Introduction
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. As a result, you can use it for follow-up regarding your business’s services.
For example, for a law firm to generate business leads, they might receive:
- Form submission from a potential client that is inquiring about their services.
- A phone call or an email from a potential client to schedule a consultation.
- A direct message on social media asking about their rates.
Thus, finding new business leads involves structuring a specific marketing experience. The one that makes it easy for customers to engage with your company. Your lead generation strategies should always result in the exchange of a prospect’s contact information. The following techniques will help you generate leads for your business:
Identify Your Target Audience
To successfully reach and sell to your ideal customer, you need to know exactly who that is. Hence, it’s important to research your audience so you can craft your ideal buyer persona. For instance, collect the following information:
- What they like to do
- How much money do they make
- What is their lifestyle like
- What is their personality
Consequently, use them to shape your future marketing approaches.
Practice Direct Engagement
One of the effective approaches to generating new business is directly engaging with a potential customer. When you establish that potential prospects might be a good fit for your business, reach out to them. You can do it through social media, email, phone or in-face conversations. Furthermore, set up live chat or help center to make sure every query is handled properly. Studies have shown that 42% of customers prefer live chat for customer support questions. Ultimately, more engaged customers result in better word-of-mouth and more leads.
Generate Leads on LinkedIn
Making connections with relevant industry leaders is a great way to generate business opportunities. Moreover, connecting with members of your target audience can result in them reaching out to you in a need of a service. Furthermore, engage with their posts and message them directly to offer your service. This can be extremely effective when generating leads on LinkedIn.
Try Digital Advertising
Digital advertising can be one of the most effective ways to generate leads for your business. Use targeted pay-per-click advertising on Google or Bing to market to search engine users. This will help you serve highly relevant ads. Moreover, you can use a geo-filter to target consumers that are searching in your area. When a user clicks on your PPC ads, you can use display retargeting. It will show visual advertisements for your products on other popular sites across the web.
Foster Customer Recommendations and Referrals
If your service has delighted a current customer, ask them to share their experience. For example, suggest them to share it with those who also might benefit from your service. The quality of your business’s offerings may be good enough that customers do this for free. Or you could set up an incentive system. For example, give your customers a certain percentage of their next monthly retainer fee for a referral.
Customer referrals are a great way to get more leads for your business. The best part is that your current customers are doing most of the work. Research shows that more qualified leads come from recommendations than any other source. Here are some software solutions to get started with partner, employee, or customer referrals:
- Extole
- Incentivit
- Vocal References
- Everfave
- Influitive
- InviteBox
- Invite Referrals
Write Guest Blogs
Spread your message and reach new audiences by guest posting relevant content on other blogs. It is a great way to generate referral business through content marketing and improve your SEO. You can find leads for your business by guest blogging for sites. These sites should be relevant to your industry but shouldn’t directly compete with you. For example, if you’re a law firm, you can guest blog for real estate companies in your area. You know that the real estate audience is interested in purchasing a house. Hence, your services act as relevant information.
Rank in Search Engines to Generate Leads
When your target audience searches for your services online, make sure they can easily find you. Thus, generate more leads for your business by trying out SEO and SEM for your website. Start by doing keyword research to determine what phrases your target audience searches before purchasing your service. Use tools like SEMrush or the Google Ads Keyword Planner to find search data.
Once you’ve identified the right keywords, optimize your page content. If you’re selling a highly competitive service, ranking organically might be difficult. Consulting an SEO company can be a great way to generate consistent leads if you’re willing to invest.
Offer a Free Tool or Lead Generation Magnet
Offering a free tool is a great way to generate sales leads and build trust with your audience. However, check out what opportunity exists within your industry for a start. Popular examples include building calculators, compiling case studies, offering free guides etc. You can even offer free consultations to help generate leads for your business.
Interview influencers
Learn from experts by Interviewing leaders in your industry. It is a great way to network and create powerful content. For example, you can record your interview and turn it into a Q&A blog post. In addition, it will help you attract interested users to your website or social media profiles. Moreover, consider assembling these interviews and requesting contact information to improve your business lead generation. Your potential customers will see this as proof of your credibility. Ultimately, this will increase your chance of attracting new leads.
Start Networking
Networking rarely leads to direct revenue. However, it is great for nurturing professional opportunities. Events within your industry are a great way to gain more contacts. For instance, you can meet a complementary business that you can partner with. Consequently, you can share leads, expanding your reach. Networking can even open up guest blogging opportunities for your company. For example, network with existing customers to get introduced to new customers. In addition, take lead contact information such as emails or phone numbers.
Create an Email Offer
If you’ve built your list of email subscribers, consider putting together a special offer. Accordingly, you might have business potential in your email lists. A special discount or limited-time offer can effectively turn a passive bystander into your next paying customer. Ultimately, strive to actively partner with complementary businesses in your industry. Thus, think of structuring a deal that lets you promote yourself to their audience.
Optimize Your Website Pages for Conversions
Your website needs to be optimized to persuade individuals to take action. When it comes to lead generation, you should strive to gain a prospect’s contact information. In addition, gather their other qualifying attributes that will aid your selling process. A click from a specific keyword search or Google advertisement should go to a unique landing page. Every landing page should offer the exact solution the person is looking for. Conversion optimization such as a call to action (CTA) will help increase sales leads. Ask the visitor for a name, email address, and phone number in exchange for a gift. For example, an eBook or a Guide.
Run a Giveaway or Contest
A giveaway or contest can generate a ton of leads in a short period. For example, offer a prize in exchange for participants to share your content and like your profile. Choose engaging reward types as well as the actions needed to collect points.
Deploy Outbound & Inbound Marketing
Outbound marketing involves proactively reaching out to consumers to get them interested in a product. By contrast, inbound marketing centers on creating and distributing content that draws people into your website. Content comes in interactive forms, such as social media posts, blogs, reports, webinars, etc. Hence, deploy both approaches in a balanced manner as this will help generate leads for your business. Personalize your email communication and get active in online communities. Share informative content regularly and try to solve common customer problems. This will help you establish healthy relationships with your customers and build more leads.
Invest in New Technology
New technology sets the trend in the market, hence, think about investing in new technology. For example, most people access their mail or browse websites through smartphones or tablets. Thus, you should invest in making your marketing efforts compatible with these devices. Besides, reaching the maximum amount of customers. In addition, keep an eye on emerging technology through which you can get more leads for your business.
Optimize Your Content
Content can be a great source of web traffic which will ultimately result in more leads. However, it needs to be informative and appeal to your target audience. Don’t forget to include images, video and infographics to increase share counts and engagement.
Tap Into Databases
Data.Com is a huge database where you can find potential leads for your business. Ultimately, it can contribute to a 25% increase in sales. It maintains a list of companies with accurate contact information. Accordingly, you can use it to identify relevant leads.
Answer Forum Questions
Answering forum questions is a great way to prove your expertise, generate leads and improve SEO. For example, answer forum questions on sites like Reddit or Quora. Find a category that is relevant to your business, and start answering user questions. In addition, make sure to include a call to action (e.g. website link or contact for consultation). As a result, this will help solve the user’s problem.
If your law firm offers family law services, subscribe to a legal subreddit. There you can find users who ask questions specifically about what your business offers. Furthermore, search for any questions that you can offer some insight into. By offering free advice, users might be compelled to reciprocate by paying you for legal services in the future.
Share Videos on YouTube
YouTube is a massively popular search engine. It is also the best channel for sending referral web traffic in the long term. For a start, this platform enables you to create your channel. There, you can share videos regarding particular events, tutorials and more. Hence, use the opportunity to showcase your expertise and reach a new audience. You can do it by providing relevant content on YouTube. Consequently, this will help you stand out from your competitors. Ultimately, you will attract more leads to your business.
Add a Quiz to Your Blog
Posting a quiz to your blog can make your content engaging. This can ultimately draw more attention from an online audience. In fact, it can easily entice the readers to share their feedback about your blog. This will also help you establish a stronger relationship with your audience. In addition, it will get you more leads in the long term. The tools above can help you create a quiz and publish it on your blog:
Use an Email Newsletter to Build Relationships
One of the best ways to generate more leads is through an email newsletter and blogs. They let you stay in touch with existing customers and cultivate relationships. Blogs and newsletters should be filled with fresh and rich content that readers want to read. If you have a high-quality blog, generate leads and backlinks by posting on other websites.
Leverage Social Media to Connect and Engage
Social media provides many opportunities to create conversations with prospective customers and generate new leads. For example, you can create a Facebook page, Twitter profile, LinkedIn company page or Pinterest account. Use it to attract and engage your audience, then funnel them through your process to become leads.
Afterward, use your social media profiles to talk to them. That way you can find out more about what they need and want. Specifically, your goal should be to provide as many positive touchpoints for your customer as possible. Consequently, your customer will be more likely to trust your brand and eventually purchase from you.
Make Warm Calls
Warm calling is getting in touch with calling a prospect with whom your company has had prior contact. Warm calling can be extremely effective if done right. For a start, you should target prospects similar to your company’s most common customers. Find them by researching your target company and its decision-makers.
By knowing their needs and values you can better serve them or customize your marketing strategies. Next, grab your target’s attention quickly while demonstrating your value proposition. Try to state all your key points in a minimum of time and words. Utilize various methods to ensure several points of contact. For example, include an offer to provide more information, tips and further assistance.
List Your Company on Directories
Make sure you are listed in online software directories, especially if you are B2B company type. This will help drive leads to your website who are looking for similar services. Some online directories include:
- G2Crowd
- Capterra
- GetApp
- CabinetM
- Software Advice
- SaaS Genius
Get More Online Reviews
87% of B2B decision-makers look online for honest reviews before purchasing. If you have customers leaving good reviews, you should be able to generate more leads. Customers with high NPS scores are most likely to give good reviews.
Use SEO to Increase Website Traffic
Use search engine optimization (SEO) to get your website to the top of Google search result pages. Make sure to target keywords people enter to describe your service. Setting up lead capturing on a page can increase sales leads from SEO. To increase SEO rank, work to build good backlinks by guest blogging or other means. You should also understand which keywords are important and target them with content. The following is a shortlist of good tools for optimizing your website SEO:
- Serpstat
- Screaming Frog
- Hit Tail
- Ahrefs
- SEO book
- Google search console
- Google Analytics
- Moz
- Scrape Box
Use Webinar to Generate More Leads
Webinars are online conferences where a presenter discusses a relevant topic to the audience. They are usually done through slides or interview-style presentations. Common webinar tools include:
However, webinars require a certain amount of time, knowledge and preparation. You can read here how to successfully prepare for a webinar.
Use Press Releases to Generate More Leads
Issuing a press release will help drive traffic to your website and generate more leads. Some online press release sites include:
Conclusion
Lead generation should be thought of as a long-term and continuous process. For a start, get an efficient system in place using the sales lead tips above. Consequently, you can streamline the lead generation process and increase your opportunities for business growth. Use these creative ways to generate leads, increase your revenue and grow your business. Additionally, read our latest blog 12 Reasons Why You Don’t Get Clients.