When you think about leads, you probably think about sales and marketing.

Creating leads is all about getting people to your business and making them want what you have.

This type of thinking is out of date.

What’s much more important now – especially online –

is making those leads identify with your brand and demonstrating to them

the kind of value you are capable of providing

and why they should take an interest in your brand and in your organization.

This starts with your branding,

Right at the start when you first come up with your business model.

What is a Brand?

Contrary to popular belief, a brand is not just a logo and a company name.

Rather, a brand is an idea and an ethos, as well as a stamp of quality.

The idea is that your brand is something people recognize and can trust in.

That it’s something that they want to support and get behind.

This is why any good brand should start with a mission statement –

this is your statement of intent and your promise to customers

that will tell them what your business is really about and why you’re doing it.

The question is not what you do or what you sell –

it is why you are doing it in the first place.

Are you trying to improve people’s health so that they can be happier in their own bodies?

Are you trying to create a greener planet?

Are you trying to empower businesses to collaborate over distance?

No matter what your purpose,

this should then inform the subsequent decisions you have about your business:

your logo design, your color scheme, and everything else.

Mission and Engagement

The reason this matters is that it now makes your business more than an attempt at only making money.

Instead, your business becomes a movement and a purpose.

This is then something that your visitors and your fans can get behind and support.

And as such, it can help to generate real support for your organization rather than just customers.

These are now the people who will share your links,

who will be most likely to buy from you, and who will spread the word.

They will wear your t-shirts and they will buy more than once because they believe in what you are doing.

This is the difference between taking a sales-centric approach,

versus actually trying to do something worthwhile through your business.