Schewanick Computer Services

Business is good, but you could still use a few more leads. Who couldn't? Starting today, put your website to work generating solid leads that convert to solid sales.
The first step is to get those strong prospects to visit your website. There are a number of ways to do this. Join the forums and email groups where your prospects are most likely lurk and answer their questions with solid, well-researched information. This shouldn't be difficult since you are the expert at what you do, right? The most important part of your post is the signature at the bottom that links to your website, because the more one-way links your website has, the more search engines love you.
Give your lead-generating website another needed boost with keyword-driven advertising like Yahoo's Overture and Google's AdSense. Both offer advertising that puts your URL in front of the people most interested in what you're offering. When those prospects arrive at your website, it's easy to warm them from tepid to piping hot with a value-packed opt-in newsletter. And when they enter their names and email addresses in the dialog box, their info goes right into your marketing database. If you've got a good customer relationship management (CRM) software program, it will instantly sent a confirmation email, giving you another point of contact in your quest for frequency. You can also use that CRM to manage your newsletters and send additional emails to your database.
Most importantly, once your prospect opts-in, make sure your website opens a 'Thank You' window that features more offers. Think of it as 'Thank You' marketing. After all, you know that these prospects are likely to appreciate and take advantage of additional reports or killer discounts. With the CRM program, you can track which customers took advantage of which offers. Now you can follow up with additional special offers tailored to their interests (which increases the chance they'll buy.)
In addition, you can generate even MORE leads by using your 'Thank You' to give prospects the opportunity to tell their friends about your newsletter with the click of a button.
Be sure to ask for the least amount of information that you need – the more info you ask for, the higher the chance that they won't give you any. Once you have a relationship, THEN you can start asking for more information, like addresses for direct response marketing (and again, all that goes into your marketing database.) With the right CRM software program, adding a direct mail component to your email marketing will be a snap.
Once you have your newsletter in place, another route to consider for lead generation is to launch a contest. Contests are sure-fire tools for creating buzz and community around your website. And because contests are such winners, prospects will likely be willing to share more personal information than they did to get the newsletter.
Joining forums and using keyword-driven advertising can bring prospects to your website, and newsletters, contests and special offers can keep them there. It all adds up to more leads of the right kind. And managed correctly, those leads are, after all, money. And who couldn't use a little more of that?

About The Author

Clate Mask is president of Infusion Software which produces ManagePro CRM -- a Web-based customer relationship software package that helps entrepreneurs and small business owners double or triple their sales by automating and improving their marketing, sales and client management. For more information or to take a test drive, please visit http://ManageProCRM.com/go/see.