There's a lot of info around about Internet marketing and how to earn a million dollars in your pajamas through affiliate income etc. etc. I'm not trying to compete with that. Seeing as I only make a few hundred a month in affiliate income, I don't feel that I'm sufficiently qualified to talk about that.
But let me talk about this: my marketing consulting practice monthly income. I built it up from zip to five figures and only used internet marketing strategies. Well, I did place one ad about a year ago for $500, but that was it.
Two percent of my sales cover my marketing expenses. On top of that, I don't spend any time searching out new clients or prospecting directly. The newsletter I write does have a role in attracting new clients but that is not the same thing as the old 'cold calling' type of prospecting.
I'm sure there are many people out there who've achieved faster and better results. But I also know that there are a lot of people out there who are yet to make their website into a viable lead generation system and are looking for tips on what has worked for others.
So I am going to share some of the successful strategies I have used in building my consulting business. The same tactics in generating those top quality sales leads that have eluded you might work just as well for you even if your business is of a different nature.
I should also point out that most of these tactics have achieved success only after much trial-and-error. You normally need to stick at each one to get over plateaus and achieve lasting results.
1. Be unique
How attractive your target audience views your offers will be affected by the manner in which you position yourself.
For web designers, a web site is the final product. They create wonderfully visual websites and most of them are competent in the technical aspects.
Our pitch has always been Results. In other words, "we don't just build websites, we provide you with an automated revenue-generating tool".
We prove what we say by having plenty of information and case studies on online marketing that back up our claims.
This pitch seems to attract a good number of business owners. It has a greater effect than making the claim of being expert at XHTML, PHP, Java Script and all sorts of other terms that have no meaning to you. You want to know whether we can make you site pay for itself.
2. Educate. Educate. Educate.
It is important that clients know the benefits and value of the service or products you are offering. This is especially true in marketing consulting, as it requires a high level of trust to get sales.
Prospect need to learn about the expertise we have in our field and what solutions we can offer to resolve the problems they might face. To this end, I publish an online marketing guide and newsletter that are available free. If a newsletter subscriber's goals and our methods are a good match, he or she will approach us to establish a business relationship.
Offering value and education with case studies, newsletters, evaluations, and white papers is far more effective than the old school sales pitch by itself. High quality information related to your target market can result in solid sales leads.
Again, there's a great deal of free information available on the Internet. It can be hard to get traction. To make this strategy work, your subject matter either has to be truly unique or of very high quality. I try to give away information, strategies and advice that prospects would normally have to pay for elsewhere.
3. Test everything
A good number of the marketing techniques we have attempted, such as PPC search engines like Overture, banner ad services and paid link exchanges have brought less than satisfactory results. Once we knew that they were not feasible, we stopped them before they became too costly.
Some things, such as Google Adwords, did work very well. To keep the success going, we worked to further optimize and expand on those tactics that were proving to produce the results we wanted.
You will find it rather difficult to fail if you expand on the strategies that are getting the best results.
4. Keep your education current
Especially on the Internet, it's important to stay abreast of new developments. One of the best ways to do this is by reading blogs and investing in education products such as ebooks, software and courses. There's a lot of junk out there, but there's lots of fantastic profit-building tools as well. Rather than learn by trial and error for yourself, it's much quicker and easier to pay $50 or $100 to learn from someone who has "been there, done that".
I spend at least $300 - $500 a month on info products and other self-education resources.
5. Online success elements must be understood
To build a successful online lead generation channel, you need to stay abreast of four things:
1. Strategy - the manner in which your sales process is set up. If your service or product is fairly complicated or expensive, this is especially important.
2. Design - not flashy graphics and animations, but design that is dead easy for users to understand
3. Sales copy - Users must be motivated by your content to take the action of contacting you for more information. The results of your lead generation is significantly affected by the quality of your sales copy.
4. Targeted traffic - the more targeted traffic you have, the more sales you'll generate.
On a regular basis I examine each of these areas and action improvements.
Ongoing improvement
If the pace is not fast enough and your lead generating results are slim, you can easily get impatient and frustrated. It take consist effort over a period of time to improve the results you see online. Hiring someone with expertise in this area will help you cut the learning curve short. If your primary business is not internet marketing, you may want to do this.
But let me talk about this: my marketing consulting practice monthly income. I built it up from zip to five figures and only used internet marketing strategies. Well, I did place one ad about a year ago for $500, but that was it.
Two percent of my sales cover my marketing expenses. On top of that, I don't spend any time searching out new clients or prospecting directly. The newsletter I write does have a role in attracting new clients but that is not the same thing as the old 'cold calling' type of prospecting.
I'm sure there are many people out there who've achieved faster and better results. But I also know that there are a lot of people out there who are yet to make their website into a viable lead generation system and are looking for tips on what has worked for others.
So I am going to share some of the successful strategies I have used in building my consulting business. The same tactics in generating those top quality sales leads that have eluded you might work just as well for you even if your business is of a different nature.
I should also point out that most of these tactics have achieved success only after much trial-and-error. You normally need to stick at each one to get over plateaus and achieve lasting results.
1. Be unique
How attractive your target audience views your offers will be affected by the manner in which you position yourself.
For web designers, a web site is the final product. They create wonderfully visual websites and most of them are competent in the technical aspects.
Our pitch has always been Results. In other words, "we don't just build websites, we provide you with an automated revenue-generating tool".
We prove what we say by having plenty of information and case studies on online marketing that back up our claims.
This pitch seems to attract a good number of business owners. It has a greater effect than making the claim of being expert at XHTML, PHP, Java Script and all sorts of other terms that have no meaning to you. You want to know whether we can make you site pay for itself.
2. Educate. Educate. Educate.
It is important that clients know the benefits and value of the service or products you are offering. This is especially true in marketing consulting, as it requires a high level of trust to get sales.
Prospect need to learn about the expertise we have in our field and what solutions we can offer to resolve the problems they might face. To this end, I publish an online marketing guide and newsletter that are available free. If a newsletter subscriber's goals and our methods are a good match, he or she will approach us to establish a business relationship.
Offering value and education with case studies, newsletters, evaluations, and white papers is far more effective than the old school sales pitch by itself. High quality information related to your target market can result in solid sales leads.
Again, there's a great deal of free information available on the Internet. It can be hard to get traction. To make this strategy work, your subject matter either has to be truly unique or of very high quality. I try to give away information, strategies and advice that prospects would normally have to pay for elsewhere.
3. Test everything
A good number of the marketing techniques we have attempted, such as PPC search engines like Overture, banner ad services and paid link exchanges have brought less than satisfactory results. Once we knew that they were not feasible, we stopped them before they became too costly.
Some things, such as Google Adwords, did work very well. To keep the success going, we worked to further optimize and expand on those tactics that were proving to produce the results we wanted.
You will find it rather difficult to fail if you expand on the strategies that are getting the best results.
4. Keep your education current
Especially on the Internet, it's important to stay abreast of new developments. One of the best ways to do this is by reading blogs and investing in education products such as ebooks, software and courses. There's a lot of junk out there, but there's lots of fantastic profit-building tools as well. Rather than learn by trial and error for yourself, it's much quicker and easier to pay $50 or $100 to learn from someone who has "been there, done that".
I spend at least $300 - $500 a month on info products and other self-education resources.
5. Online success elements must be understood
To build a successful online lead generation channel, you need to stay abreast of four things:
1. Strategy - the manner in which your sales process is set up. If your service or product is fairly complicated or expensive, this is especially important.
2. Design - not flashy graphics and animations, but design that is dead easy for users to understand
3. Sales copy - Users must be motivated by your content to take the action of contacting you for more information. The results of your lead generation is significantly affected by the quality of your sales copy.
4. Targeted traffic - the more targeted traffic you have, the more sales you'll generate.
On a regular basis I examine each of these areas and action improvements.
Ongoing improvement
If the pace is not fast enough and your lead generating results are slim, you can easily get impatient and frustrated. It take consist effort over a period of time to improve the results you see online. Hiring someone with expertise in this area will help you cut the learning curve short. If your primary business is not internet marketing, you may want to do this.
About the Author:
Author: David B. Ascot's expertise is in increasing sales lead generation rewards and your business can utilise his profitable methods of online lead generation.
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