When you run a business, it’s generally recognized as necessary that you need to use lead generation. Whether your business is large or small, people who want what you have to offer are very necessary if your business is to be successful and you are to make a profit.

Of course, word-of-mouth is one great way to get just what you need. In fact, there are several ways to generate this, but if you’re just getting started in a small business, or if you operate a business that’s already in existence, you might need to be a little bit more proactive than that.

One way to do this is to buy leads. However, it’s often true that buyers will simply lose money doing this without making any gains at all. This is because oftentimes, generic leads are useless, while others may only have a slight interest in your business.

One of the worst strategies you can do is to buy a list of e-mail addresses for generic leads, especially those that are sold to many users. If someone receives an e-mail from you and doesn’t know who you are, you can pretty much rest assured that he or she will not buy from you. If you send out many thousands of e-mails, your response is going to be negligible at best. At worst, you’re going to get hostile abuse and maybe even be accused of spam.

It’s better and more profitable to use an automatic lead generation system. These are either free or cost very little to set up and maintain. In particular, you need the exact steps that will get your lead generation put on autopilot. These techniques come with step-by-step instructions. At that point, you could truly begin to earn money.

If you need phone numbers, you can take this into account when you set you free lead generation system. You can design it so that you leads are not just prequalified, but you can get the phone numbers of those leads at the same time.

Postal leads are also a good way to do this, in which you utilize snail mail rather than e-mail. This can be risky, and they can also be expensive. One thing you don’t want to do is to mail a full information package to leads that are not qualified. Better and cheaper is to send a postcard so that you aren’t spending money on people who don’t want your materials or who have already become customers.

Even so, your costs may mount with simple postcards. Many find that particular type of lead generation quite difficult.

It’s not all bad news, though. You still need leads and you can still set up an automatic lead generation system, put them into an autoresponder to send out a series of e-mails, and then send a postcard later on to those who respond. But you should not just buy leads and mail postcards out willy-nilly. This has simply lost money for thousands of people. What’s important here is to pre-qualify your leads. Your lead generation system should include steps to prequalify prospects for your offer. Fortunately, there are low cost and even free methods that you can do this with. Some will be mentioned in brief here. You can follow up by doing your own research in depth on each.

1. Viral List Builders. These techniques encourage users to pass products onto others; these types of products can include information, pictures, jokes, cartoons or e-books containing your information.

2. Ad Co-Op Publishing. You can enter into cooperative ad exchanges with those who agree they’ll place your advertising on their webpages, as long as you do the same with their ads on your own webpages.

3. Forum Tricks. The Internet these days contains literally thousands of forums that cover every conceivable topic under the sun. These can provide you opportunities to get your name out there and become known; you can introduce readers to your advertising, by utilizing your forum signature.

4. Article Marketing Strategies. Articles are one way that you can distribute information and content, and you can also generate back links to your site this way, too.

5. Special Bonuses. If you offer your visitors incentives to join your e-mail list, you may eventually convert prospective buyers to actual buyers.

6. Reverse Marketing. If you yourself join every offer you can find related to your own market and then contact the person making that offer, you have just made contact with someone already interested in your particular niche. They will want to know more and want more quality information, and you can do the same with them.

7. Joint Ventures. If you get in contact with others who have worked in a similar venue and have similar interests, they can enter into joint ventures with you. If they can provide you leads and you simply close sales, you can offer discounts to their list and perhaps share profits with them as well.

Many if not most lead generation approaches are only failures that will simply cost you money as an Internet marketer. This, in turn, cuts into your business’ profits. However, you can set up a low cost lead generation system that will automatically get you leads and build a long-term, lucrative relationship with them.