It can be difficult to generate leads for your business, especially if you’re a small business and don’t have the budget for high-priced advertising.
However, it’s not impossible.
Some lead generation techniques that most businesses might find useful include; social media advertisements (Facebook and Twitter), Google Adwords, building out an online presence with a blog section on your website, hosting workshops or seminars at events/conferences (and even webinars).
Make Youtube Videos For Lead Generation
You can also use Youtube to your advantage when it comes to generating leads.
There are a handful of successful businesses out there that provide step-by-step instructions for their products or services and post them on Youtube so that customers can see them in action before they pay for it.
Youtube is free, but you’ll need a Youtube account (and the corresponding website).
You’ll also need to make sure that your videos are high quality, easy to follow, and relevant.
Every video needs to have a Call To Action (CTA) to convert the viewer into an actual lead.
You can use Youtube to provide testimonials from happy customers, a CTA for your viewers to sign up to your email list, or even a link that leads the user over to a landing page.
Create An Effective Landing Page
Landing pages are critical when it comes to generating leads and selling products and services.
Make sure that you’re using relevant keywords when writing the copy on your landing page so that people who search online for these keywords will find what they’re looking for. You want potential customers to be able to see exactly what’s in it for them and why they should buy your product or service.
Landing pages are a one-page advertisement for what you’re selling.
They might contain images or graphics, testimonials (make sure that they come across as genuine), the price of the product/service, etc.
The goal is to get people who visit your landing page to convert into leads. If necessary, use opt-in forms, social media sharing buttons (like Facebook Like/Tweet), or other web tools to make it easy for users to sign up for whatever you’re offering them.
Use Social Media For Organic Traffic
Social media is an amazing tool for lead generation because it allows you to connect with large amounts of people quickly and easily using tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn groups, etc.
You’ll need a well-thought-out social media marketing plan and a budget for this, but your efforts will pay off in the form of leads as long as your content is valuable enough to get people signing up for whatever it is you’re offering them.
You should also take advantage of free lead generation tools like Google Search, Twitter search, LinkedIn groups, etc., to find potential leads.
Social media is valuable for lead generation because you can target a very specific audience with your content, and it’s easy to share/repost other people’s content (which will help spread the word about what you’re offering).
You might want to pay attention to which social media platforms work best for your customers who have signed up for your email list or are already buying from you.
Advertise On Social Media
You can advertise on social media sites like Twitter or Facebook, although you may need extra cash to invest in advertising if you want it to be effective.
These social media sites have millions of active users, so there’s a really great potential for your business to see some substantial results with marketing efforts on these platforms.
You’ll need an advertising budget, but it can prove beneficial and increase the number of leads you get through social media.
Facebook and Twitter are both free platforms, although they do offer paid options as well. Always make sure to use the most important keywords when creating your advertisement, just like what you’d do for landing pages and other web content (headings, body text, etc.)
Once again, aim to get users to sign up for whatever you’re offering them, including opt-in or social sharing buttons.
Use Google Adwords for lead generation
Even if you don’t have a huge marketing budget, one thing you can try is using Google Adwords for lead generation.
You might already know that Google has an advertising platform where they sell ads that will appear when someone searches for certain things on their search engine.
This can be used to generate leads because you only pay when people click your ad and visit your site. If they’re interested in what you have to offer, then they’re likely to sign-up or call in regards to your ad or service.
These ads are relatively inexpensive (about $0.50 per click), so even if you’re a small business on a budget, it could be worth trying out.
Just remember that this will not work for every business, which means you’ll need to do some research before launching the Adwords campaign to see what kinds of keywords and phrases will be most likely to produce leads for your business.
Use Inbound Marketing Techniques
Inbound marketing is a great way to generate leads for your business. It basically means using strategies that will attract customers rather than push them away with aggressive sales tactics.
The better you are at attracting visitors, the more likely they are to become leads and eventually customers, which is really what inbound marketing is all about.
Write articles and blog posts on topics related to your industry, put out social media updates regularly, create infographics with some useful information on it (you can produce these cheaply), etc.
These different inbound lead generation methods only work if you’ve got a good website with a blog section where you can post useful information.
Once again, include opt-in forms or social media sharing buttons as much as possible so that users who are interested in what you’re offering will have the opportunity to sign up for it and get more information.
Host Workshops Or Seminars
If any events or conferences are coming up that your business might participate in, this could be a great time to try hosting some workshops or seminars to generate leads.
People attending these conferences would probably want some training on whatever their industry is about, which means that you could generate leads in the long run by providing them with the training they need.
Make sure to include opt-in/social sharing buttons on any kind of handouts that you give out at these workshops so that people will have the opportunity to sign up or learn more about what you’re offering for free.
Use Solo Ads
This is kind of a more advanced form of lead generation that can be really effective if done correctly, but there is also room for things to go wrong, and you might just end up wasting money.
Once again, getting users to give you their contact information in exchange for something valuable (like an ebook or training video) could be the best option because this will show them that they’re receiving value with every download.
This can also help make them feel like they’re part of an exclusive club since other people won’t have access to this eBook/training video once released.
You might be wondering what solo ads are, so here’s some information on how they work:
Basically, a business called “the publisher” goes out and finds email lists from sites that are interested in whatever product or service you’re offering.
The publisher then sends out emails promoting your business, product, or service with a link attached to it. You pay the publisher for every user who purchases your offer and gives over their contact information.
Create Ebooks
This is a relatively simple way to generate leads for your business that doesn’t involve paying other people to promote it. The only problem is that you’ll need some writing skills in order to make the ebook sound interesting enough, but if you have those, then this might be worth trying out.
First of all, the ebook should offer something unique and valuable.
You don’t want to just create an “ebook” with nothing new or useful inside; instead, use it as an opportunity to review information related to your industry (perhaps put together one article or blog post per chapter) and bundle these things together into a nice looking PDF file.
Another thing that’s important when creating ebooks has a CTA at its end, so make sure that you include an opt-in form.
Create Infographics
This is an easy way to create visually appealing and interesting content and packed with information.
Infographics can be shared across all of your different channels just like a normal blog post would. This means that they’ll have a better chance of being seen by others by having it posted on multiple social media profiles and websites.
In fact, once you’ve created your first infographic, there are lots of websites that will accept submissions from people who want them featured on their site — which could drive a ton of traffic to your infographic and easily generate leads in the process.
Get Email Lists from Other Sites
Getting email lists is one of the easiest ways to get more leads for your business, but sadly it’s also commonly ignored by businesses.
Other sites on the web are related to what you’re doing and might have an audience interested in your products/services, so why not just go ahead and ask them for their contact information?
It’s important to note that you’ll want to give away something valuable in exchange (like an ebook or basic training course) since this will make it easier for the other site owner/publisher to feel like they’re getting something out of it too.
This also means that you’ll want to find other websites with mailing lists of at least a few thousand people.
However, if you can get the contact information for an audience big enough, then this could lead to hundreds or thousands of leads coming in the door over time.
Offer a free mini-course
This is a strategy that’s similar to the ebook idea. Still, instead of just including one or two chapters of valuable information, you’ll want to offer an entire course (perhaps multiple courses) along with hosting it on your site so that people have to give up their contact information to access it.
While this probably won’t generate as many leads as something like an ebook would, you’re also going to be able to capture more email addresses from interested customers by giving them something even more comprehensive for signing up.
Use a chatbot
Chatbots are a hot trend right now and can be used in order to offer instant support for your business.
When someone comes to one of your websites or social media pages, they won’t necessarily want to submit their contact information just so that you can get back to them at some point in the future.
Instead, they might prefer using an instant messaging system in order to get help with whatever it is that they need, whether it’s answering questions about your products/services or reporting a bug/error on one of your websites.
Using this method will require programming skills (especially if you don’t want to purchase one of the pre-made chatbot platforms) but could result in lots and lots of leads every day, depending upon how many customers use your chatbot.
Launch a Podcast
Podcasts are a great way to communicate information to interested customers and can help you attract all sorts of potential leads.
People listen to podcasts while driving around in their cars, during their lunch break at work/school, or even when they’re working out.
All of these environments provide an opportunity for your podcast to be heard by people who otherwise might not have discovered it if it was just sitting online on your website for them to stumble across.
Start Guest Posting
You should also consider guest posting as part of your lead generation strategy since this will get you in front of more audiences by having you published on other websites.
Guest posts are generally created in the same style as regular articles (as opposed to infographics which are visual and easy to read), so getting published on these sites can lead to more readers who might be interested in your products/services.
I’ve also noticed that some people are more inclined to share a guest post than an article from one of their own websites, which means that you could end up getting even more exposure and traffic for publishing a guest post.
Try Some DIY PR
While it’s tempting just to let the experts handle all of your publicity efforts, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t do at least some of it yourself.
Using free or low-cost press release distribution services like PRWeb can allow you to distribute your press releases (including lead generation techniques) to news sites around the web.
These services will even let you know how many of those news sites picked up your release, which is usually enough information for determining whether or not it was worth the cost and effort.
Run A Webinar
Another great strategy for lead generation is webinars, usually at the top or middle of a sales funnel.
I’ve seen some people generate a ton of leads just by hosting a series of weekly or monthly webinars on topics that are relevant to their audience and then informing them about these events via email (generating even more leads at the same time).
If you enjoy giving presentations in person, this could be a good option because it’s basically like giving an extended talk with breaks built-in.
Webinars can also help strengthen your authority and reputation as someone who has something valuable to teach customers in an industry related to your business.
Run A Contest/Giveaway
Contests and giveaways can be effective for lead generation since you’re hoping to generate leads from your target audience by giving something away.
Giving products or services that are relevant to your business will make it more likely that the people who win the contest will genuinely want to contact you in order to get their prizes as opposed to being randomly contacted out of nowhere.
Conduct A Survey
Another lead generation strategy that businesses have used successfully in the past is a survey.
Surveys don’t necessarily direct visitors towards specific action, but they do give you (the company) access to a lot of information about the interests and preferences of potential customers/clients.
You can then use this information to better tailor future advertising products and services and create more effective marketing campaigns.
If you conduct a survey that your potential customers can take on your website (especially if it’s an interactive one), you could generate a lot of leads at zero cost.
For example, adding lead generation forms to the bottom of each blog post could definitely help you increase the number of people signing up for your newsletter or contacting you about a service/product.
Conclusion
It’s hard to find the time to do online lead generation when you’re already busy with all the other aspects of running your business, but it can be worth doing if it helps you get more customers.
Hopefully, this list of lead generation techniques has given you some ideas on generating leads for your business that will result in increased sales in the future.
They might seem like a lot of work, but remember that generating leads should be one of the highest priorities as a business owner.