What to Do When Your Leads Run Dry

What to Do When Your Leads Run Dry written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

photo credit: shutterstock

We all know the recipe to run a successful business that is filled with infinite leads. The recipe varies, but may look like this:

5 oz of content

2 additional oz of content

1 tsp of recognition

3 cups of great clients

Few dashes of word of mouth

Bake in the oven for a year or so and out comes a beautiful moist cake that is filled with infinite leads, that never run dry!

Sounds easy right?

The reason why your leads have ran dry isn’t because you stink at cooking, it’s because your networking and processes are stale.

Get back to basics!

Create Partnerships with Industry Rivals

Although this might take a big bite out of your ego, it’s always nice to settle your differences and realize that there is a ton of money out there. You may find out that your competition isn’t competition after all. All businesses specialize and your competition is no different. Find synergy, make introductions, and send business each others way.

Promote Hyper Local

Given the lack of parameters of the internet, there isn’t much that’s stopping us from doing business anywhere in the world.

However, try to think about where your business is located and focus on being hyperlocal.

This means that all of your attention stays within a 2 to 5 mile radius from wherever your business is located. We understand that you have ideas to make your business famous, but right now, we need to focus on getting more leads!

Focusing on being hyperlocal will allow you to gain additional items for your recipe of success and give you the ability to not only capture local leads, but expand your business throughout the community and then you can grow it to take over the world.

Data Mining

Use the internet to your advantage.

Try to pick an industry that you have had success with in the past, and focus on prospecting within that specific industry for a whole week. Use social media and search engines to create a spreadsheet to organize the name, email address, and phone number of your prospects.

These spreadsheets give you a 30,000 foot view of who your prospects are, which can help you to be selective in the people you target and organize them by likelihood to bite. Once you have this part of the recipe, you can start making contact.

Cold Call

Pick up that device that you use for everything in your life, and use it for it’s main purpose; make a call!

Whoever said cold calling is dead lied.

Take the list that you used to mine data and begin calling individuals on the list to capture a meeting. No reason to hit a sales home run on the first call, focus on a meeting first.

Landing the Prospect Meeting

Once you’re at the meeting, wow the individual with a stellar presentation that leaves them speechless. Even though your new prospect may not be directly looking for your product/service in that moment, plug them into your sales funnel, follow up, and ask them a simple question:

Do you know anyone that may be interested in what I presented to you today?

As you move throughout business, and by using these simple methods in networking, they will result in additional leads for your business.

Listen, it happens, leads run dry. We can’t be perfect and have stellar lead generation all the time, but whatever you do, don’t stop!

The more you network and put yourself and your company out there, the more opportunities will come your way to sell. Sales is a numbers game and although the numbers may be stacked against you at this exact moment in time, it’ll turn around.

Create your own recipe and you’ll be a better business person because of it. Or at the very least, a better cook.

Johnathan Grzybowski is a tech entrepreneur and pro wrestling enthusiast. The millennial entrepreneur blogs about everything tech, marketing, and motivation at Dino.

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Building Relationships with your Leads

Building Relationships with your Leads written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

photo credit: 500 interns – NASA poster session via photopin (license)

You’ve invested time and energy in social media, content marketing, you’ve created a call to action that’s been generating leads, and your email list of contacts is growing. Now how do you generate sales from your current leads and expand your reach to attract new leads?

Let’s take a look at two effective techniques –influencer marketing and customer emails – and how they can help you build relationships with your leads.

Influencer marketing

Using key influencers to promote your brand to a wider market, should be an important part of your overall marketing strategy. Today’s key influencers are often bloggers, and building relationships with bloggers, within your niche, can be more valuable than money spent on traditional advertising channels. According to a recent survey, 81% of consumers say they trust advice from their favourite bloggers while only 33% trust ads.

Word-of-mouth marketing is very relevant and when word gets spread by industry influencers, there’s more potential for capturing the attention of new users and increasing your reputation.

Build a strategy around influencers

Most brands today understand the importance of content marketing, and 77% of marketers use blogging to increase brand influence. Once you’ve invested time and effort into your own blog, how do you spread your reach by connecting with other bloggers?

Software such as GroupHigh can help you identify focus areas for your target audience and find bloggers and social media influencers who will be relevant to your message. Once you’ve identified them, determine how to collaborate to the best effect. Building a successful campaign involves:

• Identifying your goals and understanding what you want to accomplish can help you decide on whom you want to work with and what approach you’ll take.

• Get creative. Everyone likes a good product review, but more than their attention, you want to get them involved. Sponsor giveaways for ‘best comments’ or solicit user-generated content and feature the ‘best of’ on your site.

• Provide high-quality images and suggest creative visuals that bloggers can use for their Instagram stream.

• Create share-worthy messages. Target a devoted niche and focus on content quality rather than traffic analytics.

• Research your competitors. Take the time to really analyse their successes.  What does a successful campaign look like?  Don’t be afraid to borrow ideas from outside of your industry either.

Realistic Expectations

It’s important to understand that blogging is a business too. Cooperation from bloggers isn’t always free, especially the high-level influencers. When you weigh the benefits, though, blogger influence often justifies the costs. Spending on influencer marketing might be an eventuality- as part of your overall social media marketing costs.

Connect with local bloggers (i.e. newspaper sites and community leaders.) This is valuable publicity, for free! Request backlinks to your site to drive traffic and boost SEO ratings. If you don’t earn a link, that’s OK, you still gained recognition and a boost to your reputation.

Craft Smart Correspondence

The other tactic for building relationships is connecting with customers through email marketing. Email lets you communicate your brand message in personalized format while providing leads the opportunity to click through and purchase.

Segment your email list. If you’re tracking analytics, you already know where you leads are coming from. Did they sign up through your latest Facebook ad, download your eBook, or were they referred by an existing customer? You can tailor your emails based on the specific marketing approach each customer responded to.

Other ways to segment include demographics and survey responses. The list goes on, depending on the product or service that you are selling. The point is that by breaking down your large list into smaller segments, you can send out targeted correspondence which translates to a higher likelihood of generating a response.

Personalize each email. Include details about past purchases and target items to customer interests based on those purchases. The more you demonstrate an understanding of your customers, the more likely they are to return and become loyal buyers.

Building relationships with your leads is the key to conversion. Building trust with influencers and maintaining communication through email marketing are effective methods of establishing these important relationships. And these are the relationships that create results!  

Courtney Capellan is a Digital Analyst for hotelmarketingWorks. When she’s not writing about marketing trends she enjoys writing fiction, practicing yoga and treasure hunting. Follow her on Twitter @courtcapellan

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Why We Don’t Need A Traditional Office

Why We Don’t Need A Traditional Office written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Remote: Office Not Required by David Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Marketing Podcast with Jason Fried

You know, work would be great if you could actually get work done there. That’s the fallacy of the traditional office – you collect a bunch of people and the proximity makes it easier to collaborate.

The reality is that close proximity simply makes it easier to meet, ask for help, and push work back to someone else.

I know that when I have serious writing to do or a presentation to craft I’m better off locking myself away somewhere other than the office.

This week, Duct Tape Marketing moved main offices, which gave me a chance to revisit my conversation with Jason Fried, founder and CEO of Basecamp, one of the largest virtual workforce managers, and co-author of Getting Real, REMOTE and New York Times Bestseller REWORK. We talk about remote workers and how to manage a virtual workforce.

Questions I ask Jason:

• Why is it so much harder to get work done at work?
• What is the #1 benefit to remote employers?
• What is the main drawback to remote workforces?

What you’ll learn if you give a listen:

• How the remote working community has grown and changed over the years
• How to develop a remote workforce
• Some instances of large companies that have shifted to remote workforces

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Turns Out The Future of the Office Isn’t an Office at All

Turns Out The Future of the Office Isn’t an Office at All written by John Jantsch read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

This past week I made a business move that to me embodies a great deal of the change that’s gone on in business over the last few years.

I’ve owned my own business for twenty-years now and in some fashion have operated pretty much like most traditional small businesses. Sure I’ve been online longer than most, and I’ve never actually met my bookkeeper face to face, but I’ve also had an office with desks and chairs and printers and coffee pots and conference tables and servers and trash cans and supply closets and all the trappings of a standard office.

As my organization has grown over the years so too has my need for space and stuff to fill up space.

But a funny thing started to happen on the way to growth and change. As we moved things to the cloud we needed less physical stuff. As technology got better we needed fewer in-person meetings. As our reach expanded nationally and then globally we started to employ technology and engage talent wherever we found it.

My last office space – and by last I mean both the most recent and last I suspect I will rent – was just over 3,000 square feet and while my team is currently seven people on average the “office” was used by 1.75 of them on any given day. Between work from home staff, virtual staff and my current travel schedule, an office no longer makes sense.

I believe this is the case for most every business these days as well.

I interviewed Jason Fried, co-founder of Basecamp and author of REMOTE, for the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast recently and he shared this view as well. While Basecamp has an office in Chicago, their staff is spread around the globe.

Fried contends that their posture on remote work has allowed them to attract elite talent that would not have considered coming on board otherwise. Even Chicago-based staff members rarely come into the office unless collaboration is made easier by doing so.

One of my daughters works for Buffer, and while they maintain a small space in San Francisco, most of their staff works remotely. From what I’ve witnessed through my daughter’s experience Buffer has a stronger internal culture than any company I’ve worked with that maintains and internal staff and office.

Instead of an office they choose to invest in all hands meetings in exotic places around the globe. (I get a little jealous each time she tells me where they are going next.)

It’s funny but when I started my business almost three decades ago, “I’m going into business for myself,” kind of meant, “I can’t find a job,” and a home based business was sort of not really a business.

Today everyone wants to start a business, and the ultimate business model is an online business you can run while the kids rumble all around you throughout the day.

For now, I’ve taken what I think is the perfect hybrid step for my business.

I’ve rented 150 square feet of private space in a co-working space in Kansas City called Think Big Coworking.

The reason I call this the perfect hybrid is that it provides us with many of the benefits of a physical space on an as needed basis and also supplements many of the things we either weren’t able to offer staff or doing so would have been far too much work for a small group.

For example, we now have access to the latest video conferencing technology and small and large meeting rooms when we need them. We now have a sound proof recording booth for podcasts, interviews and webinars. We have access to over, 20,000 square feet of flexible seating, lounge seating, nook seating and yes game room seating. (Did I mention we no longer have to maintain or clean any of this!)

We have a full kitchen, coffee bar (free Red Bull anyone?) and snack shop. We have printers, a copy center and a mail center.

But perhaps equally as significant, we have a community of like-minded business owners and smart hustlers all around us. We have access to service providers who we will come to know on a personal level.

My staff members are energized by the fact that there’s a vibrant culture that exists in the space that’s greater than the work they do for us. They have built-in networking, learning and development opportunities that come to them every week.

Obviously, I’m not the first person to promote the virtues of co-working space, but they are often associated with startups only. I believe there’s now a tremendous opportunity for co-working communities to attract and serve more mature businesses that have begun to see the value of this mindset.

As business continues to evolve, I think community space is the future of work and the new office as we’ll come to know it.

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Must-Use Lead Conversion Tactics for Video Marketing

Must-Use Lead Conversion Tactics for Video Marketing written by Guest Post read more at Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

On SnapChat the other day, one of the live feeds featured was “Farm Life.” Because I have a friend who is building a business in the ag arena, I thought this would be a great opportunity to get the word out about his video production company. It’s free to upload a photo or video to the stream and gets viewed by countless SnapChat users; approximately 16.5 million people look at SnapChat every day. As we discussed options for creating awareness via SnapChat, there was one question that surfaced to the top, “How can we convert leads using SnapChat video?” 

Video isn’t “the next big thing” in marketing. Video is now! If it’s not in your marketing strategy, it needs to be. One article projects that by 2017, videos will account for 67% of all consumer internet traffic. That’s huge, considering the many other ways consumers can consume information on the internet.

Videos make consuming information easy, which is why they are such a hit with consumers. You can get a ton of information into a shorter amount of time, no one has to read anything and the imagination needed is truly minimal. It’s the laziest way to soak in information. Let’s take advantage of the fact that our consumers want their information in the easiest way possible!

There are tons of good articles about how to make videos appealing. Video marketing is another form of content marketing; similar to writing good content, the better and more valuable your video is the more people will watch it.

So back to the question. What is the best way to convert leads using video on SnapChat, Instagram, Vine, or any platform that allows video? How can we take advantage of the fact that customers want to consume our message via video?

So I did some research and came up with six ways that you can steer prospects into leads by using video, to send them to your website or a landing page, or even your social media sites. (Note: Not all of these tactics will work with every medium.) Ready?

Here they are:

1. Create a custom end card

You’ve watched videos where at the end it says, “If you liked this video, subscribe to my YouTube channel.” Now take that idea and instead, have them like your brand on Facebook, follow you on Twitter, or better yet, send them to a landing page to download a free eBook or checklist – where you directly capture their contact information.

2. Include a verbal call to action

You’re making the video, your customers are watching the video, you have their attention, why not use this time to tell them where they can connect with you further? Video is a great way to gain your audience’s trust for you and your brand, so use this trust to further your relationship and engagements. Chances are, if they find you hilarious, intriguing or valuable, they’ll want to follow you for more hilarious, intriguing or valuable updates.

3. Insert the link in the video description

On most platforms where you’re uploading a video, you’re going to have the option to enter a description. Use this space to tell the story of your video and why they should click your link to further connect with your brand. Just posting the link probably isn’t enough to get prospects to click through, but if you add descriptive copy and your video is valuable, this is as good a spot as any to capture your leads.

4. Use an email gate

Capture names and email addresses directly from your video with an email gate. This is the most direct way to capture leads from video marketing. Rather than leading a customer to a page or form, you actually require their contact information before they can watch the video – or before they can see a certain portion of the video.

5. Place the video directly on a landing page

This lead capture tactic doesn’t use a third party to publish your video but instead relies on the fact that your viewer is already on your landing page. Now, the video is simply used to make the push to fill out the lead capture form. This, paired with the verbal call to action, can be a very effective way to use video for lead capture!

6. Use annotations within your videos

For YouTube users, you may notice that some videos you watch have pop-ups throughout the video. They may make comments about the video, add facts or valuable information, or even provide updates to an old version of the video. Use these annotations to push leads to your social media sites, website or landing page! You can add a link with a caption, directions to check out the link in the description or even a phone number to call. This tactic requires no extra effort by the viewer to see how to connect more, much like the verbal call to action, and can be a very effective way to connect with viewers!

THE BEACH GIRLS AND THE MONSTER via photopin (license)

Video marketing isn’t new; you’ve been watching commercials on television for decades. Videos on the web aren’t even new, but they are becoming easier to make and more accessible and shareable than ever before. The possibilities with video are endless and sometimes overwhelming. If you use one or many of the above lead capture and call to action tactics above, you can use video to drive in hot leads and quickly grow your business pipeline!

Do you use video currently? Are there any other lead capture tactics you’d recommend using?

Kala Linck is the Community and Content Manager at Duct Tape Marketing. You can find her blogging her travels and tweeting about marketing, coffee, and cats @tadasunshine.

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