You do not need to use ALL of the tools here, but only use the ones you’re comfortable with and those that fit YOUR marketing plan and budget. I do suggest you use as many of them as you can, however… just remember you don’t need to do everything at once. Pick one new tool and get comfortable using it before moving on to the next.

Some of these tools also provide an income opportunity so you can also develop your multiple streams of income.

Leads Are The LifeBlood of Your Business

A steady flow of leads into your prospecting pipeline is the lifeblood of being successful in your online business.

Your mailing list or database of leads is your most valuable asset in my opinion. Your mailing list is your entire business. Your list is your livelihood. Your list is money in the bank. Your list is your audience. Serve them well and they will give you the keys to riches! Remember this and you will do very well marketing with email.

You might think of your online business as the vehicle that can transport you to where you want to go… but, you need to put gas in the tank to make your vehicle go.

Your gas in this business is leads.

The more gas (or leads) you have, the further you’ll go… and conversely, no gas (or no leads) or too few leads, and you won’t go very far.

When you have a good leads list, you can find a decent amount of business partners with an “average” sales message. But, if you have a bad list, you won’t enroll anyone no matter how good your sales message is.

MANAGE YOUR EXPECTATIONS: As a rule of thumb, I believe the 80/20 Rule applies: 80 percent of your leads will not even have the desire to become financially successful. Only 20 percent will even be open to new opportunities.

A bad list is not “targeted.” If the list contains email addresses that have been picked at random, contains very old email addresses, or has been oversold many times, the list is useless. Many of the low cost ($.02 – $.30) leads programs contain these kinds of useless leads. If you don’t know what the people in your list are interested in, you won’t be able to sell to them at all. You can try to “guess” what they would want to buy. Oversold and old leads won’t get many interested prospects, just complaints!

A good list is a “targeted” list of people who have joined the list “willingly.” You still have to match your offer to your list. And you can only do this when you know what the people in your lists are interested in. A list containing qualifying questions or survey answers can be helpful because you can then sell them exactly what they want. There is no guesswork involved and you will not upset anyone by sending them information they’re not interested in receiving.

Building a “targeted” email list of your own
Building a quality “targeted” list is the most important thing you can do for your business.

Did you get that?

Building a quality “targeted” list is the most important thing you can do for your business. This is where the game begins… to find leads or to find people to talk to.

The quality of your “opt-in” list will determine the future success or failure of your online business.

If your business is faltering – if your car is sputtering for lack of gas – if you’re not seeing much activity going on in your business…. the reason is most likely because you are neglecting this very important part of building your business.

There are lots of ways to build your very own “opt-in” lists and I cannot cover them all here, but I will introduce you to some very basic list building fundamentals that will get you started. Of course, some ways are better than others because they are more efficient, easy, and cost-effective. My advice to you is to use them all, or as many as you can to build your list.

• Your Customer List
  Unless this is your first business, you probably have a list of people that have done business with you in the past – your customers. These customer names and addresses will create the best list you will ever own. You already have an established relationship with them and they already know, like, and trust you. If your customers had a good experience with you in the past, they would probably be more than willing to buy from you again and again. In fact some of them are itching to buy from you because you send targeted information to them on what they really want, not just junk.
• Your “warm market”
  I’ve discussed in another area of this web site how to create your warm market list.
• Referrals
  If you don’t have a customer email list of your own yet, this technique is single handedly the next best thing. It is one of the quickest ways to find targeted prospects and build your list in the process. Here’s how it works: You ask those people you already know… who they know that might be interested in learning more about your products. Or, you might find someone who has a downline from an existing/or recently defunct mlm who will give you their list for building under them.
• “Opt-In” Visitors From Your Web Site – sometimes called “Lead Capture”
  This in one technique you absolutely must use if you have a website. The technique is a very simple: You would place a “form” or a simple “email” link on your website with a short message that tells visitors to subscribe to your mailing list. In return for doing so, offer them something for free! A free report, newsletter, or ebook will work great here.The reason why doing this right now is very important is because you are missing out on a great opportunity to capture your web site visitor’s email addresses. Since you already are spending time and money to promote your site, why not get them to leave their email address with you before they leave and never return again. Most visitors will not buy from you on their first visit. Unless you provide this option on your web site you will lose most of these prospects forever. Most of your marketing efforts and dollars will be spent on classified ads, banner trades, search engines, etc. will go down the drain forever.If you are familiar with creating web sites and forms or know someone who is, you can easily put a simple form anywhere in your web site. If you don’t know how to create them, most autoresponder services provide subscribers the ability to easily create their very own web site with custom lead capture forms connected to an autoresponder so people can get your free report sent to them automatically within minutes of requesting it.

  Lead Capture is a PRIMARY strategy I use for building my prospecting list. In fact, just about everything I am doing online is to create a steady flow of “opt-in” subscribers using lead capture pages.

• Offline Advertising
  If you are only using “offline advertising” and don’t do much online advertising, you can still get email addresses from prospects. You can use whatever offline advertising works best for you (direct mail, classified ads, radio, TV, etc.) and start including your “free email report” offer in these advertisements. Get those email addresses from as many prospects that are willing to email you and let them opt-out whenever they choose. Using offline advertising to drive traffic to your online lead capture pages can be very powerful.
• Classified Advertising
  Whether online or offline, classified advertising can be used to drive traffic to one of your lead capture pages or to an autoresponder address that automatically inserts them into your prospecting system.
  Click Here to read more about Classified Advertising strategies.
• Press Releases
  Press releases are a great marketing technique you can use to pull in a lot of inquiries without spending a single penny on advertising. Published press releases on the Internet also rank very well in the search engines. Press release marketing is a low cost or absolutely free way to build your business very quickly. You can use the same technique as before to get email addresses. At the end of your press release, offer your readers something for “free” if they respond to you via email or to your lead capture web page.
• Word Of Mouth
  Many times the people who respond or have requested your “free report” will send or pass your message along to their friends or family who they think may find it interesting. This happens very frequently and to capitalize on this “message pushing” you should make sure that you put a notice within your message. Usually this notice should be typed at the bottom of the message. The statement should say something along the lines of… “You are welcome to pass this message along to anyone who you feel maybe interested”.Now, the next statement you make following the first should be directed to the “new reader” who the message has been passed on to. This statement should say something along the lines of… “If you were passed on this message by a friend or relative and would like to receive additional information on topics like this message, then email (your autoresponder email address here) to subscribe”. This statement opens the door and invites them to “opt-in” to your list. Now you have gained another prospect to market to and it didn’t cost you a penny!
• Purchased email lists
  One advantage of buying warm leads through a leads system is they have already expressed “interest” in a home based business. You don’t need to convince these leads about being in a business, what you need to do is to build trust or rapport with them as they learn more about your opportunity. What these people want to know is if they would like to do business with YOU. Can they trust you?If you choose to purchase leads they can work very well for you. But, there is always a possibility that will get a “bad” list. The email leads business is unregulated and the results vary widely. It’s oftentimes difficult to know where the list broker acquired the email addresses from. There are many honest list brokers who build credible “targeted” opt-in lists and there are many others who will simply “grab” email addresses off the Internet at “random”.If you end up with a “random” list, the recipients of this list will not be happy when they receive your email. You should also know that they will not complain to the list broker’s ISP; they have no clue who the list broker is and all the complaints will fall on you. Guess what? They will complain to your ISP since you are the person sending the “spam” and you will get in a lot of trouble – perhaps even losing your Internet account.

  If you go this route you will want to use a reputable leads source and one that will disclose to you how they acquire their leads. Stay away from anything that sells email addresses in bulk especially CD-ROM’s with millions of names burned on the disk! This spells disaster and is a complete waste of money.