Thursday, May 26, 2011

Lead Generation - An Inexpensive Way To Have Customers For Life

By Miguel Pancardo


Every business needs a steady supply of fresh leads. This needs to happen on a daily basis and has to be kept track of. The conundrum many of us find at the beginning is cost. It looks expensive and, in truth, it CAN be expensive, but thee are some things to take into consideration that will lower that cost.

A lot of websites are set up just to sell a product. While this can be a lucrative approach, it does little to help you gain future prospects. Although a name and email is usually collected with each sale, there is no further contact or follow up with the customer.

This type of business model allows you to sell a single item one time to a single customer. A better model is to have a way to sell multiple items to that same customer over time through following up. Of course, getting the person to buy multiple times or even the first time requires skillfully written sales page or follow up emails. Most people do not have the skill necessary, so to get the best results, consider having someone else write your copy for you.

However, copywriters that are good at what they do are not cheap to hire. The expense should pay for itself over time however. No matter what type of business you go into, there is an initial outlay or overheard where you have to put money into the business upfront and wait a while for sales to turn into actual profit.

Other expenses you will have to consider are related to the website itself. Not only do you need professionally written copy, you also need an appealing website, domain registration, and hosting. With the first business model, you will have to cover all of your expenses from single sales and will always need to keep ahead of your costs.

A site that is set up to generate leads on an ongoing basis on the other hand is more profitable in the long run and can pay for itself many times over. The site doesn't even have to be anything fancy or expensive. You can simply offer a free report in exchange for an email address and name. As long as this person stays on your list, you can market to him multiple times and hopefully he will buy from you multiple times over the years.

Since the people agree to receive email from you when they request your free report, there is no risk of spamming, especially if you use double opt-in. This means that when someone enters their email address for the report, they must first click on a link and confirm their email before the report is sent. This prevents people from entering false email addresses or addresses that belong to someone else. Double opt-in confirms that your prospect is aware of what you are offering and has willingly asked to receive it.

Your lead generation website will collect new prospects for you day after day. Treat these subscribers well and they will remain on your list for years giving you an every growing base of people to market to. You receive all these great benefits at far less cost and effort than setting up a single sales website, plus you will see more profits too.




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