There are an overwhelming number of lead generation strategies that can be utilized, but which top 3 would you choose if you had to just hit the ground running?
In this article, we’ll cover some of the best strategies, but as with every marketing topic, the devil is in the details. It’s all about the way you implement each strategy within the context of your business.
Email marketing
Email marketing is one of the best lead nurturing strategies because you have an open channel of communication to repeatedly market your offer.
On average the prospect needs to see your marketing message 7 times before they buy. Therefore, email marketing is the perfect method for reaching out to your leads to meet this quota.
However, you would be mistaken if you think that bombarding the lead with 7 marketing emails at a pace of one-per-day is the way to go. Instead, the emails should be spread out with a frequency of 2-3 per week and there must be value in each one.
For example, if you’re selling a weight loss program then share some tasty weight loss recipes or “at-home” workout options. You should aim to build trust and establish yourself as an authority in your niche. Consequently, the responsiveness to your marketing messages will be significantly higher.
To obtain the email address in the first place you’ll need a lead magnet, which could be a free trial, free ebook or video course – anything that will entice the potential lead to hand over their email without much pause.
Here’s an example of a lead magnet we created for our other brand, Landing Page School. It continues to perform extremely well for us in terms of generating new email subscribers.
Landing pages
A landing page has the primary purpose of turning a new visitor into a lead or a customer. Before setting out to construct the landing page, figure out what you want it to accomplish.
For example, if you are only after the email address, then don’t confuse the lead by adding offers as it will decrease the conversion rate for the primary goal; less is more in such a scenario.
Using videos in your landing page has the potential to increase conversions by up to 86%. It’s an effective strategy because it allows you to convey the emotions and enthusiasm behind your offer in a direct manner.
Video is the most popular way of digesting content online due to the explosion of YouTube, so it’s a no-brainer to create video-based landing pages.
Furthermore, it’s very important to execute A/B split testing in order to improve conversions for your landing page. Former President Obama was able to generate an extra $60 million in non-profit fundraising by making use of A/B split testing.
The idea is to create two versions of a landing page by changing only one variable. Then you send a decent sample size of traffic to each page version to see which one performs better. You can keep the one that has higher conversion rates and discard the other. Using this process you can turn a poorly converting landing page into and industry leader.
Copywriting is a big part of a successful landing page that cannot be overlooked. If you don’t have a suitable writer, then you should hire a professional as the investment will certainly be worth it.
The copywriting must be direct and use persuasive language to show why the offer will solve a specific problem the visitor is having.
Content marketing
Content marketing has the ability to generate 3 times more leads than outbound marketing and costs 62% less. Therefore, it’s a no-brainer to look at your content strategy before turning to the multitude of paid advertising methods out there.
Your first action should be to set up a blog alongside your main website. This could be in the form of a subdomain or simply a link from the homepage pointing to the blog.
The idea is to provide helpful information and news related to your niche. You’ll gain organic search engine traffic and establish yourself as an authority in your field.
Play your cards right with the type of content you create and it may go viral (but don’t count on that). Regardless, a content marketing strategy could potentially bring in a flood of new leads that could end up being the lifeblood of your business.
However, once the blog content is created you can repurpose it for other content marketing channels such as social media, video, and email. For example, you could take snippets of the blog and publish them as social media posts. This would act as a teaser for the entire post – it’s a great way to hook people in to visit your website.
Content marketing is more important than you may think – especially for small businesses. It’s estimated that small businesses with blogs acquire 126% more leads compared to ones that don’t. Therefore, to remain competitive it’s a no-brainer to formulate a content marketing strategy and stick to it – it’s not as expensive as you might think.
Conclusion
The 3 lead generation strategies above can tilt the tide of a struggling business to one that’s an industry leader. There are a myriad of ways that you can implement each strategy, but if you’re stuck on how to get started then take a peek at what the competition is doing.
There is no need to recreate the wheel, simply look at the industry leaders and reverse engineer. However, don’t go for a copy/paste approach; instead, use what you learn as inspiration and come up with your own version of each lead generation strategy.
Your competitors are probably already using all 3 strategies outlined in this article, so to remain relevant, take action today and get started.
