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Growth Leader Test Program Update

Since ActiveRain and Market Leader launched the Growth Leader test program a few months ago, it has created quite a bit of interest and spawned more than a few curious onlookers. Many ActiveRain members have been following the progress of the participants as they take this new product offering from Market Leader through the paces.

What is Growth Leader? How does the system work? Is it the right fit for your business plan? I’m sure these are only a few of the questions swimming in the heads of many Rainers.

The participants, who are all very engaged and vocal on ActiveRain, have been answering many of these questions. 90+ blogs have been written by the participants about Growth Leader, most of which are posted on the Thought Leader Channel. The participants have also been very generous with constructive feedback to help Market Leader continually enhance the agent and consumer experience. And for that, Market Leader would like to extend their thanks.

We are still in the early stages of the program. The most tenured participants have been using Growth Leader for 9 weeks. Within this short amount of time, we’ve already seen some incredible successes, even with participants who have had Growth Leader for only a few weeks.

Let’s look at some stats from these last 9 weeks:

TOTAL VISITORS: Growth Leader has driven a total of 7546 visitors to the websites of 21 participants. The average is 359 visitors per website.
TOTAL PROSPECTS: Growth Leader has generated a total of 1070 prospects (visitors that registered on the websites). The average is 51 prospects per website
CONVERSION RATE: The average conversion rate of visitor to prospect is 14%. (According to NAR survey results, the industry average is 1-3%.)
LISTING ALERTS SUBSCRIPTION: Of the total prospects generated by Growth Leader, 507 prospects have registered for listing alerts. The average registration rate of prospects signing up for listing alerts is 51%. (The higher that the percentage is, the more likely prospects are to convert into clients.)

Here’s what some participants are saying about Growth Leader:

“In just 3 weeks with Growth Leader, I’ve already closed a transaction and am showing homes to other clients that found me through the system.”

Greg Nino, RE/MAX Houston Professionals, Houston, TX

Click here to see Greg’s "swwwweeettt" week with a couple various clients.

“Within one month of signing up for Growth Leader I have already closed escrow with one client, helped another client present an offer and generated a total of 45 clients. I'm very optimistic about Growth Leader. It's a very good product and easy to use. The advertising program they are doing on my behalf is much stronger than my best efforts as my site shows very high in the search results. ”

Chuck Willman, Gentry Realty, Gilbert, AZ

Click here to see Chuck's take one of the features that is "a real difference maker"

“I LOVE the Growth Leader product - I love this system! I am showing houses to a prospect that found me on my Growth Leader website and we even wrote up an offer. After just a few weeks, I have a buyer in my car as a result of this wonderful system! Am I getting results from Growth Leader? Yes!”

Courtney Cooper, Cooper Jacobs Real Estate Services, Seattle, WA

Click her to see why Courtney is so excited

"In just the last couple of weeks with Growth Leader, we have gotten two signed Buyer's Agreements, shown homes to two different potential clients, and we have one Buyer now under contract on a home. Our prospects tell us that they keep coming back to our Growth Leader website because of its valuable information, professional appearance and easy-to-use interface."

Brande Bradford, Bradford Realty Group, McDonough, GA

Click here to get the recap of Brande's success to date, including a contract signed sealed and delivered

“On top of the great Growth Leader website and the prospects, the support you get from Growth Leader is personal – a welcome change from other companies that just collect your money. Growth Leader strives to ensure the success and happiness of the agent.”

Konnie Mac, Realty Direct, Haymarket, VA

Click here to see Konnie's "hot tamale" and a decent conversion rate for a small town girl

“Growth Leader does not sell leads. Growth Leader is a system that enables me to GENERATE and MANAGE my own prospects. Growth Leader promotes me and my website through the Internet and each prospect chooses to engage with me on my site. The bottom line is that Growth Leader works because they are NOT selling leads, but providing me with tools to grow and manage my business.”

Steve Shatsky, Keller Williams Dallas City Center, Dallas, TX

Click here see Steve admit it takes hard work, but it's worth it in the long run

To find out how you can participate in this program, read up on my earlier blog:

Growth Leader Marketing Program, anyone want to play?

For more information about Growth Leader, click on the button below.

If you would like to know what I'm up to, follow me. But don't be offended if I say something colorful. I'm human!

Friends, followers, and connections are the way of the future.

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Posted by Bob Stewart - ActiveRain on 01/19/2009 01:01 PM

Comments (52)

Update in the Thought Leader Channel

growth leader

52 Comments on Growth Leader Test Program Update

JAN

How does GROWTH LEADER differ from the tradtional HOUSEVALUES program and MarketLeader CMS?

Okay I am confused, I thought this was a lead generated program and that you pay for those leads. I guess I need to look into it again.

Ron,

Traditionally lead generation companies have generated leads by driving consumers to their own branded sites, capturing that consumers information, then selling it to the real estate professional. At that point the real estate professional has to attempt to bring that consumer to their website to continue looking for information (listings) so that the real estate professional can attempt to brand themself with the consumer and earn their trust.

The Growth Leader program works in a much different way. With Growth Leader, the consumer is being driven to a website that is the agent's site. So instead of looking for homes and giving their information on 'justlisted.com' they actually start the search and decide to give their information directly on (and to) the agent's site. This is a pretty big difference in my opinion because the agent does not need to redirect the consumer to their site or attempt to rebrand themselves. The consumers entire experience takes place on the agents site.

That is good stuff- I am going to look into this program further... oh and the little man in the hat is just adorable!!!

Hi Bob - Thanks for the post! This is a great summary of how Growth Leader has been performing for our program participants. I've seen quite a few questions from AR members wondering how Growth Leader is performing overall. Out of the strong stats you're showing, I'm particularly impressed by the industry leading conversation rate of 14% of website visitors to prospects.

Hi Ron - Bob did an excellent job explaining how Growth Leader is different from HouseValues or JustListed. I hope that answers your question - if not, feel free to let me know. To add on, Growth Leader includes Vision Contact Management System, which is similar to Market Leader CRM. A huge difference and added benefit is Vision's ability to capture a prospects activity on your website, so that the agent knows exactly what the prospect is looking for. In comparison, Vision has a less extensive email drip campaign, but features a very effective automatic email program designed to keep prospects coming back to your site again and again. Vision also helps you seamlessly compile Listing alerts from your MLS that can be manually or automatically sent out to prospects. Hope this helps!

Bob,

I must say that the photo of your son (used as your profile photo) is adorable!

Bob - Things went gangbusters for about 8 days and then have now stopped completely (almost 6 days) in terms of new leads. I assume others may be seeing this as well but curious.

I would like to see more infomration on the statistics - we see how many sign up but not the number of visitors. Or am I missing something. It would also be interesting to see where folks are being referred from.

Jeff

Hi Jeff - In terms of your website visitors, it is normal to see some fluctuations due to how the advertising is managed. Another one of our participants, Ken Tracy, had experienced this awhile back, and Charlie from our Advertising team provided an explanation in the comments: http://activerain.com/blogsview/863930/THE-LEADS-ARE-BACKMY-GROWTHLEADER-UPDATE.

You would normally receive the stats in the weekly report sent to your Webmail. Unfortunately, we are currently working on refining that tool. It should be available again in the next release of our Growth Leader update. In the meantime, you can call Will or Marica at 1-800-491-3687 to retrieve an update on your stats. Hope this helps!

Just let me know when it is available for Indianapolis, I can't wait. I've been reading quite a bit.

I have had good success with another vendor; we get about 18 "registrations" a month and usually one or two of those are warm. We get a total of about 180 hits a month.

Growth Leader sounds like a winner!

Just let me know when it is available for Indianapolis, I can't wait. I've been reading quite a bit.

I have had good success with another vendor; we get about 18 "registrations" a month and usually one or two of those are warm. We get a total of about 180 hits a month.

Growth Leader sounds like a winner!

P.S. Helps if you sign in FIRST before commenting!!

Hi Bob. Glad to see the Growth Leader program is seeing some good traction and testimonials. I know there has been some honest feeback as well to tweak the program to make it even stronger. Continue to keep us all posted on the results.

This looks interesting. I will be checking in again.

I will check growth lead out.

thanks,

Keahi

I am excited and hope I have the opportunity to be one of the lucky selected AR members to test drive this wonderful product. Thanks for the concise update.

Bob - I have signed on for a year to see how Growth Leader works for me. Watching the test with other AR members made me decide to give it a chance--lets see what Tucson brings to the stats!

I looked into this...and after figuring out what I needed to improve my biz, it would cost me approx. $400 a month. I bet it would increase my biz', but $400 a month is just too much for me right now.

Are you rolling it out nationwide or only certain cities/regions?

Erica,

If you click through on my link in the post that says,
Growth Leader Marketing Program, anyone want to play?

You will see the markets at the bottom.

Very interesting concept. Is the program backed by the same Market Leader program that backed the traditional HOUSEVALUES and JUSTLISTED lead generation? I would imagine that since this is the AGENT'S site, this is also how it varies from the HOMEPAGES effort that Housevalues rolled out a while back.

Are the consumers lead through standard PPC type campaign or through a "marketleader" landing page that has media backing like was so prominent with JUSTLISTED?

So now what happens to people who are involved with the traditional just listed program?

Growth Leader is not available for Lewisburg WV or the state of West Virginia. We are on the FlexMLS. Will this product be available for WV????

I appreciate this post. I am intrigued and will read your other post and look into the program.

Hi Bob. Loved the post.

I like hearing about how the program is going for the whole test group.

Only 21 of us? Makes me feel special!

Jennifer, if you are reading, I love the email Growthleader used to send us. Glad to hear it is coming back.

Thanks for writing,

Ken

Oh My more good stuff!

Cindy

Bob - thanks for the update on this. Those stats are pretty impressive. We are excited about it !

It sounds interesting but if Kat is correct, I'm not sure I'm up to $400/month right now either. I'm still interested in the other thing you put out a few months ago where they click from the blogs to our website. Got to find this stuff out.

Bob,

I appreciated the free offer...but you have to offer it to me after you find out if it's available on my MLS...thanks anyway for thinking of me.

So this is why my phone has been ringing off the hook! lol! Thanks for the shout out Bob! ;)

Dear Bob,

I thought I was to be a part of this. I signed the paperwork and returned it the day we spoke. Nobody has contacted me about my chosen area & I am not sure when the term is set to start. Should I start blogging now before I am contacted and committed to an area??? Please advise.

Betina

Hi Ron - The technology behind Growth Leader is very different than HouseValues and JustListed. Growth Leader is supported by the same technology platform used in RealtyGenerator, our product designed for brokers, which has been tested and proven to be successful for over 5 years. To answer your 2nd question, the advertising is essentially a PPC campaign. Our director of advertising provided an explanation of how the advertising works in the comments of another blog: http://activerain.com/blogsview/876178/Growth-Leader-One-Week-Later-Whew. It gets a bit technical, but if you're interested, please check it out.

Hi Michael - JustListed and HouseValues will continue to be available to agents. Growth Leader is also offered to our current JustListed customers. In fact, a number of them have already switched over to Growth Leader (In case you're wondering, your database of contacts can be easily trasferred between the CRMs.) Agents can also subscribe to both products simultaneously.

Any current JustListed customer interested in Growth Leader should call Will or Marcia at 1-800-491-3687 for more information. They will help you determine which product is a better fit for your overall business plan, and walk you through the differences and similarities between the two.

Hi Rebecca - You should give us a call at 1-800-491-3687 and get your name onto our waiting list. That way, when Growth Leader becomes available in your WV market, you'll be first to know.

Hi Ken - I'm excited to have the report available again too. The release is tentatively slotted for early February. I'll let you know once the date is confirmed!

...I'm happy things are going well for many of those here. I am still waiting to see when I can test it....and compare with my own PPC campaigns.

I asked them to contact me to see if it is available in Grand Rapids.

This might be worth looking at but what's the cost, I've seen $400 mentioned. Do they tie you to a 1 year contract? Is it good for buyers, sellers or both.

I'm a Growth Leader Newbie, and eager to see these results!

Bob, is this available to us now or is it still in test stage? I remember the November post and that selected people were going to be chosen. I sent an email and never heard back from anyone. So I guesss I should call the 800#?

Hi Bob... Very interesting post. I have been wondering about the statistics, so this was exciting to see. As a pilot program participant, I can attest to that what you have reprorted is consistent with what I have been seeing. It's a solid product with exceptional support from the Growth Leader team.

Will it be the right solution for every agent in every city? Probably not... because not every agent runs their business the same way and not every agent has the same business plan or lead generation budget. (See my post Advising Heidi about Growth Leader... She asked, I told, See what she asked, and see what I answered! for more insight into what I am saying here.)

But the statistics speak for themselves, and just today we moved a step closer with one of our "hot" GL prospects, so I am hopeful that I may have exciting news report in the near future! Thanks for allowing me to be a part of this program.

Bob: I used to have the HouseValue program... How does this program differ from the other one ?

As I promised, here are my recent findings with the Market Leader Site I have

http://activerain.com/blogsview/889999/Growth-Leader-by-Market-Leader-Update

Katrina Madewell

JAN

Bob - I have been using Growth Leader for about five weeks now, and find the leads to be fairly consistent. I do appreciate that the leads come straight to my site, so the prospects are identifying with me. The Vision site is also user friendly, and I continue to discover new things on it that I use to improve my business.

JAN

Bob ~ Just stopped by to see what I was getting myself into! JK! I am looking forward to the next couple of months and being part of the the "Growth Leader Evangelist Program" and working with you and the House Values team.

JAN

This sounds very exciting! I have an 8, 10:30 and nooner but will get to everything as quick as I can! I think our #1 goal is to have 2 closed by end of March and my team is BEYOND excited to have this opportunity!

JAN

Growth Leader is pretty cool indeed. As a participant, even though I have not closed escrow yet, my prospects are fairly decent with 3-9 months in the horizon. I like the concept.

JAN

Do you know how many people have closed transactions from Growth Leader?

FEB

Here in Canada most consumers go directly to www.realtor.ca to look at listings. If they aren't already working with an agent, and you have some good listings, chances are you will get calls and leads. It's the old "list to last." Procure listings, work your listings, get spinoff business, work your client base and the business will come. I don't mean to be negative, but most leads generated from third party companies are cold to lukewarm at best. Many savvy buyers today prefer to deal only with the listing agent, thinking they will get a better deal on a property. Most motivational gurus today will tell you to stick with "warm" calling. Do a good job and your clients will bring you future repeat and referral business. And it won't cost you a dime.

Just my 2 cents worth.

FEB

Jenny,

The Growth Leader product is a little bit different than traditional lead generation in that the entire consumer experience happens on the agents website. Traditionally these leads have been cold to lukewarm at best because the consumer was made to give their info on a third party site then that info was sold to an agent. With the Growth Leader program the consumer lands directly on an agents website.......

I couldn't agree more with your statement that 'Do a good job and your clients will bring you future repeat and referral business. And it won't cost you a dime.' The more clients you have to do a good job with though, the more clients you will have to refer you business.

FEB

I used Market Leader/House Values for 1 year ending 1March2009. They provided the worst service, their products did not work properly, they did not return phone calls and emails...here's what I wrote about them yesterday: Market Leader: Beware

FEB

Maria,

I noticed in your blog post that you referred to the website having the wrong contact info.....can you show me what site you mean? I'd like to take a look at it.

Oops, that was suppose to be me. I was helping someone else out and was logged in as them. What I meant to say is, Maria.......

I noticed in your blog post that you referred to the website having the wrong contact info.....can you show me what site you mean? I'd like to take a look at it. I also hear that they refunded your money for February and agreed to let you out of the contract early. At least speaking up about your satisfaction level has helped end the relationship.

It's so crazy how different people can have such vastly different experiences with the same company. I'm sure there are people that have a sour taste in their mouth about ActiveRain as well. Sometimes the products that we as professionals try just may not be the best fit for us personally.

My opinion is that, most of the time, if the product doesn't fit your business, it was no ones fault, it just wasn't a good fit for you. I have talked with numerous people that have had success with Market Leader/ Housevalues and I have talked with just as many that didn't. Do I think that it was ML/HV fault that it didn't work for one group and it did work for the other group? No, I don't think so. I think it has more to do with the personal style of the person using the service. It just didn't fit into their business plan and it did into the people that it worked for.

I used to be on the math team in high school. So I prefer to look at it like this. In this equation there are constants, and there are variables. Again, in my opinion (since this is my blog I can do that, haha) the biggest variable is the person using the service. So the degree to which it is a success or a failure is dependant on that variable.

FEB

right now if I grew any more I really WOULD be height and weight proportional...:) but as soon as I can take a breath...it is on the top of my radar screen..thanks Katrina....we WILL get together..have you called Michelle ? Maybe we can have an "office party" !

FEB

Hi Bob,

I'm starting the process of reviewing the Thought Leader blogs. I totally enjoyed the opportunity to speak with you last week!

JUL

I am considering this program. Any suggestions? What is the cost of this program?

JUL

Hi Angela, thanks for your interest in Growth Leader. I responded to your price inquiry on our business builder page. Let me know if you have other questions I can answer. Thanks!

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