Firm systems and automation are vital for operating a business without having to labor 24 hours a day, seven days a week. One of the first procedures you’ll want to streamline is your lead generation process, since acquiring leads is essential for any organization, even if you have a full schedule.
These leads will become not simply email subscribers and social media followers, but also paying clients. When leads arrive in the door, service firms develop, so perform a short analysis right now.
What is the status of YOUR lead-generating process?
The good news is that most of this lead creation process can be automated owing to software and technology. But, since so many businesses are unsure where to begin automating, let’s take a look at that right now.
Begin by setting up an automated welcome email sequence
You’ll need a free item to get people to sign up for your email list. A checklist, templates, or eBooks are all ideal possibilities since most people are accustomed to getting something immediately in exchange for their email address.
To persuade people to sign up for your email list, have your team create a landing page for your free product. You’ll need to provide your readers something that’s easy to consume while yet providing a lot of value.
Consider the following questions:
- What’s a simple issue you can solve for your subscribers?
- What actions can your audience do RIGHT NOW to attain success, or at the very least put themselves on the road to success?
If you’re more comfortable speaking, write down this information (or record it as an audio or video).
After that, you must link your landing page to your email marketing system
You may send a series of automatic emails to your list using email automation services, with the first email being your freebie. Do your homework and compare features and cost if you don’t currently have an email service.
There are more bells and whistles in certain applications than in others. A word of warning: this is not the place to scrimp and save.
Any money you save will be lost in the time you (or your virtual assistant) spends working and in the number of members you lose as a result of using a subpar system.
Consider the first email your new subscriber will get, which will include their download gift
The first email in the series should be brief and to the point: “Welcome to the family.” Here’s the link to your download. Here are some of the places where you may find me on social media.
The remaining emails in the sequence — generally 5-7 emails – are often sent throughout the first week. These include more details about your company, your history, why you like what you do, and what goods and services you now provide.
After the initial welcome email is issued, these emails may be scheduled to automatically send daily or at whatever frequency you desire.
Every email you send should offer useful information about your niche or subject, but the first few are especially important for establishing a client connection. Introduce yourself to your new leads (to assist them see you as an expert) and position yourself/your service as the answer to the issue that prompted them to download your freebie.
How do you anticipate visitors to locate your landing page, free gift, and email series now that you’ve put them up?
While self-promotion is beneficial, will you be able to reach a large number of leads this way? This is when automation comes to the rescue!
1. Facebook Advertising takes some time to set up, but after you’ve picked your demographics and your ad has been authorized, it’s up to Facebook to serve your ads according to your preferences. Instead of you spending your days glued to your computer, manually publishing to thousands of leads, Facebook technology can handle it for you in the background, allowing you to concentrate on your present customers.
Just make sure your lead magnet (aka complimentary item) is compelling enough to get them to click and sign up. I also advocate hiring a professional to do this for you since it will save you a lot of money in the long run.
2. Social media tools or schedulers will publish material with a link to your freebie on a regular basis. You may either produce this material yourself and reuse it, or hire a virtual assistant (VA) or a content writer to do it for you.
Meet Edgar is a social networking platform that is intended to automatically publish your evergreen material, reducing your schedule time significantly.
3. On-demand webinars (also known as evergreen webinars) are another approach to get people to your landing page and collect email addresses. These webinars are pre-recorded and enable viewers to select the ideal day and time for them to see them.
Some individuals are unaware that they are pre-recorded, but they are nevertheless popular since viewers are relieved that they don’t have to worry about scheduling a webinar into their busy schedule.
Consider utilizing a recording of a live webinar where you witnessed results if you want the greatest outcomes from an evergreen webinar. If the webinar was successful with a live audience, you’ll have a good chance with the on-demand version.
It’s merely a matter of ‘rinse and repeat’ now that you’ve tried it with your audience.
Some folks who are apprehensive about presenting a live webinar may decide to record one without the audience and then distribute it without any testing. While this is a viable approach, you’re essentially ‘flying blind,’ since you have no way of knowing if the information or call to action will be effective.
Slide templates are an important aspect of any webinar since they enable you to brand them with your logo and/or colors, making it easier for people to identify you. Your team may establish a common branded template so that you don’t have to start from scratch each time you produce a new training.
Like we did with your freebie landing page, Facebook and Instagram advertisements will drive visitors to your evergreen webinar. Use the same demographic ad layout and enlist the help of your Facebook Ads specialist.
They may also write the ad content, monitor the ad’s performance and length, and design the visuals. If hiring an expert isn’t in the cards right now, engage a graphic designer to develop branded visuals or have your VA put together your ad language and graphics so you just have to approve or alter a few items.
Once you’ve decided to create an evergreen webinar, automation technologies like GoToWebinar and EverWebinar can put it all on autopilot. Delegate the setup duties to your trusted VA after you’ve approved the webinar video.
You’ll gather email addresses during the registration process for your on-demand webinar, but you’ll also need to join your selected email provider with your webinar provider. Many of the major brands already collaborate effectively, but this step will ensure that these new webinar registrants get your most recent follow-up email sequence, which will help you generate sales after the webinar is complete.
Another responsibility you may give your VA is to keep check of the webinar’s analytics to make sure it’s still operating. You’ll need information on:
- Ad budget on Facebook / click-through rate
- Conversions on the landing page of a webinar
- Sign-ups vs. attendees
- Webinar follow-up series analytics on sales generated during the webinar (email opens, email click-throughs, purchases, etc.)
Consider how much you can get done while your VA sorts through this data and creates a report for you instead of you doing it yourself!
Thanks to Karen Repoli at Business 2 Community whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.
