A Beginner’s Guide to Generating Business Leads

Finally getting your business off the ground may rank only second on the many concerns you need to address when starting your business. Sure, securing the necessary permits, logistical needs, and an ample number of employees are all challenging tasks. However, what’s daunting is keeping the business afloat, and this is sustained through the steady flow of leads.

Setting Up and Sustaining Your Business

A recent study conducted by HubSpot revealed that 61% of marketers consider lead generation as their top challenge. This is a valid concern as apart from an efficiently working marketing team, securing a steady number of leads determines the success of its campaign. This becomes especially daunting as the marketing landscape is caught in constant change. More often than not, a brand new effective method becomes en vogue in a matter of seconds, making what marketers are employing suddenly passé. 

Now more than ever, with the advent of Digital Marketing, marketers are required to change mindsets at the speed of light as the younger ones are elevated to leading positions because of their savviness in Social Media platforms. A study published by Social Media Examiner stipulates that 66% of marketers generate leads via social media despite having only spent six hours every week doing social marketing. But of course, while this might sound impressive, this type of marketing requires a more targeted approach that, as already mentioned, changes in technicality in light of the rapid changes in technology and consumer behavior.

With these in the cards, you need to implement a strong Lead Generation Marketing campaign that takes Customer Segmentation into great consideration.

A survey conducted by webinar and online events organizer, BrightTALK stipulates that 53% of today’s marketers allot half of their company’s budget to perform Lead Generation campaigns. This strongly suggests that industries are already starting to understand the value of putting more effort into Lead Generation.

4 Lead Generation Methods You Can Start With

As it is already apparent that Lead Generation shapes the way businesses secure prospective clients, we bring you 4 ways of going about generating leads to help your business get the attention it deserves. 

1. Engaging With Your Prospects Directly

Communicating directly with a prospect is a tried and tested way of 

sealing a deal. Through a personable approach (which means making sure that you don’t sound like a bot) you can establish contact with prospects by communicating through electronic means including email, social media, and phone. You can even do it in the flesh.

For instance, if you operate a disinfecting company using organic products and there is a newly-opened food chain in the area, you can call the proprietor to offer a demo of your services. This would be a sure-fire way to build a relationship with the business and draw attention to other businesses within the area.

2. Advertise! Look Into PPC Advertising

While Social Media has become fertile grounds for advertising, it is not the only venue to achieve success. You can use Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on popular search engines to market to regular users. What this does is aid you in serving ads for searches that are directly relevant to your services.

3. Get Into Guest Blogging: See What SEO Has In Store

The fact remains: Content is KING.

Companies have been learning that writing blogs and having them published as guest posts on other sites hold tremendous value for their exposure and growth. Delving into this type of writing is a good way to secure referral businesses. 

Guest Posting also serves to develop and strengthen your website’s SEO through the acquisition of backlinks that are significant to your industry. In turn, these would generate referral traffic from your target audience.

If you opt to perform Guest Postings, you need to look for a relevant website to post on that is not a direct competitor. 

Regarding SEO, you need to perform keyword research to determine which words and phrases your intended audience frequently searches before engaging with your business (i.e. buying your products or availing your services). The market is replete with tools that you could maximize for this cause.

If you have an internal writer on your team, keyword research will help him or her in optimizing your website content. This is of great importance for legitimate businesses that offer competitive products that usually do not get the mileage they are due.

4. Enlist The Help of a Third Party

Hiring the services of a provider or outsourcing Lead Generation is yet another potent way of gathering leads. Simply defined as enlisting the help of a third party specializing in Lead Generation, this type of marketing tactic assists your sales team in generating greater demand for your company’s services. 

It is expected that the outsourced company would be able to recommend a holistic and robust marketing strategy that makes use of various platforms and methodologies. Apart from the obvious goal, the provider should be able to create a campaign resilient enough to withstand the changes in both consumer and market behavior. 

That said, the provider might work closely with your team to perform business continuity planning to help weather calamities or disasters that would otherwise compromise your company’s operations.

The Takeaway: Invest in Lead Generation for Your Company Today!

Resilience and diligence should be at the core of your Lead Generation campaign. Regardless of what methodology your business chooses, the strength and robustness of the campaign will decide the successful outcome. 

To reiterate, the route that your company would be taking should be able to hold out against the rapid changes in the behavior of both the market and consumers. 

Remember, a strong Lead Generation campaign would serve to foster a demand for your product and services, converting your mere prospects into satisfied and happy clients.