A surprising number of small businesses and professionals have the misguided notion that if they create a web site that duplicates their business brochure they will magically have new internet leads for their business. Building a lead generating machine takes a little more effort. But it also is not rocket science.

Getting the internet leads that will grow your business requires strategy and planning, hands-on work by you or someone you hire, a web site designed to convert leads into customers or clients, and a follow-up process.

When people go to the internet, they want information. They will give you contact information and permission to contact them only if you make available quality content in an engaging package. This means that part of your internet leads strategy must include a way to produce and promote consistently to the world relevant information. You must decide what kind of content you can offer and figure out how your potential customers want to receive that information. They you must decide whether to offer it free or put a price tag on it. Last, you need to decide how and where to advertise that information and how you will use it to get permission to contact people again.

The kind of marketing steps that will bring new internet leads to your site are:

- an active presence on a social network

- producing content – articles, reports, white papers, etc.

- press releases or media relations

- optimized web content

- high search rankings

- video content (if appropriate)

- properly structured web site.

- email marketing

- online advertising

- a process for converting leads to customers.

Whether you implement a plan to generate internet leads or you decide to buy internet leads from one of the companies that sells them, you need to have everything ready – your offer, quality information, details about the products or services you sell, and a way to convince people to buy from you.

If you are a small business owner or professional and want more information about lead generation, see the free video, “How Article Promotion Can Drive 25,000 – 50,000 New Prospects to Your Web Site Each Month – For Free.”