A business is only a business if it is making money. Anyone can “set up shop” and call themselves a business, but it is only true if there is money coming in the door. Often, people will set up a business and wait for the money to start rolling in, never understanding that they have to go out and find people willing to pay for whatever it is they are offering.
Building a business is about more than just hanging a shingle on your door. But what if your customers aren’t local to you? What if you have no idea how to even find a customer? You might need to consider paying for leads to drum up your first bit of business. And that’s perfectly okay.
There is an underlying stigma attached to paying for customer leads. One could argue that if you have to buy leads, you probably don’t have a good product to sell. But the other side of that argument is this: if you don’t buy leads, how will people ever find you?
You’ve heard of Google, right? You know, that massive internet company that rules the entire internet and all the searches that happen on the internet? Okay, maybe not all of them – but pretty close to it. When you buy leads, you are essentially going into business with Google. You buy space from them on the internet and they promote your business. When someone conducts an internet search for your type of product and service, you can get found because you paid Google.
The internet will bring you customers if you play your cards right. There’s no place for ego or arrogance where customer leads are concerned: whatever you have to do to get people to your website so they can buy your products, you should consider doing. You’ll never make money if people can’t find you.
If you need help setting up your website in a way that means it can get found by Google, you’ll want to talk to the folks at www.abovethefoldmedia.com – they are SEO experts and know how Google works. They can help you create a customer lead campaign that will rock your socks off.
There are other ways to pay for customer leads, in addition to engaging Google’s services. You can pay for referrals from other services or businesses – this is called affiliate marketing. Everytime someone mentions your product or service on their website and it leads to a sale, you pay that person or company. It’s just the new form of networking. It’s like asking a friend, “hey, where can I get a good pair of cowboy boots?” And your good friend says, “check out this company!” And then you slip your friend a few dollars for the recommendation.
Online business is fierce and you have to be willing to step outside your comfort zone and get your hands dirty to find some customers sometimes. It might mean that you need to put up some money in the beginning so that you can reap the rewards later, but it’s all worth it. You’ll be able to reach an unlimited number of people if you consider buying customer leads, so don’t be shy when you decide to make your move.