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How Do You Attract The Ideal Lead?

By Michael Stelzner

It was a pretty hot September day. My grass was in need of some extra soak.

I decided to pull out the 100-foot garden hose and do a little rejuvenation of my lawn.

HawkWhile I was watering, I noticed a tiny little butterfly stop by for a drink. A few minutes later a grand hawk decided to do a fly by.

What do hawks and butterflies have to do with generating leads, you ask?

Well, they were both attracted to the water. Hmm. Think about it.

We, as marketing professionals and writers, create our work to be consumed by an audience. However, the challenge is attracting that ideal person.

Are you attracting hawks or butterflies?

How can you design something to cater to your primary audience without having to shoe away everyone else?

I want hawks, not butterflies. What do I do? I don’t have the answer, but maybe you do.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 2nd, 2006 at 5:34 am and is filed under Lead Generation, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Nice post. And in some cases, turns out what we thought was a "hawk" for a client, ends up being a "butterfly" and vice versa. ;-) Thanks for reminding us.
  • Kate True
    How about combining your already refined writing skills with software that will help ensure the creation of more profitable ads. Would really help business come to you. I've used one such software, its called Glyphius. Its been a huge help for me.
  • I love your website's design. Did you do it yourself?
  • Hi Mike - I agree with you there. Like you, I am a bit higher on the price scale. I have setup a referral network where I send leads that I do not want or cannot afford me. Similar to affiliates. Sounds like we think alike! - Mike
  • " Lots " would be the keyword. I would not have lots of partners that I would refer potential clients to, only one or two, to accomodate those that can't afford me.

    I'm gonna be the higher priced seller in my niche, but I'm better off leading those that can't afford me to someone less expensive than I am letting them wander off without giving them some direction.

    No management, just an affiliate type of relationship.
  • Hi Susan and Mike;

    Susan - I think newsletters are a great way to attract hawks because they help filter. People that are no interested just do not read. HOWEVER, newsletters can service thousands of people that NEVER convert. So it is important to manage the costs.

    Mike - I like your wheel analogy. However, I have found that the management of lots of vendors and partners can get a bit hairy. How about you?

    Mike
  • I try to get my corporate blog clients to allow me to design the content, theme and the tone of the content we use to attract our target audience.

    If some non-targeted customers come calling, it's helpful to have a strategic alliance with a like-minded, but differently situated joint-venture partner to steer them towards.

    It's kind of like a wagon wheel ... every spoke has a different kind of stress placed on it at a given time.

    We don't all sell to 'everyone', we have ideal clients, but if you find yourself attracting a certain type of client that doesn't fit your mold, don't run them off, do this instead, find a company that needs that kind of client and form an alliance the works for the client and both companies.
  • Don't your blog and newsletter help you attract the right prospects?

    Not enough people read my two blogs, but my e-newsletter definitely gets read. People who like the writing style in my e-newsletter are good prospects for my writing and editorial services.

    Also, I target a niche. I specialize in writing about investment management and financial planning (plus some general business ghostwriting). Folks in those fields are my hawks. It's easy for them to identify themselves.
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