60 Ways To Generate Leads from A-Z: The Letter A

I was thinking the other day of all the ways you can generate leads. We are all probably doing some of these, but can we do more? Which are the most cost effective? Which get the best results? Over the next few days, I will present my thoughts on the various ways to generate demand in alphabetical order. Some of these letters were tough (like Q ) If anyone has any more suggestions, please feel free to post!

The Letter A

1. Autoresponders. We all know what they are, but do we always use them? Typically, this is a text email that your receive after you submit a form, but it can do so much more. This is a great chance to reinforce your brand and use some of your better templates along with strong calls to action. Many marketers view this as just a formality, but it is an excellent way to get another message across to someone that just expressed interest in your product or service. The best part is it doesn’t cost anything but the time to set it up initially and then you are set.

2. Adwords. Given a choice, and please don’t kill me Google, I would rather see marketers focus their efforts on search engine optimization first. Most of the heat map studies done by Marketing Sherpa and others show that the attention is being paid to the top few listings returned from the query. Seldom if ever do searchers go to page 2 or even view on the right. First, concentrate on getting the top listing for keywords in several categories. Once you have that down, it does make sense to invest in some highly targeted Adword campaigns. Before you begin, ask your customers what words they use to search for your products and services. You may be surprised to find out they are quite different from the terms your marketing team uses.

3. Analysts. As respected third party advisors, analysts can be very useful in writing about your firm and getting you in the door with new prospects. One of the best ways to use them is to pay them for co-sponsored webcasts, webinars, or even paid interviews that you can podcast. That way, you can reuse the content repeatedly and make your website much more engaging.

4. Awards. How many of you are sponsoring awards for the markets you serve? Everyone loves to receive awards and sponsors will gladly pay premium dollars to be part of an event where their key target market is. Consider developing your own industry focused awards and then invite people to submit nominations for various categories. This is something that the press will pick up on as well and help you contribute to your Thought Leadership position in the marketplace.

5. Advertising. An oldie, but a goodie. Targeted ads in key industry verticals, both online and offline, especially when they can support a bi-line article or case study pack a good one-two punch. Instead of just putting the ad in, make sure you put a targeted URL in the ad so you can track which people came to your site as a result. For example, www.pedowitzgroup.com/wallstreetjournal [ed. note - this link won’t work] is much better than www.pedowitzgroup.com
Stay tuned for the letter B…