Three Ways to Generate Leads for Your Business
One of the toughest challenges small business owners face is generating quality leads. A recent study published in Marketing Profs indicated that to generate leads was the most challenging aspect for nearly 78% of business to business (B2B) marketers. Generating leads is not easy, especially when you don’t have a complete understanding of the art and science of selling products.
Generating leads gets more difficult with complicated products or services. Before you even start to think about leads, consider how difficult it is to buy from you. Could you package up what you do into 3 offerings? Concentrating what you do in a niche, makes it easier for people to understand what offer. For example, any gardener can treat your lawn, but Greenthumb stand head and shoulders above a small independent ‘jack of all trades’ gardener.
With that said, here are three ways to generate great leads for your business:
Add a news story to your website
Effective content marketing is the key to not only promoting your brand as a force to be reckoned with, but also in converting casual visitors into potential leads. Since there are a number of content marketing strategies out there, it becomes difficult to know which ones are most valuable. Don’t think too much about it, just keep adding content that shows you know what you are doing. A customer testimonial, a new piece of equipment you have bought, or a quick ‘how to’ tip will be enough. Find a picture to go with it.
A good content marketing strategy should be able to establish your business as an authority in your field. Make sure that the content you post on your website is reliable and has an authoritative tone. The audience and other companies might then look at you as a trustworthy and reliable source for quality information.
Don’t forget to share your news story on social media too.
Extend a Human Touch
With the dawn of digital marketing tools, the selling process has undergone a drastic change. Although people are now able to spread word about their products more easily, the days of meeting business owners or engaging in casual conversation seems to be disappearing.
Although business owners or marketers might not have time to meet up, you can still make an impact by extending a personal touch. “How?” You may ask. After each job, or after proposing a compelling offer, you can send them a personalised hand-written letter or card –just to thank them for their attention, or their business.
When you send the people hand-written letters, you stand apart from the crowd and almost force the business owners to respond, or share your efforts with others.
B2B? Go the LinkedIn Way
For many businesses LinkedIn is an extremely effective lead generator. Spend a couple of quid on a good LinkedIn advertising campaign, get involved in the right group and you might have just created a great lead generating strategy for your business.
The reason why LinkedIn is being hailed as a great tool for generating leads is that it has very high percentage of professionals — higher than Facebook and Twitter— making it easier for you to deal with the right target audience. Moreover, there are a number of professionals on LinkedIn grouped according to their location and expertise, making it even easier!
Lead generation can be tricky. The key to generating quality B2B leads is to put your fresh-thinking hat on and rework your existing marketing strategies to keep up with the fast-changing times. Whatever you choose to do, make use of a call to action. Also, keep asking your new leads how they found you and hone your spend around what they say. If you need help with getting your messages to your potential customers, we can help. Call 01952 457392 or get in touch. Tell us your challenges.