One of the most important elements to small business success is lead generation because without leads you cant increase sales. So where do you concentrate your lead generation efforts?

Get Qualified Leads One at a Time with Direct Response

Im going to make a bold statement: Direct response is the most effective and affordable ways to generate leads on a one-on-one basis. Let me qualify that statement. Direct response is the most effective and affordable way to reach clients one-to-one if you:

• know your target market
• attach benefits to your features
• understand your competition
• identify your competitive advantage
• can write your direct response package in a clear and convincing way

Understanding all that means you can have an effective direct response campaign. No doubt, knowing a few tips about direct response copywriting will help by boosting your response rate. For instance, your heading makes or breaks your campaign. Its the biggest predictor on whether your prospect ill read it or toss it in the garbage.

Forget about where youre located or how many years youve been in business, or describing every detail about your product. Yes, your potential consumer clients want to know a little about the features, but for every feature your product or service has, they want to know far more about the benefit. They consistently and continuously ask themselves, Whats in it for me?

A specific call to action, and creating a sense of urgency helps too. It seems most of us are basic procrastinators. If you dont tell us what to do, and you dont make us believe we need to do it today (with specials, limited-time or quantity discounts, etc.) we probably wont do anything at all.

And by the way, a P.S. increases response rates too. Its the second most-read line in your direct response copy. It should restate your main benefits, call to action and special offer.

Generate Masses of Leads with a Small Business Web Site

But direct response isnt the only effective way to reach clients affordably. It may be the best way to reach potential clients on a one-on-one basis, but did you know a small business web site is one of the best ways to reach masses of potential clients?

Affordable? That depends. Some small business owners I know personally have paid lots of $$ for their web site. It may be a mistake to pay big bucks for a small business web site when a simple 5 page static site will do. After all, its not the design that produces results but rather the copywriting.

Copy for your web site follows the same basic rules as direct response copywriting, but with a few important differences:

• web site copy is shorter because internet readers are generally impatient
• include lots of free information because readers are searching for information
• avoid the hard sellit doesnt work online
• write with your readers in mind, but take search engines into account as well
• include a way to capture email addresses as lead generation

Effective? That depends too. A web site is only effective if it can be found. And to make sure its found you need to know a little about search engine marketing (SEM). A good discussion about SEM is beyond the scope of this short article. But, here's a few tips:

• write web site copy around keywords, including headings and titles
• promote your web site online by publishing articles, joining forums, and listing in business directories
• try google adwords
• promote your web site offline
• content, content and even more content
• update content often

Increase Their Interest Level with Direct Response Pointing to Your Web Site

So, direct response generates leads one-to-one, and a web site reaches the masses. What if you combine them?

Direct response and web sites work very well together to generate leads and close sales. You could create your direct response with a call to action to visit your web site rather than asking directly for a purchase. Your web site includes copy that is different from, but related to your direct response package.

Your web site call to action could be any of a number of things. You could use it simply to generate more leads through capturing email addresses. Or you could be the information guru on some subject your direct mail recipients would be interested in. Or your web site call to action could be directly asking for sales.

The point is that the purpose of both is to generate leads and to have some way to convert those leads to sales. There are many different ways to close sales. Follow up brochures can be very effective for instance. But possibly using both direct response and your web site solely to generate leads is less effective than using one to supplement the other as a sales tool.