In today’s post, my goal is to share my favorite passive lead generation strategies. While the information is geared for network marketers, it will help any entrepreneur in any niche or endeavor.
Leads are the lifeblood of every business. As the business owner, you must make the cash register ring. To do that, you must have prospects to share your marketing message with and sell your products or services to. Without leads, you won’t be in business long.
There are two ways to get leads (that I know of). One way is advertising and the other method is prospecting. Advertising is when you PAY MONEY (typically) to get your name out there so interested people contact you first. They see your ad, it piques their interest, and they visit your website, call you, email you, etc. On the other hand, prospecting is when you reach out to people. You talk with people and approach people.
Whether you choose advertising or prospecting, you have another two options. You can choose ACTIVE or PASSIVE strategies. Active is when you must continue to do something to keep getting leads. For example, if you are handing out 10 business cards each day as a strategy, you must keep handing out more business cards every day to keep getting leads. On the flip side of the coin, PASSIVE strategies are strategies you can do one time, yet to continue to get leads.
That is what I want to focus on in the rest of this article, my best passive lead generation strategies, so you can generate leads while you sleep, while you take time off, and while you are at work.
Top 7 Passive Lead Generation Strategies
In the paragraphs below, I will share my top 7 passive lead generation strategies for small business owners. What I suggest you do is pick no more than TWO of these strategies and focus on them exclusively for the next 90 to 180-days. Don’t make the mistake of trying to do too many things at once. Focus is key!
# 1: Blogging
I am a HUGE fan of blogging. Of all the passive lead generation strategies I can think of, I believe this strategy is the most powerful, if you are patient and willing to work your ass off for a few years.
You can write one good blog post that sends you fresh, new leads every day, for many YEARS to come. Imagine having hundreds, even thousands of different blog posts posted on the internet, and each of those blog posts sends you a few new leads each day. How awesome would that be?
Blogging is not easy. It won’t work for everyone. It takes a huge TIME commitment the first few years. It takes a while to build up a reputable blog that the search engines trust and recommend in their search results. However, if you can crack the code, the results can be mind boggling.
If you don’t enjoy writing, you can even outsource the writing. As a final tip, I would tell you to pick a “theme” for your blog geared around your company’s product line. For example, if your company specializes in herbal weight loss, make a blog about herbal weight loss. That way, people who visit your blog are part of your target market.
On your blog, make sure you have an opt-in form, where people can type in their name and email to request more information, such as a free report or free eBook. You also want to include a popup or popover.
Understanding what your audience actually wants to consume is the first and most important step in the blogging process. If you’re not covering topics of interest to potential customers than no other aspect of your blogging efforts will drive results.
~ JumpLead.com
# 2: YouTube Videos
Creating quality YouTube videos might be the best passive lead generation strategy available. You can publish a few quality videos on YouTube that send you fresh leads for YEARS to come. There are tons of great videos on YouTube that are six or seven years old and still get lots of traffic every day.
The key to success with YouTube videos is to make high quality videos about a specific topic, that educate and entertain. And you must do it consistently. Whatever you do, do not be BORING. That is the kiss of death.
For example, if your business specializes in essential oils, you could create a YouTube channel designed around the many benefits of using essential oils, with instructions on how to use them.
You would just include your link to your capture page (or website) below each video, so you could generate leads, build a list, and introduce people to your business.
There are a ton of reasons why you should be using YouTube to grow your business. The first is that videos on this platform are extremely search-engine friendly. Not only do they rank well in Google’s video search, but they also appear in YouTube’s own search engine.
Why does that matter? Google is the top-rated, most used search engine… and YouTube is the second.
That means that if you want people to see your content, turning it into a YouTube video gives you two legs up.
# 3: Google Business Listing / Yellow Pages
If you don’t have a Google Business listing and Yellow Pages listing for your business, you are missing out. These free methods are great passive prospecting ideas. You simply create your listing one time and it stays in the cyber world working for you 24/7. You can go to Google or YouTube and search for instructions on how to create these listings. They are very simple to do.
Once your listing is published, your objective is to get as many online reviews as you can, as quickly as you can. Talk with your customers, friends, and prospects, and ask them to leave you an online review. It will help bump up your listing.
Increasingly, one of the most important elements of a Google My Business listing is User Reviews. High-quality, positive reviews from your customers will improve your business’ visibility, and increases the likelihood that a potential customer will visit your location.
# 4: Leave Blog/Forum Comments
This is one of my favorite passive lead generation strategies. You can leave comments on popular blogs and online forums that provide a link to your capture page or website. Assuming you leave high quality comments, on blogs in the same niche as you, some people will click on your link and check out your website.
The real key to success is to visit popular blogs that get a lot of website traffic and make sure you leave high quality comments. Don’t try to be slick or sound like a high-pressure used car salesman. Don’t put your link inside of your comments either. Instead, put your link in the URL section when you leave a comment.
I’ve left comments on blogs four of five years ago that still continue to send me traffic and new leads every week. It’s a very powerful passive lead generation strategy for any business owner. You can even outsource this for less than $50 per month.
I wouldn’t use this method as a primary lead generation strategy, but it is a great way to supplement what you are already doing. Even if you just left two blog comments per day, that would be 730 links pointing back to your website at the end of one year.
It might sound obvious, but I feel the need to clarify that when I was blog commenting, I wasn’t just jumping from blog to blog leaving messages that said “Hey, come and look at this tool, it’s the most awesome tool ever” (or for that matter, anything to that effect).
It was critical to me that I wasn’t just going around leaving borderline-spam comments on every blog I could find. Just like commenting on a competitor’s site, it’s rude, and I have a reputation to uphold. Not to mention that genuinely useful comments were likely to (and did) result in far higher CTRs than comments that were practically pleading people to visit my site.
# 5: Podcasting
I LOVE podcasting. Think of a podcast like an online radio show. You can talk about whatever topic you want to discuss. Consider starting your own podcast show about topics geared around your business or company’s product line.
Use your own personality to your advantage. Be yourself. Focus on educating and entertaining people. You can place short ads in your podcast or have a strong call to action at the end of each podcast, asking people to visit your website.
I currently have about 900 podcasts published, and this will be my primary passive lead generation strategy going forward, other than blogging.
The easiest way to make a podcast is to make a video first and then simply strip out the audio from the video, and upload it as a podcast. Learn more about podcasting.
# 6: Car Magnet
This is something that anyone can do. You can visit a website like Vistaprint.com or eBay and order a car magnet for about $20 to $50. Include a catchy headline, a call to action, and a way for people to get in touch with you.
I do not recommend putting the name of your business on your car magnet. Instead, keep it generic so you can pique people’s curiosity. Make sure it is in large font and is easy to read.
An example car magnet might say: Drop that unwanted body fat. Free consultation. Call Joe at XXX-XXX-XXXX.
From generating new leads to creating brand awareness, car magnets can get your business in front of people easily. Make sure to put your contact information on there, like a phone number or a website to start seeing new leads come in. It’d also be worth it to mention what you do, in case your business name doesn’t imply it. You also want to make sure it’s not too flashy, since images that are too busy can take away from the impact you’re trying to achieve and cause people to ignore it all together. ~ UZ Marketing
# 7: Email Signature
I had to include a crafty email signature on my list as one of my favorite passive lead generation strategies. While sending an email is an active thing, having your signature automatically attached to each email is passive.
I suggest you come up with a catchy email signature. Keep it generic. Put your name, email, and phone number and have a catchy P.S. line that grabs people’s attention. A few examples include:
Chuck Holmes
CEO of Fun
chuck@onlinemlmcommunity.com
P.S. If you’d like to have more time, more money, and better health, let me show you how! Check out my website to learn more.
Here are three other example P.S. lines.
P.S. Ready for a new career or new side hustle? This is a simple business ANYONE can do. If you have a smart phone and 30 to 60-minutes per day, you can succeed with this. Get the details.
P.S. Most people would be bankrupt if they missed just 1 or 2 paydays. Are you one of those people? Create your Plan B before you need one. Visit my website to learn more.
P.S. Ready to own your life? Tired of the long commute, the long work hours, and your unfulfilling job? If so, check out this link to see how people are taking control of their life. Will you be next?
Tips for Success
My best tips for success with passive lead generation are to set up your own capture page and focus on building a list. Provide the link to your capture page in everything that you do. Promote that link using any of these passive lead generation strategies mentioned above.
After people type in their name and email in your capture page, they are automatically added to your auto-responder list. You can then redirect them to whatever website you want.
Don’t give yourself information overload and try too many different strategies at once. Pick no more than one or two passive lead generation strategies mentioned above and focus on those exclusively. Once you master those two strategies you can diversify into other things.
My final tip is to use tracking links for each strategy you use. That way you can see what sources you are using are generating the most amount of leads.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, these are my favorite passive lead generation strategies. By all means keep using your other lead generation strategies as well. Just make sure that you combine a few passive lead generation strategies along with it. This will let you work smart and leverage yourself, so you can generate leads on auto-pilot.
What are your thoughts? What are your favorite passive lead generation strategies? Leave a comment below to share your thoughts. I look forward to hearing from you. Have a great day.
Other posts you may enjoy:
- Fish Bowl Lead Generation Method
- Top 7 Free MLM Lead Generation Techniques
- Top 50 Mail Order Business Ideas
- Example Email Subject Lines That Convert
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.
You had mentioned commenting in forums and blogs. This is a great passive lead system. By creating a good signature with a link to your blog, or a capture page, and leaving good comments that are educational in nature, people will click the link. The thing is, that post or comment should be there a long time unless it gets deleted by the site owner, so you may get clicks long after you wrote it.
One suggestion about forums, it is good to keep posting often and gain a good reputation. Just one post does not help much.
Thanks for sharing this Chuck.
Find 1-2 blogs and forums that are popular and in your niche and contribute to them daily.
I have just started to get into the practice of leaving comments on other people’s blogs and I have been seeing some people coming over to my blog as a result of what I have shared on other blogs. So it does work. You definitely do have to be providing quality information though via your posts that makes people feel like you know what you are talking about while also remaining relevant to the original post you are commenting under.
Yes, blog commenting is a great way to get more traffic to your website.
Chuck , these are all great ways to generate leads in a passive way. I do want to mention a bit more of an old fashion way. You can make fliers and leave on bulletin boards in grocery stores, laundromats and other locations such as that. You can also do the same with just simple business cards. Personally, I think the fliers are better, and they can be low cost to make and print. It can be a great passive lead system.
Fliers are definitely a great strategy. I’ve used them many times in the past myself.
I like the strategy of giving out FREE staff to generate leads. Question is where do I get or how I make one, especially if I am new in MLM.
Hire someone to do it or ask someone in your upline to help you.