If you are doing marketing properly, you have developed a SYSTEM for getting customers or clients that takes them from being strangers uninterested in what you have to offer to becoming satisfied customers who refer others to you.
One of the earliest things you have to do is get them to take a good look at your sales materials. To do that you can use "Lead Generation Magnets" that attract their interest. Once interested, you can close them.
6 POWERFUL LEAD GENERATORS
Here are 6 that you can use for any professional practice or service business, and for product businesses as well.
1) NEWSLETTERS on and off the Internet. You probably don't need me to tell you the power of newsletters. OFF the internet they get better readership than sales materials. In a magazine, for example, articles are read more than ads. In fact, one little "trick" for putting ads in magazines is to make them LOOK LIKE ARTICLES (if the publisher will let you get away with it).
For more information on this topic, and exactly how to get your own email newsletter going, send a blank email to
emailmarketing@6figurepractice.com (there's a magnet).
2) PROMOTIONAL BOOKS. This may be one of THE most powerful marketing tools in existence, especially since VERY FEW professionals or entrepreneurs are using this approach.
DON'T try to sell a book in an ad. You don't have enough space. DON'T put all your material in your website. Or, if you do, take it all and also put it into a book. People are much more likely to want a book than to visit a website. And books will sit in their computer or bookshelf for future reference.
DO develop a BOOKLET or small book to give away. Electronic booklets on the web are easy to create and distribute. If nothing else, you can always email people a Word file.
A site just launched that you should take a look at periodically as it grows to get ideas about all kinds of self-publishing is http://www.successfulpublishing.com.
3) PROMOTIONAL AUDIOS. The network marketing folks have perfected this art form. Usually they use tapes that have sales messages -- direct sales pitches -- in them. Speakers also use them as demo tapes.
DON'T buy a lot of expensive equipment or use a major studio. DO use a simple system at first. Get a friend to record for you if your voice isn't great. DO use RealAudio as an alternative.
DO give them out for FREE as -- a promo ("Call or email for your free tape, "10 Ways to…") Then, with the tape, send a sales letter; -- a bonus for purchasing something more; or -- an ENTRY LEVEL PRODUCT ($5.00 - $20.00). People who buy can then be asked to buy a more expensive product or service. In this case, this is not a free lead generator but a way to generate QUALIFIED leads for your more expensive stuff.
4) THE FREE REPORT. This is the classic, and is especially used on the internet
DON'T make them disguised sales letters as most people do. DO make them very, very valuable. Why use junk to draw people to your quality products and services?
DON'T make them one-shot deals. DO use multi-part reports. This is something we've perfected at The Successful Practice Institute, and people access them like hotcakes. We have 4-part and 7-part reports. You can pick any number. Each week people will get the next installment, which keeps your name in front of them.
For a complete AUTOMATED SYSTEM for sending out free reports, here are some resources:
http://www.smartbot.net
http://www.getresponse.com These first two are free, and put ads in front of all your messages (smarbot has a subtle ad even in the paid version). I can't live with that but if you can, use them.
http://aweber.com which is the Aweber system. We use it and it's excellent IF you only want to do one report. --
http://www.autocontacter.com/default.asp?id=73 for the most comprehensive service on the net. Great if you want to send out multiple free reports because there's one flat fee for an unlimited number of advertising-free autoresponders.
5) SAMPLE SERVICE. You can offer things like
A free no-obligation consultation
A free website evaluation (http://www.coastalsites.com)
A free 30-minute trial consultation (coaches often offer this; email Christopher Bryce at
KitCoach@aol.com about his free coaching consultations; say I sent you). -- free autoresponders (http://www.smartbot.net; http://www.getresponse.com) -- One-month free ad in an online mall or ezine b) a paper-and-pencil assessment test. Here are two examples: -- website planning form
(pipdesign@ourlist.net) -- New Business Start-Up checklist (
NewBiz@6figurepractice.com.)
6) CONTESTS. This is a growing method of lead generation on the internet.
DON'T use any old "give-away" program. Especially the ones that carry people away from your site instantly to get it!! What's the point of that? DO use contests that are RELATED to what you offer.
I've seen sites just opening have people look for a particular phrase that is on several pages of the site. "First person to guess how many times it appears gets"
If you offer information on a certain subject, then make your contest about that subject. Set up a QUIZ on your website, for example, or in your email newsletter, and say "The FIRST 30 PEOPLE who answer these questions completely right will get...."
Your quiz should help people see what you know that they don't know (and thus why they need you). Eg.
The Top 10 Mistakes Home-Sellers Make When They Go to a Real-Estate Broker, and How it Costs Them $17,000 on Average in Sales. CAN YOU NAME 5?
What Are the 5 SUREFIRE SIGNS of a Marriage That Will End in Divorce? Research has shown that there are 5 signs that reliably predict who will get divorced and who won't. The first 5 people who get the answer will get a free 30-minute marriage assessment consultation from me, Dr. Joe Johns, by telephone and mail.
FOLLOW-UP is important in your lead generation system. You have to be able to follow-up the leads that come in. When a person raises their hands, you can't just send them info and drop them. But that's a subject for another day!