Local Search Lead Gen Widgets: Agency Revenue Drivers

Lead gen widgets, when they're used in conjunction with strategy, produce leverage. They help agencies generate the quantity and quality of leads they need.

You want to attract and convert a steady supply of clients. Is there a way to grow/scale your agency consistently with less effort? Absolutely.

Use widgets. They’re a solution to your agency’s struggle to increase website traffic, and more importantly, conversions.

These lead gen widgets fall somewhere on the funnel continuum.

Using this simple continuum, we can identify how to use the local search widgets in our list.

This is important.

Some widgets will provide value directly, others indirectly. Some will provide quantitative value while others will produce qualitative results. These metrics give you clarity, enabling you to gauge whether a particular widget will be useful to your agency (or not).

Let's take a look.

If your agency focuses heavily on clients with retail, service warehouse or multi-location businesses, a locator widget is a must. These widgets aren't for you as much as they are for your clients.

They're far more likely to produce revenue for your clients as they signal purchaser intent. But they're also revenue generators, for your agency, if you show clients how to use this widget properly.

There's a sweet spot here.

Established clients with multiple locations are far more likely to have this widget already. Small businesses, on the other hand, especially small businesses positioned to grow, will not.

This tool is a beneficial sales-aid for agencies. It's not for your agency, it's a widget you can use to sell your agency's services to prospective clients. Here's how you use locator tools to produce revenue for your clients (especially in hyper-local situations).

The click-to-call widget is self-explanatory. While most agencies are familiar with click-to-call, many are not familiar with using click to call to generate leads for their agency and their clients. As far as this feature is concerned it's a huge missed opportunity.

The click-to-call widget, like other widgets in this article, work best when they're integrated or synced with other tools, strategies and tactics. If you're looking to generate leads from existing tools, you'll need a novel approach. Here are some ways to maximize this widget's value (revenue).

Your clients are busy. They may have followed your thought leadership for some time. At this point, they're ready to reach out to your local search agency for more information. They're ready to schedule a meeting or consultation with you.

Maybe they don't want to call you though. Maybe they want to see you. In-person.

What do you?

How do you win this prospective client over? With a book online widget.

When service providers use this widget they don't often get a significant amount of value from it. There's a reason for that. More often than not, the messaging in their widget is off. Agencies don't usually approach clients with a strong frame precisely because there are plenty of competitors to choose from. Here are some simple ways to boost response rates.

Calendly offers a free appointment setting/book online widget you can embed on your site. There's a free, $8 and $12 dollar plan depending on the feature-set you're looking for.

Setmore's free appointment setting/book online widget enables you to add an appointment setting button to your website. Perfect for clients who are interested in requesting consults.

Setmore also offers a paid option: Appointment setting/book online functionality for $89 per mo. They answer calls and book appointments for you on your behalf. This ensures your agency is available when it needs to be.

Simplybook offers a Wordpress plugin for sites. It's also a free/paid service that enables your agency (and clients) to extract value before spending a dime.

Wordpress.org offers a bevy of appointment setting and book online widgets/plugins agencies can use.

Square, the online payment processor, provides users with a book online widget agencies can use to attract, close and retain clients.

TimeTrade offers embeddable widgets agencies can use for themselves and their clients as well.

Drupal provides several appointment setting widgets for their users as well.

The Grade.us Review Scan Widget gives agency clients an easy way to check their review portfolio. Here's the interesting part about this widget. This widget is incredibly beneficial because it provides clients with a real-time look at their review management portfolio.

Meaning what?

The review scan widget ties a prospective client's revenue (or lack thereof) to customer reviews. This is valuable for three simple reasons.

This report works hand-in-hand with your in-person selling. This report provides clients with the visual cues they need to make significant (positive) changes in their business. Improve their reviews, boost their conversion rate. Boost their conversion rate, and they 2x, 4x and even 10x their business.

Don't expect prospective clients to make sense of this report on their own. You'll need to maximize the value of this report. If their review management portfolio is poor/mediocre, they may be feeling bad. You'll need to show them the incredible silver lining you can provide.

Better yet, calculate the ROI of review management for them directly. Check and recheck your work in front of them. Show them the incredible upside that's available to them if they choose to work with your agency.

Show prospective clients the concrete steps you'll take to gather the avalanche of five stars they're going to need. Use the briefcase technique to provide clients with a 30, 60, 90 and 180-day plan. Outline how you'll boost their conversion rates and revenue while minimizing or reducing their expenses.

Your prospects - do they know what their customers are saying about them in their reviews? Share the kind truth whether it's a request, objection, complaint, frustration or desire. Don't spell the painful details out for clients. Provide them with a copy of your curated set of reviews, then let the reviews do the talking.

The more the risk reduction you assume, the more likely clients are going to take advantage of the offer you provide. Provide clients with a report of their review portfolio and a trial of your services, offer a money back guarantee (if able), set performance benchmarks - anything you can to give them peace of mind and reduce buyer's remorse.

Back your irresistible offer up with a compelling value proposition. This is crucial. Without a strong value proposition, you won't have the tools you need to defend your agency against competitors and poachers who are willing to promise more but deliver less.

It's another review tool that's specifically created for agencies. It demonstrates your client's need for online review/reputation management. It gives clients a quick snapshot of your total reviews plus additional metrics such as likes, check-ins and recommends.

This tool is a doorway.

Review management is a much easier sell than advanced services like design, development or marketing work.

Why?

Because it's visual.

Clients can see their online reviews. They're listed on third-party sites, so they can't be faked (by you). It's an easier sale to make and it's easier to build trust.

This report is incredibly valuable on its own. Your clients get an incredible amount of value in a single, bite-sized report. Is there a way to maximize the value you're already delivering to prospects via this report?

Absolutely.