Need sales fast? Try this simple but quick online prospecting process

Auckland, New Zealand: Content Marketing: Need to boost your sales leads quickly because you’ve been so busy, you’ve neglected you leads pipeline? Here’s a simple online marketing formula that lets you get your business sales programme up and running on the Internet within a day or so.

Step 1

Go to Unbounce.com and create a landing page. Subscriptions start from $US49 per month — or get somebody to create one for you, which will cost about $600 – $700. The second way is better, and not that expensive either. Here’s an example of one.

Step 2

Write the copy for the landing page according to this formula:

  • What is the single biggest problem your customers have? Use this in the headline e.g. Need sales fast?
  • Why do they have this problem? Your first paragraph tells your customers why they have this problem e.g. got too busy and ignored your leads pipeline?
  • Make a benefit offer: How would you like to have a sales programme you only have to set up once and which then runs automatically in the background 24/7?
  • Why will the problem that your customer is having not go away anytime soon? e.g. Because you’ll get too busy again and most likely don’t like prospecting; so you’re probably always going to procrastinate sales and marketing activity. It’s human nature.
  • How can they solve this problem? Succinctly explain your solution and why it works e.g. we can solve your problem by having a sales process that you only have to set-up once and that then runs automatically in the background. That’s the process we’re talking about now.
  • Paint a picture of life after they have implemented your solution e.g. how would you like to come into the office every morning and find a bunch of sales inquiries in your inbox, ready and waiting to go, with little or no effort required from you?
  • Tell them what to do next e.g. ‘click here to download a price list’, or to ‘download this free guide on…’

Step 3

Write the copy for your opt-in device. I’ve heard this described as a bribe. Essentially you offer somebody something of value in exchange for their email address and first name. We know from our work with electronic direct mail (eDMs), that we seem to have a high opt-in for price list requests.

But it depends, I guess, on your product or service. My advice here is to offer something that people can use – a good content marketing piece. Offering free information is still valuable. For example, a free guide or eBook that fulfils their need for more information as part of their product research process. Perhaps more effective would be a ‘decision making guide’, a ‘calculator’, a ‘pattern’ etc. It needn’t be long, even a 500 word, well designed useful document is good.

Step 4

Once you’re landing page is set up (it does not need to be linked to your website because doing that can create a whole bunch of procrastination excuses like ‘I can’t do this now because my website needs updating first’… sound familiar?

Load the copy and the opt-in device up to the landing page and link the subscription code to your database. Unbounce will tell you how to do this, and so will an email marketing service like MailChimp. If you don’t have an online database, set up an account in MailChimp. It’s free, to a point.

Step 5

Write an automatic response email and load this to MailChimp. This is so that when somebody downloads your ‘bribe’ or the ‘price list’, their email details are automatically copied to Mailchimp, which then automatically sends them an email. In the email, thank them for downloading your opt-in device and perhaps include a tip, a special offer for subscribers only or details for them to contact you to arrange a coffee and a chat.

Step 6

Launch a Google Adwords campaign. There’s plenty of advice on the Internet about how to set this up, or talk to a Google Adwords company if you want to do a good job. Setting up your Adwords account with Google is free, but using an agent will cost between $500 and $1,000 – depending on who you use (some are excessively over-priced, so shop around). I recommend ArkAdvance, here in Auckland. They’re good people. Thereafter you determine your own monthly budget, which can be as low as $50 or more — anything you want it to be.

And hey presto, you’re up and running. Let your system do your prospecting while you get on with your core business.

Total cost to set-up if you use specialists to write your copy, set-up your landing page, auto-response process and Google Adwords campaign will be in the region of about $2000 – $3000 for set-up, but it’s far more active than your website which may be buried on page four or five of Google. Thereafter, anything from $100 or more a month – you decide.

You can do it yourself, but it may be a steep learning curve and consume time that’s better spent elsewhere. But to do it yourself, total set-up cost is likely to be under $300 New Zealand.

You may also want to consider an electronic direct mail campaign. Most publishers, such as Espire Media, will offer this service. It will cost you about $2,500 to send an eDM out to a publishers’ database, which can average 6,000 or more people in your selected target market.

Conclusion

What does this have to do with content marketing? All good marketing is a mix of tactics, but a good opt-in device e.g. a free guide, is making use of value-added content to help your customer’s make better decisions.

The rest is good sales copywriting and simple tactics. If you want help in setting all of this up, feel free to get in touch via our contacts page.

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