Usually when you start a business, getting quality leads is the most difficult part. Of course the old school method is to pay out the rear end for advertising, paid leads, and marketing plans. Your budget doesn’t have to be sky high to get qualified leads however, there are plenty of grass roots, guerilla methods to get power leads.

Super Targeted Direct Mailing

Traditional direct mailing has an efficiency rate of 1-2% yikes… why would you want to try that when you have to contact 100 people to get one sale? When you are paying .35 cents per item, and $1+ per card/envelope/letter it starts to get pricey. However you can get a higher conversion rate and pay less by doing SUPER TARGETED DIRECT MAILING (MUAHAHAHAHA).

Essentially what that entails is looking up 10 companies that you can tell really need your product or service. Finding out the CEO, and learn as much as you can about him/her. Then write a personal letter discussing how you stumbled onto their website and noticed some missed opportunities. Then say you could give them some free advice at no pressure, if they don’t see the value they are free to leave.

The most difficult task in direct mail is to get the person to actually read it, which is where the personal message comes into play. Once you have their interest feed them as much information as possible. There is evidence that proves a longer direct mail piece is more effective than a short one. Why? Well those who are not interested are going to toss it regardless. Those who ARE interested want to know as much as possible!

Self printing options for small batches will cost you less than $50, and one job often more than pays for the expense.

Hold a Seminar

The information you have, the service you provide, it has VALUE and people WANT THAT VALUE. Are you a copy writer? Hold a seminar on how to create exciting headlines. Graphic designer? Talk about having templates developed so you can create some materials in house. Sell widgets? Talk about how to increase productivity, oh and guess what… your widget helps do just that!

If you are willing to give up a few hundred dollars worth of information, some of the people attending the seminar are going to want more. If what you tell them works, they will likely come back to you to get more results.

Post the seminar in all areas you can, online, issue a press release, sites like upcoming, Yahoo Events , Google Groups, Yahoo Groups. Make sure you track how many people are coming, so you can be prepared with the right amount of hand outs, etc.

Write your own press releases

Guess what, you don’t have to be a professional PR agent to get a mention in local publications. Many major cities have publications that have “business minutes.” Those are little bites of info from press releases sent in by whom ever! This can be about a new client, a new marketing campaign, your seminar, a new employee, etc! The more you get mentioned the more likely people will remember you, look you up, and contact you. Look around at the different local business publications and collect the e-mails of their editors. Make a habit of sending out a press release once a month. (stay tuned for a post about writing your own press releases.

Network, Network, Network

Any location, ANYWHERE has network groups. It is just a way of life. People who are passionate about something like to talk to others who are passionate about the same thing. The more people you know the more people who have a friend of a friend who needs your help. Most networking events are not expensive, offer free food, and good information as well. This is probably the best method for building your lead network. I know of companies that have built there business on attending a networking event every day for a few years, nothing else.

Co Brand / Market

You know what costs less than one advertisement? When you split the cost of that advertisement with another company. So few companies do this now days and I don’t realize why. Find a company that has a complementary service/product to yours and purchase an advertisement together. Why not take it a step further, promote each other on your websites, at networking events, and other marketing materials. As one company grows the other will as well.

Further people will begin to associate you with the good qualities of the other company. A photographer that does work with an excellent wedding planner will begin to be known as “The photographer that works at Trump Memory Planning, LLC.” And vice versa, the planner will begin to be known as “The planning company that uses well known photography, Max Doe”

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.