The key to a successful, profitable business isn’t relying on customers to walk through the door without prior knowledge of your business, or for word-of-mouth to propel your sales.
Sales generation starts with a great leads strategy.
Leads generation is the process of searching out people that might take an interest in your business and could, therefore, become customers in the future.
Leads are what every business needs to grow and are essential to both B2B and B2C marketing.
It’s fair to say that 2020 has presented us all with some challenges, but for businesses, heading into the second half of the year with a new strategy in place can help your business to sail towards success.
Here, we’ll be walking you through some of the best lead generation strategies you should try in 2020.
1. Social media
Social media isn’t just a tool used to show off perfectly planned images or witty captions.
Social media can also be a great ingredient for online leads generation.
If you’re operating a B2C or B2B company with a target audience that regularly uses social media, there are several features on Instagram and Facebook in particular that can drive action.
Thanks to new social media shopping features, gaining new customers directly through social media is becoming increasingly possible.
Here are a few ways in which to use social media to generate leads.
Grow your pages
Increasing your social media following for your business is also a great way to gain brand awareness and drive leads.
Social media makes it easy for you to share company updates, new campaigns, products or offers with wide audiences.
When you provide a call to action throughout your social media (in your Instagram bio, through clickable content or paid promotions), it allows potential leads to reach your landing pages.
When your leads find your landing pages and provide contact information, you can start the process of converting them into customers.
Growing your social media pages allows you to reach more of your target audience which can also help to increase your brand awareness.
How can you grow your social media pages? Well, it all comes down to the content that you are posting and the messages you are putting out there.
Growing your social media pages is impossible without well-thought-out, engaging content.
Use social media to your advantage and create content that sparks action.
Whether that’s promoting discounts for new customers, pushing new product launches, or creating competition posts for your followers to get involved with.
Remember that social media is a space filled with vast amounts of imagery from all over the world, so competition is fierce.
Your content and captions need to stand out, grab attention, and drive action.
Don’t forget to utilize social media CTA buttons such as ‘sign up’, ‘book now’, or ‘shop now’ when posting and boosting content to gain leads.
Use shopping features
Facebook and Instagram are amazing platforms for promoting products or services, and new shopping features now allow users direct access to websites and landing pages from social media posts.
Promote your products on your Instagram or Facebook pages and leave direct links or call to actions on your posts that your audience can click through to access your website.
Utilize Facebook’s shop options, Instagram’s ‘swipe up’ in stories feature, or link your landing page in your bio.
Your business social media pages should be used as a platform for not only connecting with your target customers and leads but for directing traffic to your website–so always use a call to action.
Lead ads
Thanks to Facebook’s ad services, more businesses can seek out leads using the lead ads feature.
With these ads, the main purpose is to seek out leads and provide easy to complete forms for users to provide contact information for a business.
Find more leads through Facebook by utilizing its lead ads feature to gain contact information.
2. Email marketing
Email marketing is an amazingly cost-effective leads generation strategy.
From something as simple as getting website visitors to sign up for your mailing list with the click of a button, email marketing can help you to keep in touch with people who take an interest in your business and even make sales.
Using catchy email marketing titles alongside top offers or product launches, email marketing can be the perfect way to introduce potential new customers to your brand, build loyalty, and make sales.
Why not use email marketing to send out prospective clients information on your cost-effective packages or products? A new campaign or offer that you are running?
An attention-grabbing email headline and content can be a great way to convert your leads into customers.
From offering your leads something that they will want to avoid missing out on, such as a discount, to an exciting product launch, crafting an attention-grabbing headline in your emails can spark action.
3. Website optimization
Leads generation isn’t just about sending out external messages.
Creating a website that is optimized to cater to the needs of potential new customers is a great way to bring in leads.
Your website is where anyone coming from PPC, search engines or social media will land, making it imperative that your site functions seamlessly.
There are a few ways you can make your website better optimized for lead generation.
Contact forms & Sign up buttons
If someone is taking an interest in your business, they will want to know the best way to get in touch with you or to keep updated with your product or service offerings.
Implementing easy to find contact forms and sign up buttons is a great way to make this possible.
Whether it’s a pop up online chat option, a “sign up to our mailing list” button, or a find us on social media footer.
The more opportunities you give your leads to get in touch, the greater the likelihood is that they will do just that.
Think SEO
Search engine optimization focuses on driving organic traffic to your website from search engines.
Anything you do to improve your website for search engine optimization will also affect leads generation.
Search engines are key in generating leads because your customers can seek out your business through specific searches.
How do you improve your website to get more rankings on search engines?
Well, there’s a lot to think about when it comes to SEO. Here are a few things to consider when optimizing your website:
Make it user-friendly
Is your site easy to navigate or are there glitches in how it performs?
Is it slow to load and are users likely to find this off-putting when seeking out information on the products or services that you offer?
Search engines favor websites that are user-friendly and function easily for their users.
Use keyword research
Using relevant keywords throughout your site is useful in helping potential customers find your website through search engines.
By implementing keywords into your website content, there’s a better chance of reaching people searching for a business like yours.
4. Implement lead magnets
Another great way to bring in new leads is to implement online lead magnets.
Lead magnets are free incentives that encourage people to exchange their contact information in return for something.
There are various ways in which you might implement a leads magnet depending on your industry.
Examples include offering free downloadable guides, infographics, webinars, discount codes, and eBooks.
Lead magnets are a simple and highly effective way of gaining new contacts to add to an email marketing list.
The more leads you generate, the greater the reach and sales potential there is for your email marketing.
If you choose to implement lead magnets on your website, be sure to make them valuable and relevant to your target customers.
The main purpose of a lead magnet is to provide valuable resources in exchange for contact information, therefore the magnet needs to provide something to your site visitor that they don’t want to miss out on.
Here are some factors to consider when creating a lead magnet that drives results:
Make it relevant and valuable
Think about what it is your audience is looking for on your website.
Are they seeking more in-depth information or would they benefit from discounts off your products?
If your lead magnet isn’t providing your customers with something of high value, it’s not going to perform well.
Make it easy
Are your lead magnets simple and easy to sign up to, or is the process too lengthy that your leads will click off the page before completing the form?
Making your lead magnet simple and easy helps to encourage people to sign up.
Does it deliver what it says it will?
Lead magnets aren’t a way to “trick” your leads into providing your business with their contact information.
Their information is valuable, and therefore your resources should be too.
5. Pay-per-click
Pay per click advertising is a highly effective form of marketing that can be used for both B2B and B2C companies.
If you know who your target audience is (and if you don’t, you definitely should), PPC is great for targeting specific customers searching for topics relevant to your business using keywords.
Rather than relying on organic traffic for lead generation, pay per click allows you to pay for your ads to be seen directly at the top of search pages when your leads seek out information on something you provide.
The more searches you appear in, the better your chances are of gaining leads and clicks on your website.
Pay per click works well as a leads generation strategy because it allows searchers who are seeking out relevant information to find your business, therefore increasing your brand awareness and website traffic.
PPC ads operate using a wide range of targeting options for you to reach your customers, so you can make your ads as specific as you like according to your customer’s location, age, interests, and much more.
PPC advertising is fully trackable too, so you can keep track of how your budget is being spent and cut back on spending money where you aren’t getting results.
Here’s what to remember when creating PPC ads that drive leads:
Test what works
Are some locations gaining better traction than others when it comes to your PPC advertising? Are some keywords underperforming while others are thriving?
Part of creating a PPC strategy that drives results is testing along the way.
When you analyze what does and doesn’t work for your ads, it helps you to waste less money by investing in only what works well for your business.
Use relevant landing pages
Landing pages are stand-alone web pages created for the purpose of ads so that specific campaigns direct leads to a correlating page.
Your landing pages are where potential leads can provide contact information.
Creating landing pages separate from your website is a good way to direct those that click on your ads to a specific offer or product.
Create landing pages that have relevance to each of your ad groups and keywords to maximize your lead conversions.
Each landing page should prompt the lead to perform an action–whether it’s providing their information or clicking on a product offer.
Are you ready to get started on a leads generation strategy that works for your business in 2020?
Leads generation is a marketing strategy that takes time and thought.
Finding the best leads strategy for your business is often a case of trial and error, but once perfected can produce amazing results for your business.
Want to learn more about building a lead management strategy that generates results? Speak to Revcarto now.
