How To Generate Leads Online – And Why Most Fail By Kenneth

Remember This: The key in leads generation is not how to generate leads online but what to do with those leads.

Everyone wants to know how to generate leads online. Honestly, the answer is everywhere. The key is not HOW but WHAT to do with those leads.

First, let me quickly run through with you how to generate leads online.

1) Advertise

There are lots of ways to advertise online, including PPC, email advertising, banners etc. What’s important in advertising is knowing where to find your prospects and then pay to reach them. It’s as simple as that.

2) Article and video marketing

Article and video marketing are essentially the same. Everyday, millions of people are searching for information, in the form of article or video. Your challenge is to make your article/video available to them, and then lead them to your website.

3) Search engine optimization

I don’t have to explain what is search engine optimization, do I? Get your website found in the search result and you’ll see lots of free traffic to your website. I’ve written lots of articles about it in this blog.

4) Joint venture

This is one of the fastest ways to generate lots of leads within a short time, similar to advertising. But it is risk free, because you usually pay your joint venture partners a commission rather than an upfront fee.

5) Make use of the media

How do you know when the lastest generation of iPhone is out? Is it through Apple’s advertisement, or through the media telling you that people are queuing outside Apple shop? The media is always looking for events with news value. If you can create such events, there is a chance that you can get the media’s attention and have some free publicity.

6) Affiliate marketing

Run an affiliate program and give your affiliates enough reasons to promote your website. The second part is the key. If you simply have an affiliate program, you are likely to fail.

7) Social media marketing

My definition of social media marketing is not about Facebook or Twitter. To me, it is simply an online version of word-of-mouth marketing. People interact, be it through Facebook, Twitter or forums. If you can get people to talk about your product, you will get lots of leads from everywhere. You can either leave it to luck, to plan to make it happen!

I probably may have missed a few ways to generate leads online. If you have other ways, feel free to list them in the comments session below.

The Missing Key – What To Do With Your Leads.

Knowing how to generate leads is not enough, in fact, it is NEVER enough. That’s why many people who spend lots of time and money in leads generation eventually give up.

As I mentioned, the key is in what you do with your leads, not how to get them.

First, you need to give them what they want. Don’t try to sell them. For example, if you want to sell them a business opportunity, give them a report on the step by step of how you or someone else create a million dollar business from scratch. If you want to sell them a software, show them how to use that software and give them a free trial.

Second, get their emails. Typically, you’ll give them what they want WHILE they give you their email address. This is a standard list building process. But it may not be always emails. You can have some online applications that your leads can use free on a regular basis and you can always reach them by posting a banner or an ad on your website. The key here is to retain your new leads, so that you have multiple chance to sell them!

Third, keep providing values. Forget about selling. The thing about humans is they always want more, and they are willing to pay to have more. So your job is to give them more values, some are free, some are charged. Just keep creating and providing more values and you will see takers for your charged values.

Forth, give them enough reasons to talk about you. This is the most important part that decides whether you will have a ‘struggling’ or a ‘thriving’ business. You may have a product that is really good and people are happily paying you to use it. But if all of them are simply using it without telling other people, you will have to work hard to get more leads on your own. On the other hand, if just 1% of your users talk about you in their blogs, Facebook or forums, you will eventually see your leads multiply automatically, and by then, your job is to make sure you continue provide good values to your old and new leads. Sounds good?

As you can see, the key in lead generation is in what you do with the leads, not how to generate those leads. Too many people simply get a turn-key website or start a WordPress blog, and then simply bulldoze their way to get leads, only to wonder why their business is not growing. I’m not saying turn-key website or WordPress blog is not good. They are just tools with standard features. You need to think of how to make them alive, alluring and more importantly, viral.BlogLinks

Regards,AffiLinks