A lead generation system should be at the very heart of every single businesses online marketing…No sorry let me re-phrase that…A lead generation system should be at the very heart of all of your marketing!

Yet, the sad fact is that almost every business doesn’t have anything remotely resembling a lead generation system working for their business. In fact most business owners don’t understand what it is, let alone how to use it.

Let me explain in layman’s terms what a lead generation system is…

Perhaps the easiest way for me to explain is to give you a typical online “corporate” style website and how it works, followed by how a lead generating website would work and the obvious differences between the two.

A money sucking traditional “corporate” style website…

Most business owners have a website built for them by a web designer. Their site is predominantly built around looks and more often than not is similar to their competitiors. Their site will typically be either salesy and either product or service based. Little or no thought is put into things like keyword research and on page optimization. The site when finished just sits on the web like a virtual sales brochure that is visited only by the odd prospect via their company stationery e.g. a business card or letterhead.

Typically over 99% of businesses have websites like this. They cost substantial money to set-up and then quite often become the focal point of a large ongoing marketing expense such as optimization costs, linkbuilding and advertising campaigns.

They suck….big time.

A money making lead generating website….

This is simply a website that has been built around the wants and needs of a potential customer and is designed and built to give them the answers and solutions to whatever it is they desire. In return the prospect will give you some level of information, for example an email address, and then this person is followed up by automated systems which build a relationship, help the prospect further and effectively holds their hand whilst they move down the purchase decision making path.

A lead generating website’s job is to collect leads automatically for you 24 hours day, 7 days a week, whilst automatically building a relationship with them overtime. They can be tweaked and tested until perfect and then left on auto pilot.

They are hugely profitable and will be the one place where you point all of your marketing to – no matter the channel.

97% of online searchers are “browsing” not “buying”…

Think about this. An all too common expression on the web is “I’m browsing” or “I’m surfing” and the simple truth is that approximately 97% of online searchers each day are after some kind of information. This doesn’t mean they aren’t going to buy, what it means is that a huge chunk of that 97% is somewhere at the beginning of the purchase path. These are the people that want help, guidance, tips and information on whatever their need is.

A lead generation system is designed to help these lucrative prospects down that purchasing path – effectively holding their hand and educating them until they are ready to buy. And the simple fact is that if you’ve set your lead generation system up right, that prospect is up to twenty times more likely to buy from you and ignore your competition!

Compare this with a “corporate” style site, which is typically just sitting on the web, waiting, hoping and competing with the other 97% of business websites for the 3% of searchers that are ready to buy now.

You do the maths…It’s little wonder so many businesses fail on the web.

A lead generation site will work in almost every single market and is an absolute necessity for every business that wants to receive a regular stream of customers from the web.