New Year, New Leads: 7 Lead Generating Tips for 2019
Speaking from experience, trying to find the right formula for a perfect lead generation strategy takes time and experimentation. With the new year in full swing, there is no better time to start developing and testing strategies to help generate new leads and grow your business in 2019. Here are some quick lead-generation tips that you can implement today!
Tip 1: Blog
Building trust between you and your potential lead is key when it comes to converting them to a customer. 81% of customers will do research about an industry or service before picking up the phone to call the business. Blogs are a great way to give your business a voice and to become a thought leader in your industry. This thought leadership makes your customer view you as an expert, ultimately building that trust.
- Pro Tip: Create a blog schedule and calendar, outline the topics to write about, and post. The more blogging the better.
Tip 2: Showcase your Promoters
When marketing your company, your current customers can be one of your strongest assets in gaining new ones. As mentioned before new leads lean on the trust factor. Potential customers will often make buying decisions based on Google reviews and Facebook recommendations alone. If you know that you are doing well and that your current customers are happy, highlight their reviews. Make their content public on social media or include their story in your next blog.
- Pro Tip: Don’t have any reviews? That’s OK, the easiest way of getting your customer to give a positive review is to pick up the phone and simply ask them. You will be surprised by how many of your happy customers will be more than willing to say nice things about you on Google or Facebook.
Tip 3: Never Miss a Call
With over 75% of potential customers believing that calling is the most effective way to reach a business, make sure you are answering all your calls. Every call that comes in could be a potential customer. Businesses that answer the phone on the first call have a 30-50% higher conversation rate than their competitor.
- Pro Tip: Answering services, like AnswerHero, provide call answering services for all types of businesses, ensuring that all your calls are answered by a live agent 24/7/365 and that none of your new leads get sent to voicemail. Download the free benefits infographic here for more information on how an answering service can help out any business.
Tip 4: Get Social
Social media is the perfect gateway between your business and your potential customers. Social media has impacted all our personal lives and it should be an integral part of your business life as well. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram put you right in front of all your potential new leads. Organically speaking, posting quality content on a consistent basis helps build brand awareness, relevancy, and overall reputation.
- Pro Tip: Every social platform is different. Depending on your business, find the right platform that your target audience gravitates toward and create channel-specific content. Here’s a great article that highlights what kind of content to post on each platform. What to Post on Each Social Media Platform.
Tip 5: Create Videos
Videos are a great way to fill up your content library while also adding an interactive element to your business. Stop and think, how many times have you scrolled through Facebook and stopped to watch a 30-second video? Videos are natural attention grabbers…all it takes is 2 seconds for your potential lead to get hooked on what you have to say through video.
- Pro Tip: Here is a simple and easy video creator tool that’s great for small businesses to use on their websites, social media, and emails: www.animoto.com
Tip 6: Optimize your Calls to Action
“Buy now”, “click here”, “call now”…what do these phrases have in common? They are all ‘’calls to action” (CTA). Having the right call to action strategically placed with the right medium can make a world of difference when it comes to getting a potential customer to do what you want them to do. For example, the call to action “call now” should be your main CTA in order to get customers to call your business. “Click here” or “learn more” will serve great for more interactive mediums like emails and social ads.
- Pro Tip: Review all your marketing material, digital platforms, and advertising mediums, and make sure your call to action makes sense.
Tip 7: Experiment, Test, and Optimize
It’s important to remember that every business is different. Developing a strategy that works for you is part of the groundwork. Don’t be afraid to experiment with platforms, content, and tools. Put yourself in the shoes of your potential customer. What do they want to see?
It’s also important to test all of your ideas in the real world. Post blogs, create videos, change up your CTA’s- see what is getting the most interaction and engagement. Once you start seeing a growth pattern develop, start focusing your efforts on what’s receiving the most engagement.
- Pro Tip: Optimization is key. Once you find what has worked for you and your business, focus on that strategy and keep improving it. Make it better!
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