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Lead Generation: Effective Strategies for Quality Leads
At the forefront of any digital marketing strategy is lead generation. It sounds like a function of its own, but actually, in short, Lead Generation in digital marketing is the initiation of consumer interest or inquiry into products or services of a business.
So in our digital marketing strategy, each aspect such as content marketing and SEO, all contribute to bringing us better leads. So one should not view them in isolation but rather how they are interrelated in a well-structured digital plan.
In fact, the quality vs quantity of your leads campaign is considered one of the most important metrics when measuring success! To ensure that you are getting the most quality out from your leads campaign, let us dive into the 3 must-have basic tools for lead generation.
In this context, I’ve chosen to only include digital lead generation for the time being and more specifically those without direct advertising spend.
1. B2B EMAIL OUTREACH
The most basic, but straight to the point and informative if need be goes to the humble email. Seriously email? You might be thinking that must be so outdated, but really nothing works quite as effectively as a good email.
However, bear in mind that it should come with high-quality content as no one wants to go through a boring email unless it captures the readers’ attention the very moment they open that email, like using a very enticing banner, which in turn has value for your intended recipient. Make it worth something checking out!
2. HAVE A QUALITY WEBSITE (OPTIMISED TOO)
In today’s tech savvy era, an official website is a must have for anyone who is doing business in any industry. Your homepage is your shop window. It’s your opportunity to grab the attention of a casual browser and work towards converting them into a valuable customer. While a typo here and there might not necessarily be the end of the world, making sure your website is fully functional and loads quickly is an absolute must…
These days there are more people who also browse and consume digital media through their mobile devices than a decade ago. Google has highlighted the importance of mobile & how it has been deeply integrated into everyone’s daily lives. In fact, the PageSpeed Insights score actually prioritises mobile performance. If your sales and marketing approach is not optimised for the mobile experience, then you are definitely missing out on what would-be transactions from potential customers.
An optimised high-quality website that is both updated and fully functional (albeit on desktop or mobile) is essential for good quality lead gens and would form the basics of your digital marketing plan. With that in mind, you can take it a step further to gain insights into your target market by tapping into social media.
3. EFFECTIVE LEAD GENERATION THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
Tapping into online social media communities (Facebook groups, LinkedIn, Reddit) is a great source of generating quality leads if you know where to look. I strongly recommend looking into online communities on social media platforms where your target demographic would normally log on to.
Implementing strategic marketing methods specifically targeted for acquiring quality leads and pushing them into your sales funnel is what social media lead generation is all about.
Using social media to generate sales leads allows firms to find consumers who are interested in their products. More importantly, these leads serve as a conduit to potential customers, allowing special offers to be made and loyal customers to be formed.
More often than not though, a lot of these groups will forbid directly promotional content – always check the rules before posting something.
So how can you use these online communities for lead generation? Well, hunt down a few groups that seem relevant to the problem you’re trying to solve. Never deviate from your objective by asking questions like “How can this survey help me grow my business in the coming months?” or “Would this questionnaire help me understand my target audience better”. Take a look, go through the post history – make sure it’s not all spam, for example.
Usually depending on the group, the subject etc you can get an overall feel of the target market based on certain generalizations. By looking into factors such as language and the types of interests that appear to be most consistent and from there you can start to create a strategy based on an informed assumption. Stereotypes are bound to arise, but one must find a balance so that the messaging doesn’t appear too artificial and still maintain a level of authenticity or ‘realness’ as the younger generation puts it.
Then get subscribed and start engaging. Post questions, answer other people’s questions. In a lot of groups you will actually find decision-makers posting looking for exactly the kind of thing you’re offering. Start conversations around the product or service. Basically, whatever you would have done offline (aka the real world) you can also do it online. You could hand out promotions, vouchers and special deals.
Just directly message them (and make sure to reply to them in the comments, otherwise they might not see the message, that’s why you will see a lot of “DM sent. Check Inbox” as a common reply to a post in Facebook.
• High-quality content marketing and automated email marketing are likely to be where you want to focus your efforts.
If you combine the 3 mentioned above, you’re off to a good start with lead generation strategy! The above lead generation strategies will help you get on the bandwagon but if you want to grow and grow fast, you’ll need to prioritise your lead generation strategies and use advanced tactics like the ones we talk about here (link to another article) to get as many qualified prospects as possible.