Lead Generation 101

Looking for a way to turn your site into a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week lead generation machine? This article gets you started.

Online lead generation is the art of converting the visitors you get to your site into serious businesses enquiries. To work well, your site needs to do the following...

1. Find out what each visitor is looking for (engagement)
2. Take the person directly to a page designed to provide that information (delivery)
3. Write copy designed to build excitement (desire)
4. Ask for the response

Let's take a closer look at each of these components in the online marketing mix.

1. Find out what each visitor is looking for:

This first step is about engaging your visitor as soon as s/he arrives at the site. You might do this by asking, or you may go after a specific target market, and ignore everyone else. Either approach is valid, and infinitely better than trying to make the same copy appeal to everybody (an impossible task).

As soon as you know what the visitor is looking for, take him/her directly to it. I like to do this with simple web forms. They're fast, and don't rely on the visitor being able to understand your site navigation.

2. Provide the information the visitor is looking for:

The first step is a form of qualification. You must then follow up with the specific information the visitor has told you s/he wants to see.

The best (and only) way to do this, is to create a specific landing page for each market you're targeting. In effect, these pages are ads for the product or service you're generating leads for.

3. Write copy designed to build excitement:

Lead generation requires a special form of copy writing. This form of copy has to overcome natural human inertia and secure an action from your lead (e.g. a click on a link or button).

An excellent way to achieve this, is to steadily build excitement down through the copy. You can do this by making it clear what your product or service delivers. Build a vivid picture, and have your reader dare to dream of all the good things you're offering. You'll find more lead generation copy tips here.

4. Ask for the response - powerfully:

It's simple, isn't it? If you don't ask, you won't get. So make sure you ask. And don't merely ask, command!

Avoid soft phrases such as "if you think this could work for you, please click here". Instead, take control with a strongly worded sentence such as "This is proven to work. It's exactly what you need. Click here now".