Lead generation is the process of capturing members of the audience and nurturing them until they are ready to buy. Any business can use it, whether B2B or B2C, regardless of the industry they are in. This way of attracting new customers has been around for some time.
However, strategies are changing because consumers are more discerning. Because of that, 63% of marketers rank lead generation as their number one challenge. As such, organizations need to be more creative when it comes to lead generation. That is not child’s play, as customers do not fall easily into a lead generation trap. Common approaches may not even work on them at all. However, a business could capture new leads and keep them engaged with the help of the following clever ideas.
Before that, an organization should be ready with the following components of lead generation to be successful. Lead generation database. Track and manage leads in a database to prioritize nurturing those that are of higher quality.
Supporting content. Be ready with top-notch content to attract leads. Make them available in different channels to reach the target audience. Analytics engine. This is important for analyzing how successful the lead generation programs are.
Marketing technology stack. Using the right tools can save money and generate more revenue.
7 Clever Lead Generation Ideas
Share Success Secrets from Industry Leaders
Industry leaders are the best tools for attracting leads. Marketers in the same field or other sectors do this. These marketers experience a margin of success when they share success secrets with these people.
They gain their audience’s trust by showing them helpful insights. The audience does not want fluff pieces. What they want and need is the advice they can use in their operations.
Brands can start by asking company founders specific questions that potential customers can learn something from. These contents can be published in one go or turned into a mini-series. They can be published in a blog and made accessible to a wide audience. However, brands must remember to announce the availability of this resource on the website and other channels.
Offer a List of Useful Tools and Resources
If the company offers a tool to an audience, it is rather easy to fall into the trap of talking only about it. While that may be good for marketing and promotions, an organization may be missing a lead generation opportunity.
What marketers can do, instead, is to look at other solutions and resources that the brand uses and share those with the audience. Or better yet, research and compile a list of applications that readers might implement in their organizations.
This will attract readers to the lookout for solutions like the ones the brand offers. For example, HubSpot regularly offers this kind of content on its blog. They have their marketing software suite, yet they have lists that offer readers other options.
These resource articles can be turned into Google ads to generate leads. A brand can entice Google search users to click on a link by offering valuable material as an incentive. This allows an organization to gather data from them. And because such resources are rather helpful, readers could return in the future, turn into leads, and convert.
Put a Twist into Gating Content
Gating content, or locking the interesting bits behind a form, is a common practice. Indeed, around 80% of B2B content marketing assets are hidden behind a gate. But it can be not very pleasant, and instead of gaining leads, it can cause a business to lose some. In that case, it may be a good idea to have the audience unlock the content in another way.
One solution is to embed it in videos. A brand can provide great content for free and also get some information from people watching the video. In this way, the forms can attract attention and sign-ups but are not so distracting or discouraging.
A digital experience optimization company once used this hybrid method. They used forms that showed up as the audience watched the video. It encouraged but did not require subscriptions. This drove great results for the business because it was not bothersome.
Go Old School with Attention-Grabbing Direct Mail
Direct mail in this day and age? It sounds like a joke to employ a strategy many companies used before the onset of the digital era. But we kid you not.
We do not mean just any old direct mail with pieces of paper. Some people usually toss them away. To get the recipients’ attention, the mail has to be attention-grabbing.
Sending mail is an act that, by itself, is already interesting. However, a well-put-together package is guaranteed to make recipients engaged.
There are numerous ways to go about it. But one clever example comes from a digital marketing conference held in 2019. The organizers embedded a video in the direct mail and included a surprise at the end! Only those who watched the video ’til the last second could enjoy the sweet treat.
Create an Exciting Quiz
Quizzes are dime-a-dozen on the web. For sure, a number have answered their fair share of those. At some point, participants may have encountered a quiz that required them to share their email to get the results.
Did it work? If it was an important and interesting quiz, the site behind it may have succeeded in getting a piece of information.
However, not any quiz will do, despite the topic being trending. It has to be relevant to the audience at that time. Or it can be a quiz that can remain helpful even after some time has passed.
Let the readers take a quiz first and ask them to provide their email to access the results. A different approach can be taken here, as well. The creator can give quiz takers the option to save the results in their emails after viewing them.
Entice Leads with Free Email Courses
Not everyone has the time or the energy to visit certain websites regularly for pieces of learning. But people like to check their emails often. And they do so several times a day. One study even showed that emails take up at least 28% of a professional’s workday.
Brands can capitalize on this by developing a valuable course delivered through email. It’s like taking an online lesson but by email. And it’s completely free, except for the opt-in part!
With this route, the audience must know what they can expect. For example, they can be informed that they will receive important lessons over 25 days. This prevents opt-outs in case they experience email fatigue.
Additionally, website content can be turned into an email course. For example, tips on techniques used to find the best products to sell online can be delivered via email. These lessons do not have to be sent in one go. Like other content, they can be cut down into bite-sized pieces to make the learning process more digestible.
Devise a Template That Can Simplify Tasks
People usually go online to find solutions to their problems, and a brand can capture their attention by offering answers. They don’t have to be tools or services, but a brand can develop templates. They can be for managing employee information or for keeping customer data clean.
Those templates can help create a strong relationship with customers, which will make them grateful. Thus, with a solid beginning, brands can look toward having a new patron.
Keep Best Practices in Mind
The best practices should be kept in mind regardless of the way a brand launched its latest lead generation program. They could keep their leads engaged by using those in tandem with the organization’s lead-generation strategy.
An effective way of doing so is being available to offer information and support, which can be done through live chat available on any page of the brand’s website. This tool allows website visitors to contact representatives directly for questions about the products or services.
With quick responses, consumers can also speedily make purchasing decisions. On top of that, the chat box can serve as another avenue for lead generation. Another benefit is a reduced bounce-back rate.
However, a brand should not rely on a single method of live support as customers may prefer other channels like social media. It is always a good idea to keep the best lead generation practices in mind to maximize every avenue for engagement.
