Step 14 to Build a Better Business – Prime the Pump for Leads

Posted on Sep 10th, 2009 in 30 Steps to Build a Better Business, lead generation and sales | no comments

We’ve talked previously about customers being the most valuable resource for a small business. So it stands to reason that finding and attracting those customers is one of the most critical activities within your business. In general, there are two ways to find and attract new and repeat customers for your business: marketing and advertising. The difference between these two methods can be most simply described like this:

Marketing is how you attempt to turn people you know into customers.

Advertising is how you attempt to turn people you don’t know into customers.

Which group of people do you think it’s easier to convert into customers? If you answered the people you know, you’re right. People who have bought from you previously or people who may never have bought anything from you, but know you personally, are much more likely to buy from you than someone who has just heard of your company and has had no previous interaction with you. Even if you’ve screwed up with a previous customer, the effectiveness of your marketing can make them want to give you another shot.

This is why the majority of your lead-generation activities should be marketing-driven. Advertising should be considered an enhancement activity so you can keep your new-customer well from running dry. The types of interaction you have and information you share will be different for someone you’re marketing to versus someone you’re advertising to. When you’re marketing, your intent is to build on your existing relationship, and make your customer or associate feel like the valued resources that they are. When you’re advertising, your intent is to inform the potential customer about your business, and explain how your business can benefit them so they feel comfortable making the first purchase.

Think about how you currently generate new leads for your business. Are you using both marketing and advertising? Which one are you using more? Are you receiving enough leads from your current marketing and advertising efforts to reach your sales goals?

If you don’t already have a process in place for performing your marketing and advertising activities, now is the time to set one up. With a little bit of effort and planning, you can have a solid process for getting new leads and tracking the results.

Set Up A Contact List

You’ll need a contact list or file for storing contact names and information for people you know. This can be a simple Excel spreadsheet or the same type of system you set up for Customer Management back in Step 4 of Building a Better Business. There are several web-based email and contact management services that you could use as your contact list. One that I like and have used oftern is MailChimp. It’s  fairly user friendly and has functions that will allow you to perform the rest of the suggestions in this step.

In your contact list you will collect information like name, address, phone, and email. You may also include information like their Facebook or Twitter ID, birthday, associations, school affiliations, marital status, and wedding anniversary. For the people you haven’t met, you can purchase lists or you can place ads in traditional print media like magazines, trade publications, and newspapers. TV and radio are options if you have a larger budget, and there are plenty of low and no-cost ways to advertise your business online, including social media tools and GoogleAdsense.

Continually Add to Your Contact List

All the people you currently know should go into the contact list you set up. This includes friends, family, associates, allies (as identified in Step 10), and previous customers. Fill in as much information about them as you have available depending on what you’ve decided to collect in your database. Each time you meet a new person or get a business card, you should add them to your database. Make sure that you have a form on your website for collecting contact information from people who visit your website. Inform them that by provding thir contact info they will receive periodic updates from you that they can opt out of at any time, and add them to your database. MailChimp has very user-friendly tools for integrating website signup forms to email marketing campaigns.

Develop a System for Marketing to Your Contact List

Once you’ve added a new name to your contact list, you need to begin marketing or building the relationship with them. It’s best if you develop the marketing materials you plan to use in advance, and set up a system that automates the delivery of these materials as much as possible. Using MailChimp as an example again – you can create time sequenced emails that will automatically be sent to a contact on a specific date (like a birthday or anniversary), or for a recurring number of times after you add them to your list (e.g., a weekly tips email). However, you don’t want to use only email to market to the people you know. Email is quick and low cost, but today’s consumers are already inundated with lots of ‘noise’ email, so you should vary your marketing tactics a bit, and include the occasional promotional mailer like a postcard, coupon, or trinket. Phone calls – while more time intensive – are an excellent way to stay in touch. Just a quick check-in to see how an individual is doing, or to follow up on a previous conversation or purchase. Once you have a really large contact list, you’ll probably only want to call on a certain segment of your list.

So how often should you be marketing to the people on your contact list?

What works best without being overwhelming for you and your contacts is something you’ll have to determine by experimenting. In his bestselling book, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, Gary Keller, founder of Keller Williams Realty, outlines one process for real estate agents who want to create a high-yield marketing and advertising system. For each new contact, he suggests that agents ‘touch’ the contact 8 times within the first 8 weeks of meeting. This should be followed up with an additional 33 ‘touches’ per year, using a variety of methods like: letters, postcards, event announcement, flyers, buttons, calendars, birthday greetings, holiday cards, etc.

For the advertising portion of lead generation, Keller recommends 12 ‘direct touches’ each year for those people you haven’t met. That’s essentially one direct contact per month. You could create materials that highlight a feature of your product, an upcoming event, a case study, an article written about your business, a biography of the company’s founder…whatever might be of interest to people who haven’t met you yet. Again, plan ahead so these items are easy to send out, and don’t take up too much of your time.

photo credit: jpellgen (Flickr)

Related Posts

1. Step 20 to Build a Better Business – Talk With Your Customers
2. Step 18 to Build a Better Business – Document the Basics
3. Step 17 to Build a Better Business – Count What Counts
4. Step 29 to Build a Better Business – Get Some Free Press

Sage Small Business Solutions provides inexpensive infrastructure solutions for small and microbusinesses. If you're interested in improving your small business, or implementing techniques discussed in this article, find out how Sage can help.

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