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Lead Generation: How To Increase Response And Lower Lead Generation Cost

“Marketing.” Definition:  Selling to defined audience.  By marketing to the correct customer and prospect base, your lead generation marketing will become more responsive: your phone will ring more frequently and at less cost per call.

Without the precision of marketing to the correct target group - those people or firms who are ready to buy - your lead generation campaign is wasting money and time. Your money, and your time.

In the first article of this series we reviewed seven lead generation mistakes to overcome.  Here you can learn how to increase your lead generation effectiveness and enjoy the rewards of a better customer acquisition strategy by implementing a more focused direct marketing plan.

What happened with your old lead generation and customer acquisition strategy?  It stopped being as effective as it was years ago.  Customers cost more to acquire… and maintain.  Clients jump ship every couple of years, and yours did, too.  So?

Here’s how you can change all that:

1. Current customer analysis.
Figure out who your current customers are.  Dig through your files for commonalities: is it location?  Income level?  Value of home?  Is net worth the driver?  Neighborhood?  Business type?  Circle of friends?  Write all these market factors down on a sheet of paper.  

Hey… if I do this for you - figure out who your customers are, and write it down on a sheet of paper I call it marketing research and charge you two grand.  You can do this for free, and call it whatever you like — it’s your sheet of paper.

2. Figure out where your customers hang out. Then hang out there, too.
What restaurants do your customers eat in?  What mailing lists are your customers on.  What newspapers or magazines do they read?  Do they watch on TV, and what do they watch?  What circle of friends do they go out with?  What charities do they donate to?  What associations do they belong to?  What gym do they work out at?  As you start answering these questions, your lead generation program is now starting to shape-up.  Next, go on - hang out there yourself.  Read those publications.  Go to those movies.  Visit those strip clubs, I mean strip malls.  And be your client.

Remember, when fishing, you go where the fish are.  When looking for clients and customers, go where your clients and customers go.  

3.    Learn what your customers own.
Do they all drive Chevys?  Do they all own boats?   Airplanes.  Tractors?  Have houses in the hills?  Write all this down, too.  It’s part of your lead generation and customer acquisition marketing research. (Remember, you were going to send me two grand if I did this for you?  So now, just send me, oh, three hundred.  Just kidding.  Make it $250.)  This is part of your primary lead generation matrix: a lead generation equation you’re developing into a quite defined formula.

4. Figure out exactly what most of your clients have in common?
If you could clone a few clients, what are the common characteristics they’d all have?  Because that’s exactly what I’d start looking for in new clients: the same demographics of clients currently in my own customer database. 

Section out the target of people who have those same commonalities as your current clients, and advertise or send direct mail to them.  

An example.  Suppose you find out that every one of your clients reads the same 3 magazines.  Those magazines would be good places to take out an ad schedule, wouldn’t they?  

How about if 4 out of 5 of your clients had offices in the same neighborhood.  I’d pick a lead generation campaign with a good direct mail strategy base, and mail regularly to that neighborhood.

If all your customers own dogs, your lead generation campaign should look for dog owners to market to.

If they all eat at the same restaurant, I’d start eating there, too.  If it’s an upscale restaurant, invite me! I’m not too busy and I enjoy nice great food!  Just kidding.  My wife hates it when I go out without her.  I hate it too - she goes shopping.

Hey, that restaurant website might be a good place to effect a lead generation targeted ad campaign; or sponsor the restaurant coat check room for a few nights.  Or leave a few of your business cards at the coat check.  A small and tasteful sign  there would be helpful, too. 

Of course if your clients eat at Denny’s… then, yeee-ha: time to get some new clients there, Jethro.  Sorry. If it wasn’t for bad taste, I wouldn’t have any jokes to tell. 

Back at the nice restaurant, you could always test sponsoring the coat check room, or sponsoring desserts for an evening.  Or if you’re in the city - sponsor parking.  Lead generation doesn’t have to be traditional.

5. Start a mailing list of your customers.
Analyze your customer database, and find more of the same type of person.  Then:

6. Buy several mailing lists that match the demographics of your own house list.
Test each.  Small tests aren't expensive.  Ramp up when a test is profitable.

7.  Create media awareness.
As a traditional direct marketer, I don’t believe in unfocused mass advertising. Those methods only work in very select circumstances: huge clients with wide markets and big budgets. 

Some lead generation campaigns in local, traditional media such as direct mail, newspapers, magazines and local TV work well to raise the level of awareness of your firm in your own back-yard.  This kind of PR will also increase phone calls to your firm.  You remember who likes to shop in their own back yard?  Everyone.

Create the right message, the right image, and present it consistently in the right media, and presto — an effective lead generation strategy. People will get to know you.  Then do you know what happens?  The phone rings.

8. Create trust.
You can’t build an effective lead generation strategy without the help of others. It’s low in cost to build up your network of referrals and referral sources, and trust plays a big factor here. 

Start your referral network by referring customers to others.  Don’t worry, it starts out slow, but the business will come back to you—in spades. 

9. Build trust by creating a paper trail of nice letters.
To build trust exponentially kindly remember that every referral - whether you give one or receive one, needs to be followed up by a WRITTEN piece of correspondence. 

Use the power and longevity of direct marketing and direct mail when thanking someone for giving you the referral.  Have a referral letter on hand, personalize it and send it every time that you refer a potential client to your colleague.  And a “Thank you for your trust” letter whenever you receive a referral. 

Yes, you need an actual letter - a written piece of correspondence.  No, a call is not the same.  Sure you can call them, BUT… you still need to write something down and send it.

In the next and final artice in this 3 part series, we'll look at 12 more lead generation strategies.  Stay tuned.

About the Author

Need More Business? Why struggle: If you’d like to easily get more customers and kick up the response you get from any direct mail program, visit Jeffrey Dobkin’s website and learn other fast and easy ways to make your direct marketing more effective - and yet - lower your cost. Read more FREE direct marketing articles at www.danielleadams.com. Author Jeffrey Dobkin has written 5 books on direct marketing, including the cult classic, How To Market a Product for Under $500.

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