For most business professionals the business climate has changed dramatically. In an e-commerce environment the focus or goal of a Web site is encouraging the site visitor to buy something. The second most critical objective is to capture the contact information from a visitor so that a pipeline of prospects can be developed. This leads arising from the Web will still need to be worked effectively to get to our primary focus of getting our customer to buy something.
Building a pipeline begins with attaining both a phone number and an e-mail address from someone. If you have a traditional direct mail program in place, then a street address is vital as well. While direct mail can still be of value, e-mails can be powerful, better targeted and less expensive. For example, by grouping your prospect base into categories. For example if you are in real estate this categories would be single family vs. condo buyers or buyers vs. sellers. You can send out e-mails that are tightly aligned with someone’s interests. You will experience a much better response rate by segmenting in this manner.

Here are a few more ideas to boost the effectiveness of your Web site/online lead generation efforts. (more…)