Woah, what a busy couple of weeks it has been at Small Business Gurus HQ! Recently, at one of our regular, highly caffeinated brainstorming sessions, we decided to implement a few changes to see how quickly we could increase our business leads.
The results have been so outstanding we are seriously thinking of launching a new service called "Hot Leads R Us" !
This is what we did, and it can work for your business too.
THE RIGHT TOOLS
The key to finding clients online? Using the right tools.
These all important tools are actually software programs designed to locate potential leads.
The way this software works is by you creating an account and being alerted when a keyword phrase you nominate is mentioned in a live social network stream.
The way this software works is by you creating an account and being alerted when a keyword phrase you nominate is mentioned in a live social network stream.
For example, we might want to increase our copywriting leads. We set up alerts for the keyword phrase "need a copywriter". Our business is then notified each time a lead for this keyword phrase is used on a social network. We then hop straight on to the lead.
Our team acquired 15 new global customers in a 10 day span doing this.
Here is a run down of the software tools we use at Small Business Gurus.
Followers of my blog may have seen me mention NeedTagger before. That is because I love the program, it is simple to set up, works and best of all the FREE version is great.
NeedTagger is described as the 'Customer Search Engine for Twitter',and this is exactly how it works for us. Perfect for finding leads on Twitter.
JumpLead works by alerting you with up to date information about your web traffic. You may think there are free apps to do this, yes, but not in the same way as JumpLead. I love the lead capture program as it notifies us of web traffic leads and Twitter leads in a simple format. Our favorite. Try it free for 14 days.
Heard of Sprout Social? No? Give it 12 months everyone would have heard of it.
Sprout Social has been around a little while now (launched in 2010), and is seriously the competitive kid on the block. These guys are programming kings, and this benefits your business. Engage, capture leads, analyse your social media campaigns, and see who is looking at your business regularly to enhance your marketing strategy. Free Trial Available, worth the test.
The above tools are necessary to locate immediate leads, however the KEY to securing these leads as new clients is timing.
- Don't set up these tools if you cannot monitor the alerts
- Respond quickly
- Don't mess about, answer the question with a solution
- An online lead has a short life span you must be fast and get the content right
One thing to remember is how you respond to an alert. This is especially important when it comes to Twitter. Replying to a tweet for a new website with "We can help you, contact us on xxx" tells your followers nothing. However, replying with "We create fantastic web sites John, here are our details, available to chat now" tells everyone what you can do. Make sense? Works for us.
WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER
Of course there are multiple ways to find leads online. Networking on Linkedin, engaging with followers, offering special deals. However these methods can often take some time, or, in relation to deals and offers, capture a short term customer. Other methods can also be time consuming as you spend time looking for places to contribute and thinking of ways to capture new leads. Automating the process saves so much time and opens you up to a world of business you may never have known existed.
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