Use Your Advertising Dollars To Generate Leads

Use Your Advertising Dollars To Generate Leads

One of the most common advertising mistakes is trying to close the sale in your first contact. It's more profitable to use your advertising dollars to generate leads. Step one is your advertising, step two is following up and asking for the sale.

Following up on your leads online is essential. You can actually afford to spend more money acquiring a lead than you earn from the sale, the key is to think long term, creating customers for life.

2-step Marketing Strategy

STEP ONE is to prospect for leads. Here you are not asking for the sale. The purpose is to generate a lead. First you want to generate interest in your product or service.

You incur most, if not all of your costs, in developing your leads. So you want to have a well thought out follow up system on the back end.

STEP TWO is to follow up, and convert the prospect into a customer.

Your follow up system's purpose is to offer compelling content in bite-sized chunks. Your system works your prospects like a street actor. Offering them enough information to hold their attention, and long enough to EARN the opportunity to pass the hat.

Boosting Your Conversion Rate

Suppose you sell a product at $35 that costs you $20. Then there is a potential profit in one sale of $15. Now if $10 worth of advertising brings 10 leads but only one sale, your net profit is $5.

Now let's take it one more step.

What might happen if you followed up again in a few days with more information? If you generate additional sales, your conversion rate goes up. Let's say you send 3 follow up messages over a week to your 10 leads.

What happens to these numbers when you have a good follow up procedure is in place? Consider your follow up generated three more additional sales? Now your ad cost of $10 is subtracted from gross profit of four sales (the original plus three), which is $60. Now you have a profit of $50, ten times the original $5 profit from the first sale. The profit is the follow up.

Your advertising costs remains the same but using effective follow up your advertising costs are divided between four sales instead of one. Experiment to find the number of follow up messages that work best for your product or service.

If may cost you $10 to generate a first sale. It doesn't need to cost more to follow up from a slightly different angle. You may boost your profit by as much as much as ten times.

A Story To Illustrate

A gold miner was hopelessly lost in the desert, he had run out water days ago, and the temperature was over 100 degrees. He was about to give up when he stumbled across what appeared to be an old abandoned water pump. He pumped it like crazy but no water came out.

At the base of the pump, he discovered a tiny bottle of water, and under it he finds a note that read.
"I repaired this ole' pump, so it'll work if you try. Just take that little bottle of water and pour it down the well. It'll wet the leather washer and seal the pump. Then you'll get all the water you want."
Earning money online is not as easy as people believe it to be. The problem is that more than 90% of all newbie marketers do not invest enough into their business to prime the pump.

A rocket uses most of its fuel just getting off the ground.

So If 90% Fail Why Even Try?

You see, when you have little invested, you have little to lose. The more you invest the more you have to stand to lose. An invested marketer doesn't give up - he can't afford to.

Too much effort is wasted in search of a silver bullet, or finding a get rich overnight strategy. Big business interests want us to believe that a bird in the hand (a job) is worth two in the bush (long term residual income).

The corporations have a vested interest in our continuing to working for them. They are accustomed to getting the lion's share of the profit for our efforts. Remember your earning power is magnified in a job and you must not only earn your hourly rate, you must also earn enough to pay all your benefits AND earn a healthy profit for the company.

Giving up too soon is like drinking that little bottle of water, it is a shortsighted solution to a long-term outcome, and it only partly satisfies your thirst.

If on the other hand instead of drinking the little bottle of water you use it to prime the pump you can have an unlimited supply.

Tracking Your Follow up Program

In following up, it is difficult to keep track of which message should be sent to a particular prospect, and when it should be sent. An automated programmable procedure can make this simple. Create the messages, decide upon the interval between sending them, and then let the system handle the details.

I first learned the importance of automated follow up using the AWeber follow up system. Using a system like this correctly should almost always at least double your sales conversion rate.

AWeber Automated Autoresponders
http://www.1st-Be-Your-Own-Boss.com/followup.html

A Real World Follow-Up Example

Let's say you have a web page about the types of hand tied flies for use on the Snake River in Idaho. You offer a link on your page to request more information. Your visitor fills in their name and email address, and gives their permission to send them more information.

You send out information to add value to your product. You tell them about the local fishing guide services in Hell's Canyon, Idaho, AND you explain choices of hand tied fishing flies.

In another message, you explain more about the local fishing records, and send a link to a few other websites that offer services in your area, AND a special offer combined with a local guide service.

You can make arrangements with local providers so you earn extra commissions recommending their related products and services. In addition, you establish your own website's credibility and YOUR credibility as an expert. In this example, using follow messages help you create additional income.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
ROBERT SMITH helps thousands successfully market their Internet based home business. You'll find tons of free marketing tools & resources on his Internet Marketing web site at: http://www.smithfam.com/ . For more marketing tips and advice, check out Bob's ebook, Be Your Own Boss, a work-at-home business success manual like none other.

You can reach Bob by phone at:(541) 689-1847 PST, and by email at: mailto:bob@smithfam.com
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