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.
My marketing costs are around 2% of sales, and I spend zero time directly prospecting or looking for new clients. (OK, there are some activitites such as writing newsletters that play a part in getting new clients, but I see these as distinct from traditional "cold calling" or prospecting activities).
Faster and better results have been accomplished by many people out there but there are just as many who haven't been able to build their websites into one that generates good leads yet. These people will most definitely want some tips on methods that work for others.
In building my consulting business, I used strategies that I will share here. If you find it a challenge to generate good quality sales leads, you will be very glad to get some tips that work even if your business isn't the same.
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. Differentiate yourself
The attractiveness of your offers to the audience you are targeting will be determined by how you have positioned yourself.
The majority of web designers are competent in the technical aspects of web design. The sites they produce are great looking. However, they see these websites as the end product.
For example, results have always been our focus. This means, "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.
Many business owners appear to be attracted by this pitch. It's a lot more effective than saying "We're wizards at PHP, XHTML, Java Script and tonnes of other acronyms that you probably haven't heard of, but we're not exactly sure whether or not your website will pay for itself."
2. Educate. Educate. Educate.
Especially with a "high trust" sale such as marketing consulting, prospective clients need to understand the value that they're getting and the benefits of using your product or service.
I publish a marketing newsletter and free online marketing guide to first educate prospects about our area of expertise and some of the solutions that are available to the problems that they may be facing. If a newsletter subscriber finds that our approach meshes with what they want to achieve, they normally contact us to talk about doing business together.
Educating prospect before selling to them works far better than the usual sales pitch does. Making use of evaluations, case studies, white papers, and newsletters that have solid value relevant to your market can give you good targeted leads.
Getting a foothold can be difficult because of all the free information available online. Your topic must be of high quality and/or very unique in order for this tactic to work. I make an effort to deliver advice, information, and strategies that prospects could not get anywhere else without paying for it.
3. Test all things
Quite a few marketing tactics did not bring very good results, such as paid link exchanges, banner ad services and PPC search engines. When we knew they would have sub-par results, we stopped using them before they got too expensive.
On the other hand, some things have worked very well such as Google Adwords. We've continued to optimize and expand what's working to generate ongoing success.
By taking what works and expanding it further, you will find it very hard not to succeed.
4. Take charge of your education
There are new developments on the internet all the time and it is vital to stay on top of them. Reading blogs is one way to do this. Another way is to take courses, buy software and ebooks as part of investing in your own education. You have to sort through a lot of garbage but there are plenty of great tools for profit building available. You will make the best use of your time to pay someone $50 to $100 who has already learned what works best rather than put yourself through the frustration of trial and error.
My monthly expenditure on self-education resources and info products is approximately $300 to $500.
5. Online success elements must be understood
These four things are necessary to keep current on if you are to build a successful lead generating system:
1. Strategy - the way your sales process is put together makes a difference. This is especially important if your product or service is expensive or complicated.
2. Design - flashy animations and graphics are not the way to go. Simple, easy designs that are user friendly is what you want and need.
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.
I regularly exam all of these things so I can make necessary improvements when and where they are needed.
Improvement is ongoing
Being impatient and getting discouraged is easy if things seem to be moving too slow and the results of your lead generating are sparse. Making consistent efforts over the course of time is key to seeing improvement in your online results. You can short cut the learning curve by hiring an expert to help you achieve this. This is a wise move if your business is not primarily internet marketing. - 16069
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.
My marketing costs are around 2% of sales, and I spend zero time directly prospecting or looking for new clients. (OK, there are some activitites such as writing newsletters that play a part in getting new clients, but I see these as distinct from traditional "cold calling" or prospecting activities).
Faster and better results have been accomplished by many people out there but there are just as many who haven't been able to build their websites into one that generates good leads yet. These people will most definitely want some tips on methods that work for others.
In building my consulting business, I used strategies that I will share here. If you find it a challenge to generate good quality sales leads, you will be very glad to get some tips that work even if your business isn't the same.
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. Differentiate yourself
The attractiveness of your offers to the audience you are targeting will be determined by how you have positioned yourself.
The majority of web designers are competent in the technical aspects of web design. The sites they produce are great looking. However, they see these websites as the end product.
For example, results have always been our focus. This means, "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.
Many business owners appear to be attracted by this pitch. It's a lot more effective than saying "We're wizards at PHP, XHTML, Java Script and tonnes of other acronyms that you probably haven't heard of, but we're not exactly sure whether or not your website will pay for itself."
2. Educate. Educate. Educate.
Especially with a "high trust" sale such as marketing consulting, prospective clients need to understand the value that they're getting and the benefits of using your product or service.
I publish a marketing newsletter and free online marketing guide to first educate prospects about our area of expertise and some of the solutions that are available to the problems that they may be facing. If a newsletter subscriber finds that our approach meshes with what they want to achieve, they normally contact us to talk about doing business together.
Educating prospect before selling to them works far better than the usual sales pitch does. Making use of evaluations, case studies, white papers, and newsletters that have solid value relevant to your market can give you good targeted leads.
Getting a foothold can be difficult because of all the free information available online. Your topic must be of high quality and/or very unique in order for this tactic to work. I make an effort to deliver advice, information, and strategies that prospects could not get anywhere else without paying for it.
3. Test all things
Quite a few marketing tactics did not bring very good results, such as paid link exchanges, banner ad services and PPC search engines. When we knew they would have sub-par results, we stopped using them before they got too expensive.
On the other hand, some things have worked very well such as Google Adwords. We've continued to optimize and expand what's working to generate ongoing success.
By taking what works and expanding it further, you will find it very hard not to succeed.
4. Take charge of your education
There are new developments on the internet all the time and it is vital to stay on top of them. Reading blogs is one way to do this. Another way is to take courses, buy software and ebooks as part of investing in your own education. You have to sort through a lot of garbage but there are plenty of great tools for profit building available. You will make the best use of your time to pay someone $50 to $100 who has already learned what works best rather than put yourself through the frustration of trial and error.
My monthly expenditure on self-education resources and info products is approximately $300 to $500.
5. Online success elements must be understood
These four things are necessary to keep current on if you are to build a successful lead generating system:
1. Strategy - the way your sales process is put together makes a difference. This is especially important if your product or service is expensive or complicated.
2. Design - flashy animations and graphics are not the way to go. Simple, easy designs that are user friendly is what you want and need.
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.
I regularly exam all of these things so I can make necessary improvements when and where they are needed.
Improvement is ongoing
Being impatient and getting discouraged is easy if things seem to be moving too slow and the results of your lead generating are sparse. Making consistent efforts over the course of time is key to seeing improvement in your online results. You can short cut the learning curve by hiring an expert to help you achieve this. This is a wise move if your business is not primarily internet marketing. - 16069
About the Author:
Author: David B. Ascot's knowledge is in improving sales lead generation rewards and your business can benefit from his winning strategies of online lead generation.
