Attracting new customers and getting more business from your existing customers are at the heart of every growing business.

Step 5 of the Duct Tape Marketing approach suggests that there are basically 3 categories of lead generation – advertising, referral (or word of mouth) and public relations.

One of the advantages of thinking in these terms is that there are synergistic benefits to be had in focusing on all 3 categories.

In other words, sharing your resources (time and money) across all 3 categories produces greater outcomes than putting the same resources in to just one area. (Just one example of this is that if a prospective customer hears about your products or services in 2 different ways - eg an ad and a referral - then they are more likely to trust it and take action).

This week’s tip is simply to take a minute to consider what resources your organisation puts into each of the 3 categories. Are you neglecting one of them? Are you favouring one of them to the detriment of the others?

Future tips will provide more ideas on each of the 3 lead generation categories.