Creative Lead Generation Strategies to Grow Your Business

As an entrepreneur , it’s vitally important to continually generate high quality leads for your business. Here are  low cost, highly effective lead generation strategies.

1) A-Z List

In order to begin the list, you’ll need a three-ring notebook. Label the first page with the letter “A”, and then place a few empty filler pages behind this letter, then label another page “B”, and add some empty pages, then label another page “C” and add some empty pages- continue this for the entire alphabet.

Starting with any letter, begin to write down all the people, places, names of companies, cities, anything and everything that begins with that letter- aim for an exhaustive list.

Each time you meet someone new, add his/her name to your A-Z list. It’s wise to spend about 10-15 minutes, faithfully, each week, adding to your list. In this way, you begin to amass an ongoing, growing database of people you know and people you’d like to meet.

Very soon, you’ll have an extensive list of potential leads.

2) Mind Mapping

This is a creative lead generation technique to help you solve any problems or blocks around generating more leads. It is a fun, inspiring process.

Start with a piece of paper and a pen or pencil. You might want to save your mind maps in some kind of binder or folder as they are good resources to refer back to periodically.

Once you have a piece of paper, write the ‘problem’ or ‘question’ in the middle of the page. For example, “how can I bring more customers or dealers into my business?” You place a circle around this question, and then draw a series of spokes moving outward from this circle (like the sunrays in a child’s drawing). At the end of each sun ray, you quickly and easily write out a possible solution- or, in some cases, a word or phrase that comes to you. Once you have written a word or phrase, you then circle that and draw additional sunrays from that circle and repeat the process. So the page will end up looking like a series of suns, each connected by a line or idea.

3) Email Newsletter/Ezine

Starting an email newsletter or ezine is both a marketing and a lead generation technique. To set up a newsletter, you need to figure out a name, find people to subscribe, and make it a point to offer relevant, useful, informative and valuable content.

The advantages of email newsletters are that they are inexpensive to produce, easy to send out, and offer a means for customers to click through to your website or sales pages if they would like more information. If you are providing good, usable content, though, very often your subscribers will stay with you for years. Be sure to highlight customer appropriate changes to your business- i.e. are you doing some charity or volunteer work that they might like to know about?

4) Contests/Giveaways

Contests or giveaways can be a really fun way to generate interest and excitement in your business. The majority of people enjoy obtaining something for free, and the higher the perceived value, the more excited people are to participate. To use this to generate leads offer an item for free if people take a specified action (i.e. visit your website, sign up for your newsletter; know the right answer to a question).

These are really fun, and people love to win- so you might create a tip sheet or small product/package to give away and start holding contests/giveaways to increase your customer base.

5) Updates to Your Website

Updating your website is an important lead generation technique, and is a way to retain your current customers or clients. The main purpose of your website should be to educate and inform the consumer; to encourage him or her to stay aware of your business and to take the next step when s/he has a problem you can solve. The more current you keep your website; the more likely you are to have a flow of new leads and potential customers and dealers coming into your business.

Providing good, solid website content is a great way to generate repeat business and new leads- plus, it’s generally very cost-effective, and gives you a great deal of credibility and visibility with your target customers.