What’s the most successful lead generation campaign we’ve ever run?  Without a doubt, it’s a tutorial handbook. Regardless of the industry or the client, customers and prospects love handbooks.  If you’re looking for leads, look to the handbook.

 We’ve done about a dozen of them over the years, from testing semiconductor devices to how to buy an infrared camera. They never fail, and as a cornerstone of any lead generation campaign, they’re our first stop. But sometimes clients balk at the idea of a handbook.  It’s hard enough to find time to work on an article project they think, and the prospect of producing a handbook seems too daunting to them. They’re already working nights and weekends tied to answering emails! But there are two things to keep in mind that make handbooks easy to do:

• It’s a handbook, not a textbook.  The handbook is a lead generation device, not a college credentialed course.  A 24-page pamphlet pdf is just fine for our marketing purposes, so producing a 100-page document is overkill and of limited value.
• You probably already have one done – if not more than one!  Today we’re in the content re-packaging business, and that extends to handbooks too.  If you look at the articles that you’ve published during the year as chapters in a handbook, you can package them all together as a Guidebook to the Basics of Whatever You Want.  So the job of writing a handbook is, simply put, not much of a job at all. 

Handbooks provide tremendous credibility and show demonstrated credentials in a given field. If we’re trying to label someone as a proven expert, there’s nothing that carries more weight – and lead generation power -- than publishing your own handbook.

While handbooks are a proven “offer” for your lead gen program, converting that interest into real leads and opportunities also requires a proven landing page.  Download our ebook on “Optimizing Landing Pages” to make sure your landing pages are performing up to benchmark standards of 20% conversion rates.

Written by Joel Goldstein:
Goldstein Group agency president who builds “Measurably Better Marketing” programs that create WOW experiences for clients.