A guest blog from Internet Marketing Expert, Jeremy Nelson-Smith
Anyone who’s been in business for a while knows that two of the absolute ‘must-haves’ for success are:
1. Getting new customer or clients
2. Keeping them coming back for more
For most small business owners maintaining a steady flow of new clients is really quite difficult. The majority of business owners that I meet usually rely on using a few lead generation tactics because they bring some good results. However, any business that sticks to a just small ‘basket’ of lead generation techniques is in danger of being outstripped by competitors who use a wider range of effective tactics to attract new clients.
If you want to accelerate your company profits you need a steady flow of high-quality leads. To achieve that you need to use many different ways to generate leads, both on and offline.
Here are just five key tips on lead generation, without any cold calling (which you probably hate doing as much as I do!):
1. Set your SMART* lead generation objectives so you can determine what works and what doesn’t
Set specific targets that you can track and measure.
Spend time setting your objectives and specific, measurable targets. If you don’t how will you ever know if your lead generation programme has been successful or not?
(*SMART = Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-limited)
2. Use your website as your primary ‘lead conversion machine’
Your website, if set up and optimised correctly, can be a powerful marketing tool that takes prospects generated by your lead generation programme and converts them into a never-ending stream of high-quality leads for your business.
To work effectively your key landing pages (the ones where visitors enter your website) must capture your visitor’s attention immediately. On every page have a call to action or incentive for visitors to do something that you want them to do, e.g. watch a video, read a blog post, download a PDF, sign up for a newsletter.
3. Use Social Media marketing to attract people to your website
Social media marketing is promoting your website through social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or blogging. It can be a low cost and very effective way of increasing your website traffic.
Create a Facebook page for your business. Facebook can work for businesses as long as doing so fits the preferences and behaviours of your audiences.
Start a blog on your site and post interesting, informative content regularly. You may well be surprised by how many people visit your website to read it, and of course once they’re on your site you have the opportunity of incentivising them to complete an action that moves them closer to becoming a customer or client.
4. Use direct mail to generate leads
Direct mail like sales letters, post cards, flyers, etc, is still one of the most effective ways of communicating your messages to your target audience and of course, driving them to your website, where they should be incentivised to complete the kind of actions I’ve mentioned above.
Direct mail’s main advantage over email is that it doesn’t have the message filtering that email marketing has.
5. Use online advertising like Google AdWords to instantly drive quality traffic to your web pages
Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC) can be a highly effective way of getting the right people to your website quickly, particularly if you are finding it difficult to obtain Page 1 rankings on Google.
NB: Proceed with caution with PPC! You need to be very specific with your targeting and campaign set up or you may find yourself spending more money, more quickly than you had planned! If you have little or no experience with PPC then consult an expert. It’ll save you frustration, time and money in the long run.
For many more lead generation tips email me at jns@theinternetspecialist.co.uk for a copy of my free e-book:
‘How to generate more revenue from your website – guaranteed!’
Photo credit: Ambro