In today’s world of technology, deciding where to focus your efforts can just be darn overwhelming. Having worked in the internet marketing field for a few years now, I have seen first hand how difficult it can be to figure out what works and what doesn’t. I’ll save the chit chat about long term planning for another time, here I will be focusing on what you can do now to increase the amount of people calling in to your business right away.
1. Start a Google Adwords PPC campaign with a free $100 coupon
These coupons are available all over the place, any PPC specialist can give them out, heck leave me a comment and I’ll send you one. These coupons are great and can really get the ball rolling for you, in my experience they often result in quite a few leads, depending on your market. If you don’t know how to set up a campaign you can call Google and they would be more than happy to guide you through the setup.
2. Optimize your website/landing page for conversions
One thing I have learned from experience is that video sells. This is much easier than it sounds. I’ll use an example of a client who had success with this. I have a friend who is a naturopathic doctor. She recently took my advice and set up a PPC campaign. I told her to sit in front of her camera and record a video of herself explaining what she can do for her clients and how to get in touch with her. After posting the video on the page, she noticed that more of her visitors were picking up the phone and calling. Make sure your video is short, sweet, and to the point. Attention spans are short so make your two minutes count!
3. Claim your online directory listings and check your reviews
If your business has a physical location, it is likely that you are listed in some online directories such as Google Local, Yelp, and others. Check the local listings in your area, and claim them when possible so you can ensure the information listed is accurate. Do a search for “(your business name) reviews” and see what turns up. With bad reviews comes low conversion rates and you may consider doing some reputation management if there is an issue.
4. Get in direct contact with potential clients
I’m a firm beleiver that as much as online methods are effective, they should be suplimented with offline ones. Regardless of the business you are in, you should be having some direct contact with potential customers. Whether you do some direct mail, cold call, or go knocking door to door. There are some really effective strategies for mailing followed by calling that I have had success with. I won’t delve into too much detail, but the jist of it is to first send a (somewhat) personalized snail mail to a potential client, wait a couple days, and then call to follow up. The success rate is often high and you can put this method into effect quickly and strategically.
5. Utilize your current client base
You likely already have a few clients. Send them a promotional offer involving a freebie or a discounted rate for each client they refer. You don’t need a complex system set up online (although I’m a big fan of that), all you need is to call or email your current clients letting them know. The offer needs to be good enough to prompt your clients to take action, I for one give customers a free month of service for a referral.
So there you have it, five steps you can implement right away to start increasing your leads. Good luck!
Brian Schwartz provides internet marketing consulting for Fortune 100 companies worldwide. His main focus now is lead generation for small and medium sized businesses. He provides simple full fledged solutions to businesses through his company Incoming Marketing.
5 Simple Steps That You Can Implement Today To Gain More Leads
