How to Generate More Leads in 2021...
Successful lead generation is all about tailoring your marketing in order to target the right people and in turn attract more customers. The first thing you need to do in order to generate more leads is to ensure you understand your business strategy and most importantly – understand the customers that your business is trying to target.
In order to generate leads, it is crucial to understand your target market, so that you can engage with your suspects. At this stage you should be asking yourselves the following questions:
Who is your target market? Where are they the highest in numbers? You need to understand this so that you know where to reach them and how best to engage with them.
Assuming you now know who your target audience are, you can now start to enhance your marketing to reach them. Here are 5 things you can do in order to generate more leads:
1. Review your website effectiveness
Pretty much all of your lead generation tactics should start with your website. I can’t tell you how many businesses spend time and money on paid-digital campaigns to drive traffic to their website without thinking about where they are taking their visitors to.
Your website literally exists to persuade someone to take action. Whether that action is to subscribe, to purchase or get in touch, you need to ensure you website is optimised to make it as easy as possible for a lead to engage with you. Here are a few ideas on how you can enhance the effectiveness of your website:
- Determine which Calls to Action you want to focus on
- Review all copy to ensure it’s jargon free
- Develop blog content that engages with your target audience
- Add social buttons to your website
- Ensure your website is responsive, which means you provide optimal viewing across a wide range of devices (desktop, mobile, tablet)
- Include links to your social channels
2. Review advertising channels
Once you have nailed your website, you will now benefit from a full review of your existing advertising channels to ensure you are effectively reaching your target audience. Advertising channels are different for every business. Where one business might benefit from a TV advertising campaign, another might benefit more from online ‘pay per click’ (PPC) campaigns.
The key to picking the right advertising channel is understanding your customer persona, what do they do in their spare time? What do they read? Do they watch TV? What websites do they like to visit?
Once you have created your customer personas you will be able to select the best advertising channel that will reach them. Here are a few advertising channels that you might consider:
- Billboards
- TV advertising
- Radio
- Magazine
- Newspaper
- School newsletters
- Pay for website banner
- Window display
- Direct mail
- Social media
- PPC
3. Review your marketing initiatives
As well as reviewing your advertising channels, it’s worth looking over your overall marketing strategy to ensure you are plucking out the best tools to target your leads. I was having a conversation with a client the other day who was deliberating hiring a telemarketing employee, when I delved a little deeper into his business, it was clear that there was no real reason to start doing telemarketing, it didn’t fall in-line with his business goals and wasn’t the right tactic for his consumer. It amazes me how many businesses seem to have a marketing tactic checklist and try to tick off as many as possible, whether it works for them or not.
Here are a few marketing initiatives that could work for your business:
- Direct mail
- Email campaigns
- Regular social media posting
- Telemarketing
- Sponsorship program
- Influencer marketing
- Content marketing
4. Attend networking events
Attending networking events can be daunting, however, the alliances you can form at these events can be really beneficial when it comes to generating leads. If, like us you are targeting business owners then it goes without saying that business network clubs are a great way to meet like-minded business owners who might benefit from your services. However, if your business is in the retail sector, then you might be looking to network with PR contacts, other brands that have a synergy with yours for a potential partnership, or with people who might benefit from your product. Things to consider when attending networking events:
- Arrange a speaking slot
- Participate/exhibit at tradeshows
- If you are an FMCG brand, offer a product to an event that has your target consumer attending
- Don’t be afraid of self-promotion
5. Referrals, referrals, referrals
One of the best ways to generate new leads if through referrals. Businesses tend to spend lots of money on lead generation efforts, whilst forgetting to utilise their best assets: Raving Advocates. There are loads of ways to get your advocates to refer you to others, here a few to get you started:
- Surveys with incentives
- Launch referral scheme
- Encourage clients to leave google reviews/testimonials
- Launch brand ambassador programme
Now that you know a little more about how to generate leads, I recommend you also take some time to consider your brand identity, as having a strong brand reduces the influence price has on your customer’s decision-making process and increases your lead conversion rates. You can find out more about how to build a strong brand here.