How To Get More Leads.
I met with a great prospect today. He didn’t exactly know why we (him and I) needed to talk, but he did know this. We has tried everything to market his business to his prospects, TV, Yellow Pages, YP.com PPC, SEO people, etc.. And unfortunately, he’s been sold a bag of goods on nearly each one. He’s spent thousands and thousands of dollars, been jerked around and lost those thousands all at the same time. His final conclusion: referrals are the best lead source possible.
Many companies are promising unsuspecting business owners up to 1,000 inbound phone calls per month using their propriety computerized PPC system, others tout how many folks still use the phone directories, while others just baffle you with big technical words and refer to ALT Tags, meta tags, keyword density, etc.. in order to confuse you into purchasing their services.
Here’s the reality business owners:
If any of it ever sounds too good to be true, it is. Plain and simple. Here are a few things to be aware of:
- Promised leads and guaranteed number of inbound phone calls. Who can guarantee that your prospects will be banging on the phones the second your PPC ads go up?
- Promised SEO Placement. It’s not going to happen UNLESS they are promising Google PPC (Adwords) top placement.
- Promised increase in sales and click throughs from a web site created by the phone book folks? (I rarely see click throughs from any of the major phone book web site while viewing clients web trends / analytics.
- Promised results from a book so out of date and non-relevant, it’s literally 1/4 the size it used to be.
Here’s what does work to bring in more leads and sales:
- Create an amazing product,
- Tell the world about your amazing product
- Stand by what you sell
- Fix things when things go wrong
- Contribute to the Internet and feed people with the information they are seeking.
- Be the expert
- Love Your Customers.
- Do it again, every day and consistently.
When it comes to business, marketing and the Internet, common sense and the human touch is what wins, consistently. Take great care of people, educate them, offer them a fair product at a fair price and position yourself as the industry expert. A web site can do that, social media can do that, traditional media can do that, but what it desperately needs is YOU and your passion first.
