These are some of the best, tried and true methods available for lead generation. They are great for all professional service organizations which are locally marketed. For businesses which are not constrained by geographic location, these strategies can be duplicated and scaled exponentially.
They are in no particular order because they are all creme of the crop techniques.
1. The Power of Word of Mouth Referrals.
Word of mouth referrals are, in almost every case, the best leads and easiest sales to make.
Look… You love your clients. They love and appreciate you… Let them show it!
Start with those you’ve already served, ask your satisfied customers for referrals.
I’ve repeated that so that you build that into your automatic subconscious processes.
Remember; people work with people they know, like, and trust.
2. Educational Training Events.
Educate, Position Properly, & Sales will Close Themselves.
Offer to give a seminar to a local business or consumer group.
Host an event/conference/seminar where you can educate those who you would market your services to.
Find a unique approach.
You are there to create awareness… Don’t hard sell, or format your presentation like they NEED you and what you have to offer.
GIVE away VALUE, explain the underlying frustrations, the causes, where most people go wrong and why… Explain the situation and case studies and then unveil what the solution is…
Now you’ve just positioned yourself as the expert and just happen to have that solution you were talking about, they will come to you. This is probably your BIGGEST source of pre-qualified prospects.
DON’T be bland…
Seriously just a little creative thought into your positioning, your angle, your materials, the refreshments, etc. can set you so far above the monotone powerpoint guy with free cookies and milk.
3. Local SEO & Google Places
This is probably the biggest pool of targeted new leads in you local area, period.
The search engines offer relevant local business listings within a geographical area through targeted search phrases and specific key phrases.
By finding out what those keywords are, and optimizing your local search platform for them, you can drive hundreds to thousands of VERY targeted new leads to your website, your front door, and into a phone conversation with you or your staff.
4. Local Networking
Again… People work with people they know, like, and trust.
Join a local networking group like bni, join your local chamber of commerce, create mastermind group of local business owners and pass referrals to each other.
Go to events in your industry and keep up with the latest progressive changes, talk to other professionals to see whats working for them, and learn whats not.
5. Get involved In Your Community Organizations
Again… People work with people they know, like, and trust.
Any local organizations (like churches, schools, universities) that you are currently involved with, is a great place to advertise or position yourself as the go-to guy for your area of expertise.
You don’t have to put your business cards in the collection at church to spread the word about your services…
Take out an an in the bulletin, if you can leave brochures at the back on a community board, do it.
Be prepared ready.
Get your elevator pitch down. When someone asks you what you do, don’t reply with a rhetorical closed ended answer. Come up with a creative, descriptive, and interesting short commercial for what EXACTLY you do. I help “audience” with “problem” by doing “what you do.”
This is a great conversation starter, and a great way to stand out in the mind of the new friend you’ve met when someone they know runs into THAT problem.
And always have business cards on you.
6. Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the very best ways to follow up with those who are interested enough to check you out online, and our interested in what you offer.
Many people who come to your website are not going to be ready to call or purchase right away.
This is your chance to build a relationship with them, educate them, and prove that you are the service provider they should give their business to.
So start a newsletter. Offer a free gift to entice people to subscribe to it… Don’t call it FREE REPORT… Call it “Benefits of what you’re going to give them, for free.”
7. Tracking and Analysis
Anything you are doing to generate leads should be measured for its effectiveness. A trial and error
testing process will yield the best results if you have a mindful attention on what is converting, and a willingness to continually improve these marketing channels to refine your lead generation systems.
If you aren’t sure that you have google analytics installed on your website, make sure you check with whoever would know, and ask for reports… If you aren’t at least tracking that, and your web guy isn’t either, you are probably leaving money on the table.
So there you have it, 7 of the very best lead generation and marketing strategies for professional services.
If you have aren’t satisfied with the amount of leads you are getting on a consistent basic, or have any questions about developing better marketing strategies for you business, we should chat.
To your success,
Jamie
Internet Consultant & Marketing Strategist
734.417.0227
