Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Small Business Lead Generation Strategies Explained

By Jeff Paro

Lead generation is the act of getting suspects (people that you 'think' may want your product or service) to 'raise' their hands so you can actively market to them.

Getting someone with a specific need to know, like and trust you is the Duct Tape Marketing definition of "Marketing". Effectively identifying those people with that need is lead generation.

When it comes to lead generation, there is no one hit wonder. The idea is to develop 10-20 lead generation strategies all based around a core marketing message and offer.

In Duct Tape Marketing lingo, think of it like Duct tape, the more layers you apply the stronger it becomes.

The 3 best lead generation vehicles are Public Relations, Advertising and Referral Marketing.

What is the definition of Public Relations? "Getting positive mention of you or your company in newspapers, magazines, news shows, newsletters, websites and journals read by some portion of your target market"-according to John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing.

Advertising: Unfortunately, most small business owners shy away from direct advertising because they feel it is too expensive and doesn't work. That is usually because they are using a 'copy cat' marketing or 'ostrich' (don't do anything and hope for the best) marketing strategy. When done properly advertising is seldom matched for quickly generating a flood of new business.

The duct tape marketing definition of Referral Marketing is: a specific set of strategies and tools designed to bring the small business owner new clients, qualified leads and repeat business without the aid of, or in addition to, other advertising methods.

In my next article we will dive deeper into each one of these lead generation strategies and give you some help tips on how you can implement them into your business.

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