Introduction
At StyleMePretty, we specialize in connecting newly engaged couples with the perfect wedding vendors in our Little Black Book. This support article aims to provide a clear understanding of our lead generation process and lead passing initiative that began in April 2023, the rigorous validation steps involved, and best practices for effectively engaging with these leads. Note that this is a new and continually evolving program, currently exclusive for our Little Black Book members.
Lead Generation Process
1. Source of Leads
Our leads are primarily generated through paid advertising on platforms like Meta and Google Ads. These ads are specifically targeted at newly engaged couples across the globe, ensuring a focused and relevant audience. We spend thousands of dollars per month and have a dedicated lead generation team handling advertising creative and optimization as well as lead qualification and quality assurance.
2. Filtering and Distribution
Once these potential leads engage with our advertising, they're prompted to fill out a form specifying their needs and location. This crucial step allows us to filter and direct these leads to the most relevant vendors in our Little Black Book network, ensuring a match that benefits both parties. This process is still in it's infancy and we appreciate continued candid feedback about how to improve it to better fit your individual business needs.
Quality Assurance
Definition of Spam
Before delving into our quality assurance process, it's important to define what spam is: unsolicited, irrelevant, or inappropriate messages sent on the internet to a large number of recipients. By definition, these users have explicitly opted into receiving messages from our partnered vendors and affirm the following upon form submission:
"NOTE: By submitting this form, you agree to receive emails from our team, our directory members, our partners, and our third-party affiliates. You agree to opt-in to all related promotional emails, cold outreach, and sales and marketing-related materials. You have also read and understand our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions."
With this opt-in, they are agreeing to receive information from you about your services. Further, as a member of the Little Black Book, we send lead-related emails as a part of your subscription membership. These messages may be high volume due to the location you have set in your account, but are never unsolicited, irrelevant, or inappropriate messages.
Verification Process
To ensure the highest quality of leads:
- Debounce Check: All leads are run through Debounce, a third-party partner. This process verifies if an email is deliverable and if the lead data is legitimate. The checks ran against leads include:
- DNS validation, including MX record lookup
- Disposable email address detection
- Misspelled domain detection to prevent Typosquatting
- Syntax verification (IETF/RFC standard conformance)
- Temporary unavailability detection
- Mailbox existence checking
- Catch-all testing
- Greylisting detection
- SMTP connection and availability checking
- Legitimacy Assurance: Only after passing the Debounce check, the leads are considered legitimate. From here, our tools apply internally defined business logic to identify vendors relevant to the lead before automatically passing the lead to qualifying vendors.
Time is of the essence!
Since we believe time is of the essence for lead outreach, automatic lead passing happens in a matter of minutes from the time that we receive a new lead. This ensures a level of freshness and lead quality that other competitors fall short on. Our process is a little more rigorous than your form submission on your website - having the checks we mention above in place - but can happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Yes, even on holidays.
FAQs
Q: Why are some leads not responding?
A: Not every lead will have an interest in every vendor. It's crucial to remember that a lack of response does not indicate a lack of interest in general, but perhaps not in the specific services offered or at this specific time. A compelling call to action in your communication can significantly increase engagement. Further, we encourage you to try multiple ways of contacting a lead and offering value in those points of contact whether that be a free consultation, proposal example, etc.
Note that portfolio examples are not high drivers of value in these initial points of contact as many couples will interact with your portfolio on the Vendor Directory or your website as a standard practice. Give them something more.
Q: What is the Best Practice Checklist for Vendors reaching out to these leads?
- Brand Recognition: Include WeJustGotEngaged in the email subject line. It's the brand the couples recognize and trust from our advertising efforts.
- Price Transparency: Clearly state your pricing in the initial email. For example, "Our average weddings range from $10k to $50k for our services."
- Set Clear Expectations: End your email with a clear call to action, like "We’d love to chat, are you available this Tuesday?"
Conclusion
Understanding the lead generation and validation process is crucial for maximizing the potential of each lead. By following our recommended practices, vendors in the Little Black Book network can effectively engage with high-quality, targeted leads, leading to successful collaborations.