Lead generation is one of the most talked-about topics in the marketing world, but what does it mean? How does it help your sales pages and what techniques are used to gain more leads? Below you will find answers to these and many other questions.
Whether we’re talking about a small business, who’s a rookie in the industry, or a conglomerate, lead generation is the term most used in each company’s marketing and management teams. Generating leads is a sense of starting any business. So, what exactly are leads and lead generation?
What Are the Leads and Lead Generation?
The lead can be anyone (most often a person) who has expressed an interest in your products or services. You can get leads in a variety of ways – through your website, a referral, or even a phone call.
Lead generation is the most important aspect of online marketing that refers to develop the interest of potential customers by providing them with information about your products or services.
Lead generation is, basically, an attempt to challenge the interest of your potential customers so much that they will contact you to find out more information about your product and, eventually, to make a purchase and become regular customers.
Why Is Lead Generation Important?
A lead generation strategy is crucial for your business. Most marketers lose the will to work in an area where they feel they have reached the limit when it comes to companies and people they can sell their products to.
Of course, hard-working sellers are trying to find a solution to this problem by targeting the right group of consumers with online lead generation.
Nowadays, businesses are heavily dependent on lead generation, since it allows the sales pages of those businesses to generate more traffic, which can further lead to the conversion of leads that were found into customers. This results in an increase in conversion rate and helps the business to gain huge profits in the process.
Google has made it very easy to connect consumers and businesses. It helps potential customers find online exactly what they need and it also helps businesses present their products and show the world how different their products and services are from their competitors.
So when potential customers are looking for something they need and your website is the first to catch their attention, the chances of conversion at that moment automatically skyrocketed.
Quality and consistent lead generation process will definitely make it easier for both the client and the business to get what they need online.
Lead Generation Strategies Which Experts Recommend
Hiring a lead generation specialist will without a doubt help you gain new leads. Lead generation professionals have developed their skills and perfected one of the most important things for all types of businesses – lead generation through outbound marketing (outbound marketing is the initiation of contact with a customer by a salesman or company) using phone calls or email for sales purposes.
These specialists recommend using the following techniques for increasing lead generation on sales pages.
- Content Marketing
Did you know that the businesses that have a blog on their websites generate 67% more leads than those who don’t? Blogging is extremely important and useful for both your website and your business, because blog = content.
The more your blog is optimized for search engines, the more leads will find you online. Get lead generation by focusing on the SEO of your blog: use keywords and backlinks strategically to drive as much traffic to your website as possible. Ensure that your blog posts end with a call to action. This means asking potential clients to subscribe to your newsletter or blog posts.
“Content is king” was the subject of a famous essay written by Bill Gates,
published on the Microsoft website in 1996. In the essay, he stated, “Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.” These words have come true after almost two decades, as blogging and content marketing are the best methods of generating leads.
Content marketing attracts the interested audience and provides them with information about what your business has to offer. This makes the sales team’s job easier by helping them gather relevant leads with prior knowledge of their products and services.
- Contact Forms
Adding a contact form to your website is a great way to generate leads. Create contact and subscription forms that are optimized to encourage visitors to share their private information with you. Pop-up windows where visitors can enter their information are very effective and popular for making a list of possible leads. Your “Contact Us” forms should also include a section where users can enter their email addresses.
In this area, you’ll probably need the help of lead generation specialists because they are able to evaluate whether the forms you currently have on the website are working effectively enough to generate leads. If they don’t, the specialists will create new pop-ups that will collect more leads. This is the easiest way to get the email addresses of your visitors without much effort.
- Website Landing Page
Focus on making your website work as one with your brand. Generally, start with your landing page where you need to adjust the text, fonts, colors, and images to match your brand. Try to revamp your call-to-action page, just like other pages, to generate more leads. In other words, optimize your website for lead generation by giving it an attractive visual appeal.
Do the A/B test. Compare two different versions of one piece of content (landing page, email, call to action…) with two similarly sized audiences to see which one performs better.
- Email Marketing
Email communication is one of the fastest and easiest ways to reach your customers and prospects. Maybe your user purchased one product from your range, or visited your website and left an email address. That’s great, but what’s the next step?
Lead generation experts have a little secret: they use automated marketing software to analyze data. Once downloaded, they automatically send an email to the appropriate audience. The data obtained are mainly based on their pattern of behavior: What are customers buying? When do they buy items? This type of information is essential to reach the desired audience.
According to research, email is the most effective digital tactic for generating B2B leads, and 89% of marketers say email is their primary channel for generating leads.
Provide relevant and educational content for the newsletter with some news or promotional message about the company and/or product. Your audience isn’t only interested in news about your business; it’s interested in content that’s relevant to their businesses and will deliver real value to them.
Remember to include a clear and visible call to action in your newsletter. Make it a different color from the background. Always invite the audience to either sign up, or try the free trial, or click for more information. But, ask the audience one thing only, don’t confuse them. Design newsletter to attract attention.
- Social Media Marketing
Social networks represent the most recognizable platform for promoting your business. Through social networks, which are at their peak, it’s easy to get fast-paced popularity and find out who your potential leads are, which is essential.
Make attractive announcements that quickly draw leads, but the best advertisement is word-of-mouth, which in this case means sharing your posts. They will focus on your customers, their preferences, interests, and inquiries.
Social networks don’t only build trust between you and your customers, but through them, your content is shared and reaches their friends, who then become future clients.
Social media marketing has increased its reach: it used to only connect people online, but now has become the largest hub for connecting people to the services and products they need.
- E-Books
It’s a favorite element of any content marketing strategy and probably the best medium for B2B businesses looking to highlight their expertise and technical data of their products. Of course, don’t expect to make money from e-book sales in the short term.
The E-book is a free resource with which you want to give real value to your leads, educate them and show your expertise and authority in the field.
Accordingly, when creating an e-book, follow these three main tips:
Educate, don’t sell – Never, but never set sales or promotion a primary goal of an e-book. It’s often the first touch they have with you, so it’s important that in this step you don’t destroy your reputation by not providing the values and information you have promised.
Ask for something in return – We don’t mean money. Ask for their contact information or a medium through which you can provide them with additional content in the future that will make them happy to become your loyal customer.
Catch them in their customer journey – The e-book is a phenomenal resource when customers are just researching their problem. If you interest them in your product at this stage, it’s very likely that you have just received a quality lead that you will easily turn into your customer through the next steps.
- Optimization of Your Website for Mobile Devices
More and more people are using their smartphones to search and visit websites. More specifically, 60% of searches are done via smartphones. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile browsing, you are causing serious damage to your business. Website user experience issues will affect lead generation.
Actually, your website should primarily be tailored for mobile views and then for larger screen views. This will ensure the visibility of your website from all platforms, not just from the desktop.
