For most B2B businesses, and some B2C businesses, lead generation is an important element in the overall marketing plan. Whether you use telesales, offline advertising, email, direct mail or online marketing, or a combination of these, getting connected with prospects who are interested in your product or service is the first step in the sales funnel.
The Internet has rapidly become one of the best ways to generate new leads, because most people use a search engine to find products and services. The Yellow Pages are less effective than they were – most business people have access to the Internet, and a company’s website generally provides more relevant and up-to-date information than a book full of ads which was printed 8 months ago.
To create an automatic lead generation system, you need three things:
1. A source of traffic. This may be relatively easy, because if the numbers are right, you can simply pay for it. You’ll need to work out how much you can afford to spend to make a sale. Google Adwords and Facebook Ads are the best places to start.
2. A landing page. Whatever your traffic source, it makes sense to send traffic to a purpose-built landing page, rather than just drop them off at your home page. You need a page designed to convert your (possibly expensive, paid) traffic into qualified leads. A landing page will usually include a form which captures your visitor’s details – at the very least, their email address – in exchange for something of value. This could be a free consultation, a special report, a video or audio or anything else with a high perceived value.
3. A follow-up process. It’s a fact of life that most people are not going to buy from you after one contact. You may need to follow up with them a few times before they’ll trust you enough to actually pull out their wallet and buy. You can follow up by phone, by email – even by postcard – as long as you do follow up. Email marketing systems which automatically send a series of emails to your new leads can be extremely effective.
Get these three elements in place and running smoothly, and you’ll have a pipeline full of prospects primed to hear from you.
If you’d like to find out how you can grow your business by at least 25% in the next 12 months, get my free report here: https://idealmedia.co.za/grow-your-business/free-report