How To Generate Leads For Your Online Business

By: Melvin Richardson
Submitted: 2008-10-27 18:00:13
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One of the best ways I know to get great leads for your business is to use your website. First you attach a newsletter to your website with an opt in feature which gives prospective customers the opportunity to subscribe to the newsletter by putting their email in the subscriber box. Not only will prospective customers start receiving up to date information about your products, services and your business, but your current customers will as well when they subscribe.  

Now even though you have a great website with all of this valuable content no one will be able to find it unless you promote your site. A great way to do this is article writing. You can write articles that don’t necessarily deal with your business but maybe it’s a service of your business. For example if you own an internet marketing business you may want to write about article marketing or search engine optimization. Next you take your articles and submit them to the free ezines or electronic newsletters for publishing.   Make sure you submit them to the appropriate category. Each ezine has a number of categories such as arts and humanity, computers, marketing, religion, spirituality, finance, business or automobiles. There could be hundreds of different categories you simply choose the category that best describes your business or what the article is about. 

The next portion requires you to write a brief summary of your article and it should be no longer than two lines and submit your summary to the appropriate category.   Now you need to submit the actual article which should be anywhere from 450 to 750 words and all ezines will have a terms of agreement section which will let you know of any variance. The last section is the resource box which includes your name, title, bio and your website link. When people read your article, if it’s well written, they will be more enticed to click on your website link, which serves as a hyperlink, and they will then be redirected to your website which allows them to opt in to your newsletter and start receiving some great information. They will also be able to see all of your products and services that you offer on your website.  

Now since you have captured their email address into your database you will be able to market to them over and over again. Every time a new product or service comes out they will be provided with this information. This prospective customer is now a valid lead for your business and even though they do not buy something then and there you are staying in touch with them and eventually they will make that purchase.   If they are satisfied with your product you have just established a repeat customer.  

Your articles, as well as the article title, should be filled with keywords and great content. Keywords are those words that people are more likely to search for on the internet when they are looking for your product or service. Once again if someone is looking for internet marketing you may want to mention that in your article and title.  If your business deals with grooming pets it would be a good idea to mention that in your article content and the article title as well. 

Other ways to get leads for your business is to buy the leads. Let’s say a college is buying internet leads that cost $50 per lead and they were receiving between 150 and 200 leads per month. Let’s look at the low end of this. 150 X 4.33 weeks = 650 leads per month X $50 = $32,500 per month. On average all the Admissions Advisors together were enrolling approximately 45 new students per month.   So you are looking at a conversion rate of .07 percent. So know you will need to work through the figures for your own business and determine your break even point and if and when you make a profit. With this example you have to factor in the registration fee and how much the tuition is for each student.    When you compare these two methods right away you see that one costs you a substantial amount of money and the other method is completely free.

Another thing that’s good about the first method is that other’s can download your articles and put them on their own website but they must leave all the information in your resource box intact which gives you even more exposure.

Article source: Expert Articles