Debt collection is one of the most stressful businesses. When you’re first building your business, generating quality debt colletion leads can be even more stressful. When debtors don’t pay their debt, debt collectors are tasked with making sure that every single penny is returned, and it can be very frustrating to deal with the debtors and their excuses for not paying the money.
It may not be the case in every situation where the debtors are avoiding the responsibility. Still, a high percentage of them fall into this category, so as a debt collector, what can you do?
First, if you are seriously running a business in this niche, we have to applaud you for your effort, but next, we need to suggest you start working towards your lead generation strategies if you want them to work out.
Lead generation is crucial for any business nowadays, and if you want to achieve the desired results, you will need to work around the strategies and methods to bring potential clients your way.
This is another addition to how stressful debt collection can be, but it will be worth your time and effort, especially since we have some methods that will help you get the expected results.
A Professional Website Is Everything
If you think you can generate your debt collection leads without a website, you better think about it twice before you spend your time and money and are unable to achieve results.
Websites are today’s business card. They can be a reference point for people who know you or a point of entry for those looking for a professional in your area or niche.
In other words, they are the place where everyone will fall and find you without difficulties.
Now, we know you might be worried about how much you would need to spend building a website, but there’s no need for that.
Debt collectors can work around a simple yet professional and elegant design that meets the requirements and needs.
Also, you don’t need any previous experience to edit your website as long as you make it look modern and take your time with it.
Or you could just hire a professional that can handle the process for an affordable price.
Your website should communicate your offer and display them. It should also make it easy to reach you.
Mobile-friendly is a key requirement for every site since the majority of the traffic it will receive comes from people using these devices.
This is your platform for lead generation. It’s what you need to win over your local competitors and get the leads and clients you need.
You Can Rely on Paid Search
Everybody searches the Internet first for any service they are interested in. Thus, you should do your best to appear on them.
Google and other search engines do an excellent job of sorting through billions of possible results with a list of links that may match your search query and provide relevant results to you.
Now, how is this related to generating more debt collection leads? It is simple; paid search is a great way to get more by ranking your business in those engines.
For it, you can rely on paid searches by paying specific pay-per-click option we will explain a bit more later, or focus on using other paid methods to advertise your debt collector services.
Identify Quality Leads for Your Business
You need to keep in mind that not everyone is your ideal client nor someone worth your time (in a good way).
Instead, you work with specific customers or more like one that can be considered the ideal person for your business and the services you offer.
Thus, if you want to bring clients worth the effort, you need to pay attention to the quality and conversion rate. The higher the lead’s quality and conversion rate, the more traits it shares with your ideal customer profile.
One of the main reasons many companies and businesses spend tons of money generating leads is that they don’t really care about the lead’s quality and only recognize and identify it once the entire sales funnel steps have been taken by the lead and now a client.
This is a waste of time, effort, and money, so you should just avoid using the same resources in those worth it and not.
Lead scoring can be used to determine which leads are ready for nurturing. You can use lead scoring to ensure that sales reps only reach qualified leads when they are ready to hear from them.
If you aren’t sure about how to get things done, you can use a CRM to evaluate your leads:
- Determine if they share traits with your customer persona.
- If they’re consuming your content.
- Are they interacting with your team?
- What percentage of leads convert into customers in your funnel?
Each digital marketing team will score leads differently. However, a CRM can automate this process by using a points-based lead scoring system.
Once you have defined a quality lead for your marketing team, it will be easy to know when they are ready to move on in your relationship.
Content Marketing Is Gold
Believe it or not, about 85% of companies employ content marketing to generate leads, and this is thanks to how well they can perform in other strategies and methods at the same time as using this one.
Blog posts, infographics, and freebies are just a few of the many content marketing options available, and whatever you decide to use, it will work out as long as you play it a bit smart.
However, different content types may work better depending on your goals and buyer profile.
If you need a recommendation, try to focus your efforts on the content that attracts the most inbound leads. No idea yet? Here are some ideas:
- Consider guides and articles.
High-quality blog content can be a great way to get business leads. It brings people to your site and makes you an authority, but before you start writing an article, do extensive research and optimize text to ensure that it is relevant.
A guide or any type of article you write must be informative and educational if you want it to work out.
Otherwise, people will ditch your content and qualify it as “useless,” and your site and leads will fall rapidly and without any possibility of return.
- Use a lead magnet.
You can give away any downloadable content for an email or other relevant information that can help your leads and you obtain their details.
You can offer e-books or cheat sheets. It also includes examples, studies, and other relevant information.
All this by changing it for their email or contact information, you build your list for future clients and keep in touch with them.
- Always use videos.
Video helps people understand information better and have proven to be much more popular among all types of audiences.
Also, they can be made using the same ideas that you use for written content as long as they answer the leads’ questions. Just make sure to include a link to direct your viewers to an opt-in form, lead magnet, landing pages, or anything that will make them leads and not only viewers.
- Take advantage of the podcasts boom.
These podcasts are great for generating new leads, and you might be aware of them to the point of having an option on platforms and apps like Spotify, iTunes, and many more due to the booming.
As a result, podcasts are a great way to generate new leads due to the number of people listening to them. 33% of adults between 25 and 34 listen to podcasts every month, and the statistics just include more people who would be interested in debt collection services.
And believe it or not, your niche can permit including this technique in the lead generation strategies to achieve better results.
Diving Deep into PPC Advertising
Although PPC advertising can be used to improve inbound marketing, it is also possible to generate large sales leads through paid ads.
Paid ads can be run through Facebook, Google Search, and other paid sources that provide targeted traffic that we were mentioned previously.
These leads are usually captured on landing pages that have been created for each campaign.
Paid lead generation campaigns have more specific lead capturing forms. This is because you pay for traffic and want your leads to be as targeted as possible.
If you have the right target audience and have the budget to spend, this is a great way to get warm leads so your debt collection business can thrive.
You need to keep in mind that PPC (pay-per-click) works when you know how to handle keywords and “purchase” them when bidding for them on the search engines and platforms.
When clients search Google for debt collectors and similar professionals, your ads should be ranked above the organic results (the common and free ones) if you want them to choose you above others most of the time.
Before you can create an effective Google Ad campaign, it is important to have the right knowledge and education.
These are some things you should consider and remember to help you.
Your debt collecting services should be targeted at specific cities, towns, or regions. Ranking on Google Maps could lead to more deals. Therefore, it is important to rank yourself based on your location properly.
This is possible by using the correct keywords in your content and website or the Google Ads that you will open.
You want potential clients to search this way, so you need to be able to attract their attention by following the keywords they use. Finally, you should be listed under the map in search result results and the ads on the pages.
However, keep in mind that Google Maps requires a Google My Business listing and positive Google reviews from customers past to rank your name high.
But with this in mind, it doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune in bidding for them or trying to rank your ads.
Instead, just research keywords properly and based on your location, like “debt collection in Miami” or any other city name, for example. This will reduce the chances of competing for very used and bid keywords yet guarantee great results for you.
Learn About Cold Outreach
Cold outreach requires that you first do lead sourcing, then connect with potential leads via email or cold calling.
You can do lead-sourcing while you are at any sales or marketing events or search for contacts using lead generation tools.
Many lead generation companies offer solutions to suit every need and budget. Besides, lead sourcing is possible either manually or using free email finding tools.
To diversify your lead generation, this is what you should keep in mind:
- Use more LinkedIn lead generation strategies since over 70% of leads come from this platform.
- Remember social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
- Go back to search engines and review the topic again if necessary.
Any media or source you think about can work as part of the cold outreach strategy.
Just identify your target audience and decide who to contact. Then use an email searcher to find leads.
Once you have the contact information for your potential clients, get in touch with them by cold email or phone.
Cold email is a powerful outbound lead generation strategy that has been used for several businesses in the debt collection niche and similar ones.
This allows you to market to hundreds of leads, especially if you use an email marketing automation tool that lets you create highly personalized emails and adjust their timing.
Finally, cold calling is the oldest lead generation strategy.
Although it may seem outdated by more modern approaches, cold-call is still a viable option. It is possible to research solidly, create a script and set a time to reach your lead. Then, you need to keep following up with them.
Don’t Forget About Networking & Get Involved
Although networking does not usually lead to direct revenue, it is a great way to foster professional relationships and bring more leas to your business in the long run.
But to do this, you have to consider logistics and expenses.
You should choose a local event that is relevant to your industry. This will allow you to keep your travel expenses low and maximize the opportunities for business wins.
Now, what are the benefits of networking? Since we know many people worry about this method having a benefit, we want to let you know it indeed has.
You are looking for oblique wins and long-term results, not a specific ROI and immediate outcome as with other lead generation strategies.
You might meet someone who is complementary to your business, and you could partner with them to share leads, which will increase your reach.
You might meet an influencer who is willing to interview you. This will allow you to create great content and increase your marketing reach.
It is a matter of possibilities and what you can achieve by meeting other people related to your industry and business.
Your networking investment will almost always yield multiple returns, making it one of the most effective ways to generate leads for your company.
Maximize Your Referrals
Positive word-of-mouth is the best way to get leads for debt collectors and companies, so you ought to pay more attention to it, and anyone who says the opposite clearly has an issue.
Imagine that you offer exceptional services that make your clients happy or have them trust you again, especially in this niche where it isn’t as simple as getting someone to buy a slice of cake.
When you do this, you already have a powerful tool to generate more leads, in this case: The opinions and recommendations of your clients.
It is easier to understand if you think of yourself as the client, not the collector in this case or the person they are hiring for the job.
If someone does a good job, aren’t you, somehow, bound to recommend them? Yes? That’s what we thought.
However, if you want this strategy to work, you truly need to invest time and effort in catching your clients’ attention and make them consider you a great option.
Since clients are bound to remember less than half of the service you offer, your impression must last. This is why it is important to do your best work from the beginning, but give some attention towards the end.
Clients who are happy with your work will recommend you to their friends and families or other companies that might need your debt collector services. Although it is unlikely that referrals will come naturally, it is worth your time and effort.
Use & Send Newsletters
For years, newsletters have been a common strategy to generate leads and get them into the sales funnel.
The previous option of content marketing can be similar to this. Still, instead of considering newsletters as a general way to offer information, they are able to reach people in an area that is more likely to be visited: Their inboxes.
People will sign up for your newsletter to receive helpful content as long as you promote it and drive them to give up their email addresses.
However, once you get them, you will achieve great results if you are also consistent in your newsletters and they’re full of useful information.
There are many ways to generate leads online, and we know you will find it overwhelming. So, just take your time and learn everything. Then, work on each piece to improve your strategy, and this includes this one as well.
You will learn that some marketers prefer Facebook, social media, or any of the other options for their marketing campaigns. Others prefer webinars and newsletters.
It doesn’t mean that you can’t include them all, but you may need to work harder and spend more time because of all the channels and platforms you use.
Social Media Marketing
No matter what type of business you are in, social media marketing is an invaluable tool. It may not seem like it, but it can be very helpful for debt collectors businesses to generate more leads since it all comes down to the strategy and approach.
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn allow users to find everything they need about companies. Based on what they learn and find, users can contact you or request services.
It’s estimated that over 80% of social media users spend more than 3 hours a day on social media. You have the option to reach them on their preferred channels with minimal effort if you have a solid marketing strategy that focuses on these channels.
Share your content on social media for support of your content marketing strategy. Engage your followers by opening surveys and responding to comments.
Properly using social media to increase brand awareness and generate leads to close deals can help your company.
These accomplishments will allow your business to grow and reach its highest potential, such as hiring a new employee or expanding with new companies or more important clients.
Mobile Optimization for Your Website
Mobile browsing has experienced a substantial increase over the last few years, and it is still growing to the point of being at the top of how users reach websites and other platforms.
Therefore, you can increase your reach by optimizing your website to allow potential leads and clients to find you easily and be able to access the site without any difficulties.
All aspects of your website, including CTA buttons and graphics, images and design, as well animations, should be scrolled easily across different screen sizes.
Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool is the easiest and best way to find out if your site is mobile-friendly and how you can improve it if not.
Make it more real by asking 2-3 friends and family members to perform simple tasks on their smartphones while surfing on your website.
You can use your own devices, but it is important to remember that multiple perspectives and experiences are vital to determine how well-optimized the site is for your future leads and clients.
Keep Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) in Mind
We have already discussed how to convert visitors to your website. This could be signing up for your newsletter or using any of the previous strategies.
Then, what does CRO involve?
This is a continuous process of testing various elements on your website to determine which ones are most effective.
This helps you replace or improve elements or strategies that are not working and are just making you waste time and effort.
Throughout this process, you can test everything, including the layout of product pages, call-to-action-buttons, and forms, as well as your videos and other options.
This information can be used for improving your website to increase traffic and improve conversions.
This process can be difficult for eCommerce business owners or debt collectors, so you might want to hire an agency or professional for the task.
When done wrongly, this could lead to technical issues on your website, which could result in a site that isn’t working correctly.
This could cost you more money and cause you to lose deals that could have been closed just because you tried to handle it independently.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Debt Collection Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Debt Collection Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Debt Collection Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.