The days of a well-placed billboard or television advertisement creating a lot of buzz and interest in a business are long gone. The fact that all of today’s customers are online causes business owners to view the internet in a whole new light.
Unfortunately, a “magic bullet” cannot turn your website into a magnet for potential customers or persuade everyone that you’re the best option. Instead, you should combine several lead generation strategies and technologies to build relationships with potential customers, nurture those relationships, and eventually turn those ties into long-lasting online leads.
Have you ever wondered how to generate online leads and what the best online lead-generation methods are?
If so, you should read this beginner’s guide! It may be challenging to stay on top of all the most recent developments in digital marketing. Because of this, we’ve compiled a list of the seven most effective lead-generation methods. Each channel has particular advantages and disadvantages, yet all are successful when used correctly. Let’s get going!
1. Content Marketing
Whether you are a B2B or B2C company, content marketing is a traditional but effective way to generate online leads since it enables companies to produce and distribute content that their target audience wants and needs while simultaneously establishing trust.
Businesses may get more visitors who will, ideally, become customers by consistently producing and educating the public through their quality content. Unlike the outbound strategy, which starts with a straightforward sales pitch, this method of generating leads is known as inbound.
Let’s imagine, for reference, that your business sells sofas and tables. You already know that a blog solely devoted to how the furniture your business sells is the best on the market is probably going to attract little to no attention; however, a blog that takes a “big picture” approach and discusses how your sofas enhance interior spaces is sure to be well-liked.
The appealing thing about content marketing is that it can take many various forms, including blog articles, infographics, whitepapers, e-books, memes, and videos. Therefore, you should make use of the content you believe will be highly beneficial to your business or potential clients.
Those who wish to access this information must enter their email. From there, you may start an email campaign for nurturing leads or even send a small “thank you” note to everyone.
Your lead may reply to your email and convert to a potential client if they like your content.
2. Cold Email Marketing
Although there are various ways to convert a lead into a customer, cold emailing is the best method for making contact with someone once they have shown interest in your product or service by visiting your website or blog. Email is frequently regarded as a foolproof solution because it’s:
- Cost-effective
- Customizable
- Delivers the right and precise message.
- Open conversations that leads to a sale
The fact that someone joined your mailing list indicates they are interested in you, which is half the battle won! Next, think about creating a marketing automation program or email schedule to deliver customers’ targeted messages at critical points in the purchasing process. You can use subject lines that mention their most recent internet activity.
Get a flat 30% discount by subscribing now, for example, or Hello Emma: So long, how are you?
Use only one CTA per email, and don’t use the wrong CTA. For instance, if your business specializes in creating networking systems, you might know that developing a system typically takes six months. If you sent a “Buy now!” email to a potential customer, you would be wasting your time and potentially irritating the customer.
Start your emails by giving the customers the information they are most likely to require right away: product specifics and discounts. Then move on to discussing special features of the products to show them why yours is the best they will find on the market.
3. Social Media
You might be surprised to hear that a significant portion of consumers checks out a brand’s Facebook or Instagram page to read product reviews and testimonials by other customers before making a purchase. Therefore, your leads will only take you seriously if you are on social media where they can see what others have to say about you.
However, the most frequent mistake that most businesses commit is to use Facebook and Twitter as a voice to make announcements about their brands. Instead, you can use social media to interact and engage with your target audiences by running a contest, starting a poll or live chat.
You might not need to have a profile on every network depending on your sector; therefore, if you want to produce leads, you need to know which social media platforms to leverage. For instance, if you offer software, Twitter and Facebook are essential for gathering consumer feedback, initiating conversations, and responding to inquiries.
On the other hand, if you offer delicious baked items, Pinterest is your first choice to share recipes, and who wouldn’t enjoy seeing images of cupcakes on their Instagram feed? However, Twitter will not be the right platform because it needs more than 280 characters to learn about your latest bake and snack options.
So, by evaluating the available social media sites and setting up your profiles, you can immediately attract new leads and customers at little to no cost.
4. Webinars
If you consider yourself an expert or have a significant amount of information to share on a subject, think about hosting a webinar. Even though webinars might be difficult to plan and carry out, they are one of the best ways to get new leads and increase website revenue.
Many people mix up webinars and podcasts, although the two are distinct for the following reasons:
- Your audience needs to register for webinars. Sign-ups are not necessary for a podcast.
- A webinar is a live discussion, while a podcast is recorded.
Although getting leads for your company may be the ultimate purpose of a webinar, you shouldn’t make it all about you. The main goal of these gatherings needs to be to share your expertise as a thought leader in the field with your attendees.
For instance, if you own a food storage warehouse, consider yourself an expert in food safety and standards. So, why not host a webinar on that topic to educate the masses? You might discuss safety regulations and even highlight particular protocols to keep food from decomposing or growing bacteria. After the webinar, you might see people rushing to your website to check out what you offer.
You can use various methods to let people know you have a webinar to maximize engagement, such as sending emails to your mailing list or posting a link to the webinar on your social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Once finished, you can publish the webinar as a blog post to make it available to a larger, more diverse audience.
Ensure to include a Q&A segment and a contact option for viewers at the end of your webinar. A “thank you for attending” follow-up email is something you might think about doing, as it can remind busy participants to visit your website at their convenience.
5. Landing Pages and Website Optimization and SEO
Another effective way to generate leads for your business is through your website’s landing page. Visitors arrive at a landing page after clicking on a link in a social media post or your advertisement on Google. It’s an opportunity to showcase your company and turn the customer into a lead.
More than a responsive website might be required to produce the volume of leads necessary for your business’s long-term success. Your business’s website and landing pages need to be optimized to promote desired user and customer actions.
Here are some pointers to help you increase the number of leads your landing pages produce:
- Avoid lengthy text paragraphs.
- Laying out your material using bullet points and fewer paragraphs for visual appeal
- Use text, images, and videos.
To make sure that your website shows up in the search engine for keywords and phrases that are most relevant to your business, SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is essential. Say you are an investigation company in Texas. Your website should come up when someone searches for “investigation company in Texas,” right? What might happen, in your opinion, if the words “investigation company Texas” or “Texas investigator” are absent from your page title, on-page text, and even your product descriptions? Well, no one will know you exist.
The key to success is ensuring your website has various content types, such as copy, photos, videos, animations, and CTAs. And make sure to put them all in valuable places. Use tools to discover the appropriate keywords for your business.
SEO makes it easy and free to update your website, rank well in search results, increase website traffic, and generate income. In short, SEO is worth all the effort.
6. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads
Lead generation through advertising has always been a popular strategy. However, print media is no longer as successful as it once was, and it is difficult, if not impossible, to track the results.
The best method to attract prospects’ attention is to buy your way onto the results pages of search engines for relevant keywords. With this approach, you have more control over the search queries you want to be associated with. Pay-per-click advertising is exactly what the name implies: you pay for each click.
PPC advertisements are often excellent for companies that need more time to optimize their websites. Ads can be launched and retired anytime, and budgets can be changed at will. You can quickly boost an advertisement’s daily budget if you notice that it is performing very well and wish to make it more visible or target similar terms.
PPC advertising is accessible on well-known platforms including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft’s Bing. You may spend anything from cents to a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars for a single click, based on the phrases or keywords you’re targeting.
In short, it all comes down to optimizing your copy for relevant keywords and including them in your title, a hyperlink, and a meta description. Advertising is still a fantastic strategy to broaden your brand’s awareness and provide essential Internet leads for your company.
7. Online PR
Public relations, sometimes known as PR, is preserving a company’s good name and creating strong bonds with the people, businesses, and groups it serves.
PR must be included as one of the primary channels in lead generation strategies to be effective. Individuals like to purchase goods from people they know and trust. The words of social media influencers can increase website traffic and assist you in generating more sales leads.
Invest in PR by creating thought-provoking material, launching products, conducting case studies, hosting webinars, participating in panels with your team leaders, etc. Then, use social media marketing to boost this investment.
In today’s world, Gen Z generation businesses are beginning to recognize the value of PR for online leads. Still, since it is a costly investment, spend your first few months creating leads through other methods and channels and then move towards PR.
To Sum It All Up
Knowing your audience is the key to successful online lead generation and digital marketing.
What are their concerns, what do they look for, and how do they look for them? Knowing more about them will make it simpler to develop content, advertisements, and customer experience features that drive traffic, engage your audience, and enable them to become leads.
Need Help Generating Online Leads?
Many people have no idea how to get leads online, but no worries-Let SEOBERG professionals help you generate more web leads through SEO, social media marketing, Google ads, and link building. We can assist you in generating leads and customers to boost sales and achieve measurable success online.
More Resources:
What Is A Digital Marketing Agency & How Does It Work
What Is A Full-Service Digital Marketing Agency & What Do They Do?