What’s the point of buying leads or building out your pipeline with a steady flow of leads if the contact information is wrong? It sort of defeats the purpose of saving time. It can be highly frustrating to find a bunch of returned-to-sender emails after you’ve painstakingly set up an email marketing system or automated drip campaign.
It makes sense to expect a few, but in abundance, it can quickly negatively impact your business. Investing your time and money into quality lead-generation sites that promise to provide reliable contact information will help maximize your productivity and overall business growth.
Use lead generation companies like KeyLeads, which vets leads with a dedicated research team, or companies like Zoominfo, which do the legwork for you so you can focus on building relationships with leads and closing deals for your clients.
Here’s how to gather and verify contact information to ensure your leads deliver the desired results.
Why Accurate Contact Information Matters
A colleague of mine put it in the best terms with simple math to get the point across:
“Let’s say, on a list of 1,000 contacts, 20% have bad contact information. This automatically narrows your list down to 800 contacts. If you have a 10% response rate and a 2% overall conversion rate, your list of 800 contacts will produce around 16 conversions from about 80 responses.”
These are hypothetical numbers, but they put the impact of information discrepancy into perspective pretty clearly. Just think: If you eliminated inaccurate information, how many more leads would you be able to contact… almost double.
Accurate contact information leads to the following:
- Higher Response Rates: Leads with verified contact information are more likely to respond to your personalized marketing efforts based on accurate and complete lead information, and you will see a significant reduction in bounce rates.
- Improved Conversion Rates: The quality of your leads directly impacts conversion rates; you are likely receiving high-quality leads if you work with a platform that vets each lead before sending it your way.
- Better ROI: When every contact in your list is valid, you can spend less time on information that goes nowhere and focus on driving results with the leads you know are receiving your information, maximizing the ROI of your lead generation budget.
The Importance of Vetting Contacts
Vetting leads is not just about getting the correct phone number and email address. You want detailed information about their property and its relation to their ability to make decisions about whether to buy or sell. This helps ensure that the person receiving your outreach is genuinely interested in your services as a real estate agent.
Here’s why vetting is crucial:
- Reduces Wasted Resources: You are likely spending money on your lead generation efforts in one capacity or another. If your client base is full of non-responsive or completely unrelated leads, you can quickly run through your resources. Focusing on vetted contacts reduces the time and money wasted on low-quality leads.
- Enhances Personalization: If you fully understand who your client is based on their contact information and property details, you are better equipped to create personalized marketing campaigns, which helps improve engagement and drive higher conversion rates.
- Improves Brand Reputation: Reaching out to local companies or individuals with the wrong information is not a good look. Over time, if it happens frequently enough, it could negatively impact your reputation as a detail-oriented professional who is an expert on real estate in your target market.
Find Accurate B2B Contact Information
If you’re focused on finding business and company leads, you’re more likely to find accurate contact information easily. The trick is finding the right individual to represent the company’s decision-making when buying or selling property for business expansion or downsizing.
Start on the Company’s Website
- Locate Contact Pages: Most businesses have a “Contact Us” page listing phone numbers, emails, or even specific contacts by department, but this page often gets lost in spam.
- Look for Staff Directories: Larger companies often provide staff directories or department-specific contacts, which can at least get you closer to contacting the right person. Plus, this information tends to be regularly updated for clients.
Use Social Media Networks
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a prominent way to find accurate professional contact information. It will also give you the full story of the person’s background for better personal interaction.
- Other Social Platforms: Many companies also use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, but you’re not guaranteed to contact decision-makers. More than likely, you will reach their marketing team for larger companies.
Check Review Sites
- Yelp and Google Reviews: These sites often provide updated contact information since businesses want to be reachable to respond to customer reviews. They will also give you insight into how they interact with clients/customers.
Steps to Find Accurate Individual Contact Information
If you are focused on finding individual leads from homeowners, there are several ways to verify their contact information and obtain more details about their needs for more personalized engagement.
Step 1: Start with Social Media Verification
Similar to B2B contact research, social media is a powerful tool for finding the right information for your leads.
- LinkedIn: Look up the lead’s name and city to confirm that they are a real person and active in the market. You could then try messaging them right there.
- Facebook and Instagram: Check if the lead is active on these platforms. You can see whether they’re in the area and even find clues if they’re considering a move. It could be worth starting PPC marketing to target these leads specifically.
Step 2: Cross-Reference Email Addresses
This can be time-consuming, but email verification ensures your messages reach the intended recipient without bouncing. Here are a few ways to confirm email accuracy:
- Free Email Verification Tools: Tools like ZeroBounce let you enter an email address and confirm if it’s active and valid. It’s pretty impressive; it helps detect typos, inactive accounts, and spam traps to recover your low-quality leads.
Step 3: Confirm Phone Numbers Using Reverse Lookup Platforms
Phone numbers are another crucial contact detail to verify, especially if you rely on calls to reach your leads. Try these steps:
- Whitepages Reverse Lookup: This is pretty straightforward. All you have to do is enter the phone number, and you can cross-reference their name and address for accurate information.
- Twilio Lookup: Twilio verifies phone numbers and detects whether the number is a landline, VoIP, or mobile. This helps you know if you are calling a personal or business line.
Step 4: Review Public Records and Property Data
When in doubt, go old school and head straight to public records:
- MLS (Multiple Listing Service): Use the MLS to look up property records associated with a lead’s name or address.
- County Records: Many counties provide online databases where you can verify ownership and past sales history. This comes in handy, especially if you are focused on finding pre-foreclosure leads, which can prove extremely profitable.
Are you already exhausted? I am for you. Thankfully, several companies take care of the verification process for you!
Companies That Guarantee Accurate Information
Here are some reliable companies known for providing accurate, vetted contact information to help you save time and resources:
- KeyLeads: KeyLeads offers pre-vetted contact lists with real-time updates on the status of their home in pre-foreclosure. They have a robust research team that ensures each contact is valid and gives integrations so you can focus on engaging your leads without spending time on data entry.
- ZoomInfo: ZoomInfo is a comprehensive B2B database that provides access to millions of business contacts across various industries.
- PeopleSmart: PeopleSmart’s database is handy for accessing B2B and B2C contact information. They emphasize accuracy, providing verified phone numbers and emails and often linking to LinkedIn profiles for further vetting.
- Catalyze AI: Catalyze AI is known for making its mark in the finance world. It is now focused on finding probate leads for real estate agents using thousands of AI-generated data points to find accurate contact information of people who have recently inherited property.
The Advantages of Automated Contact Information
The obvious advantage is time, but to get into more detail:
- Efficiency and Focus: Automation ensures that you spend less time on data verification and more time engaging qualified leads. KeyLeads and similar lead-generating services handle the vetting process for you, providing high-quality, reliable contact information at scale.
- Seamless Integration with CRMs: Many automated tools integrate directly with CRMs, allowing for seamless data updates and tracking. This improves your client experience and allows you to personalize your follow-up effectively.
All in All, Boost Your Efficiency by Prioritizing Quality Leads
Collecting accurate contact information and vetting it carefully is critical to increasing conversions and reducing wasted resources. If you have the budget, investing in platforms that verify leads for you will give you more time to increase your revenue and spend quality time nurturing your leads.
Implement these tried and true strategies to find and retain accurate lead information, and watch as your business grows with a more streamlined, productive lead-generation process.