6 Critical Factors To Consider When Evaluating Online Lead Generation Strategies

Marketing is on the cusp of a seismic change, and "NEW marketing" strategies like social networking and online lead generation are necessary if you are to prosper in the new world. These 6 factors are crucial when evaluating the many ways to generate leads online - monetary cost, time, quantity, timeframe, leverage, and lost opportunity.

1. Monetary cost. How much money is it going to cost?  There are many "free" online lead generation methods such as article marketing, social networking, press releases, blogging, online classified ads, forum posting, traffic exchanges, etc.  Others such as pay-per-click and ezine ads can have a relatively high cost. For many businesses, this cost is the primary consideration, and in some cases the only consideration taken into account.  As we'll see, there are many other factors that need to be taken into account, not just the dollar amount.

2. Time. Time is money, and for most people, time is an extremely precious commodity. For some, the time cost of many free online lead generation strategies may be more costly than the monetary cost of a paid online lead strategy.

For example, if you are a full-time employee with a good income building a business on the side, you may be better off using a pay-per-click advertising campaign that can be done in minutes a day versus a free article posting approach that takes an hour or more per day. 

Even among the various free lead strategies, the time commitments can be vastly different and should be considered when comparing strategies.

3. Quantity. Do you need 100 leads a day or 100 leads a month?  The answer to this question will impact your choice of lead generation strategy. If you only need 100 leads a month, or roughly 3 leads per day, forum postings may do the job. But if you need 100 leads per day, you'll need to consider ezine ads in large publications or  partnering with large JV's.

4. Timeframe.  How quickly do you need results?   Some strategies, like pay-per-click, can generate results almost instantaneously.  Other strategies such as blogging and article directory posting take time to generate consistent lead generation flow.  You not only have to consider how many leads you need but also how quickly you need them.

5. Leverage is another factor to consider.  Is your strategy one where you have to continually make effort to generate leads or else they come to a screeching halt?  Or do you do the work once and the leads continue to come in over a long period of time?  Can you leverage the work in various distribution channels and formats?   For example, can you write a blog entry, then tweak it and submit it as an article, then make a video out of the same general content?

With article directory postings there is a significant amount of work required to write a large number of articles and post them to various article directories. Once an article is posted, however, it can continue to generate leads for many months or even years.  Free classified ads, on the other hand, only tend to be effective for a day or two and then require reposting.

Do you want to do the work once and continue to reap the benefits while you're sipping a pina colada at the beach, or do you want to continually do the work to keep the leads coming in?

6. Lost opportunity. This is another factor that most people don't consider when selecting a lead generation method.  If you select a method that generates a small number of leads, your business will grow slower.  This may allow competitors to jump in and grab some of your marketshare.

This principle is especially important to network marketers. The faster your business grows, the faster your compounding makes a significant difference.  It may cost $100/month to generate more leads, but if it means you are earning $1,000 more per month in 6 months it is definately worth the cost.

In order to evaluate your online lead generation methods for the above factors, it is essential to track how leads are generated and any associated costs.  Lead generation tracking details will be covered in another post so stay tuned.

When I mentor a new business partner, we go over the various ways they can generate leads online and look at all of these factors - monetary cost, time cost, leverage, quantity, timeframe, and opportunity cost, as well as their skills and interests.  We periodically evaluate their situation and make adjustments to their strategy if needed.

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