that only a realtor would have expertise in.

As potential clients consider their options, they often have questions such as:

“Where can I see the latest properties?

“How can I get a property valuation?”

Effective email marketing serves as the perfect channel to provide these answers, keeping your real estate offerings at the forefront of their minds. It allows you to craft personalized messages and compelling calls-to-action, guiding recipients seamlessly toward the next steps in their property journey.

By consistently delivering relevant and valuable content through email, you not only capture leads but also establish a strong rapport with your audience, building trust and positioning yourself as their go-to real estate expert when they’re ready to make their move.

Email marketing is a direct line of communication that nurtures leads and helps to convert them into clients.

 

Get more real estate leads by collaborating with local businesses to expand your network

As a realtor, building partnerships with local businesses is a strategic approach that not only expands your network but also enhances your credibility and client base.

Collaborations with all of these will help to create mutually beneficial relationships:

  • Mortgage brokers
  • Lawyers
  • Contractors
  • Interior designers.

As potential clients explore property opportunities, they may wonder:

“Which local businesses are in your network?” and;

“How does this benefit me?”

You explaining the advantages of your network (for example: easier mortgage processes or discounted renovation services), emphasizes your commitment to providing a holistic and supportive real estate experience that caters to a broader spectrum of your clients’ needs.

Additionally, these collaborations often lead to referrals, enhancing your leads and fostering long-term relationships with both clients and the businesses within your network.

Ultimately, strategic alliances with local businesses enrich your service offerings and provide added value to your clients, making you their go-to real estate professional. 

Leveraging social media for real estate leads

Social media has become an indispensable tool in the real estate landscape, offering an expansive and accessible platform to engage potential buyers and sellers.

By harnessing the power of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X to present your expertise and offerings, you are able to share informative content including:

  • Market trends
  • The process of doing business with you
  • Success stories (including focus on customers who have been happy in their new home for many years since you helped them)
  • Engaging property highlights.

Sign up to the social media feeds of other realtors in your area or anywhere else – it’s always a good idea to absorb how other realtors are utilising social media as it will help to shape the type and frequency of content that you create.

Social media not only expands your reach but also allows you to create a brand personality, ultimately leading to a substantial inflow of potential clients and successful conversions in the competitive real estate domain. 

A professional website

If you took a client to a battered dirty property, they’re not going to be interested.

The same applies to your website.

People see numerous websites each day and the quality of many of them sets an expectation with people that everyone should have a website that is:

  • Attractive
  • Informative
  • Answers all the questions they may have in their heads

If they go to your website and it doesn’t impress them then they’re unlikely to make contact with you

Crafting a professional website is pivotal in establishing a formidable online presence amongst all the other real estate websites.

It serves as the digital face of your business, a place where potential clients visit to peruse property listings, delve into your services, and comprehend your expertise.

A visually appealing and user-friendly website is non-negotiable and needs to answer many questions people may have, which could include:

“Where can I explore available properties?

“What do people say about you as the realtor?”

“Why should I choose you and not another realtor?”

“What happens step by step once I engage with you?”

“How do I get in touch for more information?”

A well-designed website effortlessly addresses these queries, providing easy access to property listings, reassurances about you, and offering intuitive inquiry systems.

The clarity and accessibility conveyed through your website substantially influence the visitor’s decision-making process, significantly impacting lead generation in an environment where you’re competing with other realtors. 

Real Estate SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Do a Google search for keyword phrases that your potential customers may type when thinking of buying or selling a property.

Take note of those that appear prominently.   It could be that their websites aren’t amazing but they are at least visible.

If you have invested time and resources in your own website then more visibility via SEO will bring you the website visitors that will convert to inquiries at a better rate than your competitors (even if they are also in the Google search results).

By strategically employing relevant keywords, creating high-quality content, and refining your website structure, you significantly improve its ranking on search engine result pages.

There isn’t space here to focus on everything you need to get right to ensure that Google takes your website seriously but there will be many quick wins for you to implement, including:

  • Meta data
  • Keyword usage within the website (not too little, not too much)
  • Imagery that supports SEO
  • Page content text that supports SEO

A robust SEO strategy ensures that your website appears prominently in response to anything people type into Google and by optimizing your website effectively, you not only increase its discoverability but also establish credibility in the eyes of potential clients, leading to heightened engagement and a steady influx of leads.

SEO forms the bedrock of your online presence, enabling you to effectively connect with and assist people who are looking for real estate services. 

Paid online advertising to get more real estate leads

Many realtors avoid paid advertising because there’s a fear of wasting money on something that doesn’t work.

However, if your website is strong enough then you will get results from paid online advertising to instantly escalate your online visibility within a targeted audience.

Platforms like Google Ads, Facebook, and other social media offer sophisticated advertising mechanisms, enabling you to tailor your campaigns based on demographics, interests, and online behaviors.

You can raise visibility of your real estate business with paid ads in two key ways:

  1. Being highly visible when someone is actively searching for your type of services (for example, using Google Ads to appear in front of someone who has searched for ‘real estate agents Williamsburg’).
  2. Being highly visible in front of people within your target geographical area, but who aren’t necessarily people currently looking to buy or sell (for example, Facebook ads appearing in front of people of a certain demographic within the geographical area you serve).

Paid advertising ensures that your real estate offerings and services are precisely placed before them and so, by investing in strategic advertising, you not only elevate your chances of reaching potential clients but also bolster your brand presence, driving a surge of interested buyers and sellers to you. It’s a proactive approach, positioning your real estate services at the forefront of audiences who are actively seeking property solutions or could possibly be thinking about it.

 

Get more leads by offering valuable real estate content

Providing valuable content is an important strategy to help attract and engage potential real estate clients.

Whether it’s informative blog posts, e-books, podcasts, or engaging videos, creating content that addresses common questions and concerns in the real estate market is key. As individuals contemplate their property decisions, they will have many questions in their minds and your content (which will usually live within your website) can attract their attention.

The brilliant book ‘They Ask You Answer’ by Marcus Sheridan provides insights into ensuring that your content (text, video, and imagery) answers all the questions people may have relating to how you can potentially help them.

You can also look at the websites, videos and more of other realtors, which will stimulate your thinking about what you could be creating to appeal to people within your e geographical target area.

Valuable content not only offers insightful answers but positions you as an expert in the field, building trust and credibility with your audience.  By showcasing your knowledge and providing solutions to their real estate challenges, you draw potential clients to your platforms, initiating meaningful connections.  Furthermore, informative content establishes a long-term relationship, ensuring that when the time is right, these engaged individuals will turn to you for their real estate needs, converting them from intrigued readers to loyal clients.

 

Host real estate webinars and workshops to educate potential clients

Hosting real estate webinars and workshops is an effective strategy to impart knowledge, showcase your expertise, and connect with potential clients.

These typically online events allow you to delve into various aspects of the real estate market, from buying and selling strategies to investment opportunities.

By offering a platform for education and discussion, you establish yourself as a knowledgeable authority and a valuable resource in the real estate industry.

Webinars and workshops provide a space for participants to get their questions answered, helping them make informed decisions. This direct engagement not only helps in generating leads but also cultivates trust and confidence among potential clients, fostering a sense of loyalty. Ultimately, hosting these events showcases your commitment to helping them navigate the complexities of real estate transactions.

Hosting such events is not for everyone though – start off by signing up to those hosted by other realtors (either locally or further geographically) and experience how those are run before you decide if you want to follow this strategy.

 

Participate in community events to connect with potential clients

Actively engaging in community events, sponsorships, and local gatherings is a dynamic strategy to connect with potential real estate clients.

Whether it’s sponsoring a charity run, participating in a neighborhood fair, or anything else in the community, being present at these events allows you to interact with the community.

Attendees will sometimes be thinking questions (if they like you!) such as:

“How can I get in touch with you after the event?”

“What properties are currently available for sale in my area?”

“How can I stay in touch for future use?”

Addressing these thoughts and questions helps to raise confidence and positions you as a local real estate expert.

Actively participating in community events also demonstrates your commitment to the neighborhood, reinforcing trust and showcasing your dedication beyond just property transactions. Moreover, these interactions can lead to valuable referrals and recommendations, broadening your clientele and fostering strong, lasting relationships within your local community.

Ultimately, being an active part of community events is a fruitful approach to expand your reach and create meaningful connections with potential clients.

 

Implement a referral program to encourage future real estate agent leads

Implementing a referral program in your real estate business is an effective strategy to incentivize satisfied clients to spread the word about your services.

Think about current clients and how they can refer:

  • Friends
  • Family
  • Contacts

While some clients may refer you onto their contacts without expecting anything in return, such referrals will be much easier if you give them an incentive.

By providing attractive incentives (for example: discounts on future transactions or gift cards), you motivate your existing clients to actively refer potential buyers or sellers. This referral system not only amplifies your lead generation but also fosters a sense of appreciation and loyalty among your client base.

Furthermore, referred leads often come pre-qualified, leading to smoother transactions and a higher conversion rate.  In essence, a well-structured referral program can significantly boost your real estate leads while cultivating a loyal and engaged clientele.

 

Network with industry professionals to build relationships that can lead to more real estate leads

Establishing strong relationships with industry professionals is a proactive approach to broaden your network and enhance your real estate business.  These would be professionals such as

  • Mortgage brokers
  • Lawyers
  • Home inspectors
  • Contractors

These professionals are often an integral part of a real estate transaction, and potential clients might be thinking:

“Why are these connections important for my property transaction and how do I get in touch with them?”

Collaborating with these experts allows you to provide comprehensive solutions and a seamless experience to your clients.

By showcasing the value of these connections – like expedited mortgage approvals or reliable home inspections – you instill confidence and trust in your potential clients.

Additionally, these professionals often have their own network of clients who might require real estate services, leading to mutually beneficial referrals.

Ultimately, fostering relationships within the industry not only enriches your knowledge and services but also expands your client base, paving the way for successful real estate transactions.

 

Using real estate listing websites to showcase properties

Using popular real estate listing websites, such as Zillow, Realtor.com, or Trulia, is a strategic way to extend the reach of your property listings and connect with a broader audience of potential buyers and sellers.

These platforms are frequented by individuals actively searching for properties, making them an ideal space to showcase your listings.

By ensuring your listings are not only present but well-curated on these platforms, you enhance your visibility and make it easier for interested parties to discover and engage with your properties.

Through employing captivating descriptions, high-quality images, and accurate details, you can attract potential clients and prompt them to take the next step, whether it’s scheduling a viewing or reaching out for more information.

Effectively utilizing real estate listing websites amplifies your leads and maximizes the exposure of your properties in the competitive real estate market.

 

Offer free property valuations to entice future customers

Your future customers may not be yet serious about selling their property, but may be thinking ahead to that time.

Providing free property valuations lets you captivate potential sellers and initiate conversations about listing their property.

Individuals looking to sell often ask themselves questions such as:

“How much is my property worth in the current market?”

“How do I request a valuation?”

By offering this service at no cost, you entice property owners to engage with you in determining the value of their asset.

Conducting a professional and accurate property valuation not only addresses their immediate need for information but also opens the door to discussing potential sales strategies and listing opportunities.

It’s a proactive approach that allows you to showcase your expertise and build rapport with potential clients. Moreover, a positive experience during the valuation process can greatly influence their decision to choose you as their real estate agent when they decide to sell, thus significantly impacting your lead generation efforts. 

Organize open houses to engage with potential real estate customers

Hosting open houses is a dynamic approach to engage potential buyers and showcase a property’s features firsthand.

Organizing these events not only allows them to physically experience the property but also provides you with the opportunity to connect with a pool of potential leads.

During the open house, you can directly address their questions, understand their preferences, and share comprehensive details about the property and its advantages. This interaction often leads to the collection of valuable contact information, enabling you to follow up and nurture these leads.

Additionally, an engaging and memorable open house experience can leave a lasting impression, making these potential clients more likely to turn to you for their real estate needs. It’s a strategic initiative that not only drives immediate engagement but also sets the stage for potential conversions in the near future.

 

Utilize direct mail marketing to reach out to potential real estate leads

Direct mail marketing is a targeted and tangible strategy to reach potential clients within specific neighborhoods or demographics.

Although the recipients may not be currently considering moving, and although most of them will put your direct mail in the trash, some may keep it or pass it onto others who they know are going to be buying or selling a property.

Direct mail can take the form of postcards, brochures, or letters showcasing your successful transactions, current property listings, or the benefits of working with you as a real estate professional.

If people are considering moving themselves (or know others that are), if your direct mail sells your benefits well enough, and provides clear calls-to-action, such as visiting your website or contacting you directly, you will have a higher chance to be contacted.

Additionally, direct mail marketing allows you to stay top-of-mind, as tangible mail is something people can hold or keep, and often sticks around in homes longer than digital communications.

It is of course a numbers game and something that you could test intelligently.  For example, you could refer to the many online directories and databases that show the dates that properties were last sold and then target those homes where it has been many years since purchase (and maybe those people are thinking about moving soon).   You can of course go deeper than this, identifying households where people have had children, who may not have enough rooms, and so may be considering moving in the future.

 

Engage in online forums and communities to share knowledge of your real estate expertise

Actively participating in online (including real estate-specific) forums and local community forums is a strategic method to establish your presence, share knowledge, and connect with potential clients.

By engaging in these online platforms and contributing (not purely real estate expertise insights, but being a real and helpful person), you position yourself as both a good person to know AND also being an expert in the real estate market.

Answering queries, providing advice, and sharing experiences not only help the community but also showcase you to a broader audience.  In generic online community forums there may not be frequent opportunities to show your real estate expertise but your overall participation will make you more readily recognizable when the opportunity arises to respond to real estate-related discussions.

Collaboration with influencers who are in related spaces

Collaborating with influencers in the real estate domain or related fields is a strategic way to expand your reach and tap into a broader audience.

By partnering with influencers who align with your brand and target market, you can leverage their credibility and follower base to promote your services and listings.

Of course, you have to find an angle to gain the trust of those influencers because they likely have a higher profile than you and will automatically know that you are wanting to access their followers!

By identifying the people who operate in related spaces, absorbing their content, and starting a dialogue with them, you can gradually open up opportunities to collaborate more.

Those influencers can showcase your properties, share success stories, or highlight your expertise, enabling you to capture the attention of their engaged audience.  This collaboration not only extends your visibility but also instills trust as it comes from a trusted source.

Moreover, influencers often have a strong online presence and can significantly increase your online engagement, driving potential clients to explore your offerings further and potentially convert them into leads. It’s a modern and influential approach to amplifying your brand presence and attracting a new segment of interested buyers and sellers.

 

Customer testimonials

Customer testimonials are a very powerful tool in building credibility and attracting potential clients to your real estate business.

Prospective clients might be thinking:

“How good are you at what you do?”

“What’s the long term relationship like between you and clients?”

“Can I speak to some of your previous clients?

By showcasing authentic testimonials from satisfied clients and inviting prospects to have dialogue with those clients, you provide social proof of your expertise and the quality of service you offer.

Testimonials often touch upon the positive experiences of working with you, the seamless transactions, and the successful outcomes, creating a favorable impression.

Moreover, testimonials serve as a platform for your clients to share their journey, which can resonate with others facing similar situations or decisions.

You can encourage clients to leave testimonials on various platforms (e.g. Google Reviews) and your website, making them easily accessible to potential clients.

While this isn’t so easy when you are just starting out in real estate, a rigid focus on getting testimonials from every customer is what will build those up for you.

The more number and variety of testimonials you have to show, the higher the potential for people to make contact with you.

Every house buyer or seller will have concerns in their minds and your testimonials have the opportunity to cover many scenarios you’ve assisted with, that have ensured such concerns are never a problem.

 

Offer free consultations to showcase your real estate expertise

Providing free and no-sales-pitch consultations is a strategic approach to demonstrate your expertise and offer immediate value to potential real estate clients.

Prospective clients may have concerns such as these and many more:

“If I start a conversation, will I get the hard sell?”

“Will the consultation respect my limited time (vs having to practically push the realtor out the door/get them off the phone after two hours)?”

“What happens in specific scenarios that may concern me (e.g. avoiding buying a property next to noisy neighbors)?”

This means that your offer of a free consultation needs to be framed with answering all the doubts they may have in their heads.

For example, you could provide a simple 100% guarantee guide to what you will and won’t get from the free consultation.

Having achieved getting the consultation, you are then able to delve into their requirements, explaining the buying or selling process, discuss market trends, and address any concerns they might have.

By showcasing your knowledge and dedication to their specific needs, you build trust and increase the likelihood of them choosing you as their real estate professional AND to pass your details onto other people they know, even if they don’t go ahead with a transaction at that time.

Overall, a free consultation provides an opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to client satisfaction and sets the stage for a successful and collaborative partnership throughout their buying or selling journey.

 

Attend real estate seminars and conferences to network and learn

Actively participating in real estate seminars and conferences is a strategic approach to expand your professional network and attract potential clients.

Although most of the attendees are likely to be other realtors, there will still be individuals attending those events with the intention of getting insights into the real estate market, investment opportunities, or looking to buy or sell properties.

By being present at these industry gatherings, you position yourself in front of an engaged and relevant audience, allowing you to forge valuable connections and showcase your expertise.

Actively participating in discussions, hosting a booth, or giving a presentation grants you visibility and credibility to those who you could be working with in the future.  Moreover, networking with other professionals in the industry opens the door for referrals and collaborations, leading to an increase in potential leads.

Overall, these events serve as an excellent platform to broaden your reach, establish meaningful relationships, and ultimately generate more real estate leads.

 

 

 

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Why we don’t make bespoke changes for triallers https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/insights/rants/why-we-dont-make-bespoke-changes-for-triallers/ https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/insights/rants/why-we-dont-make-bespoke-changes-for-triallers/#respond Thu, 13 Apr 2023 18:02:09 +0000 https://a1webstats.com/?p=9423 This may seem a bit unconstructive but it has to be said: We no longer make changes/enhancements to the A1WebStats system for anyone that’s not a paying customer. This is purely because we have had triallers in the past who have been interested in us making adaptations, which we have done, and then they don’t […]

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This may seem a bit unconstructive but it has to be said:

We no longer make changes/enhancements to the A1WebStats system for anyone that’s not a paying customer.

This is purely because we have had triallers in the past who have been interested in us making adaptations, which we have done, and then they don’t become paying customers.

Here’s how the dialogue typically goes:

Trialler: We’d really like it if it could do X.

Us: OK, it’d take resource this end to do it but it can be done.

Trialler: Great – that’s definitely something we’d want as part of being a paying customer.

We do the work to make the enhancement happen, and then get ghosted.

Not even polite responses about why they may not have continued with a subscription.

It’s happened a few times and so we’ll no longer spend development time in that way.

Naturally, for paying subscribers, we’re always receptive to feedback of changes that could be considered for the benefit of all, and will often implement them.

But for triallers: sorry, but no more.

 

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ManyPets Trustpilot and Feefo reviews https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/insights/manypets-trustpilot-and-feefo-reviews/ https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/insights/manypets-trustpilot-and-feefo-reviews/#respond Sat, 19 Nov 2022 17:00:26 +0000 https://a1webstats.com/?p=9399 ManyPets provide pet insurance for cats and dogs, and I started paying for dog insurance 7 years ago after reading positive reviews about Boughtbymany (what they used to be called before ManyPets). I discovered (the hard way, after claiming on the insurance) that ManyPets are a business that are viewed wildly differently by their customers, […]

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ManyPets provide pet insurance for cats and dogs, and I started paying for dog insurance 7 years ago after reading positive reviews about Boughtbymany (what they used to be called before ManyPets).

I discovered (the hard way, after claiming on the insurance) that ManyPets are a business that are viewed wildly differently by their customers, and the reviews on sites like Trustpilot and Feefo vary significantly.

To me, they look like a business in turmoil that has separate departments that don’t interact properly with each other, and they make some very strange decisions when they are clearly not going to benefit.

One of those decisions is the sending out requests to be reviewed on Trustpilot and Feefo.

Any logical business would adopt one of the following strategies:

  1. If the business is unpopular then don’t encourage people to provide reviews.
  2. Encourage people to provide reviews but be ready to quickly address any negativity that comes up in those reviews.

 

ManyPets Trustpilot reviews

There’s huge conflict between the 5-star and 1-star reviews that ManyPets have on Trustpilot (as at November 2022):

Image showing the ManyPets Trustpilot reviews from 1 star to 5 star

The average (3.9) looks OK but the detail level shows opposite ends of the scale with:

  • 68% providing 5-star reviews
  • 21% providing 1-star reviews
  • 11% providing reviews of 2-4 stars

Although the 5-star reviews outweigh the 1-star reviews by 3 to 1, the fact that 21% of their reviews are 1 star should be concerning to anyone.

I am one of those providing a 1 star review and reading the other 1 star reviews had me nodding my head in agreement to the key comments people make:

  • Delays to claims
  • Having to complain to get claims progressing
  • Poor communication

On the flipside of those 1 star reviews, the 5 star reviews were glowing, with people saying that they had their claims handled quickly and without problems.

I am a bit suspicious here though because I saw things that raise concerns that many of those 5 star reviews may be faked:

  1. Many claims that the payment was made directly into their bank account on the same day of the claim. This seems extremely unlikely, based on the 1 star painfully long experience had by myself and many others.
  2. Very brief summary 5 star reviews (e.g. ‘great service’), when you’d think people would put a little more effort in to sing their praises.

Assuming that all of the 5 star reviews are genuine (which I now doubt that they are), it feels as if claims are handled by two completely separate teams within ManyPets – the good and efficient team, and the bad and useless team.

Unfortunately, I very much suspect that the 68% of 5 star reviews are bolstered by fake reviews.

If you sort those reviews by the most recent (https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/manypets.com%2Fuk?sort=recency) you’ll see that the vast majority are a mixture of 5 star and 1 star reviews, so this is not a case of ManyPets being poor historically and fixing problems recently – the mixture of good and bad reviews are consistent.

If ManyPets had Trustpilot reviews that were mostly 3-5 star with a relatively small percentage of 1-2 star reviews, then things wouldn’t be so noticeable, but their structure of reviews indicates that something is very wrong with their business.

Here’s something else that sounds alarm bells – they’ve only replied to 27% of negative reviews:

Image showing lack of ManyPets negative reviews responses

Sometimes companies don’t engage with negative reviews because they know that they have no good answers to provide, and they risk further responses from the angry customers that make the reviews look even worse.  I suspect that’s the case here, where 73% of their negative reviews aren’t responded to.

Poor reviews and responsiveness probably don’t help towards how Trustpilot categorises them as a very poor 24 out of 29 in the pet insurance category …

Image showing the ManyPets Trustpilot category position

There is one thing that’s positive about their transparency though – they ask everyone for a review, regardless of how the relationship has gone.  That at least is admirable.

However, it’s also fundamentally stupid when ManyPets know that they are going to get 1 star reviews from people that they already know they have annoyed.

This is where things appear to be very broken within their business.  Most larger businesses would have processes in place that track metrics such as reviews on sites such as Trustpilot.   Those processes should trigger responses in line with this:

  1. Negative reviews have reached more than a set minimum percentage of all reviews.
  2. Internally address all the problems that people reported, leading to those negative reviews.
  3. Stop the negativity before it becomes a bigger issue.

The fact that ManyPets have so many 1 star reviews on Trustpilot shouts out that the business has some major problems.

If it was my business then I would have sacked many people by now.

 

 

ManyPets Feefo reviews

It’ll be interesting to see if my 1 star review of ManyPets on Feefo stays on the site.  This was submitted on 19th November 2022:

Image showing the ManyPets Feefo 1 star review from 19 November 2022

I was suspicious because they have a 4.5/5 rating on Feefo but are apparently not displaying the vast majority of the reviews, as you can see circled in red here:

Image showing that the ManyPets Feefo reviews aren't all showing

So what does ‘Displaying 17,600 out of 75,817 reviews’ mean?

I realised that the default filters show only the past year of reviews and although all reviews can be viewed, the 4.5/5 overall rating applies only to the past year.

However, there’s something odd here because the Feefo reviews show:

  • 5-star reviews: 80% (in the past year)
  • 1-star reviews:  5% (in the past year)

Those 5% 1-star reviews look a lot better than the 21% 1-star reviews on Trustpilot.

So I looked more at the 5-star reviews and realised that many of them related to the honeymoon period of starting insurance with ManyPets.

For example, this person:

Image showing a typical ManyPets Feefo review after insurance setup

I only looked through a few pages of the 5 star reviews but it became very clear that they were bolstered by people happy with the signup experience and much less so for people needing to make a claim.

This makes the Feefo ratings effectively worthless and the only resolution would be to filter ratings into categories:

  1. Making a claim
  2. Signup experience

The figures for each of those would likely paint a very different picture.

As with all review sites, it shows that you have to dig deeper than buy on the basis of what the overall rating shows.

 

 

My experience leading to my 1 star rating of ManyPets

We set up insurance for our dog, Rosie,  7 years ago, initially via Boughtbymany in the days before they became ManyPets.

The signup experience was very slick and I couldn’t fault it.

The added sweetener was that they paid back 20% of the premiums for each year that no claims were made.

That was all fine until I made the first claim in May 2022.

ManyPets had said that they would deal with everything with the vets, but that turned out to be not the case.

Our dog (Rosie) was number 1 in our house (as far as my wife was concerned).  Above me, children, and even chocolate – Rosie was everything to her.  I’m sure that will resonate with many reading this!

So when the vets picked up on some lumps during a routine check, it was top priority to get a resolution.

She needed mammary lumps removed (in a series of two operations) and I asked the vet to arrange the finances with ManyPets.  They politely declined, stating that ManyPets take far too long to pay out, so I’d have to pay the cost and claim it back from them (£1,018).

So I did that and then started the pain of submitting that claim.  On their website they have a range of conditions that can be entered and mammary (anything) wasn’t amongst them so I emailed them, with the vet receipt, noting the continuation operation in a few weeks (when she’d recovered from the first).  That led to a series of forms to allow them to deal with the vets (who again had to prove the cost of the operation).

On 7th July Rosie had the second operation which I paid for (£647) and contacted ManyPets with the receipt and asking where we were on payment for the first operation.   I heard nothing back so chased them by email (26th July).

2nd August I rang ManyPets as I’d had no response/updates on the claims.  The person I spoke to did send a confirmation email that they would be looking into it.  From then on there were a few texts saying they were looking into the claims.

Rosie collapsed on 16th August and we took her to the vets who treated her and investigated further, identifying further lumps that were inoperable.   She was put to sleep on 17th August, leaving my wife distraught and me with another £1,481 bill to claim back from ManyPets.

On 20th August I notified ManyPets about the death and the additional claim.  There was zero response from them and I was disgusted that they didn’t have any process in place for when a pet had died.   I’d assumed that a business dealing with animals that their owners very much care about would be a business that is compassionate in the event of deaths.

I waited another week until 27th August when I send them a very stiff email of complaint about:

  1. Their lack of compassion when notified that a pet has died.
  2. The fact that none of the original claims had been paid out (having now paid out over £3,100 in vets bills).

On 2nd September I lodged a formal complaint to their complaints manager, including reference to it being a huge concern that they actually had a complaints manager, which implied that they get a lot of complaints!

7th September they acknowledged the complaint and said they would respond within 4 weeks of the original complaint.

15th September they emailed to confirm they were paying out for the original claims up until 11th July (this is over 2 months later), and that was paid within a few days.

October 26th – I contacted them again about the claim made 20th August, that had not been paid in over 2 months.  If I hadn’t contacted them, I suspect it would have dragged on forever, like the original claim.  On 7th November they emailed to say they’d approved the claim and it was paid within a few days.

On that same day (7th November) I received an email asking me to review my claim experience on Trustpilot and then the next day I received an email saying that my complaint (the one I’d made on 26th October) would be responded to by someone.

How crazy is that, from a few perspectives:

  1. The customer (me) has made it extremely clear that I’m livid with their poor standard of service …
  2. … so they send me an opportunity to review them on Trustpilot …
  3. … and then another department, clearly totally separate from the payments people (shouting out that their systems are not connected) says they’ll look into my complaint (even though I’d been told it was being paid out).

Yes, the bigger companies are, the more likely there will be communication breakdowns, but should they be necessary?

Surely ManyPets would have a system that, when someone complains, it puts a big red flag across all their systems, telling them to tread very carefully in their communications?

Clearly not.

Also, their process when a pet has died is extremely flawed.  When making a claim for that element (cremation), ManyPets have a category on their website for ‘farewell claim’.   You’d think that would automatically trigger a sequence of events as follows:

  1. Nice condolences card sent to the owner same day.
  2. Check that payments for claims are rushed through, noting that the owner is going to be in enough pain without making things worse by them having to chase things.

As it turned out, that didn’t happen.  All that did happen was, a few weeks later, we received a tiny scrappy card expressing sympathy.  It was so poor that I had to bin it as it would have upset the wife.  How much does it cost (vs the insurance premiums over the years) to put a bit more effort in?

 

In summary

This page is here for the benefit of anyone considering ManyPets for pet insurance.

It’s here to help people read beyond what they initially see (via reviews) and to make an informed decision about who to choose for their pet insurance.

The recommended checklist (if considering any insurance firm for pet insurance) is this:

  1. Look deeper into the reviews – discover the things that may not be immediately obvious.
  2. Ask your vet what happens in the event of needing pet treatment, and how that payment process would go with the pet insurance provider you are considering. If they say that you would have to pay first then that should send alarm bells.
  3. If you are as unfortunate as the experience I and others have had, make a point of complaining quickly and as strongly as possible. If you say nothing then your claim could take forever.

Please feel free to add any thoughts you have in the comments below.

 

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A1WebStats vs Lead Forensics https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/a1webstats-vs/a1webstats-vs-lead-forensics/ https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/a1webstats-vs/a1webstats-vs-lead-forensics/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2022 09:50:10 +0000 http://a1webstats.com/?p=3918 The information provided here has been checked as being up-to-date as at November 2022. If you’ve found this page then it’s likely that you’ve been approached by Lead Forensics, or are an existing subscriber to their service, and may be looking for alternatives.  If you’re currently trialling Lead Forensics then you may be interested in […]

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The information provided here has been checked as being up-to-date as at November 2022.

If you’ve found this page then it’s likely that you’ve been approached by Lead Forensics, or are an existing subscriber to their service, and may be looking for alternatives.  If you’re currently trialling Lead Forensics then you may be interested in our guide to Lead Forensics pricing, and then return to this page.

If you’re in a hurry to see the types of features that A1WebStats offers you, please go to this page.

 

10 years ago

Ten years ago we launched A1WebStats.  At the time we didn’t know Lead Forensics existed, and vice-versa.

Fast forward to 2022 and we’ve had years of conversations with hundreds of businesses who have tried/bought Lead Forensics and are looking at alternatives to consider (of which we’re one, but not the only one).  We’ve also spoken to many people who later wished they’d researched the market more (before committing to Lead Forensics) and so we hope that the insights here are useful to you.

Click here to see 16 reasons why A1WebStats will get you more business than Lead Forensics.

Click here to see why your business will decline if you focus too much on chasing companies that visited your website.

 

The differences

The most frequent question we get asked is:

“What’s the difference between A1WebStats and Lead Forensics?”.

There are many differences, both in our favour and in favour of Lead Forensics.  Here’s our summary of those differences …

 

Free trial

In our view, a free trial should be as open and flexible as possible.

  • Our free trial is 30 days and gives you full access to your data via login details that you get from day one. You get all data from us – every visitor, whether or not they can be identified as a company.  You are totally in control.  We provide the option to have calls with us to help you gain the most from your free trial and we have a culture of never pushing a sale.  The product and our culture are what our customers buy into – not a pushy sales person.
  • Lead Forensics give you tracking code to put on your website, and don’t always give you access to your account during their much shorter (typically 7-14 days) trial, preferring instead to take you through your data on a call.   That enables them to show you the data that they want you to see and try to sell to you during that process.

 

Comparisons

When making a spending decision, it’s worth spending time to compare options side by side.

  • We actively encourage people to trial us alongside other systems so that you make the choice that’s right for you.  Although it may seem like extra effort to have two, three, four, or more trials running on your website at the same time, it’s time well invested as it will lead you to the solution that’s right for you.
  • Lead Forensics will be reluctant to do side-by-side tests because it conflicts with their sales path, including their higher pricing.

 

Price

Your budget can be spread in so many directions that will benefit the success of your website.  Some things are worth paying more or less for.

  • We’re priced much cheaper (£50-60 + VAT per month) and we’re not on commission.
  • Lead Forensics cost more because they believe their data is worth the extra cost.  They also have sales people to pay, plus an expensive infrastructure.   Their typical charges are at least £150+ per month and normally much higher.   It’s worth looking at our more detailed blog about Lead Forensics pricing.

And on the subject of price, A1WebStats see our customers as being an opportunity to help them gain more business from their websites (with the help of our system), and not a sales transaction to notch up against targets.

In this non-active space below there used to be a video that showed what happens at Lead Forensics when they make a sale.

The video showed a Lead Forensics sales person celebrating a win, ringing the bell, and doing the rounds of the office in a self-congratulating way.   It was nauseating and openly proved that the Lead Forensics culture is all about winning by making the sale and getting a client tied into a 12 month contract.

 

Contract period

We feel that no-one should feel long-term committed to any form of online software.

  • We provide a month to month payment as standard.  Subscribers can optionally gain discounts by pre-paying for 12 months. There is never any form of contract.
  • Lead Forensics lock you into a contract, typically of 12 months.

 

Openness

It’s important to ask yourself questions about elements of a service that are not openly shared.

  • We are very open about ourselves. We show our pricing. We try not to make wild claims about our system functionality. We try to remove any barriers to people like you seeing us as everyday people who just want to help companies gain more business from their websites.
  • As at 2022, Lead Forensics don’t promote their pricing or contract periods on their website, and certainly don’t put articles on their website referring to competitors.  There’s a simple reason for that – they don’t want people believing that there are other options out there, because they will often lose out (whoever those competitors are).

 

Relationship, not sales

We believe in finding the right solution to your needs, not selling for the sake of it.

  • You never get a sales pitch from us. All communication within the 30 day free trial is purely to ensure that you get the maximum benefits from your trial, whether or not you decide to go on to buy.
  • With Lead Forensics you’ll get a professional sales person who hopes that you haven’t trialled any similar systems and, based on what our subscribers tell us, will get more salesy and less friendly as the prospect of the sale starts to slip away.

 

Companies data

Are the details of companies visiting your website really all you should be focusing on?

  • Although we provide details on companies that visit your website, we were originally created as an analytics system designed to help businesses win more business from their websites (by using data that’s not easy to get from Google Analytics alone). The identification of companies who visit websites just happens to be part of what the A1WebStats system offers, but it is what businesses seem to be most interested in.We firmly believe that it’s a business-limiting weakness to purely focus on companies that visit websites because it detracts from the fact that those companies didn’t make contact for some reason (which needs analytics to build an understanding of why, in order to make the website stronger).
  • Lead Forensics focuses much more on the identification of visiting companies, including various ways to use that data.If your goal is nothing more than identifying visiting companies, you have the budget, and don’t mind the contract lock-in, then Lead Forensics may well be an option for you. But if that’s purely your focus then you should also be looking at other products that are similar to them.

When people test us side by side with Lead Forensics they usually comment that we have some companies that Lead Forensics don’t, and vice-versa, plus there are also recognisable companies that we have but they’re sometimes not presented in the same way as Lead Forensics. We don’t pretend that we’re perfect but we are constantly evolving and we have a subscriber churn rate of less than 4% (as at 2022).   Yes, we lose some trial subscribers to Lead Forensics but we win a lot more than we lose and it’s very rare for us to have a paying subscriber that then goes to Lead Forensics.  Perhaps more tellingly, we gain subscribers who trialled us but then bought Lead Forensics, then realised the mistake, and came back to us after their Lead Forensics 12 month contract expired.

 

CRM integration

For businesses with a CRM, integration with other systems can be a key expectation.

  • We have our API available, so that you have the option of pulling your data into CRM systems.  We don’t currently have much ‘out of the box’ linking with specific CRM systems, although do offer linking via Zapier.
  • Lead Forensics beat us on integration to some CRM systems (although we’re more flexible via the API offering).  If specific CRM system integration is something of particular importance to you then Lead Forensics could be a choice for you, but there may also be other providers who offer the same types of integration.

While we can see the benefits of CRM integration, we also take the viewpoint that there will be numerous visitors to your website, who are from companies (but aren’t connected to their company network at the time of visit) and so you won’t be able to identify them.  That’s why we recommend thinking deeper about your website visitors overall.

 

De-mystifying IP address tracking

There’s a lot of hype around the subject of IP address tracking. Lead Forensics make plenty of noise about investing huge amounts of money into databases etc. etc. but the whole concept is very very simple:

  1. Someone goes to your website and they’re identifiable by their IP address.
  2. That IP address is recorded and compared to a database at your provider (A1WebStats, Lead Forensics, others).
  3. A match is found and company data relating to that IP address is shown to you.

It’s not rocket science and it’s not as expensive to create and maintain databases, as you may have been led to believe.  Our business founder has been using this sort of technology for 18+ years, long before Lead Forensics existed and even before Google Analytics was born.  It’s been very slow for businesses to become aware that such things are possible and because it seems like the newest shiny thing (but it isn’t!), it’s easy to get tempted to buy into the first solution offered (which is usually Lead Forensics because they actively ring businesses more than any other provider).

 

David and Goliath

Years ago we chose not to cover this subject but there’s no hiding the fact that Lead Forensics see us as a threat.   As we’ve already said, we’re not perfect, but we do offer a solution that matches the budget of those businesses who are looking for the ability to see companies that visited their website, plus dig a lot deeper into overall website visitor patterns (in a way that isn’t easy with Google Analytics).

It’s understandable that if a smaller business takes potential business away from a larger business, then it’s going to lead to a battle. We’re a small business compared to Lead Forensics but in reality, probably one of the biggest thorns in their side. We know this because over the years we’ve heard a multitude of negative comments about us (by Lead Forensics staff) that have been made to the many people who are kind enough to share with us.  We don’t take it personally – we know it’s purely down to them losing sales and not liking it (when in reality they should be thinking about what the potential client actually needs and should pay a fair price for).

What’s ironic is that the only reason we ever decided to go head to head with Lead Forensics is because they tried to poach our subscribers. Before that we didn’t even know they existed because they were invisible in Google when relevant search phrases were used.  Big company trying to beat much smaller company – it happens all the time in business but in our case, we’re only going to become stronger and stronger.   And that sums A1WebStats up nicely – we offer a solution that’s designed to make small to medium business websites stronger than their (often bigger) competitors, and within that overall offering, it just happens to offer the same type of functionality that Lead Forensics does.

 

In conclusion

 

Buy Lead Forensics if …

  • You have the monthly budget
  • You’re not adverse to the minimum 12 month contract lock-in time
  • You have sales people that you want to allocate leads to, and who are going to act on the information
  • You want to see very detailed information about visiting companies
  • You purely want to be able to identify visiting companies and don’t want to know much else about your website strengths and weaknesses.

 

Buy A1WebStats if …

  • You want details of all website visitors, not just companies.   This includes getting an understanding of how email marketing respondents interact with your website, and how all PPC visitors interact (not just the company-identifiable ones).
  • You want an affordable solution
  • You don’t want to be locked into a long-term contract
  • You want to improve your website strength, not just identify companies who have visited your website
  • You want to deal with people who actually care that you win more business from your website.

 

 

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Stop being shit! https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/insights/stop-being-shit/ https://a1webstats.com/knowledge-centre/insights/stop-being-shit/#respond Tue, 11 Oct 2022 20:24:52 +0000 https://a1webstats.com/?p=9376 A company contacts you because they want you to partner on their services. You’d expect them to have ensured that they are as impressive as they can be. In this case, a marketing agency made contact and the first reaction raised was ‘Stop being shit!’ The video provides a good bad example of not having […]

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A company contacts you because they want you to partner on their services.

You’d expect them to have ensured that they are as impressive as they can be.

In this case, a marketing agency made contact and the first reaction raised was ‘Stop being shit!’

The video provides a good bad example of not having the backup collateral to support your sales staff:

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