Okay so you’ve got a business and you need leads right? And every internet marketing article you read tells you to blog content content and more content. But how do you create a blog that actually generates leads?
This blog has helpful tips for creating a Lead Generation Blog.

First- Get your Own Blog!

Meaning you get a domain and host it yourself. The problem we see many times is a business owner who chooses to use a free blogging service. The business owner is then left with a sub-domain blog that looks something like this > mybusiness.freeblogcompany.com

Sub-domains are bad because they can hurt your SEO, and the blogs usually come with less features, and worst of all your efforts are advertising for the company who gave you the free bog!

We recommend buying your www.domain from a hosting company like Dreamhost(best unlimited hosting)  Use “Bimo” as a coupon code and save $20 on your hosting!

Second- Install WordPress

Word press is a free platform for your blog, that right free. As soon as you buy your websites domain you need to install wordpress. Ask your hosting provider to install for you, the guys at dreamhost do it for free.

WordPress  is awesome because it has many free ‘plug-ins’ you can add to your blog for a wide range of features such as internet marketing and capturing emails! There are many other reasons why wordpress is the best and you can google them if you need to.

 

Here are A few FREE Internet marketing plug-ins for your word press blog:

- Headspace (For SEO)-This is an essential SEO plugin which creates search engine friendly meta tags (title, keywords and description) for all your posts and pages. This is an extremely powerful plugin that is loaded with features and functionality.

- Optin-Form Adder (generate leads)- This plugin allows you to add your autoresponder code and setup an opt-in form for your sidebar or within a post or page. This is a really easy way to start generating leads from your blog!!

- WP-Sticky - This plugin allows you to make a specific post sticky, which means it will stay at the top of your page no matter how old it is. This is very useful for making special offers and opt-in forms the first thing a reader sees when he or she visits your homepage.

- Email to Friend Plugin- This is a great plugin that adds a little icon at the bottom of your posts to send to a friend. Once clicked, a popup box is opened where the user can send the link. It is really easy to use.

- WP-Banner Ads Plugin-This is a banner ad management plugin for WordPress. Now you can add banners to your blog linking back to your business website.
Plug-ins are very easy to set-up on your wordpress dashboard. If you have any trouble you can easily find examples on google or youtube describing how to install a wordpress plug-in.

 

Third- Targeting and Tracking

You should know how many visitors your blog has each day and where these visitors are coming from! Installing analytics onto your blog is very easy. We recommend using jetpack by word press. Tracking the bounce rate of your visitors arriving from one traffic source opposed to another traffic source will be extremely helpful in determine where your marketing is paying off.

Also before you post an article so a simple keyword search using google’s free keyword tool. You want to find keywords that have high search volumes, why? Because these words are what your customers are looking for. Use the keywords you find to title your blogs and add in your tags.

Lastly- Ask for leads

How does the saying go, ask and you shall receive? Well maybe its not that easy, but your blog will get more leads if you simply ask for people to leave their information. We have seen many blogs that have NO call to action and the business owners is wondering why he has no leads. Give calls to action to your curious blog readers.
Some ideas are to create a call to action at the end of blog posts, List your phone number in the head of the blog, offer a free e-book for people who give their information, offer free consultations.

If you would like us to take a look at your blog, send us an email bill@bimomarketing.com we would love to hear from you guys

Have you ever paid to attend a trade show, only to leave with only a few business cards? If so you know how difficult offline marketing can be. This blog will tell you how to successfully generate offline leads with mascots and how we did it.

Find a Mascot

The first thing you need to do is look for a costume or local personality that will be able to represent your brand. Remember to keep it playful and simple! For example: if you have a lawn care business you can make a suit out of tuff grass easily and fairly inexpensive.

Bimo Marketing has been lucky to partner with Green Man Advertising to handle generating offline leads for our clients. The group is ran by the founders Mike and Nate who do an amazing job going the extra mile. I recommend giving them a call, because they worked amazing for our clients, and they are branching out to other parts of the U.S.

Create a mascot with purpose

Your mascot needs to have a goal set. A mascot standing in front of your business and waiving is ineffective. A mascot standing in front of your business that hands out coupons while directing walk by traffic towards your door is more effective.
The point is that is to capitalize off of the spark your mascot creates. Mascots do not close sales for you, however mascots generate curiosity they generate interest, and unless you have a plan to compliment the mascots efforts you may be wasting time.
In the case of our clients Bot Revolt, the Green Man Advertising team did an awesome job creating purpose. They executed 3 key functions:
1. Get into pictures- They posed for as many pictures as they could with visitors and press.

2. Hand out cards ( and get cards) In a business scenario it is important to also gather business cards for follow-ups after.

3. Get people to our sales staff- The Green Man Advertising group did and excellent job getting prospects to our sales staff. In fact a good mascot will have your sales staff overwhelmed at a trade show or business affair.

Social Media Loves Mascots

Business is changing. Companies now create commercials while considering the impact it will have on their twitter handle. Yea, social media is a big idea that is why it is important you use you offline lead generating mascot for your online social media accounts. Post pictures, create web videos to promote this mascot to a higher level. Fun is better.

Written by: Leonard M. Rubino

 

As a president of several companies that depend on leads, I can tell you it is the difference between success and failure. Today more than ever advertising has changed, for the last 40 years the advertising world has been about the same.  The changes we have seen in the last 10 years have changed the game.

In-bound leads are more web based than ever before. Yellow Pages, direct mail, and newspaper ads are a waste of money compared to a professional web page, an aggressive SEO campaign, and a profitable pay-per-click program.

You may know your business very well, however without this new form of advertising you will be missing your mark. Your competition will gradually gain a larger market share, giving them more buying power towards advertising.

Today you need to have the internet to work for you. If you do not have $ Millions of dollars like the big companies than you need to hire professionals like Bimo Marketing that will tailor a program to fit your budget and your needs. No other form of advertising can match the power of the Internet. The choice is easy; start small and build, or stay stagnant and lose market share.

1. The landing page does not explain the value of an offer. everyones attention spans are short, especially online. This means you need to make sure your offer is as clear as possible. A good rule of thumb is to make sure your landing page passes the “snap test.” This means that, can the visitor understand the offer and what you’re asking them to do to get it in fewer than 6 seconds? In order to pass the “snap test,” you have to keep things simple and clear. Make use of the title, text, and images on your page to ensure your visitors get the idea immediately.

2. The headers aren’t consistent with the calls-to-action. An essential tip when selecting your page titles and form headers would be to make sure they match your copy and call-to-action text for any offer. If a visitor click on a CTA telling them to download your free guide, they are expecting to be directed to a page where they can do that. Make it clear that they’re in the right place as soon as they get to your landing page by keeping your copy and page title consistent.

3. Did you put navigation links on the landing page?! You put all that work into getting somebody to click on your ad or call-to-action, and now they’re actually viewing your landing page! And you want to keep them there, right? The goal is to get them to fill out your form, and in order to make that more of a possibility, you need to reduce the likelihood that they will click away from the page. Eliminate interruptions by getting rid of all navigation and links to other parts of your site. Once the visitor gets to your landing page, the only action they should be able to take is filling out your form. Concealing navigation on your landing pages will help keep your conversion rates up!

4. Your form is below the page fold?? You might want to make sure that your form appears ABOVE the fold, or this means that, that the visitor does not have to scroll down on the page in an effort to see it. Instant visibility is important, since your goal is to draw the visitor’s focus to the form. You also should not need to scroll down to view the content of the page. KEEP YOUR FORM AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE.

6. Your landing page does not redirect to a thank you page. When an individual has finished filling out the form on your landing page, what do they see next? Sending them to a “thank you” page is a great chance to suggest next steps for your lead. This is where you bring back the routing and direct your newly converted leads to other parts of your site to help them further connect with your company or brand and keep them engaged. This will make them stronger leads that will be more likely to convert into customers.

 

Marketing is a strange and wonderful science. It’s origins likely go back earlier than mankind. It can be found in nature, employed in the most subtle and intricate ways. The gorgeous colors in flowers aren’t there just to be pretty. Birds and bees (unlike dogs) have color vision, enabling them to seek out the most colorful flowers. Birds sing symphonies in the spring to attract a healthy and attractive mate. Imagine an early cavewoman, smearing her lips with berry juice, giving her an unusual and impressive edge over her fellow cave-ladies. Yes, reproduction is the goal in all these scenarios but all business seeks to expand and grow. We thrive on replication and survival of the fittest is the law in this jungle as well. In all of these cases the creatures are marketing, but what is more important is that other creatures are actively seeking them. Here’s a bit of insight on marketing methodologies with excellent returns on investment (ROI) most likely to help your business grow.

Inbound marketing is where you help yourself get found by people who are actively shopping, searching, and seeking answers in your industry. It’s just about the opposite of traditional marketing methods like cold calling, email blasts, and print ads. Outbound marketing is blasting your message out as loud and as far as you can and hoping someone, somewhere identifies with it. Yes, people look in specific classified sections for a potential local match to a need, but when craigslist has to tone down their human services barter section, you know there are places to go where people are directly seeking you and your business!

Word of Mouth is classic marketing method utilized by virtually every industry in existence. Satisfied customers are the key to creating the ‘buzz’ that drives WOM marketing. It is one of the most credible forms of advertising because people who don’t stand to gain personally by promoting something put their reputations on the line every time they make a recommendation. Your job is not only to provide them with the medium to do this in but to thrill them so with your services that they do gladly and unconsciously. Ratings and reviews critically impact purchasing habits. What’s shared at the water cooler isn’t likely to go viral, but you can make a bigger splash with potential buyers by making a review available to them through a blog/social network post or search engine ad/listing.

SEM/SMM/OBM/ETC…

I know, that was a lot of acronyms. Search (Engine) Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Online Brand Management all have their own departments, but they are so closely related to the same thing: Internet Marketing. Close to 80% of internet users conduct product research online, often on their smartphones while in the store with the goods right in front of them! When 1 out of every 8 minutes spent online is spent on Facebook, you have to be educated and aggressive about how and where you target your customers. Targeted email campaigns can also increase traffic and conversion, but even the almighty email is experiencing diminishing returns. Email/SMS can inspire a prospect to buy and familiarize them with the brand, but with consumers wising up on how to avoid unrequested solicitation you have to ask yourself: “Why force myself where I am not wanted?” Your future clientele is out there, and they’re actively looking for you. Position yourself accordingly!

You’re working hard to get targeted traffic to your website. You may spend money on advertising and marketing your site through pay per click, banner advertising, search engine optimization or other types of online advertising. But what occurs when visitors eventually come to your website? Are they actually purchasing your products or services or perhaps filling out the form? Is he or she subscribing to your newsletter?

A successful web site is all about converting visitors to paying customers. This is measured by the conversion rate: how many website visitors it takes to sell 1 item, or capture 1 lead.

How come conversion rate is so essential? Conversion is a critical point to your business achievements on the Internet. Increasing the conversion rate is an extremely direct, affordable strategy to boost profits significantly even without having to get additional website visitors.

Listed below are 7 methods for you to use to further improve your conversion rate and turn your prospective customers to buyers:

#1. Create awareness, grab their attention immediately.

Put your sales pitch, your order button or the most important statement of what your site offers above the scroll; short and sweet. By no means put anything important below the scroll. Your primary or top selling products and services must be accessible from your home page.

#2. Offer high quality products and services and/or content.

The most cricial point is to display what great value your product or service is and how your product or service will make their lifestyles much better.

In case you have an e-commerce site, you should offer quality products at very competitive prices. For an information-based website, your content material must be well-respected, updated and reliable. And most importantly, visitors should hang on every word.

#3. Style and design your web page exclusively for your target visitors.

There’s no rule that says that each and every single visitor needs to come into your site via your home page. They can get to your main page from a sister site offering the same goods, product pages or a landing page. Visitors from a Pay Per Click campaign may come in from a certain page, but visitors from your press announcements may come in from another one. You must provide unique visitors with the right content designed to make them act in response to your offer.

#4. Make it simple for your potential customers.

How you layout your website can make all the difference. Avoid confusing navigational structures. If you are selling products, make the ordering process easy.

#5. Think active!

Use a driven and active tone to keep your customers motivated and fully interested in the sales process. Active tone is more dynamic, which makes the visitor feel that you are speaking to them directly. Give some personality to your site. Keep them engaged!

#6. Strengthen the trust factor.

Trust is a key factor of success on the Internet. Visitors return only to websites they believe in. They purchase only from websites they are aware will protect their private information, provide them with excellent service, and give them products which are worth their money. Assure customers that you are going to keep their privacy; let them know precisely what data you are collecting and exactly how you are utilizing it so users feel comfortable submitting their data.

#7. Build customer loyalty.

Loyalty marketing is a proven method to increase conversion rates. The more engaged they are, you are closer to a sale or a loyal customer.

There’s plenty of debate as to which of these two popular marketing methods is better than the other. In reality, both SEO AND PPC are essential to online marketing visibility, and they complement each other nicely. Though the two work hand in hand, I believe one is ultimately superior. Below, I will compare some pros and cons, and test their strengths and weaknessness against each other. The last one standing will be declared the winner of my Bimo Belt and be used primarily in my campaigning endeavors!

COST

Pay-per-Click is about a lot more than money. But never forget, the first word is PAY. While a PPC campaign can deliver traffic with relative ease, it can be very costly and has no real longevity — once you stop paying, the traffic goes away. ALso you have to pay for every click whether it gets you business or not. Since you are paying for every click and every ad impression, you are always paying, and this cost keeps rising with increasing competition for the same spot or the same keyword.

SEO and link building require a lot more creative effort but have much more sustainable results. You also don’t need much if any capital to start up at all. Just start writing! Once your website has been optimized, backlinked, and attains a higher ranking naturally, your traffic is practically free. After that you just need to maintain your position. The fact is there is more weight and visibility on a search engine listing than an ad. Page one, rank one can be accomplished in many ways but the only required investment is effort.

TIME

SEO is a long term investment. It’s quite the grind to the number one spot for competetive terms. It can take years in some verticals. Once done properly, though it’s not easily shaken or undone. Search engine users trust naturally appearing links more; after all that is what the majority go to a search engine for. When given a choice between the natural result of their search and “sponsored” or PPC links, search engine users opt for organic results almost every time!

PPC doesn’t require lots of time and effort: do your keyword research, choose your ad partners, and get your money ready. The results are immediate. You can start getting traffic within minutes in some cases. Because it is a quick, low maintenace method, PPC is an ideal supplement to more protracted, complicated marketing, like SEO. If your facing a timecrunch or deadline, PPC can get you quality leads quickly, but the fact is: you can do better.

EFFECTIVENESS

SEO is a deeper science. There is more to learn from it than PPC. Doing SEO research uncovers incredible amounts of intelligence on specific terms, searchers, demographics, products, industries and more. You are forced to improve conversions for each keyword search, and have almost unlimited options modify your campaign and raise the ROI. SEO keeps your website in good condition, from content to user experience, and gives you more insight into the minds of your potential clients.

Search engine users prefer naturally appearing links. SEO targets a larger base of users as most studies reveal that 75 – 80% of searchers click on organic listings as opposed to paid listings. Most search engine users don’t pay much attention to pay-per-click ads that appear along with the natural search results because they think the links that pay to appear don’t have the relevant information on them (and that’s why they needed to pay). In most of the cases banners that appear on content-rich websites too don’t generate many clicks because people are more interested in consuming the actual content on the web page.

An aware user knows that links get higher, natural rankings from search engine algorithms because they are relevant. Since they prefer and trust the search engine they use, they normally show more interest in links that appear with higher rankings than ads that appear in the PPC sections.

WINNER: SEO

It’s pretty clear which of the two I prefer. I am a details oriented, analytic individual though. I have nothing against PPC. I believe it is a versatile and necessary tool for internet advertising just like social media marketing. If you have the budget for it, I urge you incorporate PPC into your campaigns and gauge it’s results for yourself. PPC is amazing for short term goals, but strategic SEO and link building is the ideal for long term online marketing efforts.

*The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of it’s writer and not necessarily reflective of Bimo Marketing.*

The key concept to successful lead generation is to understand that your leads are actual people. If you use methods to get the most “data” you can, you are practicing poor lead generation and you are probably wasting a lot of money.

What do I mean by this? Simply put, you must recognize people are actually filling out your forms and looking for a service in return. You must guide your user through and give them a good experience in order to get higher conversions, below are some examples I think can help you out:

Try to put yourself in your users shoes

.  Have you ever had an need and you used Google or yahoo to fill the need? Odds are you have used one of the search engines to find a service you needed immediately.  The next time you use a search engine to find something PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL: The ad, the landing page and how your personal information is taken. Spend one day just focusing on your user experience when you are generating the lead. Your goal is to tweak your page/ ad so your have a better user experience, this will increase conversions!

Alter your pitch to your different visitors

.  We all know we have different users who seek our services, but are you creating multiple ads and pages catered to the uniqueness of you users? We have different ads and different pages for the same service in order to boost our conversion rates.  Users find things better, more relevant and more helpful and that leads to higher conversion. For example if you run credit repair campaigns have a page targeted on credit repairs impact on home buying, and have another page targeted on car buying. It might take a little more work, but you are sure to see higher conversions!!

Use other lead buyers to buy leads you cant use

Monetize your leads, This is the key to high conversion rates. If you generate debt leads, but you get a lot of clients you cannot sell such as people looking for loans or grants. Do not write this off as a bad lead. However have an outlet to sell this lead, contact a company who needs these leads, even if you can only supply them one or two a week they will buy them! This will greatly improve your conversion rate!

At the end of the day, our role as ‘lead generators’ must evolve.  Optimization is just not enough.  As lead generators, we need to view ourselves more as manufacturers.  We take a raw good (internet traffic) and we shape it, chisel it and add to it until a final product is created: a lead.  The better we can supply our buyers the more valuable our brand becomes.

 

Let’s be honest

Most businesses are not successful at generating their own leads at a reasonable cost. Sure, anyone can generate leads at a cost. However, its at a cost that is not justifiable or that is way more expensive than simply buying the leads from a lead gen company.

Now, obviously different marketing channels result in different marketing costs. Email is typically less expensive, but in most cases requires the ability to handle a large amount of leads from large geo target. Paid search is the easiest to get up and running, but can be very costly. Display is a channel that can be very costly and requires high level of expertise to make work, especially for lead generation. So, why is it that lead generation companies are able to make it work?

Because good lead gen companies have the expertise, scale, coverage and possibly multiple sales. It is really that simply. Why am I bringing up these facts?

Because it is important to educate yourself on the lead generation industry. If you want quality leads at market price you have to build up a relationship with a lead vendor. You can not search the Internet for the cheapest leads, or a “free” batch. If you look for an easy way to bring leads you will continue to get burned.

Trust me

I have been on both sides the buy and sell side. What I have learned is that your time is better spent focusing on your business. For example if you are mortgage broker then focus on your customer base and selling mortgages, leave the lead generation to a company who does it all day long.

With that said; you must find a lead vendor who you can build a relationship with. In this industry the competition is so high you are truly getting what you pay for. If a company can afford to charge you $3 for “quality leads” you have to ask yourself why?

If the leads were any good they could get close to $30 for them. However, they draw you in with the ridiculous price and make you buy a large minimum order.

Be Aware.

• Don’t fall for too good to be true deals, if the seller could get top dollar for them they would!

• Know your vendor, check complaint boards to see if anyone has had trouble with them before

• Know what the seller considers a returnable lead, seriously this is lead buying 101

• Know the market price for your industry, highly under-market price from a new seller is a RED FLAG

• Keep accurate reports on the leads so you know the leads true worth; if you close 1 out of 10 today and 0 out of 20 tomorrow you can’t stick to the thought that you sold 1 out of 10 before!

• Do what you do best and outsource the rest… wisely…