In order for your business to thrive you need a fresh supply of leads on a regular basis. The problem is that obtaining these leads can be expensive so it is a challenging task when you are first starting out and don’t have much in your budget to spare. Here are some things to consider that might lower the cost of getting business leads.
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 that have a proven track record don’t work cheap so this is one of the major expenses involved with setting up a sales website. However, this is an expense that pays for itself over time. You will need a certain number of sales to offset the initial outlay before you realize any profits, but this is true of most any business you would start.
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 the people agree to receive email from you when they request your free report, there is no risk of spamming, especially if you use double opt-in. This means that when someone enters their email address for the report, they must first click on a link and confirm their email before the report is sent. This prevents people from entering false email addresses or addresses that belong to someone else. Double opt-in confirms that your prospect is aware of what you are offering and has willingly asked to receive it.
Your lead generation website will collect new prospects for you day after day. Treat these subscribers well and they will remain on your list for years giving you an every growing base of people to market to. You receive all these great benefits at far less cost and effort than setting up a single sales website, plus you will see more profits too.
Click here to learn How to Generate leads for your business get your free course in our site www.torontomarketingcompany.net Unique version for reprint here: Lead Generation – Does It Need To Cost An Arm And A Leg?.
Posted under SEO
This post was written by Miguel Pancardo on September 5, 2010

