How to Generate More Leads for Your Business

Have you been researching how to generate leads, but received lots of contrasting answers? We get it: it can be incredibly overwhelming. With ruthless competition and the broadest market of all times—aka the internet—you might not know where to direct your marketing efforts or how to make your business stand out.

Good news, though: you’re in the right place. We’re going to tell you exactly how to generate more leads and, most importantly, how to convert them into sales.

Once you’ve correctly identified your target audience, you should create a lead pipeline that combines lead generation techniques as well as strategies to retain your prospects and convert them into customers. We recommend trying different techniques and monitoring your results to understand what works best for your business instead of chucking lots of money towards impersonal advertising and… hoping for the best.

 

How to Generate Leads for My Business

Here’s a mixture of outbound, inbound, traditional and digital marketing techniques to generate more leads. For a more in-depth explanation of the digital marketing side of things, check out this article.

Now, let’s get cracking!

 

Boost your SEO

Is your business the solution to your target audience’s problem? Then make sure they can find you when they’re looking for it! Do some research to discover what they’re actually googling and optimise your website for those keywords.

 

Perfect your landing page

Your target customer has found your website thanks to your incredible SEO. Fantastic, but now you only have 8 seconds to impress them!

Make sure that your landing page is straight to the point without wordy columns of texts, your USP is clear, and your website works well on mobiles too, since that’s where 52% of all searches come from. Don’t forget to add a clear call to action and an attention-grabbing lead magnet⁠—a personalised discount, a funny quiz, or some downloadable free content⁠—to prompt them to leave you their email address or subscribe to your engaging newsletter. Here are some more web design tips.

 

Develop a content marketing strategy

People buy from people: you don’t want your company to feel like a one-way blend of branding and impersonal corporate statements. Starting and cultivating a relationship with your target audience will help you reach new prospects. The best way to do so is to craft a dynamic content marketing strategy: make the most of your social media, blog page and newsletter to offer free content and build trust. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different content formats too, such as webinars, podcasts and, especially, video.

 

Encourage online reviews

Raise your hand if you’ve checked TripAdvisor before deciding where to go for food.

Yep, we’re guilty, too.

People love recommendations, and so do your prospects. After a sale is completed, get in touch with your customers and ask them for an honest review.

 

Promote customer referrals

Word of mouth will always be one of the best marketing strategies, but, unfortunately, it’s not trackable (unless you eavesdrop on your customers in real life, but that would be creepy). Instead, promote customer referrals or offer discounts to those who buy through their friend’s personalised link.

 

Create targeted ads

Once you know your audience, your ads can really grab their attention by promising them the solution to that specific problem that they’re experiencing. This can be done by targeting specific keywords on Google or advertising on the social media where your audience is most active.

 

Participate in events (on and offline)

Whether you’re a B2B or a B2C company, physically putting yourself out there will be extremely beneficial. Discover the most relevant events regarding your industry and target audience, and use them as an opportunity to start real-life conversations with people who are already interested in your sector.

In a Covid-19 conscious world, you may need to take your events online. Many event organisers have already made the switch to Zoom-based meetings and there’s plenty of opportunity to keep up with some virtual networking of your own.

Converting Leads: How to Generate Leads in Sales

Basically, you need to succeed in what lots of businesses fail to do or seem to forget about: actively converting your prospects into customers instead of thinking it will magically happen on its own.

How?

 

Create a sales funnel

Just like you need a strategy to get leads in the first place, you also need to decide what to do once someone has expressed an interest in your company. It’s obviously vital to keep track of all prospects and interactions in a CRM (customer relationship management) database.

 

Nurture your relationship with your prospects

Only a small percentage of your prospects are ready to buy. Some things stopping them could be a lack of trust, the fact that they’re still considering the competition, or that they don’t fully understand the benefits that you can bring them.

The best way to keep your prospects engaged is to offer them exceptional content on a regular basis. While we mentioned a content strategy to get leads, you also need it to maintain them and turn them into paying customers, generating sales. This will also help you build trust, prove that you’re an expert in your industry, and show them how your products can improve their lives.

 

As they say, you should sell the sizzle, not the steak. We agree, but we believe that you should also tell the story behind your steak, show your knowledge of the cooking process, and share professional pictures and cooking videos. A great content strategy will do just that!