Introduction:

Here is our newly compiled article on how to get more leads for your business. I hope that it will bring you much success!

^[1]According to data from the SBA, approximately one-third of companies with employees fail within their first two years. While this article isn’t going to dissect the wide range of reasons a business may fail, it will highlight one of the main factors for business success: consistent lead generation.

For your venture to scale quickly and consistently turn a profit, you must learn to get business leads.

What Is Lead Generation in Marketing?

Lead generation in marketing is the act of gaining actionable customer interest for your business’s output. This typically involves a customer initiating a conversation or providing you with their contact information for follow-up regarding your business’s products or services.

For example, for a law firm to generate business leads, they might receive:

• A form submission from a potential client that is inquiring about their services.
• A phone call from a potential client to set up a consultation.
• A direct message on social media asking about their rates.
• An email from a potential client who is asking to schedule a consultation.

Thus, part of finding new business leads involves structuring a marketing experience that makes it easy for customers to engage with your company. For example, suppose you’ve heard about demand gen and wonder whether you technically need demand generation vs. lead generation. In that case, you need both, and it’s not worth differentiating them at this point.

Your lead generation strategies should always result in exchanging a prospect’s contact or payment information or an in-person meeting.

^[2]Ways to Generate More Leads for Your Business

1. Optimize your web pages for conversions

All your online lead generation efforts must start with your website. It’s no good generating traffic to your site – be it from Google, social media, or word-of-mouth – if those visitors then decide to leave without taking action.

Your website needs to be optimized to persuade individuals to do something – whatever that action may be. When it comes to lead generation, typically, you are trying to capture a prospect’s contact information, such as their name, email address, phone number, and other qualifying attributes that will aid your selling process.

How do you do this? Well, as easy as it is to set up a website in this day and age, that doesn’t automatically guarantee that your website will be optimized to collect leads. However, there are certain best practices that all of the pages on your website should follow to maximize the number of leads you gain.

Not an expert?

No worries. Several tools, such as Leadpages, are available that make creating high-performing web pages as easy as writing an email. Leadpages enables you to quickly create and publish web pages based on a proven success formula. In addition, their extensive marketplace and library of page templates help even the biggest novice convert more leads.

2. Run a giveaway or contest

A giveaway or contest can generate many email and social leads quickly. It works like this – brands offer a prize in exchange for participants to refer friends, share content and like your social media profiles.

You can get creative with the prize/reward types and the actions needed to collect points (sharing, tagging, referring, etc.). Below is an example of the giveaway thank you page and how the prize and points system works. Also, check out this case study on how to run giveaways.

3. Directly engage with leads

Direct customer engagement should be one of your top priorities.

Most businesses choose to go with in-direct engagement – such as FAQs. Unfortunately, this is not the most effective way to engage.

On the other hand, direct engagement uses live chat, forums, and help centers – where customer service representatives are always present to make sure every query is handled correctly.

More engaged customers result in better word-of-mouth and more leads.

4. Deploy outbound & inbound marketing

According to the stats, outbound marketing is still more effective than inbound marketing. But, it doesn’t mean that you forget about inbound marketing. Instead, look to deploy both approaches in a balanced manner as this will help generate leads and eventually your business.

From an inbound perspective, personalize your email communication and engage in online communities by regularly sharing informative content and solving common customer problems. This will help you establish healthy relationships with your customers and build more leads.

5. Invest in new technology

New technology sets the trend in the market. For example, smartphones are trending all over the world. Subsequently, most people access their mail or browse websites through smartphones or tablets; this shows that you should invest in making your marketing efforts compatible with these devices, allowing you to reach the maximum amount of customers.

In a nutshell, you should keep an eye on emerging technology and channels through which you can get more leads for your business.

6. ^[3]Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are one of the best ways to drive leads. If you’re willing to “pay to play,” you can access specific targeting options, including age, location, interests, and more.

Use best practices and follow your data to make your ads successful and drive qualified leads. Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you create your first Facebook ad:

• The ad should be closely related to the content people click through to. If there’s any confusion, people are more likely to click away, assuming there was a mistake.
• Use eye-catching, bright colours rather than blues or whites. The latter tends to blend in with Facebook’s branding, suggests James Scherer of Wishpond.
• Run your first ad based on a “lookalike audience,” which uses your list of imported customers to find similar Facebook users.
• Know the difference between CPM (cost per impression) versus CPC (cost per click). Read through Facebook’s guide on this before choosing one or the other.

7. Personalized email marketing

Email marketing is a great way to drive leads, especially when your emails are personalized to the person receiving them.

A study by Experian found that personalized emails generated up to six times higher revenue than non-personalized emails and campaigns.

Use your email platform to personalize your email greeting to include the recipient’s name. Group your contacts by name, location, purchase history, or expressed interests.

This slight touch can help you drive more leads while building brand loyalty with potential customers.

As you begin sending emails, it’s essential to track your success. This allows you to test, modify and evolve, driving more leads with each send. Compare your open and click rates to the average for your industry, as well, to determine if you’re on par or behind.

Don’t forget to check where people are clicking within the email itself. If you place links in more than one place in your email — which you should to increase total clicks — track which ones are being clicked more often. Learning your subscribers’ habits allows you to be more effective.

8. Discounts and coupons

To drive leads with discounts and coupons, focus on “new customer coupons.” In a 2016 CouponBox survey, 75 percent of retailers said this was the best coupon/discount for increasing long-term revenue.

Once you’ve created your deal or coupon, it’s time to distribute — you can’t expect customers to find these discounts and deals themselves.

Share with current and future customers via your online platforms, including social media and email.

If possible, create a banner ad or pop-up for your website as well, enticing potential customers to buy right then and there.

If direct mailing is part of your marketing budget, use this to distribute discounts and coupons.

9. High-value content

Content is a great way to build search engine optimization for your website, show your knowledge as a business, and generate leads.

The first step in using content as a lead-driving tool is to remember that this term encompasses more than just blog posts. For example, content could be an ebook, guide, white paper, graphic, in-depth study, or video.

The content is then gated, so potential customers give you their contact information to access it.

To make the most of this content, consider how you can make it most valuable and targeted.

For example, if your ideal customer is in the healthcare industry, create content for healthcare leaders. Learn about this audience, write about a topic you’ve found most important to them, and in a format they prefer (I.E., ebook versus white paper) and then promote it accordingly.

10. Referral Partnerships

You can generate leads by partnering with other small businesses as a small business. A simple way to facilitate this is with a referral partnership.

In this case, you receive a percentage of the revenue from referrals you send to the other business and vice versa.

Have your lawyers or legal team create and proof paperwork to ensure both sides are clear on the stipulations. Include information about requirements such as quality of the leads, total sale amount, percentage tiers, and more.

Conclusion:

No matter what happens, keep trying. Without effort, nothing successful happens!

Article compiled by hughesagency.ca

Article reference links:

1. https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-to-generate-sales-leads-in-your-small-business-2951792 ↑
2. https://www.jeffbullas.com/20-smart-ways-generate-leads-business/ ↑
3. https://blogs.constantcontact.com/generate-leads/ ↑