Black Entrepreneur Blueprin 553 - Jay Jones - Align Your Business And Lead Generation System For Maximum Success

[00:00:12] Welcome to Black Entrepreneur Blueprint, the number one podcast and resource for black entrepreneurs. I'm your host Jay Jones and Black Entrepreneur Blueprint was created specifically to educate and inspire black entrepreneurs to launch, build and grow successful, sustainable businesses. Join us as we help build an economic power base in the worldwide black community by building and supporting black owned businesses.

[00:00:41] If you're currently an entrepreneur or want to be an entrepreneur, you're invited to join us each and every week here at Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. Welcome to the BEB family and get ready to elevate your entrepreneur IQ. Welcome to the Black Entrepreneur Blueprint, episode number 553.

[00:01:08] I'm your host Jay Jones and today we have another outstanding and informative show in store for you. Today's show topic is align your business and lead generation system for maximum success. Align your business and lead generation system for maximum success. Now is your lead generation system making you a lot of money or is it costing you success?

[00:01:34] In this episode I'm going to break down the game changing strategies that every entrepreneur needs to align their lead generation system with their business goals. Sometimes you don't even realize that you're not in alignment and we're going to discover today how to stop leaving money and opportunities on the table. And I'm going to ask you three questions today and then we're going to discuss some of the most powerful lead generation strategies out there.

[00:02:02] And are you using the right ones for your business and also for your customers? Now before we get to today's show content, I just want to share a few things with the Black Entrepreneur Blueprint family. First and foremost, I want to welcome all first time listeners to Black Entrepreneur Blueprint. Welcome to the BEB family.

[00:02:23] Please stick around until the end of today's broadcast and I'm going to share all my social media contact information and resource links such as the link to the new and improved website blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. Make sure you go to the website and utilize the free resources on the site. When you go to the site, hit the learn tab. There's a drop down.

[00:02:46] You'll see all types of subject matter that you can get information and content from such as strategy and mindset, scaling your business, e-commerce, marketing, side hustles, everything there to help elevate your entrepreneur IQ. Make sure you go to blackentrepreneurblueprint.com. Also, I just want to let the first time listeners know, please make sure you hit the subscribe button to wherever you're listening to this or watching it.

[00:03:14] We drop a new episode every Monday morning, 5 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on all your major podcast platforms and YouTubes. Stick around until the end of today's broadcast guys and I'm going to give you all my social media contact information and I'm going to give you some additional links that you're going to want to check out. Now, let's get ready for today's show content. Align your business and lead generation system for maximum success.

[00:03:43] We want to work at maximum efficiency guys in whatever we do. I don't care. Factories want to work at maximum efficiency. Everybody in business wants to work at maximum efficiency and that's the goal that everybody's trying to get to. And we're going to talk about 10 of the most powerful lead generation strategies in a second. But there are three questions that I want you to ask yourself guys. Question number one.

[00:04:10] Are you generating qualified leads in the easiest fashion? Are you generating qualified leads in the easiest fashion? Now I ask you this because some companies and industries are still marketing in archaic fashions. I was actually in the house the other day. I was working in my home office and freaking doorbell rings about 11 in the morning.

[00:04:35] And you know, I'm thinking all right, maybe it's the FedEx guy or somebody dropping off a Amazon package or something. I go to the door. I see this guy standing out front. It's cold as it's hell outside. And he's about five or six feet back. He opens up the door where I open up the door. Hey, what's going on, bro? And I see he has a little tag on there about, I forgot some window company. And he was like, Oh, hey, sorry to bother you.

[00:05:04] Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba kicking the spiel for about 10 seconds. You know, we're working on somebody's house around the corner. Ba-ba-ba. I said, look, bro. I said, I got to stop you in your tracks. Um, we just had windows put in about two or three years ago because we had stucco on our home and we had stucco remediation. And our builder came in and had to do all the houses over. So thank you very much. I appreciate it.

[00:05:33] But everybody in this development had the same thing going. And what I thought about was number one, you're having a doing an archaic way of trying to get leads. You're interrupting people knocking on doors. Number two, you don't even know that this whole development phase one, two and three has had all of their windows done within the last two to three years. So you're really wasting your time.

[00:06:00] And so the question is, are you generating qualified leads in the easiest fashion? And so a lot of people and a lot of businesses aren't doing that. And they're using archaic ways to generate leads or what we talked about earlier ways that aren't super efficient. And that's what we want to look at efficiency. So are you generating qualified leads in the easiest fashion?

[00:06:27] Now, it depends obviously on what industry you're in, what people are used to. And are you able to make that work and work in an efficient manner? Number two, second question. What lead generation strategies do you currently use? So I'm going to go over about 10 of them in a minute. But do you use a mix of lead generation strategies? Do you use just one? Do you know what strategies you use?

[00:06:54] And do you track those strategies to find out what's more effective? And the third and last question I want to pose to you is, what is the highest impact channel to generate leads? What's giving you the most bang for the buck? Once again, without being able to track or not tracking, you're not going to know. And I'm telling you guys, business is about the numbers. You have to understand your numbers.

[00:07:21] I talk about lead generation all the time, but it's also about efficiency, closing. You know, you can generate 100 leads, but if you have a sorry follow up system or closing system, or you have bad salespeople, those 100 leads could only close 10 deals where the same leads with another system or another company that's more efficient and effective, they may close 35 of those 100 leads.

[00:07:49] You have to understand what is the highest impact channel to generate leads. You also need to look at if you have multiple lead generation channels. Where is your money really being being effective? Where is your money making money? And I say this all the time, guys, you have to act like a mad scientist. And when you're an entrepreneur, you got to put that white lab coat on and you have to start trying things.

[00:08:19] Don't kill yourself and bust out all your resources and things of that nature. But you have to understand your numbers. You try something and then you see, does it make sense? Am I wasting money hiring 55 people to knock on doors in a neighborhood where they're probably not going to get anybody that needs any new windows? That that doesn't make sense.

[00:08:44] You know, you got people just when you when you do that, that's just a waste of resource and assets. They would probably be better off doing direct mail or something like that online or whatever. We're going to talk about some, you know, 10 powerful lead generation strategies that companies can adopt right now to attract high quality prospects. But it's not just the lead generation strategy, guys.

[00:09:10] It is the overall system which is going to make you a company that can grow and scale or you're going to be a company that's barely hanging on. So I don't know where you are, you know, in that spectrum right there. But I'm sure there's a lot of companies that want to scale right now that or that are at a ceiling and can't scale. There are probably a lot of people listening to this right now that are about to go out of business or damn near close. Been there, done that before on several occasions.

[00:09:40] So I feel for you. I empathize with you because I've been in both of those situations. And then there's people that think that they're doing great, but you could do a whole lot much better if you learn how to really scale your business. OK, so let's talk about some of the 10 powerful lead generation strategies that you can adopt. And we want to see if this makes sense to you.

[00:10:08] So number one, content upgrades and lead magnets. So offering a free or high value resource e-book, whatever it is, in exchange for a prospect's email. Use targeted calls to action throughout blog posts or landing pages to capture leads. So are using content upgrades and lead magnets, which are pretty, you know, prevalent out there right now. So you probably signed up for tons of lead magnets.

[00:10:38] The next one, quiz funnels. I talk about these all the time. Are you creating engaging quiz around a pain point, a topic relevant to your audience? Requires participation to submit their email to see the results and segment them based on their quiz answers for personalized follow ups. It's one of my favorite lead building tools, quiz funnels. Number three, webinars and live workshops.

[00:11:06] You can host free or recorded information packed sessions sessions on hot topics in the industry. So you can capture participants emails at registration and funnel attendees into an email sequence pitching your product or service. One of the things I like about webinars is especially if you're selling high ticket items, right? Things that cost, say, more than $2,000.

[00:11:34] You're able to connect people or connect with people through that workshop. Now, I'm going to tell you there's a ton of workshops and webinars that are nothing but infomercials. They don't give you any real information or content. It's just a sales pitch. And I can't stand that. When I get on one, all of them are the same. You know, it looks like used car salesman. You know what?

[00:12:01] I understand you want to sell something, but give me some information that I can use and take back and further whatever I'm trying to do. So webinars and live workshops are a great way also to generate leads. Number four, partnerships and joint ventures. And I don't think a lot of us really go into this like we could because this could be a great way to be able to generate more leads.

[00:12:28] So collaborate with complementary businesses or influences and cross promote each other's products and offerings. What I'm seeing now with a lot of podcasters, you know, they have these short two minute episodes. Hey, did you check out the ABC podcast over there? It's a great podcast. So what they're doing is they're collaborating with other podcasters and they're cross promoting each other's product podcast.

[00:12:56] That's a great way to do something. So collaborations. So I'm in the mortgage business. I own a mortgage business. I do a lot of collaborations with realtors. I send realtors, you know, new clients that are looking for homes. Realtors send me people that need a mortgage. So I collaborate. But a collaboration has to be a two way street, guys. So I don't send realtors.

[00:13:20] If I'm sending a realtor, you know, two, three, four people a month and they're not sending me anything that that's not a collaboration. I'm working for them. So a collaboration is a back and forth. Another thing you can do is share leads or co-create content. You know, you can co-create content, hold joint events or special bundles that benefit both audiences. I've connected a couple of BEB family members over the years that had businesses.

[00:13:49] I connected a watch company with a bow tie company. They did some joint promotions, I believe. And I've connected a lot of other people that have, you know, synergistic type products or services that just make sense. You know, a lot of times we get caught up in trying to hoard all of our information. Now, obviously, you don't want to, you know, give your information to a direct competitor.

[00:14:12] But in terms of partnerships and joint ventures, that's a great way to forward your business and get more leads. Number one, you have the validation of whoever is referring you or your partner that that has a relationship with that person or entity. And now they're saying, hey, Jay is cool over here. He's got a great mortgage company. You know, he'll take care of you. So that's the best type of lead right there is a referral.

[00:14:41] Another one, number five, guys. And we're talking about align your business and lead generation system for maximum success. And these are some of the 10 most powerful lead generation strategies. Number five is retargeting ads. Now, you can use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google Display Network. And, you know, you can follow people who visited your site but didn't convert. So, you know, when you start looking online for, say, a pair of sneakers or something like that,

[00:15:10] and then everywhere you go online, you see that same pair of sneakers advertised. Somebody has retargeted you. You can serve relevant ads that invite them back to a landing page or a lead magnet. So retargeting is out there. I tell you guys, one of the things that we really have to talk about and not, I'm not going to get in too deep today, but it's first party data. Meaning you and your company grabbing that data and contact information first.

[00:15:38] There's some rules that just came into effect where you're not really going to be able to contact people that second party data. So for example, if you buy leads in the mortgage business, a lot of times people with those lead generation companies would sell leads to about three or four different people with the same lead. But now it has to be a one-to-one relationship, first party data. So you have to understand guys, lead generation is the business.

[00:16:07] That's the business you're in. I don't care what industry you're in. The business is lead generation. And if you can generate leads for yourself, you definitely can generate leads for others too, which is a whole nother income stream, but we're not going to get into that today. Um, number six, SEO and content marketing. I know a lot of this has fallen by the wayside, but it's still a valuable way guys to market and generate leads.

[00:16:35] You know, you want to optimize your website and blog content for keywords. Your prospects are searching for. Also, you want to regularly produce high quality value driven articles, videos, podcasts or whatever that attracts organic traffic and prompts people to sign up or register for your database.

[00:16:55] So SEO and content marketing really guys content marketing is, is, is key, you know, so we're not going to get into in depth, but that's, that's definitely something that you need to be doing quality content, right? Now, number seven, referral and affiliate program. So encourage existing customers or partners to refer new leads to you with incentives. So be it discounts, commissions, or bonuses, things of that nature.

[00:17:23] So if you have an existing customer base, that's happy with your products or services, hey, give them a bone. Hey, refer this and you'll get 15% off your next order, whatever it is. Okay. Uh, you want to set up automated systems to track referrals, to make it easy for affiliates to promote your offer. And that's what I'm talking about guys. I'm talking about real affiliate systems. I'm not talking about, Hey man, uh, who sent you over here?

[00:17:53] Oh, Joe sent me. Yeah. Let me give Joe 15% off setting up systems. Systems move heavy things. Guys, systems are levers and that's what you need to create lead generation systems, automations to help you build and scale your business and generate more leads. So referrals and affiliate programs is number seven. Number eight, influencer and thought leadership campaigns.

[00:18:19] So build relationship with niche influencers or respected authorities who speak to your target audience. Okay. You can do guest posts, co-host live sessions, or cross promote content to tap into their followers and capture new leads. So if you know somebody that has a podcast and you have a podcast, see if you guys can cross promote or jump on each other's podcast. They interview you, you interview them. That way you're cross promoting.

[00:18:49] You see that a lot with a lot of these business podcasts out here. You know, a lot of the super big podcasts, John Lee Dumas and all these guys, they all are on each other's podcast. You know, you can go and find multiple episodes of John Lee Dumas on Amy Porterfield's podcast and this guy's podcast, all of this stuff. It's all the same. Uh, what do you call it? Um, passive income.

[00:19:16] Uh, I forgot the guy's name, but they're all in a little click and they all promote each other's stuff and they get on each other's different podcasts. Okay. Number nine, interactive tools and calculators. So you can develop a simple calculator or an assessment or self audit tool related to your industry, like ROI calculators, budget estimators, things like that, that people don't mind going on and playing with.

[00:19:44] And then you can get their contact information and develop that lead. Um, ask for an email address to deserve to deliver their personalized results, which naturally leads prospects deeper into your funnel. So in order to get the results, you have to use or leave your, your, uh, email address and name. And number 10, email list reactivation and segmentation. Email list reactivation and segmentation.

[00:20:14] Don't let your existing list get stale guys. You got a regularities, uh, send re-engagement campaigns. You got to offer special deals now and then, and you have to make sure you send new content. All right. Now you want to segment your email database guys by active versus inactive, you know, and you want to tailor the messages to each group's preference or pain points. So I've seen people with, uh, email lists.

[00:20:41] Oh, I got a 50,000 name email list. They hadn't emailed those people in, in nine, 10, 12 months. So really, if they're inactive, you want to purge your email list and it's going to do you, uh, do yourself a favor. You want to know how many, you know, responsive people you have on your database. I purge my email list every three months. If somebody doesn't open an email, I think it's in 90 days.

[00:21:10] I'll shoot them another email. Uh, and then if they don't respond, I'll ask them if they want, do you want me to take you off the list? Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. And then if they don't respond, then I purge them off the list. So email list reactivation and segmentation.

[00:21:26] So guys, the whole key is by combining all of these methods and focusing on the high impact channels, you can build a great lead generation engine that, that fuels you and gives you steady, sustainable growth. So the key is though, do you know, number one, what are the most possible, uh, profitable strategies for you that are generating the money that is, that's making the needle move? You know, are you only using one strategy?

[00:21:56] Are you using two, three, four or five and all your strategies aligned with your business? Are they aligned with your customers? How do your customers like to be contacted? There's a big difference. If your customer avatar is a 55 year old man and a 25 year old woman, how do they like to be contacted? The 25 year old woman may be on Tik TOK, maybe on Instagram, 55 year old man, maybe on Facebook, or you may be sitting down watching the TV, you know?

[00:22:26] So you don't know, or, or reading email. So you have to understand the importance of the alignment. Now, before we get to the last segment of the show, guys, let me just give you all my contact information and resource links. So I mentioned at the top of the show, guys, the website is revised. Uh, and we spent a lot of money and time getting that website revised. Make sure you go and get the free resources. Go to black entrepreneur blueprint.com.

[00:22:56] Hit the learn tab. And on the learn tab, there's about six or seven different links, whatever link you need to go on, be it scaling your business strategy, mindset, uh, e-commerce side hustles, whatever. Go onto the website and get that free contact. Now, in order to get in touch with me, guys, anything long, hit me on my email. Jay Jones at black entrepreneur blueprint.com. Uh, Facebook black entrepreneur blueprint on Instagram.

[00:23:25] I have two IG accounts. The first one is Jay Jones for real J A Y J O N E S the number four R E A L. Second one is black entrepreneur blueprint. Uh, LinkedIn connect with me on LinkedIn guys. Just go to LinkedIn, type in Jay Jones black entrepreneur blueprint, Twitter, or X as they call it. You can connect with me at Jay Jones zero zero one J A Y J O N E S zero zero one.

[00:23:53] And YouTube guys, make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel family. We have additional content on YouTube that does not come out on the podcast. So go to YouTube, type in black entrepreneur blueprint and hit that subscribe button. Also, once again, for you, first time listeners, we drop new heat every Monday morning, 5 a.m. Eastern standard time on all your major podcast platforms and YouTube.

[00:24:19] So wherever you're watching this or listening to this, make sure you hit that subscribe button. So you'll be alerted when the new episodes drop. Now let's get ready for the last segment of the podcast. So today guys, we talked about aligning your business and lead generation system for maximum success. Um, I always tell you guys that without lead generation, you know, there's no sales, no leads, no business. Your business is going to dry up.

[00:24:47] The lead generation is the lifeblood of every business. And for the life of me, I don't understand how you're not focused on that because if you're not focused on that, then you're not going to be successful with that. And I know sometimes depending upon the type of business that you're in, it may seem a little hard. Like how am I going to generate leads on a consistent basis? How am I going to be efficient as I generate leads on a consistent basis?

[00:25:15] And that's why it's all about learning, trying new things. And once again, you have to act as a mad scientist, put your lab coat on. You have to test things. Some things are going to work. Some things won't. So the things that work, that's what you focus on and you double down on. The problem is with a lot of guys is you don't even understand how much money you're investing in this lead generation, uh, your different lead generation systems or not system, but strategies.

[00:25:42] And you don't know what's effective and what's not. You have to understand your numbers. If you don't understand your numbers, you could be throwing good money after a bad strategy. And so it's not just as simple as say, Hey, I'm gonna spend a hundred dollars a day on Instagram. That's fine. But you have to do the calculation. Is it efficient? Are you making money? And I know sometimes it's going to take you a while to get that right lead, you know, generation system or strategy working. The ad has to be correct.

[00:26:12] The targeting has to be correct. But you have to use that the scientist mindset to be able to get that in order. So once you find something that's working and ad set that's working and native ad that's working Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, whatever, uh, being, you know, people still advertise on Bing. It once you find that and you tweak it and it's working, that's where you need to focus your resources on. And the ones that aren't working guys, you just need to let them go.

[00:26:42] But you won't know that until you look at the numbers. Now I say this each and every week, guys, we get more and more downloads because of you, the BEB family. I appreciate you guys so much. Please continue to spread the word about the podcast, the blog, the whole BEB ecosystem. We're here guys to help you elevate your entrepreneur IQ. It's not about me. It's not about you. It's about us.

[00:27:08] It's about building an economic power base in the worldwide black community by building and supporting black owned businesses. Love you guys. See you same time next week. Peace.