The Truth About Lead Generation
We have previously written about finding your niche and now what we need is traffic to build a list of subscribers with whom you can build a relationship and make sales to.
This is not rocket science but for some reason as soon as people start a business online they become mesmerised by all the information they get bombarded with and thereafter confused about what a lead actually is.
Lead Generation Tip
Leads are the life blood of your business and without leads you will not be able to make money so it is absolutely key that you learn how to get leads to your business straight away.
Lead Generation Formula
The first step is to get a “lead” (prospect) on to your list and the way that you do that is to provide something of value in exchange for their details (usually name and email but may also be address and phone number). This may be an e-book, a report or in our case a video training online success series. This ‘gift’ has to be of a high perceived value and attractive to the lead to part with their details. This is the fundamental basics of good lead generation.
Once your lead has provided their details they are now on your list and now you have the opportunity to build a relationship with them and provide them more information on what they are interested in. You will need to use some software for lead generation capture – called an autoresponder – to do this. We use Aweber and if you look on the side bar of our website you will see there is what we refer to as a ‘webform’ where you leave your name and email in exchange for our gift.
Generating and owning a list is the single most important aspect of your business and once you have mastered this you will be well on your way to success. That is the simple truth of lead geneartion. Unfortunately many people getting started with their online business overlook this crucial step and therefore never have the opportunity to capture leads and build a relationship with them.
Take for example a traditional multi level marketing business model where the distributors or affiliates are provided with in the best case scenario a beautiful ‘bells and whistles’ website and are taught to show this to potential prospects (leads). Some of those people may well take up the opportunity and you would therefore have their contact information but just think of the number of people who might show up at that website and you would never know about it, never have the opportunity to offer them a gift and never have the opportunity to build a relationship with them …… that is definiately not the way of lead generation!
Think instead of having your own website (just like we have) where you can attract visitors, give them value, offer them a gift and have them join your list. Then you can tell them about what you have on offer for them. They may not like or want your primary opportunity (yet) but they may like something else you have on offer.
You Need The Right Leads
You need to get the right leads on your list and that means that any promotion (marketing) you do needs to be targeted to your prime audience. If you are working in the weight loss niche for example you might want to target women who want to lose weight so you should concentrate your advertising on that sector. Likewise if you are in the dating niche you might want to target men who need dating advice and therefore advertise in the places they are looking.
In a broad niche like internet marketing training (because there are thousands upon thousands of people looking) you would want to narrow it down to advertising in a micro niche such as work at home mums or work at home dads or perhaps couples in the 45 – 65 age group looking to set up a business online.
Your job now is to place your advertisement in front of your target market – the place they hang out. This will require some diligent research but will be time well spent.
If you have a traditional bricks and mortar business this can be a challenging concept so we thought we would share with you a story about the Hotel Du Jura which we stayed at during our journey down here to our home in The French Alps.
Their website (very traditional French with loads of ‘flash’ on it) has a niche market attracting visitors who want to be in the centre of Dijon and near to the railway station and has rooms specially for families. This has been their target market since 1857 when the hotel was founded by the then proprieter Louis Mercier. These strong selling points are exactly the same today – “le plus pres de la gare” et “appartements pour famille” – roughly translated as “the closest to the train station” and “apartments for families”.
They have however embrased the internet and they now build their list by offering a newsletter and special bonus prices in exchange for that all important name and email. They also have a presence on social media where you can interact with them (relationship building)
The Myths of Lead Generation
Social media is a fantastic platform for building your brand and relationships with friends and followers but we want to be very clear here. Friends and followers are just that. They are not leads. They do not become a lead until they have joined your list!
It is your job as a marketer to build a great relationship with these people so that they want to find out more about you – check out your website – give you their name and email in exchange for your “gift” and become a lead.
Converting Your Leads
Leads are great but converted leads are better! Now using your autoresponder software – we use Aweber – you provide on a regular basis high quality information your niche market want. This will be a mix of free value driven content (blog posts, tips, strategies, ebooks) and paid for resources to help them build in whatever niche you are working in.
Your job in summary is to:-
- Show that you understand their world, the problems they face and opportunities ahead of them.
- Demonstrate what a solution to these situations would look like from your world in their terms.
- Outline more specifically what your products and services could do for them.
- Offer proof and information that supports your message and the outcomes you offer
In our case, we deliver free resources to our list in the form of videos, recorded webshows, ebooks, blog posts – all appropriate to online entrepreneurship, building a business online, personal development and mindset, making money online etc Our “sale propositions” are tools and resources to help them build their business online such as The SFM, our mentoring services, workshops and business consultancy.
Whatever you send to your list make sure that you have a very clear CALL TO ACTION (CTA)
Call To Action = conversions = money
If you would like to find out how the system we work with can get more leads click the link below (that’s our final call to action!)