At first glance, the primary objective of conversion optimization or any other marketing technique would be driving sales. However, the most common and essential goals for business owners and marketers is lead generation.
To tell you the fact, it’s an entire phenomenon in itself and comes with its own sets of unique challenges, especially when you want potential leads lingering around but aren’t sure how to motivate them enough to approach you.
Not just novices, but there are several such situations where even professionals seem to be stuck while generating leads. Keeping that in mind, this comprehensive lead generation guide is going to walk you through the concept of lead generation and the techniques that you can use for the same.
A lead is known as a person who has shown interest in your products or services in some form, way, or shape. As a lead, you will be hearing from a person or organization with which you’re already in contact with instead of just getting cold calls from random people.
For instance, suppose you’re running an auto company, and you discover someone trying to learn more about how to take care of the car. In such a situation, you send them an email, redirecting them back to your website to make them familiar with the products or services that you’re offering.
This approachable process will be less irrelevant and intrusive as you’re fulfilling the necessity of the person rather than just compelling him/her to invest in your business out of nowhere.
Whenever a stranger shows interest in your business, the conversion from a stranger to the customer becomes much more seamless. Talking about lead generation, it comes in the second stage of the inbound marketing procedure. This comes into the limelight when you’ve managed to attract an extensive audience and are ready to convert them successfully into buyers.
Basically, lead generation is a fundamental process that contains different stages, converting an interested visitor to a delighted customer.
Let’s walk through the various steps of lead generation and understand this process:
Once you’ve understood how different elements work together, you can then use different promotional channels to drive traffic to your website or landing page so as to begin with generating leads.
However, what are those channels that can bring you adequate results? Let’s know more about them.
Lead generation using content marketing is one of the most effective ways that can provide you appropriate results. Usually, you get to create content so as to offer useful and valuable information to your visitors.
You can also include different CTAs anywhere inside the content, inline, in the hero, bottom-of-post or side panel. The more useful your content is, the more it will compel your visitors to click on the CTA and move to the landing page.
The primary objective of an advertisement is to bring out the action from people. Otherwise, every penny that you will be spending will go in vain. So, if you wish to convert people, make sure that the landing page content and the offer shown in the ad match precisely. Also, be crystal clear regarding the action you want your visitors to take.
One of the best things about using blog posts to market an offer is that you get the freedom to customize the content to match your end goal. For instance, if you’re offering an instructional video on how to build a landing page, you can write a blog post about choosing the correct marketing metrics, add a CTA to the video, and your job is done. Go here to read more about how to generate leads using videos.
With social media platforms, you can easily guide your followers to take specific actions, whether it’s following your website or swiping up on Instagram stories or clicking on the links available in the Twitter bio. You can also promote offers through social media posts and include a relevant CTA in the caption.
Email Marketing is a convenient way to reach out to such people who are already familiar with your brand. Since they’ve already subscribed to your list, it will be quite easier to request them to take action. Although make sure that you’re using proper CTAs, compelling copy, and striking design so as to avoid making the entire thing look cluttered.
Business owners and marketers wish to fill up their sales funnel real quick. Hence, neglecting the idea of going through a vast lead generation process seems a bit over-the-top to them. After all, when things can be done easily, why spend efforts and time on it, isn’t it?
That’s where the desire to purchase leads steps in. When compared to organically generated leads, buying them takes less time and efforts. Despite that, it’s the most unethical manner that can result in nothing but severe harm to your brand’s reputation.
First of all, leads that you’re purchasing don’t know you or your brand at all. Basically, they must have opted in at some other website while signing up for a specific thing. And, they won’t even expect to receive anything from your organization.
Therefore, messages that you will be sending them will become unwanted and intrusive. To put it in simple words, you won’t be approaching those customers who haven’t been to your website; instead, you’ll be just disturbing them.
Moreover, if they never wished to receive messages from you, there is a high chance of them spamming you, which can be quite dangerous. Not only will this put you in a blacklist but it can also harm the reputation of your IP. So, as much as possible, avoid buying leads. On the flip side, you can spend the same amount on advertising your brand and generating organic leads. Go here to read more about how to generate leads using videos.
Lead scoring is a way that helps you qualify your leads quantitatively. It’s a methodology that lets you provide a numeric value to leads so that they can be put into their place from “interested” to “ready to sales.”
You get to score your leads depending on different metrics, including the interest they’re showing in your business, how they fit into the business and their current purchase cycle. This entire process can be helpful when it comes to strengthening the revenue cycle, effectively driving more ROI and aligning marketing & sales campaigns.
Online lead generation consists of a comprehensive range of campaigns, strategies, and techniques depending upon the platform you’re using to capture organic leads. So, here are some of the strategies that will help you with this task to a great extent.
Since its establishment, this popular social media networking platform has been considered as a great way to generate leads. Initially, you could use compelling bios and outbound links in the posts to attract the target audience.
However, with the introduction of Facebook Ads, the algorithm of this platform changed drastically. And, to help businesses grab authentic leads, it incepted Lead Ads. Moreover, this social networking website also lets you display a simple CTA button at the top of the page, which can be used to redirect followers to the site.
This widely-acknowledged platform has got its own ‘Lead Gen Cards’ that allow you to generate leads directly within a tweet without feeling the need to leave the platform. Users’ names, Twitter usernames, and email addresses are automatically pulled into this card, and they’d need to click the Submit button to turn into a lead.
Since its initial days, LinkedIn has been increasing its stake in the domain of advertisement. When it comes to lead generation, this platform has got Lead Gen Forms that auto fills with the data of a user’s profile whenever they click on the CTA, making it seamless to obtain information.
The popularity of Google hasn’t hidden from any part of the world. On a daily basis, this search engine gets 3.5 billion searches. Therefore, when talking about pay-per-click (PPC), it’s all about creating ads for the search engine result page of this platform.
Although there are other search engines to help you with lead generation, however, the effectiveness of the PPC campaigns can only be gained from the Google, courtesy statistics.
Another efficient method to generate leads is the direct approach. This would include SEO, email marketing, and social media marketing. You can try your hands on different channels and see what works the best for you.
In any of the lead generation campaigns, there can be several elements. And, sometimes, it can be challenging to figure out which one is working and which one isn’t. Here are some tips that will help you build a better campaign.
If you dig deeper, you’ll find out that the most successful marketing teams are using a bunch of tools to keep everything together. That’s where lead generation tools and software come into the limelight. After all, while diving into this procedure, you’ll have to keep a close tap over people visiting your website.
Right from their names to their email addresses, which page they’re visiting, how they’re navigating your website, what are they doing before filling out the form – there is so much to track. If not, you’ll have a difficult time connecting with your customers.
The internet is filled with an abundance of tools and software that can help you at every phase of this process. So, research a bit more about them and find the ones that would suit your business requirements perfectly.
The highest converting campaigns would be the one that deliver what they promise. Hence, you need to make sure that you’re showcasing a consistent message throughout the lead generation process and are also offering value to every potential lead that engages with your brand.
Different factors of your lead generation campaign should showcase in everything that’s related to your brand, including blog, website, and the product that you’re trying to sell. Concentrate more on developing a strong relationship with customers than just obtaining their email addresses.
When you make use of CTAs, you must keep in mind that they’re meant to redirect visitors to a specific landing page where they can understand more about the offer and purchase the product or service instantly.
Sending visitors to the homepage through CTA is one of the significant problems that marketers commit. If you’re selling a product or a service, don’t forget to create a unique and dedicated landing page for it.
Now you have it, people. Since the concept of lead generation is quite clear to you now, begin your journey like a pro. Keep researching, experimenting, and executing to be updated with the trends of the industry. Keep in mind that anyone can copy and sell. So, if you wish to make your brand stand out from the rest, be authentic & original.
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