4 helpful tips on how to generate qualified leads on the web.

By: Jessica MacRoberts 8/18/2011 Business Development Manager SearchPro Systems

What business doesn’t want to generate more qualified leads? Studies indicate that one of the main issues businesses endure is the lack of qualified prospect leads. Whether you’re B to B or B to C, you need to have qualified leads in order to expand your business and become successful. The main problem for many businesses is either they don’t have the time, money or ability to develop them.

There are many ways to receive qualified leads: you can purchase them (which are usually very expensive and not always cost effective), print advertising (which typically isn’t targeted, and can become costly), Television commercials (which can be very costly, and generally not targeted), telemarketing (can be costly and have a slow turn around, but usually effective), SEO (which is one of the most cost effective ways to advertise directly to your target market), online videos/VSEO (can be costly or inexpensive depending on the production company’s capabilities, very good conversion rates if done properly and is targeted), Social Media (very inexpensive, can be time consuming, and has a good conversion rate if done properly), and so much more.

The TOP 4 must haves to generate more qualified leads are as follows:

• Website – Well constructed, with a clear call to action. This means it should have a contact form asking questions, that will qualify the lead (i.e. who is the decision maker, what is your budget, when are you looking to purchase, etc.), good use of informative content and it should be easy to navigate.
• SEO – It’s all about organic location. Organic SEO will provide you long term equitable placement with a gradual turn around. PPC is a great way to get instant exposure. However, it’s extremely costly, provides no long term equity and is ineffective for many companies/industries (reports say that 4 out of 5 people that use search engines never click on a PPC ad.).
• Online Video’s/VSEO – Proven to be the most preferred form of content, and most clicked on if available. Getting those video’s to rank is not an easy task. There are too many companies out their promoting VSEO that don’t have a clue on how to do it. Make sure the videos are informative and have a clear call to action to order to work properly. See more on web videos here https://searchprosystems.com/maximize-your-business%e2%80%99s-video-visibility-with-video-seo-vseo
• Social media – The most inexpensive way to generate qualified leads, and the most underutilized. Social media properties such as Twitter, Facebook and Linked In are great tools to use, for networking, branding and driving awareness for who you are and what you offer (yes B to B can benefit from social media too!). This can be very time consuming and ineffective if you do not utilize them in a proper manner.

In order to get most out of your dollar, you want to use them all in conjunction of one another. Spending $20,000 on a beautiful site is of no use if you’re not using SEO or even worse the website is not able to be optimized (same goes for videos and VSEO). And SEO is no good if the website doesn’t have a clear call to action or is not informative.