The buying process has undergone a massive transformation in recent years. Customers are not influenced by TV, magazine, and billboard ads to the extent they were a few years ago. The continuous penetration of the internet and the unremitting spread of smartphone usage have changed the way customers make buying decisions.
According to one recent research, your customer spends 81 percent of their buying time online research. By the time they visit your shop, they have more or less made their buying decision. Your brand is just one of the dozens they might have researched. The only way you can swing their buying decision in your favor is by implementing a killer lead generation strategy.
Sales and marketing are essentially numbers games. The more people you reach out to, and the more numbers you convert, the higher your sales and profit will be.
However, relevant and targeted data is the key to reaching out to potential customers. Random, un-vetted data will not add value to your lead generation efforts. While the quantity of leads you generate is important, the quality of leads matters the most.
Are you a bit lost on how to generate quality leads that are so vital for the growth of your business?
There are many ways of doing it right, but a small tip on where to start from before that.
Focus On The Homepage Before You Begin
As the homepage of your website is perhaps the one that gets the maximum traffic, your lead generation efforts must start from the homepage.
- A headline or a banner with a solid call to action (CTA) at the very top of the page can be a great move.
- The CTA must be in sync with the images and the content on the page
- This can help in catching the attention of visitors almost instantly. It is also a sure-fire way of making an excellent first impression.
Various analytical tools are available to check if your homepage lead generation efforts are bearing fruits. Evaluate your bounce rates and engagement rates. Compare them with the industry averages to get a sense of your performance metrics.
Here are some proven ways of executing a lead generation campaign successfully.
1. Set Goals and Focus Sharply On Achieving Them
Ask any digital marketing expert, and they will all say that goal setting is a must for any lead generation strategy to succeed. Set specific and measurable goals that can be achieved in a time-bound manner. Give your goals an objective, a number, and a timeline.
Example: Generating 500 new leads by the end of March 2022.
2. Generate Leads Through Quality Content
Visitors to a website look for high-value and informative content to help them make buying decisions. If you deliver what your visitors need, it will create a high level of trust in you. They will look for more such information on your website and social media pages. Blogging is another powerful way of generating leads. You must remember that different types of content will generate leads of different kinds.
To generate the right content for the various information resources, you must get your market research right. Market research still matters a lot. It will tell you what your target audience is looking for and where they will go in search of answers to their queries. Once you figure that out through research, find ways of driving their search efforts to your pages. Make sure they get a more focused and problem-solving answers to their questions. If you do that repeatedly, you will win them over.
3. Optimize Mechanisms of Lead Capture
Lead capture is the action you must take when visitors convert to leads. Lead capture forms are generally used to collect visitor data by enticing them with something in exchange, such as a demo, discount, or a user guide.
Lead capture pages are dedicated to providing specific information and encouraging visitors to leave their data through forms.
The typical problem marketers face is that forms with multiple fields can reduce conversion rates. Forms with fewer fields can boost conversion prospects but can affect lead quality.
The solution is using multi-step forms.
Multi-step forms are long forms split into multiple views. Instead of asking visitors to complete forms in one go, they can answer questions step-by-step and fill in their information without feeling hassled or fatigued. This simple move can improve conversion rates by as much as 87 percent.
4. Get Your Keyword Strategy Right
Keywords are the backbone of any online marketing campaign, and it is no different for lead generation. You must get your keyword strategy spot on for succeeding in your lead generation efforts. The first step is to identify a set of relevant keywords. An SEO keyword research tool can come in handy in this effort.
Keyword research can help you understand what words and terms are commonly used by customers while searching for your products or services. An optimized website will ensure that customers will be directed to your web pages when they use the keywords embedded in your content. This will result in increased relevant traffic volume.
Some of the other lead generation steps you must include in your marketing strategy include
- Ensure that the page loading speed is less than three seconds
- Optimize the website content for mobile
- Keep adding fresh and relevant content to your website and web pages to add value
- Repurpose old content at all available opportunities
- Make effective use of your social media channels
- Use the service of influences and invest in paid ads
5. Use Chatbots To Capture More Leads
Lead generation chatbots offer an effective way of capturing leads on your website. It is perceived as a customer service channel, but chatbots have emerged as excellent tools for B2B and B2C marketing. The benefits of using chatbots for lead capture are:
- It helps deliver an enhanced customer experience
- Offers round the clock lead capturing efforts
- Results in better interaction and engagement
Chatbots are one step ahead of static online forms in lead capturing because they can help you draw more information on leads before you begin the engagement process. The approach is also less pushy and more conversational.
Marketers often combine lead generation chatbots live chat. The chatbot is used for initiating the interaction. The prospect is then directed to a real agent to continue the engagement. A vital advantage of this approach is that your sales team will spend more time on qualified leads and cut down on less fruitful efforts.
Regardless of the lead generation strategies, you plan to use, make sure every step of the strategy is optimized. Create value that visitors can benefit from when they visit your website. Everything on your website must be aligned with the objective of visitors. When you achieve that, you can effortlessly convert visitors to leads.