HOW TO GENERATE LEADS AND GROW YOUR BUSINESS by Charlie Cook
If you are an independent professional or small business
owner, building the list of prospects you market to
should be one of your core marketing activities. The
more people who are interested in your products and
services, the better your chances of growing your sales.
Wouldn't you like to have the contact information for
another thousand or ten thousand prospects for your
products and services?
Obviously you want to choose promotional strategies
that pay for themselves. If an ad costs a thousand
dollars and brings in fifteen hundred dollars of
business, you've made money. On the other hand if you
pay a hundred dollars for a mi1lion e*mail addresses
and they don't generate any business you've lost
money. In addition you'll be stuck dealing with all
those people whose email address you'll need to
delete from your system.
How should you spend your time and money to build a
list of highly qualified leads? Here's an overview of
common lead generation strategies.
MAILING LISTS: Email, Fax and Snail Mail
You can buy hundreds or millions of names to e*mail,
fax to or mail to for just pennies per name. Yes, ten
thousand or a million people could get your marketing
message, but if they are not your target market, it
won't help you a bit and instead could create a
negative impression.
Some services like PostmasterDirect.com sell one-time
use of lists they've built through opt in sign-ups.
These lists are composed of people who've chosen to
receive emails on selected topics. When you have
PostmasterDirect.com send your mailing to this list,
you won't be spamming anyone and there is an
increased likelihood the recipients will read your
email.
The problem is that just because people on the list
signed up for free information doesn't mean they are
interested in your particular service or product. You
may get a response from use of these third party
opt in lists, but in my experience it may not be
worth the expense. Give it a try but watch your
ROI (return on investment).
CO-REGISTRATION SERVICES
Identifying people who are interested in the problems
you solve and your services and products is the key to
increasing sales. Co-registration services offer the
promise of helping you do this in a cost efficient manner.
The way these work is that you provide a brief
description of your business, and the co-registration
service then distributes your "mini ad" on their web
sites or ezine sign-up pages so people can opt in to
your newsletter. You pay for leads when someone signs
up and you are provided with the contact information.
Some services let you target your market by country.
Your "mini ad" might read something like this.
----
Use these strategies to attract more clients, and make
more Money Sign up for the Free Marketing Guide and
the marketing newsletter, 'More Business' from
CharlieCook.net. Learn how to use the 5 Principles
of Highly Effective Marketing to grow your
business.
----
A few services like Hiplists.com and Leadfactory.com
actually provide you with what you pay for. They send
you qualified contacts for fifteen cents or less per
lead. Many other lead generation services and
co-registration services just send you junk email
addresses. If you're not careful about who you use for
lead generation, your subscriber list will fill up with
people who don't speak English and obviously didn't
sign up, children's email addresses and invented email
addresses such as 123456789@yahoo.com.
If the co-registration service says they can provide you
with a thousand opt in names in a day or so for pennies
a name, be careful. The services that deliver quality
leads charge more and take longer. Once you get the
names, track your sales to see if your purchase paid
off.
ADVERTISING
Advertising allows you to reach thousands of people
who normally wouldn't find out about your services
and products. But you may be spending thousands of
dollars to put your message in front of people who
have no interest. How should you allocate your
advertising dollars?
Radio, newspaper, search engine and newsletter
advertising can all work. The results will depend on
how many people who want your services are exposed
to your ad, whether the words you use in your message
actually attract clients, and the cost of the
advertising campaign relative to income generated.
Radio and newspaper ads deliver your message to
hundreds or hundreds of thousands of people, but
only a fraction of a percent will be in your target
market. Search engines and newsletters offer you the
opportunity to target your ads based on interests
and geographic regions.
FREE PUBLICITY
Thousands of on-line and off-line publishers are
constantly looking for content they can use to
attract and keep readers. Use your expertise to
write articles that demonstrate your knowledge and
ability to solve problems. Include a free offer at
the end of your article, get it published, and
you'll find prospects contacting you without
spending lots of money on advertising.
Unlike advertising, this strategy helps you build
credibility and, overtime, a steady stream of
highly qualified prospects. If you're not using
your knowledge to share a few solid ideas and
attract prospects for free, you should be.
DON'T WASTE YOUR LEADS
Once you have a lead make sure your marketing
communication addresses the problems they want
solved. Plan to contact your leads a minimum of
six to eight times. Use the lead generation
strategies that work for you, and, produce more
income than they cost and you'll see your
business and your profits grow.
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2003 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.
==================
The author, Marketing Coach, Charlie Cook, helps
independent professionals and small business owners
attract more clients and increase their earnings
with the 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing.
Sign up to receive the Marketing Guide and the
'More Business' newsletter, full of practical tips
you can use at http://www.charliecook.net" target="www.charliecook.net">http://www.charliecook.net" target="www.charliecook.net">http://www.charliecook.net
*****
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Information to Accompany Articles Used In Print
*****
2003 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.
Charlie Cook is President of In Mind Communications in
Old Greenwich, CT and can be contacted via
http://www.charliecook.net, or by calling 203-637-1118. To
get the Free Marketing Guide and the 'More Business'
newsletter, full of practical marketing tips go to
http://www.charliecook.net
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