boost lead generation

One of the most important aspects of owning a company is generating leads. If you want potential customers to find your company, and use its products or services in the future, then you need to generate leads. Lead generation has been carried out by companies big and small for decades, but now, thanks to technological advances, and the prevalent use of technology in everyday life, lead generation has greatly evolved.

What is Lead Generation?

Lead generation refers to marketing techniques that are designed to generate consumer interest in the products or services of a particular business. Generating leads helps a business to create sales leads, which may, in the future, convert into a sale for a company. Leads can come in many varieties, such as in the form of names or email addresses. Generating leads is a highly important aspect of marketing for all companies, big or small.

Marketing: Then and Now

Due to technological advancements, the way consumers find products and services has changed. In the past, companies would have to actively seek out customers to make themselves visible. They would do this by placing mass advertisements, among other techniques. In the past, the marketing techniques used by businesses were designed to find customers. Nowadays, however, things are different.

Now, thanks largely to the Internet, consumers are the ones finding businesses. In today’s society, people are bombarded with a much larger quantity of information than they were in the past. Now, consumers aren’t just exposed to advertising via the television, magazines, newspapers or the radio. They are exposed to tons of advertising and a great deal of information every day through the internet. From search engines, to social media, consumers are now bombarded with advertisements wherever they go, meaning that it is getting harder and harder for businesses to be visible to their target demographic. Consumers are getting better at ignoring messages and advertising that they aren’t interested in. This is causing consumers to actively find businesses themselves. As a result, lead generation techniques that were once effective, are much less effective in a digital age. Now, companies have to focus on consumers finding them, rather than the other way around.

Techniques for Generating Leads

There are many simple, yet effective techniques that you can use to boost lead generation:

1. Make sure your CTA is Clear and Effective

A good call to action is clear and effective. It prompts the consumer to take action, and it’s clear about what action is required. Your website’s call to action should clearly tell the visitor what action they need to take. If you want your visitor to sign up to your company’s newsletter, then you need to make this completely clear in your CTA. The positioning of your call to action on the page is also very important. Your call to action should be displayed, without the visitor having to scroll down the page.

2. Provide Visitors with a Phone Number

Add a phone number to your site. It’s a simple notion, yet many companies neglect it. People want to know that a company is reputable and trustworthy, before they use its services or purchase its products. If a potential customer visits your site, and sees that you have a phone number displayed, then they will instantly see your company as more trustworthy. Including a contact number on every page of your site makes your company appear more credible. Even if you don’t want contacts via phone, you should still include a contact number.

3. Place a Contact Form on Every Page

If you want viable leads, then you must make your contact form accessible. Place a contact form on every page of your website, in a place that is easily visible to visitors. Consumers are busy, and they don’t want to have to work hard to find your contact form. Online, competition is strong, and if a customer has to work too hard, they’ll leave your site and go elsewhere.

4. Make your Website Concise

Nowadays, people are incredibly busy. People are also exposed to so much information nowadays, that they tend to skim through it. As people are so busy, you don’t want to overload them with too much information. This is why it’s so important that you keep your company’s website concise. Your visitors must be able to scan each page, and take away the information that they need. Don’t place huge chunks of text on your website, or visitors will become bored and they will leave your site. Make sure that each page of your site contains plenty of white space, and use bullet points and shorter paragraphs where possible. Using images is also a good idea.

5. Offer Quality Content.

High quality content that is optimized for search engines is an incredibly important part of generating leads. If you want to boost lead generation, then you need to include high quality content on your website and blog. High quality content is content that is useful, relevant and valuable to your customers.

6. Don’t Neglect Outbound Marketing

While inbound marketing is, arguably, more effective in a digital age, outbound marketing still has its place in generating leads. If you want to improve lead generation, then it’s important to incorporate a couple of outbound marketing techniques, such as email marketing and display ads, into your marketing campaign.

7. The Importance of Nurturing Leads

Once you generate leads, it’s important that you nurture them. Sometimes, a consumer may just not be ready to purchase your company’s product or use its services yet, but in the future, they may be. This is why it is important that you nurture all of your leads. The most effective way to do this is to provide your potential customers with helpful tips and information via a newsletter each week.

Make a few simple changes to your website and your marketing campaign, and you will see your lead generation improve.