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Lead generation is an essential element of running any business. This is especially true for smaller companies, with leads being a key force driving sales and, eventually, profitability.
When done correctly, knowing how to generate leads can translate directly into business growth. Ideally, it can create loyal customers, who can in turn spread the word about your company.
Knowing how to create a lead generation strategy with your small business requires action. In this article we’re going to look at effective tactics for generating leads and the best practices your brand or product can implement for driving growth.
What is lead generation and why is it so critical for a small business’ marketing plans? Lead generation is the process of recognizing potential interest in your goods and services and converting this interest into a sale. It starts with visibility, credibility, and trust. Knowing how to generate leads with these three elements in place means potential clients can become customers, in turn helping drive revenue and growth.
Another aspect of understanding lead generation is how important sales funnels are to the process. A sales funnel is another way of visualizing your customer’s journey. The top – and widest part of the funnel – represents people who may be aware of your company’s goods and services but have not yet made a purchase. They are not the same as prospects, who have been qualified and are therefore highly likely to buy.
Leads are customers who are at the very top of the sales funnel, which is why understanding the visualization of a sales funnel for lead generation is so critical. A goal for most businesses typically is to create a lead generation funnel, turn leads into prospects, and consequently increase sales revenue.
Lead generation can look quite different from one business to the next:
Learning how to generate leads also requires understanding the various types of leads, which includes:
Next is to look at how to create a lead funnel and how to generate more leads.
Identifying a potential customer is one skill, but knowing how to find qualified leads is another. Learning how to generate leads may seem like an overwhelming process, especially for businesses just entering the marketplace. However, there are plenty of tried-and-tested strategies you can use for creating an effective lead generation process. These lead generation strategies also make it easy for finding qualified leads.
Many new businesses have difficulty identifying their target customers. This can be because they wish to avoid outlining their ideal customer for fear of narrowing their exposure and sales potential.
However, without knowing your target audience, it can be difficult to generate exposure as a brand and execute lead generation strategies. While narrowing down reach to a specific customer type might seem counterintuitive, identifying your ideal buyer may be the crucial first step in generating leads.
To identify target customers, it’s best practice to create a customer persona and conduct audience research. To create an ideal persona, you can brainstorm about a common type of customer your business serves.
Audience research can take many forms, but effective strategies for lead generation for small businesses include customer questionnaires or social media research. This data can then be used to help build an ideal customer persona.
Creating a content strategy that appeals to your target audience and sticking to a consistent content plan is another important lead generation technique. It involves creating compelling content that appeals to them and holds their attention, while distributing the information in a timely, consistent manner.
Content marketing can take many forms, such as blog posts, videos, infographics, and more. If this is catered to appeal to a target audience, it can be a highly-effective way of engaging leads, encouraging them down the funnel, and potentially convert leads into sales.
Learning how to generate leads with compelling content can take on several forms, such as:
A social media presence across the main platforms – Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, among others – can be effective. Keep in mind, certain social media platforms will resonate with your target audience and be a better fit for your lead generation marketing efforts versus other platforms.
Knowing how to use social media for lead generation may seem daunting, but there are several effective ways to reach out. Social media optimization may include:
A call to action, or CTA, tells your audience or potential customer exactly what you’re asking them to do next. When compelling content has been created or social media channels optimized, the next step is to eliminate uncertainty. When a CTA is clear, engaging, and well located, the customer is likely to follow through and act. In addition, when using SEO to build traffic to a site, a CTA plays a vital role in improving conversion rates.
It’s best practice for effective calls to action to be placed prominently on all your website’s landing pages. They can take several forms, but common calls to action for lead generation include prompt buttons that take users through to the next stage of the sales funnel, use action-oriented language, and create a sense of urgency. Examples of CTAs include:
It is not just the words of a CTA that compel customers to act – there is also a strong visual element. Choose colors that catch the eye and place the CTA ‘above the fold’ on the website page. If customers need to scroll to see a CTA, then it is substantially more likely they will miss it.
You can learn how to generate leads through landing pages. A landing page is a web page that serves as a visitor’s entry point to your site. The page presents an opportunity to elicit a response from potential customers, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. Landing pages can also help businesses capture leads.
Once social media and other marketing channels are optimized and driving people to your website, you can incorporate landing pages to convert their interest into sales.
High-converting landing pages for lead generation can include the following elements:
They may also include specific landing page features, such as lead capture forms or subscription buttons.
Email marketing can be a highly effective way for businesses to create leads, nurture them, and drive conversions. What is lead nurturing and how is it tied to email marketing? It’s simply building a relationship with a potential customer over time by providing helpful and relevant content. Email marketing is an ideal medium for this consistent content drip.
When a potential customer has greater trust in your brand or product, it can make it easy to gain conversions. Other potential benefits of using email marketing for lead nurturing can include:
To make a lead generation email marketing campaign work, you’ll need to build up an email list. This can be done by making signing up easy and accessible, offering discounts and giveaways, and creating engaging CTAs on landing pages and social media platforms.
Lead magnets are special deals or assets that are offered to customers in exchange for their contact details, usually an email address. They’re a highly effective tool when done correctly and when learning how to generate leads. Lead magnets can take several forms, including discount codes, invitations to webinars, eBooks, or other resources.
Once you have captured the lead’s contact information, you can then use it to nurture them through content that builds the brand or enhances their reputation. Good lead magnet ideas should ideally grab a customer’s attention and encourage them to engage with the business. The more this happens, the more data can be gathered.
If you’re wondering how to create a lead magnet, stick to the tried-and-true practices for effective options, which includes:
Collaborations can be beneficial in terms of generating leads for a business. They can help expand reach, while leveraging the credibility and trust of collaborators. In turn, this can help you access new resources. There are also associated benefits for the collaborating organization, such as access to potential new markets and cost-effective marketing.
Cross-promotion can also help a business access new networks and audiences, presenting the opportunity to grow revenue in previously untapped areas. It can also allow you to access knowledge and expertise or build trust with potential customers through positive brand associations. Of course, any collaboration should be mutually beneficial, with each company being able to offer their partner similar or equally valuable advantages.
There are several different types of collaborators available to businesses, including:
For anyone who is learning how to generate leads, it’s important to track and analyze your lead generation efforts. Without an accurate assessment of conversion rates and performance tracking, it is very difficult to know which areas of lead generation are working and which are not.
You can track leads and conversions through website analytics, email marketing platforms, landing page providers, or software for lead generation.
There are several lead generation metrics used to monitor and assess efficacy. These include:
By understanding which of these key performance indicators, or KPIs, to track, a business can gain a better understanding of its performance and lead generation conversion rates.
It’s also helpful to research and know what is a good lead generation conversion rate for your business or industry, so you can have a benchmark to compare your efforts towards. However, a good conversion rate depends on several other factors, including your landing page designs, content, strength of your offer, and your target audience.
If you want to know how to generate leads, then you’ll need to take a multi-faceted approach and use a wide range of tools. Defining your target audience, leveraging social media, and creating an email list are all examples of successful lead generation campaign strategies. Find out more about how PayPal can collaborate with you for effective lead generation analysis and ultimately drive growth.