Leads are Important: How to Get Them Once, then Keep Getting Them

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Leads are to customers as the egg is to the chicken. You require a lead to develop a customer, and the customer gives you the means to continue developing more potential customers.

The difference, however, is that there is no question pertaining to what came first when talking about opportunities and customers. You always generate the lead before you generate customers.

The challenge with lead generation is ensuring that you can acquire more customer opportunities. The reason for this is that you may be selling to customers who will be unlikely to purchase the same product or service multiple times.

Let’s explore both the importance of the lead as it pertains to your marketing and overall business, and explore how you can effectively generate more customers by increasing your business’s sales potential.

Understanding the Importance of Potential Customers

The potential customer can be any person. They may be someone you know, someone who will find your products or services through an Internet search, or someone who arrives at your website through one of your many advertising avenues.

This person represents the first step in a long line of actions in the sales chain.

This means that every lead is a potential opportunity to make a sale. You may be able to turn every lead into a sale, but you need people to begin that long chain of actions and the resulting profit you desire.

There are two qualities integral to completing a sale: the quality of a lead, and the quantity of your customer opportunities.

Quality tends to trump quantity, especially when you are investing a large amount of funds to acquire new potential customers.

The Differences in Lead Quality

Imagine that you have four companies capable of producing opportunities for business: Brand A in the US, brand B in the Philippines and brand C in India.

Brand A may produce moderate to high quality opportunities, but this company will generally require a large investment to do so. This can severely hinder your ROI.

Brands B and C may be able to produce these visitors at a fraction of the cost that brand A can, but these opportunities will tend to be substantially lower in quality. They may convert at a small fraction of the rate that visitors from brand A convert. Some may not even convert into customers at all because they are derived from automated means.

The problem is that brand A may also use brand B or C to generate traffic. They mix mix their own traffic with them, or substitute them completely.

This difference in quality can mean the difference between a lot of wasted dollars and the generation of many profits for your business.

The best alternative is to utilize a company that pulls visitors from a number of sources, or that focuses on utilizing a number of reputable generation tactics. Companies like the Ukraine-based Leadware excel at providing this to businesses.

Illustrating Lead Quality

The reason companies like Leadware excel at generating quality leads revolves around something that is independent of their location. Their intention is to act like a proper business rather than someone selling an addictive substance to an individual.

Lead quality can be obtained through processes such as theirs.

This process involves the following three steps in a closed loop:

  1. Lead Research – Their team communicates with your business to determine qualities about the visitors your desire. This is the building block for customers in every business, which include E commerce.
  2. Lead Enrichment – Their team works with you to continue finding new potential customers using social accounts and other marketing avenues, which creates the presence of positive PR. Each lead is focused, which results in a high ROI.
  3. Sales Development – Leadware’s teams set appointments to keep in contact with your business. This focused cycle repeats to drive business that stays both lean and effective.

The quality contained within this process derives itself from the way your business stays intimately connected with the lead provider. This allows you to drive reliable potential customers towards businesses focused on E commerce.

The secondary attributes, such as the positive PR generate on social media networks, helps to further your business. It leaves people with the impression that others care about your business, which means that your business becomes recognized as a reliable provider for your products and services.

These qualities can be used to generate even more customers by integrating them with your overall advertising strategy.

Can You Make Your Advertising Efforts Travel Further?

The one quality that separates a successful business from one that merely breaks even is the ability to stretch a dollar even further. So long as it works, this action will provide your business with a leaner way of generating more revenue that can be reinvested into your company.

Services like SearchQuant.com can make this goal a reality. You can incorporate it with an effective lead provider to make your lead generation into something explosive rather than just multiplicative.

Imagine the many ways a potential customer could come in contact with your business. By utilizing several tactics, you can help increase awareness about your brand while creating results that complement one another.

If you add tactics like social selling on LinkedIn, Facebook and other networks to the mix, you can further these results even more.

The One Thing to Take Away About Lead Generation

If you come away with one thing about lead generation, it should be this: not all leads are created equal.

To drive business, your goal needs to be to acquire high quality visitors whom consistently convert into customers. The more cost-efficient this acquisition is, the better your profits will be.

By branching out and using multiple methods of lead generation, you will make your efforts significantly leaner than they would be otherwise.

You can compare it to one person fishing from several interconnected small ponds instead of just one lake. That person will need to expend less effort to catch the same amount of fish, and those fish will continue to be abundant.

Customers are similar, except they aren’t attracted by simple bait. They require you to lure them with good intentions, amazing products and worthwhile services. They will then tell their friends to seek your business for solving their problems, which in turn is what creates the exponential effect that good advertising can have.

If you want to hook your customers into your business, then one thing is for certain: you can’t treat them like fish. You want to acquire quality customers to keep your business soaring.

Ethics

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Not something you hear about in the world of internet marketing anymore. Unless you are referring to white hat black hat SEO.

 

I recently was working for a startup that was led by one of the most ethical men I have ever met. I have been working for him on an almost full commission basis for over 4 months until recently. What made it so simple and great was and is the fact that he always paid on time and was never a hard person to deal with and most of all was always honest and truthful and forth right with any questions.

 

I have had many sales calls but recently was attacked by an old sales lead who not only admitted to stealing the idea I was trying to sell him but out right made it sound like he was doing the world a favor to steal the idea and do it better.

I told him I had no interest in helping him in his project and he got upset and asked if I would sell for him and what he should pay me as in what percentage did I make so he could match it or beat it or offer me less because this guy is a beast of a “class act “tongue fully implanted in cheek.

He was quick to point out that he felt we were breaking some rules in his mind and there for it was ok for him to copy the technology and even steal it.

He also stated “Poaching employees is not unethical. And that’s not what I was trying to do in the first place.” When you offer someone a job to sell the same thing at a better price I believe “pouching” is what you are doing which is a synonym for “stealing” a highly unethical practice.

 

So I found it funny when he said it was cool and totally OK with him actually encouraged me to Blog about this. I could hardly resist.

Business social from social media the real transition!

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It is simply not just a matter of connecting with a giant network and spamming them with a ton of information. ( ie bad social media) or  working with a group that follows your company because they want to remain up to date on what they love about your company.(ie good social media by most guru or community manager standards.)

Social business is about connecting with a target market( People who should already use your product or service but

A. haven’t discovered it or

B.have and didn’t know why it would help them.)

when and how they want to be touched about your given business for the singular purpose of growing your sales.

This is not spam but a respectable way to do and grow your business.

A.
Having and showing a working knowledge of your companies industry
(Builds trust)

B.
Having connections and first level connections that can verify and indorse your companies abilities.
( builds confidence)
C.
Working to connect with people on there terms in a real way about your company I’m an authentic win win win.

(Authentic )

 

“The keys to brand success are self-definition, transparency, authenticity and accountability.” –Simon Mainwaring

 

I believe authenticity creates success more than sales techniques do.

Customers Don’t Buy From People They Like, They Buy From Those They Trust.

 

Christian Wilson

Archway Internet Marketing Inc

SearchQuant

Promote your firm through Pinterest, Instagram

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Pinterest and Instagram are two avenues you can use to promote your business with images.
Being a very visual society, these two social media tools can get your business’s message out before potential customers with very few words. With images speaking volumes, these two tools give you the opportunity to make a lasting impression with potential customers with photos.
The experts at Archway Internet Marketing can show you how images can be used to promote your business. Archway representatives can market your business with images and in other ways to increase your presence before potential clients.
Pinterest allows you to create an online image collage and to share that collage – called a pinboard – with other Pinterest users. Pinterest is a growing factor on the social media scene and one of which you should be using.
Being as it is image based, the overwhelming feeling on Pinterest is positive – happy kids, stylish clothes, frolicking animals. Getting your business associated with all this Zen can only pay dividends. As one writer eloquently put it, Pinterest is “Facebook without the whining.”
But Pinterest is not just all sunshine and rainbows; it is a growing marketing tool too. Pinterest drives more traffic to websites than Google Plus, LinkedIn, Youtube and Reddit – combined. It is a social media tool you should be using for your business; and Archway can show you the best ways to promote your business on the site. With Archway’s help, you can do everything from promote your business through your profile to connect your Pinterest account with your Facebook and Twitter account to cross-market
The all-photo site Instagram is another social media tool for your business to incorporate. While you may be tempted to use the site as another online catalog for all of your products, refrain from doing so. That will not generate the following that you are seeking.
Companies that excel at Instagram are ones that use it as a different tool, ones that give viewers behind-the-scene looks at company business, looks that are not available on more traditional media avenues. Giving viewers something different, something they are not getting already is what capitalizes on Instagram.
Anything that gives your customers more of a glimpse at the inner workings of your firm – without giving away trade secrets, of course, or putting the business or personnel in a bad light – is what is trending on Instagram. You can throw an occasional product on the site, but Instagram users are far more interested in seeing how that product was put together or how it is packaged and shipped to consumers.
If you have a team in the creative arts – or have people who do graphics for you – give them a chance to shine through Instagram. Let their creativity flow with photos, graphics and illustrations.
Promote the fun side of your business with Instagram. Let viewers see the boss cutting loose, why your business is a great place to work. Let people see the human side of your company.
An Archway representative can map out how to best use Instagram and Pinterest to market your business.
Call 1-877-50-TWEET (1-877-508-9338) or email manageyourtwitter@gmail.com and let’s start putting an images marketing plan in place for your company.

End of Summer 8 8 2013

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Gives tours of your firm 24/7

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When French military and political leader Napoleon Bonaparte said “A picture is worth a thousand words,” he must have been envisioning virtual tours.

You can drop 9,000 or 10,000 words explaining how awesome your business is (and likely lose you readers’ interest at about word 513) or you can show people just how awesome your office is with a virtual tour. Archway Internet Marketing can help create that visual tour for your business. You can make guests feel like they’re only a mugful of coffee away from being right in your office.

Archway can work with your firm to give virtual visitors a panoramic, 360-degree view of the inner workings of your establishment. You can show them the equipment, personnel and production they get when they hire your firm. You can showcase just what sets your business apart from the rest. No matter how good of a salesman you are when visiting a client, the thought always exists in his or her mind of “Is this firm really that good?” (along with “When is he going to offer to buy me lunch?,” of course). With the virtual tour that Archway can create for your business, you can back all your bravado with proof that your equipment and personnel are second to none.

Even if half the world away, potential and existing clients can walk around your office, learning the ins and outs of your business through the virtual tour. They can see just how impressive your business is – and they can do it whenever it is convenient for them – from their office, their laptop, their smartphone or even from the comfort of their own home via their desktop computer. They will get a guided tour of your business without you having to stay late and miss dinner with the family.

Archway can help you create a top virtual tour and get the marketing tool placed prominently on Google so you draw web hits from potential clients around the globe. The tour will even show up in Google searches, Google + Local and Google maps. Archway can also help get the virtual tour as part of your own business website, driving even more traffic to your web address. It can also be a part of your social media efforts, drawing even more interest and visitors to your website.

You can get up to 10 points of interest photos to show off your business. Clients and customers can see just what makes your office tick, how you do what you do. A virtual tour puts your best foot forward every single time someone clicks around your business website.

Archway can also help you track the virtual tool’s activity and what kind of return it is creating on your investment. You will get all the analytics on the virtual tool – and Archway will break the numbers down for you in easy-to-understand language.

With the virtual tour, you get royalty-free pictures and no server fees. Statistics show that nearly 5 million Americans every day take a virtual tour and that 67 percent of individuals with incomes of more than $75,000 have taken virtual tours. Make sure your firm is not missing out on valuable exposure to potential customers by not having a virtual tour.

Archway can also help you market the virtual tour through emails and social media outlets, providing the greatest exposure possible for your effort.

The marketing experts at Archway can also help get the right pictures of your business put on Google Places so that potential customers are seeing your business at its best. Archway will design a marketing plan for you involving virtual tours, Google Places, social media and whatever other avenues you want to explore. And if you are not sure what direction to take,  Archway can give you a ton of recommendations.

An Archway representative can put a virtual tour plan in place for your business.

Call or email Archway today and let a team of professionals explain how to grow your business with images. Call 1-877-50-TWEET (877-508-9338) or email manageyourtwitter@gamil.com and let’s get working on getting those images in place. Napoleon Bonaparte would be proud.

Funniest print ads and commercials

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Companies have come up with some amazingly funny and creative ways to get us to remember their products in 2012.

 

From Matthew Broderick bringing back his “Ferris Bueller” character to hawk Hondas to dogs destined for a television showdown that might make Maury Povich blush, advertising has definitely made us laugh this year.

 

Many of the side-splitting commercials were part of this year’s Super Bowl telecast, combining celebrities and spoofs for memorable spots for millions of television viewers.

 

The year’s top print ad were sans celebrities,but that did not have them taking a back seat in the humor department whatsoever. Their stark, one-page images definitely got the attention of readers, the goal of any advertisement.

 

Here’s a look at the top 10 print ads and commercials so far in 2012:

Print Ads

“Spending too much time with the wife?” – Clemenger BBDO Melbourne gets the point across about the manliness of Foster’s beer with this ad. Pictures of couples with very similar outfits and hair-dos carried a strong message about how much more manly Carlton Mid and other Foster products are than other beers.


“Real Date” – A Brazilian print ad for the O Fio Brier Bar humorously targets the phony world of online dating, urging potential patrons to “Get out of web affairs. Have a real date.”

“Dogs have issues too” – It would seem somebody at the Johannesburg-based Ireland Davenport agency saw one too many episodes of “The Maury Show” before working on this ad. The only thing that appears to be missing from the ad for National Geographic Channel’s “Dog Whisperer” is Maury Povich bellowing to the male golden retriever eying the spotted pups, “Duke, you are not the father!”

 

“Frozen Meat” –  When you are the only provider of garden fresh baby food, nothing screams it like Godzilla-size killer chickens invading a town. The Lithuanian baby-food producer Marmaluzi generated a memorable and funny ad with this ‘B’ movie spoof.

 

“The Wine List” – Creating a full-page ad with nary a piece of art is tough to do, but Colenso BBDO, Australia, pulls it off masterfully with this beer ad playing on the fear of any man who has taken the wine list to try and impress. Its ad also swirls around the idea in your brain that DB Export Dry is a sophisticated beverage.

 

Commercials

 

“Cape Cod Chips’ A Flock of Seagulls” – This is an example of why Al Gore invented computer-generated imagery (or was that the Internet?) A flock of seagulls rocking A Flock of Seagulls’ “I Ran” on a beach? Classic. This 30-second spot has so much awesomeness, it bears repeat viewing. In your replays, notice the lighthouse, which is identical to the one on the Cape Cod bag, in the background and   the drummer going all Hollywood and knocking a cymbal of  its stand. Thank you, Al Gore, this ad rocks!
 

“Charlie Sheen’s Reborn”  – Everyone is “winning” when they see this ad for a Bavarian beer being sold in the Netherlands. Charlie Sheen pokes fun at himself in the spot as he leaves rehab promising never to be back again. However, on the way home, he thinks he is hallucinating as everyone he sees – including a pregnant woman and a police officer – are drinking beer. Sheen is so perplexed at things, including a beer bash being thrown in his honor – that he freaks out and fires off the ‘F’ bomb (a line Sheen likely didn’t need to rehearse). Everything finally makes sense in Sheen’s world (if it ever really does) when he eventually sees that what everyone’s drinking is Bavaria Global’s new alcohol-free beer,  Bavaria Lemon.
 


“Matthew’s Day Off” – Matthew Broderick brought back his “Ferris Bueller” character in this Honda ad for the Super Bowl. Broderick takes a cue from his inner Ferris and fakes a sick day during a movie shoot. He then traipses through the city on an escapade, including a trip to the race track and singing in a Chinatown parade, that would make Ferris proud. Adding to the commercial’s humor and charm are modern day versions of the economics teacher and the parking lot attendant’s Ferrari-like handling of Broderick’s CR-V.
 

“Toyota reinvents everything” – Toyota had its own stellar showing Super Bowl Sunday with this ad which notes after reinventing the Camry, Toyota personnel just kept on going. They reinvented the police officer (above) to also give back rubs, couches to be made of bikini-clad babes or bathing suit-wearing, chiseled guys (the choice is yours), and drapes made of pizza. Like a politician, the ad fails to give any facts, such as what exactly has changed with the Camry, but after babes, back rubs and pizza, do you really need to know?
 

“Chevy Camero graduation gift” – Chevrolet made its own mark on the Super Bowl market with this ad of a starry-eyed graduate looking right past his parents’ gift and thinking a neighbor’s Chevrolet Camero was his surprise. The commercial was actually written and produced by 26-year-old filmmaker Zach Borst who won a contest Chevy conducted for its Super Bowl ad. He used friends for actors, locations and camera help. The grad commercial topped nearly 600 submissions for the competition.

 

 

How do you promote your business?

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You work hard to make your business a success. You put the hours in to make sure the job gets done right. You go the extra mile to make sure your customers are satisfied.

But with all of the time and effort you put in, how do make sure that your business keeps growing? How do you ensure that a steady stream of customers continues and increases?

You have to promote your business, get the word out there about your company. Let people know why you are the go-to source, the expert in your field.

Few people have a ready-made pulpit to get the word out about their business. Few business owners have free access to share information regarding their services and products with the masses.

Promoting your business is a complicated effort that can be a confusing maze of ads, media outlets and price ranges. How do you promote your business in the most cost-effective manner? How do you know you are getting the most bang for your buck? That likely depends on your business, your budget and your desired audience.

There are multiple avenues to consider when looking to promote your business. Here are some promotional tools and questions to ask yourself:

 Billboards: Very high-visibility tools, but could be out of some business’s promotions price range. Can you afford the cost? Can you boil down what you need to tell your potential clients about your product or service to just a few words? Can your message be quick enough to be noticed and remembered by a motorists on a highway at 55 mph? Is there a billboard location near enough your business to make the expense worth it? Are you willing to commit to a billboard lease agreement, and the time frame that goes along with it?

 Social media: A growing promotional tool that can get your business’s name in front of potential customers several times a day. Do you have products that would work being pictured on Facebook? Do you have a Facebook presence currently, with your business being “Liked” by customers? Do you have someone who can update your business’s Facebook page regularly? Would purchasing an ad on the side of Facebook pages benefit your business? Do you post updates and news about your business on Twitter? Do you have the time to do that? Do you have a Linkedin account? Do you use it to let connections know when you have picked up a big new client or other news? Is there a YouTube video posted of what you do and who you are as a business?

Website: That same video of your business doing what it does on YouTube should also be on your business website, along with plenty of other information about your company. Do you have a strong web page that draws in potential customers? Is your domain name the same as your business name, making it easy for customers to find you? Are your keywords strong enough to get your listed in search engines?

 Print ads: Do you have a lot to say about your product or service? If so, print advertising might be a good option for you. Do you have listings of products, such as a car dealership, that would be beneficial to have before the public in print form? Is your product pretty stable, where it would be good to have it listed in a publication that might be on an end table for a week or month? Or is your product supply always changing and not geared for such longevity advertising? Are you a smaller company that could benefit from getting your message out through a lower-cost medium. Do you want to use coupons to gauge the response?

 Broadcast ads: Using radio or television can get word out about your product or service to a wide audience. Is your product message succinct enough for a 30-second radio or television commercial? Can you afford the mass-marketing effort, which often includes hired talent? Do you want to reach a broader audience or would a more-targeted audience (watchers of college football, etc.) be better?

 Direct mail: Letting people know about your product and your sales can be achieved by sending the information right to their doorstep. Would targeting certain ZIP codes be beneficial to your business? Then, direct mail could help. Like print ads, coupons can be a way to know how receptive people are to your message. Do you want to offer coupon deals? How many homes do you want to reach?  How much of a discount do you want to offer on the coupon?

 Flyers: Paper pieces can be handed to people or put on their cars or in their mailboxes with your information and deals. Do you have the manpower to target certain areas at certain times with your flyers? Are those the best times or simply the most convenient for your staff? Can you afford the manpower to put pieces in mailboxes and in doors?

Business cards: A great way to get your business’s name out to people you meet. Is your business card unique enough to get noticed? Is all your company’s information, including your website, on your card? Do you make sure to always have cards with you?

 Vehicles: An eye-catching way to promote your business is to paint a car, van or truck with your business logo and information. Do you have a company vehicle to which you can do this? Is your business along a major roadway, where a painted vehicle parked near the roadway would serve as an ongoing advertisement? If you are not along a thoroughfare, is there one nearby where you could park the vehicle at the close of business?

Samples: People love free stuff. Handing out free samples of your product will get people’s attention. Are you willing to give people a taste of your product free of charge? Are you near a high-pedestrian-traffic area where providing samples would be worth your company’s time and effort?

 Contests: Having a contest with your product as a prize is good, low-priced advertising. Whether you or a third-party, like a radio station, conducts the contest, it will get attention if the prize is good enough. Are you willing to give up product for the publicity? Is there enough name recognition for your product that it carries value and weight with the public?

 

I’d be interested in your responses. Send me your thoughts at manageyourtwitter@gmail.com. And, as always, I would love to be a sounding board for ideas about promoting your business.

A Social Search

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