When you’re thinking about investing in a product or service, what’s the first thing you do?
Usually, it’s one or both of the following: You’ll likely ask your friends whether they’ve tried the product or service, and if they have, whether they would recommend it. You’ll also probably do some online research to see what others are saying about said product or service. Nowadays, 90% of consumers used the internet to find a local business in the last year, and 82% of consumers read online reviews. This shows that the majority of people are looking to peers to make a purchasing decision.
For many businesses, the key to making sales is to first generate leads.
Leads are valuable because they’re the people who have indicated organic interest in your content and your business by giving you their information in some way, whether it’s by filling out a form to download an ebook, completing an online survey, or something else.
It’s easy to see marketing as a process specific to attracting and converting prospects — the practice of generating and capitalizing on potential customers’ interest.
But once that potential has successfully been removed from the equation, and the prospect of winning a prospect’s business is no longer prospective, are you supposed to stop marketing to them altogether?