Seven Tools for Lead Capture

So how will you get visitors to your website to give you permission and contact information? You get people to give you their contact information through lead capture tools. The seven leading tools are the following.

1. Opt-in Forms for your Email List. If your site content is good, people will sign up for more information from you. This is the leading method for lead capture.

2. RSS feeds for Content. No matter what you write and post to your website, you can allow people to sign up for an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed of your blog or other content. Your lead capture method makes their life easier because they get your content delivered right to their inbox instantly.

3. Powerful Landing Pages. Landing pages are only seen by people who visit your site because of a specific promotion. They might be coming for a promoted gift or white paper. These pages sell and capture leads.

4. Article Marketing. Writing and publishing articles is a way to share information with customers and prospects. Just add a subscription e-mail address in the resource box at the end of the article.

5. Free Desktop Applications or Free Smart Phone Apps. Many businesses give away applications like calendars, wallpapers, planners, videos, etc. loaded to the prospective customer’s desktop or smart phone. They usually contain a live link to your website. These are effective for lead capture and tend to be shared widely.

6. Social Media. Your social media followers are leads. When they become your followers, you have instant access to them. Great content gets followers. Interesting posts keep them.

7. Enable Blog and Forum Comments. Get people involved in the conversation on your blog or forum with comments and questions. Require registration before they are allowed to post comments or to ask questions on the forum.

These the seven primary methods of lead capture. Each can powerful. Use them aggressively and watch your list grow.

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

Lead Generation, Lead Management, and Lead Nurturing are all important parts of the sales process.

The first of these steps is lead generation. This is the process of finding those parties who already have an interest in what is being sold. There are several ways of generating new leads; including purchasing leads from a third party organization or having web visitors submit their contact information. These leads are more valuable to a remote sales company if they have been newly generated, because these leads are more likely to convert into a sale. No lead can be ignored in a data base somewhere and still be considered a ?hot lead.?

Lead response management is just as important as lead generation. A customer relationship manager (CRM) is designed to help sales reps with lead management. Any leads that have been saved in a typical CSV file can be uploaded into the CRM, while leads captured from web forms can be uploaded automatically.

CRMs have lead response management tools built right into them. These allow newly imported leads to be routed to a sales representative immediately. Imagine, with such technology web leads can be contacted within minutes of when the visitor submits their contact information online! With an integrated CRM-dialer system, no longer will fresh leads be left uncalled for days.

The Customer Relationship Manager manages all of the interactions a company has with their leads and customers. They are powerful tools in tracking and analyzing sales data, and also host the telephony tools that help sales representatives progress on every call.

As calls progress, the CRM allows companies to manage contacts in three “Buckets:” leads, prospects, and customers. Within these “Buckets” contact groups can be made. Each contact group can be marketed, notified and supported with the mass emails, faxes, and mailer tools built into the system. Each of these groups can also be designated as the contact list for a power dialer or voice broadcasting system. Sales representatives can adapt their scripts to address the needs of the contacts in each ?Bucket.?

Even the best sales reps can?t convert 100% of their leads into sales. Some inside sales companies would abandon those leads. Lead nurturing is the process of keeping in contact with non-converted leads and providing quality interaction with them so they will become a customer in the future. Email, phone calls, mailers, and faxes are all used in lead nurturing.

While lead generation is a critical aspect of inside sales, a CRM allows sales reps to manage and nurture those leads until they become converted customers.