Many businesses seem to realize at some level, that customers do value their expertise. So they publish whitepapers & ROI calculators, and reports, and make them freely available on their web site, off in the corner somewhere. They’re just one more distraction on a content page that leaves the visitor wondering what they’re supposed to do next. How about the back button?

All that a prospect has to do to obtain the report or the tool, or whatever it is, is to click on a link. Good Golly, Miss Molly, what a huge mistake! I hope you’re not making it. Isn’t a dose of your expertise at least worth having the customer tell you who they are? And while they’re at it, why not make it easy for them to subscribe to your newsletter, or a specialized course that you can deliver via email. Whatever you do, don’t let them leave your website without introducing themselves. Good grief.

Sometimes it takes several exposures to your print persuasion before the prospect becomes comfortable enough to come forward and make personal contact. But when they do, you’ve got a live one!

And make no mistake. A prospect that convinces themselves that they need to talk to you by reading your problem solving story, is more than twice as likely to buy, versus one that you’ve cold called. Savvy?

Boring & Hard To Read Copy

Some people will tell you not to use a lot words in your promotional materials. Poppycock.

Prospects that are actively looking for what you’re selling will read & read & read until they’re red hot & ready to talk to you. But you have to know how to actively engage them. If you bore them with product features, or vain puffery about your company, or just plain poorly written bafflegab loaded with techno-speak drivel, forget it.

If you want effective lead generation, grab them with a benefit riddled headline, jab to the solar plexus with a trance inducing opening, and bam, down they go, straight to the meaty emotional appeals & logic of your argument.