In the modern digital landscape, generating high-quality leads is the lifeblood of any business, big or small. Here, we demystify the art and science of lead generation, providing you with actionable strategies, innovative tools, and insider tips to help you attract, engage, and convert potential customers. Whether you’re a seasoned professional looking to enhance your techniques or a beginner starting your journey, our posts on lead generation will empower you to drive growth and propel your business forward.
By introducing evolving digital marketing strategies, reinforcing best practices, and sharing processes, your local, small business will grow… substantially. Learn how to reduce customer acquisition costs and improve your brand’s reach
If I only had a dollar for every time someone hides behind a cliché to explain their abysmal approach to marketing and selling.
Does your business involve a long sales cycle? How do you market where months will pass from the initial contact to the closing of a sale?
If you’ve received a phone call that begins with “Hi, I’m calling from Google…”, it is highly likely you are the target of a scammer. Often these calls are from third-party companies trying to scam small businesses.
Now is the ideal time to revisit your marketing collateral and consider how an update or addition may help your top-line revenue growth. Here are seven areas you should focus your analysis.
There are many reasons you should brush your teeth daily. But have you ever thought about applying those very same reasons to your small business marketing? In this short video (actually, it’s a slide show we made into a video), we’ll illustrate how the rationale is appropriate for every business provided your goals are to…
There are many ways to create content ideas, but we choose to focus here on these 4 ways as a place to get you started.
We’ve previously written about how to improve content marketing with How to Write Content Answers and How to Write Content in Times of Upheaval. But what good is investing in a content marketing campaign if no one reads it? We’ll show you how to improve content marketing below.
We’ve previously written about How to Connect With High Value Customers. In that fashion, we want to show you how to write content answers for the questions your potential clients may have. Let’s break down what it will take to effectively answer your prospective customers by expertly answering the pressing questions they have about your…
Professional Services are not immune to economic downturns and must consider their post-COVID-19 marketing response today in order to resume a path to success. Inbound marketing is a proven marketing method that is ideal for every professional services business. We’ve previously written about How Lack of Marketing Plan Blows the Budget. Let’s continue that trend by…
It’s a goal most entrepreneurs ascribe to, enrolling high-value clients. . The truth is there are a few things to be mindful of before going out on a campaign to harness a tribe of top-level prospects and convert them.
A look at the importance of a marketing plan as exhibited by a restaurant owner, plus some suggested ways to improve the marketing performance.
Hang on a minute. Does Marketing Your Small Business 4 Pennies even make sense? It does if you have no marketing budget and are hard-pressed to find new prospective customers. Marketing your small business for pennies is a concept that many very small businesses use to get off the ground. While traditional marketing and advertising…
As a business owner you probably think the world is your market, and that anyone with money is your ideal client. You couldn’t be more wrong.
Sound business marketers place a great deal of emphasis on targeting the audience with whom they wish to attract. It makes sense, because why spend your advertising budget on an inappropriate clientele? Following that logic, shouldn’t they be just as selective in deciding whom they chose to do business with? For new business development, as…
It is estimated that over half the population watch a YouTube video every day! And this demand profile isn’t limited to only consumers. One report suggests that 92% of business to business customers regularly watch online video.
an you imagine your dentist offering a Black Friday special? “Come in Friday from 3 am until noon and have two cavities filled for the price of one!” Or perhaps your cardiologist offering a BOGO on heart valve replacements. Can you consider a cosmetic surgeon advertising for “Black Friday Nose job Special. Purchase a rhinoplasty and receive a liposuction and tummy tuck for half-off.”
Networking and Referrals Tops with SMB’s… Maybe? When asked for their best sources of lead generation, a recent article and poll suggests so. But is this really the truth? A friend and business owner I admire recently shared a magazine article that addressed lead generation strategies. According to the article, the use of websites and…
We have covered the value of creating content marketing to allow prospects to find your website and you for quite a while now. One way to lead your competition and establish yourself as an industry expert is by creating engaging content in a variety of media. You not only bring valuable attention to your brand,…
It doesn’t matter at what stage of growth your business resides; napkin idea, start up, emerging enterprise or seasoned business, it will always need your attention. When it comes to growing your business, are you insane? What I mean by this query is there is a saying (attributed to Albert Einstein, by the way): Doing…
We have been writing about content marketing, also known as inbound marketing, for more than 18 months, and our clients are enjoying the greater exposure and qualified leads this marketing approach provides them. Yet we occasionally are invited to meet with prospective client firms that are reluctant in adopting the concept. I thought it might…
If you want to get your point across and make a friend, use plain English. Industry jargon may be fine for working around your coworkers, industry friends and associates, but it should not be used in sales presentations. Jargon is one of the greatest frustrations for a buyer. The inability to grasp what is being…
Or why pretending to be someone’s Grandmother isn’t going to help you get that order. My latest favorite term is Sales Prevention Officer… borrowed from Jonathan Farrington on the Eyes on Sales blog. Professional, effective sales processes are a combination of art and science. A great sales person is trained in acting, engineering, politics, relationship…
For many a small business, especially those that rely on generating as many leads as possible online, pay per click is an easy answer, but it may not be the answer to your marketing dilemma. Your lead generation is what drives your business, and your marketing budget must yield as large an ROI as possible,…
While the world has “gone digital,” cold calling is out of date to say the least. However, there are cold calling statistics that make me wonder; well sort of; it’s a bit of a conundrum actually. In the past I posted articles relating to the cold calling marketing strategy. One article alluded to the fact…
What inbound marketing does really, really well is eliminate the cold call. After all, when you have scores of interested people taking the time to visit your landing page or blog and then leaving you their contact information the odds are pretty good your call will be taken. This behavioral bridge is amplified when they…
We know it as Cold Calling 2.0 (in our office we refer to it as interruptive sales) but there is a tactic in telemarketing and phone sales that is guaranteed NOT win the hearts and minds of your potential customers. Don’t know to what I am referring? Reverse – cold calling is the act of…
You rarely hit a home run in small business marketing; small ball works best. A well defined marketing plan around a realistic number of differing tactics will run up the score nicely. But because of restrictive budgets (or sometimes attitudes) many small businesses try a tactic and when the home run doesn’t happen abandon it…
We have covered the value of creating content marketing to allow prospects to find your website (and find you!) for quite a while now. One way to lead your competition and establish yourself as an industry expert is by creating engaging content in a variety of media. You not only bring valuable attention to your…
Social media is the new word of mouth, so when the conversation online with customers or prospects begins, the friends and contacts that like what they see and react, and are going to join the conversation as well. Perhaps you aren’t monitoring your social media feeds; in that case you are missing out on information.…
Email marketing is a great way for you to attract or shore up some of the client base, and accounting firms know that once the rush begins, there will be no rest until it is all put aside in late April. It won’t be long until tax filing season comes into focus; often this is…
New Year, More Anxiety for Local Business Owners – From a column we produced running in The Hunterdon County Democrat and NJ.com While 2012 may have been a lackluster year for business, this curative approach could dispel much of the pent up anxiety small business owners may have experienced in 2012. The New Year often brings…
To wrap up this series on Lead generation and lead nurturing, we’ll explore the ideal prospect, how to actually construct a lead nurturing system, and more. This is the final installment in a four part series dedicated to lead generation and lead nurturing process. No business can be successful with new client development without a…
Part three of four This is the third installment in a four part series dedicated to lead generation and lead nurturing process. No business can be successful with new client development without a strong understanding of this phase in the sales cycle. You can read the initial installment which can be found here. Here are…
This is the second installment in a four part series dedicated to lead generation and lead nurturing process. No accounting firm can be successful with new client development without a strong understanding of this phase in the sales cycle. You can read the initial installment by clicking here. Obviously, trade shows are not the only…
Lead Generation & Nurturing for Your Accounting Firm is vitally important. Regardless of the methodology of lead generation you employ, in all probability your accounting firm will spend considerable time, energy and financial resources on lead generation. Some firms utilize direct mail, telemarketing, referral or customer-based marketing, trade shows, networking and a host of other strategies…
Is Inbound Marketing effective for a start-up or should I start cold calling? In a recent online post I was asked,” When starting a new business and trying to generate qualified leads, are there any tricks when you are cold calling or is it purely just a numbers game”? This is a common question, especially from…
We are approached by many companies who are looking to grow their revenue line, and in the process of understanding their approach to business development one question is universally asked – “How Do We Motivate Our Sales Team?” Sales Team Motivation benefits greatly from Inbound Marketing. First off- you cannot really motivate anyone. Motivation comes from…
Can Accounting Firms Get Sustainability in Marketing with Inbound Marketing? We believe so… Your business development or sales organization has been very busy. Think about all that time spent drafting emails, responding to voice mails, writing proposals with little or no real relevance, pitching to non-decision makers and not holding prospects accountable to commitments… in…
Do you sometimes feel like your company is using social media and blogging but not getting the volume of leads you had hoped for? Are you stressing over the decision to invest more time, talent, and treasure into your marketing effort? Or are you stuck in the old cold-calling paradigm? Heck, can a company survive…
Inbound Marketing is the Fuel Source for Successful Sales Teams. In your organization, is customer acquisition a “Seek” or “Get Found” mentality? If it is the latter, then you are ready for inbound marketing. If your firm’s belief system is that the sales department is responsible for lead generation, then, I am sorry to say, you…
The Olympics, Inbound Marketing, and Your Succession Plan… If you are like me, you were practically glued to the television and enjoyed the competition that is the Summer Olympics. Sports, like business, is about more than just competition but also involves decision making, preparation, planning, and especially desire. One of the stories in the most recent…
Inbound Marketing and History Lessons Can Work Together. A favorite saying in business is “those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it”. In today’s economy, this lesson can often be disputed. It is easy for a business owner to develop a rear window perspective and allow their business development to be determined by…
How to get the most from your web presence is a struggle for many small businesses. No matter what the size of your business, it’s important to have a relevant message, delivered through an effective, optimized website. Small companies often comment that they get much of their new business from referrals, but that doesn’t mean that…
How to explain inbound marketing to professional services firms is a question we get from colleagues often. Not every marketing agency uses or understands a growth process centered around inbound marketing so we have come to expect this question. If you were to have the ability to deliver your very best, top ranked Keynote Presentation…
There are many integration efficiencies with the right inbound marketing platform. The entire business world is undertaking extensive efforts to market in these uncertain times. Typically, business goes about the routine, but the economic storm, which we are experiencing, has made each step a cautious one. Combine the fact that budgets are tight, the future uncertain,…
Inbound Marketing Levels the Playing Field for businesses in almost all industries, scales, and annual revenues. Large or small, multi-national or local, family-owned, companies today have as much of a chance at winning business for one very big reason; the internet. Yes, it’s true, the internet greatly impacts how business is won today, compared to just…
Cold calling does not work for a number of reasons, primarily because consumers and decision-makers hate telemarketers as much as they hate disruption. There is enough to do all day at work (and at home for that matter) without having to answer an annoying phone call from someone interested in “saving you time or money.”
Just How Effective is Cold Calling Anyway? Let’s be honest for a moment; no one likes cold calling. Cold calling was once the standard method of gaining new business for many industries, the number one lead generation technique, especially financial services. For everyone from the boiler room operations seeking donations to the New York Stock Exchange…
Direct Mail vs Digital Marketing Stats May Surprise You. Both digital marketing and direct mail have their place in the world and come with their own advantages and disadvantages. But painting digital marketing as more ecologically friendly is actually a misconception. Here’s what you should know about direct mail: A study from the U.S. Postal Service…
Is Blogging a Good Investment for Accountants? Many of those in the accounting world assume that blogging is a platform mainly for those who are involved with Internet marketing as their main business. The truth is, many major companies have blogs, even those that are not directly involved in the technological field. Blogging can be a…
How do CPA’s Reach New Clients? Accountants, CPA’s, financial services firms and financial consultants live to “get found!” Those accounting firms that have already embraced inbound marketing are experiencing significant growth in lead generation, lead capture, internet marketing “buzz” and have differentiated themselves from their competitors in new client development. Let’s face it, the traditional model…
One of the questions I am frequently asked is, “When is the best time to make sales calls?” I’m always hesitant to answer this question, simply because I despise cold calling and believe that anyone who tells you they enjoy cold calling is either a liar or a sales consultant. Yes, I never want to…
The 5 critical stages of creating an internet marketing sales process are less known than the traditional descriptor. Marketers usually prefer the term marketing sales funnel, as the top of the pipeline is wider than the bottom, where many prospects (suspects?) enter, but through qualification, choice and follow through determine how many actually proceed from suspect to…
Don’t make these branding mistakes; there can be legal implications. Branding is not only a marketing concern. Here are a few do’s and dont’s when it comes to designing your brand. DO make sure your brand graphically promises what you deliver. Meeting expectations is one of the best ways to avoid legal problems. DO be different.…
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