Step 5: Iterate, Test & Repeat

Let’s recap:

  • In step 1, we covered the most important aspect of creating the ultimate lead-gen system: having an irresistible offer.
  • In step 2, we covered how to send traffic to your offer.
  • Step 3 was all about converting that traffic into leads via your website, landing pages, funnels and chatbots.
  • Then in step 4, we looked at nurturing systems, why you would want one and briefly touched on how to get started.

Step 5 is all about optimising each of these steps so the entire system is as effective as possible. I.e. iterate, test and repeat. In the digital marketing world, we also refer to this as Conversion Rate Optimisation or CRO.

The most obvious point to implement step 5 is when the system isn’t working. I.e. you’ve gone through steps 1-4 but you’re not making any money from it. In these cases, it’s time to go back to the drawing board, test different traffic strategies, different hooks & angles in your ad copy, and different funnels until you’ve made the system profitable.

The less obvious time to implement step 5 is when your system is already profitable. But how profitable could it be?

So step 5 also comes into play when you want to squeeze out as much efficiencies as possible. It’s making the system better by again, testing different traffic strategies, different hooks & angles in your ad copy, different funnels and nurturing sequences until you find an optimal formula.

Whilst that may sound complicated, it isn’t. It’s just time consuming. There are 2 main reasons for that:

  1. You should only change one thing at a time because if you change multiple things at a time, you won’t be able to attribute what change resulted in the more successful (or unsuccessful) formula.
  2. You need to give each test time to see how it compares to the original set-up. I.e. you can’t leave these tests for 1 day and expect to know which one works better – you don’t have enough data to work with at that point. Usually, you need to leave it at least 1 month so you can gather enough information to make a data-driven decision about which iteration works best.

This makes it extremely important that you track EVERYTHING before you even think about implementing step 5. You’ve got to know what’s working using analytics and conversion-rate tracking in order to make rational decisions.

Without a doubt, the best tools to use to track everything are Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.

  • For one, they’re both free! So that’s always a bonus ;-).
  • Two, they’re easy to use and won’t take long to get your head around.
  • Three, they’re universal – it doesn’t matter what type of website or funnel you use them on, they’ll work.
  • And finally, they’re extremely powerful – you can do everything you need with them.

You use Google Analytics to monitor traffic. Then you use Google Tag Manager to track certain events & conversions (e.g. submit a contact form, visit a certain page, click a certain link) and then send those events to Google Analytics so you can see what traffic sources resulted in those conversions & events.

It takes a little bit of time to get your head around but it’s crucial to running a sophisticated lead generation system you know is working.

Tracking at this level should be implemented in step 3 so you know from day 1 how everything has been performing throughout the life cycle of the system.

In Conclusion

That wraps up our brief overview on ‘How to Build the Ultimate Online Lead Generation Machine’ series. I hope you’ve learned something useful – make sure you apply it!

This is what we do in our agency for clients every day and it works… It REALLY works. A system like this, that generates leads for you ON DEMAND 24/7 is incredibly powerful and can completely transform your business.

It means no more relying on networking meetings, BNI, referral partners, or cold-calling to keep your business afloat. Instead, it brings you freedom because it frees up your time from unscalable lead-generation activities to can focus on more important things – like business strategy, going on holiday or spending time with the family.

To quickly recap, here are some of the most important points we’ve touched on throughout the series:

  • Start with a brilliant offer – make sure your offer is as irresistible as it can possibly be so when a potential client comes across it, they’d have to be stupid to say no.
  • Keep it simple – if this is your first time building out any online lead-generation system, you MUST keep it simple. Otherwise, you’ll drown in the complexity and give up. Simple systems often work better anyway so why complicate things if you don’t need to?
  • Focus on steps 1 to 3 first, get these profitable before even thinking about steps 4 & 5. Your entire system should be making money before moving onto steps 4 & 5 so focus all of your energy on making steps 1 to 3 as good as they can possibly be first.

Good luck!

The rest of the steps in the series:

As always, if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section below or feel free to send us a message here

About the Author:

Tom Blake

Tom Blake is the founder and managing director of Digital Roo. He’s passionate about digital marketing and lead generation. Originally from Melbourne, Australia, he now lives in UK’s sunny capital, Brighton.

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