Long gone are the days of cold calling, and pesky sales-people interrupting your dinner to try and get you to sign up for something that you have no interest in whatsoever. I’m sure we all can agree, we don’t miss those guys. Cold-calling or Outbound Marketing is an old, traditional way to generate leads. Thankfully, as marketers in 2019, we know that there are much better ways to attract prospective customers to your business.
Inbound marketing is a much more organic, natural and non-obtrusive way to make people aware of your business, and what you can offer them. However, marketers still struggle with generating leads this way. In this short blog post, we’re going to cover the basics when it comes to lead generation – a quick and easy-to-understand guide to lead generation.
What is Lead Generation?
The process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into someone who has indicated interest in your company. A lead is a person who has shown interest in your products or services in any way. Lead generators could come in the form of online content, email campaigns or landing pages. Lead generation takes the annoying cold caller out of the equation. It lets you try to turn prospects into clients with much better techniques. Instead of getting that random cold caller interrupting people at the most inconvenient of times, people will hear from businesses which they are already aware of, and have shown an interest in.
For example, if you heard from a company which you have recently completed a survey about, it would be less intrusive than if they had just contacted you out of the blue. Effective lead generation lets you personalise your opening communication and tailor your approach to meet the prospects’ needs.
The Importance of Lead Generation
This person has already shown a natural interest in your business, so why let them slip through the cracks? You’ll already know how to approach them and discuss their needs further. When attracting the customer, the first step is lead generation. This is followed by converting them, closing the sale and ensuring they are happy with their new product or service. Effective lead generation is a really important part of the entire sales and marketing process.
How to Qualify a Lead?
You can qualify the leads with the information you’ve collected throughout the process. The information could be someone’s personal details in exchange for a piece of content or a voucher or an exclusive offer. A typical example would be obtaining their details on a landing page for an eBook or a job seeker showing interest with an application form.
When someone downloads something from your site, you’ll be able to figure out quickly what this person is interested in. They have a direct interest in your product and want to know how they could possibly use your services. You’ll know how to approach them in a follow-up email and know what other content to offer them. Personalisation is key when trying to market in 2018.
The Technical Jargon
Call-to-action (CTA): A button to direct the visitor to take some kind of action. You will be able to navigate these visitors to download a piece of content, visit your website or sign up for a free trial with this button.
Landing Page: Your visitor will land here for a distinct purpose where you will be able to collect their basic information with a form and capture leads.
Offer: What are you offering in exchange for their details? This offer must add value to the visitor, so they think it is worthwhile to give you their personal information.
When you have everything set up, you can use your promotional channels to promote and drive traffic to the landing page.
How to Generate More Leads OnlineÂ
Using the right lead gen tools is crucial for any successful marketing team. Use a professional software system to organise and store leads and track how much you know about the people visiting your website. By gauging how much you know about these people, you’ll be able to see where you need to make more connections. Another way to boost your lead generation is to create unique and exclusive offers for all different stages of the buyer’s funnel. You need to ensure you are offering bespoke content for every stage of the buyer’s funnel to interest people on all stages of their journey.
By creating exciting content that engages and nurtures your leads, you can move them down the funnel quickly. But you must have more content waiting for them when they reach that stage.
Here are some types of lead generation content you should consider creating:
• eBooks
• Courses
• Trials
• Demos
• Competitions
• Checklists
• Email campaigns/subscriptions
You can offer these pieces of content in email campaigns or blog posts, but you must include CTA buttons which will link to dedicated landing pages.
Don’t use CTAs to direct people to your home page. Even if you have a new offer or product, you should still create specific landing pages before they get that far. This way, you’ll be able to get their information as seamlessly as possible.
Social Media Lead Generation
Don’t neglect your social media channels when it comes to lead generation. Regularly post links to your social platforms directing your followers to dedicated landing pages with your top-performing offers.
Other ways to generate leads on social media would be to create a ‘like and share’ contest, lead generation analysis and use the features available to add links or CTA buttons onto your page.
This is only a beginner’s guide to lead generation but there are loads more information we can share with you to generate quality leads for your business. If you’d like to know more about Zymplify and find out how our platform can grow your business, you should book a demo or try a 14-day free trial.
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