In today’s ultra-competitive online marketplace, many businesses are struggling with business
growth and expansion. Lead generation is what business growth is built on, and it’s crucial to
understand why and how lead generation impacts your business.
Lead generation is the most important aspect of online marketing. It not only applies to acquiring
more customers but also retaining them as long term consumers with a higher lifetime value to
your business.
In this short guide, we’ll discuss how to optimize lead generation through four main channels you’re most likely already using.
What is a lead and how are they qualified?
The exact definition of a lead varies from marketer to marketer. It is crucial, however that
everyone involved in the lead generation process, and the sales team, are on the same page
regarding what a lead is defined as.
Typically, a salesperson, for example, will describe a lead as someone who matches the criteria
of the established target audience, and who has both a need and interest in purchasing your
product.
Marketers, on the other hand, may define a lead as someone who might match your criteria and
has an interest in your product. Additionally, a lead that proves to have qualities that fit the
established criteria are referred to as a prospect.
Channel 1: Landing Pages
Landing pages are any web page that a visitor “lands” on after clicking on a Call To Action.
This could be from anywhere such as an email, PPC ad, social media, or blog post. Landing pages
are important to lead generation since it gives you a channel to capture a users information
through offering something valuable enough for a visitor to exchange their information for.
Creating a Landing Page Built for Conversions
Creating a well-designed landing page is one thing… creating one that converts consistently is
another. Below are tips that you can implement today and start to see higher conversion rates:
● A killer headline
● Descriptive subtitles
● Striking visual imagery
● A perfectly clear offer (value exchange)
● Give a “paint point” (Something the visitor will lose from not taking action)
● Clear contact form for lead collection
Channel 2: Content Marketing
Content marketing is the foundation of lead generation as it’s the fuel to all your marketing
campaigns from email to social media.
Creating good content is essential to building your audience’s trust, and will go a long way in bringing in more leads and prospects.
In order for your content to actually strike a chord with your audience, you’ll need to know what
your audience is looking for. This is where industry research and buyer personas come into
play.
Put yourself in the shoes of your target customer and create a persona based on everything that person might be interested in, what they search for, what communities they’re apart of, etc.
It can also be helpful to do research on your competitors to see which types of their content are
performing best, to better tailor your own content to your audience’s interests.
Additionally, different types of content work best for different stages of the lead generation
funnel.
For example, general blog posts might get your foot in the door with potential leads,
while more customized content such as downloadable guides on your landing page will seal the
deal. This is important to think about when planning to integrate your content marketing
strategy, with your lead generation strategy.
Channel 3: Social Media Marketing
In regards to lead generation, social media has proven to be a very effective method, as it
allows you to communicate directly with your target customers with little to no barrier.
There are countless ways to collect leads from social media, some of the more popular and effective
methods include monitoring and listening to keywords posted, running giveaways and contests
through social platforms, and offering freebies or special gifts to existing followers.
All of the above methods and more are aligned to the goal of driving traffic and “followers” from
your businesses’ social media platforms to your landing page or website, where followers can
turn into legitimate leads and long term customers.
In addition to popular social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter that are
great marketing channels for B2C businesses, LinkedIn offers a similarly effective social media
solution for B2B businesses. LinkedIn is an extremely powerful lead generation platform as it allows you to qualify leads on the spot, by looking at their profile or messaging them.
You can easily segment your audiences that are brought in via the short form blog content that is standard on LinkedIn. Additionally, the
ability to speak directly with person’s with ultimate buying power saves you both time and
money through the lead generation process.
Channel 4: Email Marketing
Email marketing is effective for lead generation, as it’s directly reaching the people who are
already familiar with your business and offers.
It’s a much easier sell to get them to complete a call to action since they’ve previously opted into your mailing list, showing initial interest and a want/need in your product or service. These days, the typical consumer’s inbox tends to be very cluttered.
To be heard through the email clutter, it’s necessary to craft CTAs that have a compelling copy and an eye-catching
design to grab your subscriber’s attention and give them a reason to take action right then and
there.
In order to most effectively run email marketing campaigns, best practices include crafting
personalized emails that are addressed directly to each subscriber, weekly newsletters that
provide value not just filler content, exclusive offers that aren’t found on your website or social
media platforms.
In regards to optimizing email marketing for lead generation, the secret is in the details. Pay
extra attention to the user behavior of your email campaigns, which can be seen through
industry standard tools like ACT! Marketing Automation. Utilizing tools like ACT! will allow you to
optimize the life cycles of potential leads (email subscribers) through automated drip or mass
email campaigns, all with customized CTA’s.
Additionally, it’s helpful to observe which subject lines are delivering the most open rates, see what types of
linkable content in your emails are driving the most clicks, then double down on the results that
are working best.
Like all marketing channels, email marketing is one that is constantly evolving
and needs consistent experimentation and monitoring in order to be most effective, especially
as part of a larger lead gen strategy.
Channel 5: SEO and Website Conversion Optimization
Regardless of your search rankings, chances are you’re still getting monthly traffic driven to your
website from search engines like Google. However, how much more conversions could you be
receiving if you optimized your traffic?
By placing strategic opt-in forms throughout your website, tied to value offers (think the same
strategy as landing pages), the traffic your website is receiving will be 10x as valuable. What will
ultimately drive people to follow through with opt-in forms (AKA become leads), is a captivating
call to action. Like all the other Call To Actions we’ve referenced in this guide, CTA’s on your
website need to be striking, clear, and concise.
What exactly are you offering your visitor and how does it solve their specific problem that
they’re on your website for. Additionally, make the CTA’s visible and visually appealing
somewhere on your website where you typically get the most eyeballs (this could be the header
area, the bottom near contact information, or spread throughout on various pages). It’s
important to experiment with different CTA’s and placements to determine what is yielding the
most lead conversions.
An important note to keep in mind when writing copy and content for your website is writing for
both SEO purposes and your audience. While it’s important to include industry-related keywords
and search terms in your content to rank high, you also want to avoid watering down your
content for actual visitors that read it. It takes a balance of both strategies to be ultimately the
most effective, and it is another method that needs to be consistently tweaked and monitored for
best results.
Conclusion
As a business owner or marketer, the best thing you can do for your business’s leads is to
follow the outline in this guide, keep creating killer offers, refine your CTA’s, landing pages,
forms and promote them via your highest performing marketing channels. Keep your sales and
marketing teams in close contact, as things can get messy when internal communication is lost.
Last but definitely not least, never stop testing. The best part about online marketing, and lead generation specifically, is that you can always do better. It’s all about finding the perfect recipe for success, then continuously tweaking and adding to it.
Best of luck in your lead generation journey!
