Your website by itself isn’t going to generate leads for you. Unless you have a way to capture visitor information you’ll never know who visited or why. Not only that you can’t even follow up with them to see if what you do is a fit for them. That is why you need to give something away free.

I first came across this concept from reading Andrea Lee’s "Multiple Streams of Coaching Income" in the part where she describes a Pink Spoon. You know when you go to an ice cream store and they give you a tiny spoon with a sample on it? That is a pink spoon. It is a metaphor for giving your prospective customers a little taste of you and what you offer before they buy.

On a website this can take many forms:

* A free report
* A free eCourse
* An audio sample
* A newsletter
* Anything you can dream up...

The key is that the freebie should be high quality and high value (after all it is a representation of you and what you offer) but relatively easy for you to produce. It should be representative of who you are and what you offer through your products and services. Within that freebie should be a call to action asking the prospect to take another step on their journey toward working with you. That might look like "Contact me" or "Go to this part of my website" or "Buy this".

The important key in this freebie offer is to capture the prospects’ information (typically name and email but the more information the better) so you can communicate with them in the future. Design it so that they are explicitly giving you permission to do so because you don’t want to be spamming anyone. An autoresponder with double opt in is a great way to do this. Ensure you let them know your privacy policy as well. Respect your prospects and don’t share their information with anyone.

How could you start leveraging this proven internet marketing technique for your business on your website? It is a project that can be done low cost and in relatively short period of time, so there is no excuse to wait.

Author's Bio: 

Using her signature down to earth and "plain English" approach to website design, Paula Gregorowicz and The Paula G. Company work with small and solo business owners to make the web work for them so their online presence is a true reflection of who they are and what their business is all about. Visit www.paulagwebdesign.com