The Ultimate Guide to Lead Generation

Problem: lead generation

Solution: lead generation basics, online lead generation techniques, b2b lead generation techniques and a free work plan to get you started.

A lead is an individual who has shown interest in your products or services. A lead would probably have a problem that needs a solution and this is where your business comes in. The lead might be aware of the problem, and in their solution seeking process they land in your store front. A lead may also be responding to marketing communication from your business. In this case, your marketing communication made the person aware of the problem and probably encouraged them to try your solution.  It is important to distinguish between the two types of leads because it takes different lead generation approaches to eventually seal the deal. Remember, one is aware of the problem, and the other is not, until you engage them.

Following the AIDA (Attention- Interest- Desire- Action) framework, lead generation involves all the processes you would employ to attract strangers and convert them into potential customers for your business. In this regard, lead generation is an aspect of advertising. Take, for instance, you business puts up an advert communicating your product or services and a stranger calls the number on the advert and asks about the offer. The stranger becomes a lead because they have shown interest in what you have to offer. Basically, lead generation is the process of establishing contact between total strangers and your business. Thus, using the AIDA framework your lead generation activities would entail attracting the attention of the potential customer, evoking the interest of the person towards what you have to offer, make them want or desire what you have to offer and finally, help them take the necessary action to fulfill their desire by buying what you offered.

This is where you need to get creative and innovative. To beat you competitor and hook your customer, you will need to come up with interesting ways to attract, evoke interest, induce desire and help the customer make the decision to buy from you. NOTE: Simple changes and tweaks in the process have been shown to create considerable changes in the results (the color scheme of your advert, landing page, font type/size and even the wording of your message). This is to say there is no one size fits all in the lead generation process, so keep testing and tweaking the general layout until you achieve the winning design and once you do, repeat- rinse and repeat for all its worth!

The above framework assumes that you know who your target is because in business and generally in life “you can’t be all things to all people”. I will cover customer targeting in a future article but here is the short of it. You will need to know what type of customers exist, then select those that you can serve very well and finally optimize the product to perfectly meet the customer’s and your business needs. By optimizing the product you should also aim at accentuating your strengths or what makes you different from other businesses in your industry or category. For instance, in the computing business, there are customers who are concerned with the ordinary usage (email and office suites). On the other hand, some customers are more concerned with heavier applications and gaming. Of course, they are all computing customers, but their needs are different and so should the actual product. This step is very important in the lead generation process because it ensures that your efforts generate positive results by targeting the right customer. Doing this reduces the guesswork involved; after all, your business is not an emergency. So don’t shoot in the dark, Plan and Execute!

Yes, people still pick their mail. Direct mail existed before the advent of computers and remains relevant today in lead generation. Direct mails have a higher chance of being opened when received and if the offer is good the prospect will reciprocate contact. It is important to write an interesting sales or follow-up copy to ensure your mail is not trashed with other junk mail. Direct mailing lists are available for purchase and this helps with targeting the right prospects. One of the major disadvantages of direct mail is the cost of implementation as a result of designing, postage, and printing.

Word of mouth occurs on three different planes. Information about your product or service may be shared between your consumers in what is known as inter-consumer influence where customers inform potential customers about your product or services. Information about the same may be communicated by the staff to members of the public. Word of mouth is highly effective in generating interest around a product or service. It also offers a personal connection and when influential people talk positively about the brand their input builds confidence in potential customers. However, depending on how it is delivered the information may be lost in all the noise about other issues that the consumer may be talking about as they are talking about your brand.

I know… Telemarketing still works as a lead generation technique. However, the approach has changed. You’ve probably heard of cold and warm calling. Marketers are no longer cold calling the new buzz word is warm calling, which basically means doing some background research on your prospect before making the call. Your objective is to start the conversation on a topic that you are sure is of interest to the prospect. This might not be hard with the advent of social media. Basically, check out their profiles and conversations they engage in online. You should get a rough idea of how to engage the individual. Measure your words to ensure you don’t come off as a stalker.

Meeting up with clients in a more relaxed environment helps. It is important to attend trade fairs, trade shows, corporate events and some social events that would bring you closer to your potential customer. Don’t be shy, approach, strike a conversation, exchange contact information and follow it up from there. Your contact may not be the decision maker; at this point, this does not matter because when you get into it, your contact may come in handy and introduce you to the person you need to talk to. Meeting people face to face also helps to make them comfortable about who they are dealing with. So combining telemarketing and networking may work wonders for your lead generation campaigns but only if done right.

Blogs, websites, articles can be part of your content marketing strategy towards lead generation. You can write up something of value to you potential customers and post it on your blog. However, just writing and posting is not enough. You will need to promote your article to ensure it gets to rank on the first page of search results. This has been known to work considerably well because it not only attracts the potential clients but also establishes you as an expert in your field. In short, content marketing can be your one-way ticket to developing your personal and business brand.

Content marketing is one of the strongest lead generation techniques online and with proper execution it yields tremendous results. Much has been covered with regards to content marketing and how to do it check out this Keywords article by Brian Dean and this SEO article by Neil Patel. Content marketing requires that the information you chose to publish ranks well in the SERPs or search results pages of popular engines such as Google, Bing, and Duckduckgo. Your objective is to make it to the first page and if possible dominating the first page. Here is a quick breakdown of what it involves;

•    Decide on what you want to write about

•    Conduct keyword research into terms that are popular with the topic

•    Use these keywords in the title and body of your content

•    Make your content exhaustive and actionable

•    Share it with influencers or basically market your content

•    Request for backlinks from reputable industry websites

The article should bring some traffic and prospective customers to your website. However, now that they are visiting your page you should direct them to the next point of action which is making a purchase. Your sales funnel or pipeline should now be kicking in. Your web page should have a lead magnet or basically offer a discount or a valuable freebie in exchange for contact information. Here is an example by Leadpages:

Some data to support content marketing

According to a 2015 report by contentmarketinginstitute,

70% of B2B marketers are creating more content than they did one year ago, even those who say they are least effective (58%) and those without any type of strategy (56%).

45% of B2C marketers have a dedicated content marketing group in their organization. 69% are creating more content now than they did one year ago.

In this regard, content remains important however challenges have emerged in measuring its effectiveness and developing successful content strategies.

If going through the content development step is too much you can make use of online adverts. You can achieve this through GoogleAdwords, Facebook ads, Twitter ads and more. There are different types of advertising campaigns that you can put up which lead traffic and prospective customers to your website, product page or squeeze page. Depending on your budget and other strategic parameters you can opt to run cost per click, cost per mile/thousand impressions among other ad campaigns.

According to IAB, internet advertising revenues increased by 19.0% between 2014 and 2015 with a total of $23.1 billion being reported in 2014 and $27.5 billion being reported in 2015 in the United States. This implies continued confidence in paid advertising among marketers across different industries.

Social media advertising was up 51% in 2015 with a total of $4.4 billion being recorded in the first half 2015 compared to $2.9 billion recorded in the first six months of 2014. 

This shows that marketers have realized the changing nature of today’s customers who are “always on”.

Blog consistently and participate in online communities.

Get involved and keep it consistent by participating and engaging online communities. Answer questions on sites like Quora, comment on blog posts, build your brand and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Leadin is currently a free lead generation tool by Hubspot. The tool works by identifying our sites visitors by aggregating their social media profiles and company information. The tool also embeds a popup to automatically collect the contacts and provides analytics straight to your Leadin dashboard.

Quizzes are a growing segment of lead generation currently and there are a variety of online services that would help in generating the right quiz for your business to ensure your visitors are engaged and you have an opportunity to collect their contact information

In case your content is in video format then Turnstile by Wistia is a great tool for collecting contact information embedded straight into your video. The tool requests the visitor to opt in to view or continue watching the video.

Twitter cards enable marketers to capture leads from their tweets. It also provides button links to your giveaway so users don’t have to leave Twitter which makes the tool a must use for marketers. The tool is also great for B2B lead generation given most businesses have established their twitter pages. The best part is the tool is free.

Socedo integrates directly with social media platforms and works well with LinkedIn and Twitter. The tool matches potential leads to your business based on their interests. It offers an opportunity to discover prospects that match your custom criteria. For example, let’s say your product targets digital marketers, within the tools dashboard you can set the criteria for a search on digital marketers. The tool then works by pulling up individuals who fit the set criteria. When you approve them, the tool sends an automated message to start the conversation. This saves you time with regards to online lead generation and qualification.

More lead generation resources

Marketo
Entrepreneur

Free Lead Generation Work plan

As promised this article includes a work plan that should guide you with implementing the lead generation activities in your business.

What it contains;

• Step by step online lead generation planning and execution
• Insights and troubleshooting guide 
• Extra tools and how they can be blended for better result