In order to drive sales leads for your business, you need to turn your website into Grand Central Station.
Look at this image. See the people filling the Great Room at Grand Central Station? How did they get there?
They are there for the trains. Trains going out and trains coming in. Without trains, Grand Central Station would be empty.
In order to drive sales leads for your sales teams, you need to think of your website as Grand Central Station. There’s plenty to do at Grand Central Station - shop, grab a bite to eat or enjoy a cocktail. By the same token, there ought to be plenty to do at your website - content to download, videos to watch, and happy customers to see. But it is up to you to ensure that the trains run on time.
To make the trains run, you have to be actively involved, sharing content online, off-line and in print.(according to Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute.)
As for sharing content Jon Miller of Marketo calls this “seed nurturing’ - which is planting seeds to take root everywhere. Your blog, on Facebook, on Linkedin, on Digg, on StumbleUpon, on Slideshare, etc. By sharing content everywhere with links back to your website (especially highly focused landing pages) you will drive these travelers back to your own Grand Central Station where you will sell them food, drinks and toys for the kids. (Actually, they will use your Call to Action and sign up - leading to gentle, ongoing lead nurturing.) After you earn their trust and watch their online behavior, you are ready to score and watch for a “hand raise.”
A robust website (your own Grand Central Station), ongoing sharing of valuable content everywhere (making the trains run on time) combined with gentle customer focused lead nurturing and carefully crafted lead scoring - leads to lots of sales opportunities, closed deals and job security.
What do you think of this analogy? We love comments and those who share our content.
“If more companies listened to (Find New Customers) a lot more would be sold.” Dan McDade, Pointclear.