$100M Leads summary

At its core, a lead represents any individual that your business can potentially reach and market to. Your lead list may include email subscribers, phone contacts, social media followers, or even pedestrians who walk by your physical location. But it's not enough to just collect any old leads. You need engaged leads: people who have expressed interest in your offer and are inclined to become paying customers. So how do you generate and nurture these high-value leads?

The starting point is developing an irresistible core offer that solves a pressing problem for your target demographic. This is the central service or product that your business provides. In some cases, clearly communicating this core offer is sufficient to capture leads and make sales. But for businesses with expensive or complex offers, an additional strategy is needed. This is where a lead magnet comes in.

To generate leads, you first need to reach your target audience through advertising. So it's critical to understand who makes up that audience. There are two main types - warm and cold. Warm audiences already know you or are receptive to your message. Cold audiences are complete strangers. Naturally, your outreach strategy differs for each.

There are also two ways to advertise: privately in a one-to-one communication, or publicly in a one-to-many broadcast. A personalized email or sales call is private outreach. Running an ad campaign or billboard is public outreach. Combining these factors gives us four core advertising approaches:

In business, leverage is everything. Leverage means maximizing your results by harnessing the power of others. Just like a lever amplifies force, leveraged leads multiply your promotional reach. While you alone may struggle to spread the word, an army of partners can propel your business to new heights.

There are two groups who can promote your offer – you, and everyone else. Since "everyone else" vastly outnumbers you, it pays to leverage the marketing potential of everyone else. 

Now that you understand the fundamentals of lead generation, it's time to put them into action. But begin by giving yourself permission to fail. Set aside a portion of your marketing budget for testing and experimentation without pressure for immediate returns.

Your goal is to test a wide variety of strategies until you uncover what works for your specific business. Expect a low success rate – only 0.5 to 1 percent of tactics may generate a positive ROI. But with enough testing velocity, even a 1 percent winner can deliver massive results at scale. When you find something effective, double down on it with more budget and resources.