When it comes to lead generation, there are a variety of strategies that businesses can use. Each strategy has its own benefits and drawbacks. It is important to choose the right strategy for your business based on your platform.
Here are five of our favorite types of lead generation strategies:
Paid Advertising
Paid advertising is the most common way businesses generate leads. It can be used to reach a wide audience quickly and cheaply. However, paid advertising can be ineffective if it is not targeted correctly. Also, audiences tend to view advertising with a bit less credibility since it’s you talking about you.
Paid ads can be a great way to expose your business to new potential audience members.
Paid advertising is often used as part of a lead generation funnel. Don’t overthink the parts of a marketing or sales funnel; it can be as simple as an ad driving the audience to a product or service page on your website. Effectively a funnel exists from the first interaction the audience has with your brand (such as seeing a paid ad) through to the transaction conversion (purchase) – and should continue afterwards. When marketers talk about a “funnel”, they’re really meaning a strategically thought out process of all of the potential touchpoints and microcoversions along the way. But if you make sales, you already have a funnel whether you realized it or not.
Email Marketing
Email Marketing is a great way to generate leads for your business. There are a variety of Email Marketing strategies you can use to generate leads, including email campaigns with offers, email newsletters with valuable content, and push notifications for important updates. Email Marketing can also help you build relationships with your customers and create trust through a variety of methods:
- Get started with a free email marketing campaign
- Use email marketing to target your ideal customers
- Use email marketing to create a relationship with your customers
- Use email marketing to increase website traffic
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is another common way to generate leads. It allows businesses to connect with potential customers on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Social media marketing is effective because it can reach a large audience quickly and cheaply.
Creating posts that showcase your company and its products can help attract new customers. Additionally, social media platforms offer a way to interact with potential customers directly. This allows you to learn more about their needs and interests and develop a relationship with them that could lead to future business opportunities.
Some of the favorite social media platforms for lead generation are:
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. LinkedIn
4. TikTok
5. Pinterest
Some of the platforms are easier to generate well-qualified marketing leads than others, so don’t make the mistake of jumping into a new platform just because you think you should. Consider how and when you should use it to meet your marketing goals – otherwise, you could quickly find yourself being consumed by the time it takes to consistently appear on the platform without seeing a relational increase in qualified leads.
Cold Calling
Cold calling is a powerful lead generation strategy. It involves making contact with potential customers by phone. Cold calling can be very effective if done correctly.
However, cold calling can be time-consuming and costly. It almost always required a dedicated paid salesperson on your team who creates opportunities for your business, and is most effective in the B2B space. Most of the best salespeople work on salary plus commission and are worth the investment if your business has high-level needs.
Offering Free Resources / Freemium
One of the best ways to generate leads through digital marketing is to offer free resources. By offering free resources, you’re likely to attract visitors who are looking for information on the same topic. This means that you’ll be more likely to convert these visitors into leads, which will help your business grow.
By offering free resources, you’re also likely to build trust with your target audience. This means that they’re more likely to refer your business to their friends and colleagues, which will help your business grow even further.
Content Marketing
As a bonus, we’ll look at content marketing, since it overlaps with each of the above strategies in one way or another.
Content marketing involves creating valuable content that attracts attention from potential customers. This content can be published on your website, blog, or social media channels or offered as a fremium. Content marketing is beneficial because it creates a relationship with your target audience and provides valuable information.
Content marketing also overlaps with search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is a process that can be used to improve the visibility of a website or blog in search engine results pages (SERPs). This can be done by optimizing your website content, structure, and on-page elements to help both your visitors and search engines understand what the content is about.
SEM (search engine marketing) is a related form of online advertising that allows businesses to reach potential customers who are actively looking for their products or services. SEM campaigns can be targeted either using keywords or interests.
1. Start by understanding your target audience and what they are looking for in a lead generation campaign.
2. Identify the channels that your target audience is most likely to be using to find leads.
3. Create an effective lead generation strategy that uses the channels that your target audience is using to find leads.
4. Implement effective SEM and SEO tactics to increase traffic and conversion rates for your lead generation campaigns.
Each strategy has it’s pros and cons, so it’s important to consider your business, processes and resources when deciding upon which strategy to implement.
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Did you know … you can book a single Fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) consultation appointment if you would like high-level help strategizing through your options.