How List Building Means Lead Generation.

Let’s step back a bit.  There are so many good applications for email marketing that I think many can get lost in the shuffle.  And I see terminology used incorrectly leading many businesses to misunderstand what email marketing is all about.

Let me explain.

Have you ever heard the expression, “The money is in the list.”?

If so you’re probably listening to the pack of Internet Marketers that feel like a list IS a business but in the end the list is only a tool.

So what then, can this tool do for you.

Let’s talk about lead generation specifically.

Most businesses alive today know that they constantly need new customers to survive.  These customers once were leads and therefore your business needs new leads.  Seems simple enough.

How do you get these leads today?

Are you paying for advertising of ANY kind?  Offline or online?  If so, you could probably run this calculation.

Divide ADVERTISING EXPENSE by # OF NEW LEADS.  i.e.  $3,456/10 = $345.60 per lead.

What that means to me in email-land is that if I can get you a new lead for say $200 you’d be pleased.

Here are four ways you should be trying to generate new leads with your email system.

1.  Run Google PPC ads to a dedicated landing page with a signup form.

2.  Run Bing PPC ads to a dedicated landing page with a signup form.

3.  Run Facebook Paid ads to a Facebook Tab with a signup form.

4.  Run LinkedIn Paid ads to a dedicated landing page with a signup form.

All of these forms should place a new email address on your list.  Then your goal is to start working on how to convert these leads from, as Seth Godin says, “From strangers to friends, and from friends to customers.”

NOW YOU HAVE A PERFECT LEAD GENERATION SYSTEM.

You can count and control the number of new leads and the cost of getting those new leads.  And because you can measure it, you can work on improving it.  If you start this process and are getting leads at $200 per, you could potentially test and tweak your way down to $100 per.  Since you started at over $345 each you’d suddenly be getting 3 times as many leads for the same budget.

As a business owner, that should interest you.

Now let’s go back to the concept of list building.  All we’ve done here is use amazing power of modern digital marketing combined with email to acquire and convert new leads.