Lead Generation – Can Your Business Afford Not To Do It?
Every business needs a steady supply of fresh leads. This needs to happen on a daily basis and has to be kept track of. The conundrum many of us find at the beginning is cost. It looks expensive and, in truth, it CAN be expensive, but thee are some things to take into consideration that will lower that cost.
A lot of websites are set up just to sell a product. While this can be a lucrative approach, it does little to help you gain future prospects. Although a name and email is usually collected with each sale, there is no further contact or follow up with the customer.
To get more for your money, you need to turn those customers into leads so you can make multiple sales from them over time rather than selling a single item to one person one time and that’s it. If you go for the single sale, you have less profit to cover your expenses. Getting people to hit the “Buy” button is a skill in itself that most people lack and to get results, you need to hire someone to write your copy for you.
Copywriters do not come cheap, especially if they are good and have a proven track record. That is the major cost of sales letter pages. In essence, you are relying on a set number of sales to offset that cost and lead into profit. This is known as overhead or initial outlay and we all have been there at one time or another.
The site itself has to be designed so that anyone can navigate through it. I have seen a lot of expensive, flashy sites that basically generate no income for the owner other than the sales that come from it. Add in the costs of hosting, domain registration and upkeep and you may never recover the entire cost of the business as it will always be creeping up and biting you on the butt!
On the other hand, a site that generates leads on a continuous basis will pay for itself over and over again. Believe it or not, this does not have to be elaborate or flashy. A simple offer of a free item like a report or white paper can be made in exchange for a little information. Usually this is a name and email address. So for the cost of $0, you now have a contact that you can market to as long as they remain on your list.
Since that person has agreed to receive your email(s), there is no danger of a SPAM report from them. Once they have accepted your initial offer and given you their information, they are asked to confirm that they want to register on your list. This is called double opt-in and it works like a charm. Not only do you now have a prospect, you have a prospect that knows what you offer and wants to receive it willingly.
This is why lead generation is so important. You add new people to your list every day and have an ever growing list of people to market to. It only takes a few minutes to implement and compared to hiring someone to craft a sales page and design a fancy website, the cost is minimal. Treat the people on your list well in order to build trust and you will have customers for life.
Click here to learn How to Generate leads for your business get your free course in our site www.torontomarketingcompany.net. Also published at Lead Generation – Can Your Business Afford Not To Do It?.