There’s a hard truth about business success. If you don’t have leads, you won’t have any sales. Without sales… there’s no profit, meaning you’re out of business. It’s no wonder so much emphasis is put on lead generation. However, sometimes it can feel like you’ve tapped out your resources and the leads just may not be coming in like you hoped. If this has happened, you’ve likely missed out on a few of the basics involved with lead generation. To help get you back on track, keep these principles in mind.
Value Creates Value
If your website or product doesn’t provide value for your potential customer, they aren’t going to stick around long enough to even consider becoming a future customer. The problem with this approach is that it’s hard work creating something someone might consider valuable. You have to provide thought-provoking articles, be an industry source for news or an entertainment machine. The good news is, yes, it’s hard work – that’s why your competitors probably aren’t doing it.
Think about what your customers need and want and figure out a way that works for you or your company to deliver it. If you are a personal trainer looking for more clients, offer content that will show how much you care about health and fitness. This could be achieved through a blog, a Pinterest account or even a video series.
If you can provide value for your customers before they buy, they’ll give value back to you by becoming brand loyal and purchasing more than just that initial product or service.
Always Be Targeting Buyers
While not every prospect will be a buyer immediately, you at least want to make sure you are targeting people who actually want to buy something at some point. For instance, many online marketers focus on getting people to subscribe to their newsletters or social media accounts. They offer contests and prizes to help facilitate this growth. While this is an effective way to grow your lists, you have to make sure that these tactics are still targeting people who will actually want to buy something at some point. You don’t want a list filled with people looking only for deals or freebies. Consider options like a free night after two stays or discount coupons instead of free products.
Partners Make It Easier
You don’t always have to do the heavy lifting alone. If you know another company or organization that has an audience similar to your target audience, you might want to consider some cross-promotion. A good way to do this is through interview – especially video or podcast interviews. These are easy enough to do and allow both companies to create something of value to share to their audience.
Always Create Opportunity for Conversion
When you are promoting your product or company, you may find that you are mentioning it across multiple platforms. For instance, if you do a radio interview you probably mention your website. If you are on Twitter, you probably mention your website. Just sending people to your homepage isn’t enough to capture leads from specific sources. Each medium will attract a different type of visitor.
One golden rule for lead generation is to always have an offer or landing page to send these potential customers to. It should be crafted to attract and meet the needs of the people you are sending there. In the radio interview example, you could give a link to a page where listeners could download a free report “just for the listeners of that station.” Before you promote, always think about what end result you want and then craft a landing page or offer targeted to that to help generate more leads.
