To make this episode more helpful and actionable for you, I’ve created a lead tracker you can download at the link in the show notes. I use a lead tracker to do exactly that – keep track of all the leads I come across in my business that I want to explore further. That will be helpful to those of you looking to start direct marketing. 

Here are five questions to ask yourself when qualifying client leads:

1. Do they have an updated website?

Especially since we’ve been in the midst of the pandemic the last two years, there are some companies who, unfortunately, didn’t make it or haven’t been able to regularly produce work. This is pretty easy to figure out. Most websites have the year updated on the very bottom of their website or not in the far left or right bottom corner, in the footers of their websites. So one of the first things to check out is if the website has been updated within the last year. If not, there’s a good chance the company isn’t actively working at the moment. If it’s a company whose work you like and would possibly like to work with, annotate their info in your lead tracker and make a note to check their site at a later time. 

2. Can I easily look up the people that work here either on the website or on LinkedIn?

This is a really important question because the answer helps us understand if this is a solid lead or not. There are a ton of companies who don’t post any info about their teams for one reason or another, but if our purpose is to find companies and persons we can reach out to and start a conversation with and there isn’t any other way to reach out beside a website contact form, it may not be worth our time. 

3. Does the lead have active social media channels?

While I’ll be the first to say inactive socials isn’t a huge red flag, I mean, I’m guilty of this myself and have questioned whether or not I even want to be on social, but if a video production company for example isn’t sharing their work, they may not be looking for more projects and therefore won’t be hiring voice talent. 

4. If I can’t find an email, can I at least connect with someone who works here on LinkedIn?

While some companies don’t list their team at all, other companies will list their team members but offer no additional information or social channel links, for obvious reasons of course, but it’s still worth it to check out LinkedIn to see if there is a way to connect with them that way. Again, our purpose here is to know we’re reaching out to a person and not a full inbox via an info@ email address. However, this doesn’t always mean someone wishes to connect with us or will ever reach out after our connection, but it’s better than the website contact form. 

5. The quality of their work 

The first question you should ask yourself when checking out a lead is “Do I want my name associated with this portfolio of work?” Because, I’ll tell you, just because a company produces videos does not mean they are very good at it. I say this because I see a lot of videos when researching leads and there are companies that go above and beyond and there are companies who make “the bare minimum” sound appealing. So, don’t feel like you have to reach out to every single video producer or explainer video company you come across. This will most likely be a waste of time. And if you wouldn’t share a similar video to what they have in their portfolio on your site, then it’s best to skip over the lead altogether.

To Wrap

Keep in mind, that just because a client does not have a couple of these five things at any given time does not mean they aren’t a worthy lead. When asking yourself these questions, it’s important to remember that the end goal is to start conversations and create relationships with the companies and persons you come across so you can mutually benefit one another. If there is any question as to if either of you can benefit the other, then you may not be able to and that’s perfectly alright. All we’re looking to do is stretch our direct marketing muscles and build our businesses. There is no one set way or one set definition for a client for how to do this. And you’ll learn so much by getting out there doing lots of research.