Marketing, am I right? You’ve never been quite the same since a consultant started talking to you about lead magnets and lead generation, and the thought of a CRM leaves you needing CPR. If you’re the CEO, should you be bothering with SEO? Fighting your way through the jargon is a job in itself.  

It’s not like you’re doing nothing. Word of mouth, a semi-regular newsletter going out to your existing customers, the odd networking event. And, you know, you’re on Twitter, so you’re not totally stuck in the dark ages.  

I don’t want to scare you, but it’s time to feel the fear. But don’t worry, like everything we do here at VAA, it’s going to make your life easier. Let’s start with generating and nurturing your leads.  

Lead generation – what is it? 

At its most basic level, lead generation is finding your potential customers. Passive lead generation is showing people what you offer; active lead generation is having the right tools in place to get people to come to you.  

Imagine you’re a local restaurant, deciding to drum up business by dropping menus through doors.  

In a street of 16 houses, perhaps 7 households throw the menu away before even looking at it. 4 of them don’t like the cuisine on offer. 3 can’t afford takeout food, and 2 people throw it in the menu drawer to look at at a later date.  

‘Operation Menu Drop’ took time, money and energy, yet has only maybe offered a 12.5% chance of success.  

What’s the alternative? 

Active lead generation is a whole other kettle of fish. A hungry potential customer goes online, searching for ‘takeout food near me’. You’ve used adwords to push your website and menu to the top of the search results. The customer clicks on your site, and is immediately greeted with a pop up offering them a discount on their first order, if they pop down their email address. When your automated mail system sends them the voucher, they get an option to sign up for your newsletter. So not only have you made a sale, you’ve got a lovely new customer signed up to your mailing news, who you know will definitely want to use your services again.  

You mentioned magnets… 

Yes we did. A lead magnet can be one of your most useful tools – something to draw your potential customers in and give them something in return that’s low-cost for you, and high-value for them. In the example above it was a money off voucher, but it could be anything: top tips, instructional videos… What would make you sign up to a mailing list, if you were one of your customers?  

Now what? 

Well, it’s not quite as simple as adwords and a free giveaway, but we promise it’s not as difficult as it might first look.  

Over the coming weeks, we’re going to be looking at how you can sharpen up your marketing skills and really grow your business, cutting through the jargon and making it as pain-free as possible. But as is the VAA way, we’re not going to just give you a few blogs and leave you to it. If you’d like to be first on the list to hear about our upcoming course, showing you the best ways to grow your business using the most effective marketing strategies, sign up to our mailing list today! 

Until next time!

Stay productive.