Blog

Imagine for a moment you just started your own party planning business, and you are trying to find customers who would potentially use your services. Still, you don't know anything about marketing, directories, flywheels, and/or funnels. You do a quick Google search and find a company that you can pay to find some leads for you (a lead generating company). They have a plethora of established leads or potential clients, so they say. 

This company may have a website that offers free birthday cake recipes and craft wrapping bows ideas as a downloadable pdf. A prospect may enter their email address to access it and have it emailed to them. By entering their email, they agree (usually in the fine print) to have the email address shared with businesses in their area that offer these services. You are then handed (after paying a price) a lead for someone throwing a birthday party. The email and contact information may also be shared with other like-minded businesses who may be potential partners (craft businesses, entertainment, or bakeshops) or even your biggest competitors.

What Is A Lead Generation Company?

A lead generation company is a company that gets paid to give business owners data about people who may be interested in a business, product, or services. Or "Leads," as they are called. Lead generation companies sometimes set up websites or advertisements that offer free things to people to get prospective buyers to give away their info in exchange for something related to what product or service they are trying to generate leads for.

What Kind Of Leads Get Generated By Lead Generation Companies?

There are three kinds of leads that lead generating companies use to advertise and sell. 

1. Phone Leads

This type of lead is the least used. These leads can be highly scripted to fit any situation, but even though it has a high potential for conversions, the results are not good and often are rejected before the call is even answered.

2. Inbound

Using social media outlets like Facebook and Instagram, content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), social media ads, and pay-per-click (PPC). These types of lead generating methods are the least intrusive out of the three forms and an excellent method. This method lets buyers continue through the buying process at their own pace like they would in a store, perusing and wandering, picking and choosing what to look at, and adding to their grocery cart.

3. E-Mail

This method utilizes the most popular method for converting potential buyers, and with good reason too. It has better than average conversion rates. This method can be personalized and tailored to say and show exactly what you want it to. Letting the business put its best foot forward.

The Pros And Cons Of Using Lead Generating companies

Pros

• If you get lucky and manage to go with a genuine lead generating company, they are experienced so that you could benefit.
• You could save time and effort. 
• You could avoid human dependency and error altogether. 
• They perform analytics at some of the best lead generating companies. 
• Build your company faster with genuine leads that actually convert after you bring the sale in.
• Choosing the right program with great strategy and execution does work well for lead contractors.

Cons

• Genuine lead generating companies are going to really cost you huge expenses, so if your a smaller business with a limited budget, you have to really watch the leads that you're getting are worth the expense. 
• There is absolutely no guarantee that it will work. Lead generating companies only have to hand you leads, not reel the customer in for you. That is still your job, and if you're not ready to handle the volume, if it does succeed, be careful that you don't find yourself in a bind.
• The cost of a lead is determined by the effort the agency spends on its detection. So if you go cheap, the chances the lead won't pay off are greater.
• So the risk is a massive gamble for businesses just starting out and building a client base.
• Lead generation companies have extensive knowledge of what they are doing but will initially not know as much about your products or services. 
• You have to pay for leads, whether they are qualified as genuine or not, and all money is paid upfront. 
• Sometimes and sometimes often, you're not going to be able to reach a customer to verify a lead, and when this happens, you still have to pay for the lead. 
• If you're a new business and not exactly business savvy yet and well versed in the ways of hooking and reeling your customers in, then you might not know how to properly respond to genuine leads or fail to reach your lead in a timely manner. Remember, those lead generation companies only give you the leads, but it's still up to you to bring the customer through to the finish line. 
• The average person receives around 88 emails a day, leaving your messages lost in the clutter and largely ignored if not deleted from so many other lead generating companies targeting your lead.
• If you do manage to land a real lead through email, the average time it takes to woo a person into buying from you? 4-6 months on average. That's a lot of time and energy to invest in a maybe when there are so many other constructive uses for your time.

The Bottom Line

If your business is in the construction field, a service-based business, or something similar, then I would not suggest using a lead generating company to start with. Getting a bad lead with or getting handed oversold leads could break a business before it gets the chance to grow. It has the potential to suck up capital quickly with no guarantee of success. 

If you're just starting to grow your company in any specific niche-related field of the market, then learning the right way to organically grow your business might work better until you've grown in capitol to at least a medium-sized business that can better handle low conversion rates that can sometimes dip down on average to below 7%. There are many other ways to build your customer base, often it is much more prudent to invest in SEO practices and tried and true marketing methods or even your own emailing marketing. If you need help gathering leads through your website or help to establish your expertise online then feel free to reach out.

Google is no respecter of websites. This means every website has the same chance to rank on page 1 of Google, but it takes time, and a website owner must be patient. It takes time and hard work to rank on page 1 of Google. Do not get discouraged if your website does not reach the top page in 30 days. It is practically impossible (if not impossible) to rank on page 1 of Google that quickly.

Every small business, no matter your industry, seems to struggle at some point. Below are seven tips on how you can help save time and money and ultimately make your business more profitable.

1. Keep a watchful eye over collections and billing

By developing tight controls over billing and collections will go along way in helping you improve profits of your small business. One way you can speed up cash flow is to consider semimonthly billing versus monthly billing. Also, being diligent on sending second notices.

2. Collect on over-due invoices

Of all the small businesses I talk to, there will enviably be some amount of past overdue invoices as we have all ran into those people that survive on other people’s money! Be sure to call those who owe you the most money, and try to resolve the problem on the spot, possibly by charging it to a credit card. What you lose in fees for the quicker payment is far less than dealing with the check is in the mail for two months. If you can't collect the total immediately, negotiate a payment schedule.

3. Wait, did I already pay for that?

The busier you get, the easier it is to let things fall through the cracks, especially if you are often writing and mailing checks. There are many businesses that accidentally will overpay their vendors. Be sure to have a procedure in place to help prevent the issue. If you have an accounts payable person, be sure to have them be diligent in the following accounts payable automation best practices: 

• Check the invoice numbers so that you don’t pay twice.
• Don't pay for goods that you return to the supplier or vendor. Be sure to check the invoices that the adjustment has been made.
• If you get a credit memo, be sure to keep track of it and subtract them from the next invoice.
• If a vendor or supplier offers you a discount for early payment, then take them!
• Be diligent in watching for charges that are incorrectly included on the invoice. These include things such as a shipping charge that the vendor had agreed to pay.

4. Payroll

What is one of the largest line items in any business? If you guessed payroll, then you would be correct. There are ways in which you can reduce payroll costs by looking at increasing efficiency. Simply planing a route to avoid traffic could save you 15 minutes. Add that 15 minutes up, and in a week’s time, you may have saved yourself from paying overtime! Also, look at adding temporary employees and subcontractors to help with temporary workloads.

While I am by far not an expert in insurance and employee benefits, I do know that a simple review of your workers' phantom stock taxation and compensation insurance can help reduce costs. Also, look into group insurance programs, leverage the bidding process to find better rates.

Finally, after you have gathered all this information about your employees, find a simple guide on how to run payroll just so you make sure that you are not leaving out any important information when paying wages and calculating of taxes and deductions.

5. Watch your numbers

Use previous financial statements to guide you as you prepare budgets and long-range projections for the coming year. Your actual results will need to be compared to these projections to highlight areas where you need to pay closer attention before significant problems develop.

6. Keep your advisors on speed dial

You will want to keep people like your lawyer, accountant, banker, insurance agent, and marketing agency informed about your business. Keeping these pros informed about your business will help them cut costs and add to your bottom line. Just like you are an expert in your field, so are they. It’s their job to keep up with changes and trends that you may have overlooked or simply don’t know about. 

7. Leverage the power of online marketing

While your marketing budget may be seen as an expense, it can actually help add to your profit margins. Online marketing is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to get your business name out in the world. By merely having an updated Google My Business profile listing can go along way into increasing your leads and new sales.

If you are a small business who needs help with your online marketing efforts, then reach out to us. We specialize in helping small businesses grow.

If I were to ask you the difference between search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), you may or may not be able to tell me. Unfortunately, they are far too often used interchangeably. However, they are very different strategies! The similarity between the two makes it difficult for most small business owners to determine a better fit. Should you invest in one or the other, or maybe both? Let's look at what's the difference and which one you need for business.

SEO and SEM, What are they, and what's, are the differences between the two?

Both of these industry terms get used abundantly, and they definitely work hand-in-hand. When used together, your website may benefit. However, they are not the same thing. 

One way to think about the two is to think about fishing. SEM is like taking a single fishing pole and going over to the honey hole where you know the fish are biting and dropping your line. Now an SEO would be like taking a fishing net and stretching it across the same spot. Both catch fish but only by using the net are you going to stay fed for a while or feed your family. Unfortunately, it takes time to weave the net together, so the fishing pole is a good option while you get started perfecting your macrame. 

SEO = Search Engine Optimization

SEO is a marketing strategy, using keywords people use when using a/an search engine like google and linking the keywords to their site or business. Hence, they appear as close to the top of the first search engine results page (SERP) as possible, To gain exposure for their site or business, which leads to higher traffic and sales. But it's not as simple as one might think. A lot has to go into a site to optimize its potential

SEM = Search Engine Marketing

SEM is also a marketing strategy, but one that uses paid advertisement to link the name of their site or business to a list of keywords that customers might use in their search engine for services. The ad will either appear above the organic sites at the top of the SERP or listed at the bottom. Which is why, if you've ever searched for anything using Google, then you know the first three or four things listed in your search results are all ads and marked as such. Those are all what is known as SEM's, and they go by a CPC (cost per click) or a PPC (pay per click).

What is the difference between SEO and SEM?

Well, the obvious answer would be money. An SEM is paid for, and an SEO is not.

More than the apparent financial difference, SEM is mostly used in the short term to announce a sale or to gain better exposure for a highly competitive keyword, which is extremely difficult to be seen and rank for otherwise. For example, if you are a plumber and you are competing against Roto-Rooter or Benjamin Franklin Plumbing. As you can imagine, these companies have money to burn and gladly buy ads, running up the ad prices. Ads for competitive keywords can become very costly and can add up fast!. SEM's are best when used in the short term, so if you use one, remember you can set a daily budget or the max amount you're willing to pay per day.

SEM's are better used as boosters to gain traffic to your site or business and typically are not economically feasible in the long term. SEM should always be used in conjunction with an SEO site for optimal benefit.

SEO or organic search brings more traffic in the long run. Organic search is a search that cannot be affected by paid advertising and is listed by its relevance to a search. Now, if you can't afford any SEM kind of advertising, there are many ways that you can optimize your site to get it to appear high in the SERP by using SEO techniques and content marketing.

Tips And Tricks You Should Know

The White Hat Technique Will Raise Your Search Ranking Based On How Search Engines Rank Sites 

1.) On-Page SEO

This SEO helps search engines understand a page's content. Therefore, giving it a higher ranking in the search by optimizing each individual page of a website to target a specific keyword makes your site more appealing to the search engine.

Keyword Research: Research the most commonly used keywords in searches that have been used for your site's topic or business by going to websites like ubersuggests.com and registering for free. If your site uses the most common keywords people are asking about, its relevance will be raised automatically in the search engine. 

Creative Content Writing: Your site can't be like any others; if you want traffic and to get noticed, you can't just use the keywords. You need to find a new angle on them and make people want to click on them, giving readers what the other sites are NOT. Or, in other words, answer people's questions! Exactly what an AI SEO agency helps you do by combining creativity with data-driven keyword insights.

2) Technical SEO

This SEO will optimize non-content elements of the site and the overall site itself, improving its foundation. 

Site Speeds: Use lower resolution or more transparent media on the landing page for faster site speed. 

Indexing: Make everything organized and clean looking while also making info easy to find 

Crawlability: Make words and buttons bigger for easy navigating.

Site Architecture: Make sure there are several ways to reach, contact, or talk to someone on the landing page, and everything is clearly marked and visible. 

Mobile Friendliness: Make your site or business mobile-friendly. Search engines are used almost more on mobile phones than on computers anymore, and search engines know the difference and rate higher for sights that cater to both. 

Security: Security is vital if you want to build trust and return traffic.

3.) Off-Page SEO

When other reputable website sites link to your site, it shows the search engine that the brand is trustworthy. This type of SEO builds up a website's reputation and authority. This is usually accomplished by connecting it to other high-quality websites by including:

• Local listings
• Directory profiles

4) Local SEO

Local SEO comprises a variety of tactics. Most will include a geographic landing page. As the name implies will consist of a geographical location and services or products relevant to the area. They are designed for local search or when a user is searching for the keyword or keyword phrase in combination with the "near me," "city," or zip code determined by Google. Other things will include

• Google My Business Listing and Management
• Reputation/Testimonials
• Maintaining Name, Address, and Phone consistency 

Why Good Businesses Use Either An SEO or SEM Or Both

Everybody wants their site or business to appear at the top when someone searches. Obviously, it's a highly coveted position that's extremely competitive. Most people who use search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo for their search only look at the first page of search results. Why? Because we want everything fast. Having to click through pages of search results is work. Typically people use searches for three reasons:

• for businesses and services
• for researching topics to become better educated about something
• for finding info on people, places, or things

Ask yourself this, when you do a Google search, do you click to the second page of your search results? How about the third page? If they don't see what they want to on the first page, most people will type in a whole new search by altering their wording or "keywords" next, rather than click to a second or third search result. Being listed on the second page of search results is still better than five or ten, but it still gives you less than a 50% chance that a searcher will reach your site or business through their search engine results.

Knowing this, I'm sure you can imagine with both SEO strategy and SEM strategy, the goal is to be seen in order to gain the most traffic. The more traffic to your site or your business, the higher the chance someone will contact you or will share your content with others. There's a lot that goes into each SEO and SEM strategy also both on and off-page. However, the one thing they have in common is keywords. Both strategies are intent-based. Meaning someone is purposefully searching for what you're offering or something closely related.

Target Marketing

It's important to know who and what you're marketing to. Some demographics are broad range like sports or medicine, but even both of those topics are umbrella terms for a much greater list that could attach itself to those words alone. Sometimes being broad helps, and using an umbrella term can sometimes definitely help. But so are a million other businesses that got there first years ago and have established themselves on the internet—making your business page 30 in the search engine. So to optimize using an SEO or SEM needs to be far more specific if not closely related to your actual target audience.

For example, let's say I'm an ice cream fanatic blogger. Now the words ice cream have been taken by Baskin-Robbins and rap songs for at least three search pages. Let's say mint-chocolate chip and a couple of other flavors are taken up also. But maybe through my research, ice cream scooper is wide open or ice cream as one word because sometimes people don't care how it goes into the search bar is also a better chance for you to get on that first SERP as #1.

Which Is Better for Your Business, SEO, or SEM?

With the similarities and differences between SEO and SEM laid out, unfortunately, there isn't a clear winner for most small businesses. Just as you and your business are unique, so should the choices you make. For some, SEM might be just the ticket to break through a ceiling, while it might be cost-prohibitive for others.

If you need help choosing, I would suggest reaching out for a free consultation. We will be glad to help you decide if one is better than the other or if both might be a better fit for you and your business.