Hello Chasers,
Building on your education about the Lead Funnel Formula (which is part of our quarterly theme for this quarter – Consistent Cash Flow) we focus today on generating leads for your business with the second component of this formula.
So let’s break this down for you – a lead is any person who indicates interest in your product or service in some way, shape, or form. They typically hear from a business or after opening communication (by submitting personal information for an offer, trial, or subscription) … instead of getting a random cold call from someone who purchased their contact information!
For example, if you browse our website, you will receive an offer to download a FREE copy of my book – Chasing the Dream. A couple of days later, you receive an email from us to see if you have received the book. After a couple of weeks you will receive another one to see how you are progressing with the book and if there are any ideas or queries you may have as a result of its content and an invitation to discuss them over a coffee in our office. This process would be far less intrusive than if we had just called you out of the blue with no knowledge of whether you even care about improving your business, right? This is what it’s like to be a lead.
And from a business perspective, the information we collect from you allows us to conduct background data gathering which helps us personalise our opening communication to address your existing problems — and not waste time calling leads who aren’t at all interested in business improvement or coaching services.
Leads are part of the broader lifecycle that consumers follow when they transition from visitor to customer. Not all leads are created equal (nor are they qualified the same). There are different types of leads based on how they are qualified and what lifecycle stage they’re in.
Lead generation then, is the process of attracting prospects to your business and increasing their interest through nurturing, all with the end goal of converting them into a customer. Some ways to generate leads are through job applications, blog posts, coupons, live events, and online content. These lead generators are just a few examples of lead generation strategies you can use to attract potential customers and guide them towards your offers.
When a stranger initiates a relationship with you by showing an ‘organic’ interest in your business (Googling your business and then calling you up), the transition from stranger to customer is much more natural.
Lead generation falls within the second stage of the inbound marketing methodology. It occurs after you’ve attracted an audience and are ready to convert those visitors into leads for your business.
The steps are as follows:
- First, a visitor discovers your business through one of your marketing channels, such as your website, blog, or social media page.
- That visitor then clicks on your call-to-action (CTA) — an image, button, or message that encourages website visitors to take some sort of action.
- That CTA takes your visitor to a landing page, which is a web page that is designed to capture lead information in exchange for an offer – your lead magnet!
- (Note: A lead magnet is the content or something of value that’s being “offered” on the landing page, like an eBook, a course, or a template. The offer must have enough perceived value to a visitor for them to provide their personal information in exchange for access to it.)
- Once on the landing page, your visitor fills out a form in exchange for the offer. (Forms are typically hosted on landing pages, although they can technically be embedded anywhere on your site.) There you have it – a new lead! That is, as long as you’re following lead-capture from best practices.
See how everything fits together?
So to summarise: A visitor clicks a CTA that takes them to a landing page where they fill out a form to get an offer, at which point they become a lead. Next time you browse websites keep a look out for their lead generation techniques so you can see
real life examples in action.
Have a great day!
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