You want to bring people to your website and you want them to buy from you. They are prospects, potential customers, and are considered a ‘lead’ before they become a customer. The term ‘lead’ comes from sales and marketing and describes a “contact that a business is going to call or email in order to try and encourage sales.”

With an online business, leads take on a slightly different form and although the basics are still true, the way you interact with these potential customers is different. It’s important to understand the two types of leads

There is the cold lead – someone who fits your target demographic but hasn’t had any interaction with you yet. It’s likely to be someone who has just landed on your website or found you in social media. They don’t know much about you or your business. But, they are more than likely interested in what you are selling.

There is the warm lead – someone who fits your target demographic and has some level of interaction with you. This is someone who knows a bit about you and your business either through social media or being on your email list, or even simply having seen or heard you on other people’s websites.  Warm leads are easier to convert into customers.

There are different methods you can use to drive traffic to your website that will bring both types of leads to you.

Pay Per Click Advertising

Cold leads can be brought to your site using paid advertising and one option is Pay Per Click (PPC). You can use PPC on social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and more). When someone clicks on your ad and goes to your website, they are considered a cold lead.What is good about this type of traffic generation is that on these platforms you can target exactly the type of customer you want to sell to. The filtering that is available on Facebook is very good, enabling you to show your ads only to people who precisely match your target audience.

Google AdWords (another form of PPC) allows you to target specific keyword searches in Google, which can bring you qualified cold leads. Again, using the filter that AdWords offers, you’re able to select specific phrases that your target audience is likely to use and those phrases match what you have on your website.

Turn those cold leads into warm leads by going one step further for each of these PPC options and use what is called remarketing. This is a piece of code that you can place on your website so that you can target people with relevant ads who have already been to your site and actually viewed your products!

Search Engine Optimisation

When you use SEO (search engine optimisation) to promote your site, you are trying to get your site to rank for a particular keyword phrase. Depending on the phrase you choose, you may be able to attract pre-qualified sales to your site.

How does this work? Simple: people looking for products and services type what they’re looking for in a search engine (Google or Bing). If your keyword phrase matches what they have typed, you will appear in the search results page. Then the people coming to your website are demonstrating an interest in buying your products and may be ready to buy when they get to your site. This is the definition of a qualified lead and that means you can very likely convert those leads into paying customers with just a little more effort.

Offer them a freebie so you can get them on your email list and develop a relationship with them.