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When it comes to generating leads, a common mistake we see many businesses make is investing money in external lead sources, such as buying leads from online directories. The outcome? A crippling dependency that wastes money and generates poor results.
What these businesses don't understand is how easy it is to generate their own leads by taking control of their website and creating lead generation opportunities that align with their business goals. And by generating their own leads, they'd be taking advantage of three key benefits...
Benefits of Generating Your Own Business Leads
1. Control: In order to eliminate your reliance on buying leads, you would be taking control, both in terms of your website and your business' lead generation activities. And ultimately, by nixing your dependency on paid leads from online directories and taking lead generation into your own hands, you're taking control of your business' destiny.
2. Savings: By implementing your own lead generation processes, you'll save a lot of money because rather than buying leads, you'll be generating leads organically. Research has consistently shown that companies focusing on inbound lead generation experience a 62% lower cost-per-lead than companies that use outbound tactics for lead generation.
3. Quality: Because you will be able to tailor your lead generation activities to attract the exact type of prospects you're seeking for your business, the leads you generate will be of much higher quality. And higher quality leads equals a better lead-to-customer conversion rate!
Companies are starting to realize the value in managing their own lead generation efforts. The Lauterstein-Conway Massage School is a prime example of a company that has transformed its business by eliminating its dependency on buying leads from online directories and instead taking lead online generation in-house. Spending $40 per lead on two external lead directories and having no control of its website led to poor lead quality, low conversions, and minimal sales, and the massage therapy school knew it needed to make a change.
As a result of taking control of its own website and lead generation activities by creating content marketing offers, building landing pages to capture leads, and starting a business blog, the Lauterstein-Conway Massage School doubled traffic, generated an impressive 25% conversion rate and higher quality leads, and saved $35k from its marketing budget in 2010. The school now uses its website as the main lead generation tool and no longer uses external sources for paid leads. You can read the full success story here.
What Next?
If your business currently depends on paid leads, it may be time to make a change. Take control of your website, and get it situated on a content management system (CMS) like HubSpot, which enables you to quickly edit your website's content, easily create landing pages and conversion forms around your marketing offers, and manage and analyze all functions of your lead generation efforts.
Chances are, you'll start to see some favorable results -- and your marketing budget will be eternally grateful.
Now go forth and start generating your own leads!
Photo Credit:
Daniel Borman
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