For nearly every marketer out there, lead generation is a top priority. It directly relates to the success of your business. An effective marketing strategy is a continuous effort to consistently attract high-quality leads that turn into customers at the end of the day.
Easier said than done however. If every business is pushing to attract clients to their own brand, continuously finding innovative ways to get the right prospects’ attention, it means many tactics and strategies very quickly become outdated. What works today may not necessarily be as effective tomorrow. You have to constantly evolve and find ways to stand out from a crowded marketplace in the right way.
So here, we outline ten lead generation strategies and techniques that work today. But first, a definition.
What is a Lead Generation Strategy?
Ultimately, what a good lead generation strategy brings to your business can be articulated quite simply.. It isn’t just about broadcasting a marketing message and getting the attention of all and sundry. It is a marketing strategy that, a lot like dating apps, matches you to the right profile of person, and sets you on your way to a happy and successful relationship that leaves both parties satisfied – a concept that is best illustrated by the proverbial marketing and sales funnel.
In a series of steps, a lead generation strategy turns complete strangers into close business associates, and culminates in closed deals and mutually fruitful, ongoing partnerships. Companies go about doing this in a million different ways – some more effective than others. From the swanky, high-budget Superbowl ad, to the guy handing out flyers in a conspicuous rabbit suit, and everything in between. The key is finding the mix that works for you and brings the right kind of prospect to your business.
Here are ten ideas that are effective in a digital age where, as they say, content is king.
10 Proven Tactics for Lead Generation
1. Focus on targeted content
One of the best ways to ensure you are attracting high-quality leads is to consistently develop material that is specifically married to the interests of your target audience. This, of course, implicitly requires you to stay on top of your customer relationships. CRM lead generation software will help ensure that you are communicating the right messages to the right groups of clients. Interesting blogs that stay on topic, case studies that capture attention, explainer videos and white papers that position you as experts in your field, all help to catch the attention of customers who need your product or service.
In addition to lead generation, good content is also crucial not only for capturing the attention of your visitors but also keeping it. You want them to stay on your website longer. This helps the authority that search engines assign to your site, and increases the likelihood that your content will be suggested to more people. Making your digital presence more discoverable is crucial to attracting an audience and generating more leads.
You can also use the content to get your visitor to complete certain calls to action, like signing up for stuff, or downloading guides, tutorials, whitepapers, or any other relevant content that would be beneficial to them. This gives you an opportunity to get their contact details and continue the interaction, or to direct visitors to landing pages.
2. Use retargeting strategically
It might take time to convert visitors to leads. Most buyers today do their own research and want to check a few options before exploring further. This adds a layer of complexity to proper lead generation. The set of actions you undertake should be designed to help you keep a foot in the door once a visitor has had a peek at what you have to offer.
Set up a retargeting strategy to show adverts to previous website visitors to ensure you stay top of mind. This is more effective than just displaying general ads and hoping for a response. Visitors who have been to your site are much more likely to click on your advert, than just random people who just happen upon your website.
Package your retargeted ads in such a way that they are attractive and offer additional value to the leads who may be considering your product. This could with the promise of price reductions, bonus points, discounts, or other limited time offers on certain specials. Give the lead some incentive to go back to your product page and take further action.
With modern CRM software, you can even automate the retargeting process and forego the administrative hassle of managing it, especially at scale. That way, your marketing staff can focus on refining your strategy and assessing its effectiveness.
3. Email marketing
Email marketing sometimes gets a bad rep as a lead generation mechanism. Often with good reason. There is absolutely nobody out there who wants to be spammed. That, however, does not mean people do not want to receive emails anymore, and therein lies the difference. Done right, email marketing can be an extremely productive lead generation tool.
First of all, the frequency of communication should be appropriate and the content relevant. Don’t simply strong-arm your website visitors into handing over their email addresses, and then proceed to bombard them with messages they do not particularly want to receive. Your campaigns should bring them value at a rate that they can digest, without becoming annoying.
This means sending personalized emails with content that is relevant to each recipient. The quality of data you have on your clients will be crucial here. If this seems administratively challenging, consider looking into acquiring a customer relationship management system or improving your current one.
After the initial welcome email, gradually showcase your product offering and the value it offers in tasteful, well-designed, aesthetically pleasing emails that your subscribers will look forward to.
4. Live chat
Staying on the theme of personalized messaging, live chat is a crucial component of your lead generation tool set. It is an excellent means to capture and hold the attention of visitors and get them to spend more time on your website. More importantly, it offers you the ability to address any questions they may have, or settle any doubts that might be keeping them from making a purchase.
With the technological tools available today, you can use chatbots to answer the most frequently asked questions. Most of the top CRMs offer some form of chatbot functionality. You can take it a level up by using AI-powered chatbots that are smarter, and use natural language processing for a better customer experience. They can answer questions, provide visitors with additional information, direct them to the resources they need, and more.
Taking advantage of this functionality frees up your customer service staff to take on more pressing matters. In fact, AI chatbots can seamlessly hand off conversations within a CRM system to a staff member when they are unable to resolve issues.
5. Search Engine Optimization
SEO is the Holy Grail for digital marketers. If the aim is to get the public engaging with your content, you first have to get eyeballs on it. Pouring your efforts and resources into content creation will have limited results if only a few people are able to find it. SEO makes your website easier to read and index for search engine algorithms. You can take steps to improve the authority of your website and increase your position in search engine rankings. This gets a wider audience of visitors to click through and visit it, and access your carefully crafted content. A high search engine ranking can be more effective than other channels, like social media.
6. Free tools
Everybody loves freebies. Offering free tools or products is a great way to get people to interact with your website. It also gives you the opportunity to identify which visitors have specific needs and what those are. Other than that, having a free tool – some sort of calculator or converter, for example – on your website helps keep your brand top of mind for the visitors that keep returning to make use of your product. When you do offer a free service like this, you will want to have a clear plan of action ready for those leads that use it to progress onto your paid products.
7. Develop referral programs
A fundamental concept of modern marketing is that it does not end with a sale. In fact, that is only the first step. There is a lot of value to be gained by keeping your clients loyal. The most obvious is the repeat purchases that exponentially increase the value you are able to get out of each individual customer over the lifetime of your relationship with them..
Other than that, your current customers are a great resource for attracting other high-quality leads. Harness this potential by incentivizing recommendations to their friends, family, and wider network. Offer discounts, specials, and money-back offers for referrals, and other goodies.
Here also, a CRM system can take a lot of the burden and automate the referral process, and the rewards system. Implement your setup so that it is easy for them to refer your product or service – using a referral link for instance.
8. Engage with your community on review sites
Whether you like it or not, as long as you have an offering that is being used, there will be reviews and opinions on it. This might be on review sites like Yelp, or on other platforms like social media. Take the time and effort to respond to reviews, negative and positive. Your responses will influence the decision-making of potential customers who are likely to be researching your product before possibly making a purchase.
9. Diversify your content
The evolution of the Internet and technology has changed the way we consume content. If you want to improve the effectiveness of what you are putting out, make sure you embrace this change. Invest resources in producing media in different forms, not just text, and meet your clients where they are. Think about video, podcasts, and other long and short form content depending on the demographics of your client base.
10. Webinars
People want to get the inside scoop on products and things they care about. Webinars are a great way to appeal to potential customers, given that they feel more like valuable content with specific information and answers to direct questions, and less like blatant marketing. Organize free webinars to get high-quality leads who are interested in your offering, and will want to share their contact details and open up opportunities for further interaction.
Conclusion
Lead generation is all about understanding the profile of your clients and being creative in engaging them. We have shared ten surefire ways to get more eyes on your product offering and attract more and better quality leads into your sales and marketing funnel.