Targeted Lead Generation

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Targeted Lead Generation

Many sales people lust after good targeted leads.

Like a fisherman who traps their own minnows or digs/farms their own worms, it’s possible to set up your own targeted lead generation system. The advantage, in addition to cost savings, is your own exclusive access to your targeted leads, and the ability to build a positive business relationship with them from the start.

Targeted lead generation is not too difficult to do on your own, if you are clear about what your potential targeted lead wants. Understanding your customer is key to any sales process.

The first step is to set up a simple web page or blog site.  If you want your leads to be targeted, your site needs to be targeted as well.

Generate a list of the ten most frequently asked questions your customers raise during the sales process.  Add to it the five things you wish they knew about your product before they made a buying decision. Then write out the three things that make your particular product unique.  If you can come up with more than ten, five and three do so.

This list of questions, features and benefits will be the basis of your web page or blog.  Examine your list through the eyes of the targeted lead you wish to generate. Of the topics on you list, which 3-5 would generate the most interest from a casual prospect not actively searching for your product at the moment?

What ever they are, design a 3-7 page report discussing them in reasonable detail.  These you are going to make into a free report that you will give away to anyone who comes to your web site and requests it.

To make it even more appealing, it would be a good idea to come up with a sexy title, and a nice graphical image to catch your prospective targeted leads attention.  But if the creative juices aren’t flowing you can go with something like the “The Top Three Things You Need To Know Before Buying an X”

The rest of the topics you have come up with should then be turned into individual articles.  The best 6-10 should be used to create separate pages on your web site if you go the web site route, or if you go with the blog approach, all of them should be turned into blog posts.

The combination of multiple web pages on a narrowly defined topic that focuses on the key issues and questions a prospective buyer may have will attract just the people you are hoping to find.

By creating a free report, that answers their most burning remaining questions, you have a giveaway you can offer them in exchange for their email address.

By linking this system to an auto-responder you can follow-up with your new targeted lead automatically.

Your follow-up messages can repeat in a reworded manner the exact information you have already posted on your web page or in your blog. But with each message you make sure to indicate your willingness to personally answer any additional questions they may have and invite them to contact you when they are ready to make a buying decision.

The best part of this system, is that they will call you when they are ready to buy.

This method of targeted lead generation does take some effort to set up and to refine. But once it is set up, it can operate on auto-pilot and generate targeted leads for you for years to come.

It’s the equivalent of teaching someone to fish.  But there’s nothing fishy about it.

It’s Alive! Putting Life Into a Dead Web Site

The “It’s Aliiive!” line from the scene in which Dr Frankenstein’s monster comes alive has been parodied thousands of times. I am borrowing it for an upcoming speech to my Toastmaster’s Group.

In my speech I will be discussing the alchemy necessary to turn a dead web site into a living marketing machine capable of generating tens of thousands of dollars worth of effective advertising at a fraction of the normal expense.

Unfortunately most business web pages are deadly dull one way communications. Many are little more than an electronic brochures. Retailers will maybe have their hours posted, and maybe a help wanted form to recruit entry level clerks. Professional sites tend to read like resumes. And neither offers much of a chance for interaction with the person browsing. Oh, they may offer an email address or even an email form to ask questions, but surprisingly often these email go to an email account that only gets checked intermittently since so few people use it.

If your web page is to be more than a stale brochure taking up cyberspace you need to add a little chemistry to the equation. You need to add something. In this case it will take more than adding vinegar to baking soda to get your web site to fizz. You need three ingredients, added in combination to bring your web site to life, to turn it from a dead brochure into a powerful living marketing machine.

And those three things are an ethical bribe to capture your viewers interest and email address. A double opt-in autoresponder system that can build a data base of your opt-ins respond to them. And a series of follow-up messages that can drip on your visitors over time.

These three elements when properly combined make up the magical molecule that is the sorcerer’s stone that can transform a dead web page into a marketing marvel.

The ethical bribe must be relevant to your business and appeal to your browser, its content will vary depending on your business type. A retailer may offer coupons, a business with a longer sales funnel will want to offer information the buyer needs to understand the issues surrounding their buying decision.

The auto-responder itself is the heartbeat of the system. I recommend www.BuildRelationships.aweber.com

The follow-up is then critical. The purpose of bringing your web site to life is to be better able to converse with your prospect. They came to your web site originally for some purpose. They were intrigued by your ethical bribe. This suggests that they are at least potentially customers. Now you need to followup with them. Tell them what they need to know and/or make them an offer they can’t refuse.

But don’t do it once. Instead think about the life time value of this person who like your web site has been transformed. Before they were a browser, now they are a prospect. Treat them to relevant information and treat them well.

Any web site can be set up to take simple orders or list the hours you are open. It takes an auto-responder system to convert a dull lifeless internet brochure into a living and breathing marketing machine. Do you want your web site to be dead and dull, or do you want it to be alive?

Listen to the Podcast of “It’s Alive.”
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It\'s Alive!