A lead generation that brings loyal and profitable clients is the dream of any business.
This is a continuous process you should always struggle to improve and enhance.
Each business has own ways of reaching a target audience and attracting attention to own product or service.
In this article, I want to shed light on the most useful technique to generate leads and sales.
Let’s start.
Lead Generation Strategies
Here is the top and most effective lead generation strategies:
- Provide Your Website Visitors with Useful and Unique Content
- Build Partnerships with Industry Leaders
- Use Email Marketing to Reach Relevant Leads
- Lead Generation Through Social Media
- Incorporate Video Marketing
1. Provide Your Website Visitors with Useful and Unique Content
It’s well known that the best way to sell something is not to sell directly.
This is when content marketing comes to help.
The aim of content on your website does not mean only appear high in the search engines result and rank for the certain keywords.
First of all, the goal of content marketing is to provide your users with relevant and useful information for free, without any obligations.
Nowadays, companies use content so actively and put quantity over the quality.
However, it doesn’t work.
If you want your clients to trust you and choose you over your competitors, you have to give them a reason to do this.
One of the best ways is to answer their questions and solve their problems with the help of useful content and storytelling.
Don’t write just for the record, bring all your efforts into this process.
Create in-depth content that helps your clients to solve the problems, make a decision or compare various solutions.
a. Remember don’t write to sell.
Qualitative and deep content sells by itself.
If the clients see that you provide them with useful information for free and do it regularly, they will definitely become interested in your product.
You just need some time to create an authority in your niche and show that you are an expert, who is ready to consult and help.
Therefore, when you will gather the first base of readers, you can try to write content with the aim to scrape their contacts.
For example, you may create free PDFs, ebooks or webinars in exchange for users email or phone number.
But don’t forget that these resources must contain only useful information, that is somehow different from what is already available on the Internet.
To create such content, you should know what pain points your audience has.
You can learn it by searching questions on different forums, communicating with your clients, conducting surveys, taking interviews, and even reading the content of your competitors.
b. Don’t Shoot in the Dark: Build Content Strategy According to Your Audience Needs
Try to combine different types of content, surprise your readers, and make them wait for your blog posts.
This lead generation method requires a lot of time and effort, but this is one of the cheapest ways to create a word of mouth for your business.
Don’t hesitate to include it in your business strategy!
It will bring you loyal audience and authority in your niche.
Here are some of the most popular types of content you can use for lead generation:
- Case studies
- Ebooks
- E-courses
- Infographics
- Email marketing
- Cheat Sheets
- Guides
- Checklists
- Slideshare presentations
- Podcasts
Try different ones and choose what works for you best!
2. Build Partnerships with Industry Leaders
According to the statistics, 49% of people say that they rely on influencers recommendations when making a purchase decision.
Each industry has its influencers and leaders – people who gained authority and trust and have the power to influence the decisions of others.
Your task is to find these people and attract their attention to your brand.
They have already gained the reputation in your industry, so this will be a win-win solution.
You will attract more visitors and they will prove their status of influencer even more.
Don’t get distracted by the thought that these people will not spare time for your business.
People are always looking for new ways to build partnerships, network, and become more popular.
Your aim is to find what they are interested in and offer this.
Here are some ways to do this.
a. Take Interviews
For example, if you see that the person likes to give interviews and is featured in different blogs, this is a nice chance to take an interview!
Prepare open and interesting questions that give valuable information to your readers.
Quote them in your content and ask the influences to mention this interview on their resources.
Try to find as many influencers as possible, send them information about your business and value it provides.
Interviewing others will put your business in front of a wider audience and make it more authoritative.
b. Another Way to Attract Influencers to Your Brand Is to Give Them to Try Your Product or Service for Free.
This a great way to grab their interest and demonstrate all the benefits of your product.
Ask the influencer about the honest review and feedback about it.
If your website visitors will see that people they know or heard about have used or product or service, this will dispel their doubts.
Agree or not, it really works.
People don’t like to risk and waste their money on products they doubt.
If they see that someone authoritative recommends it, they will be more likely to buy!
c. Organize Events
Another way to reach influencers is to ask them to help in an organization or take part in some event related to your business.
For example, you can organize a conference, meeting, contest, or giveaway.
It all depends on your business, however, if you have imagination, you can come up with different ideas for any business.
Events are a great way to create a community around your business, gather people with similar interests, find partners, and build strong business relationships.
Here are some ideas on the events you can organize to generate leads:
- Courses
- Webinars
- Conferences
- Contests, tenders, and reward programs
- Giveaways
- Parties
Your task is to saturate these events with value for its visitors.
If you do it for the first time, it is better not to charge any fee and do it for free.
Such approach will help you to attract more visitors and create a word of mouth.
Let’s take a look at the best ways to promote your events:
- Email marketing
- Social media
- Landing page
- Referral programs with discounts
- Event-related videos
- Reaching influencers and relevant people
- Submissions to media and industry websites
Try out different channels, see which bring you more leads, leverage and improve them even more.
3. Use Email Marketing to Reach Relevant Leads
The tactics mentioned before should help you generate a lot of email addresses of your potential clients.
Now your task is to regularly treat them with useful updates about your company, product or service.
But the main thing to remember here is to make your messages tailored and crafted specifically for each client.
Only using the first name at the beginning of the letter doesn’t work anymore.
Your task is to build a buyer persona, make a research about them and create a personalized message.
When a person opens a letter, the first thought should be: “Oh, that’s right what I need!”
To achieve this, you have to send catchy messages, that grab attention and demonstrate the value.
I have prepared some ideas for you.
a. Use Short, but Detailed Headlines
The headline of your mail should tell the person why he or she has to open it.
Try to describe the content of your letter in several words that evoke positive emotions and grab attention.
The headline is the first thing a person sees, so make it compelling.
Here are some types of headlines that work best and prompt people to read what is below them.
- The ultimate headlines
- X reasons why headlines
- How to headlines
- Specific headlines with numbers
- List headlines
Remember also to add powerful words to your headlines, especially those that evoke curiosity.
If your headline is boring and too basic, be sure that people will not click on it too much.
b. Ask Your Audience What Content It Wants to Receive
The best way to learn your audience interests is to directly ask about it.
Such approach is better than staffing their mailbox with useless letters they even don’t open.
In one the email marketing campaign, try to ask your clients what content they want to get and how often.
Be prepared to negative responses and requests to delete them from your mailing list.
On the other side, this strategy will help you to find new topics your users are interested in and actually those who are interested.
Believe or not, it will add new ideas to your content strategy and new characteristics to your buyer persona portrait.
c. Conduct Surveys
A survey is another great way to learn about your audience preferences.
Surveys are used to generate more leads, get new ideas on how to improve your product or strategy and learn whether your users are satisfied with what you do.
You can send surveys both to potential clients and current ones.
In the first case, you have a chance to learn about their pain points, preferences, and desires.
Their answers will help you to customize your product or service to their needs.
Sending surveys to existing clients will help you to evaluate the quality of your services and learn what do you need to remove or add.
d. Send Interesting News in Your Industry
People always want to stay tuned for any novelties and updates in the sphere they are interested in.
Such content will be useful for them and will give them some ideas for their own business.
Make sure to share only fresh and relevant news your clients will like to read.
However, don’t overuse this type of content as it has nothing to do with your business.
Try to send more of your own content that a user will not find somewhere else.
e. Share Free Content That Solves Their Problems
We have already talked about the importance of content marketing for your business.
Spare days in your calendar for a content campaign and regularly send a letter with fresh and useful information for your users.
Don’t send the same content to everyone.
Try to segment your audience according to their status, interests, and needs.
Then think what information will be relevant to them: informational, entertaining or commercial.
There is no one size fits all and you should spare enough time to see what type of content works better and for whom.
4. Lead Generation Through Social Media
Social media channels remain a very effective tool for reaching your target audience.
Create a buyer persona portrait for your business an think about what social media channels this person uses most often.
According to Sproutsocial, here are the key demographics of the most popular social media channels
- 56% of men
- 44% of woman
- 88% users are 18-29 years old
- 26% of men
- 38% of women
- 59% of users are 18-29 years old
- 34% are 18-29-year-olds
- 35% of employed adults use Linkedin
- The average audience is 18-29 years old
Your task is to choose channels where your target audience resides and create a social media marketing strategy.
One of the most effective ways to generate leads is to launch the social media ads.
Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin ads help you to choose the target audience age, location, status, and company and carry your message to them in the most efficient way.
When creating ads, remember to make your message short, concise, emotional, and detailed.
Furthermore, you have only several seconds to catch the attention of user when they scroll down the social media timeline.
Don’t make the message too long, boring, and staffed with professional terminology.
Make your offer clear and short.
Remember that your ads should describe the value of your product or service to a user.
Don’t boast and tell how useful or beautiful your product is, tell how beautiful the life of those who will buy it will become.
5. Incorporate Video Marketing
First of all, the video is everywhere.
It has a become an efficient tool for demonstrating the product or service and carry out your message in the interactive form.
Nowadays the video is available on every platform and channel:
“According to an upcoming report from HubSpot Research, 54% of consumers want to see videos from brands they support in comparison to email newsletters (46%) or social image (41%) based content.”
They also found that video content was the most memorable (43%) in comparison to text (18%) and images (36%).
Video also ranks high in search engine results.
Remember that video should be impressive, memorable, and has to resonate with your brand and identity.
Here are the main benefits video marketing will bring to your business.
- It helps your audience learn about your brand
- Using video is a creative way to show your product or demonstrate your service
- Video is memorable and it boosts information retention
- The availability of video in emails increases their open rate
- Most people prefer to watch a short video than reading tons of information
- According to the statistics, 64-85% of customers are more likely to make a purchase after watching a video
Here are also the main types of video you can use for lead generation
- Educational videos
- Animated videos
- Tutorial videos
- Company culture videos
- Product videos
- Instruction videos
- Testimonials
- FAQ videos
- Video Emails
Try to combine different types of videos in your marketing strategy, track the analytics, and see what videos users engage with most.
Conclusion
There are a lot of lead generation strategies out there, so it may seem difficult to choose what to do first.
Your task is to find your customer pain points and create a strategy that aims at solving their problems.
Choose several methods, track the results, see the engagement and choose what works best.
Remember that you have to create lead generation strategies keeping in mind your customer.
If you think only about your product and best ways to sell it, you will fail.
Furthermore, the value for the customers and honesty are the only things that will bring your business to the new level.
I hope that the lead generation strategies used in this article will be useful for your business growth.
Always improve your sales generation methods and never stay in one place.
Treat your customers with different novelties and offers.
In conclusion, you will create a loyal audience that will recommend your business to others.
Isn’t it your goal?
If yes, roll up your sleeves and prepare for making all these strategies a reality!
Only hard work and desire to improve will bring your business to a new level.
Never give up and try different ways to reach your target audience.
