How to Increase Your Home Based Business Leads On A Tight Budget
No matter what business you are in, in order to create revenue, you need customers to buy from you. Leads are the fuel that power your business and make your sales. Clearly not all leads will turn into a sale, but the law of averages says that the more leads that you have, the more you are likely to make a sale.You could look at one or all of the following areas If you are wondering where you are going wrong with your business.1. Are You Taking Full Advantage Of All Possible Marketing Channels?If you are reading this article then it is likely that you are marketing your business online. If not then you should start right away. There are 1.5 billion internet users, a number which is growing by the day, all looking for the solution to a problem or researching their next purchase. You want to be ready when prospects are about to make a purchase with their credit card in hand.In order to you to attract and capture your leads details you will need a website. If you do not have a website, consider working with an Internet Marketing company. They can provide you with a website and sales funnel to attract and capture leads.A low cost option to generate leads online is leveraging social media. You should be using social media to establish relationships with your prospects and offer them something of value. Bear in mind that this is a longer term strategy as you need to build rapport with others before pitching to them.Create a free Facebook fanpage and use this to brand your business and market your product. Facebook has a viral effect so you can quickly spread your message to your contacts. You can also use Twitter to establish an online presence as well as other social media sites like Digg and Reddit.You will have a wealth of information on your product and service as you are a home based business owner. This is something that you can share with others at no cost to you. Use this as a key advantage by sharing your knowledge with prospects online. You can create awareness by turning your knowledge into articles and publish them on Ezines.com. You could strengthen this with a WordPress blog. You will be surprised how many people will visit your website if you deliver high quality content and ensure it is syndicated.Another online marketing channel to consider is Pay Per Click marketing through one of the major search engines or Facebook. Pay Per Click marketing is highly targeted as your prospects are looking for a specific solution to their problem online. You can easily open an account with Yahoo or Google and start marketing that day. Make sure you research what other people are doing and aim to stand out from the crowd. Try and capture your prospects interest over and above the other advertisers. This is a more advanced marketing strategy and requires some work to optimize your campaign and ensure that you don’t overspend. You can set a daily budget as a safety precaution.There are many other marketing options to increase your leads which can be low cost such as door drops – These are less effective as they are relatively un-targeted but it won’t cost you much if you deliver them. Depending on your product or service there is nothing to stop you taking to the street and speaking to business owners to see if they can stock your product or take advantage of your specialist knowledge.2. Is Your Product Offering Appealing?Does your product or service stand out from your competition? If you look at your product or your marketing, does it look like all the rest? If so you should think about how you can differentiate your offer. If you are struggling to generate leads then perhaps look at what the industry experts are doing. It’s not a good idea to copy what they are doing but you may find inspiration in their marketing and spark some new ideas.3. Are You Clear About Your Niche?Most home based business owners struggle with understanding their niche or target market and try to target everyone. However this is a critical error and one that will be costing you a lot of money. Whilst you don’t want to be so narrow that you have no one left to market to, you want to have a good idea about who are your best prospects. Do some research with your current customers to find out what appeals to them about your product and where they found you. You want to focus all your efforts on finding more of your best customers.4. Are you using Public Relations to promote your business?It is a misconception that PR is an expensive channel and only available to those who work in media. If you are mentioned in the right publication PR can actually increase your sales. Have a think about the type of publications that your target market read and develop a plan to gain a slot. You will be surprised how much coverage you could receive with an interesting, thought provoking article.
