Sunday, November 15, 2009

Lead Generation Marketing: Qualified Leads On Autopilot

By Stephen Tickner

If you are starting a business online and you would like it to succeed there are some things that you need to know first. When it comes to the sites primary role most tend to think that it is there just for online sales. However, in order to start setting you up with online sales you must first generate leads to your site.

One thing to understand is that if you think about your website as a lead generation portal, then that's what you're going to have in front of you. However, if you think of it like a company brochure, then the dullness and approach will be the same. It's all about the subconscious mind and becoming what you believe.

The Concept of Lead Generation In order to create a lead one side (your website) has to make an offer, and the other (your potential prospect) has to be interested in it. If you have this scenario then you have yourself a "hot lead" as some people call them. These are definitely the ones you want to follow up with whenever they come across your path.

The Exact Nature of an Online Lead Let's be perfectly clear. You absolutely must get visitors to your website to give you their email address. This has to be obtained ethically with the visitor's permission. Think about it. If you don't at least get their email address how will you follow up? You can and sometimes must also get a street address, phone number etc. But for now, let's assume you're trying to get an email address.

Providing an Offer In order to get someone to actually provide an email address, you usually need to offer them something. It has to be something they need that will entice them to join your subscriber's list. It has to be of VALUE to the reader, which in turn their email address will be valuable to you.

Something that you want to be aware of when offering information on your site, will be information overload. You see you will want to make sure that the information that you provide stands out from the others that they have seen online and that will garner you a new lead.

Get the Offer In Front of the Visitor There is little point in hoping that a visitor will stumble across your website, search for and find your newsletter sign-up link and then subscribe happily to your newsletter. It just isn't going to happen! Here's the kicker. The MAJORITY of websites DO EXACTLY THAT! Have you heard the term landing pages? Well, YOU GENERATE YOUR LEADS ON YOUR LANDING PAGES! That's right. Give your visitor the option to subscribe to a list that is relevant to the content of your landing page, with an offer that is also relevant and valuable.

It's all about List Building In the end lead generation marketing is simply another name for list building. It doesn't matter how you look at it, the information and advantages are still the same. However, if you look at it as lead generation marketing you are focusing in on who you are trying to interest. List building tends to take a statistic approach, which eventually leads to worrying more about numbers then people. While building a list can be extremely beneficial, it won't do you any good if you don't know how to utilize it properly. We can help you with that as well.

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