5 ‘Must Do’ Lead Generation

So you’ve worked hard to build a solid, dynamic sales funnel. You’re ready to engage, nurture, and convert new leads like nobody’s business.

But, just because you built it doesn’t mean they will come!

To help you fill up your sales funnel with hot new leads, following are five “must do” lead generation strategies for your business:

1. Content Marketing

Honestly, all types of digital marketing involve content in some form, so it’s imperative to be good at creating great content — whether you do it yourself or whether you hire an expert to do it for you. Poorly executed content is an immediate turn-off, no matter how great the concept behind it may be.

Content marketing is the use of content to generate interest in and recognition of your brand and/or products, without overt advertisement or promotion. Content examples include blogs, videos, infographics, SlideShares, checklists, eBooks, white papers, case studies, etc.

The name of the game here is “value.” In order to be successful, the content marketer must use a “pay it forward” approach, where the first order of business is to provide a target audience with information that’s uniquely valuable because it’s:

• Informative
• Relevant
• Timely
• Entertaining

Offering something valuable for nothing is a great way to engender trust and keep prospective customers coming back and, hopefully, opting in to receive more content from you and/or traveling further down your sales funnel.

2. Social Networks

This lead generation method  is on fire and shows no signs of slowing down, especially if millennials are part of your target audience.

Creating engaging, relevant content for platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc., is a powerful content strategy — not only because they allow you to perform demographic- and interest-based targeting, but because you’re using these platforms to connect with people while they’re doing something they enjoy (i.e. using social media) and making it easy for them to share your message with their friends online.

3. Online Registration/Opt-In

In this case, you’re offering audience members something they should perceive as high-value in exchange for their contact information.

Lead magnets, or exceedingly useful content (e.g. eBooks, courses, case studies, comparison charts, reports, etc.), are a great way to attract leads that may already have high interest in your product. Coupons, special offers, and club memberships are also quite effective.

Important Caveat: You must fully deliver on the value you promised, or this won’t work. Leads who believe you’ve acted in good faith are much less likely to opt out of your ongoing messaging and much more likely to convert over time. But leads who feel they were promised the moon and received only moondust will be exiting your sales funnel post-haste.

4. Email

Typically, getting someone’s email address is only half the battle when it comes to capturing a qualified lead. But it’s a good start. Your next job is to follow up with email communications that are the exact opposite of pitchy and annoying. Instead, speak to the lead’s interests, needs, and pain points, while gently offering tangible solutions.

Being consistently welcomed into someone’s inbox is an art, and getting kicked to the curb is as easy as one annoying or off-message email. So it helps to remember what you personally find pleasant and interesting about certain emails you receive, and off-putting about others. Of course, hiring a professional email marketer to craft great email copy and ongoing engagement strategies doesn’t hurt, either.

5. PPC

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising involves paying a search engine (e.g. Google) or a display/social network (e.g. Facebook) every time a web user clicks on one of your ads in their search results, newsfeed, etc.

Basically, it’s a way of paying for valuable interactions with highly relevant web users who are searching for a solution you can provide (e.g. your product/service that meets their immediate need as expressed in a Google search query), or who seem likely to be interested in your product/service based on their demographic/interests attributes (e.g. your product/service is a good fit for people who share similar attributes with your target audience on Facebook).

PPC advertising has massive potential for reaching new potential customers and reengaging with existing customers. You can connect with people who otherwise would have no idea you exist, and get them engaging with your other forms of marketing such as email or content.

Successful PPC advertising requires insight, finesse, know-how, tenacity, and lots of technical know-how about the PPC platforms themselves (e.g. Google AdWords, Facebook Ads). Unfortunately, most marketers don’t possess all of the skillsets necessary for managing PPC campaigns well.

But when you find someone who actually knows what they’re doing . . . you know, someone who’s a Premier Google Partner (which means they’re ranked in the top 3% of all Google Partners, worldwide), a Bing Ads Partner, a BBB Accredited Business with an A+ rating, and who has the reviews to back it up, well, then you have the potential to generate more leads than you ever have before, and definitely more than your competition. (Hint: We’re talking about StubGroup!)

We are admittedly biased in favor of PPC advertising when it comes to generating great leads. After all, StubGroup is a digital advertising agency — expertly executing PPC advertising campaigns is what we do for a living. And, time and again we’ve seen first-hand with our clients how important and valuable a great approach to PPC is for generating highly relevant leads that turn into new business and positive ROI.

However, the fact is that the best approach to lead generation requires effectively utilizing all five of the methods we’ve listed in this post, which is what we always recommend to our clients. And a great place to start that journey is with PPC.

If you have any questions about how PPC advertising can become an important part of your company’s lead generation strategy, or if you’d like to request a free evaluation of your current Google AdWords or Facebook Ads campaigns, we’d love to speak with you. Just let us know!