Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Lead Generation Strategies for Small Business-The Basics

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.

Remember the definition of marketing is: "getting someone with a need to know, like and trust you". Lead generation is effectively identifying those people who have a need.

Effective lead generation doesn't have a magic pill. You should create 10-20 lead generating initiatives based on your core marketing message and product offer(s).

Think of it like a frozen lake. As you create more and more layers the result is stronger base.

Public Relations, Advertising and Referral Marketing are the lead generation trio.

The Public Relations definition that we use in our duct tape marketing practice is: 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.

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.

Referral Marketing: According to the duct tape marketing definition is simply put, 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.

Next week we will focus on each individual strategy and give some ideas on how you can incorporate them into your business.

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