Leads, What Do You Do With them?

OK, you've decided to dive into a marketing program with full intentions to work it hard and make more money than you ever have before. But how are you going to do that? The answer is simple, you are going to prospect. Now the question is who are you going to prospect? Again the answer is simple, every single person you come in contact with. Well, if you’re like me you will tell everyone who dares come close enough to talk to. These people are known as "Leads". They are a mixture of people you know and those you have never met before. In other words, they are your "Warm Market" and you’re "Cold Market". Of course there are other types of leads but here I'll discuss these two.

Warm Market
If you’re going to be an online marketer in affiliate programs or any type of network marketing you will eventually need leads. There is a right place to start in this process, almost all programs are going to teach you it is with your “Warm Market” prospects. These are family and friends and those you know through casual acquaintances. For these types of leads you’re simply going to do some brain storming and write down a list of everyone you know or have come in contact with. It can be easy at first because you’ll write down all your family and close friends, people you see and talk to almost daily. Once the easy part is complete you’ll need to begin thinking of everyone else you come in contact with. These will be people you know but a bit more casually, such as those at your Barber Shop or hair Salon, or your Nail salon, Church, fast food restaurant, Night Clubs, Local Discount Store greeters, Grocery Stores and on and on. This list could literally be in the hundreds and keep you quite busy for a long time to come. The “Warm Market” list is an absolute must and one you will need to create quickly to give your new business a jump start.

Something you should be aware of and in my opinion very cautious of. There are many companies that advertise using statements such as, “Do you despise bugging your family, your friends “, “never again sell to your friends and family”, suggesting you should not tell your family and friends about your business because it will be a bother to them. While this may be true if you do not have a proven program that can actually make them money or is a bit on the shady side. It is absolutely false, if your program is one that has a great income potential and has a simple duplicatable and proven system that is easy to work. Your “Warm Market” prospects are the first one’s you’ll want to tell, because they are the ones you should most want to see succeed.

Cold Market
Eventually your ‘Warm market” list will wear out and you’ll have to come up with new prospects. Although your warm list is the best place to start, you certainly can not stop there if you plan on growing a significant Home Based Business. The next set of leads I’m going to look at is your “Cold Market” prospects. These are people you do not know, have never had contact with, and are scared to death tot talk to (most of us are anyway). You’re going to have to talk to them anyway. The problem is where do you get them. If you do a simple Internet search for “leads” you will come up with hundreds of places willing to sell you leads. They will sell you leads for a price any where from 10,000 or more for $19.99 to 20 leads for as much as $300.00. If you’re like me and on a limited budget $300.00 is a lot of money and $19.99 looks more like my cup of tea. The main consideration is the quality of the leads. Does higher cost mean better quality leads, yes, usually it does, but not always. Does lower cost mean a low quality lead, yes, usually it does, but not always. It all depends on how you plan to use them.

Low Cost High Volume Leads
Most marketers make one big mistake using the lower priced lower quality leads. They buy them and immediately send them to their main sales page hoping to turn them into instant buyers hoping that a mere 1 percent will sign up. It almost never works that way. I’ve paid for as many as 20,000 leads thinking the $40.00 I spent was a bargain, I was sure I would get 10 – 15 sales. I sent them right to one of my direct sales pages, not even one person even attempted to sign up. When I looked at my web site statistics most of these leads only stayed a few seconds and they were forever gone. Why, because a lot of these leads are not even searching for Home Business ideas or have the slightest interest in Network Marketing or Affiliate programs. They are names harvested from all types of advertisements placed in every imaginable spot possible on the internet. But, the ads did catch their attention, even if it was just for a few seconds, so something did click in their minds but a real connection was not made. At-least the connection I was hoping for wasn't made. Considering the fact they only stayed a few seconds I concentrated sending these leads to pages that only took a few seconds to read and did not have any type of sales pitch on them. They were not going to buy but they certainly were going to look. So I began the process of building a “List” of names, one's I could then market to using email. It worked wonderfully, using short concise pages that simply asked for a name and an email address, promising them free information or products. The two pages I use now, Plug-In-Profit Site and 2Tillprofit. Both of these pages are short, easy to read quickly, and offer the person something of value. They both do two things for me. First they are putting my products in front of the prospect giving me name recognition. Secondly if they do their jobs they are giving me names for my email list. This allows me the ability to use the recognition I’ve gained to build trust and ultimately sell my products.

Short concise web pages are the only way to correctly use the inexpensive low cost leads. Just remember, even with a short page offering a free gift you may only get a handful of prospects out of every 10,000 names you buy. Although, it may not appear to be a good investment, it is still very good for business and can be very profitable. Those few names are part of the building blocks you will use to grow your business and ultimately make the kind of money you want.

High Cost Leads
I’ve paid as much as $12.25 per name with high cost leads amounting to $245.00 for a list of 20 prospects. Were they worth it, some would say no. But I say they are if you have a specific plan for them. These are not leads that harvested through some low cost advertisement some where on the net. These are leads that are captured through a lead capture page such as WorldVentures Capture page . The more you pay for a lead the more information they should come with. Leads that run around the $4.00 mark should have the leads name, email address, and phone number. When you are paying $8.00 to $12.00 per lead they will usually come with a lot more information, including but not limited to, the amount of money they have to invest, the amount of time they have to invest, how much money they want to make, how much time they can invest to make the money they want and more. Often the high end leads will come from very specific ad campaigns generated through your company’s advertising program. The advertisements will state your companies name, tell them a little about your company’s business plan, and ask them to fill out the form and inquire specifically about your company. They are worth more because they have been presold and are expecting to receive specific information from you.

These leads can be put in an email marketing list but that is not what they are generated for. Actually that would be a waste. These names are people who are actively searching for a Home Based business and ready for a phone call. Often they are expecting it with a bit of enthusiasm. Just keep in mind, not all of them are buyers or even ready to buy. Many just want a little more detail about your offer. Out of 20 names I might sell to 2-3 of them and may not recover the cost of my purchase. While I may not recover the entire cost of these leads immediately I certainly am with residuals, bonuses and team building. Adding people to my team doesn’t hurt my ego a bit either.

Every type of lead you can get has a specific purpose and a specific way they can be effectively used. Family and friends cost only a little bit of time and can be your most valuable resource. Low cost high volume and high cost specific leads are both very valuable and require a time and money investment. If you have a specific plan on how you want to use them they can both be very worth while in building your business.

There are two places I recommend for purchasing leads.
1. High volume low cost leads to use for building your list.
1,000 visitors for $12.00 up to 10,000 for $58.00
2. Specific leads for when you’re ready to start calling your prospects.
Pro local and national Leads

The Programs I Use My leads With To Produce A Steady Income are
Plug-In-Profit Site, the number one Affiliate Marketing Opportunity, ItCanHappen4u2 a Home Based Business Opportunity Guide listing several opportunities, 2Tillprofit a one stop do it all web site advertising and promotion program with all the tools you will ever need and WorldVentures Dream Trips and Business package.