8/4/2010
Read MoreTurn Your Web Site Into a Lead Generator
There are a couple of indisputable facts about the consulting business today. First, every serious consultant must have their own web site. (If you don't have your own web site, call me) Second, every prospect that you would want to get hired by goes to Google and searches for answers to every business question they face.
The old habits of mailing and following up and calling and repeating didn't work well ten years ago and they don't work very well today. A great direct mail campaign might get 1.5% response and it will cost you about a $1 a piece to develop it, print it, and mail it. The content is static and will probably not make it past the gate keeper. While the gate keeper is trashing your mailer the prospective decision maker is running searches on the net looking for the solutions you offer. How do you connect the dots?
First, make sure you have a web site and that you blog. That means writing two or three articles per week, every week, forever. Every time you blog, the content on your site grows. Every blog has a title and the cumulative effect is to get much better search results for your efforts on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
But, don't stop with blogging and forgetting. You spent the time writing, now spend the time advertising the new content you've just offered up to your adoring fans. Set up a Linked In account and join 50 groups. When I say 50 I mean 50 groups. That is what you are limited to on Linked In.
Pick the groups that your prospects would join. My experience has been that smaller groups actually have better read rates than big groups so you need to research which groups you want to join, The best way to figure that out is to find out what groups known prospects are in and join that group. Birds of a feather....
Now, every week, you blog twice and post it as news on every group that you've joined because prospects are members there as well. Doing this will increase the content on your site, show prospects how much you really know, and will drive traffic your way.
One last note to remember. Every page of your site must have contact information or at a minimum a link to a contact sheet prospects can go to get in touch with you. Your Linked In profile should have your number, email address, and web site info all over it and your site has to have your contact information on every page.
If you have a web site and can write, everything I've just covered is practically free. You can ramp it up or down, target different groups, go on Google Ad words and tweak your wording to get more hits, all for free for the most part.
I do this and I average two prospects calling me per week. My close rate on prospects that call me is over 80%. One more point; when the prospect calls you, the fees are generally a little higher.
Good Hunting
The old habits of mailing and following up and calling and repeating didn't work well ten years ago and they don't work very well today. A great direct mail campaign might get 1.5% response and it will cost you about a $1 a piece to develop it, print it, and mail it. The content is static and will probably not make it past the gate keeper. While the gate keeper is trashing your mailer the prospective decision maker is running searches on the net looking for the solutions you offer. How do you connect the dots?
First, make sure you have a web site and that you blog. That means writing two or three articles per week, every week, forever. Every time you blog, the content on your site grows. Every blog has a title and the cumulative effect is to get much better search results for your efforts on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
But, don't stop with blogging and forgetting. You spent the time writing, now spend the time advertising the new content you've just offered up to your adoring fans. Set up a Linked In account and join 50 groups. When I say 50 I mean 50 groups. That is what you are limited to on Linked In.
Pick the groups that your prospects would join. My experience has been that smaller groups actually have better read rates than big groups so you need to research which groups you want to join, The best way to figure that out is to find out what groups known prospects are in and join that group. Birds of a feather....
Now, every week, you blog twice and post it as news on every group that you've joined because prospects are members there as well. Doing this will increase the content on your site, show prospects how much you really know, and will drive traffic your way.
One last note to remember. Every page of your site must have contact information or at a minimum a link to a contact sheet prospects can go to get in touch with you. Your Linked In profile should have your number, email address, and web site info all over it and your site has to have your contact information on every page.
If you have a web site and can write, everything I've just covered is practically free. You can ramp it up or down, target different groups, go on Google Ad words and tweak your wording to get more hits, all for free for the most part.
I do this and I average two prospects calling me per week. My close rate on prospects that call me is over 80%. One more point; when the prospect calls you, the fees are generally a little higher.
Good Hunting
