One of the most challenging aspects of any business is the process of attracting and converting prospects into paying customers. This is essentially what lead generation is about. In this post, we explore some lead generation tactics to get your target to warm up and eventually initiate a relationship with your brand or organization.
Help Them Find Your Website and Get Them to Leave Their Contact Info
A couple of years ago, creating an search engine optimized website simply meant bombarding your website with the top search terms related to your business in the hopes of maximizing Google ranking. Savvy marketers have devised “black hat” strategies to beat search engines at their own game. Today, such tactics are no longer effective since search engines started employing massively complex algorithms to rank pages.
Often marketers are advised to do away with SEO altogether and focus only on improving user experience. Ideally, you would want visitors to browse your site longer and view multiple pages, share your links on social media and write blogs that link back to your content. These will definitely have a positive effect on your search ranking, but without incorporating any SEO strategy you might be missing out on opportunities to further enhance your online searchability. The truth is SEO and quality content go hand in hand. While your goal is to provide the information your audience is looking for, without appropriate keywords they might not be able to find your website in the first place. While you are at it, don’t forget to properly name image files. Images that have alternative tags can boost your rankings in the “images” section of search results.
Now that your prospect is on your website, you can consider incorporating a margin banner on every page to get visitors to sign up for your email newsletter. That way, you capture their contact information and you can continue to build a relationship with them. Time-delay pop-ups are also a popular tool. After they’ve clicked through to a blog post, time-delay pop-ups invite the reader to join the mailing list or download a whitepaper for further reading. These lead generation tactics keep you top of mind when they are ready to purchase your products or avail of your services.
Keep Your Pipeline Full with Warm Inbound Marketing
Warm inbound leads are those that you have identified as a good fit but have not necessarily expressed interest in your company. These leads can be purchased from third party providers or lists may be researched on the internet through industry associations or chambers of commerce. Take time to gather information on each company by visiting their websites and reading articles about them. Figure out what their business challenges look like and the pain they are trying to address. It is best to craft buyer personas to determine your ideal buyer. Next, visit the LinkedIn account of key executives to gather more information. This will help you craft more customized email messages.
When reaching out to your prospect, demonstrate that you understand their business challenges and identify solutions that your company can offer. Make it personal by referring to something they have mentioned on their website or on their social media accounts. Don’t forget to state your call-to-action (CTA), whether you would like to schedule a phonecall or invite your prospect to an in-person meeting.
Check-out Who Engages with Your Newsletters
When a prospect signs up for your newsletter, it is a clear sign that they are interested in what you have to say. Most email marketing platforms allow you to create visually engaging newsletter campaigns and also offer the ability to track metrics such as open and click-through rates. Here at VA Partners, we utilize MailChimp in creating our monthly newsletters. One section that we take time in checking is the matrix that shows people who have engaged with our content the most. This is a signal that they may be researching our services and would possibly be good leads. We then go on and check their company details. If the company they work for falls into the category we are looking for, we send them a personal note and start initiating a conversation.
If you are looking for more lead generation tactics, feel free to contact us. Alternatively, if you are simply looking for a source of excellent sales and marketing information, please sign up for our newsletter.
