New Business Leads: The Pros And Cons Of Various Lead Generation Solutions

By: Melanie Kok

A new home business owner? You need to review what are the benefits for your network marketing business, of the online lead generation solutions available to generate new business leads.

Some methods are costly, but you can get leads quickly. Others are affordable marketing strategies that require more effort and time from you. Choosing a lead generation system for your business will depend on your available budget, your experience in marketing and your target audience.

In this article, I will list the pros and cons of the various methods available for network marketing lead generation.

Offline marketing:

Pros:

* For someone with a business network, an extensive contact list and credibility, personal contact marketing can work extremely well.
* With a bit of enthusiasm and plenty of energy (and a low budget) flyers, drop cards and banner signs can work very well for someone that has just started their business.

Cons:

* In a specific area, many network marketing business owners can use the same method to advertise their business and you may find several ads in the newspaper and several banners and flyers all using similar wording.

* Some areas do not allow the use of banner signs or place flyers on cars and you may encounter a run around with law enforcement

* Print media advertising is expensive and often outside of the budget of a new network marketing business owner.

* Producing radio and TV ads are expensive. Joining a marketing co-op is an option to do this marketing. The price paid (between $500 and $1000 per month depending on the co-op) does not justify the quality and quantity of the leads obtained through this method. Administration fees for the co-op and the management of the lead allocation, adds to the cost of this marketing.

Offline to online marketing:

Pros and cons:

* The same as above, as the only difference is that a website address is added to all print media. The idea is that the prospects will visit the website first where some frequently asked questions are answered. The prospect that needs more information and is still interested is encouraged to enter their details for a telephonic screening session.

Buying leads

Pros:

* This is a quick method. You can pay for your leads today and have the details of your leads available within 24 hours

* The method is perceived to be fairly cheap. The price paid for leads will vary significantly depending on the various lead generation companies. You can pay around $120 for fifty telephone verified opt-in leads from one of the smarter lead generation companies that has a good service record.

Cons:

* The leads are not great quality. Many lead providers have to offer an incentive to encourage prospects to enter their details on an opt-in form. These leads are business opportunity seekers that want the tax benefits and the extra cash without really thinking what they want in life and why.

* Not all lead generation companies are ethical. Some re-sell the same list to more than one customer, resulting in irritated leads by the time you speak to them.

* There is often a significant delay (often as long as 60 days) from when the lead entered their details on the lead companies’ website to when you get the contact details. Many leads cannot remember they entered their contact details and you lose any possible impact.

* These leads have no connection with you, as they have not visited your blog. Talking to them would be the same as doing cold calling, which is not fun!

Buying genealogy leads

Pros:

* This is a quick method. You can pay for leads today and have the details of the leads available within 24 hours

* This method seems like a quick fix to anyone with a lack of new home business leads and without a plan to do their own lead generation.

Cons:

* Network marketing companies sell the information of their distributors to whoever will buy the information. They do not have the permission from the distributors when they sell the lists. You can buy lists and the distributors are still active in the company. Be prepared to talk to irritated prospects that keep on asking “take me off your list, now”!

* The sellers of these genealogy lists often obtain them in an unethical. Most people you call off these lists did not give permission to their companies to sell their contact information and did not request a phone call by business opportunity owners. You will talk with prospects that are disenchanted and negative towards any new business opportunity.

* These leads have no point of reference to your business as they have not visited your website and requested you to contact them. Talking to them would be more difficult than doing cold calling, as they are also highly negative towards any new business opportunity!

Ad hoc online marketing

Pros:

* This method is quick initially. You can have a serious of free job listing or free listings listed within 24 hours. You can have a newspaper ad or banner ad within 1 week and a PPC campaign and article listed in a major article directory within a day.

* Anyone with some online skills can try all the various methods available online to advertise and can get some results

Cons:

* You never learn to fully master a specific online marketing skill if you continuously jump from one online marketing method to another

* You compete with thousands of other home business owners for the same market and unless you learn to market like the industry leaders, the competition in this type of marketing results in high marketing costs e.g. a PPC campaign using the highly competitive keyword “business opportunities” could cost you over $2 per click.

Targeted lead generation

Pros:

* Learn real marketing skills from industry leaders and you learn to master one marketing skill at a time.

* This is not simply a gunshot marketing approach that hopes something will stick. This is a laser targeted marketing approach where you know to whom you market and you attract a high quality lead.

* You learn to display value to the online market and learn to use your acquired skills to present yourself as the leader you are, instead of just another network marketing business owner.

* You learn to use credible marketing systems with tested marketing funnels, lead capture pages, auto-responders.

* You learn to build online relationships with your website visitors and you learn to use Facebook and Youtube to make you real to your prospects.

Cons:

* You need to be patient to learn the online marketing skills you lack and become skillful in one marketing strategy at a time.

* You need to put effort in to learn and apply the various techniques until you have mastered them. You cannot pay someone to do it for you.

There is simply no comparison if you evaluate the pros and cons of all the methods available to get new business leads. Some methods seem like a quick fix for a home business owner with a lack of leads. But they are not a real lead generation solution.

The only real lead generation solution is to learn to generate your own, targeted leads. To learn and apply real online marketing skills. To use a qualified marketing system with customizable marketing funnels, capture pages and auto-responders. To be able to plug your down line into the same system to ensure they get the same quality of marketing training, access to the same marketing tools and that they too, can duplicate their success in their down line.

Melanie Kok is a Lead Generation Coach and an Online Marketing Strategist assisting home business owners to start generating their own business leads.. More articles on lead generation tips and new business leads is available on Melanie's Blog. To get access to training to learn to generate your own business leads, go to Online Lead Coach Training.

Article Source: http://www.marketingarticlelibrary.com

Please Rate this Article

Not yet Rated