First of all what is lead generation?
Lead Generation can be defined that the way your company attains the interest of a stranger and converts them into someone who has interest in your company’s service or product who then becomes a client or customer of your business.
You have to remember that led generation is unique to every business. It is using the individual assets relative to that company to attract people to that company. Once you have attracted them you are hoping to lead them all the way to the checkout counter so that they can purchase your product or service.
Be clear on who you are looking for as a future client by building customer profile, just having a customer profile is not going to guarantee that you will get that specific type of client but it is a great starting point in keeping your sales and marketing team focused on the type of client that you want to have.
Why is lead generation important?
Although there will be many times where a stranger actively searches for your product or service because they have a need for it but more so then not it is going to be your job to actively search for and convert strangers into customers.
How to generate leads for your company
To successfully attract a new visitor to your business through one of your marketing efforts via your website or social media page, require an impactful call-to-action on your post.
Your call to action could include the use of a “special offer” such as an e-book or free course. Don’t forget to add a landing page as a net to catch the details of everyone that is wanting to download or attend the offer that you have made. The people who have filled out the information on the landing page can now be considered new leads for your company.
Marketing for lead generation.
Promoting your lead generation efforts is key to gaining more leads for your business
Lead generation marketing flow diagram.
You need to remember that over the years marketers have ruined every marketing opportunity tool and now customers understand the value that their details have and in order for your lead generation to be successful you need to offer real value in exchange for the details of future leads.
When trying to generate leads for your company your need to be creative in your execution of the lead generation marketing flow as illustrated above.
The use of informational content such as a blog post, is a great way to guide your visitors to the landing page. You can also use email to target the people who you already know but who may not know about your business. Remember not to spam your contacts as this will negatively impact not only the possibility of acquiring a new lead but also damage the chance of targeting them for future campaigns.
Why buying leads does more damage than anything else:
As previously mentioned above MARKETERS KILL EVERY GREAT MARKETING TOOL. Whereas when email was first launched people couldn’t wait to receive an email, same as when the first cell phones came out, we all waited for the next text and call even if it was from someone they never gave their contact information to. However as we have evolved, humans are now more than ever realizing how important their time is and because of being bombarded with called calls, emails and texts, we now get angry when we are receiving messages or calls from a business or service we never gave our information to.
In the past buying leads was the fastest and easiest way to generate new leads for your business however this has changed and the money you spent on buying the leads could have been far better used in an online ad campaign where you could organically generate them.
If you know a thing or two about the adverse effect caused to your business when a few people have marked your email address as a spammer to their email provider causing your email address to be blacklisted (it is incredibly difficult to be taken off the blacklist). So think twice before sending emails to people who have not opted in to receiving emails from you.
Qualifying a lead.
Questions to ask when qualifying a lead
1. Do you know what problem you or your business is facing (Remember that in order to qualify a lead they must be able to identify their problem)
2. Why are you looking to solve this problem now?
3. What has stopped you in the past from solving it?
4. What would happen if you don’t solve the problem?
5. Have you budgeted for this (to solve the issue), If not when will you?
There are many more available online for you to look at including into your lead qualification process.
Once a lead has been qualified, you will then want to score them against other leads to quantify who of the leads are only interested (still need to be developed) and how many of your leads are “ready for a sale” also known as a sales qualified lead “SQL”.
Your sales director or manager will generally have the specific criteria for scoring a new lead but it should be maintained throughout the sales and marketing departments so that everyone is on the same page so to speak.
The higher the leads score the higher the possibility they are from becoming a customer or client for your business.
How to use Social Media for lead generation.
Facebook:
With Facebook ads you are able to target your audience as specifically or as broadly as you like depending on the outcomes you are trying to reach.
Click here to see more on how to generate leads with Facebook
Twitter:
With Twitter you have lead generation cards which is an incredible way to generate leads with your tweets without them having to leave the feed. Their username, email and twitter username will automatically registered with the card. All it requires from the user to become a lead is to click the submit button.
Click here to see more on how to generate leads with Twitter
LinkedIn:
Tools for better lead generation campaigns.
POP-UP FORMS : Click to find our more
LEAD FLOWS : Click to find our more
Remember that people are looking for value so you need to create that value with everyone of your Call To Actions, It might be by offering an E-book or informational article like this one or if they are already interested in your product or service they may want a demo or free trial.
It is not easy to create content that is valuable to your target audience and it is very time consuming but if you are not offering any value to your readers or website audiences who are not yet ready to buy but are in the curiosity phase, they may leave and not return.
WorkLinker helps you stay by offering content creation services as well as many other services, so that you never lose time whilst growing your business and keep providing high quality content and secure many more leads for your business.
Remember to keep your message clear and consistent, whilst ensuring that you deliver on the promises you’ve made.
The worst thing that you can do is leave the reader confused about what you are doing or delivering but the ultimate NO, NO, is to break any promises you have made because this will instantaneously destroy any rapport you’ve built with that lead.
Remember to create a landing page for your Call-To-Actions and not directly to your website or Facebook homepage as you want to think of it as a funnel leading your leads to the sale and not let them wonder off. It also ensures that you are able to give that reader or visitor what you promised.
The Conclusion but not the end.
Lead generation is always changing and will continue to do so. We recommend that you use this article as a starting point and continue to grow on your knowledge as you keep creating incredible offers and CTA’s for your readers. Keep improving your landing pages and forms so that you can gain valuable insights about your readers or site visitors. Never stop trying new things, remember that any failure is an opportunity to learn and improve.
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