Generating Leads – The Easy Way

Imagine if you could pay some money and have 10, 50, or even 100 people who are interested in buying your product or service now or in the near future get in touch with you and give you permission to market directly to them.  This kind of marketing is ultimately cheaper and more effective than traditional marketing, especially brand marketing (“getting your name out there”).

Last month we introduced the concept of Information Based Marketing and the specific example of a free report or information guide as a way for you to get your interested prospects to come forward.  This month we’re going to focus on the first half of the process – getting the prospects to ask for information.

The Free Report is actually the second step of the process, although it’s helpful to have that done first.  Before you can send someone your information product or resource, you have to connect with them somehow and have them respond to you.  In marketing lingo we call this “lead generation,” or “acquisition” – it is the act of acquiring the enquiry (or “lead”).  It is distinct from “conversion” which is the act of converting the enquiry into a paying customer.
There are five main components to any lead generation strategy:

• Medium – this is the method you are going to use connect with your market.  It could be broadcast (like TV, radio or Billboard), print (newspaper, magazine or mailbox drop), online (where people find it through searching) or direct mail (an addressed letter).  Each has it’s purposes and place in your overall strategy.
• Audience – this is the segment of the total population that you are communicating with.  It might be a specific list of people (for a postal campaign), people who live in a particular suburb (for a mailbox drop), people who live 80s music and live in Wellington (for a radio ad) or people who live crime shows (for a TV commercial). The better you can define the audience the easier (and cheaper) it will be to communicate effectively with them.
• Offer – this is the thing you are asking them to respond to.  In the case of this article series we are using a report or information guide as the example, but it could be a discount on a product or a trial subscription or something.  It is important that your strategy have a clear, compelling and attractive offer for your audience.  If you don’t have an offer then you are doing brand advertising (the least effective).
• Response Mechanism – this is heavily connected to the action that you are asking the audience to take.  For the free report it may be an invitation to call an 0800 number or go to a website.  The response mechanism should be designed BEFORE you send out the item and fully tested to ensure that it works!
• Follow-up – not technically part of lead acquisition – it’s actually part of the conversion cycle, but INCREDIBLY important.

It’s really important to note here that the purpose of this first marketing piece is NOT to sell.  If you try too hard to sell you will be much less effective (you’ll be targeting only those ready to make a decision now). The sole purpose of this piece is to get people to put their hand up and ask for more information.  What you want, more than a sale, is the contact information (and permission to market to them) of a valid prospect.  In this way the prospect has pre-qualified themselves to a point.  By asking for the information they are informing you that they are in the part of the population that is (or soon will be) actually in the market for what you have to offer and they are interested in it.  So instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars trying to reach the 5% ready to buy now (and it is hit and miss so much of the time), you can spend much less getting the attention of the people who actually will want to buy.  Now you can afford to out-spend your competition on marketing to this much narrower niche of prospects.
Very effective methods (mediums) of lead generation for information guides here are:

• Mailbox Drops – these can target suburbs or neighbourhoods were likely buyers are.  They are probably the lowest cost per lead advertising you can do.
• Newspaper/Magazine ads – great if you can target your ideal audience at a good price (like a trade magazine).  But it is easy to overspend and not get the results you want.
• Postcard/direct mail – if you have a good list this can actually be some of the best money you spend.
• Google Adwords – if you can target the best search phrases you can do very well here.

There’s no “wrong” answer here – only expensive ones.  That’s why it’s important to match the medium and the audience to the offer well.

At Copy Express we offer a “soup to nuts” service where we can help you with everything from the campaign design through to design, printing and delivery.  Give us a call on 04-568-8773 to discuss your marketing needs.