Good selling is about educating. So is marketing. It’s about educating prospects on why they should buy from you. Prospects buy only from people know, like and trust. Use engagement tools to build trust that leads to conversion.
Usually before a prospect commits to any kind of relationship by sharing information, they want to get to know you first. Engagement tools help prospects get to know you. Tools that demonstrate your expertise will build the prospects trust in your ability to deliver, and move you closer to a sale before you even have to pick up the phone.
Thought leadership tools include blogs, white papers, ebooks, podcasts, audio and video content, webinars, software, teleconferences and others work well in building this trust. The exact tools you use depends on a number of factors including the time you can invest in the Engagement process, the time your prospects can invest.
The Engagement process can be automated and scaled so you’re offering many thought leadership tools concurrently. Many consultants and sales reps have reached what’s called “micro celebrity” status because of the volume of quality content they deliver. This content reinforces their expertise and helps them to command a premium for their products and services.\
What tools are you putting to work to engage prospects?
Attraction is about getting found online. It’s optimizing your website – and your web presence – to increase your chances of getting found when someone searches the products or solutions similar to what you provide.
Attracting eyeballs is also about strategies you put to work away from your main site, at other locations on the Internet such as building links to your site from other important sites. . . at least sites that are important in your industry and among your prospects.
The strategies you employ will depend on on a number of things including you market, your products, and the competition. But one essential element is optimizing your own website — called search engine optimization or SEO.
Optimization means refining your website content and the underlying framework of your website so you get found in the organic search engine results when a prospect searches your product or service.
In some organizations, even the thought of ruffling your IT staff’s feathers to tweak your website is asking for nuclearike getting a wisdom tooth pulled. The process can be long and painful. The reality is that a website is not an IT function but a marketing function and must be treated that way. Marketing and sales must be accountable for the website’s effectiveness because today the website is the core of a company’s marketing effort.
Your current website is only one aspect of the ATTRACTION phase of your lead generation program. Other components include:
- Keyword Research — what keywords are your prospects searching for
- Competitive Research — which keywords are your competitors using and how successful are they in driving traffic
- Link-Building — Creating quality links from reputable websites that effectively bring up your search engine ranking
- Online Advertising & PPC – Paid advertising options (Google Adwords and beyond) that put you in front of qualified prospects
