#SalesProspectingTip: Use Google Alerts to manage high-potential leads effectively.
Utilizing targeted Google Alerts for sales can offer you invaluable insights within your niche. Instead of speculation about when potential buyers require products or services like yours, you will receive a direct notification to your inbox. This enables you to present your offering as a solution to their needs.
But that’s not all. These sales alerts also provide a convenient method to monitor your main competitors and ideal prospects with relatively little effort. To assist you in getting started, I will share expert insights on how to effectively use Google Alerts for sales. Additionally, I will provide a step-by-step guide on setting up a lead-tracking Google Alert for your use.
What is a Google Alert?
A Google Alert is a valuable tool for monitoring newly indexed results on Google Search. By setting up an alert, you will receive timely content related to your chosen phrases or terms via email. There are numerous reasons why individuals find it beneficial to utilize these alerts. Common applications include tracking news about specific companies, topics, or products.
“Why does this matter for my sales strategy, Rachael?” you may ask. Excellent question. It is worth noting that Google holds a staggering 91% share of the global search engine market.
In summary, if you seek the most valuable sales insights regarding your competition and target audience, Google Search is likely to provide them. And with a Google Alert, you can conveniently receive all the pertinent information right in your inbox.
How Google Alerts Can Drive Sales?
From customizing sales letters to monitoring brand mentions, here are six strategies that professionals employ to leverage Google Alerts for sales success.
Personalize sales letters
“In complex B2B sales cycles, a personal sales letter, also known as an Exceptional Credibility Letter (ECL), remains a valuable tactic to employ early on,” explains Hristina Stefanova, Head of Operations at Goose’n’Moose. Stefanova emphasizes that personal letters are meticulously tailored to each prospect and cannot be repurposed for reaching others.
When structuring your ECL, the first paragraph should solely focus on the prospect. This includes addressing their challenges, recent company issues, or any triggering factors that prompted the ECL, Stefanova advises. To craft compelling first paragraphs for your personal sales outreach, Stefanova suggests utilizing Google Alerts.
Identify the top 20 accounts you wish to target, locate their key personnel, and set up Google Alerts for each of them, advises Stefanova. By doing so, you will eventually come across news pieces that help you connect the dots between their priorities and your solutions.
Monitor brand mentions for effective brand management
According to Umar Faizan, Founder and SEO Strategist at Growth Winner LLC, setting up Google Alerts for brand mentions is highly recommended from a sales perspective. In this scenario, it is advisable to configure a Google Alert specifically for instances where your brand name is mentioned.
Faizan further explains that by utilizing Google Alerts to monitor brand mentions, you can promptly engage with individuals who discuss your product or service online, thereby potentially converting a casual mention into a sales opportunity.
Track transactional keywords and phrases
According to Faizan, Google Alerts can be utilized to identify new markets or advertising spaces. This can be achieved by targeting industry-specific keywords to identify where relevant conversations are taking place. By strategically placing your offerings in the right place at the right time, as indicated by the alerts, you can maximize your impact.
Additionally, Faizan suggests setting up alerts for specific industry jargon or needs, such as “need a CRM solution.” Umar recommends leveraging this approach to potentially engage with customers who are already in the funnel but have not yet committed to a competitor.
A valuable tip to keep in mind is that buyers prefer to hear from salespeople early in the buying process. They are also more likely to accept meetings when salespeople initiate contact. Therefore, it is important not to hesitate in setting up these types of sales alerts.
Monitor competitor backlinks
“In 2008, while working for Funky Pigeon in Bristol, I came across ‘Google Alerts’ on Twitter,” recalls Nina Payne, an SEO freelancer and consultant at SEO Lady. Intrigued, Payne promptly set up a Google Alert for Funky Pigeon’s main competitor, Moonpig.
“Each time Moonpig made a new post, I received an email,” Payne explains. “This allowed me to closely track which websites were providing them with backlinks, press releases, new pages, and mentions in the media.”
Insights into your competitor’s backlinks can inform your link-building strategy, ultimately enhancing the ranking of your transactional pages. Considering that a mere 0.63% of users click on results from the second page of Google, the visibility of your organic products holds significant weight.
The efficacy of your link-building campaign, as measured by the acquisition of high-quality and relevant backlinks, directly impacts the search ranking of your transactional pages. Greater visibility equates to more clicks and potential sales.
Payne suggests setting up a Google Alert using your name as an exact match, just in case you are mentioned in any articles. Additionally, by including your domain, you can assess the effectiveness of your link-building efforts.
Monitor competitor’s pricing changes
“In my experience, monitoring competitors’ pricing changes through Google Alerts has been a huge help to our sales strategy,” says David Godlewski, CEO of Intelliverse.
Godlewski recommends setting up alerts with unique keyword combinations that include competitor names, product names, and terms like price reduction or discount. This will help you receive real-time notifications when your rivals adjust the pricing for their flagship products or services.
“When competitors lower their prices, we receive an immediate alert and strategically analyze whether matching or undercutting their prices is viable,” Godlewski explains. “This keeps us competitive, helps us regain market share during a slow month, and demonstrates our commitment to offering the best value to customers.”
Connect with leads more purposefully
“Whenever you source or decide to start working a lead, it is advisable to create a Google Alert for the company,” suggests Ali Powell, a former Principal Sales Rep at HubSpot. “Setting up an alert hardly takes three seconds, so I strongly recommend making it a part of your lead management process.”
Powell further explains that these notifications can provide valuable insights to engage with your leads beyond generic follow-ups and check-ins. “Messages like these are not effective as they lack substance for the prospects,” Powell continues.
“Ensure your approach is customer-centric by setting up Google Alerts for your leads. This way, you can reach out to them at the right time for their convenience,” Powell advises. “And when I say create an alert for every lead, I truly mean it. Just take a look at my Gmail’s Google Alerts folder – it’s quite extensive.”
How to Create a Google Alert?
I’m going to use Ali Powell’s use case for generating leads to walk you through the process of setting up a Google Alert.
Step 1: Head to Google Alerts.
First, go to Google Alerts and search for your lead. I will keep it simple and use ‘Google’ as an example.
Step 2: Preview the results.
After entering your search term, Google will display search results consisting of recent articles and web pages indexed with the specified keywords or the name of the company. This provides a preview of the content you can expect to receive via email through this alert.
If you are engaged in activities other than monitoring a lead associated with a specific brand, it would be advisable to review these initial results. This will allow you to verify if the results (and consequently, the query) align with your requirements.
In case the content does not prove to be helpful, I would suggest experimenting with alternative terms and phrases until you obtain more relevant information.
Step 3: Set Your preferences.
Clicking on ‘Show options’ provides access to fine-tune settings, such as alert frequency. I will opt for a weekly cadence as the daily option would be overwhelming. However, a week’s worth of information aligns well with my schedule and offers ample content to extract valuable insights for prospecting outreach.
Being prompt in your responses, and opting for a daily frequency could potentially yield better results. Ultimately, the choice of alert frequency depends on your specific goal.
Step 4: Create your alert and set up an email folder.
Now, simply enter your email address and click “Create Alert.” That’s it!
Expert recommendation: Powell suggests creating a designated folder in your email inbox called Google Alerts and configuring all alerts to be delivered there. This way, your alerts will be organized in a central repository, avoiding clutter in your inbox, as Powell explains.
Step 5: Using Your Google Alerts
When you have the opportunity to review these alerts, you will discover valuable information regarding the leads and opportunities you are tracking. These trigger events, as they are commonly referred to, will influence your approach to reaching out to your leads going forward.
“Ensure that you incorporate this information into your notes (in your CRM software, note-taking app, or traditional paper notebook) regarding the lead or opportunity,” advises Powell. “By consolidating all your newfound knowledge in a central location, it will facilitate taking smarter and more timely actions.”
Google Alerts for Sales: Optimal Results with a Tailored Approach
Overall, I found setting up the Google Alert to be straightforward. It can serve as a valuable sales activity, particularly when targeting specific leads for meaningful engagement. While sifting through numerous alerts may be time-consuming, the insights gained make it worthwhile.
However, it is important to note that Google Alerts alone do not guarantee sales. To avoid overwhelming your inbox with irrelevant information, it is recommended to adopt a targeted approach. If the chosen search term(s) do not provide relevant insights, it is advisable to refine your strategy through iterations. Experiment with different variations until you observe improvements in the results of your Google Alert.
