The business world is competitive. Generating leads is the lifeline of any business. Big or small. Understanding and implementing the right lead generation strategy can be the key to unlocking untapped potential and growth.

But what exactly are the best ways to generate leads? 

In this guide, we'll explore Core 4:

Or what I call PAPER: Pursue, Attract, Paid, and Earn & Return.

And how they can be integrated into the ultimate lead generation plan.

Introduction To Lead Generation

The importance of lead generation cannot be overstated. It's the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into someone who has indicated interest in your company's product or service. 

I believe it’s true that a great product or service can sell itself. It’s also true that an inferior product/service can outsell a superior product/service because of marketing, lead generation and a focus on selling.

A simple way to think about this might be mindset or belief.

If you’re not excited enough to talk about your product/service why should the consumer be excited about your product/service. 

And if your product/service truly is superior, you’ll easily outsell the inferior competitors. 

Understanding Lead Generation

How to generate more leads is about understanding your target audience and creating tailored content and campaigns to engage them.

This process involves various strategies that fall under four main categories: Pursue, Attract, Paid, and Earn & Return.

There are hundreds of ways to generate leads, but really it comes down to four main categories. All lead generation methods, marketing tactics and business development strategies fall under these Core 4.

It’s recently come to my attention that Alex Hormozi, best-selling author of the book $100 million leads also uses the term Core Four when talking about Lead Generation.

I guarantee that he has generated more leads than I have, so I’d encourage you to check out his book on lead generation and see what Alex Hormozi’s Core Four Lead Generators are. 

Lead generation is the lifeblood of any business, whether small or large. It's the process of attracting potential customers to your products or services and nurturing them through a process, some call that a sales funnel, some call it a pipeline.

The dynamics of lead generation have evolved with the introduction of digital marketing, making it both an exciting and challenging field. That's why it's crucial to understand the core aspects of lead generation and marketing that can bring success to your business. 

"Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time." — Henry Ford

In this blog post, we'll delve into these core aspects, which can be broken down into four main categories:

1. Pursue

2. Attract

3. Paid

4. Earn & Return

Together, they form a holistic model for lead generation, aiming to blend the best strategies to create the ultimate lead generation approach.

1. Pursue Leads: The Traditional Approach

Calls, Knocks, Mail, DMs, eMail

Pursue means chasing leads. Most often through traditional methods. This can bring quick results but can be hard to maintain consistently. There are aspects of digital marketing that you can Pursue. For example, cold DM’s or cold emailing. Some would consider this spam. 

Pros and Cons

• Pros: Quick results, immediate connection.

• Cons: Tiring, can wear you down over time—lots of rejection.

2. Attract Leads: The Digital Powerhouse

Digital Marketing and Content Creation

Attracting leads is where many prefer to spend a lot of time. This category includes digital marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, video marketing, and even email marketing.

The main goal here is to draw potential customers to the next step, like signing up for a resource or scheduling an appointment.

Three Key Pillars: Frequency, Consistency, Variety

• Frequency: How often are you posting, publishing, or creating? Regularity is essential.

• Consistency: Consistency is about maintaining a stable presence, making sure your message stays fresh.

• Variety: A mix of methods and messages ensures that your audience doesn't become bored with your content.

I’ve created a program on the best way to Attract Leads called Leads From Content. Learn more about it at LeadsFromContent.com

3. Paid: Leveraging Paid Advertising

Consistency Through Budgeting

Paid advertising, such as PPC (Pay-Per-Click Advertising), allows for easy consistency. By putting a fixed amount daily into the ad budget, you can ensure a steady flow of leads.

Creator's Levels

• Create and Validate: Ensure that your message has been validated before scaling up.

• Maximize and Optimize: Focus on getting the most out of your validated strategy before moving to the next step.

• Automate and Delegate: Once validated and optimized, delegate tasks to create more efficiency.

Here’s an entire article on the pros and cons of buying leads. 

A big question when it comes to paid lead generation is how much does it cost or how much should I spend to get leads?

What we do in our business and what I coach is what is called the Coffee a Day Budget.

Would you spend money on a coffee every day if you were meeting a client, past client or new prospect?

$5 a day on ad spend.

That's it.

$5.

With the typical cost of ads being $10 per 1000-person reach, you'll be in front of 500 people a day for just $5.

4. Earn & Return: Enhancing Relationships

Repeat Business and Referrals

Earn and Return focuses on gaining repeat business and referrals. It emphasizes earning the business rather than feeling entitled to it.

P.A.P.ER. Pursue, Attract, Paid, and Earn & Return

The model encapsulates the only four ways to generate leads or what we refer to as Acquire.

Implementing them all together makes the ultimate lead-generation strategy.

• Pursue: Traditional methods.

• Attract: Digital content and presence.

• Paid: Controlled, consistent advertising.

• Earn & Return: Long-term relationships.

Common Lead Generation Mistakes

Here are three common mistakes solo entrepreneurs often make in their marketing and lead-generation efforts:

1. Spreading Focus Too Thinly Across Different Strategies

In the pursuit of growth, a solo entrepreneur may be tempted to try everything at once. Attract marketing, pursue, earn and return, and paid strategies all have their merits. However, dividing focus and energy equally among these different avenues can lead to a lack of depth and effectiveness in any single area.

Mistake: By dabbling in various strategies at the same time, you spread your resources thin. This leads to mediocre results. The effort becomes fragmented, and individual initiatives might never be fully developed or optimized.

Something you’ll hear me say the longer a project takes the more likely it won’t get done. Listen to this podcast on the 3 Laws of Productivity. 

Solution: Focus on one strategy at a time and see it through to completion. By concentrating on a single project, you can invest the required time, energy, and resources to make it effective and achieve tangible results.

2. Failure to Think Holistically About Marketing and Lead Generation

Many solo entrepreneurs approach marketing and lead generation as isolated tasks rather than interconnected pieces of a larger puzzle.

They may treat each prospecting effort as a one-off event, losing sight of how various initiatives can work together, creating leverage.

Mistake: Isolating strategies leads to a lack of alignment in your marketing efforts. This approach can result in missed opportunities to leverage successful tactics across different channels.

Solution: Embrace a holistic perspective on marketing. Recognize how different strategies can be connected and amplified. For example, a successful social media post can be transformed into a mail campaign, reaching different segments like FSBOs and expired leads, and further magnifying its impact.

3. Falling into the Trap of Perpetual Dabbling Without Completion

Solo entrepreneurs often fall into the trap of continually starting new projects without seeing them through to completion. This constant shifting between tasks without finishing any can lead to a cycle of unproductivity.

Mistake: Jumping from one project to the next without completion leads to a prolonged timeline for achieving results. The longer it takes to finish a project, the more likely it will never become finished, resulting in wasted time and effort.

Solution: Dedicate yourself to completing one project at a time within a set timeframe (e.g., 30 days). Focus on implementation and see it through until it's done. This approach ensures that you don't abandon promising strategies halfway through, allowing you to fully realize their potential.

Conclusion

These common mistakes illustrate the importance of focus, holistic thinking, and committed follow-through for solo entrepreneurs in marketing and lead generation. By avoiding these pitfalls, they can build more effective, cohesive, and successful marketing strategies. Whether driven by personal goals like helping friends, family, or the community, or by business ambitions, keeping these principles in mind will help solo entrepreneurs create value and make the most of their resources and time.

Identifying the Best Implementation Strategy

The challenge is to focus and not dabble. If you divide your energy, you might end up with unfinished projects and wasted time.

• Focusing on One Area: Concentrating on one strategy at a time can help you complete projects faster and more efficiently.

• Avoiding the Dabbling Trap: Spreading yourself too thin by dabbling in all areas can lead to none of them getting done.

Once your priority Lead Generation Strategy is implemented, move on to the next. But don’t just move on. Build on. 

Build the next on top of the first. And so on, and so on. So things are interconnected, have leverage and become holistic. 

Here’s 4 things you can do right now:

1. LEADS (GET TO 6 FIGURES): PROGRAMS & COURSES

2. LEVEL UP (GET 6 FIGURES+ ): COACHING

3. LEVEL UP ACCELERATOR: ONE DAY DEEP DIVE

4. LEVERAGE (TIME BACK FOR 6+, 7 FIGURES): LET DARIN DO IT