Lead Generation Systems: Sales & Marketing

If your business is virtual or online then this is of course an essential part of any day-to-day function. However, even a bricks and mortar business can bring more customers through the door with some simple and easy to execute systems in place.

I’m going to take it as read that you will understand the need for day-to-day promotion of an online business. But let’s take a look at some considerations for bricks and mortar businesses.

If you operate something along the lines of a retail outlet which depends on local footfall for your business, lead generation is still applicable as many businesses have significant supplemental income from online sales, and of course you will want to bring people to your locality even if you are mostly dependent on customers who happen to pass and spot your premises.

But there are also many physical businesses, both service and product based, which can be quite dependent on an effective online presence in order to bring in new business. There are times when a business is well supported by repeat clientele, but it is usually the case that that in itself would be insufficient to be sustainable.

Just a few quick examples

A hotel or other accommodation provider will often require a substantial flow of online leads in order to survive. One or two guests might happen to drive past and stop in, and a few might be repeat visitors, but for the most part this type of business, along with restaurants, are often quite dependent on attracting guests by spreading the word of their venture. In the modern age, of course, online systems far outweigh print publication advertising for this sort of thing.

A car sales business, again, requires a steady flow of new leads and needs to make themselves known when somebody goes online looking to buy a car, especially in a specific locality. This sort of business is far less able to rely on repeat customers since this sort of purchase tends to be very infrequent.

However, a garage or car repair service offering routine maintenance is much more able to depend on repeat business, but does require a high volume of that which originates from the same sort of online advertising as a car sales business.

The takeaway from all of this is that it’s difficult to conceive of any sort of product or service oriented business which would not benefit in any way from a structured system of generating new leads. And in the modern age this almost entirely entails a coherent online presence.

Aside from an effective and engaging website, regularly updated and refreshed, using the right social media channels, in the right way to attract potential customers is also an essential part of every day lead generation for pretty much any small business.

There is, of course, no single strategy which would work across all business sectors and all types of business within those sectors. A very useful investment for any venture, especially where the owners and managers have limited experience in social media beyond keeping up-to-date with personal interests and contacts, is to take some advice from specialists as to how to construct a social media outreach program. These can be extremely cost-effective, and when run efficiently very easy to maintain and bring huge returns on investment.

A brief case study

Picking up on one of the examples above, we were engaged to set up social media marketing along with ghost written blog posts within the business website for a local car sales outlet. They had commissioned us to design, build and publish a brand-new website for a new business venture and they were up against some very stiff long established competition in a very competitive market for used car sales.

It took a little time, but up against competition who did not have any, or in some cases particularly efficient lead generation systems we were able to place our customers website right at the top of page one of Google for a series of high-value keyword phrases. Bringing them a quantifiable flow of approximately 500 page visits per month, leading to a significant upturn in their sales figures. This level of trade has been sustained consistently, again by means of a simple and easy to maintain sales lead system centering around constant website updates and social media posting.

In conclusion

This article isn’t really intended to even offer a hint of an outline as to how to go about setting up your sales lead generation system, because every single one is entirely different from even close competitors if it is to be effective. Rather, I wanted to provoke some thought on the value of establishing a coherent system, and to reassure that this is not a hugely expensive, complex, or time-consuming system to run, especially when viewed against the hugely valuable potential return on investment for any business.