The first question most of you will probably ask is...
"What's a lead capture page?"
I'll give a very quick short definition. I have written other articles that will explain what a lead capture page is in much greater detail. Basically a lead capture page is a simple, one page website that will showcase all or a few key points about your business opportunity and/or products. Obviously a lead capture page has a web form located on the page that will allow a visitor to enter their contact details if they would like some more information.
When someone submits their information to your lead capture page you'll have a fresh, real-time prospect in your email inbox and they will be waiting for you to contact them about your business. This is someone who has requested information about your specific business or product and this makes for some super high quality leads.
The one major problem facing nearly every home based business person especially those not savvy with online marketing is that they just don't know how or where to advertise their lead capture pages to generate consistent and positive results. Having your own personal lead generation campaigns is obviously an extremely desirable marketing approach but without the "advertising" portion of the equation you're still going to be left high and dry with a great lead capture page and absolutely zero fresh leads.
This article will explain a few different lead capture page advertising methods that you can employ into your lead generation campaigns. Hopefully these ideas will get your own creativity churning along as there truly is no limit to where and how you can advertise these pages so long as you don't use SPAM.
If you're serious about promoting a lead capture page you need to have your own domain name which you can easily forward to your lead capture page just like you would forward your home phone to your cell phone. Visitors can type in your web address (domain name) and they will end up directly on your lead capture page. This is essential for a long term campaign across multiple marketing venues. You want something short, snappy and extremely easy to remember.
To run any successful lead generation campaign you need a plan! Seriously... How does that old saying go? "If you fail to plan - you plan to fail!" Part of the careful planning you'll need to undertake before promoting your lead capture page is going to be WHO your target market is and HOW you can word your lead capture page to attract that specific type of prospect. Next and even more important is WHERE you are going to advertise to find these golden prospects. Target marketing is a wonderful thing for the savvy marketing person ... With the right advertising platform your identified "target market" could produce you a very significant stream of real-time self generated leads of a quality that will NEVER be matched by any of the lead retailers.
So your first step in determining where you want to advertise would be to figure out WHERE prospects interested in your product or opportunity may be lurking and I can assure it's many more places than you or I could possibly think up in a short while. You're not looking to pick a winner every time. This is "marketing" and it's never clean cut and dry you may go through some trial and error and run a few different ads to discover WHERE your honey hole full of prospects may be but once you do in fact find them you'll be laughing all the way to the bank!
Now that we have some of the hard stuff out of the way I'll provide you with a few advertising resources and ideas that you may find quite useful and productive.
#1. Rent-A-List.Com - This is a company that specializes in Spam-Free online mailing lists. There are over 50 targeted categories for an advertiser to choose from and their lists comprise of millions of members. What I really like Rent-A-List for is that they offer several low priced packages that are absolutely perfect for doing a test run of your lead capture page. You can get started with a basic campaign to your targeted category for less than $30. This will serve as an effective test of your lead capture page advertising copy. If you can generate some response with small targeted email blast than you can feel fairly confident in making a larger advertising spend with similar "targeted" services. This little resource could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars if you use it first to determine the effectiveness of your ad. Remember... This is "marketing" there are no guarantees and we need to use all the tricks and tactics we can to tip the odds into our favor. Testing is one of the successful lead generators secret weapons.
#2. Local Publications (Magazines, Newsletters And Newspapers) - Nearly every city or town in North America will have several locally run print publications that can be an advertisers dream come true if you go about using them in the right way. It could be your community newspaper, a local magazine, a local newsletter or even the coffee news which I am sure many of you have picked up and read before.
These are all excellent places to run an ad with your lead capture page link inside. Most local publications are not as widely read as some of the bigger publications you'll find such as USA Today and the Wall Street Journal but there is one thing you can be sure of when you run your ad locally. You won't be competing in a paper that has THOUSANDS of other ads all trying to grab the readers attention at the same time. Unless you have a masterfully crafted advertisement that you have tested and proven to work most of these bigger papers are going to be a waste of your time and your hard earned money. The smaller publications you will be competing against far fewer ads and thus you'll have a much stronger opportunity to have the people you're really looking for actually notice, read your advertisement and ultimately respond by filling out your lead capture form.
#3. Online Magazines or E-zines - This is an incredibly strong method of online marketing if you can find the publications that are best suited to your product or opportunity. Obviously if you're promoting a health & wellness opportunity you should be looking for related e-zines. You probably wouldn't get a great response advertising a health & wellness opportunity to an e-zine that targets financial investors. This is just common sense. You need to get your lead capture page in front of the people who are most likely to respond. Think "Targeted" if you do some simple searches on Google for the term "E-zine Directory" you will find a wealth of different e-zines available to you comprising millions upon millions of subscribers around the globe.
E-zine ads are usually very affordably priced but ultimately it will depend on how many readers the e-zine has, where your ad is placed and how long your copy is. Expect to spend anywhere between $25 - $400 for an E-zine campaign. The traffic that will come from a campaign like this will usually peak on the first or second day of the publication being sent out.
You can then expect a trickle of traffic and leads over the next few days and then it will most likely slow to a stop and you can go ahead and calculate your statistics and figure out if your ad was profitable or if it could be changed to perform a little better next time. Always measure your lead generation success.
#4. Pay-Per-Click Search Engines - The mere thought of search engine promotion scares all but the most hardcore of self lead generation marketers. I'll admit... When I first started playing with "Pay-Per-Click" I was kind of scared too.
You See... "Pay-Per-Click" works just like that. You will pay your set bid amount anytime someone clicks on your ad regardless if they fill out your lead capture form or not. The real beauty in Pay-Per-Click advertising lies in the fact that you can basically buy your search engine ranking for any given keyword you may want people to find you with. This is much different than getting what's referred to as a natural or organic search engine listing which can take months if not years to attain and they are not fully in your control.
Pay-Per-Click is not for the raw lead generation beginner unless you like to learn things through trial and error and you have a decent budget to work with. This form of advertising can quickly eat your marketing funds if you play the game wrong. I have written several articles on Pay-Per-Click lead generation and I would spend some time reading them to get a better handle on this form of advertising before you dive right in.
With that said... When you hit the lead vein with search engine marketing you will have hit the mother load of golden leads. Where else can you reach potential prospects at the exact moment and time they were searching for what you have to offer? The answer is you can't and this is precisely why search engine marketing is such a powerful and productive form of advertising when you know what you are doing.
Some great pay-per-click search engines you could advertise on are.
1. Google Adwords - My Favorite.
2. Overture/Yahoo Search Marketing
3. BidClix.Com
4. Snap.Com
As mentioned earlier I would seriously invest the time to read up on and seek professional advice when you are considering any search marketing campaign. It would really suck to see someone burn up their entire marketing budget with a method that's proven to work and they just didn't implement it properly or effectively. Dealing with a pro could make all the difference for you.
#5. Shameless Self Promotion - That's right. Shameless self promotion can do plenty for your lead generation campaign if you practice this proven method of marketing. Your lead capture page link should be on every single piece of marketing material that leaves your home office. I would place my lead capture page link on my business cards, my brochures even my answering machine message just for kicks. Anywhere and everywhere you can place your link will only benefit you in the long run. Exposure is everything in marketing. If you don't put it out there...
How will prospects ever find you?
Carl Sorensen is the owner of http://www.ezleadcapture.com He provides a valuable service to network marketers or direct sales people who are looking to generate their own leads via online or offline advertising. You'll need lead capture pages if you plan on generating any leads and Carl has your solution.
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