1. The Offer
This can be a double-edged sword, as many marketers will tell you.
If you make an offer that is too attractive, like a trip to Hawaii, or a couple of free plane tickets or $10,000, you’ll get loads of unqualified prospects who are simply responding for the offer.
Now, if you’ve got an extremely attractive offering that’s very, very broad, which your sales people are trying to sell, then you can sometimes make these leads work.
But in most cases for strategic lead generators, what you want is an offering that can be digitally deployed.
If you can instantly deliver your offering to that person, great!
People want things now and it is very compelling if they can get their hands on something instantly.
Webinars are a great offering. Recorded webinars and future live webinars are popular.
Also remember that every additional webinar participant does not increase the cost.
Just like the more PDF downloads you send out of a certain white paper, guide or informational packet, your costs do not increase.
There’s no shipping involved. It digitally deploys.
What I try and do is find some kind of a premium to offer that is only of interest to our target customers.
I know that may sound obvious, but we’ve seen many people create offers that are of interest to everybody and unfortunately it really does reduce the close rate.
2. Concise Copy
Write a headline that grabs their attention and makes them want to read more.
You must research your audience to do that effectively.
What are they most interested in?
What motivates them when they get up in the morning? If you know who you’re talking to, you know what to say to close the deal.
So do your research, make your bullet points and find your audience – then you’ll come up with an idea for a great headline.
Also, keep the copy on the page very light and conversational. Don’t get bogged down in verbosity and ponderous concepts.
It’s been proven that a friendly, personal approach on your offer page will improve the rate of response.
3. Design a Great Graphic
Create a graphic to represent the free giveaway. Again, keep it simple.
Browse through Google images for ideas, or one of the photo services like iStock.
Make it colorful and clever and repeat it a few times through the page.
We know that people have an emotional response to images more than words and you want them to be in a responsive mood.
Think of the great corporate logos like Shell or CNN and find a simple representation of your offer that will bring your words to life and make your visitors take action.
4. Fill out the Form
Embed a form to collect details from the visitor, but try and limit it to five fields, including one that gathers their email address for future email efforts.
Many people aren’t ready to be sold on the first inquiry, but over time you can follow up and nurture the lead.
5. Give Them Information
Create a downloadable, digitally accessible info product that answers key questions.
Free guides and videos are great!
Through the wonders of YouTube and Vimeo you can embed a high bandwidth video that answers key buying questions that many of these people might have.
Now you’re starting to shape and control the conversation.
6. Score, Categorize, and Track
Be sure to include a field that qualifies the visitor’s interest.
We call this ‘scoring’. Scoring allows sales people to better prioritize the leads.
You need to find out from your sales department the key criteria that they consider are the best indicators of whether they will be able to sell this lead or how they decide when the lead is ready to buy.
Use Google analytics or other means to see how many visitors you can turn into leads.
Track lead sources, pay per click, organic sales effectiveness profiling, banner ads, unique urls, etc.
Collect leads into an easily exportable database and use it in other applications. And port those leads directly into your CRM system!
So do your research well and get your offer right. Your sales will improve as a result.]]>