A lot of emphasis is placed on conversions by companies when discussing their PPC campaigns. But you can generate leads through pay per click just as well as close sales. The strategy is a little different, but not much.
To start with, your landing page must be written differently. You are not closing a sale so why ask for the sale? That’s not to say you won’t have a call to action. Every landing page should have a call to action. But in lead generation the call to action will just be a request for information, usually personally identifying information like names and e-mail addresses. The point is to acquire information you can use for future marketing purposes.
One way to approach this is to use PPC advertising to drive targeted traffic to your e-zine or newsletter opt-in page. You are not going to close the sale today. There is no conversion on the other end of that CTR. But there is an ROI. It’s just calculated differently. Be sure that when you ask for the opt-in or contact information that you follow up with your new lead. Autoresponders are good for that. But you don’t want to rely completely on an automated process either. Remember, people still respond to personal communications. So make it personal, but professional, and keep your focus on the ultimate end goal – the customer’s need. Do that and you’ll eventually close the sale. Lead generation is only the beginning.
