Before we dive into our 10 killer lead generation ideas we thought it would be a helpful exercise to clear up what a lead is and what lead generation is.
Firstly, a lead is any person that has indicated any form of interest in your company’s product or services. A lead is typically qualified a lead once they have opened communication with a business rather than being contacted through cold calling. They can open communication with your business in many formats. It can be completing a form to download content from your website, signing up for a free product trial or signing up for an email subscription.
So, what is lead generation? Lead generation is the process your company goes through to produce these communications with your company. It is focused on wowing the largest number of visitors to your website for them to share their information with you.
Our 10 Killer Lead Generation Ideas
Look below at the 10 killer lead generation ideas we suggest using for your business. Each one focuses on creating an avenue that allows your visitors to be wowed by your company and therefore want to share their information with you.
1) Create Downloadable Content
Creating downloadable content is an excellent way of generating leads for your business. Downloadable content is free content that you offer your website visitors in exchange for their personal or company information.
Downloadable content can come in many forms. They can be infographics, e-books, brochures, checklists, or training videos. Whatever the format your goal should be creating evocative content that adds the greatest amount value possible for your audience.
2) Utilise your website to generate traffic
Your website should play a major part of your lead generation efforts. If you can optimise your site to generate leads you will outshine your competitors.
You should create your website ensuring that it is fully optimised for SEO. This will increase the organic traffic to your website. Once you have traffic, you can design your website to create the best user experience possible. This design will involve the use of clear concise navigation and call-to-actions.
3) Participate and host webinars
Since the Coronavirus outbreak face to face interaction has been halted, this has seen a massive rise in video calling and webinars. Webinars are an excellent method of lead generation. They work so well as you are offering free, industry relevant information in an interactive environment.
Webinars also offer an excellent opportunity to collaborate with other people within your niche. By either hosting a well-known individual or appearing on their webinar you are generating more reach for your business within your niche. This improves brand awareness and increases visitors to your site.
4) Create a podcast
One of our 10 killer lead generation ideas is to start a podcast. Audio content is often overlooked by many businesses, however creating an informative podcast is a great way to raise brand awareness and capture an audience that you may not reach through traditional blogging. In the last 3 years alone, podcast listening popularity has risen by 37.5%.
Like hosting a webinar, a podcast offers further opportunity to collaborate with other influential figures within your niche. By getting creative with the form of content you produce, you can widen your audience significantly.
5) Use push notifications and pop-up forms
Push notifications and pop-up forms are a direct and effective means for lead generation. The correct use of both across your website can dramatically improve your conversion rates from visitor to leads.
Unfortunately, both methods can be slightly intrusive. So, does this mean it is a step away from the inbound methodology? If you are creating targeted offers that are relevant for your visitor, you will not have to worry. When creating this targeted offer, it is important to consider the buyers journey and the stage of the sales funnel they are at. The aim is to wow your user and make their buying process as effortless as possible.
6) Utilise email marketing
Email marketing is a brilliant when it comes to generating leads. Often an email marketing list will be owned by a company, consisting of hundreds of contacts that at some stage showed an interest in their products or services. This list can be contacted to further a businesses’ relationship with a customer. As always, you should focus on sending great content to the recipients.
To be successful within your email campaign you should always try to send the right email, to the right customer at the right time. This means that any way you can segment your list to create a more targeted and personal approach, you should do.
7) Take advantage of your SOI
Your SOI is your sphere of influence. This basically refers to your family, friends, and acquaintances. You should constantly be interacting with you SOI, listening for any leads. It is important to remember that although they are your family, friends, and acquaintances you should only take on clients that you can help. If you are not confident that you can offer the best service for their needs, try referring them to a company that is more suited.
In the long run this approach will generate more leads by word of mouth. If you can help someone whilst coming across and selfless, they will be sure to remember you and recommend you to others.
8) Speak with past clients
Remember inbound marketing is all about wowing your visitors and delivering the best possible service. With this being the case, any past client you have worked with should be an advocate of your brand.
A killer lead generation idea is to contact you past clients and understand two things. Firstly, is there anything else you can assist them with. Just as you are working with a company does not mean they can not be a source of new business. Try upselling your products.
Secondly, you can ask them if they know of any other businesses that you could contact. If they have business owning friends or if they are partnered with other businesses, why would they not want to recommend a company that has helped them develop their business.
9) Attend Networking events
Networking events are not just a place you can go for free alcohol. They are often filled with like-minded individuals, all of which are looking for ways to improve their business or career. Your aim should be to interact and get the contact details of any individuals that you hit it off with. If you are able to build rapport and a relationship in an environment outside the office, it is much easier to convert the lead into a sale.
10) Social network prospecting
In 2020, it is reported that more than 3.8 billion people are using social media. With such a vast number of users, social media has become an effective tool that you can prospect potential clients on.
Depending on your industry, you should choose the social media channel with the greatest number of users within your audience. This may be Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. You can find out personal information about that individual and then use outreach to generate leads for your services or products.
Now you have 10 killer lead generation ideas, what are you waiting for?
We hope you liked our 10 killer lead generation ideas. Each one of the methods above, if executed correctly, will help generate your business additional leads. They will also help improve the type of lead that you are able to generate.
For further insights and guidance, we invite you to explore our blog at 07hm.co.uk/blog. Here, you’ll find a wealth of information tailored to the needs and challenges of SMEs navigating the digital landscape. Additionally, if you have specific questions or need personalised advice, don’t hesitate to reach out to us via email at info@07hm.co.uk or telephone on 01702 410663.
