Customers are the lifeblood of pretty much every business. I know that, give me some leads generation tips I hear you say but before I do, let us agree.
Even established businesses require to generate new leads constantly in order to grow, while new businesses will need customers merely to stay alive.
Lead generation, de facto, is at the core of every business growth, thus lead generation is the beginning of the cycle of business growth. When it feels like hard science to get the ball rolling, it can be quite taxing. Hence our goal to give you these leads generation tips to get you up and running as quickly as possible.
Maybe you are a new business, or perhaps, are an existing business operating in a very competitive field. Regardless, if you are reading this article, it’s because you want to start thriving. Instead of finding a way to get just enough customers, or not enough to survive. No one gets into business merely to live hand to mouth after all.
Here is the good news. There is a simple process to follow, to go from where you are to where you need to be. Assuming you have a valuable product to offer, the first thing you need to do is to define or redefine your sales funnel for optimal results. Here are the steps you need to take to achieve this:
Define Your Target Audience
As basic as this may seem, we’re not going to assume that you have done this right. This is simply because way too many businesses, they’re either trying to target everyone or trying to target the wrong group. The truth is that human beings really do behave like a herd when it comes to buying/consumer behavior.
Accurately understanding who your target customer is, how they behave and where to find them will dramatically improve the accuracy of your marketing.
Develop strategic partnerships
Whatever your industry, there are probably one or businesses in an allied but separate field who would be willing to partner with you. This could result in a great source of new leads.
Thus, find established businesses, preferably, the kinds with a customer base that needs your services or products. Ask them to recommend your products/services to their consumers. If they agree, this is a goldmine. Needless to say, however, they shouldn’t be your competitors.
You may also need to send some customers their way, and operate on the basis of a non-compete agreement. Or, give them a commission for every sale, or lead.
Highlight Benefits Not Features| Paint The Experience
Every expert loves to go on and on about the amazing features of their product, and there is nothing wrong with taking the time to explain how your product or service is superior. The catch is, you must do it from the perspective of your target customer.
There are a few exceptions (such as end-users of high tech products). Nonetheless, most of the time, your target audience wants to know how they will benefit in their terms. Hence, simply tell them what they will have, become, feel, and experience. Overall, they just want to know, how exactly your product/service is going to help improve their life. That’s it.
Host an Event
What’s one great way to both position yourself as an expert as well as get new leads, under one roof and within your reach? The answer is hosting an event.
Let’s pump the break here.
When I say host an event, I am not necessarily saying that it has to be at a brick and mortar location. It could even be a webinar, Facebook live, Instagram live, YouTube Premiere, etc. where you give away lots of useful information.
If you prefer to do webinars, here are some of the best webinars software you can use are WebinarJam, Zoom.us, GoToWebinar, and Clickmeeting.
So feel free to add it to your arsenal of leads generations tips
Referral Program
Have you ever heard of word of mouth? It simply is the best marketing practice any business could have.
How do you go around and about it? create a referral program by offering people an incentive like a commission, or other rewards for any customers they bring to you. This way your business will people who will become salespeople on your behalf. It’s a win/win solution for everyone.
To reassure you, big companies use this strategy as well, because it works.
There is an extra benefit you can get from referral programs. Since they’re coming from a trusted source, you will have a lot less distrust to deal with these new prospects.
Be Consistent
One of the best leads generation tips is Consistency. You need to be consistent on all the above and what to come.
There is a marketing belief that it takes a minimum of 7 separate engagements to turn any prospect into a customer.
However, I believe that number has gone up in today’s busy world we live in.
Trust is certainly not going to come overnight, and you have to be consistent in putting out the message about your products and services if you ever want to see any real results.
There are many people, after running a campaign for 3 days, they would shut the idea of any other online advertisement ideas. Why? because they didn’t get a long queue of customers on the line? hmm, It doesn’t work that way.
Something you should already know. Your target audience and everyone else online, are bombarded with information daily. Mostly, unwanted information. Hence, when they come across products, services they’re not necessarily looking for you, it won’t register the first time. If it does, maybe they got distracted, therefore it is your job to go back and get their attention, again.
Know Your Competitors and Stay on Top of Them
Keep an eye out for what your competitors are doing. There is no shame in reverse engineering their successes after all, particularly if they have been in the business for longer than you have.
If you find anything they’re doing is working for them, it is your duty to do the same, if it works, good, that’s one more way to grow your business.
Also, be sure to perform a competitive analysis of your competitors to be aware of all the opportunities and threats that may exist in the market. A great tool many marketers use is SEMRush, you may want to give it a try.
Have a Lead-Generating Website
There is only one reason to have a website for your business, and that is to generate leads that eventually convert into sales. Waste no time worrying about how beautiful your website may or may not be. But make sure your website is well optimized for maximum conversions. This means you need to build your website (or have it built for you), with the sales funnel in mind. To begin with, this means your website should be optimized to appear in the top three entries for keywords that are relevant to your niche.
Secondly, your website should have a call to action buttons. Give them something of value, like a free ebook, an infographic, a free report like the one on this article, etc. I guarantee you, that if you apply these nine tips, you will go from hustling to make ends meet to having a steady stream of customers waiting for your service every month.
