What is Lead Generation?
According to Marketo Lead Generation can be defined as the marketing process of stimulating and capturing interest in a product or service for the purpose of developing a sales pipeline. When a stranger initiates a relationship with you by showing an organic interest in your business, the transition from stranger to customer is much more natural. Hubspot recommends that your organisation should create a landing page for capturing leads, a good landing page will capture prospects name, title, company name, phone number, email address and may have a text box for comments.
There are numerous ways to increase lead generation, both online and offline, here are 7 of the most popular Lead Generation methods used by Marketers today:
Content
Content is a great way to guide users to a landing page. Typically, you create content to provide visitors with useful, free information. You can include a call to action (CTA) anywhere in your content — inline, bottom-of-post, in the hero, or even on the side panel. The more delighted a visitor is with your content, the more likely they are to click your call-to-action and move onto your landing page.
Email is a great place to reach the people who already know your brand and product or service. It’s much easier to ask them to take an action since they’ve previously subscribed to your list. Emails tend to be a bit cluttered, so use CTAs that have compelling copy and an eye-catching design to grab your subscriber’s attention. A/B testing will help with this before you release your campaign
Ads and Retargeting
The sole purpose of an ad is to get people to take an action. Otherwise, why spend the money? If you want people to convert, be sure that your landing page and offer match exactly what is promised in the ad, and that the action you want users to take is crystal clear.
Blog
The great thing about using your blog posts to promote an offer is that you can tailor the entire piece to the end goal. So, if your offer is an instructional video on setting up Google Search Console, then you can write a blog post about how to select your marketing metrics … which would make your CTA highly relevant and easy to click.
Social Media for Lead Generation
Social media platforms make it easy to guide your followers to take action, from the swipe up option on Instagram stories to Facebook bio links to bitly URLs on Twitter. You can also promote your offerings on your social posts and include a call-to-action in your caption. Learn more on how to use Social Media for B2B Marketers here.
Free Product Trials
You can break down a lot of barriers to a sale by offering free trials of your product or service. Once a prospect is using your product, you can entice them with additional offers or resources to encourage them to buy. Another good practice is to include your branding in your free versions, so you can capture other potential customers, too.
Tradeshows and Referrals
Although these two may be seen as ‘old fashioned’ or the ‘grand-daddy’s’ of marketing. They are still as relevant in today’s Lead Generation and Marketing world of IoT, AI, VR….. as they were in the 19th Century. Going to a trade show can be quite a costly expense for any organization, learn how to maximise your returns here. Likewise referrals are always a wonderful way to engage with new prospects. For any sales team it is always wonder to answer any with a prospect opening, “Hi, is that xxx xxxxx, I was recommended to call you by your customer…..” Do not be afraid to ask customers and partners to make recommendations for you to their contacts.
If you would like help with your businesses Inbound Marketing & Lead Generation campaigns please contact RML Marketing & Business Development Solutions today.