Top 5 Tips for Lead Generation

November 03, 2014 by Allison Carter

Lead generation is an industry buzzword that is here to stay and has significant affect on your company's marketing plans.

What is lead generation?  We couldn't say it any better than this:

"In marketing, lead generation is the generation of consumer interest or inquiry into products or services of a business. Leads can be created for purposes such as list building, e-newsletter list acquisition or for sales leads." (source)

Getting viable and good sales leads is what will keep your business afloat and growing for years to come.  So how can you be more effective?

Here are our Top 5 Tips for Lead Generation:

1. Include a good call to action on your website and in your social media marketing.
Make sure when visitors come to your site, whether its for the first time or for the fiftieth time, they know what you want them to do.  Are you trying to sell them product, encourage them to sign up for a free consultation, do you want to get them on the phone?  Whatever actions they need to take so that you can start to sell directly to that visitor, be sure you are clear!  Don't leave a visitor guessing how they can get in touch to learn more.

2. Do your content mapping and ensure your are funneling visitors to the right parts of your website.
Your website map matters.  Content mapping is an important exercise for your business and should play intimately with your website design.  When a visitor comes to your site, what landing pages do they see?  Where are they inclined to click? What content are you promoting?  Where do you want them to go?  By designing intelligently and understanding where you want your website's visitors to go, you can generate more potential sales leads.

3. Know your verticals and speak to your target audience.
When it comes to lead generation, quality not quantity matters.  Don't waste your time tracking down hundreds of email addresses if you aren't capturing the information of the people who would actually buy your product.  Be sure you are using language, images, and content that speaks to the audience you want to pay attention to you.

4. Provide good content so that you are working on engagement.
According to Heidi Cohen: "57% of a typical purchase decision is made before a prospect ever talks to a supplier based on a Corporate Executive Board study of over 1,400 B2B customers across industries."  This means that, as a business, you have to provide relevant information and have great, solid content.  Think about blogging as a means to show your expertise and convince new leads that you can meet their needs.  Use your social media streams as a way to engage with potential new customers in a creative and customer-service driven way.

5. Capture email addresses.
Very similar to your call to action requirement, be sure that you get email addresses.  The proven method for getting leads to share their valuable email address with you?  Give them something of value in exchange.  Allow them access to a white paper or special information in exchange for providing you with their email address.  Then treat their email address with respect and care.  But if you don't actively promote email registrations then your leads can be lost in the Internet noise.  Give yourself a way to be in the driver's seat with your leads.

Of course, once you generate leads, you need to make sure you are nurturing them.  Work to have a system and process in place to follow up on strong leads.  They may have downloaded your white paper and provided you an email address, but that doesn't mean they are ready to purchase from you yet!  Be sure you are giving them the opportunity to get to know you.  Plan a steady campaign.

If you need assistance with your content mapping, social media strategy, or lead generation and scoring, contact us today to get started!



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