3 Game Changing Lead Generation Skills That You Should Master

There are three key lead generation skills that you need to master if you are serious about growing your online business:

1. Copywriting
2. Generating traffic
3. Funnel building

Today we are going to cover the basics of all three + give you free resources for further study.

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Introduction to Lead Generation

Okay, so before we get into the three key lead generation skills, let’s make sure that we are all on the same page regarding the terms that we are going to be using throughout this article.

What is a Lead?

A lead is a potential customer who has:

1. Expressed an interest in your business, and
2. Given you their contact details

Note: a person has to meet both of these criteria to be considered a lead.

Meaning:

Site visitors aren’t leads and neither are random people whose contact details you have in your address book.

What is Lead Generation?

Lead generation is the process of converting potential customers into leads by persuading them to give you their contact details (typically their email addresses).

What is a Lead Generation Funnel?

Businesses that generate leads online usually do so via lead generation funnels.

Here’s how it works:

1. You create a lead magnet
2. You create a landing page for that lead magnet
3. You drive traffic to that landing page

Once the potential customer gives you their email address, they become a lead and enter your sales funnel.

What Determines Lead Quality?

Not all leads are created equal.

The quality of a lead is determined by how likely that lead is to convert into a paying customer – the more likely, the higher the quality.

What is the Purpose of Lead Generation?

It’s important to understand that the purpose of lead generation isn’t to collect as many email addresses as possible.

The purpose is to get the contact details of your dream customers so that you could sell them your products and make money.

Consequently, the most important lead generation metric is not the number of leads you brought in, it’s the profit that you generated.

Skill #1: Copywriting

The first lead generation skill you need to master is copywriting – persuasion via the written word.

Why is Copywriting Important?

Our co-founder, Russell Brunson, has grown ClickFunnels from zero to $100M+ in annual revenue in less than seven years.

Here’s what he has to say about copywriting:

“Copywriting is what made me rich…

It has more impact on how much money you make with your company than anything else.”

Want to make money online?

Then you need to be able to persuade people to:

• Click on your ad
• Subscribe to your email list
• Open your emails
• Click through to your sales page
• Buy your product

…etc.

That’s why you should commit to becoming an expert copywriter if you are serious about growing your business.

What’s Everyone’s Favorite Radio Station?

The most important principle in copywriting is illustrated by this joke:

“What’s everyone’s favorite radio station?”

“WII FM!”

“WII FM stands for “What’s In It For Me”.

The reality is that people don’t care about you, they care about themselves and what you can do for them.

Consequently, you shouldn’t talk about yourself, you should talk about them and what you can do for them.

This might seem obvious but entrepreneurs make the mistake of talking about themselves or their products all the time. Guess what? No one cares!

Of course, in order to make a sale, you need to introduce your product, but you should do so from the perspective of how your product will make the potential customer’s life better.

And the same principle applies to lead magnets. Stop talking about how great your ebook, webinar, or video course is.

What people really want to know is how it will make their lives better.

So focus on that.

Features vs. Benefits

Another important copywriting concept is the difference between features and benefits:

• A feature is a function or a quality of a product (e.g. “These shoes are waterproof!”).
• A benefit is the value that the customer will derive from that product (e.g. “These shoes will keep your feet warm and dry!”).

There’s a copywriter saying:

“Features tell, benefits sell”. 

What it means is that people buy based on benefits.

No one buys waterproof shoes simply because they want to own a pair of waterproof shoes.

What they want is to keep their feet dry in rain and snow.

That’s why it’s so important to identify what problem your potential customers want to solve and speak directly to that instead of listing all the cool features of your product.

Of course, you should introduce the most important features of it as well, but you shouldn’t lead with that – always focus on benefits in your copy.

Hook, Story, Offer

There’s a simple copywriting framework that you can use for anything from ads to emails to sales pages:

• Hook – Grab the potential customer’s attention by saying something unexpected.
  Your hook should serve as a pattern interrupt that stops them in their tracks and makes them do a “Wait, what?” double-take.
• Story – Tell the potential customer a captivating story that they can relate to.
• Offer – Transition from the story to your sales pitch.

Here’s how Russell explains it:

Free Resource: “Copywriting Secrets” by Jim Edwards

Copywriting is a skill.

You need to practice, practice, and then practice some more if you want to get good at it.

However, our friend Jim Edwards wrote a book called “Copywriting Secrets” that can help you to take your copywriting game to the next level super fast.

You can get the paperback for free – all Jim asks is that you cover the shipping. 😉

Get “Copywriting Secrets” for FREE!

By the way, when Jim talks about copywriting, Russell listens… And Russell himself is one of the best copywriters in the world!

Skill #2: Generating Traffic

The second lead generation skill that you need to master is generating traffic aka attracting visitors to your lead generation landing page.

High-Quality Traffic vs. Low-Quality Traffic

All traffic can be divided into two broad categories:

• High-quality traffic aka your dream customers
• Low-quality traffic aka everyone else

Your traffic will always be a mix of the two.

However, you should always be optimizing for traffic quality, meaning, taking measures to decrease the amount of low-quality traffic and increase the amount of high-quality traffic that your landing page gets.

Organic Traffic vs. Paid Traffic

It’s important to understand the difference between organic traffic and paid traffic:

• Organic traffic is the traffic for which you don’t pay directly – It comes from social media, Google Search, unpaid media mentions, etc. This type of traffic either takes a long time to build or is unpredictable and requires luck (e.g. going viral).
• Paid traffic is the traffic for which you do pay directly – It comes from paid advertising campaigns and influencer promotions. This type of traffic is immediate.

Note that there’s no such thing as free traffic – you either pay for it directly or indirectly, but it always costs time, energy, and money.

Start With Facebook Ads

We recommend you start by learning to run Facebook Ads campaigns.

Here’s why:

1. Facebook has 3.5 billion monthly active users throughout all their products (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger), so whoever your potential customers are, they probably use it.
2. Facebook ads allow you to immediately see whether your lead magnet resonates with your target audience. All you need to do is set up a daily budget, start driving traffic to your lead generation landing page, and watch what happens. Are people subscribing to your email list?
3. Facebook Ads traffic is targeted, immediate, and predictable. Once you figure out how to create a profitable campaign, you can consistently generate leads day in and day out.

Also, you can use Facebook ads to optimize your entire sales funnel.

Here’s how:

Work With Influencers

More and more businesses are using influencer marketing to promote their products.

It’s another way to put your offer in front of your target audience and immediately see the results.

However, while most companies are using influencer marketing to promote their products, we recommend you to use it to promote your lead magnet instead.

Note that the #1 way to compensate influencers is by giving them free product samples. This is something to consider if your marketing budget is tight.

Build Traffic-Generating Assets

Paid traffic is great in the short term but you don’t want to be completely reliant on it in the long run.

That’s why you should build traffic-generating assets:

1. A blog
2. A social media following
3. A YouTube channel

This will allow you to become less reliant on advertising platforms, diversify your traffic sources, and drastically reduce your customer acquisition cost.

Free Resource: “Traffic Secrets” by Russell Brunson

Russell has written a book called “Traffic Secrets” in which he shares all his traffic generation secrets.

You can get the hardcover for free – all we ask is that you pay for shipping 😉

Get “Traffic Secrets” for FREE!

Skill #3: Funnel Building

The third lead generation skill that you need to master is funnel building.

What is a Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel is the process through which a person goes through from first hearing about your business to becoming a paying customer to becoming a repeat customer.

Here’s the bird’s-eye-view of any sales funnel:

• Top of the funnel: target audience – You grab the attention of someone in your target audience.
• Middle of the funnel: potential customers – You get them interested in your product or service.
• Bottom of the funnel: customers – You persuade them to buy your product.

However, this generic structure doesn’t provide much practical guidance when it comes to growing an online business.

That’s why when we talk about sales funnels, we usually talk about proven sales funnel models, such as the Value Ladder.

What is the Value Ladder Sales Funnel?

Here at ClickFunnels we believe that the best way to sell anything online is the Value Ladder sales funnel.

It was developed by Russell who then used it to take ClickFunnels from zero to $10M+ in annual revenue in just one year (it’s at $100M+ now).

The Value Ladder sales funnel has four stages:

• Bait – You offer the potential customer your lead magnet in exchange for their email address.
• Frontend – You offer the potential customer your least expensive and least valuable product.
• Middle – You offer the customer a more valuable and more expensive product.
• Backend – You offer the customer your most expensive and most valuable product.

Ideally, you also have a continuity program of some sort, meaning, a subscription product that generates recurring revenue.

The reason the Value Ladder sales funnel works so well is that it allows you to:

1. Start the relationship with that person by providing free value
2. Nurture that relationship by continuing to provide free value via email
3. Build trust by providing progressively more paid value at each stage

Here’s how Russell explains it:

How Does Your Lead Generation Funnel Fit Into Your Value Ladder Sales Funnel?

The Bait stage of the Value Ladder sales funnel is your lead generation funnel.

That’s why you should always think about lead generation in the context of your entire Value Ladder.

Here’s how you can increase the lead to paying customer conversion rate:

1. Make sure that your frontend product addresses the same problem as your lead magnet but offers much more value.
   You want your lead magnet to serve as a free sample of your frontend product and do the selling for you.
2. Price your frontend product at $7.
   That way, the price isn’t low enough to make the potential customer doubt the product’s value but also isn’t high enough to make them stop and think twice before buying it.

Keep in mind that the hardest conversion in any sales funnel is converting a lead into a paying customer, so you want to do everything you can to make this transition as seamless as possible.

Free Resource: “DotCom Secrets” by Russell Brunson

Russell has written a book called “DotCom Secrets” on how to use sales funnels to grow an online business.

You can get the hardcover for free – all we ask is that you pay for shipping 😉

Get “DotCom Secrets” for FREE!

Want Russell to Teach You How to Build Your First Sales Funnel?

Let’s keep it real:

Building a sales funnel from scratch can seem like a daunting task.

That’s why we created our 5 Day Challenge where Russell walks you through it step-by-step.

You will learn how to:

• Generate unlimited leads
• Create your first lead magnet
• Build your first sales funnel
• Create a simple 6-email follow-up sequence
• And launch your funnel!

…in just five days.

So don’t hesitate.

Join our 5 Day Challenge today. It’s completely free!