How to create a strategy that will allow you to obtain online the best leads?
source: own elaboration
No matter what you want to sell via the Internet - you are certainly looking for leads, potential customers for your product or service. Unfortunately, most ways of getting leads online have the risk that they will be of poor quality. Although different industries acquire leads differently, as an expert we can present some universal tips on how to get better quality traffic.
Searching for a customer on the web can be compared to gold digging. The Internet is a rushing river, and you as an entrepreneur must find the treasure that is a person who wants to buy your product or service (although often isn't yet aware of this desire). However, for every lump of this expensive ore, which is a potential customer, there are many stones, and therefore incorrect leads. They may be incorrect data or information that appears to be correct, but applies to people who are not interested in purchasing. In order not to waste time and resources, you need to know not only where and with what tools to extract the best leads, but also how to distinguish them from stones. Below are some tips that should be helpful when planning the adventure of creating an online marketing strategy.
Find out who you are looking for.
Ask yourself some important questions. Who is your potential customer? How does he behave online? What pages does he visit? What information does he look for? What questions does he ask? These 5 questions are the basis for planning strategies for online marketing and you need to start your adventure from them. The answers will be a guidepost when making decisions and guidelines, on the basis of which you will be able to finally determine whether you extracted gold or just plain stone.
Do research.
The basis for planning online marketing activities is good research. To select the best channels and sources you need to check all available options, estimate their costs and determine the possible conversion rates (and how much gold you can get from them). However, research is not only theory, but also practice - so remember to test the entire path the Internet user has to go before finding your product or service. This should be a process tailored to your client's profile and your company's offer. If you have the data of your current customers, check which channels they have used. Thanks to this you will be able to predict which routes can lead you to the treasure, and which to stones, and thus useless leads.
Get a good guide.
The partners you choose to work with are your guides. They should be experienced and know how to find a lump of gold in the rapid river of the Internet, and thus a customer for your products or services. Check how they are assessed by those who already had the opportunity to work with them, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Before you choose a guide, ask them to give you the plan of your adventure - how much you will have to invest and how many potential customers you can find together. If you have such an opportunity - test different candidates and see if the presented forecasts are confirmed in reality.
Don't get fooled.
Be very careful - before you and your guide go hunting together, you should arrange all the details, preferably in writing. You must be sure that you are looking for the same treasure. Fraud publishers, unfair competitors and unreliable partners trying to trick you are just a few examples of scammers waiting for you in the rapid current of the Internet. The road to the treasure is not easy - you need to be vigilant on each of its sections. Check, compare, monitor and insure against possible failure.
Invest in the right tools.
Online marketing is a complicated adventure, so try to make your task easier by automating activities that you don't have to do personally. Many companies offer specialized data processing systems that can provide you with statistics and conclusions cheaper, faster and more accurately than individual departments in your company. A great example are solutions that monitor the traffic delivered by your partners and identify any fraud attempts, and thus help distinguish gold from imitating gold stones. You can also treat them as an insurance policy, because they will provide evidence if you ever have to file a complaint about the invalid traffic obtained from the partner.
Check what mistakes you have made and draw conclusions from them.
Don't be afraid of mistakes - online marketing is growing so quickly that it is almost impossible to avoid them, and properly used mistakes can be invaluable educational material. Analyze at what stage you deviated from the course and what influenced the fact that it happened. Draw conclusions and incorporate them into your future actions.
Optimize.
Remember that there is no such thing as a perfect map - your treasure is constantly moving in the rapid currents of the network, so you need to dynamically adapt your marketing plans to it. To do this with the least investment, be sure to optimize processes - so look for proven shortcuts. Also check whether there has been any innovative, worth testing route - and thus a new communication channel with your potential customer.
Acquiring new customers via the internet is an adventure, and you must be properly prepared for it. You are not the only treasure hunter - your competition is not asleep, and in the online river the resources of this precious metal, which is your potential customer, are limited. To find the largest gold lumps, and preferably their entire deposits, you need to develop an action plan and constantly refine it. It's also always worth protecting yourself against dishonest acts by your partners or competitors - TrafficWatchdog can be particularly helpful in this area.
