Written By TalkLocal Co-Founder, Manpreet Singh

You know how to market to your customers, right? You know which products and services sell themselves right off the shelves. You know which directories and ads drive the most leads through your doors, onto your phone-line, and onto your appointment schedule. You may even know that loyal customer Jeff is allergic to nuts, yet still manages to make an incredible pecan pie.

But, do you know your prospective customers? Obviously not. After all, most of them you’ve never met. Still, if you want to win over those customers, you’ll have to learn about them… somehow.

The main tool for helping you conceptualize the perfect, perfect stranger is called persona building, Through buyer personas, not only can you make your marketing outreach as personalized as a one-on-one consultation, you can also become a regular Sherlock Holmes.

First of all… What are Buyer Personas?

Buyer personas are in-depth characterizations of the customer types you want. They are designed to help inform marketing strategy and other business choices.

Now, what are the steps to creating buyer personas?

There are three steps in buyer persona building and, just like a Sherlock Holmes mystery, the process combines your knowledge and your deductive powers.

1. Start with your product and work backward: Fortunately, understanding your unknown customers begins with something you know very well: your product. Ask yourself, or rather, your inventory list…

> What kind of products and services do I sell?

> What bigger-ticket products and services do I want to sell more of?

Once you’ve rattled off the list, it’s time to answer the pivotal questions. Think about the people who need such services. What do they tend to have in common? What sets them apart?

For example, if you are a landscape artist, your prospective customers are probably all property owners. Most may own family homes, and you have your fair share of those types on your docket, but the commercial property owners are still largely beyond your reach. So, already you’ve deduced the beginnings – the shadows – of two personas. Now, it’s a matter of giving them flesh and bone.

2. Dig deeper with demographical details: Using your current customer pool to keep your thinking grounded in reality, you can get a lot of information from your current knowledge and experience. A commercial property owner, you know, is usually in their 30s or 40s or hires a property manager of that age who would be the gatekeeper. People of such an age likely happen to have children. And since both extra land and disposable income are needed to employ a landscaper, you know that a certain economic status is shared among your ideal customers as well. So, now you’ve built the skeleton of the persona; the demographic details that will inform their habits/needs and inform your strategy of engagement.

3. Given the background details, determine  what habits and needs each customer type has. So, you’ve gone from knowing just your own products, to knowing a little bit about your target demographic. Here is where you go completely Sherlock. Using research (search for surveys on various topics) or just common sense, determine how those details impact each persona’s life and the lives of the real people just like them.

What does a 30- or 40-something, working age parent and property owner read, when do they have to time for reading, and using what medium — computer, mobile device, newspaper? What specific concerns or needs do they have regarding the product… child-safety, allergies? What other obligations do they have to squeeze into their average day?

You can even ponder what they had for breakfast. Just draw inspiration from real or desired customers, research, and experience to give each persona as much depth as you would a new friend.

Now, you should have five or six personas complete with their own priorities, consumer habits, and personal lives. So, when designing a marketing strategy, you can dialogue directly with those personas to better communicate with the real people just like them.

Of course, it’s reasonable and not at all schizoid to give each persona a name and even a magazine cut-out face if it helps. What matters is that you keep each persona in mind as you develop various marketing strategies that touch their unique needs. Your new customers will think you’re Sherlock himself.

Written by Talk Local Co-Founder, Manpreet Singh

You didn’t do a web search of business growth, lead generation, digital marketing, or a related business concepts for your health. If you were simply bored, you’d play Words with Friends, Farmville, or Solitaire. The reason you’re here and not anywhere else on the web is because you or your employees have too much time on your extremely capable hands to sit resting on your laurels; you want to grow your business. You already know that. But what you don’t know is that, according to a new survey by Yodle, very few of your competitors share your ambition.

“Most small businesses have little desire to grow big,” Yodel’s Louis Gagnon told SMI’s Greg Sterling.

The startling assessment is based on findings from the first annual SMB Sentiment Survey published in late August. The study, which surveyed 306 American small businesses, found that 91% of small business owners are happy with their choice to own a business. And, despite concerns about reaching new customers (42%), retaining customers (33%), and affording benefits for self and employees (39%), nearly 1 in 4 (23%) of SMBs invest not a single dime in monthly marketing expenses.

Most also…

> Do NOT have a website (52%)

> Do NOT have a mobile site (90%)

> Do NOT track where their leads come from (56%)

> Do NOT work more than 40 hrs weekly (52%)

> Do NOT adequately recognize the benefits of marketing beyond word of mouth (78%)

So, unlike you, your competitors lack the ambition to maximize their professional potential. Of course, it’s not just what you want, but what you do that makes the difference.  So, here are 3 winning plays for exploiting your competitive edge.

Set measurable, achievable goals and stay motivated:

Great entrepreneurs don’t just work for themselves, they work for their goals. And, inadequate goal-setting can lead to a false sense of satisfaction, which stagnates ambition. For example, SMBs surveyed reported a desire to retain customers and get more, or, in other words, to grow.

Unfortunately, without a marketing strategy, such a desire is squarely beyond their locus of control. Yet, they’re still happy. Could it be because their goals are so low or ill-defined that they usually get by on luck alone?

The downside of setting substantive and measurable goals is the risk of falling short, facing disappointment, and being unhappy at times. But, the plus side is that accomplishing those goals leads to real success, not a false sense of satisfaction.

If you want to grow, research how much you get in repeat customers, how many new customers you get, and from where. Then, set realistic short-term and long-term goals and strategies for reaching them. Otherwise, not only will growth be something you always want but never have, it will be something you’ll become content to do without.

Invest in what matters:

Setting a measurable, achievable goal is only setting yourself up for failure if you don’t also make sound investments toward reaching it. Even if you are one of the 78% of business owners who are still convinced that word of mouth is the most effective (not just the cheapest) way of getting business, then there are ways of taking charge of even that.

Incentivize customer and business referrals through a rewards program. Further, since high customer turnover rates make growth as difficult as climbing a downward escalator, set up a loyalty program and/or engage loyal customers through social media to keep your brand front-of-mind.

Don’t just be concerned about reaching your goals. Be committed to reaching them through concerted efforts. Once you’ve set goals, it’s critical that you also take control of your destiny and make it a matter of strategy.

Invest time to optimize results:

Your competitors are not just failing to invest monetarily. It’s clear that they don’t even deem growth worth their time. But, a growth business strategy is no set-it-and-forget-it proposition. As your business, circumstances, and outcomes change, so must your strategy.

The 40-working-hours-or-less crowd probably isn’t researching customer feedback, studying return on investment, and discovering new best practices for connecting with customers online. They’re wasting money on failing services they barely recall purchasing, and canceling their best revenue drivers because they haven’t collected enough data to recognize their value.

Developing the best strategy is a matter of time. And, if you invest that little extra time, you’d be surprised how much further your dollars can stretch and how much more they’ll get you.

So, whether you’re researching additional ways to gain a competitive edge, or you’re choosing to take yourself and your business seriously for the first time, you’re in very exclusive company. Your competitors aren’t very competitive. They aren’t in the game. The race is yours to lose. And, you can only lose by giving up.

Written by Talk Local Co-Founder, Manpreet Singh

Have you ever heard of a “Rogue Planet?” It’s a planet that, due to some catastrophic space event, got thrown out of it’s orbit and flung into interstellar space. It passes through galaxies with maybe a sun or other massive object slightly curving its trajectory. But ultimately, until a start of sufficient force draws it in, the planet will wander aimlessly through the cosmos.

Most small business owners would have a hard time convincing themselves that they are stars at the center of their customer’s hectic galaxy. After all, successful entrepreneurs see customer service and — by extension — customers as the most central. Yet,  just as the sun performs a valuable service to it’s surrounding galactic community, an SMB is also central.

And while not every small business is strong enough to keep its local market in orbit, the good news is that the attraction is not a function of mass or size. It’s a matter of effort.

Here are 4 tricks for keeping past customers gravitating toward your small business, creating consumer loyalty:

Learn About Your Customers

Customers love being greeted by name, having their needs anticipated, and receiving thoughtful, personal attention. Major companies have Customer Relationship Management software to store and retrieve customer intelligence. But, even if you use an Excel spreadsheet and a Google Calendar to keep notes on customer interactions, it’s worth it.  It not only improves their experience, but also helps you discover and seize new sales opportunities.

So, learn, ask questions, take notes, and pepper your conversations with details about family and recent life events. Above all, remember their previous professional inquiry to avoid redundancy. The personal attention each customer gets from repeat business with a well-informed business is something which they can’t possibly attain by sending their business elsewhere.

Make Outreach Personal

A birthday wish, a congratulatory message, or note of appreciation is always welcome… even from a marketer. And crafting personalized messages doesn’t mean you’ll end up sending a hundred emails per day. Collect the birth months of as many of your customers as possible. Once you’ve created email lists based on the month of birth, you only have to send 12 extra emails per year. Event planners, for example, may want to congratulate newly-weds on the anniversary of their weddings. Mechanics may want to send service reminders.

Just schedule an email delivery in advance using an e-card or e-newsletter service. Build from a template and add personal details about the customer’s experience while the memory is fresh. And, add the event to the calendar and review it regularly to ensure that customers feel memorable if they call in to redeem any offers.

Design a Loyalty Program

No incentive will compensate for poor service or products. However, giving customers a reason to remember you now that their needs are satisfied will make it easier for them to remember you when they have further need. A spa may add a free facial after the 5th massage or a gym may reward regular attendance. Just ensure that your program is designed with a reliable tracking method that puts customers in charge of the process. Also, ensure that the benefits outweigh the cost.

Leverage Social Media

If customers are using social media to stay connected to glue-sniffer who painted trees purple and love-tapped them in 1st grade, surely they can use social media to stay connected to a painter who beautified their 1st home. Get customers involved by marketing your social media pages right from the store-front and at the website too.

You may find it so valuable that you’ll want to offer discounts for customers who like you on Facebook. But, blasting promotional offers at followers all day is no way to build relationships. Instead, spend most of your efforts seeking to add value with interesting information and entertainment. Here are some tips on effective social media marketing.

Creating Consumer Loyalty

As our planet shrinks, consumer choice and access expands. So, technological advancement has been an event catastrophic enough to send many consumers adrift. It’s up to small businesses to draw these orphans back into orbit within their communities. It takes hard work, but it beats the cost of advertising.

Written by Talk Local Co-Founder, Manpreet Singh

The idea of invading the inboxes of your current and prospective customers can be overwhelming. But, if you have neighbors, and none of them have built a 20 foot high barbed wire fence just to get away from you, then you probably have the skills to communicate effectively for your business.

Here are 5 habits of good neighbors as they apply to strong email, e-newsletter marketing copy and great e-marketers.

1. Good Neighbors Never Show Up Unannounced

No, you don’t have to call ahead before sending your email, but you do have to make sure that all your contacts have granted permission to receive marketing materials from you. It’s called an Opt-In, and it’s important for maintaining the high regard of your patrons and avoiding the dreaded spam folder. When collecting contact information in person or via the website, ensure that people select whether or not to receive promotional information. Just like an expected dinner guest, an unexpected email from a business can feel like an imposition.

2. Good Neighbors Never Overstay Their Welcome

Just as your audience should be able to opt into joining an email list, they should also be able to opt-out. Sending marketing emails without including an easy to find, easy to use opt-out link is like standing in someone’s living room as the host repeatedly says things like, “So… getting pretty late, eh?” And, the next time you want to visit, your readers will have to see you another time (ie: never). Worse, they’ll tell everyone how annoying you were… via email analytics. That’s basically what happens when an email gets marked as spam. not only will the offended recipient block you, but Google, Yahoo, and other email services may start to block you from many or all of your intended recipients automatically,

3. Good Neighbors are Even Better Conversationalists

Maybe you don’t really have to be a chatterbox just to count as a good neighbor. But, if you want to be the kind of well-liked neighbor who gets the sugar when she asks for it, then you may want to do more than comment on the weather or talk shop everyday. In addition to announcing any promotional offers or business news, intertwine information that’s generally relevant to community members no matter where they are in the buying cycle.

Include a blurb on topics like:

The upcoming fair

A simple recipe

A tip related to your industry

Helpful, personally relevant information is valuable regardless of its source, so it endears you to the reader and allows you more time to convert them into a customer.

4. Good Neighbors are Accessible

Sending emails from a DoNotReply email alias is like telling your neighbor about your day at work and closing with, “So, how was your day?” before abruptly walking away. If prospective customers are able to reach you with ease, then it is easier to convert the lead into a sale.

5. Good Neighbors Keep a Well-Manicured Lawn

An unsightly front lawn can bring down property values, and if it’s really bad… the mailman could trip over a rusted, broken down truck. In e-marketing, using a difficult to read or impossible to navigate email format is like booby-trapping your front lawn with high grasses and old furniture. Many readers are accessing your email via their smartphone or tablet. Fortunately, making your emails mobile compatible is much easier than pulling weeds and removing bulk trash. The most readable formats consist of a single column with bold titles.

6. Good Neighbors Extend Invitations

Once you’ve riveted readers with your undeniable charisma, it would be rude not to offer them further opportunities to enjoy the pleasure of your company. So, here’s where you get to include social media links and invite them to request an estimate for service. It’s called the “Call to Action,” and it serves to welcome customers to do business.

Have fun connecting with your neighbors near and far. And if you get nervous, remember: it’s like a quick hello on the way to the mailbox or a casual chat while walking the dog. That ease and comfort with your local market will make them stop by for a visit!

Written by Talk Local Co-Founder, Manpreet Singh

If you’re a business owner with arachnophobia, then congratulations. You’re smart enough to appreciate the formidability of one of nature’s greatest predators.  Hopefully, these web design tips will turn fear into inspiration.

Every business owner should learn from this tiny predator, because, although quality service enriches rather than ends lives, effective marketing still requires predatory thinking.

A spider web, in particular, is an especially brilliant model for corporate websites. Whereas outbound marketing relies, like most predators, on hunting/chasing, a spider’s success literally (and figuratively) hangs on brilliant web design.

Websites, like spider webs, need to be expansive, well-connected, strong, and sticky enough to capture and convert visitors into consumers. I’ll explain.

Expansiveness –  Size matters in the spider world. The bigger the web, the more insects get ensnared by it. The rule applies to websites too. But, although the largest spider web is recorded at 82 feet, websites don’t need size in feet or even gigabytes.

What matters is big online presence. Data-heavy design features (ie Flash, JavaScript) are invisible to search engines, thereby diminishing visibility. So, how can people reach your website?

A well-designed website is pointless if it’s scope is too narrow to reach consumers.

Connectedness – It’s impossible to build a web without building connections, but sometimes spiders foolishly connect to the wrong things.

In such cases, webs make contact with the wrong things. A web upon a car wheel will encounter a winding country road rather than tastey insects. Likewise, business owners will reach websurfers from half a world away rather than their intended market.

To connect to the right locations and the right industry to reach the right markets, the website should list your services and communities in your service area.

Another important aspect of connectedness: the website must connect consumers to you and your business. Contact information should be visible. Otherwise it’s like building a web and severing the very thread that allows you to reach what you’ve captured.

Strength – A spider’s silk is one of the toughest biological materials found in nature. It has to stand up to wind, rain, and hits from prey. A website, too, needs to be strong. Some of the common weaknesses of small business websites are…

In general, make sure your website is strong enough to do its job on a variety of platforms and for a variety of people with various tech skill levels.

Stickiness – A spider can’t be all over their web at once, pouncing as soon as something hits. That’s why they ensure that their captures stick. Engaging and memorable content that keeps consumers on the site increases the likelihood that they will connect with you for a purchase.

For even longer lasting stickiness, include an Opt-In so that consumers can request more information, receive newsletters, and learn about promotions. Of course, an opt-out option is equally important. So, make sure your web is as  “Terrific” and “Radiant” as Charlotte’s web so that consumers voluntarily come back for more since you can’t tie them up like real spiders can. That means combining form and function- just like Charlotte does on her informative, beautiful, and memorable webs!

So, when designing your company website, remember that you are like a spider laying in wait for your prey. Draw inspiration from the expansiveness, connectedness, strength, and stickiness of a well-designed web when designing your website and watch your marketing efforts stick.

Need more tips? Click here.

Written by TalkLocal Co-Founder, Manpreet Singh

Remember the good old days when broadening communicative reach in business meant learning Spanish? Now, in the brave new world of digital marketing, there’s a new language taking over business… and it’s not Chinese.

Well, maybe it’s sometimes Chinese. However, the biggest players are HTML, Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP — the programming languages that form the basis of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and other social media sites.

But, don’t worry – you don’t have to learn a whole new language. The platforms will pack your ideas in binary code and ship them to as many homes as you can reach, whether in English, Spanish, Chinese, or Punjabi. But, reaching homes is different from reaching hearts and minds. For that, you do need to learn new grammar: speaking your language in a new way.

Learning the Lingo

It’s like cursive; you know, that ancient, hieroglyphic manual font in which each letter in a word connects seamlessly to the next. The first time you wrote it, you just mimicked the swirling loops and squiggles you watched your parents etch onto legal documents and personal notes. Later, some of your classmates were better at cursive than you, and you felt a twinge of envy. Even now that you’ve learned to glean meaning from those intricate lines, you sometimes write U’s as you should W’s.

Some of your competitors know the social media version of cursive. That’s why they communicate more seamlessly, clearly, and beautifully online. Plus, they never get Rickrolled — whatever that means. (If you don’t know, click here for the definition).

So, here are 10 tips from the secret Social Media Manual of Style that your competitors have been using. Take notes even if your handwriting is like chicken scratch. These best practices will make your profile communicate more effectively and compellingly than Shakespeare after calligraphy classes.

The Social Media Manual of Style

1. Gain an understanding of each platform, including terms of service and Facebook’s Edgerank.

2. Choose an eye-catching profile picture, cover image, and About blurb that clearly illustrates your product/service at a glance.

3. Enter company name, description, address, phone number, and email address in the About section of all profile pages. You’d be surprised how often this is forgotten.

4. Include an engaging statement along with your company website or preferred contact info in the description box of each image  uploaded to any albums.

5. Avoid using acronyms and shorthand to post longer thoughts on Twitter. If the idea cannot be sufficiently trimmed down through word choice, opt to post on Facebook or another site.

6. Find your Goldilocks zone for post frequency and stay consistent. Sporadic social media engagement on major sites like Twitter and Facebook is a turn off to visitors.  But,  if followers start to leave, alter the type or frequency of posts.

7. Talk to, rather than at, your audience. Ask questions, give answers, and post otherwise engaging content.

8. Follow the 80/20 Rule. Social media content should be 80%  informational or entertainment related and only 20% promotional.

9. Respond to comments within 24 hours. Only 30% of businesses do so … ever.  That’s according to Socialbakers.com.

10. Recognize holidays, community events, and other significant happenings via social media to join the common discourse. Use established and popular hashtags on twitter to make your comments searchable.

And, I almost forgot this one: Have Fun!

Reaching social fluency means finding your own voice after years of yelling through promotional flyers and ads which read like you’re a 1930’s newspaper boy. Sure, your voice will be a bit hoarse at first because it has been under-used or abused until now. But, don’t worry.

Social media is inbound marketing — a medium designed to draw people in. By relating to consumers, no matter how small your initial online network, you’ll draw your audience in with even the faintest whisper. And, like a game of telephone, your whispers can be shared to reach innumerable ears.

And, before your next post: make sure you read these step-by-step instructions for designing your online strategy.

Written by TalkLocal Co-Founder, Manpreet Singh

Once, when I was a kid, I accidentally killed a caterpillar. My brother thinks I was just curious and cruel, but it was concern for the starving and thirst-stricken caterpillar that drove me to pluck the cocoon from its tree limb and begin scraping its surface with my bright yellow safety scissors. Once I‘d successfully pierced the surface, I lightly dabbed the gaping opening with water and threaded a leaf inside for food. And the butterfly lived happily ever after…for maybe a few days.

The chrysalis phase of development is not just for the natural butterfly life cycle. A missing or ineffective social media strategy will result in lost opportunities for even the best business. Tweeting, posting, and sharing before developing a strategy is like bursting through your cocoon as a hideous half-caterpillar, half-butterfly – a caterfly.  Worse, it’s the powerful wings that give the insect the strength to escape its cocoon. So, until fully transformed, your emaciated social media strategy, too, could leave you trapped in an isolated digital cocoon, a crumpled stump where beautiful wings should be.

How to Become a Social Media Marketing Butterfly

If you think marketing through social media is no big deal, consider this: consumer marketing firm CMB discovered that Facebook and Twitter followers are at least 50% more likely to become a paying customer after liking a brand. Just as important, they are at least 60% more likely to share or recommend a company after liking or following.

Here are a few strategy ideas to consider before your first (or even your next) post.

Review competitors’ social media activities to benchmark your goals and efforts. What are your top local competitors? Check their websites, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, FourSquare and other social media sites to find any accounts linked to their business. Study those accounts and note their account age, post frequency, engagement style, following, and response rate. Even after you’re active online, track competitors about every other month, as strategies and outcomes can change frequently and rapidly.

Create a dummy account on every site where your competitors have accounts, plus one or two promising places where they don’t. This account will be used just for playing with functions and doing other preliminary research. You can change the details to add your real company name or disable the current account when you are ready to create a real one later. For now, use your dummy accounts to:

-Sync email contact lists to each social media account (if applicable) to see how many people in your network are currently active.

-Explore the site to discover any tricks you could use for marketing, like the targeting function on Facebook.

Prioritize social media sites. Based on the apparent social media habits of your current network, your competitors, and your own preferences, you will need to be more active on some sites than on others. Pick one to three of the most important sites. You will need to create accounts elsewhere for visibility’s sake, but focus your engagement on your top sites.

Email friends and family asking for their favorite shareable images, videos, and articles. This is a great case study in what grabs the attention of your target audience so that you know what to look for when seeking shareable content. You will mix these and other random attention-grabbing content with industry tips and direct marketing. The latter should only make up about a third of your social media. The purpose of unrelated content is to connect with consumers and inspire responsiveness to improve your profile ranking and visibility.

Now you can start creating your account, inviting your email contacts, and generally break out of that drab cocoon with your beautiful social media butterfly wings!

Browse the Small Business Advice blog for more tips, and check in next week for more on making the most of your digital marketing efforts. In the meantime, check out my quote on Mashable, for a glimpse at what’s to come.

Written by Seva Call Co-Founder, Manpreet Singh

Lead follow-up turns many business owners green in the face. The challenge is striking the balance between invisible and insanely irritating, forgotten and infuriating. Perhaps that’s why many businesses don’t get around to picking up the phone in the first place. According to the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM), about 70 percent of leads receive no follow-up whatsoever. To better understand how leads can help grow a small business, remember that leads are seeds.

Weed Your Leads

Obtaining or basing a referral on details beyond merely the contact information is called lead qualification. Further research from ISBM illustrates that having a lead-pre-qualification process in place increases lead follow-up efforts. Unqualified leads drain precious resources which could be used to help more promising opportunities follow. It’s best to choose a lead-generating method that gives high-quality leads which match your location and service area to begin with.

Till the Soil

Regardless of whether or not leads are pre-qualified, business owners should contact the prospective customers to learn more about them. “Power Questioning,” as it’s called, confirms that the business is the right soil in which to plant a sales seed. As an icebreaker, the preliminary questions following a greeting breaks up the soil in preparation for planting. So, with a pen in hand, ask a number of questions including but not limited to:

          – Where is the consumer located?

          – What kind of service is needed?

          – When is the service needed?

Keep notes with the contact information and use it to tailor your engagement strategy. The better tilled the soil, the more deeply rooted the eventual bloom can be.

“Rain” (Them In)

Not reign, rain! Follow-ups should include nourishment: answers to questions and other helpful information about the consumer’s problem and your solution to that problem. Don’t attempt to reign consumers in with pushy sales talk that tries to trap them into buying immediately. Pushy sales tactics are like strong winds that blow leads into competing lands. Being helpful encourages consumers to dig deeper in search of further refreshment, and well-rooted consumers become loyal consumers.

Shine

Consumers want to know what makes a certain business exceptional. So tell them about your decades of experience, the stellar feedback you got on a similar job, and mention your licenses and certifications. Like sunflowers, they’ll lean in the direction of the brightest and warmest glow.

Check for Sprouts

In the midst of shining and raining, stay attuned to indications that the consumer is ready to bloom. In other words, be prepared to close. Attempting to close at an inappropriate time can seem pushy, but discussions over pricing and estimates, scheduling, and other logistical matters are a great leeway into closing. Also, if a conversation is drawing on too loo long, either a close attempt and/or this next step is in order.

Make Like a Tree and Leaflet

Businesses owners know that not all leads end in an immediate sale. If you have a potentially late bloomer on your hands, then offer further information via email. An e-newsletter is the cheapest, most direct marketing strategy for perpetual brand awareness. Email outreach should include all of the elements of normal lead follow-up:

1. It weeds leads because it should include an opt-out option.

2. It tills the soil by continuing the initial engagement.

3. It rains them in with helpful information like industry news, special offers, and services.

4. It shines by including quotes from positive reviews and generally shows the business in a positive light.

5. It checks for sprouts with a call to action that encourages consumers to call, visit a website, book an appointment, or otherwise close the deal.

And Repeat!

Lead generation can become like a land of perpetual spring for business owners who take good care of their seeds. Remember: blooms beget seeds. Inspiring customer loyalty and continued engagement online is a great way to keep producing a lot of blooms.

Need more tips? Click here.

Written by Talk Local Co-Founder, Manpreet Singh

If contact information turned a reliable profit, then each Yellow Book would be worth its weight in a gold-plated diamond instead of ad revenue. Failing to properly understand the quality of a lead is like counting eggs before they hatch. And, when business owners spend their time and energy chasing leads indiscriminately, it’s like marinating them in barbecue sauce and prepping them for Thanksgiving Dinner too.

The process of determining the likelihood that a prospective customer will actually buy is called Lead Qualification, and it’s an essential part of developing an effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy. It also just so happens that CRM and Lead Qualification is a lot like poultry farming.

Don’t worry. The following metaphor may be hunger induced, but it actually makes sense. Bare with me- or should I say “chicken with me”- while I get down to the meat of the subject. [Cue uproarious laughter.]

The Hens:

There are a number of lead generation methods: pay-per-click, adwords, and TalkLocal are just a few examples. These methods are your “Hens.” Different hens lay different quantities and qualities of eggs. Your job, as resident Ole McDonald, is to determine how many high-quality eggs you have and give the right eggs your best prenatal care. Right now, we’re just focusing on sorting the eggs. After all, no hen or farmer wants to waste limited resources nurturing a bad egg, right?

The 4 Types Of Eggs:

Mystery Eggs: A lot of lead generation strategies – or hens – lay eggs of high quantity and unknown quality. Those hens just offer a list of names, phone numbers, and addresses (NPA’s). These are called Cold Leads. You can work towards qualifying the leads by cold-calling, adding them to an email listserve, or sending a mail ad. Your method depends on how much time and how many unqualified/cold leads you have. As quickly as possible, you want to get enough information to move those leads to one of the other categories.

Bad Eggs: Before you lavish undue amounts of your feathered warmth on an egg, make sure it’s the right species. Many birds are known to practice Brood Parasitism, leaving an egg in the nest of a different bird or species. Bad eggs can be found in quick questions. Is their address outside of your service area? What service do they need, and do you provide it? Ask the right questions right away to prevent wasting more time, then discard bad eggs or refer them elsewhere.

Golden Eggs: These are actively seeking consumers who are ripe for immediate conversion. They call requesting a quote for a job needed ASAP, for example. Typically, Golden Eggs are very upfront with their requirements, but they may even be lost in the Mystery Eggs bunch. That’s why it’s important to make some form of contact, preferably by phone,  as early as possible. Traditionally called Hot Leads, these eggs are so hot that if not handled efficiently, they can melt and slip right through your fingers and into the hands of a competitor.

Nesting Eggs: These are good eggs. You’ve made contact, and their needs match your services, but the sale isn’t immediate for whatever reason. Like with any clutch of eggs, you can’t know which ones will hatch, but you can improve the odds by warming each of these leads and nourishing their development. They require telephone follow-ups and are susceptible to soft-sells via email or social media. However, their status can change at any moment. Nesting eggs can turn golden at a moment’s notice following a successful marketing campaign, or crack prematurely under the pressure of overly aggressive sales tactics.

The right, well-nourished egg can hatch to reveal a chick that comes to value your deepened professional relationship and relies on your ongoing service and outreach. It’s just a matter of focusing your warmth and attention on those eggs which have the most promise.

Good luck and best wishes toward a nest full of chirping little chicks that shell out lots of chips.

Written By Seva Call Co-Founder, Manpreet Singh

If you’re here, you probably want more and higher quality business opportunities for your company. So, what you want is lead generation… you think.  But what exactly is lead generation, anyway? In an effort to strengthen local businesses, Seva Call is publishing a series on business management topics, leading off with a lesson on lead generation. Class is now in session!

What Is Lead Generation?

This marketing concept refers to efforts which generate consumer interest in a specific business, service, or product. Businesses use lead generation strategies to gather consumer information or otherwise connect with consumers for direct marketing, e-mail marketing, or to get an immediate sale.

The major lead generation strategies are:

– Advertisments like flyers, commercials, or online Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads

– Inbound marketing like social media, search engine optimization (SEO), directories, and blogs

– Paid referral services like those which sell contact information for later follow-up

– Word of Mouth/Referrals

When determining which combination of lead generation strategies is right for company, it’s important to ask the following questions:

“What is my marketing budget?”

“How much time am I willing to invest in follow-up?”

“How much additional business do I need?”

“What do I deem a worthwhile return on investment (ROI)?”

Answering these questions will go a long way towards determining your lead generation strategy. For example, businesses interested in adding a few additional bookings for free may simply need to update their business directory information and become more active on social media sites, with more qualified leads. LinkedIn is a great option, as it drives more business-to-business (B2B) leads than other major sites, but only 47% of service pros who want business customers market themselves there (InboundWriter).

You work hard enough, so now it’s time to work smarter with a lead generation strategy which broadens the accessibility of the great services you provide.