A strong lead generation plan should be at the base of every business marketing plan. After all, every business has a product or service to sell, and needs prospective customers to convince to use their particular product. Therefore, all the marketing a business does, from direct mail to search marketing, is for the purpose of generating leads. And if it’s not - it should be.

Even when you’re marketing for brand awareness, you’re actually conducting lead generation. Building your brand name is just to get top of mind awareness of your product in consumers’ heads. Then, when they need a product you can provide, your name naturally pops into their head. That leads to a prospect, which turns into a paying client!

There are many forms of lead generation. The ‘power-media’ of the past such as commercials, print ads, billboards and radio commercials may be all well and good for brand recognition building, but leave much to be desired in the lead generating category. You just can’t target your audience specifically.

Other traditional marketing techniques, such as direct mail and telemarketing, allow you to better target your audience. That way, if you’re selling office copiers, you can specifically contact offices and companies, rather than blasting your message over the television to every demographic in America. Smart, logical lead generation saves money and leads to higher conversion rates.

Of course, some of the best lead generation tactics come from Internet marketing. Out of all forms of marketing, online advertising probably allows you to best target your audience and be the most creative. With search marketing (such as Google Adwords) you can target your text, audio or video ads ONLY to those searching for a product or service you provide. This ad then sends the user to your website, where, if you have it set up right, you can capture them as a lead.

Of course, you have to offer something worthwhile in exchange for a consumer’s information. Lead generation is all about give and take. Your offer needs to be either off the wall creative, or just to good to pass up. You can use your blog to get people to sign up for updates, or offer free coupons to your services.

Information is power, so if you’ve got it, share it - the offer of a quality informational report will often draw in leads. For example, if you are an event planner in need of holiday business, put together the ‘Ultimate Office Part Guide’ that includes tips, tricks, coupons and invitation templates for planning a holiday part in exchange for a user’s name, email and phone number. If you want their contact info, you gotta give in return!

The bottom line when it comes to lead generation is identifying your target audience down to the tiniest demographic, and than coming up with creative ways to target that audience to get your brand name in front of them OR to collect their contact information. Once you get their information, you move from lead generation to lead follow-up, and that well that is a whole new ball game!

Posted: March 8th, 2008 under Marketing.
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In today’s competitive business world, small companies often get swallowed up. Making your presence known can be tough, but the Internet has changed all that. With the web, small business can now get their services out there and build a strong online reputation. It’s call market presence building and more companies need to be doing it!

The Internet allows for endless possibilities when it comes to market presence building. It’s really just about good PR - getting your name out there for all to see. Step one is having an awesome website. In the world of Web 2.0, a plain, boring website is often the equivalent of a death wish.

Your website needs a blog, forum, chat or any combination of the three. Your blog should relate to your field, and by having several employees blogging, you should constantly have new content to add. The nice thing about blog posts it heir often widely circulated and searched on the web. A forum and chat can often in the same way.

In a way, market presence building is all about marketing your company and your website. Do you ever wonder what people find when they search you company online? Is it your website popping up, as well as favorable reviews, blog posts and articles by employees? Or does a search on your company yield Rip-Off Reports and Better Business Bureau complaints galore?

By constantly releasing new content, you can better control your company’s reputation online, and that’s really the meat and potatoes of market presence building. By releasing one or two industry-related articles a week to several hundred of the thousands of article directories out there, you can easily change the search results for your company’s name.

Start writing your own market presence building plan. Include article writing, as well as blogging and press releases to build your reputation. A strong market presence on the web will lead to higher top of mind awareness and lead generation for your business.

Another way of market presence building in the search engines is through pay per click advertising (or search marketing) and search engine optimization. Pay per click advertising allows you to pay money for your text ads to pop up in the sponsored listings of major search engines whenever someone types in the keywords you paid for. This is an amazing tool for really targeting your marketing.

SEO is more in-depth and a longer process. It involves optimizing your website for certain keywords, building good content, and getting tons of links back to your site. This will help you show up in organic listings for certain search terms. It’s more of a long-term aspect of market presence building.

Creating a strong market presence building plan is the first step to having a strong web presence and generating more and more leads online. It involves several key factors, including, but no limited to: article writing and distribution, press release distribution, pay per click advertising and search engine optimization. Not a process to be taken lightly, but once you get the ball rolling, it can turn into a true marketing juggernaut!

Posted: March 8th, 2008 under Marketing.
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I cannot stress it any more than I have already, but when you consider how important a good business name is to taking over the marketplace with your brand, you will definitely want to nail the perfect name. It is so vital, that it can mean the difference in failure or multi-millions.

The Search For A Business Name

It took me months of fruitless business name search before I really had any idea what I was doing in regards to naming my new business. I got business name suggestions from everyone I met, but none of them were really good. Hiring a company to get business name suggestions seemed like a silly idea to me at first, but then one of my friends and partners told me to think about it differently. To him, it is an investment, but to me I like to do it myself.

The business name that you choose should not exist all on its own, but as part of an overall business strategy. Naming a business is not only where you start as the business’s founder, but also where the consumer starts. Choose the wrong name and your business will falter.

How to Brand Your Business

The first thing you need to do is to decide what you want your new business name to communicate. I believe that in order to be most effective, your company name should support the heart of what your business does. To me, having a good business name is the purest form of advertising. Every time you say the name of the business it gives an opportunity to make an impression.

Having Difficulty Coming Up With A Business Name?

Brainstorming can be an excellent way to generate good ideas. I like to use the branch method of brainstorming for 10 minutes. Then I go over my ideas and group them. I then take combinations and even partial word combos and see what I can find. Important also to me is whether or not the domain name is available for the business, because I want it to be unique and to be able to have the .com address for my business name.

I would not recommend making your first or last name a part of the business name. Like Joe’s Plumbing. What if you sell the business? Think about “Roto Rooter?” That name says it all and is franchisable. For a website design business does “Chandler Web Design” sound better or does “Website Interactive?” It is so easy to see that the later business name is much better. Also don’t make the name hard to spell or remember. Think about it. You will have to use this name all the time. Make your business name an asset. Choose wisely and you will not regret it!

Posted: March 8th, 2008 under Marketing.
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