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A Four-Step Guide to Generating Sales Leads from Your Blog

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Dean: Did you know you can use your blog to make money offline? Blogger: Offline? What is this “offline” you speak of? Dean: It’s the opposite of “online.” Blogger: (confused silence) Dean: You know. Offline. Not on the internet. The real world. Blogger: (shaking phone) Not only does this stupid phone drop my calls, now it’s translating them into crazy moon language. Okay, I jest. But to listen to some bloggers, you would think a blog’s only purpose is to make money online, by selling ebooks , membership sites , or advertising. The truth is, blogs have grown into a more powerful tool than anyone ever imagined. They’re ideal for making money online, of course. But they can also be used to generate profits for nearly any kind of business, including those that provide real services in the offline world. This often means generating sales leads for a service or consulting business. This is how I use my copywriting business blog, which accounts for most of the new clients who call me these days. Okay, sounds great. People read your blog and then call to hire you, right? Well, not quite. Are you selling a product or a service? First, it’s important to understand that selling a service is not like selling a product. When you sell a product, the process is usually pretty straightforward. Basically, you introduce the product, spell out some benefits, make an offer, and people make a buying decision. Selling a service can be a little more involved. Prospects first inquire about the service, usually comparing you with other providers. If the service is expensive, like my copywriting and marketing consulting, people are even more careful about their decision. I’ve had clients take years to finally made the decision to hire me. And it’s common for people to start a phone call by saying, “I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while now. Do you have moment to talk about a copywriting project?” This shouldn’t surprise you. The more expensive the service, the more important it is, and the more commitment it requires from the customer, the more careful that customer is going to be. Think about it. If you need your bathroom painted, you might spend an afternoon looking for a decent painter. If you need to build an extension onto your house, you might spend weeks or even months finding the perfect contractor for the job. So if you provide a service, such as freelance writing, graphic design, web consulting, wedding photography, event planning, translation, or whatever, you can use your blog to attract prospects and begin the process of selling them on your services. Here’s how. Create your sales funnel Professional sales people often talk about filling their “sales funnel” or “sales pipeline.” What they mean is that in order to make a sale sometime in the future, they want people to inquire today. They always want to have lots of people who are in various stages of readiness to buy. To keep things simple, I like to think of the sales funnel as having just 4 simple steps. 1. Generate inquiries This means getting people to contact you. Typically this is done by offering something of value in exchange for contact information. For my business, I offer a free newsletter . If people go to my main website, I also offer a free white paper . In both cases, they have to give me some contact information before they get the freebie. I also provide a contact form and phone number for “hot” leads who are ready to talk business. I get many inquiries every week. Most can’t afford my services. But a few are high quality and good candidates for future business. 2. Follow up After you’ve delivered the freebie or provided whatever information you have promised, it’s time to schedule your follow-up, usually either by email or phone. Because you are responding to someone’s inquiry, it’s not a cold call. You have a valid reason for making contact and have an opportunity to gauge how serious the person is. Are they just gathering information? Do they need your services immediately? Or are they somewhere in between? The most serious are your sales leads. Everyone else is a prospect. You will want to spend more time on sales leads than prospects. 3. Nurture leads This is the step most people are tempted to skip. Like every other person selling a service, you want to make a sale right away. But while a few people will hire you immediately, most will not. Their interest needs to be nurtured until they’re ready to buy. You should store all contact information in a database, which could be a simple customer relationship management system like Highrise or a desktop-based program such as ACT! . Find ways to regularly communicate with your leads. Over time, they will become more familiar with you and more comfortable with the idea of hiring you. People always prefer the familiar over the unknown. There are many ways to nurture leads. You can send news or information they might be interested in, make additional offers for low-cost or introductory services, connect with them socially, and even seek their advice from time to time. 4. Close sales This step is self-explanatory. A potential customer needs your service. You provide a quote or estimate, answer questions, overcome objections, and eventually close the sale. This is your end game, the goal of your efforts. And if you’ve set up a good lead generation system and kept your sales funnel consistently full, it will actually be the easiest step in the process. Easy ways to generate inquiries from your blog The hardest part about generating sales leads is getting people to contact you in the first place. If you’re just starting out and no one knows who you are, this may seem impossible. As a blogger, you may know a variety of ways to promote your blog. Obviously, the more blog traffic you get, the easier it will be to generate leads. But you don’t need a ton of traffic to make it work. According to Alexa , my business blog is ranked at around 100,000 or so. That’s not bad, but it’s nowhere near superstar blogs such as Copyblogger. However, I get enough of the right kind of people reading it to generate a steady stream of inquiries for my services. So don’t worry about becoming a top-ranked blog. To successfully sell your services, you just need regular inquiries from the right kind of people. The more specialized you are, and the more targeted your blog posts, the more likely this will happen. Of course, bringing people to your blog is one thing. Generating inquiries is another. Here are some simple things you can do to make those inquiries happen. Contact Form — If you have a blog, you almost certainly have a contact form. However, the standard contact form is not enough. You should modify your form to match the service you sell. Take a look at the highly specialized form I use . E-Newsletter — This is an easy way to stay in touch with many people and provide great value while you’re at it. Since I specialize in copywriting for direct mail and direct marketing, my newsletter features articles and information on the subject. I have several thousand subscribers and about half of my new clients say they became pre-sold on my abilities by subscribing. Free White Paper — While a newsletter requires an ongoing commitment, a white paper is a one-time effort. Write it, post a contact/request form, and send a link to the PDF when requests come in. You could also automate the process with an auto responder, but I like to fulfill these requests personally so I can watch for hot leads from companies I want to work with. My white paper on improving direct mail response generates many requests every week. Information Kit — If you’ve built a blog or site around your services, you should provide plenty of information online. However, you can offer pricing, forms, a client list, and other information in the form of a downloadable PDF. Remember, when someone requests information, it gives you the opportunity to capture contact information. Webinars — These days it’s fairly simple to put together a webinar using services such as GoToWebinar . You can also create non-interactive presentations with software like PowerPoint or OpenOffice. The idea is to provide something of value that enables you to collect contact information. Videos — Using software and hardware built into many computers, you can create simple, informative videos. They don’t have to be fancy. Just look into the camera and talk. Or edit together simple footage demonstrating your work or how you solved a problem. Video can also be a helpful tool to encourage people to sign up for your newsletter, webinar, or other information. Pay Per Click — If you write and promote a good blog, you’re probably getting a fair amount of natural traffic. But pay-per-click ads can give you a boost for people looking for your particular services. Your results will vary depending on the level of competition and amount you’re willing to spend, but it’s worth a test. Just remember: Your blog is a means to an end . If you use your blog to attract the right kind of traffic, and follow the advice above to generate sales leads, you should see a dramatic increase in your business. About the Author: Dean Rieck is one of America’s most in-demand direct marketing copywriters who shares his writing and freelancing know-how at Pro Copy Tips .

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Viral PDF Generator

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Feature Product Review:Believe it or not, a lot of people on the web are earning hundreds and thousands of dollars simply by creating seemingly ordinary, informative PDF reports, eBooks and then selling them to hundreds of buyers. Viral PDF Generator by James Grandstaff is one of the highly recommended software that allows people to create

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The Foolproof Cure for Weak Content: 4 Ways to Get Some Perspective

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When I was fifteen, I wrote a novel. I thought it was pretty good, and daydreamt about literary stardom. Fast forward ten years. I recently found my old notebooks and read that novel over again. And … let’s just say it wasn’t as good as I remembered, and leave it at that. It’s amazing what a difference perspective makes. Usually, you’re not going to be revisiting work from a decade ago. You’re going to be busy trying to get that new website copy done, or that sales page written, or that ebook finished. Problem is, when you’re writing, you’re working at a zoomed-in level. You’re so deeply into the words that you can’t get a grasp on the whole piece. You’re emotionally attached to your work, and even if it doesn’t seem perfect, you simply can’t see any way to change or improve it. Here’s how to zoom back out and get the big picture. 1. Let it rest Ever since I started writing as a teen, I’ve heard this piece of advice. Put your first draft aside for a few days (or at least 24 hours ). Leave it alone. Yes, it’s hard; you’re itching to get your piece finished . You’ll need to plan ahead: give yourself a few days in the middle of a project to take a break. Your unconscious mind will carry on mulling over that project while you’re away from it. When you pick it up again, you’ll come to it afresh. You’ll have new insights. You’ll see different possibilities. Mistakes will jump off the page at you. How long should you put your work aside for? I’d say, the longer the piece, the longer you let it rest. For a blog post, leaving it for a day is probably enough. For a novel, give it at least a couple of weeks — preferably a month. 2. Read as a reader When you pick up your piece again after a break, try to get into the mindset of a reader. Imagine it’s the first time you’ve read this. It helps to make a clear physical break between your writing mode and reading mode. Depending on your project and how you like to work, that might mean: Printing out the whole thing and reading it in a coffee shop Turning it from a word document into a PDF so that you can’t keep changing the text as you read Creating a “real book” version of your manuscript on Lulu Reading through the whole thing in one session While you’re reading, watch out for: Anything vague. Have you assumed knowledge which your real readers might not have? Anything extraneous. It might be interesting to you, but if you can cut it out without losing any meaning from the piece, it should go. In fiction, I ask myself “Is this part of the story?” Anything redundant. When you’re working on a project over a long period of time, you’ll often end up with two similar sections, or very similar phrase or word choices close together. Next to impossible to spot when you’re writing, glaringly obvious to readers. 3. Ask for feedback However great your imagination, you can never truly put yourself in the position of a first-time reader. You know your writing and your topic too well. There’s an easy solution, however: Find some actual readers Ideally, pick people in your target audience. You could try: A writing circle — either a group that meets in real life, or an online one Regular commenters on your blog Participants in a forum or membership site which you belong to (I’m sending out my ebook draft to some fellow Third Tribers this coming weekend) Unless she happens to be a writer too, or typical of your readership, your mom is not the best person to ask for feedback. Ditto for your spouse. They’re likely to be kind rather than constructively critical. When you ask for feedback, be clear about what you want If this is a first draft, you’re not primarily concerned with typos or the occasional clunky sentence. You want to know if whole sections should be cut, or whether your angle works, or if your call to action is clear. I always give my guinea-pig readers a free copy of the finished piece, if appropriate. It’s also nice to offer to reciprocate if they ever want feedback on a writing project. 4. Proofread Once you’re past the revisions stage and into the final version, you’ll need to proofread. Although you can get away with the occasional typo, spelling mistake or grammatical slip in most blog posts, you’ll want to avoid any embarrassing mistakes in your shiny new ebook or your slick sales page. I find that I’m great at finding typos in other people’s work … and awful at spotting them in my own. Usually, I find a long suffering friend to proof-read for me, but if I’m proofreading my own material, this is what helps: Proofread on paper For some reason, it’s easier to spot mistakes on paper than on the screen. Perhaps it’s because we’re more prone to skimming on the screen, or because our eyes glide over any mistakes which the spellchecker hasn’t picked up. Regardless of why , it works. Print out your piece, and go through it slowly with a red pen in hand. Proofread backwards When we read, we rarely take in every word. Uur brain fills in what it expects to see — even if that’s not quite what’s there. (Ever mis-read a headline? Or a billboard?) Reading your work backwards deals with this. You’re forced to look at every single word. It’s a slow and tortuous process, but if you have a piece of work which absolutely must be error-free, it’s the best way to do it. How about you? Do you find it hard to get perspective on your writing? What methods work for you? And have you ever written something which you thought was perfect … until you looked at it again a few months later? Let us know about it in the comments. About the Author: Ali Hale writes about productivity with perspective alongside Thursday Bram on their newly-launched blog Constructively Productive: you can grab the RSS feed here .

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8 Reasons Rich People Hate Their Lives

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A young woman discovers in college that she is driven by a burning desire to succeed. She starts a business, struggles, goes through some lean years. Eventually her hard work begins to pay off. She has a good year. Then, a great year. The year after that blows the doors off. She gets everything she’s worked so hard for. The prestigious client list. The Armani wardrobe. The BMW. The gorgeous house in the most expensive part of town. The money pours in, almost effortlessly. More money than she ever dreamed she could have. How do you fill in the end of this story? Most of us end this one with: But the more she succeeded, the less fulfilled she became. She shortchanged all of her personal relationships. The harder she worked, the less happy she became. Finally, she realized that her success was hollow. But by now she was addicted to the high income, and it was too late to turn back. But what if we could write a better ending? Early on, she refused to become a captive of her business. Even in the tough times, she took six weeks of vacation a year, knowing that when she made time for herself, she became an ever-sharper businessperson. As the business became more successful, she traveled the world with her family and friends. She was profoundly grateful never to have had a “normal” job, which would have made it hard to spend serious time with her family. The harder she worked, the happier she became. She launched a foundation to help kids from poor backgrounds create businesses of their own. She became a serious painter. She went back to school and earned a master’s in philosophy. Everything she did to nurture her life seemed to strengthen her business. She was terribly grateful to have caught that initial spark early, and to have acted on it. The first story makes a better made-for-TV movie It feeds our stereotypes. It reinforces our fear of success . It reassures us that we were right never to act on those dreams we had. The second story is a lot more enjoyable to live. Both stories are realistic. If you choose to create a business, large or small, you get to write the story. You decide where you’ll put your focus, what you’ll spend your time and attention on. I’d love to help you write a better story These two stories fascinate me. I’ve known both of these women. I’ve watched them work, watched what they struggle with and what seems to come easily to them. I’ve made an obsessive study of what makes some successful people love their lives, and what makes some utterly miserable. This obsession, like most of my obsessions, ended up as an extended piece of writing, which I’d like to share with you. It’s called The 8 Reasons Rich People Hate Their Lives (PDF) . The report explores some questions that fascinate me: Why taking ethical shortcuts won’t just make you hate yourself, it can also tank your business. Why improving your weaknesses is a loser’s game. How being driven by your ideals can wreck your life, and what to focus on instead. Why some multi-millionaires are still poor, and how you can become wealthy no matter what your income. The reason so many smart and talented people are miserable, and the simple mindset shift that would make them happy again. How to deal with the loneliness that success can bring. Why a wise entrepreneur puts family and friends first. The self-destructive behavior that’s as dangerous as driving drunk, and why it can destroy your business and your life. The report could just as easily be called The 8 Reasons (Some) Rich People Love Their Lives . Because that’s the part that really interests me. How to play the whole game to win — not just the financial part, but the living part as well. If this is a topic that interests you, I hope you’ll check out the report. It’s totally free, you don’t even have to leave your email address. And if you find the report valuable, please share it with people you care about. Rather than writing your business story as a sappy melodrama, let’s write something for you that’s a lot more satisfying, a lot more appealing, and a lot more fun. Download The 8 Reasons Rich People Hate Their Lives. About the Author : Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and co-founder of Inside the Third Tribe .

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Free SEO Copywriting Report

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I’ve written a lot about SEO copywriting over the last 4+ years. And it’s still the topic that seems to generate the most questions and confusion. That makes sense, since the modern practice of SEO copywriting is a diverse discipline that goes well beyond keyword location and frequency. So I decided to take a look back at everything I’ve written over the years and see if I could create a coherent “master document” that serves as a comprehensive guide. I assembled, rearranged, cut, compressed, and then wrote some entirely new sections. Then I started revising. Then Sonia got involved and took a substantial editing swipe at it. (She calls me Professor Clark when I slip into an academic writing style, and she doesn’t mean it as a compliment). Sonia helped make what can be a confusing topic as simple and clear as possible, which I think you’ll appreciate. We eventually arrived at a 28-page white paper called How to Create Compelling Content that Ranks Well in Search Engines . This is the most comprehensive free report on SEO copywriting we’ve seen, so hopefully you find it helpful. After 24 pages of pure educational content, the report naturally goes into why and how our Scribe software service was developed in the context of real-world SEO copywriting, and then explains how Scribe simplifies the process. So if you’re at all interested in Scribe, you should make sure to read all the way to the end for a nice surprise offer. You don’t have to provide an email address or any other information to get the PDF. If you have a moment, all I ask is you let me know what you think about the report in the comments. Grab your SEO copywriting report here . About the Author : Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and wants you to know that Thesis + Scribe = SEO Made Simple. Get more from Brian on Twitter .

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