Whether you’re planning your lead generation strat­egy or analyzing campaign results, strike “cost per lead” from your vocabulary. In online marketing, just as in life, you get what you pay for.

Seeking a low cost-per-lead sets you up for the wrong goal. Your real goal should be to win a profit­able customer at the lowest possible cost.

The metric you want to focus on is cost per acquired customer.

But first, make sure you understand the lifetime value of a customer—a key, yet often overlooked, concept. Looking at revenue from a one-time trans­action viewpoint is a flawed assumption and leads to selecting poor-quality leads.

The lifetime value (LTV) of a customer, according to the Database Institute’s website, is “the expected profit that you will realize from sales to a particular customer in the future. Although it builds on past customer history, LTV is all about the future. It is based, primarily, on the customer’s expected retention and spending rate, plus some other factors that are easy to determine.”

Use your customer’s LTV as a gauge for what a truly qualified lead is really worth in your customer acquisition program. Then, for each marketing buy, be willing to pay more for the programs that have effective conversion rates. In the end, you could care less about the cost of a raw lead–you want a profit­able cost per acquired customer!

Clearly define what a lead is and set the price you’re willing to pay for it according to how deep in the conversion funnel it is. A name from Hoovers is not worth nearly as much as a contact that completed a form and requested more information. And that lead is not worth as much as a prospect who has agreed to an in-person demonstration.

Keep in mind that leads from different sources convert at different rates. A higher cost lead may convert at twice the rate of a lower cost lead, making it more valuable.

Setting up a program to generate profitable leads begins with a close look at your business model. What are the telltale qualifiers for your best pros­pects? For example, for financial services, it might be net worth. For pharmaceuticals, it might be age. What are your close ratios? Expect to pay more for better or deeper leads.

Visit www.responsemine.com

Article Source

Lead generation 2010:  everybody’s looking for new customers and hot prospects.  And sales.  Times are tough but hey, they’re out there: people that need your products and services and want to do business with you. They just have to find you, know what you’re selling, and trust you enough to buy from you.  Seems simple, but first you have to fix your broken lead generation system.

Broken Lead Generation Tip 1. You’re searching for leads in the wrong places.  You’re looking high and low, and these high opportunity folks are left and right.  You need to tune-up your lead generation strategy to find prospects and new customers efficiently.

Broken Lead Generation Tip 2. Customers and prospects don’t know you.  Although you’ve been in an office right down the street for years, ate lunch at the same restaurant, shopped at the same grocery store — they’ve never heard of you, your business.  You’re cold and you need to be warm.

Broken Lead Generation Program Tip 3. They don’t trust you. 
Why should they: no one likes to do business with a stranger.  Your lead generation program doesn’t establish trust as it develops new customers.

Broken Lead Generation Tip 4.  Your marketing is old and ineffective.  Remember the direct mail package you sent them about your products? And the 4-color post card. That didn’t work, did it? Say, when was that – a few months ago… a year or two ago?  Five years?   Yes, direct mail works. But not if you don’t do it right.

Broken Lead Generation Strategy 5. You made them the wrong offer.  Whether by direct mail, telephone, newspaper ad or whatever… A poorly strategised lead generation program is like offering candy to a college co-ed — they aren’t taking anything from strangers. You aroused only suspicions, and they called to police.  Or, did that only happen to me, er… a friend of mine?

Gone are the good old days:   

Lead Generation Tip 6. Remember how you got most of your customers? Yea, well… that doesn’t work anymore, either.  Times are tough.  To be effective today, lead generation needs to be far more specific, targeted, and maybe even personalized to be most effective.

Direct Marketing Strategy Tip 7. In the good old days you could offer a product that no one else had.  If people wanted it, they called you.  Now, they can get it anywhere – including the Internet.  And they can get it cheaper, too. 

Times changed and everyone sells everything.  Some industries are harder hit than others: financial lead generation is particularly tough — because now even banks sell financial services.  And it’s harder still for insurance lead generation: both banks and financial service people sell insurance.  Even if your competitors don’t have what your customers are looking for, they’ll go out and get it for them.  

Direct Marketing Strategy 8.  Now ask yourself why.  Why should new clients do business with you.  What makes you so great?  Your nice office location, nice office furniture, and that good-looking secretary.  I mean what makes you so great in THEIR eyes.  Better pricing?  Different product mix?  Better service?  Why should they leave the comfort and security of their current vendor, and move everything to you? 

Overcome these 7 lead generation objections and answer question 8 and holy smokes, you’re one giant step closer to getting new customers and keeping older ones.

So, where are you going to generate new leads, prospects, and new customers now?  The next two articles in this series “Lead Generation: How To increase response and lower cost per lead by finding the right markets.” shows you exactly how.

Bio, Jeffrey Dobkin
If you’re struggling with poor response from your direct marketing campaign, you can solve this problem and get guaranteed help; gain an advantage fast – and get amazing results by reading practical how-to marketing tips. Immediately increase your phone calls – and customers – receive articles you can trust by Jeffrey Dobkin. Dobkin has written 4 books on direct marketing that feature his practical marketing tips and successful direct marketing methods, all scribbled in his own brilliant conversational style of writing. He can be reached at 610-642-1000. Read more of his articles at http://www.danielleadams.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/lead-generation-7-places-your-strategy-to-generate-leads-is-broken-1746148.html

In order to retain clients and build a sustainable business, you must stay in touch with people in a meaningful way. This includes people you have done business with, people you have met in person at events and your email subscriber list.

Your client base has a sacred contract with you. They have connected, spent money, and spent time with you. You must care enough to keep in touch with them.

Advertising experts have proven time and time again, that ads that run continuously, at least three times, always outperform one-shot ad runs. The same is true with your client base. Find a way to reach them, share your message, and consistently stay connected.

For coaches, consultants, healers, and other helping professionals, newsletters are one of the best ways to stay in touch. It is important to shift your mindset and action from not wanting to bother your client base, which is a common mistake that new business owners make.

Just as most new business owners commonly do, I used to say, “People have just given me their name, I don’t want to bother them and send them things all the time.” I had to recognize that touching their lives in a meaningful way allows the cream to rise to the top. Those who are truly interested in what you have to say and the solutions you offer will make themselves known to you. The rest may unsubscribe or walk away from you, but that means they really weren’t engaged or dedicated to your message anyway.

Approaching marketing this way saves you time, effort, and money. Instead of chasing people who may or may not be interested or ready for your offerings, let the people who need you most identify themselves to you. Don’t worry about the others. They will let you know when they are ready or simply opt-out if they are not interested.

My newsletter continually gets better readership when I write more often and when I provide a more personal touch about my family, my dog, or my travels. When I first started doing my newsletter, I did it once a month and about 35% of the people opened it and read it. Now I do my newsletter weekly, and I have sometimes up to 85% open it up and read it. It just proves that if you’re consistent and really share meaningful content, people will want more of it. They will want more of you!

Newsletters are only one way to stay in touch with your clients, prospects or business contacts, but they are a great place to start. Depending on your business and the people you serve, there are dozens of other ways to touch the lives of your clients in a meaningful way.

Once you’ve started regularly sending out an email newsletter, consider mailing out occasional physical newsletters, cards or small gifts to show your appreciation to your clients and contacts. It done authentically and thoughtfully, investments like this will always pay off in spades.

Although there may be specific tactics and media that will work best for your business, niche, and message, the important thing is that you are consistently reaching out to your client base and prospect list in ways that show your dedication to them. Communicating how much you care through an electronic newsletter or any other method of follow up is one of the easiest and most effective ways to grow your business and increase your visibility.

I’d like to invite you to learn how to help more people, make more money and enjoy more freedom with the free 5-day mini course, “Awakening Your Authentic Entrepreneur,” at http://www.HelpMorePeople.com/minicourse.htm

Suzanne Evans is best known as the ‘action expert’ and has coached hundreds of solopreneurs to model her multiple six figure business.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/client-retention-tips-how-to-show-you-care-by-staying-in-touch-1657447.html