13 ideas to make your lead generation successful

Lead generation is one of the most challenging tasks in marketing.

The dictionary describes it as “the action or process of identifying and cultivating potential customers for a business’s products or services.”

But, what is lead generation? Why is it important? And, most importantly, how do you make it work for your business?

Lead generation is the result of your marketing efforts at the top of the funnel, or the awareness end of the funnel, that leads to an interaction with your business.

As it takes approximately 90 days to build a sales pipeline it is essential that your marketing awareness efforts are consistent and frequent. This will help you get an advantage over your competitors when a potential buyer comes looking for a product or service that you are offering.

Ultimately, placing your product or service the the path of where your preferred purchasers are looking will deliver the greatest return on investment (ROI).

With this in mind, we’ve listed 13 ideas to help you discover which lead generation tactics will work best in your business.

Content marketing
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
Pay Per Click advertising (PPC)
Social media advertising
Third party listings
Lead conversion tools
Website
PR
Reviews
Telemarketing
Email Marketing
Strategic alliances
Print advertising

But, these marketing tactics alone will not generate leads. You need something to create INTEREST and a reason for potential buyers to contact you or share their details with you. This is where it gets tricky.

You need to create information that your preferred audience are interested in AND in a way they want to digest it in the amount of time they are willing to spend looking at information from your business.

Here are 9 ideas to help create lead generation tools:

Ebooks
Papers/Reports
Competitions
Games
Quizzes
Audits
Free consultation
Webinars
Podcast

By linking a tactics and a tools together you will start to be able to create a lead generation process that will work for your business. For example, a marketing campaign to promote your new ebook (which would be a data capture tool) could include a banner on your website, social posts, email marketing, podcast, Facebook advertising, PPC etc.

After pushing traffic to the ebook download page (and they have submitted the form) an email automation sequence should be set up to nurture your new prospect so they become more familiar with you and the content you are sharing with them. If you have their phone number, a well-timed call is also recommended so you can build a personal relationship with your new found potential customer. All this nurturing and provision of valuable content will ensure that you are top of the list when they are in a position to purchase.