There is no doubt that having a list full of targeted leads is a value thing. A list of a few thousands prospects who have gladly handed over their details is very much like an un-hatched golden egg. Given the right nurturing you can turn that golden egg into a regular income stream.
But how does one go about getting thousands of targeted leads?
Thankfully you’re living in 2015, a time where it’s really not that hard to source thousands of targeted leads when using the right platforms and techniques.
With so many different platforms out there to pick from, building a list should be a piece of cake.
In this article you will learn:
- What a landing page is
- Techniques to get the prospect to hand over their details
- 10 different platforms to generate leads
- Dos and don’ts of generating leads
At the end of this guide you will have the tools to develop and hatch your very own golden egg.
What Is A Landing Page?
A landing page is where a prospect lands after clicking on a link.
This can be something found on Google, clicking a paid ad or a social media link. The landing page will be where the prospect will be asked to hand over their details in exchange for something of value.
With online marketing all you really need to capture is their first name and email address. Nothing more.
Some of the platforms I will talk about today integrate their own landing pages or allow you to collect emails without the use of a landing page, but these are few and far between. A landing page needs to be well written, have a clear focus and compels the prospect to make the intended action.
What type of value should you provide?
Nobody is going to hand over their email address unless you can convince them.
Convincing is done by providing the prospect with some sort of value. Many online marketers and businesses use the following methods to gain a prospect’s email address in exchange for value:
eBooks – Seems to be the most common way online to generate leads. While I personally think it’s overused and a bit stale, there is no doubt on how successful and easy this method is. Online marketers will often outsource the writing of these eBooks to epic content writers like me, and then offer it as a gift for people who sign up to their newsletter.
Offers – Some will promise an instant X% off voucher code if the prospect sign ups to their mailing list today. A great option for anyone running an online store or selling digital products.
Online courses – A more off-the-wall approach to capturing leads is to offer a free online course. Whereas before people were offering eBooks, they are now creating private courses on YouTube or ZippyCourses in exchange for email addresses.
To keep up-to-date – This method works best on blogs and websites that provide epics amount of value already. Various call-to-actions should be placed around the site enticing prospects to sign up. While highly valuable for blogs this method will not work on a single landing page.
Reports/secrets/ guides – These are just the same as eBooks but labelled in a different way. For example, here’s QuickSporut’s CTA that offers ‘secrets’ to making $5,000 per hour.
The image shows a disc making the prospect think it’s an actual product, well in reality it’s pretty much a digital labelled as something else.
Clever!
10 Platforms to generate targeted leads
1. Twitter’s Lead Generation Card
One of the advertising options Twitter provides all businesses is to create their very own tweet that acts as an opt-in form. You simply write a small piece of text, add a picture and Twitter does the rest.
What I love most about Twitter’s Lead Generation Card is the fact it has a single-click opt in feature. As all Twitter accounts are tagged with a user’s name and email address, to opt-in to your list all they have to do is click a single button.
The easier it is for people to sign up the greater the chances of them doing so. Not only that but Twitter offers remarketing features and detailed targeting options.
Do keep in mind that using this method is not free and you will need set your bids on a cost-per-lead basis. This simply means how much you’re willing each time you lock up a lead.
2. Facebook Giveaways
One of the Facebook advertising features is to provide an offer or giveaway. Picking this option allows your prospects to use their email address as a way to submit into the competition.
Before they can redeem the offer or be entered into the free prize draw they must hand over their email address. You can create Facebook offers on your page for free, but I suggest running a small ad campaign since Facebook is dropping the organic reach on promotional content.
3. Keyword Targeting
In my article last week I talked about using keywords to generate targeted leads who would then purchase my products as a result. Anytime we use keywords it’s usually to generate leads for whatever our goal is.
Keyword targeting is a long-term approach that should be combined with SEO to generate the best results. Once you have attracted leads to your page, you place a call-to-action getting them to signup.
To get brushed up on keyword targeting you will first need to read my content creation article, then my SEO guide.
4. Have Several Opt-in Forms
A truly epic mistake I see many online marketers make is not having several CTAs giving the prospect several chances to sign up. You never know at what point of a copy the prospect is ready to hand over their details, which is why it’s even more important to give them several chances to do so.
A truly epic mistake I see many online marketers make is not having several CTAs giving the prospect several chances to sign up Click To TweetCheck HubSpot, they have three different CTAs that are giving prospects the chance to signup. As visitors go down the page, the header subscribe button follows them throughout and at the bottom of each page they offer a free ‘CRM product’ and another chance to join their list.
As you go to move your mouse towards the back button they then hit you with a final attempt to capture a lead.
Sneaky, but I like it.
Pro-tip: When offering several different ways to join your list make sure each CTA is unique. If HubSpot used the same style image for all their CTAs they would look tacky and cheap.
5. Facebook Call-to-action
Facebook recently introduced a call-to-action button on every Facebook Page. Nowadays you don’t even need a website to build a list.
If you don’t have the time, money or skills to create a bulletproof landing page, you can redirect users to your Facebook Page to obtain leads.
6. Quick Response Codes
Quick Response Codes (better known as QR Codes) is a bar code like symbol that can be scanned using a mobile camera to reveal a URL link. I don’t think QR Codes have too much value online as it’s much easier for prospects to click a link than scan a code, but for offline marketing material it works great.
Here is a great post by Aweber who discuss the different number of ways you can use QR Codes to generate tons of new subscribers.
To get your very own QR code, check this site.
7. Use PPC Networks
What I love about PPC networks such as the Google Display Network is that if you cannot target your main keywords with SEO, you can with PPC. Generating targeted leads using a PPC is easy, you list the keywords you want to target and set the price you’re willing to pay per click.
Ad networks like Google will serve your ads and charge you only when someone clicks on your ads. Your ads will redirect prospects to your landing page where they will be persuaded to signup.
By finding the right keywords that received little competition I was able to pay as little as $0.045 per click. PPC ads are usually shown like this:
8. Email A Friend Option
Most email automation providers allow you to add extra options at the end of each email. Some include the email to a friend or colleague button.
As well as these buttons on the end of every email, place them on all your thank you for subscribing pages giving the prospect the opportunity to send your landing page to friends.
9. YouTube Videos
I don’t really use YouTube as people always tell me I have a face that’s suited better for radio and not TV.
But having said that it’s an awesome way to generate targeted leads thanks to their in-video buttons which let you redirect prospects anywhere you want.
Whether you’re doing a product review or are using YouTube ads to gain leads, by creating a short video with an in-video CTA can help you secure some tasty leads.
10. Blog Comments
There are WordPress plugins that let anyone who writes a blog comment to instantly join your mailing list if they tick the check-box. If you’re using content creation as part of your lead generation tactics then it’s a useful thing to have.
Anyone who is willing to leave a comment is going to be more targeted and likely to signup then someone who doesn’t interact with your content.
The dos and don’ts for gathering quality leads
The tips listed above are super easy to use to find yourself bags of targeted leads. The problem with list building isn’t usually the platforms you use but rather how you go about finding them.
Without understanding the theory to list building you can spend weeks or even months building a 1,000-10,000 deep list that is not targeted and totally useless.
Follow these tips to avoid making the same mistake.
Do Only Source Targeted Leads
Whenever you’re generating leads you want to focus on quality over quantity. A list of 1,000 targeted prospects will yield you a higher ROI for less work than a generic email list of 50,000 people.
For example, if you’re generating leads for a dog training site what use would 10,000 emails be if none of them own a dog? Not only will your efforts be a total waste of time but when it comes to measuring your email open rates and clicks you will get the wrong information.
You may have written an epic subject line and a killer email but got less than 5% opens because your list has the wrong people on. While it costs to gather leads on Facebook and Twitter, they both have awesome targeting services to pinpoint your ideal customer.
Using various ad networks that allow you to filter for keywords is another way to avoid capturing un-targeted leads.
Don’t Misguide Your Prospects
Have you ever clicked on an ad that promised something and once you got to the landing page they are offering something different? Well don’t be that Internet marketer.
If your PPC ad, Facebook offer or URL link states that if they click the link they will get a free 30-day trial of your product – make sure that’s exactly what they get. I have often come across businesses that claim I can try their product for free but when it comes time to download I am being asked to hand over my credit card details.
If you do this with paid lead generating marketing efforts, you will have a big hole in your pocket and nothing to show for it.
Do Understand The Theory Behind Landing Pages
Generating quality leads is 50% sourcing and 50% convincing them to join. Getting a prospect to land on your website is only half the battle, you still have to convince them to hand over their details.
Generating quality leads is 50% sourcing and 50% convincing them to join Click To TweetCopywriting is an art, so much so that there are several books written on copywriting. Subtle changes in a copy affect your conversion rate by as much as 100%.
Don’t believe me?
Here are 100 different case studies on how simple changes in a landing page dramatically increased conversions. Colors, words and images play a huge part in whether prospects will do what you want them to or not.
Don’t Make Your Opt-In Forms Long
Basically all you need from prospects is their name and email address. Unless you’re going to send them a gift basket there is no need to get them to enter their address, telephone number or star sign.
Internet users are lazy, don’t get them to give you more than you need. You also need to get rid of any CAPTCHA plugins you have on your signup form. Moz conducted a study and showed that while the CAPTCHA did filter out spam, it did lose out on 3.2% of conversions.
Whenever I see a CAPTCHA this is how I respond:
Do Make It Simple For Prospects
Your signup process needs to be as easy as possible for prospects. Even if that includes you creating a video and pointing to the CTA (as shown in YouTube example above). Some landing pages don’t make it obvious for prospects and they fail to gain traction.
Here’s a perfect example of how Groove increased their conversion rate by 100% by simply changing the message of their page making it easy for others signup.
Don’t Implement Bad Typography
Typography is the art of arranging text to make it look visually stunning and beautiful. The prettier your page is the longer a prospect will browse. Think about it, how many times have you visited a website that was out-of-date or looked horrible and you left instantly?
This is a sales page for Pegasus who are promoting their software, I wonder how many people are contacting them or requesting a call back after visiting?
Not a lot I suspect.
Do, Do Your Research
Every niche has its own audience who react differently to different types colors. For example, a Joe Hallock study showed that blue was the favorite color for both men and women, while purple was second favorite for women and last for men.
What does this mean? Well if you’re targeting all genders then using blue in your copy may be more beneficial. If you’re only targeting men it may be wise to cut purple from the color scheme. The study also showed which color represent what and how to portray a certain message using color.
By doing the research on your ideal prospect can help you maximize your lead generation goals.
Don’t Quit So Early
I’ll be honest with you.
You can read this article, try all the tips I’ve listed and you will most likely fail. I would bet good money on that.
You won’t fail because the tips I mentioned in this article don’t work (they do), but you will fail because you most likely have no experience in building a list. You will have to spend days if not week tweaking all your ads until you find a method that works for your niche.
That’s the secret, there is no one solution to list building. Every niche is different and requires a different approach.
Do you know the biggest difference between the 95% of Internet marketers who fail and the 5% who make thousands of dollars? Once they fail, they go back to the drawing board and keep on trucking.
Do you know the biggest difference between the 95% of Internet marketers who fail and the 5% who make thousands of dollars? Click To TweetWithout making use of expert online course on list building or doing the research and work yourself before hand, it’s going to take time to build a kick-ass list.
The good thing is this: the more serious you’re, the quicker you will be able to hatch your golden egg.
Do Use A Good Email Automation Provider
There is a reason why email automation tools such as Mailchimp and Aweber (or InfusionSoft, Active Campaign and Hubspot if you’re hardcore) charge a monthly fee – it’s because they are the bomb. I have used several free email services who have all quite frankly sucked a big fat one.
I’m not saying they are all bad, but everyone I have tried was too hard to use, stiff and made my emails looked tacky. If you know of any good free platforms, please leave a comment below.
I’ve used some platforms that even provided the wrong data. For example, one provider said I only managed to get 10% of opens while Google Analytics had it at 54.5%.
I then made the move to Mailchimp (free to use if you have under 2,000 subscribers) and the results matched inline with GA.
Most start from $15 a month upwards, a worthy investment for anyone who is serious about making money online.
Summary
When you’re looking to source targeted leads I advise you to use as many mediums as you can. Depending on your niche and target market will determine how successful each medium is. They won’t all work for you, but by testing you can better spend your budget to get the best ROI.
When creating any type of list you’re always going to find it difficult to build momentum. Only after testing several different types of platforms and landing pages will you know what works for your niche.
The first list I ever created was using the WordPress Plugin Mailpoet. I was getting around 2 new subscribers per week. Mailpoet is a free plugin that is quite limited in features and looks rather dull. Then I found out about Mailchimp and started to use their opt-in form.
I increased my weekly signups to 14 per week by simply changing the opt-in form.
Okay, so now you have all the information to start your first ever list – LEGGO!