How to Generate Quality Leads
… A Bigger Opt-In File
Isn’t Necessarily Better!
Dear Business Builder,
Happy Friday and good to see you back!
Bigger isn’t necessarily always better … so there I’ve said it! Yet, there’s a drive in the direct response web marketing community to generate massive opt-in lists with very little pre-qualification. No matter the market, there seems to be a push to capture every Tom, Dick and Harry that’s willing to give you an e-mail address … so long as you can count them in your list total.
Perhaps it’s the age old story of the man with the biggest list … picks up all the babes at the bar. Isn’t that how it goes?
I’m not suggesting that everyone give up their list building efforts, and pack it in. But I am suggesting you take a closer look at your list building strategies to determine how to capture the most qualified leads that will convert quickly and ultimately give you a healthy and ongoing return on your investment.
Generating leads like a game of hide and seek!
First let’s classify our leads into 3 different (and brilliant) categories … there’s no sense making this harder than it seems …
Cold – You can generate cold leads in many different ways. Cold leads come on file knowing absolutely nothing about you, your company or your offers. Typically they’ve come on file because they wanted to give their opinion, entered a sweepstakes or generally been enticed by some carrot that is loosely (or not at all) related to your company’s offers. It stands to reason that prospects that come on file with little or no interest in what your company has to offer will potentially do two things … convert poorly and eventually report you as spam.
Warm – Warm leads are typically generated by offering something of interest to the prospect that is in direct correlation to a search they’ve done or the topic of a site they’ve visited. Warm leads may not be familiar with your company as the provider of what they’re looking for, but they’ve demonstrated a specific interest. Warm leads often come on file by responding to free offers for reports, white papers, newsletters or to receive access to specialized information your company can provide. Warm leads can convert really well when there is a strong conversion marketing series in place that is closely related to the original lead gen. offer.
Hot – In the lead generation arena everyone wants leads that will ultimately convert to a sale. No sense spending lots of money and time promoting to people that don’t open your e-mails and could absolutely care less about your offers. And of all the categories, hot leads are the most likely to succeed. Hot leads have put their money were their mouth is. They’ve responded to low price, shipping and handling or trial offers in which the actual product is shipped. Oftentimes, all it takes for a hot lead to convert to a full paying customer is one or two strong conversion promotions and a sweet upsell offer. I’ve seen hot leads convert from a low price trial offer to a full paying offer to the tune of a 70% conversion rate. And then a good percentage of those customers go on to become lifetime customers.
So now that we’ve classified our leads, let’s take a look at …
Three tactics to generate each kind of lead …
Polls – One of the fastest ways I know to generate massive amounts of new leads is to create and promote an online poll that hits on a hot, controversial topic. Here’s a great example of a poll that would generate tons of leads … Is Britney bi-polar? Yes or No? Vote Now! It’s topical, in the news and plays to the prognosticator in all of us. It’s a good start, but unless it’s your job to promote the tabloids or the latest teen gossip magazine, it’s highly unlikely these leads would do much of anything for a targeted campaign … they’d be beyond cold.
When using polls attempt to warm your leads by keeping the poll topic as specific as possible to the actual product you’re promoting or the information they’ll be receiving. Topicality is still important here, but hit on niche topics that are of specific interest to the types of leads you’re trying to attract.
So, for instance a poll on the future direction of oil prices for investors interested in natural resources placed on a site that attracts futures investors would produce a much warmer lead.
Niche polls will generate less leads overall than a more general topic poll, but those leads will be more qualified and convert much better over the long haul. They key is to get these leads into your e-zine and marketing rotation immediately … lest they completely forget how they ended up on your list in the first place.
Free Reports – We’re all searching for something … whether it’s for a personal hobby or interest, a proposal for work or a school assignment – we’re always in need of some information. Free reports, white papers and specialized information that can be accessed after opt-in are an excellent way to capture prospects that are looking for information about products and services you have to offer.
Whether you drive traffic via pay-per-click, e-mail, paid media or other tactics, asking for an e-mail address prior to fulfilling your free information is an excellent way to capture qualified leads.
The key to converting these leads is in starting a conversion series immediately after capturing the leads. I like to do this by fulfilling the free report at the top of a landing page that also includes a product pitch. Or, you can also make your free report an advertorial that culminates in a pitch for the product at the end.
After that, send the same information via a multi-part e-mail auto-responder series that goes out immediately and strikes while the irons hot.
Free Trial and S&H Offers – There is no better way to qualify a lead than by capturing a credit card up front. No better way to snag a new customer than by getting your product in to their hands. And that’s where a free trial offer comes into play. Plus, the higher the price of the product you’re trying to sell, the more important the trial becomes.
There are several ways to structure trial offers but my favorite is the shipping and handling offer. You simply offer the product for free and the only obligation on the part of the prospect is to pay shipping & handling. Oftentimes, the price you charge for the S&H can be structured to cover the hard cost of the product being shipped and the cost of postage … lessening your liability.
You can also structure the S&H offer in a couple of ways depending on the cost of your product:
- For lower priced products you can collect the S&H and fulfill the product with no further obligation on the part of the prospect. You’ve gotten the product into their hands to try and captured not only name and e-mail, but full physical street address. This gives you multiple ways to go back to these prospects for a full price re-order. And I recommend a full re-order series should start immediately as well as these prospects should be added to your e-zine or special offers file.
- For higher priced offers where it’s impossible to cover the value of the product with just S&H, it’s important to include a negative option. A negative option simply includes a clear statement in the offer copy that says the customer will be billed for the total cost of the product if they don’t cancel after the free trial ends. The challenge with this type of offer is retention – getting the trial customer to continue once the trial ends. Look for ways to bond with the prospect during the trial. Point out everything your product or service can do for them. Provide ongoing education on the use of the product and the long term benefit they will realize by continuing to a full paid customer.
Here are three quick ways to get your lead generation efforts started … but there are tons more and they’re only limited by your imagination.
Quick Start:
- Make a plan that include tactics for generating luke warm to red hot leads that way you maximize your lead gen efforts by bringing in a mass of new qualified prospects on an ongoing basis.
- Come up with ways to customize your conversion marketing efforts to each type of lead you generate rather than try a one size fits all strategy.
- And remember choose quality over quantity … in this case bigger isn’t necessarily better!
Do you have any super hot lead gen tactics you’d like to share? Post em to the blog. And as always, questions are welcome.
BTW – A frequent poster named David keeps dropping hints that I should put together an e-book that explains web media and my online marketing tactics. If this is something that would interest you, post a comment to the blog. If enough of you are interested, I’ll try to get something in the works.
Until next week,
Julie McManus
Editor, In the ‘Net Trenches
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™
And Web Media Goddess
P.S. Are you in the ‘net trenches? Do you need help? Send me an e-mail to AskJulie@MakepeaceTotalPackage.com and I just might answer your question in an upcoming issue.
P.P.S. Have you checked out The Total Package affiliate program lately? We’ve added tons of new creative to help you earn cash on any new subscriber you refer and we’ve opened our archives up for the pilfering … Click Here to check it out NOW!
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11 Comments »
Join the Discussion!
Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
The only rule: RESPECT THIS HOUSE! Postings that contain abusive language and/or personal attacks will be cheerfully VAPORIZED. One cross word and – POOF! – your well-thought-out post will be gone in a puff of smoke.
– Clayton
Comment by Lara — May 23, 2008 @ 1:57 pm
Hi Julie,As usual another terrific post that got me thinking!!! Thank you very much, the info is definitely valuable to me and my clients.As for the ebook, I’m with David - would love to see it! Thanks again,Lara
Comment by Ed — May 23, 2008 @ 2:57 pm
Great post! The ebook is a great idea!! If you write it, I will read it. Thanks.
Comment by Kristin Andrews — May 23, 2008 @ 4:01 pm
Well done Julie and I certainly see that the E-book could have an appeal.
Kristin
Comment by Joaq7uin — May 23, 2008 @ 5:38 pm
Great, Julie. Good points on some basic but important things to remember. You three tactics are very good. More power to you.
Comment by Carolyn Permentier — May 24, 2008 @ 3:35 pm
Hi Julie,
Do you have any insights/stats on ’forced continuity’
offers … specifically for investing newsletter subscriptions?
Most, if not all, offer a free report/s … but, in order
to get it, one has to accept the free trial subscription.
Some of them require payment, via credit card, with some kind of refund guarantee (30, 60, 90 days).
Others, don’t require advanced payment, but say the
CC will be billed at the end of the trial, if the reader
doesn’t cancel.
I know from one or two fin’l publishers that they have
a terrible retention problem … a huge percentage cancel
right after they get their freebie or, at least, before the
trial is over.
I personally do NOT like forced continuity at all! I’d
much prefer something that’s touted as ‘free’ to
really and truly be … well, free!
I prefer giving them what they’ve been promised and make it BIG value. Also have a sales message on the landing page about the subscription/link to buy.
Then have a link at the end of the report/s (w/sales message) that takes them to the order page for a sub.
Anything you can share about this, I’d appreciate it??
Thanks much,
Carolyn
Comment by Kazelfib — May 24, 2008 @ 4:54 pm
Hi webmaster!
Comment by David — May 26, 2008 @ 12:08 am
Hi Julie - Thought I’d drop by and pester you about developing a product since some interest has been stirred up.
I’m thinking of a Course that may be the biggest hit in your product portfolio - as most people can’t aspire to become full time copywriters. But everyone is faced with the problems of generating leads and traffic. Who wants to attend a never ending SEO school … or be subjected to Google’s ever changing SEO criteria and PPC quality scoring?
If you want search engine traffic, forget your talent or imagination. You have to build a site that Google approves of. They are going to tell you what people should see when they land on your site - so build it their way or no traffic - and they won’t even tell you what their way is. PPC marketers get their bids jacked up and then have to figure out why. SE marketers’ sites disappear from organic listings and they are left with another puzzle to solve.
Worse yet, the competition for keywords is driving up bid prices - and PPC & SEO have become a "spy game" whereby affiliates use sophisticated software to rip off your ads and keywords - and turn the screws on your bid prices. Now, it’s tough to play the game without doing the same thing. PPC & SEO are also a technical and time consuming bag of worms.
Many of us are fed up with this crap and need alternatives.
Media buys - Cost Per View and Offline Classified Ads are at the top of my radar. There are some courses out there, but they are from the "internet marketer make money peddlers" – there is no information from a reputable source such as The Total Package. You guys have the knowledge, resources and connections to really put a great product together. Many marketers will show you the world’s fastest credit card for a product like this – "I’ll challenge anyone to a draw!"
David
Comment by Chuck — May 26, 2008 @ 3:46 pm
Great stuff. Please write the eBook and let me know how to get it.
Thanks for your efforts.
–Chuck
Comment by Jackie — May 27, 2008 @ 9:11 am
Julie,
Yes, Please develop the E-book! (if you write it - we will come!)
Thanks for all your great articles.
Jackie
Comment by Cie Lowery — May 29, 2008 @ 2:47 pm
Great article Julie. As usual you provide invaluable information on important aspects of internet marketing.
Mindsetting Tips to Staking Your Claim To A Niche… I’d like to share from a 5/27/08 Teleseminar with some very successful imarketing pros:
Become the Authority, the Maven, the Source, the Go-to person, in your target market by going deeper into your niche. Don’t rewrite, rehash what’s already out ther in the hot zone. Share research from a fresh angle, an untapped angle, provide a window into a world prospects wouldn’t ordinarily be exposed to, and you’ll build viable, regularly convertible trusted relationships with your unique articles, reports and ebooks better than any deep-pocket competitor relying upon pay-per-click advertising.
As to that, it’s important to have a passion for your subject–or the research isn’t any fun–that is if the niche is a marketplace that you want to develop relationships in, enjoy associating with in your blogs, etc, and make income from over the long term.
Think Robbie the robot: "Warning! Warning! Warning!" This sad tale might help one of your readers avoid what happened to me and not lose the budding fruits of their labors.
I wrote several articles, put up Squidoo lenses with the aid of Clayton’s etal copywriting tips for the affiliate products I use. I was proud of them. My toe-in-the-water efforts on my way to writing an industry ebook. However, after losing my wallet in S.F., I cancelled my cards but negleted to change the auto renew pymt with my hosting company–even though I was reminded they were up for renewal, I ignored the emails and didn’t open them, considering them autorenewed.
This weekend I tested various links and discovered that the links used in articles and lenses now went to domains now owned by a company(s) that scarfs up expired domains for resale! It’s an eye-opener to discover what these companies charge to sell back your domain name when they know it’s tied to existing links. I didn’t buy back a single one. A hard lesson.
Thanks for invaluable content,
Cie
Comment by kustoz — July 27, 2008 @ 1:57 pm
Wow!
That’s awesome!