The importance of qualified leads

In recent years – particularly over the last 2 years – social media has become seen as 100% mandatory for any business who is serious about their brand.

In my opinion – the quality of the leads has taken a back seat to getting as much exposure as possible, in the shortest amount of time.

It may seem like free exposure but at the end of the day, how much time have you spent responding to contact that was never going to lead to a sale, or preparing a quote for a tyre-kicker who was just curious and had never seriously considered employing your services.

I have seen an increase in social media based competitions such as “become a fan to win $500″. If you are considering running one of these competitions – first have a think about the likelihood of an entrant actually resulting in a business transaction. You might find yourself with 1,000 facebook fans – hours of your time and $500 gone, and no actual business to show for it.

Concentrate on attracting qualified leads.

You can still employ those clever marketing strategies such as running a promotion – but make sure the prize is something related to your industry or something that will get someone half way through the door. For example if I was to run a promotion, it might be something to the effect of “Win 5 years free domain name registration and hosting”. That has a value of around $600 or more – just like an iPad does – but when someone takes an iPad from me they may have absolutely no need for my services any longer. If they have 5 years of free hosting, they will eventually consider having a website designed. Naturally, I would be their first port of call.

That old saying of “any exposure is good exposure” is completely untrue. Particularly in today’s digital world where negative feedback can spread like wildfire. You need to work hard to build and maintain your reputation. This is made much easier by attracting the right customers. The job is half done before it even starts.

So how can you ensure you don’t attract the wrong customers? As I mentioned earlier, avoid promotions that capture a wide audience which will result in you having to spend valuable time sorting through the trash. Another tip is to be very specific about your services. Don’t offer anything you do not specialise in, in the hope of attracting more business. You’ll end up regretting it when you get the business and struggle to deliver a high quality service.

Be careful with your pricing.

Thanks to the internet, pricing for products and services has become so unbelievably competitive. For example, as a web designer I can guarantee there will be someone based overseas who will design and develop websites for half the cost I can do it for. That doesn’t bother me in the slightest as you do get what you pay for. If i was to start competing on a price level with them – I would not be doing myself any favours. If a client’s first inquiry is regarding price matching, there’s a good chance the quality of my work is going to rate very low on their checklist – so perhaps I am not the right man for the job. You should stick to a price that you think is fair. If you offer a superior quality product or service, don’t let it bother you when you see your lower priced competitors flat out busy whilst you are searching for good leads. On the surface it may appear as they are more successful than you – but that is not necessarily the case. There’s a good chance they have promised so many bonuses and extras just to get the work – that they end up working for nothing.

Databases are worth their weight in gold.

Databases weigh literally nothing – by the way. Yes, I think it is highly overrated to collect as much data from the general public as possible (unless you’re planning on reselling it – a la Facebook). Again, it’s going to result in you wasting your time sorting through it. Try to avoid promotions that have the aim of collecting as many details as possible – unless the promotion is devised in a way that only qualified leads are collected. I refer to my previous iPad rant. I would fill out a form at a waxing salon to win a free iPad but there is no way they are coming anywhere near me in the future – and someone is going to spend their time learning that hard lesson (and having that awkward conversation). If you can concentrate on building a good quality database then it is most certainly a great asset. Repeat marketing to customers that are likely to utilise your services again is still one of the most effective marketing methods.

That’s all for now – I hope this has given you something to consider. If you have any more advice on techniques on generating high quality leads – let everyone know in the comments below.