Kick @$$ and Take Names - Generating Leads

When starting an online business, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the question “Where do I start?” With so many moving pieces, it can be beneficial to take them on one at a time. Every business, whether online or offline, needs leads. A lead is someone who is aware, interested, and could benefit from your products or services. A great way to gather high quality leads is by creating a lead generator. A lead generator is exactly what it sounds like: value you offer to take a non-customer and foster the first level of engagement with your business.
It’s easy to look to the “industry standard” as a monolith: “Every financial coach gives a free report as a lead generator, so I must!” Although it can be helpful to follow a proven model, that copycat thinking removes a crucial piece of the equation... your audience! A PDF isn’t valuable simply because it exists—a webinar isn’t inherently helpful because it’s live. The things you create have value because they aim to solve a problem or help your target market reach their own goals. Ultimately, you’re aiming to provide a small, quick solution to your potential customers in a way that entices them to come back for more!

Utilize Your Strengths

When figuring out what direction you'd like to go with your lead, check out the list below and think about which of these options would best utilize your unique abilities!

Course Building
Design
Presentation
People Skills
Audio/video Production
Consultation
Quiz Building
Success Story

When choosing a lead generator, start with a strength and go from there. It'll be less stressful, and likely yield better results!

Deliver Sensibly

Now that we’ve started with your own strengths, it’s time to think outwardly. Who are you trying to reach, and how can you best reach them? Beyond connecting with people through the content itself, you can maximize your audience engagement by delivering it in a way that is optimal for them. Ask yourself: “Would my audience want this?” Below are some questions to consider when strategizing ideas for a lead generator!
How much margin does your potential customer have in their day? Imagine your audience is made up of busy professionals. It’s not as likely that they will have the time or desire to prioritize a one-hour live webinar. A quick, downloadable report that they can read at their own convenience is a better fit.

If you want a good freebie, you've got to make it easy.

 If you want a good freebie, you’ve got to make it easy. The idea of a lead generator is built on the assumption that this audience doesn’t know you yet. If the journey to value is difficult, they are as good as gone.
How does your audience consume media? Are they the type to read an article about current events, or do they hop on YouTube? Tailoring your lead generation strategy to the personalities and preferences of your audience will help you reach your marketing goals. Additionally, consider the link between the freebie and the offer you are selling. Having a free consultation call for a coaching program that includes 1:1 sessions makes sense; there’s a connection between what you are offering for free and what they’ll be paying you for. It is possible to have a lead generator that builds your list but does not produce customers.

Make it Scalable

Everything comes with a cost—even if it doesn’t have a price. Any action you take requires some measure of sacrifice from your greatest resource... time. When picking a lead generator, always think about how much time and effort that it takes to deliver. You want to develop freebies that still allow you the time you need to work on your paid offerings.
Ideally, your sales flow looks something like a funnel. Click here to learn how to create a sales funnel using Kajabi Pipelines. The freebie’s job in the pipeline is to cast the net to help pull new people into the funnel—it’s a conduit to an eventual sale. Your freebie is not meant to be a small butterfly net, it’s meant to be a deep sea fishing net.
Let’s say you decide to give away free consultation calls to anybody who opts-in to your email list. That may be a great opportunity to drive sales over the phone. Especially if you’re a great communicator. But what happens when your popularity grows? Now your schedule is packed with free calls given to people who may not ever pay you a dime. In this flow, you are always standing between an ocean of customers and each individual sale. This makes you a bottleneck. You are preventing your ability to maximize the effect of your lead generator—and ultimately—your sales.
When will you have time to work on that new module, create that new course, let alone find time to relax? For you, maybe it’s time to charge for the call, and time to think about a new lead generator. One that can scale.

When you’re creating your freebie, think funnels over bottlenecks.

Let's Recap

Creating content for lead generation can feel overwhelming. But you got this! By utilizing your strengths, and staying within your comfort zone, this necessary step in your journey to success online will become more manageable. If the idea of going live makes you sweat, choose a different way to generate leads, if it excites you then drive forward full steam ahead!
Additionally, your marketing endeavors will be effective if you continue to have your audience in mind. What is doable for the person you are trying to reach? How much time do they have? What kind of content, or medium, do they enjoy consuming? Getting inside the mind of your future customers will help your opt-in conversions.

However easy the gurus might make it sound, creating valuable content and building an email list is hard work. Expect ahead of time to produce consistent value to your audience before seeing a return.