What if I ask you to forget about your product for a moment?
Let’s face it, an important part of acquiring customers for your product or service is getting more people to know about it. No matter how good your product is, if no one knows about it, no one will buy it. Even with the best product in the world, your business is doomed to fail if no one knows about it.
Excited to join the growing number of startups that crash and burn in their first 5 years. I hope not, it is a doomed situation for a company to be in.
In today’s world, businesses with the most leads win. Simple. If you are able to generate more leads, but have an average product – you still win Because leads means more business. And more business means more revenue aka more profits(most of the time).
What is a lead?
Before you know how to generate more leads you need to understand what is a lead first? It’s very easy to understand this 🙂
A lead is simply an individual that has expressed some sort of interest in a service, product, offer or company A person who calls your business = lead A person who emails your business = lead A Person who signs up for a free consultation = lead
In this manner, a lead is a contact from your target group, the person you want to reach through internet marketing so as to build up a relationship and inevitably convert into your customer.
What do you mean by lead generation in Digital Marketing?
A lead generation is a form of driving new businesses. It is defined as a marketing process of capturing the interest of the buyers for in products or services for increasing the sales. In a narrow sense, lead generation is a process of gathering information about your leads (for example, their name, location, job title, contact details etc.).
Lead generation is all about the online marketing, Marketers use email campaigns, blogs, and social media content to reach a global audience.
Digital marketing will continue to grow as businesses try to find personalized ways to reach. Digital marketing is likely to emerge that target the customers in personalized, efficient, and less invasion way, assuring that leads are lured in the most effective way.
Why is there a need for generating more leads for your business?
lead generation is important because it’s what keeps companies running. Without lead generation, you are forced to rely on luck and hope that a specific type of customer will reach your page and make a purchase.
It’s a game of numbers, and those numbers add up in well-planned lead generation strategies. The main aim is quality, and „quality” here means that you’re generating pre-qualified leads that you can approach with personalized, industry-specific messaging.
How to generate leads for your business? 15 ways
Learning how to generate leads takes time and research. That’s because every business is different. One of your business pals might tell you that the only way to generate leads lies in email marketing. That might be true for his business. But what about yours?
The key is to find what works best for you and in order to do that you have to put in a lot of efforts and time. There are ‘n’ numbers of ways of generating leads, thanks to digital marketing, but not every way would be able to drive sales for your business.
However, it is very important for you to be aware of all the possible ways of generating leads for your business. So here are the 15 best ways of generating more leads for your business:
1. Define your target audience
The first step of lead generation is identifying your target audience. You can’t successfully reach and sell to your ideal customer if you don’t know exactly who that is, so it’s important to research your audience and come up with a clear picture of who they are, where they live, what they like to do, how much money they make, what their lifestyle and personality is like, etc.
Understanding things like: who your audience is by the geography, demographics, psychographics, and user behavior will provide you with a lot of information on how to target them, so you can provide them with exactly what they want, when they want it.
2. Offer value to your visitors
If you want to stand out as a business, you will need to have “extra” things in whatever you are doing so that your customer recognizes your business and your offer as more superior compared to your competitors.
The first significant element you need to ensure if you want to add more value to your products and services is to offer the better quality than your competitors at the same price or different reasonable price.
You can add more value if you increase the delivery speed of value that you deliver to your customers, and they are willing to pay for.
If you want to deliver real value, provide a level of advice that is higher, more valuable and sophisticated than what your competitors offer.
3. Offer unique content
Stop trying to take the shortcut and make some original content Nobody wants to see the same content on 20 different blogs, And it’s not a race see “who can find the best content. “ Its all about running the marathon.
The real game is ‘who can prove they aren’t the same .’ just because you have followers doesn’t mean your audience trusts you . Focus on the long term and not the next follower.
People don’t buy from people who don’t prove their point. Come in with a specific task/agenda to pursue and go all in. You will attract other like minds with time.
4. Run A/B tests
A/B testing lets you make the most out of your existing traffic and helps you increase conversion without having to spend on acquiring new traffic. A/B testing can give you high ROI as sometimes, even the most minor changes can result in a significant increase in conversions.
You want to A/B test because it is a great opportunity of finding out which small changes can make big differences. There is no such thing as “Split testing is not necessary”. Split testing is always necessary. The worst that can happen is that you find out that your current solution works just fine and there are no improvements to be made. The best that can happen is that you spot those small changes you can make to increase conversion.
Keep experimenting with different marketing strategies. That is the best way to find out what works best for you.
5. Be active on social media channels
Social media is growing at warp speed. With more and more people joining social media sites and using them regularly/efficiently, the social media industry is bound to become bigger in the coming years. It’s booming like never.
With such amazing growth, every business today needs to leverage proper social media channels in the best possible way. By giving your business brand the social media touch, you not only generate more business but also connect with your customers better and serve them on a higher level.
If you use social media for business, then having an active social media profile is key in order to get optimal results. The more work you put into social media, the more you’ll get out of it. The benefits of using social media make it essential for any business to use for marketing.
In turn, by not having an active social media profile, you are actually missing out on business!
6. Get your email marketing campaigns right.
Email marketing is cost effective compared to other ways of marketing. Through email marketing you can easily reach your targeted audience, you can measure your success easily with the help of software’s you are using for email campaigns. And it is easy to run the email campaign.
It might look like its importance has gone down, with so many channels coming into play and spam filters becoming more and more powerful by the day, yet, this channel contributes to a major portion of leads for lots of businesses (3800% ROI is no small deal). If you are looking at it from a branding perspective, then it is long gone. But if you are doing a sincere lead gen campaign, to a cold email database, it still works, brilliantly well. You just have to choose the right tool.
7. Leverage video content
Today, video content is one of the most effective tools that can engage consumers and raise brand awareness. It is important because videos touch people deeper than anything else and allow you to build meaningful relationship with the customers. Video content marketing extends your reach and spreads the word about your business faster than any other means.
In addition, videos have better viral potential than other forms of content. People gladly share them on social media if you create an engaging story about your business. Develop an effective social video marketing strategy to make content work for your business and promote it. Don’t forget to optimize videos to suit various networks.
Video content can easily improve your SEO and generate leads and conversions. To see the exact improvements that video marketing brings your business, use advanced video analytics that can tell you their performance.
8. Market through LinkedIn
LinkedIn ranks highest in social media platforms for its B2B lead generation value. It’s the playground of professionals allowing you to connect directly with decision makers. To exploit LinkedIn’s full potential, it’s essential to be proactive on the medium.
A few statistics that prove LinkedIn’s prowess as a leading B2B platform:
- Half of the traffic from social media sites to B2B blogs and sites comes from LinkedIn
- 65% of companies have acquired a lead from LinkedIn (up 1.5x from 2010 to 2013)
- 93% of B2B marketers rated LinkedIn to be effective in generating leads
- 50% of LinkedIn members report that they are more likely to buy from a company they interact with on LinkedIn
The best way to generate business leads from LinkedIn is to tap into the core offering of the platform: Networking. There are many ways to grow your network and build your presence on the platform. This will go a long way in increasing your credibility and urge people to be more receptive to your offerings.
9. Keep a track of events around you
As a business owner it is very important for you to keep a track of events happening around you as it helps you to stay updated and you can plan and make strategies to make the best use of it for your business.
You should make content or should plan to launch your marketing campaigns on special occasions. Like if you own an apparel business then it will be very beneficial for you to launch a product specific to the mothers on mother’s day it will attract a lot of attention and you can drive more sales that way. The key is to follow the trend and adapt to the changing styles and need of the industry.
10. Attend a networking event
While what you know is critical in creating or expanding your business, who you know is also an integral part of the process. Networking plays a key role in growing your brand, and increasing its visibility.
There are a variety of ways to network; meet your contacts for coffee, mingle at events like BAASS Connect, or attend seminars and conferences where like minded individuals will be. The opportunity to network is endless, and you should take advantage of each and every chance presented to you.
