Warren Knight
Being able to use technology to generate leads is something I have spent over 5 years working on and perfecting. I have helped hundreds of SME’s use technology for lead generation, with one in particular who used a social media campaign to generate 2,700 leads in 7 days.
Let me help YOU generate leads like the above case study with my 10 tips below.
- Understand Your Target Customer
I talk about this step in various blogs of mine over the years as it is so important. Without knowing who yourtarget customer is, where they like to hand out, their personality and behaviours you are going to find it extremely difficult to effectively use a lead generation strategy.
- Competitions on Social Media
Giving something away free of charge to your audience in exchange for their name and email address is one of the most popular to attract quality leads. Like I have shared above, a client of mine generated 2,700 leads in 7 days and it only cost her £100 in total meaning that every potential customer cost her 24p. Don’t forget to follow up after a competition has ended. Whilst there may be only one winner, it doesn’t mean that every entrant won’t spend money with you. Offer those who entered a “thank you” discount and you will not only have new leads, but sales as well.
- Allow the Sales Process to Happen Naturally
There is nothing worse than walking down the street and being physically stopped by a salesperson or having a flyer shoved into your hand. If you wouldn’t do this offline, don’t do it online.
Customers have become more unreceptive to cold calls or rehearsed sales pitches. Make sure you are sharing information, building your brand awareness and allowing your customer to naturally consider a purchase from you.
- Be Intelligent With The Content You Share
Did you know that on average, a customer will “touch” a business online 8 times before purchasing? You need to make sure that the information you are sharing online and specifically social media is interesting, unique and relatable. If you run a beauty business and your target customer are women who love to look and feel good, talk about beauty treatments. Talk about find the perfect tanning specialist or facial that will make their skin glow.
- Treat Lead Generation Like a Marathon, Not a Sprint
As I briefly mention above, attracting the lead is just one part of your lead generation strategy and your communication does not stop there. You must continue the lead generation journey so that a two-way conversation can happen. Nurture your lead and wait for them to feel comfortable opening up to you as a business. I sometimes have to wait around 2 years from the first time someone comes to see me speak, to becoming a client or attending one of my bootcamps.
- Don’t Neglect Your Leads
It is estimated that more than 80% of the leads which get passed to a salesperson are rarely ever contacted. Be aware that 70% of your leads who do get neglected will purchase at a later date from a competitor of yours. They are interested in what your business has to offer however, if you don’t follow up with them, they will go elsewhere.
- Make Sure You’re On The Same Page As Your Team
The job of marketing has been described as a way of developing a lead generation process that matches the readiness of the customer with the expectations of your salesperson. Take your target market and form a consensus regarding what a “sales ready” lead is. Make sure your leads don’t get lost in translation.
- Recapturing Leads
If a lead comes into your marketing funnel and is deemed not “sales ready” by your salesperson, there needs to be a system in place to make sure they are still in the marketing loop and don’t disappear. Always touch base with your customers at least once a month through email marketing.
- Automation
Using marketing automation software is extremely popular among businesses that are time short and want to effectively reach their target market. There is technology that allows you to track and analyse your target markets online behaviour. Using automation software may also help you improve your predictability around how your customer may behave online.
- Focus On Getting Your Lead Generation Strategy Right
It may take some time for you to work out your lead generation strategy so that it can be implemented with success. There is no right, or wrong way to approach your customer as they all act and react differently.
All of the above tips cannot be used as a stand-alone activity. Take what you can from each of the 10 tips and build a lead generation strategy that is going to work for your business.
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