Do you struggle generating enough leads to support your business?
Are your lead generation efforts falling short when it comes to bringing in enough qualified prospects? Or are your lead streams only coming from one place?
While lead nurture programs are essential to convert prospects into customers, this part of the sales pipeline would be irrelevant if you didn’t first have leads to turn into new business. Obviously – you can’t close deals if you have don’t have anyone in the pipeline from the beginning!
Starting Off on the Right Foot
Top of funnel is the place where potential buyers first learn about your company. Here, you’re reaching out to a large audience who look to you to be an authority on your product or service. If you don’t pay attention to this part of the sales cycle, you miss out on gaining new customers for your business.
How To Increase Lead Generation Numbers
Whether you’re looking for ways to generate more leads, bring in more qualified leads, or just diversify your lead streams, focusing on the following ideas can help convert you from a business lacking leads into a lead powerhouse:
1. Understand Your Audience
Marketing now is completely different from marketing in the past. With so much information at everyone’s fingertips, having a strategy and putting campaigns in place that speaks to the needs of your audience is so important. Without an understanding of the people you’re trying to reach and the information they’re looking for, you’ll end up losing potential customers.
You can start to understand your audience by paying attention to the way similar groups have interacted with your company in the past. By digging into data from email campaigns, social media posts, website traffic, and others, you’ll get a good idea of what best speaks to them.
Once you’ve implemented target campaigns to better reach your audience, conduct A/B tests and segment your lists to further refine the data. Doing so gives you the statistics you need to target your audience even more going down the line.
2. Personalize Content
When a buyer first becomes aware of your company it’s likely to be through some form of content. Whether that’s interacting with a social media post, reading your blog, or opening an email, content is your initial touchpoint with future customers.
Think about your own buying habits for a second. If you’re looking to make a purchase and read a company’s blog that doesn’t speak to you at all, would you still consider that company? Probably not, because their product or service won’t be able to give you what you need.
Personalized content is a huge tool for establishing brand awareness and authority. Speaking to the needs of your audience and touching on their pain points will not only let them know you can fix their problem, it also means you stay top-of-mind for their future needs.
While everyone is social distancing, take this opportunity to speak to your audience on a very personal level. We're all experiencing similar challenges. Don't necessarily push the same old marketing messages. Think about what someone who is looking for your services would want to hear about in the current climate.
3. Consider Search Engine Optimization
Have you realized how important the internet is for sales and marketing efforts yet? You should, and search engine optimization is just one of the tools you can use to generate leads. By using these tactics, you’re able to reach consumers right when they’re looking for you, increasing your chances of getting a conversion.
While sometimes more costly and time consuming than pay per click strategies, search engine optimization is a great way to convert buyers you wouldn’t traditionally target. According to HubSpot, it’s estimated that people conduct over five billion Google searches a day. With these statistics, the chances of you reaching the right customers are pretty high!
SEO includes writing keyword-rich content, adding meta descriptions to your pages, reaching out for links to your website, and more makes your company easier to find and your website easier to use. That way, when someone conducts a search relevant to your page, your company will show up in the results as an authority on the topic. Add some eye-catching call-to-action forms, and you’ll see an increase in leads coming from your website.
4. Develop Targeted Advertising Campaigns
Search Engine Marketing campaigns work the same way as SEO, but allow for certain customizations when it comes to targeting the right audience. While creating your advertising campaigns, make sure to target specific locations and add negative keywords to ensure your ads are reaching the right people. Ads require frequent monitoring, especially considering the fact that you could be wasting money if your ads are getting clicks but aren’t resulting in conversions.
Pay Per Click can be costly if done wrong but have huge payoffs if done right. By targeting campaigns, your ads are showing up exactly when and where you want them to. However, similar to organic SEO, when you use targeted advertising, you’re putting your company in front of people when they’re ready to buy – increasing your chance of converting, qualifying, and closing.
Optimizing your website and running digital ads work best in tandem. When you have both, you dramatically increase the chances of people finding you because web pages that align with your ads increase your quality score and advertising data gives you insight on keyword trends.
5. Convert Website Visitors to Leads
For a fast, simple way to connect instantly with the potential buyers who visit your website from advertisements or search engines, consider adding chat functions to make the communication process easier. Chat gives customers an easy way to reach out and have their questions answered right away. In turn, it also lets salespeople gain insight on customer pain points and needs without spending a ton on marketing strategies.
Another way to get information from the people who visit your website is to implement compelling forms and calls to action. When these are visible and easy to access, those who are interested in your company have an easy way to give up their information. When they hit “submit” on a form or follow a call-to-action link, they’re instantly converted from a website visitor to a lead. And, when chat conversations and form submissions go through marketing automation platforms like HubSpot, you’re able to easily view and track a customer’s journey to better market to visitors in the future.
The level of customer service provided to anonymous visitors also helps establish trust with potential customers. This can have two positive effects for your business – the buyers will consider you again when they have another need and they will refer you to their friends and family. By offering excellent customer service, you’re increasing your ability to generate leads in both the short and long run.
6. Use Outbound Calling
Perhaps the most traditional form of lead generation, outbound calling shouldn’t be lost in the past. While the internet is a popular place for buyers to find information, contacting decision makers can sometimes be more effective.
Many people want their buying experience to be human and don’t feel comfortable using chatbots or waiting around for emails in order for their questions to be answered. Outbound calling is a good way to humanize the buying experience and increase customer satisfaction.
Calling is also a good way to qualify leads quickly and efficiently. By putting a trained team member on the phone, you can ask the necessary questions to determine if the prospect is qualified or not. Outbound calling is also effective for targeted account-based marketing. If you know that account but don’t know the decision maker, calling is an efficient way to gather and connect with the person who makes purchasing decisions. And during these times while most people are working remotely, outbound calling has been extremely effective for setting appointments via WebEx, Zoom, Teams, or Skype.
Read our blog about how Concept has moved to a remote work sales development agency.
Finding the Right Mix
While all of these practices work fine alone, using them together will let you generate qualified leads quicker and nurture them through the pipeline more efficiently. This means you can close deals faster and more often, leaving you with a significant increase in revenue. Trust us, the combination of marketing and sales tactics will transform your company into a lead powerhouse – just wait and see!
Concept understands the importance of keeping our employees safe and healthy maintaining and the importance of our clients’ sales pipeline. We are ready to tackle this new business challenge with a clear-headed strategy. Let’s chat if you want to keep your sales pipeline full.
Are you looking for more information and insight on how to stay ahead and
in front of your customers and prospects, let’s talk.
Updated April 6, 2020