I often get a quizzical look from prospects and clients when I tell them there is a difference  between “generating” leads and “capturing” leads.

What do I mean?

Companies spend money to generate leads, right? ( if you’re in retail substitute customers for the word leads)

Once generated it’s time to maximize return by capturing as much information as possible about that lead. Most important is capturing contact information.  With this in hand you can now initiate an organized lead nurturing program. You will likely have to provide something of value in return for that information. It could be a free report, a time sensitive discount offer, etc.

Let’s face it, every lead doesn’t convert immediately. And depending on your particular enterprise, your conversion cycle may be longer than others.  You can’t afford to let leads simply evaporate because you couldn’t convert them today.

I’ll talk about the essentials of a lead nurturing program in a future post.  Take time to hone your lead capture process and boost your marketing ROI.