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How Entrepreneurs Can Attract Sales Leads Through Strategic Marketing

Carlos Pandian How Entrepreneurs Can Attract Sales Leads Through Strategic MarketingGuest post by Carlo Pandian

 

Marketing is an important part of any business garnering more sales leads– perhaps the most important factor in its success. As small businesses grow, the responsibility of broadcasting the company’s existence and services falls on the shoulders of the sales team. This might consist of salespeople who go out and meet potential customers, or it might be that there are a group of people dedicated to online marketing strategies.

However, in the early days of commerce, a sales team is something that most SME owners can only aspire to, rather than have at their disposal. How can an entrepreneur most effectively market a company through their personal efforts?

Your passion is the key

Marketing needn’t be a chore. If you believe wholly in what your business has to offer, then you’ll want to shout about it. Marketing is a passion. There are ways that you can put the word out but, passion or not, it will still require hard work and man-hours. Let’s take a look at some of the simplest, but most impactful ways you can trumpet your company’s existence:

Three ways to spread the word

BizCard 300x243 How Entrepreneurs Can Attract Sales Leads Through Strategic Marketing1- Word of mouth is still one of the most effective ways of spreading the word. If there are industry conferences in your area, be sure to go to them and make sure you’re packing something like a business card. Scour the Internet for meet-ups relating to your industry and attend, volunteer to speak at local colleges and even submit articles to your local newspaper. Essentially, you want to establish yourself as an expert in your field and the more people who can put a face to the name, the more people are likely to contact you. People prefer to deal with actual humans, rather than faceless voices or emails.

2- Social networking sites have become the stamping ground for businesses all over the world and, considering their reach – and that they’re free – they’re too important to ignore. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the big ones and your business should have an account with each. However, it’s worth remembering that the best policy is to try and establish a relationship with your followers, so make around 80% of your posts opinion and comment and devote the other 20% to advertising.

3- There are plenty of companies offering cheap websites, so get yourself online. Your website tells your customers everything they need to know about your business, gives them a first point of contact and allows them to get in touch with you. However, it doesn’t have to be all bells and whistles, but it does need to be engaging. Possibly the most impactive aspect of your site is the blog. You can use your blog to generate a buzz, offering tips, interesting articles about your product and even garner opinion. Link these posts to your social networking accounts; they will drive traffic to your site and, hopefully, bring you customers. Blogging can be quite time consuming and in the early days you should aim to fire out between two and three posts a week. They don’t have to be essays, but they do have to be informative and interesting to read.

For strategy tips in develoiping a marketing plan, download “The Infusionsoft Guide to Sales and Marketing.”

Carlo Pandian is a freelance blogger interested in marketing, finance and technology. He also writes tutorials on accounting software by Intuit and has previously spoken at the Google Campus on entrepreneurship and marketing.

Tips To Get Your Small Business’ Outstanding Invoices Paid

By Rieva Lesonsky

CashMoney 300x200 Tips To Get Your Small Business Outstanding Invoices PaidIf you’ve got a bunch of outstanding invoices and you’re running low on cash flow, I hate to tell you, but you’ve got no one to blame but yourself. There are so many tools out there to make the payment process easier that if customers aren’t paying, it’s probably time to look at your overall system and show your customers you’re serious about getting paid on time. Here’s where to start:

Your invoicing system:

Are you using QuickBooks or Sage One?  Are you on top of receivables, getting your invoices out on time, and aware of what’s due and what’s overdue? If you don’t have the time to keep track of it all, assign the task to an employee.

Your invoices:

Is everything clear and straightforward on the invoice? Did you put in all the information the client needs such as P.O. number, date the service was provided and terms of payment? Nothing should be questionable, and all prices should be discussed at the beginning of the work. If something is not right, you’ll waste time going back and forth with the customer before getting paid. If you’re billing for a partial payment, make sure that’s clearly explained in the description. Also, indicate on the invoice what the balance will be on completion of the work.

Offer more payment options:

Ask for half up front or give a discount for a shorter billing cycle. Also, sign up with PayPal or see if the customer has ACH payments. That way, money will be automatically deposited into your account instead of waiting for a check to be mailed. Also, be sure to apply for merchant status so you can accept credit card payments. For first-time customers, ask for COD payments.

Follow up right away.

Don’t wait to follow up on late invoices. Make it known from the beginning you will be diligent about getting paid. Email or call to see what the hold-up could be. And if there’s no response, have your attorney send a letter indicating you mean business and will take further action if payment isn’t received.

Get your marketing and sales plan in place with tips from this e-book from Infusionsoft.

Animal RN, Ecommerce Storefront & Generating Leads [SBB]

Our Small Business Buzz video series continues as we share what’s happening on the Big Ideas Blog each week. We have creative marketing ideas that can help you succeed!

This week’s Friday recap features:

  •  Creating Business Solutions in the Pet World- Our “What’s Your Story?” video series kicks off this year with the small business success story of Animal RN. Robyn Kesnow tells us how she followed her entrepreneurial spirit and created a business that helps many people take better care of their pets. You won’t want to miss this video. We will be posting more “What’s Your Story?” videos once a month this year.
  • 5 Ways to Jazz up your Ecommerce Storefront- Megan Totka takes us through the new and fun ways you can improve the look of your storefront to grow your business. She has tips and tricks you can implement right now to make a positive difference.
  • 3 Ways Free Giveaways will Generate Leads- In this guest post by George Nielsen, you’ll find key elements that show how giveaways can help you get more business. The best part is that these tips- and the giveaways- are free to you. Check out the full post to get all the details.

We’d love to hear what you think so please leave us your comments and remember to follow us on Twitter @BigIdeasBlog and like our Facebook page.

3 Ways Free Giveaways Will Generate Leads

George Nielsen 3 Ways Free Giveaways Will Generate LeadsGuest post by George Nielsen

 

“Free” is a powerful word in business. It’s how Google penetrates new markets (Gmail, Google Drive, Google Fiber, etc.) and how Burger King showed the world its fries didn’t stink anymore (remember when they gave out free fries? That was a while ago!). But the word “free” shouldn’t just be a word that benefits the buyer, there are powerful ways to use “free” in your own funnel to generate leads, specifically with free-giveaways.

Get Creative with your Lead MagnetsWhiteBoard 3 Ways Free Giveaways Will Generate Leads

Ever had a booth at a business expo or conference? Having to compete with hundreds of other booths to get the attention of walk-by traffic is no easy task. The Draw Shop, a video production company that specializes in whiteboard animation videos, decided to put their money where their mouth was and offer free illustrations of anyone that subscribed to their list. The illustrations were fast, fun, and completely free. The illustrations were an absolute hit at the conference and all the good feelings were associated with The Draw Shop. Instead of paying for more advertising space at the conference or other marketing mediums – they invested in giving away something free and exposing the skills of their illustrator. It no doubt paid off as they picked up several new clients at the conference and continue to receive referrals from the event. You bet they’ll be attending that conference again.

Invest in Swaying the Fence-sitters

ApplicantPro is more generous than most businesses would be with their free give-aways, but for a good reason. With hiring software as the product and conservative HR professionals us the target market – it can be hard to get them off the fence, so a little more incentive is needed. When a qualified lead signs up for a free trial – they get a free Android tablet (costing $199). Why are they willing to give out that chunk of change? Because they close 80% of their leads when the following criteria are met:

  • Company of 50 – 5000 employees
  • Currently hiring
  • Currently do not have an applicant tracking system
  • Willing to post a job and get actual applicants

Instead of trying to have the cheapest “lead magnet” created, why not invest more in increasing your conversion rate? Once you know your cost per lead, cost per customer, and the lifetime value of a customer – then giving away a $199 tablet like ApplicantPro might not seem as crazy.

Let Your Free-giveaways Sell You

One of my favorite marketing books is “Free Marketing: 101 Low and No-Cost Ways to Grow Your Business, Online and Off” by Jim Cockrum. I’ve probably listened to the audiobook 6+ times in the car. In the book he tells the story of how one of his clients made a lot of money in the real estate niche. The real estate broker had a lot of success using his marketing methods and decided to create a training course for other real estate agents. After spending $1000s to produce the course, he was ready to market the product. After several months of promoting the course – he only had a handful of sales. Jim recommended he give the course away for free. With all the time and money invested, the broker was extremely reluctant. But after seeing minimal success, he decided to trust the advice anyway. Jim’s client didn’t make any money directly from the course, but eventually landed over $100,000s in monthly coaching contracts. How’s that for a ROI? By giving the course away for free, more subscribers were exposed to his expertise and wanted personal consulting. Instead of selling the training course, “the training course sold him”. Jae Baer, one of the speakers at InfusionCon 2013, calls this approach Youtility – it’s time to start selling less, while giving and teaching more

Effective marketing always takes some form of investment, whether it’s time or money (PPC = Money & SEO = Time). But instead of throwing your money at getting in front of targeted prospects only – why not throw it at converting more leads? With most lead magnets being eBooks, reports, or other digital give-aways – think you can be a little more creative? If you’re thinking: “How do I create the cheapest lead magnet possible?” – are you really maximizing your conversion potential? Think of it in a different way – stop selling and start giving.

How are you utilizing free give-aways in your funnel?

Check out how to generate leads with a variety of methods listed in Infusionsoft’s free e-book.

George Nielsen is an internet marketer who loves writing about lead generation strategies. Find him on Twitter.