Successful small business owners are always looking for the best ways to increase their customer base by generation through leads.
The path to business success can be a long and difficult process. However, one of the proven ways to deliver results for a growing business is to have access to a steady supply of visitors by maximizing their Digital Marketing and Email Marketing to boost sales and improve conversion rate.
Here are some tips to help you generate more leads for your small business and turn them into customers.
Most Effective Methods For Small Businesses to Generate Leads
There are many ways to generate leads for your business. Big corporations are stuck with traditional and expensive methods of lead generation such as direct mail, TV advertising, and radio.
Small businesses with less than 50 employees likely do not have the budget to allocate towards these expensive advertising methods consistently.
Without a big budget for advertising, many small businesses call a center outbound generation to get more leads. It’s important to note that this process takes time.
Online advertising channels are also extremely popular among small businesses that want to create leads and build their brands online.
What Is Outbound Lead Generation?
Outbound lead generation, also known as ‘interruption marketing,’ is when a business sends or pushes messages out to their target audience, regardless of whether the audience has expressed interest in their content.
In this scenario, the business decides, not the prospect, how and when the interaction will occur.
This is why it is also referred to as ‘interruption marketing.’
Outbound lead generation is typically done via telemarketing and follows up calls in an attempt to connect with prospects who still might be interested in the company’s products or services.
It is important to note that most outbound lead generation methods involve lead or hourly costs, which quickly add up.
This adds a layer of risk, which causes businesses to use these types of campaigns for selling rather than to educate or help their target audience.
What Is Inbound Lead Generation?
Inbound lead generation is creating content that is designed to attract visitors and convert them into new leads. Inbound lead generation typically involves generating more customers through website traffic, social channels, or blog posts.
There are also many platforms available that offer full-funnel designs for generating consumer web form inquiries or generating more leads.
Instead of forcing prospects to interact with your brand. Inbound a lead generation strategy makes your brand more discoverable on social platforms and in search engines.
The difference is that potential buyers can control how and when they choose to engage with your brand and the information they want to exchange.
Value, delivered via content creation, is used to establish a relationship with the prospect and earn their trust.
Inbound lead generation strategies focus more on helping rather than selling to the audience.
As a result, inbound generate more leads delivers prospects who have already done their due diligence of your brand, product, and service offerings and are genuinely ready to engage.
Creating a Plan to Generate Leads on Your Website
Now that we’ve covered the different types of generation through leads, the next step is to create a plan to generate leads from your website.
For this example, we are going to discuss generating leads for a debt settlement business.
Debt Lead Types
For a debt settlement company, the company might want to generate the following types of leads:
Debt Settlement
Tax Relief
Credit Counseling
Debt Consolidation
Bankruptcy
Home Foreclosure Relief
Generate Traffic
To attract leads to their website, the company will first need to generate traffic and turn them into prospects by using the following methods:
Online Forms
When visitors arrive at the company’s website, they will have to complete an online form to receive more information about the products and services offered by the company.
Social Posts
The company can create posts for social channels that are designed to send traffic back to the company’s website by emphasizing valuable content available on the website.
Inbound Calls
An inbound call is one that the ideal customer makes directly to the company’s call center or contact center. This can be encouraged by posting the company’s phone number on the website and can make it easy.
Email Subscription
An email subscription form allows prospects to sign up to the company’s email newsletter to receive company updates and further information via email.
Influencer Marketing Automation
Social media influencers are used to improve brand awareness and encourage prospects to engage with the brand.
Client Referrals/Testimonials
Your best asset could be the leads you currently have. Reach out to current leads who have been loyal to your brand, and ask them to refer you.
You could even ask for a testimonial from them that you can post both on your website and on social media.
Guest Posting
Having a guest post content on your site is a great way to tap into that guest’s leads. You want to place your brand in front of as many people as you can, and allowing guests to bring their own leads through their content could be the best way to do it.
Sales Funnel Process Through Landing Pages
Companies can also use sales lead funnels to guide leads through the buying process.
A sales leads funnel is a landing page containing a series of steps designed to guide visitors towards making a buying decision.
Two Types of Lead Processes
A lead process is the customer acquisition process used to identify potential buyers and qualify them so that they pass from the prospect stage to sales leads.
There are two highly effective lead processes that you can implement on your website.
Inbound Phone Call Through Call-to-Action on Your Website
A call to action (CTA) is prompt that you place on your website that tells the visitors to take your target action.
In this instance, the action you want them to take is making a phone call to your call center.
A CTA is effective because it clarifies a potential customer as to the next step to take. It also removes some of the friction involved in making the sale because it is an inbound call.
Online Contact Form Inquiry or Webform Leads
With an online contact form, you can have potential customers submit their information. These leads are known as web form leads. Similar to the inbound call leads, they are also taking action on their own to get in touch with your company.
However, with webform leads, you also have the bonus of having collected their contact information.
So that you can follow up with them via email or phone at a later date.
Lead Generation Platforms
Here are the platforms that are proven to boost your leads.
Online News Channels
Online news channels have high traffic, which makes them a great place to generate leads.
By posting helpful content regularly or hiring a professional company to do so, you can attract visitors to your website.
Online Promotions & Ads
The top internet advertising platforms, namely Facebook, Instagram, and Google Search engine, are highly effective for attracting leads to your website.
You can advertise your brand directly on all of these platforms using paid advertising.
What Do You Need to Start Generating Leads?
Launch a Fully Optimized Landing Page
Fully optimized landing pages should continue your offer.
Have call-to-action buttons, your contact information, and use scarcity techniques that encourage visitors to take action as soon as possible.
Install Google Analytics & Facebook Pixel
Install Google Analytics by logging into your Google Analytics account and copying and pasting the tracking code for Google Analytics onto your site. Here are the instructions that explain how to set up reporting, user management, event tracking, and more. To install the Facebook Pixel, follow these steps.
Google Ad Manager Setup & Retargeting Code
To set up remarketing for your website, you need to add a code snippet to your website: the global site tag and an optional event snippet.
Log into Google Ads and follow these instructions to set up your global site tag.
Create a Facebook Business Page and an Instagram Business Page
To conduct paid social media advertising effectively, you will need to create a Facebook
Business Page and an Instagram Business Page. These are the pages that you will promote in your social channels marketing campaigns.
Business pages are also how you identify your account as a company account on these media sites. Here are the instructions for Facebook and Instagram to help you set up your business pages.
Post on Social Media at Least 2-3 Times Per Week
Posting on social channels at least 2-3 times per week will significantly increase the chances of generating traffic to your website.
Share links to gated content on your website (asking users to opt-in via a webform before they can view the content).
Use hashtags where appropriate. You can also host a webinar or post a live video.
If you don’t have time to do this on your own, you can outsource it. Click here to learn more about our social media marketing services.
Hire an Ad Manager or Consultant
Paid search marketing is the quickest and most controllable way to get your business in front of people looking for your products or services.
Because you only pay for qualified traffic, you are in complete control of the budget and return on investment for your campaign.
Hiring an ad manager or consulting to manage your paid search marketing campaigns will help to improve your ROI and eliminate the learning curve associated with paid advertising.
Facebook advertising is a great lead generation or branding tool. First, you can retarget customers and website visitors. Then, drive people who have already engaged with your brand to buy more or re-engage visitors back to your website if they did not convert on their initial visit.
At Lead Advisors, we can help you generate a great strategy to drive traffic. We’ll manage all of your paid search marketing campaign elements, including writing ad copy and content.
Setup and tracking of analytics and goals with events. Also, adjust your ad budget to ensure a great ROI for your campaign.
Talk to an Expert
To learn more about our company and comprehensive online lead generation campaign management services, go to the Lead Advisors About Page.
We are the lead generation experts, and we’re here to help you. Increase your sales leads and grow your business by designing an effective lead generation strategy.