Using surveys to generate leads

One of the best ways that you can generate leads is to have people fill out surveys. This gives you a good idea of what they are looking for, what their age group is, and so on. But there are a few things that should be considered when you are composing surveys.

1. Keep it short

You don’t want to ask too much information of the clients because it may scare them off instead of making them interested in your company or product.

2. Respect their privacy

Assure them that the information that you collect is going to be for your eyes only, and that it won’t be sold to another company. This is something that is important to people and when you make this promise, it shows that you
respect them and their wishes.

3. Offer them a thank you

Let them know that you appreciate the time that they took to do the survey and offer them a thank you present. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive, but people like to know that they are appreciated.

When a survey is done right, and in the right manner, it can be a very useful marketing tool. The thing to remember is that in order to make them work, people have to be willing to fill them out.

Respect their time, respect their privacy, and respect their effort, and you will find that people will give you answers that will be useful and helpful to you and your company.

An easy way to conduct surveys is to do it online. Here is a good and free resource to quickly create online surveys:

http://surveymonkey.com.

The free version allows you to get 100 responses per survey. Surveymonkey is a worthwhile service.

Survivors of the early Internet or Web 1.0 undoubtedly remember that the business of marketing “free” online was all that was required to secure millions of dollars in venture capital funding. The business of marketing went something like this in 1999: Dream up a great widget (no need to flush it out); build a website; show venture capitalists your website; tell them a great story about how it will scale if they just add money; get the money and build up the website; give widget for free to get subscribers and a few customers; make a few dollars back on a few million dollars worth of investments; file for IPO; cash check; repeat. Simple, right?

Of course I left a few details out of the above marketing process in order to make this article short, but the main story back then remains the same … build it, give it away for free, and they will come. You can always make up the dollars you lose to acquire each customer by your volume. The scary thing about this marketing scheme was that it almost worked. Some of these Web 1.0 companies built up subscriber lists of hundreds of thousands. A few built lists of millions. Today we realize, as they did back then, that a confirmed subscriber list with full contact information is worth a lot of money. The problem back in Web 1.0 was that they did not have a back end strategy to their marketing funnel. So they spent the money to acquire the subscriber list but they didn’t have a way to make money off of that list.

Here is how you can make money today in the business of marketing free information. You can do this in 7 easy steps. Keep in mind that this is but one strategy. Be creative. There are many ways to build a list of followers online using Web 2.0.

1) First you will need a place to store your subscriber list. I’ve tried many services, both free and paid, and this service is the best in terms of deliverability of your email and ease of use. Sign up at their website below:

http://www.lowcostautoresponder.com

2) Create a 10 part how-to video series or a 10 part how-to article series or a 10 part how-to audio series on something that you know how to do really well. One example might be on how to use Photoshop to remove wrinkles or shrink some wide body curves. Another example might be on how to make the best smoothies that rival Jamba juice. A third example might be on how to remove spyware from your computer without having to spend a lot of money for a technician. Use your talents and know-how to create this free information series.

3) If you created a video series, post it on YouTube. But here is the trick: Take the signup email that you received from lowcostautoresponder.com and put it as the first piece of text in your YouTube video description. YouTube will make this a hyper-link. What this means is that when viewers click on the link to learn more about your really useful how-to video, they will be prompted to sign up to your list to see the next video in the series.

Here is how to test the sequence: Show video one, then ask them to click on your YouTube link to see video two. Use lowcostautoresponder to send them to video two without much fuss. However, put a note at the end of video two and in your confirmation email that if they want to see video three, they will have to confirm their subscription to your list. If they confirm, they will be sent to videos three, four, five, and so on. If they don’t confirm, you’ll know right away that your video was not very appealing to them. You don’t want that prospect on your list anyways.

4) Post videos three, four, five and so on on Google video and make them private. This prevents the general public from being able to find your video. Take a note of these video URLs on Google and put it in your autoresponder.

5) Advertise your YouTube video by:

a) Asking your friends to rate and comment on it.
b) Point links to your video by submitting the very same video on other video sites like Veoh, Viddler, Google video, Yahoo video, and so on.
c) Ping your YouTube video URL.
d) Hand bookmark your video URL.
e) Write an article about your video and submit it to Goarticles.com with a link pointing to your video. Then ping your article on Goarticles and bookmark it too.

6) Once people subscribe to your list, write a series of 10 to 20 autoresponder messages. Talk about your how-to subject in more detail. Let them know that your “ezine” or “newsletter” is supported by sponsors. If you need sponsored offers to use to make money from your list, I suggest you sign up here for free. They don’t accept every application, but if you mention that Alex Tran sent you, you will stand a better chance of getting in.

http://alextran.com/bookmark/bestcpa

7) Ask them to go to your YouTube videos and rate them and leave their comments.

That’s it!! You can do the same for your how-to articles or your how-to audios.

Good luck and happy subscriber list building. About the only piece that you will have to pay for is the autoresponder. It sure is a whole lot cheaper than VC money though. Trust me on this…

http://www.lowcostautoresponder.com

During the early days of the internet, it was far easier to compete because there were fewer websites to compete with. Today in the 21st century, if you want to successfully compete with hundreds of thousands of competitors, you’ve got to have a well planned and strategically sound online advertising campaign in place. Do this before you ever publish your website. If you’ve got all your planning done ahead of time, you’ll get traffic to your website sooner rather than later.

Maintaining your website is an expense. If you’re also paying for ads, the income you derive won’t add up to much without sufficient traffic. The time you spend planning your online advertising campaign and developing the best strategies for your product or service will pay you big dividends, decreasing the time between launch and profits. Let’s take a look at how you can customize your advertising campaign to your advantage.

The *big* search engine is Google. They handle about 75% of all searches online. So it makes sense to make your website Google friendly. Google.com provides detailed information on how your website is ranked, how the spiders work, good links versus what Google deems spammy, along with a wealth of resources which show you how to increase your visibility. In fact, there’s so much information, it will take a while to go through it all. On the other hand, what you’ll learn will help you tailor your strategies for a successful online advertising campaign. This makes your effort entirely worthwhile. Think of all your competitors who neglect to make this thorough investigation!

For example, we’ve all seen websites which have advertisements which are completely unrelated to the page content, trying to sell you cell phones, gadgets and books on a page with an article on obtaining a mortgage. Perhaps the website owner figures if you can buy a home, you can thus afford these items. However, search engines will penalize you for irrelevant advertising. Target your ads to each page as the product or service pertains to the interest of the reader. Google’s AdSense program uses a variety of algorithms to scan the content of your page and match your page with ads of likely interest to that reader. While you can certainly add affiliate program ads, using Google AdSense drives traffic and revenue to your site far more quickly. This single element can give your online advertising campaign a hefty jump start.

Everyone knows that linking is important to a well planned online advertising campaign. What’s not so well known is that the quality of the site you’re linked to impacts your rankings. The search engine spiders are pretty “smart” and sophisticated these days, so be choosy when you select your links. If the Google spiders detect that most of your links within text are click-throughs to a potential sale, rather than information of value to your reader, you’ll take another hit in the rankings. The spiders may even exclude that page from future indexing.

It’s most important that you do your homework and find out what helps and what harms your search engine ranking. If you don’t, your online advertising campaign may become a failed campaign, setting your online marketing efforts back.

Publishing some of your content in relevant e-newsletters with high readerships is another excellent technique for any online advertising campaign. When you’re brainstorming for new ideas, always keep “relevance” and “quality’ in mind. Then watch your profits grow.

These days, most businesses have a website. If you don’t, check out my special on getting a top-ranked website. Prospective clients enjoy going to websites because they go there on their own terms and they can browse it at their leisure without feeling as if they have someone looking over their shoulder.

Here are some ways to make your website user friendly, and one of your biggest lead generators.

1. Keep it simple

Make sure that the website is easy to navigate and people can find what they are looking for quickly and easily.

2. Don’t blind your customers

Don’t use a lot of flashing lights or color schemes that can be painful to view, or else you may find that your customers close the window before they have a chance to see what you have to offer.

3. Offer advice or tips

It’s always a good idea to offer visitors something free, like tips or advice. Make sure that the advice and tips are pertinent to your business.

4. Encourage feedback

Have a guestbook or a forum that people can go to and leave feedback with suggestions or comments about your website. Even if they aren’t things that you want to hear, any feedback is valuable.

Follow up on the feedback and thank them for taking the time to leave it.

If you website is based on WordPress, here is an easy plug-in that sends a thank-you message to the people who took the time to comment on your website:

http://www.justinshattuck.com/comment-relish/

All of the above tips put the customer first and show that you care about what they think. When visitors know that you are putting them first, they are more likely to become a customer and encourage others to do the same.

Up for public viewing and consumption are two master marketers, Steve Jobs from Apple and Oprah Winfrey from The Color Purple. Remember that movie? That was where she got the name Harpo. Of course, Harpo is also Oprah spelled backwards.

Recently one of Oprah’s favorite things is the Amazon Kindle ebook reader. What is this Kindle reader that Oprah endorsed? According to Amazon.com, the Kindle is Amazon’s wireless reading device. You can read both ebooks and RSS feeds from your favorite sources like newspapers and blogs on the Kindle.

Amazon Kindle does not use WiFi for its wireless capability. Instead, the Kindle uses EVDO which is a standard that advanced cell phones use. The benefit is that you don’t have to locate a hotspot like you would for a WiFi device.

From the looks of it, Amazon Kindle is cool. The main drawback that I see to mass acceptance is it’s price tag of $360. Despite this relatively high price, you can download thousands of books for free from many online websites. One such site is Project Gutenberg where there are over 19 thousand books available for download. Another site is Google’s book search. You can find a very good list of these Kindle book websites at http://thekindle.wordpress.com/2008/01/19/free-books-for-the-amazon-kindle/.

Now back to sales and marketing. How can you use Kindle to further your marketing effort? After all, why would a master marketer like Oprah endorse the Kindle if there wasn’t something in it for her besides the affiliate commissions? Good question. Here is one idea that you can run with … Make your whitepaper and/or free report available in Kindle format. Make sure to embed links back to your website in your report. The really cool thing about the Kindle is that it allows users to click on links in the PDF. If you make your whitepaper or free report truly useful, people will follow the links back to your website where you can provide more information of value to them.

As far as mass adoption of the Kindle, the jury is still out. Amazon introduced the Kindle last year. I’m not sure what the sales numbers are but I can tell by looking at the number of downloads that it isn’t very high. However, now with the weight of Oprah behind the Kindle, it could very well take off and catch fire this coming year.

Now about the price. $360 is still a lot of money for most people. Below I’ll provide two ways for you to get the Kindle for “cheap” or “free.”

Method 1: Get Amazon Kindle for Cheap

1) Amazon Kindle is available for sale both on Amazon and on eBay.
2) Use the method that I wrote about in my post http://alextran.com/sales-psychology/how-to-save-money-on-ebay. So if the Kindle costs $360 with a Buy It Now option, your net with 25% off will be only $270. That’s a savings of $90.

Method 2: Get Amazon Kindle for Free

1) EZSuggestions is running a consumer poll right now.
2) Submit your vote, fill in some info, and qualify to get the Amazon Kindle for FREE. The website URL is http://ezsuggestions.com/amazonkindle.

So to recap, smart marketers should get the Amazon Kindle for cheap or free using the methods above. Then use the Kindle for lead generation using the idea that I put forth. Have fun Kindling.

One of the small business that I worked with was setting up as a small pizza delivery service. They didn’t see any reason why they needed direct mailing lists. Their strategy was basically to canvass various neighborhoods with coupons, fliers, and other advertisements for their service. They made their own direct marketing lists – it was pretty obvious who would buy what they were selling. It was a college town so they canvassed the student neighborhoods. Fast forward to six months later — business had not picked up so they had to reconsider their strategies. What they were doing didn’t seem to work.

They didn’t think that their direct mail lists were the problem. They hit different student neighborhoods every month, so one way or another they should have been getting everyone. The problem was that they were using so much money printing up thousands and thousands of fliers that they were not making enough on pizza sales to cover expenses. Finally, they hit a wall. They knew that they had to hire a direct marketing company to boost sales or they would go under within 18 months.

I was pleased to find out that their direct marketing lists were not the problem. The company that they hired, in fact, advocated expanding their turf even further. They came up with a novel solution: rather than using direct marketing lists with targeted advertisements to try to nail just the right customers, they wanted to take coupon books door-to-door and try to sell them off as a way of getting more business in the pizza joint. At that point, they were willing to try anything. I had expected them to use scientifically targeted direct marketing lists, but they were open for any new strategy. As long as it was something that they hadn’t tried before, it might be worth a shot.

It turned out to be the best thing that they had tried! People throw out free coupons all the time, but if you have good salesman selling a coupon book at the door, people will do their best to use every coupon up on your product. It’s just human nature. People value more the things that they had to pay for, including coupon books. At the prices they were selling pizzas, they would not make much money off of each new customer, but it didn’t really matter – there were so many new people coming in that they didn’t know what to do with them! It turns out that direct marketing lists aren’t the solution in this case. Good door-to-door salesman were. Sometimes you have to think out of the box when it comes to advertising your business.

Tips for generating leads

The reason that a lot of businesses fail is that they don’t focus on what is really important – the client.

Most people will say that making money is the most important. While money is important, consider that without clients you won’t have money. So here are 4 tips for generating leads.

1. Meet your clients’ needs

Clients aren’t going to buy your product or make use of your service unless you appeal to them and offer them something of great value.

Instead of focusing your advertisements on what you do, focus on what they will get out of your product or service.

This shows your clients that you are focusing on their needs instead of on simply making money on a product or service that no one can really use.

2. Get rid of waste

When you talk to clients, find out where they found the information about you and your company. If one form of advertising is working well, and the other one isn’t working as well, consider getting rid of the one that isn’t working.

Depending on what it is, it can be costing you money without giving anything back in return.

3. Make use of your website

Take a look at your website and look at it with a critical eye. Try and see it as a customer sees it and make sure that any questions that they might have are answered.

4. Ask questions

You should ask questions. When people see a question, it makes them think. They may not have thought about it before, but it helps them take a look at themselves and they might just find that they do have a need for your product or service, or want to get more information. So ask plenty of thoughtful questions, and then listen — really listen.