It’s no secret that many businesses are having issues with “lead generation”. Sales departments are beginning to think that they have exhausted the limit of people and companies to sell all of their products and services to. This could explain why only 10% of marketers feel that their lead generation campaigns are effective.
The solution? Having a set of helpful tips to make the most of your online channels to help boost your lead generation.
1. USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO BOOST YOUR SALES PIPELINE.
Utilize social media to help share your content and get it in front of more of your target audience. Using blog posts to direct traffic to your website or landing pages is a great way of capturing higher quality prospects Instagram and Facebook are great social media platforms that can help generate highly targeted traffic and leads. Another reason for having a powerful social media marketing strategy is it will help you build a loyal and engaged following while getting highly qualified and targeted leads. Get to know your audience and share information that will help demonstrate your expertise. The last tip is to avoid focusing your posts solely on your company. Try interacting with your followers and try to be helpful because when a prospect is potentially ready to buy, they will more likely come to you and trust you as a supplier.
2. HAVE THE RIGHT AUDIENCE DATA.
The number one key to your customer’s heart is having the correct data so you can target the right people at the right time. Lead generation is time sensitive. If you generate a lead and do not follow up within a reasonable amount of time, your lead will go elsewhere.
3. HAVE THE RIGHT TOOLS IN PLACE TO TRACK YOUR LEAD.
Always ensure that you’re able to track return on investment and allocate budgets by using trackable channels to attract your leads. One example that you should consider is Google Analytics. Google Analytics will help you analyze your website traffic and also report on your audience behaviour. Another platform that will help with your lead generation is HubSpot. This is an inbound marketing and sales platform that focuses on tracking your leads activity online and delivers marketing content tailored to their interests. Having all of your lead sources report back into one central system is critical to keeping your leads organized, tracking the effectiveness of and value of each lead source and ad campaign, and being able to effectively follow up with each lead.
4. QUALITY OVER QUANTITY.
When it comes to leads, you always want your sales department to focus on quality over quantity. Don’t waste time on unqualified leads and do your research to target audiences that have the highest change of buying your product.
5. GRADING STRUCTURE FOR PROSPECTS.
Because lead generation is so time sensitive, it’s a good idea to divide your leads into short-term, mid-term and long-term to create a rolling pipeline. But why stop there, you can also have a set of criteria to define who qualifies as a prospect and what they have to do to move to the next level of the pipeline.
6. ALWAYS MONITOR YOUR COMPETITION.
Did your competition just launch a new product or website? Always keep a close eye on your competition and track what they’re doing. You can use that information to create more effective ads and additional lead generation strategies of your own.
7. STRUCTURE YOUR COMMISSION SCHEME.
You must structure your commission scheme to reflect the skills and efforts that are required to help manage existing accounts and land new businesses. Perhaps even considering dividing your sales team into salespeople who focus on selling into new customer accounts “hunters” and account managers focused on managing the relationships with existing customers and growing their accounts “farmers”.
8. CAPTURE INFORMATION ON YOUR WEBSITE.
In order to get leads from your website, you need traffic and you need to make your call-to-action as effective and clear as possible. Make it clear and easy for your audience to understand exactly what you want them to do and how they can benefit in return. Ensure that you have a compelling landing page so that when people come to your site it increases the odds of conversation.
9. USE AN AUTOMATED, OPT-IN EMAIL MARKETING SCHEME.
If used correctly, emails can be a great cost-effective way to generate new business. When you are sending emails, it’s essential to tailor them to your lead so they feel exclusive. Make sure the emails also have clear call-to-actions and a link to your landing page where prospects can provide the necessary details.