1. Optimize your web pages for conversions
All your online lead generation efforts must start with your website. It’s no good generating traffic to your site – be it from Google, social media, or word-of-mouth – if those visitors then decide to leave without taking action.
Your website needs to be optimized to persuade individuals to do something – whatever that action may be. When it comes to lead generation, typically you are trying to capture a prospect’s contact information, such as their name, email address, phone number, and other qualifying attributes that will aid your selling process.
How do you do this? Well, as easy as it is to set up a website in this day and age, that doesn’t automatically guarantee that your website will be optimized to collect leads. There are certain best practices that all of the pages on your website should follow in order to maximize the number of leads you gain.
Not an expert?
No worries. There are several tools, such as Leadpages, available that make the creation of high-performing webpages as easy as writing an email. Leadpages enables you to quickly create and publish web pages based on a proven formula of success. Their extensive marketplace and library of page templates help even the biggest novice convert more leads.
2. Run a giveaway or contest
A giveaway or contest can generate a ton of email and social leads in a short period of time. It works like this – brands offer a prize in exchange for participants to refer friends, share content and like your social media profiles.
You can get creative with the prize/reward types as well as the actions needed to collect points (sharing, tagging, referring, etc.). Below is an example of the giveaway thank you page and how the prize and points system works. Check out this case study on how to run giveaways.
3. Directly engage with leads
Direct customer engagement should one of your top priorities.
Most businesses choose to go with in-direct engagement – such as FAQs. This is not the most effective way to engage.
Direct engagement, on the other hand, makes use of live chat, forums and help centers – where customer service representatives are present all the time to make sure every query is handled properly.
More engaged customers results in better word-of-mouth and more leads.
4. Deploy outbound & inbound marketing
According to the stats, outbound marketing is still more effective than inbound marketing. But, it doesn’t mean that you forget about inbound marketing. Look to deploy both approaches in a balanced manner as this will be helpful in generating leads and eventually your business.
From an inbound perspective – personalize your email communication and get active in online communities by regularly sharing informative content, as well as solving common customer problems. This will help you establish healthy relationships with your customers and build more leads.
5. Invest in new technology
New technology sets the trend in the market. For example, smartphones are trending all over the world. Subsequently, most people access their mail or browse websites through smartphones or tablets; this shows that the you should invest in making your marketing efforts compatible with these devices, allowing you to reach the maximum amount of customers.
In a nutshell, you should keep an eye on emerging technology and channels through which you can get more leads for your business.
6. Find leads on Twitter
Twitter is not only a social networking website, but also a source of potential leads for your company. With the help of Followerwonk, you can analyze aspects such as; information about followers, at what time your followers tweet, etc., so that you can reach the audience that is associated with your niche.
Followerwonk helps you find influencers and connect with them. It also has a great interface.
7. Develop & optimize informative content
It is undeniable that content can be a great source of web traffic – which will result in more leads. But it needs to be informative and appeal to your target audience.
High-quality content can be an asset for you as it attracts traffic to your website well beyond its publish date. Try to include images, video and infographics to increase share counts and engagement.
8. Make your Tweets sing
If possible, include images with your Tweets, they have a way of making things more interesting and engaging to your customers.
Plus, use hashtags so your content is easier to find. The more often you are found, the more leads you will get.
9. Tap into databases
Data.Com is a huge database where you can find potential leads for your business. It maintains a list of companies with accurate contact information, so that in minimum time you can identify relevant leads.
As Data.com provides an extensive set of data instantly, it can contribute around a 25% increase in sales.
10. Market through LinkedIn
As we all know, LinkedIn is a business-centric social networking website. It can prove to be a great platform for bringing new clients to your business too. LinkedIn also allows users to publish content to an already engaged audience.
11. Automate your marketing
What about a tool for getting more leads?
Drip is an application that offers marketing automation through the form of a well-designed popup, email marketing and more. You can collect the information of your prospective customers and turn them into genuine leads on autopilot.
12. Answer a question on Quora
Quora is a Question & Answer based social networking site with millions of people from different demographics posting daily questions. If you answer enough questions of users, they will spot your profile and most likely check out your website.
15. Don’t forget your signature
Make your email signature effective by embedding a link that redirects the reader to relevant content. With the help of link integration, the chance of maximum web traffic flow towards your content will be higher.
If you implement HTML coding in your emails, make sure to test it on all the platforms to make sure that everything is working fine.
