There are two main reasons to get people to your web site: lead capture and to give them enough information about your business and your products to make a decision to buy from you. If you are trying to get people to your site and you have no lead capture option in place, why do the marketing? Without the information, you have lost the lead.
How do you entice a visitor to your site or blog to give you their contact information? First and foremost, you must give them something of value.
The 7 leading lead capture solutions are:
1. Get them to opt in (or sign up) for your email list. If your site content is engaging and relevant, people are likely to sign up to receive additional information from you. This is the leading method for lead capture.
2. Blogs with RSS feeds. If you write a blog or provide other content updates to your website, you can offer people the opportunity to sign up for an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed of your content so they do not need to come back to your site to look for it. Your lead capture method makes their life easier.
3. Powerful Landing Pages. Landing pages are only seen by people who visit your site because of a specific promotion. They might be coming for a promoted gift or white paper. These pages sell and capture leads.
4. Article Marketing. Writing and publishing articles is a very popular and very effective way to share information. It is also effective for lead capture. Simply put an e-mail address for subscriptions to your e-mail list in the resource box at the bottom of the article.
5. Free Desktop and Smart Phone Apps. Many businesses give away things like calendars, wallpapers, planners, videos, etc. loaded to the prospect's desktop or smart phone. They usually contain a live link to your website. These are effective for lead capture and are often shared freely.
6. Social Media Followers. When you create an account on the various social media your followers are leads. When they become your followers, you have instant access to them.
7. Enable Blog and Forum Comments. Get people involved in the conversation on your blog or forum with comments and questions. Require registration before they are allowed to post comments or to ask questions on the forum.
These are the leading lead capture solutions. Each can powerful. Use them aggressively and watch your list grow. Keep your eyes open for new opportunities, as well.
If you own a small business or professional and want more information about lead generation, view the free video, "How Article Promotion Can Send 25,000 - 50,000 New Prospects to Your Site Every Month - For Free."
Many small business owners and professional services firms have the erroneous belief that if they put up a three or four page web site that duplicates their press kit they will instantly generate new internet leads for their business. Generating leads for a business is not quite so easy or so hands-free. But it also is not advanced calculus.
If you want to get internet leads to grow your business you need a marketing plan, a web site that will convert leads into customers, an investment of time and effort or an employee with the skills to do the work, and a process to lead people from hearing about you to becoming your customers and staying customers.
We live in a time when people want and expect information. They will visit your web site and give you contact information and permission to contact them only if you offer the information they need in a format they want. This means that part of your internet leads strategy must include a content strategy. You must decide what kind of content you can offer and how you will package it. They you must decide whether to offer it free or for a price. Finally you need to decide where you will promote that content package and how you will deliver it to the people who meet your qualifications.
Among the activities that will bring new internet leads to your web site are:
- an active presence on a social network
- writing, publishing ad promoting content - articles, reports, white papers, etc.
- press releases or media relations
- a web site created with the customer in mind
- appearing on the first page of relevant search results
- video (if appropriate)
- a website structured to convert leads to prospects
- email marketing
- Adwords and online advertising
- a process for converting leads to customers.
Whether you launch a strategy to get internet leads or you decide to buy internet leads from one of the companies that sells lists of leads, you need to have everything else in place first - your attractive offer, quality content, information about the products or services you offer, and a way to move people through the buying cycle.
If you own a small business or professional and want to learn more about lead generation, view the free video, "How Article Promotion Can Send 25,000 - 50,000 Visitors to Your Web Site Each Month - For Free."
There must be a reason some people are successful with B2B lead generation and others are not! The reason is that some people either leave out one of the ingredients in the secret formula or they slack off and don't include enough of one of those critical ingredients. Whether you are trying to mix up Uncle Billy's Picante Sauce or a top chef's secret recipe or a lead generation campaign, the simple fact is that it just will not come out right without all of the ingredients.
There are ten B2B lead generation steps. You will need all ten steps if you want your B2B lead generation program to succeed. Here are the ten steps:
1. A lead generation strategy. You need a plan that keeps all of the parts of a B2B lead generation campaign balanced, and moves each potential customer through a consistent process.
2. Set smart goals. The goals need to be reasonable but strenuous, and they need to be written in a way that allows you to measure success. Then measure everything against them.
3. Build a description of your perfect customer. Know who is likely to be your customer. Then build a description that includes everything you know (or can conjecture) about that customer.
4. Focus on the message. The message needs to be appropriate for your perfect customer - the right tone, the right words, and the right means of communicating with the customer.
5. Use strategically aligned B2B lead generation tactics. Design your program and your campaigns so that all of the marketing tactics you use work together.
6. Invest in a good customer relationship management database. It needs to be flexible enough to meet all of your lead management needs (now and in the future).
7. Make sure sales and marketing are working together. If you have a large enough company to have both sales and marketing departments, you already know they don't always play well together. Teach them how to play together.
8. Build a process you will use consistently to move potential clients toward a purchase. When you get someone's attention you need to move them through a carefully orchestrated process that will tell them everything they need to know in order to buy from you.
9. Tracking and Analysis. Learn everything you can about your perfect customer and about the people who are responding to your marketing. If you are not getting responses from these people, you probably need to review and revise either your marketing tactics or your messages.
10. Constantly adjust your B2B lead generation efforts. Constantly review your messages, your target customers and your processes. Every step in this outline needs to be working perfectly.
These ten steps in B2B lead generation are all necessary. Every step needs enough attention and everything must work together, just as the ingredients in a good recipe work together to create that perfect meal.
If you are a small business owner or professional and want to learn more about lead generation, view the free video, "How Article Promotion Can Send 25,000 Visitors to Your Web Site Each Month - For Free."