Today I’m going to pull back the curtain and reveal my formula for marketing success.

To be honest, I’m not sure how long I’ll leave this post up because this is exactly why clients pay me well to do what I do.

I have been working this formula for years and know that it works. My clients know that it works. However, there are still many businesses that either don’t know about it or do know about it but aren’t implementing it.

I call it The Digital Marketing Triangle^© (DMT).

Businesses often want their websites to be lead generators. It’s not a surprise since some websites can cost up to $60,000 and more to build and maintain. Businesses understandably want a strong ROI for that amount.

There is a way to make your website work for you and generate leads. One of the easiest ways to do this is by using the DMT.

It’s very simple. The image above demonstrates it. Let’s take a look at each section.

How to Generate Leads: Step One – The Lead Magnet

First, you’ll want to create a lead magnet. A lead magnet can be a special report, case study, white paper, eBook, video, podcast, eCourse—basically anything that can be quickly downloadable for the subscriber.

You want your lead magnet to resonate with your target market’s most pressing needs. It also should showcase your expertise.

If you’re selling shoes, you don’t want to talk about the anatomy of a shoe. Instead, feature a tip sheet, “The 5 Hottest Fall Trends For Shoe Fashionistas.” That would likely get you plenty of opt-ins.

Remember that whatever you offer as an opt-in needs to bring value to your audience. It can’t be an asset that only talks about your business. Instead, find a pressing problem that your target market is experiencing and then bring them a solution.

Always focus on your buyer. You can include your business’ value proposition but frame it so your buyer understands how it can help them.

What’s Working Now:

eBooks aren’t as popular as they used to be unless you position your message right (it has to be laser-focused on your audience’s most current pain point or strongest desire). Quizzes are working well.

Also, consider videos or a special podcast. It just depends on what your product or service offering may be. If it’s technology, software, or a manufacturer’s product, a white paper would be an excellent lead magnet. If you have an app, a video demonstrating how someone used it successfully could do very well.

Test different types of lead magnets and you’ll soon discover your buyers’ preferences.

How to Generate Leads: Step Two – The Squeeze Page

To generate leads, you want to use a squeeze page.

The squeeze page is a website page. It is a page that will attract visitors with a special offer if they give you their email address.

I recommend only asking for the email address (unless you have a technical white paper, in which case you probably want more information for follow-up). At this point, you really don’t need a first name, last name, company name, address, or phone number. You just want to get your foot in the prospect’s door.

Think of it as meeting a new person for coffee. No commitments, yet. You’re both still getting to know each other.

There are some great tools online for creating powerful squeeze pages. Check out LeadPages.net. Another one to look into is Unbounce. Both offer customizable templates that are simple and easy to use, plus analytics that will help you track your conversions.

The analytics are very important because as you develop your squeeze pages, you want to test certain elements. For instance, try a new headline, or new text for your submit button, or new colors or background.

The important thing to remember is to only test one element at a time. That way, if you do see a sudden improvement in your conversions, you’ll know it was because of that one change.

A squeeze page doesn’t need a lot of information. Just enough to tell your visitors what they’ll get for signing up. They want that lead magnet. But then what? What happens after you have their email address? This brings us to the next section of the triangle.

How to Generate Leads: Step Three – Email Marketing

This is my favorite part of marketing. Perhaps it’s because deep down inside, I like to carry on a conversation with people. Email is the closest marketing tactic you’ll have to do that.

I use Mailchimp as my email service provider but there are others: Constant Contact, Mad Mimi, AWeber, iContact, just to name a few. There are also marketing automation platforms like Salesforce, Hubspot, Marketo, and Keap (formerly Infusionsoft).

However, I would highly recommend Mailchimp. The biggest reason is that Mailchimp provides attractive, responsive email templates. Your subscribers will see a beautiful email from you on their smartphone or tablet. Not all email service providers give that to you.

And since more people are checking their email on their smartphones, it’s smart to choose an ESP that provides this kind of service.

Once your visitor has given you her email address, you now have permission to start a conversation.

You can use your list to send out a monthly newsletter, weekly round-ups from your blog (where you feature some of the most popular posts), or promotional emails (go easy on these, you don’t want to tire out your list).

The biggest mistake I see with email marketing is when a business immediately uses it to push out sales pitches. You don’t want to do this.

First, a person has given you permission to enter their inbox. They don’t want to be clobbered by a bunch of cheesy sales pitches that fail to speak to their need.

Remember, your subscribers are always looking for value. You need to concentrate on your niche and offer them information that will help them in this area. If you’re a CPA, share tips and strategies for saving money and budgeting for the future. Make things accessible. Break down complex formulas and adapt them to the “average Joe’s” life.

The more you can create content that is useful to your audience, the more they’ll pay attention to you and will likely give you a call when they need your services.

And the beauty of the DMT is that once you have someone’s email address, you can then swing right back to your starting point and share a link to another squeeze page or landing page, which will either enter them into another specialized list you’re creating (one that might ask for more information from them), or into a buying cycle.

It truly is a “rinse-repeat-rinse” formula that will increase your website leads.

So take note. Test it out. Keep on testing until you find your own winning formula.

And you may want to copy and paste this post into your own document for future reference. I might be taking it down soon. ;-)