Lead Generation:All the basics you need to know

Lead generation is the process where interest is created for a market or service.

It’s true that today Lead generation is one of the most important aspects of Marketing and if you are a Marketer you've probably struggled with it a couple of times.
While Lead Generation is not rocket science you have to follow some techniques in order to achieve the results you are looking for.

I’ve used a variety of them in the past and now I am gonna suggest you the top 5 that helped me reach bigger audiences and create better conversions.

So there they are:

Content Marketing

Content Marketing has been the big shift in the modern digital world. Now the leads come to the sales team through Inbound Content. This saves resources and increases productivity.

Marketers have to find the right keywords and search terms while they create high-quality shareable content. This way they can attract high-quality leads that they create later good conversion rates.

There are many aspects that should be taken into account in order to have an effective Content Marketing Strategy. You first have to understand that when it comes to driving leads organically on your website, you need a good page ranking on Search Engines.

To do that your content has to be optimized (SEO or Search Engine Optimisation).

I won’t be very extensive on the SEO strategy but here are the 2 main things that could describe it.

• Content

You must always create high-quality, unique and shareable content.

So pick a niche that you love and start writing about it. Don’t try to fool the Search Engines.

They have the ability to detect bad content and this will drop your ranking hard.

Don't worry about creating a website.

It's easier than you believe.

Here's how to start a blog.

• Link Building

Link building is about featuring links from your website into other websites.

This will drive traffic from places on the internet with relevant content. It’s one of the greatest ways to control traffic since you can adopt high-quality leads quickly. Start looking for websites that are built around your niche and contact them. Don’t be afraid. They are just people like you and on worst case scenario your link won’t get featured. But if you contact a lot of them chances are on your side.

*Bonus tip: Try to target websites with high traffic. These sites carry a lot of authority and getting featured on them will also help page ranking on Search Engines

Social Media

Social media are known for their ability to create big communities as far as giving the company communication advantages and deeper insights on their target audience.
But they can also be used as Lead Generation tools.

Lead Generation is not about selling. It’s about driving your potential customers through the stages of your sales funnel. Using social media you get to know better your targets needs, pains, as well as you can find out which could be the most suitable product for them.

After deciding which are the most suitable for your company’s Social Media Channels you can use various methods to create leads.

For example, on Facebook, some popular methods used for Lead Generation are Contests and Custom Tabs. Each one of them gives you the ability to collect important data from your target audience such as their e-mail, their name, and other contact information.

Additionally, every social media has advantages and disadvantages compared to each other so think carefully about which one suits you most depending on the tools and methods that they provide you.

Email Marketing

Email Marketing has been the go-to Digital Marketing method for Marketers the 20 last years and while it does get old, it doesn’t get obsolete. In fact, it’s still one of the best practices when it comes to B2B Marketing.

Sure a lot of things have been added in the digital world the last decade giving businesses more options in tools to use for their benefit. But E-mail Marketing has also evolved tremendously.

Not only Marketers now know more about using this fantastic communication channel but they can automate it to be more productive.

It’s true that e-mail Marketing is broadly used to convert leads into sales but that’s not always the case.

Many businesses define as leads people who opted-in for giving their e-mail addresses to download their free e-books or attend webinars.

But these people are probably only interested in the content you can provide them. This is something that can be changed.

You have to nurture all these potential leads by continuing to provide them high-quality content with consistency. And here comes the automation. Segmenting your subscribers based on their previous behavior and then sending them relevant e-mail will build trust and credibility on your brand.

By creating these positive emotions on your subscribers you simultaneously create new needs. People who appreciate your knowledge could also appreciate your products or services and that’s how leads are generated with e-mail Marketing.

Given that it’s cost effective yet very scalable it’s a great tool to add in your Lead Generation toolbox.

Struggling with creating Marketing Lists? Here’s how to do it

CTA’s

CTA or call to action is a term used in Digital Marketing to describe the effort to drive a potential customer from one stage of the sales funnel to the next by asking them to interact with your website.

The value of CTA functionality runs deep and can be pretty effective if used properly but you don’t have to be an expert either.

In the bullet points below, I mention the key factors that will make a CTA effective.

• USE TEXT

Always remember that CTA is a button and that’s what it should always be. Don’t confuse your visitors with Images or GIFs.
Text, in contrast, is the only thing that should be included in these buttons.

• PLACE IT CORRECTLY

Sounds simple and it is but it’s very common seeing CTA’s in weird locations. The secret here is to place your CTA in your visitor's direct path.

Try to imagine where your visitor's eyes are looking and where they are going to look next. Place your button on their natural path and BOOM…you did it. Your visitors know that this button exists. You now have to make them click it...

• USE THE RIGHT WORDS

Among all the factors that make a CTA button effective (Color, Shape, Size) the copy you are going to use in it is probably the most important.

Unfortunately, the space you have in these buttons is limited so you have to put some effort into picking the right words or using the proper phrases.

Remember..you want your visitors to click this button. So why should they do it? Why would they agree to get redirected to another page instead of staying at the same one or bouncing back…
Because you offer value.

Now that you know what’s your context find a good way to present it using no more than 5 words.

PPC

PPC stands for pay per click and refers to the Digital Marketing Model where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. The most popular PPC platform is Google Ads.

With PPC Advertising you can appear instantly on the top of a Search Engines results for a specific keyword.

While it is broadly used to create instant sales it can also be a Lead Generation Machine.

In addition with SEO, you won’t need a lot of time and effort to rank your keywords on the top of the result pages. After driving your leads into your sales funnel you can market them your product or service with various methods.

Although PPC contains risks and it should be treated by an experienced Marketer it offers a quicker Lead Generation Process with awesome ROI.

Conclusion

And there you are. Creating leads is not easy. It never was but today you have a big picklist of tools and methods to use.

Keep in mind that there is no right or wrong and you will have to find which of those work best for you and master them.

Put in some hard work and you’ll start noticing the success.

And trust me...that’s the best part!