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This is a technique derived from a combination of what happens in the consulting world and crowdsourcing content.  HARO, aka HelpAReporter.com is an email list that goes out to people that want to respond to news queries.  The queries come from media outlets big and small.  Recently, a lot of people have started using HARO to crowd source content for their blogs.  I’m taking this one step further to demonstrate how to generate leads from that content.

Target The Right People

When a blogger uses HARO to get people to respond to their queries, it has to do with the content on the site.  For example, I posted a query on HARO asking what were the advantages and disadvantages of being a young entrepreneur.  I was targeting people who consider themselves a young entrepreneur.  I targeted these people because it would bring valuable content to my own blog.

Ask The Right Question

Not every question will be valuable.  The right question is one that is relevant to the content of the site as well as one that will highlight your company’s strengths.  For example, a freelance web designer might ask,

“What was the worst web designer you worked with and why?”

instead of “Who was the best web designer you worked with”.  The people responding to the query should have a pain and are looking for someone to fix it.  The person who worked with a horrible designer in the past will be looking to find a better one in the future.  You’re that person with the great portfolio that is looking to tell others about it.

Steps To Generate Leads

• Setup a blog off the main page (e.g. /blog).  It has to be a blog because it brings in readers, who will turn into customers.
• Ask  a question and post crowd sourced content once a week.  A question I might ask that’s mentioned is, “What was the worst web designer you worked with and why?”.  And then wait.  The responses will flood in.  Expect 10 within the first hour the query is posted.
• The responses will come from a variety of sources- probably entrepreneurs who worked with bad designers, maybe some designers themselves who want to get some exposure, or maybe companies who just want to tell their story.
• Take all the responses and post it in a blog post listing each response, along with a picture of the responder, and a backlink to that person or company’s website.
• Email everyone that responded and send them a link to the article.  There’s no need to ask them to promote it as they’ll do it themselves.

Finishing Touches

To add icing on the cake, write up a blog post beforehand that is directly inverse of the query.  In the case of “What was the worst web designer you worked with and why”, I would write up a blog post on

“10 Things A Designer Should Do To Satisfy Their Clients”.

Notice the inverse relationship.  That is exactly what you want.  Add in lots of case studies and testimonials from previous work done.  At the end of the “What was the worst web designer …” post, create a “Read Further” section and list this blog article.  The message you’re trying to send is this: “Other people do it incorrectly.  I do it right, the first time”.

This Is What Consultants Do

Ever wondered how consultant firms get new business?  Most of the time, new work is with the same client but what happens when a firm wants to break into a new market?

Firms create whitepapers, essentially writings on certain topics.  These whitepapers allow the consultants to express their “thought leadership”.  These papers are submitted to directories owned by IBM, Sun, or other another technology companies.  Also, these papers are submitted to technology symposiums where if it is popular enough, the company might be invited to speak (lead generation).

These papers then are distributed to people who receive them through an email listing.  A white paper might talk (on a high level) how a certain approach was used to solve a problem.  The person reading the paper is probably interested in the topic.  Think of that person as someone who receives email alerts on new blog posts.  If the reader finds interest in the paper, a call is made to the author to ask about further details.

Lead generation.

Other Ideas

• Setup the blog so that at the end of every blog post, there’s a “related post” section that highlight your portfolio.
• List your projects on the sidebar of your blog in case the reader does not click to go look at your portfolio.
• Insert highlights of your portfolio within the blog post itself, like as if they were ads.
• Instead of a blog post, make a video for “10 Things  A Designer Should Do To Satisfy Their Clients”.

Result

Three things happen when a blog post like this is created.  The first is a huge spike in traffic.  The first time I did this, the traffic on TBF tripled in one day.  You’ll also get a lot of “Retweets” as well as “Likes”.  Many people (if not all) want to see their name on a website (other than theirs).  They’ll want to tell their friends about the site that they or their company is on.  Then their friends see it, “Like” it and then their friends’ friends see it.  The social effect really kicks in.

The second thing that happens is that your portfolio will be seen by a lot of people.  These people normally wouldn’t have.

The third and most important thing that happens is that the people who responded are now essentially in your network.  They’ll remember your work but also your ambition to be a better designer by learning from others’ mistakes.

The next time they’re hiring a designer, they now have someone else in mind.