Starting a business has become incredibly easy – you can even do it online without spending a lot of money. However, the more technology advances and innovates, the more difficult it becomes for business owners to conduct their business, especially when generating sales.
Every successful sale stems from a ‘lead,’ which refers to a prospective customer who has or will show interest in buying or hiring your products, services, or whatever you have to offer. Unfortunately, there is a wide gap between lead generation and conversion for most companies, whereas, in others, there is a constant struggle to generate leads.
This is where lead generation strategies help. These are designed mainly by business developers and digital marketing agencies to help businesses land more customers, leading to higher revenue. Let’s look at some of the effective lead generation strategies and tips that you can use.
7 Ways You Can Generate More Leads for Your Business
Lead generation strategies and tips are an essential metric for the success of any business, and it ensures that your customers can be brought further along your sales funnel. No matter which industry your business belongs to, lead generation tactics will always be an integral part. So let’s have a look at some of the most effective strategies that you can apply.
1. Using Chatbots
Businesses often lose customers because they don’t seem to prioritize responding to them. This is one of the major grievances that your potential customers may have. For example, consider this: A customer sees your ad on Facebook and messages you for details or something they didn’t understand.
Although a lead is generated here since the customer is showing more interest in your products, your failure to reply on time and with a satisfactory answer can prove counterproductive for you, and you can say goodbye to your customer – for good.
To make sure this doesn’t happen, consider leveraging the powers and capabilities of artificial intelligence through the use of chatbots. These are AI-powered bots programmed to receive input from a human and respond just like a human. Integrate a chatbot into your social media pages and website. Your customers will be amazed at the real-time response they get and will think they are actually talking to a customer support agent!
Since chatbots are available 24/7, they can also eliminate the need for having an around-the-clock customer support team. Another supporting benefit from this strategy is that you can save a lot of money and generate qualified leads.
Some chatbots to look into include:
2. Social Media Marketing
Currently, social media marketing is one the most effective online lead generation strategies and tips. Companies that revamp their marketing strategies for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media giants have reported an increase of more than 100% in their qualified leads. Every business has a target audience, and there is no chance that most of them aren’t already on these platforms.
However, social media marketing requires a lot of deliberation and planning. At the heart of this strategy is creating posts that engage and compel people to respond or take action. Posts are hugely different from sales pitches or messages because the latter tend to drive people away rather than bring them to you.
Sometimes, the right content isn’t a post about your services or products. Instead, this is something that people would positively react to or respond to. These posts assure people that you aren’t trying to trick them into buying anything when in reality, you are roping them in to tell them everything about your business.
Therefore, if you are not ahead in the social media game, it is time to sit with your marketing department and take a look at your strategies so that you are not left behind in the race of making more sales.
3. Pay-Per-Click Marketing
If you have some experience with digital marketing or running online ads, you may have heard about pay-per-click marketing. PPC boosts your brand across a vast audience and helps you generate five to ten times more potential customers while only charging you for those that actually count as qualified leads. Although it is cost-effective, it can be pretty costly at first.
One of the most popular pay-per-click marketing providers is Google Ads, which allows you to show your ad on the top of the first page of Google Search so that you reach more potential customers. In addition, it provides you with a complete framework that you can use to generate tailored ads that target specific demographics, such as age groups, regions, spending patterns, etc.
Another way that you can use pay-per-click marketing to your advantage is through ads that are shown on other websites through banners and pop-ups. Websites that show these ads have enabled Google to display ads on their sites, and they also get a small share of the ad money from Google Ads.
Taking this a step further, PPC providers also monitor people's browsing history to see if they visit your website at least once a day. If this is true, then they would be shown your ads on every other website they visit. For instance, if you have a clothing store that somebody visited an hour ago, they would see its ad on a news agency website, social media platform, online gaming site, and many other places. This practice is known as retargeting.
4. Leverage ‘Out of Stock’ Notifications
If your business is centered around selling goods, and you experience a steady flow of sales, then it would be a bummer if any of your products are out of stock and won’t be available for a week or two. Now, if a customer is looking for a beautiful shirt that they saw on your website and sees that it is out of stock, it is highly likely that you will lose the customer for good.
Instead of simply displaying the ‘out of stock’ notification, it would be wiser to add a form where you ask customers to enter their email address to notify them when the item is back in stock. Alternatively, if you have a mobile app for your business, you can record the number of users who clicked on a specific product that was out of stock at the time.
Then, you can send push notifications to the customers as soon as you have the new stock ready. These measures will compel them to open your website or app again and order their favorite product. An added bonus is that if you are aware of when your product will be back in stock, add a countdown timer to your website so that customers can wait for it and check back at the mentioned time.
5. Redefining Sales Language
Nowadays, consumers are much more intelligent and ahead of their time, which means that you cannot keep using the same old marketing language to draw them in. Terms like ‘check it out’ or ‘sign up for our newsletter’ tend to drive people away from your business just like two magnets repel each other.
You want more people to connect to your business rather than scaring away the potential customers you already have. Therefore, you need to redefine the sales language you use in your marketing strategies and lead generation tactics. Building an email list is one of the most effective lead generation methods that has been used for years.
You can also use an email list to gather your potential customers in one place, but using terms like ‘sign up with us today’ doesn’t cut it anymore. Instead, you can opt for catchy and realistic phrases like ‘Become a part of our 10,000-strong family today.’ This has a certain social element added to it, and it is more effective at bringing people to your business.
6. Offer Free Trials
This is one of the lead generation tactics that never fails to attract customers. If you have a solid product and you know you can draw people in with a free trial, then go for it. Free trials and freemium products are effective at attracting potential customers. Once they sign up to receive their free product or service, you can send them more information about your product through emails. Moreover, you can also lure them in to try the paid or pro version by explaining all of the helpful features and benefits they can experience through it.
Many huge companies and service providers offer their potential customers free trials to introduce their products to a broader audience. Often, people who don’t feel the need to use your product will give it a try just because you are giving it away for free. However, once they begin to use it and like what it offers, they will be more prone to pay for the full version.
Of course, everyone who signs up for a free trial won't buy the full version, but this will go a long way toward lead conversion. Furthermore, it also helps you move your customers across the sales funnel much faster than other marketing methods.
Another way is to optimize your website so that people can instantly find the ‘lead magnet.’ This refers to the free service or trial that you are offering. It should be directly visible on your homepage so that more and more will be compelled to sign up for it and this will help you quickly gather qualified leads.
7. Using Top-Of Funnel Keywords
One of the best ways to draw people towards your lead magnets is to employ search terms that they use to determine phrases used by potential customers at the top of your sales funnel, commonly known as ‘top-of-funnel keywords.’
Once you have a list of these keywords, you can create tailored content and posts based on them. You can also develop a strategy for the blog posts that feature these keywords. Moreover, you can also use these terms in your pay-per-click marketing campaign and combine them with other lead generation strategies.
Another effective way to use top-of-funnel keywords is to generate blog posts that you can upload as guest posts on other blogs that share the same niche or industry as yours. Basically, the purpose is to generate content that can rank as high as possible in search engines, and this will help you generate qualified leads for your business.
FAQ
What is a Lead Generation Funnel?
A lead generation funnel is a set of processes or strategies that you can employ to attract potential customers. Basically, your ‘leads’ travel through several stages of a funnel before they make a purchase.
How Can I Generate More Leads for Free?
There are numerous ways for lead generation without spending any money. Some of these strategies include guest posting, sales emails, third-party listings, and many other effective methods.
What is a Lead Conversion Rate?
A lead conversion rate refers to the number of qualified leads that actually result in genuine sales and contribute to your revenue. This rate is used as a critical metric for company performance.
Conclusion
This culminates our blog on the best lead generation strategies and tips that help you make the most out of your business. Make sure to know your potential customers before you get on with your marketing or lead generation campaigns, as it is the most pivotal step for getting qualified leads that can actually generate good revenue.
