1. Website:

Now more than ever, you need to have a website for your business. It’s the modern version of a brochure and the first place your prospects will go to learn about you and your business. All your marketing efforts will lead back to your website, so getting it right is essential!

• With the message you have created, you want to start with the abbreviated message, then expand on the message through your website, so that your customers eventually come to learn your whole story. The idea is that we all have short and shortening attention spans, so you want to get their attention quickly and slowly expand on what you do.
• Make it clear. Ensure your message is clear and educates your customers effectively.
• Make clear calls to action! What do you want them to do when they come to your site? Buy a product? Book a consultation? Download an app? Whatever it is, make it easy for them.

   2. Lead channels:

Lead channels are the channels in which you get leads for your business, but here’s the thing; There is no secret sauce to untapped leads – unlike what so many guru’s are saying. You need to figure out what works for your business. I’ll try to explain these below:

Social media / Digital advertising strategy:

Social media and digital advertising can produce massive results in acquiring new customers.

But it can also be a worm hole where you lose a lot of time and money over a long period of time. Here are just a few social media networks South Africans are using to get new customers:

• Facebook: Still the world’s largest social media platform. Use to target individuals to create awareness or sell products.
• Instagram: Owned by Facebook, use if you sell actual products, using highly attractive images of your product with provocative captions.
• YouTube: Owned by Google, use if you want to educate consumers and your business relies heavily on face to face interaction.
• LinkedIn: The main business social network. Use if you want to target salespeople, or Human Resources.
• Twitter: Used for consumers. Use to create awareness and educate your prospective customers.
• Google Ads / Business: If people are looking for your products or services, then you should consider advertising on Google. You can carve out your niche to reduce costs.

Not all social media is relevant to every business, in fact quite the opposite. Without going into too much detail, here are a few considerations:

• Is your target market business or consumers? That immediately eliminates certain social media channels for your business. For example, if you sell compliance training to large corporates, you have little business being in Facebook and Instagram. Guru’s will argue with me on this one, but results speak for themselves. Likes are not purchases.
• Is your product niche, or in high demand? If you are in high demand, you just need to create awareness for your product or service. You could use the likes of Google Ads or Facebook and Instagram ads to create awareness. Each will require specific strategies. Whereas if you are operating in a niche, you will need to educate your prospect, which will require a bespoke strategy, depending on what it is you do.
• There exists all types of nuances. In its simplest form, consider the above examples, Business Niche, Business in Demand, Consumer Niche, and Consumer in Demand. Each of these nuances will require their own strategy, and each strategy will be dependent further on the products or services you offer.

Partnerships:

A brilliant platform for generating leads is through strategic partnerships, and yet it is so commonly overlooked.

Are there other businesses that are servicing your target market? Of those, which ones have synergy with yours (their products or services compliment yours)?

You could strike a partnership with those businesses, where they get commission or reduced pricing for introducing you to their clients.

Here are some steps to follow:

• Consider your target market profile, as defined earlier on in this letter.
• What services / products can you think of that they are currently using?
• Do any of those compliment your product or service?
• Identify the companies providing those products or services.
• This is the value you would bring to those companies if you were to start a partnership (commission, access to your customer base, etc.)
• Identify the right contact person. Reach out to them on LinkedIn or via the phone to discuss a potential partnership.

Example:

If you run a home renovation company, other businesses providing services to home owners might be electricians, plumbers, carpenters, etc. Approach companies in your target market and offer them a partnership agreement, where they get commission if you do work where they introduced you. Work for you, and additional income for them, for doing very little.

Referrals:

Similar to partnerships in that this is a golden channel for leads, but is not used well by most businesses, is referrals.

If you are doing good work, and believe in what you do, ask your customers for referrals. Someone they can refer you to that might need your services.

Funny thing here is you can ask anyone you have done business with in the last 6 months. Most people want to help, and just by asking, you get them thinking of ways in which they can help you. It’s very powerful.

With referrals and partnerships, most of the hard work of the sales is done anyway, because when you are introduced it’s usually coming from a place of trust, so you skip the education process.

Direct:

The last point of call, and probably the one where you can get results the quickest is if you hunt leads directly.

Once you have profiled your target market, you can purchase “opted in” leads from a reputable provider. There are only two of these in South Africa. You can specify who you want to target (for example business contact / consumer, job title, location, size of business, income, etc. Depending on whether you are looking for B2B or B2C).

Once you have the details, you can use a combination of email or SMS’s to take your message to them.

This is a numbers game, and you will need to do this in volumes of at least 2,000 contacts at a time. And be careful of how you put your messages together and deliver them. Although this is bulk marketing, there are ways to do it that is not spammy, and is more personal.