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Ken!
Better Leads with Two-Step Advertising
By John Jantsch
Tired of chasing down leads that don't really want what you have
to sell? Use a 2 step advertising approach and your leads will
practically beg to do business with you.
Cold calling doesn't work,
it's no fun and often you end up with leads, or worse yet, clients,
that don't really value what you do.
Having said that, leads are the lifeblood of growth, without a lead,
there is no client. Too often advertising, a lead generation staple
is ineffective and costly. So, what to do!
Set-up a 2 step lead machine and you can say goodbye to cold calling
while generating all of the qualified, permission based leads you
can handle.
The basic idea behind the 2 step approach is to create one or more
valuable reports, workshops, evaluations, trial products,
checklists, newsletters, courses or tip sheets.
Then, give this report a catchy title, something like, "How To Tell
If Your Roofing Contractor Is Lying To You" or "What Every Senior
Must Know About Bush's Social Security Changes" or "101 More Things
You Can Do With Your iPod."
Now that you have your value packed written report or audio CD,
every bit of your advertising - that's Yellow Pages, direct mail,
back of your business card, letterhead, email signature, web site -
should focus on getting people to pick up, request or download that
report. Don't try to do anything else with your advertising, let the
report sell you. See, that's step 1.
There are several reasons that this approach is so much more
effective for the small business owner than the traditional "image"
type advertising.
First off, if you only buy a 2 x 3 ad or send a 4 x 6 postcard, can
you really tell your story very well? Use that space to draw one and
only one action - the request from more information.
This approach allows you to demonstrate your expertise in a
non-threatening, on the prospect's own terms, way. Nobody likes to
be sold to, but if they take the time to read your report,
understand what you do that has value, have an 8-10 page
conversation with you, the relationship and trust has begun.
A person who has requested your free information in officially a hot
lead. When a prospect visits your web site they are effectively
raising their hand and identifying themselves as someone who is very
interested in what you do.
Half of your sales job is done!
If your advertising is focused on gathering the lead into the free
report funnel, then your sales efforts are focused on taking that
group and only that group that has raised their hands and taking
them to the next step in the process. That may be an appointment or
just a series of more advanced mailings. By the way that's step 2.
So let's recap.
Create a free information product that your target market would see
as a valuable read or listen.
Advertise the free report in everything you do
Capture the names and emails of those who request the report
Follow-up on those leads
If you take this advice to heart, everything about how you market
your business will change. Finding new business will become a much
more rewarding and valuable experience.
A couple bonus ideas:
Once you create your free report you will find other uses for it.
Referrals - Give the report or the web page where the report is
found to your referral sources and tell them to introduce you by way
of your free report or newsletter. This makes it easy for them to
refer you and assures that your story is told.
Cold-calling - I know, I know, you shouldn't ever need to cold call
but, if you do, do it this way. Call up those prospects on your list
and instead of trying to convince them to give you 5 minutes of
their time a week from Tuesday, offer them the address of your power
packed free info and then shut-up. Your prospecting time will be
much more productive if you can use it to turn cold calling into
2-step prospecting.
~ ~ ~
John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and
author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small
Business Marketing Guide published by Thomas Nelson - due out
in the fall of 2006
He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business
marketing system. You can find more information by visiting
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/