A new business owner? You need to review what are the benefits for your business, of the various online lead generation solutions available to create your own new business leads.
Some methods are expensive, but you can get results quickly. Others are free marketing strategies that require effort and time from you. Choosing a lead generation system for your home business will depend on your marketing budget, your marketing experience and your ideal audience.
In this article, I will list the pros and cons of the various methods available for network marketing lead generation.
Offline marketing:
Pros:
* For network marketers with a business network, a huge contact list and credibility, personal contact marketing can work extremely well.
* With some enthusiasm and a lot of energy (and a low budget) flyers, drop cards and banner signs can work excellent for someone that starts out with their business.
Cons:
* In a specific area, many network marketing business owners can use the same method to advertise their business and you can find several ads in the newspaper and several banners and flyers all saying the same thing.
* Some demographic areas do not allow the use of banner signs or place flyers on cars and you may encounter a run around with law enforcement
* Print media advertising can be very expensive and too pricy for the budget of a new home business owner.
* Radio and TV advertisements are expensive. A marketing co-op is a solution to do this advertising. The price paid (between $500 and $1000 per month depending on the co-op) does not qualify the quality and quantity of the home business leads obtained through this method. Admin fees for the co-op and the management of the lead allocation, adds to the cost of this type of marketing.
Offline to online marketing:
Pros and cons:
* The same as above, as the only difference is that a website address is added to all print media. The idea is that the interested party will visit the website first where some basic questions are answered. The prospect that needs more information and is still interested is encouraged to enter their details for a telephonic interview.
Buying leads
Pros:
* This method is quick. You can pay for leads today and have the details of your leads available within 24 hours
* The method is perceived to be fairly cheap. The price paid for leads will vary depending on the various lead generation companies. You can pay around $120 for fifty telephone verified opt-in leads from one of the service oriented lead generation companies with a good service record.
Cons:
* The quality of the leads is not great. Many lead providers have to offer an incentive to encourage prospects to enter their contact details on a contact form. These leads are business opportunity seekers that need the tax benefits and the extra cash without thinking what they want in life and why.
* Not all lead generation companies are ethical. Some sell the same list to more than one customer, resulting in irritated leads by the time you get hold of them.
* There is often a long delay (often as long as 60 days) from when the lead entered their details on the lead companies’ opt-in form to when you get the contact information. Many leads cannot remember they entered their contact details and you lose any impact.
* These leads have no point of reference to your business, as they have not visited your personal website. Talking to them would be the same as doing cold calling, which is not fun!
Buying genealogy leads
Pros:
* This method is quick. You can pay for your leads today and have the details of the leads available within one day
* This method seems like a quick fix to any business owner with a shortage of new home business leads and without a plan to do their own lead generation.
Cons:
* Network marketing companies sell the information of their distributors to whoever will buy the information. They do not have the consent from the distributors when they sell the information. You can buy lists and the distributors are still active in the company. Be prepared to deal with highly irritated prospects that keep on asking “take me off your list, now”!
* The sellers of these genealogy lists often obtain them in an illegal manner. Most people you contact off these lists did not give permission to their companies to sell their contact information and did not request a phone call by business opportunity owners. You will only deal with prospects that are very negative towards any new business opportunity.
* These leads have no point of reference to your business as they have not been on your website and have not requested you to contact them. Talking to them would be more difficult than doing cold calling, as they are also very negative towards any new network marketing opportunity!
Ad hoc online marketing
Pros:
* This method is quick initially. You can have a serious of free job listing or free listings listed within 1 day. You can design and post a newspaper ad or banner ad within 1 week and a PPC campaign and article listed within 24 hours.
* Anyone with some online skills can try all the various methods available to advertise and may get some results
Cons:
* You never learn to fully master a specific online marketing skill if you jump from one marketing method to another
* You compete with thousands of other home business owners for the same online market and unless you market like the industry leaders, the competition in this type of marketing drives the marketing costs up e.g. a pay-per-click campaign using the competitive keyword “business opportunities” could cost you over $2 per click.
Targeted lead generation
Pros:
* Learn real marketing skills from industry leaders and you learn to master one skill at a time.
* This is not a gunshot marketing approach. This is a laser targeted marketing approach where you control to whom you market and you attract a higher quality lead.
* You learn to offer value to the online market place and learn to use your acquired skills to display yourself as the leader you are, instead of just another home business owner.
* You learn to use credible marketing systems with qualified marketing funnels, lead capture pages, auto-responders.
* You learn to build online relationships with the visitors to your website and you learn to use social media to make you real in the eyes of your prospects.
Cons:
* You need to be patient to acquire the marketing skills you lack and become an expert in one marketing strategy at a time.
* You need to put the effort in to learn and apply the various marketing techniques until you have mastered them. You cannot pay someone to do it for you.
There is no comparison if you evaluate the pros and cons of all the methods available to get new business leads. Several methods seem like a quick solution for a home business owner in a panic and with a shortage of leads. Most quick solutions are not real solutions to the problem of a lack of leads.
The only real lead generation solution is to learn how to generate your own, targeted leads. To learn and apply real online marketing skills. To use a credible marketing system with customizable marketing funnels, capture pages and auto-responders. To be able to graft your down line into the same system to ensist they get the same quality marketing training, access to the same marketing tools and that they too, can duplicate their online success in their down line.
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