Lead generation is the lifeblood of your business, whether it’s finding new customers who have not heard of you before, warming up your network or developing advocates who will recommend you.
There’s more to finding clients or customers than simply posting a few notices on social media. To get the right leads you need the right strategies.
Take a step back from there – to get the right leads, you need to know what the ‘right lead’ actually looks like.
- What kind of company – size, turnover, number of staff, industry?
- What kind of problems do they have and how can you solve them?
- What is the decision maker like – what are their drivers?
You may end up with more than one profile – one of our clients has four! But each profile needs a strategy to educate and influence them. That doesn’t mean you’re running separate sets of social media, blogs, newsletters, etc., but it does mean that your activities need to feature the content that will interest, attract and entertain that audience, in the right places.
Your lead generation system
Many people think a free digital document will bring in lots of potential clients – but don’t think past that. A great lead magnet may get you lots of interest and help to educate and influence some of the people who download it. But did you tailor your free document to your target market’s needs or is it just a general document with some tips or advice that’s fairly generic?
Your lead magnet should be highly targeted, addressing the specific needs of your ideal client. The purpose is to get people to self-identify as potential clients and downloading a highly targeted lead magnet will do that. Basically, they’re putting their hand up and saying ‘I need this kind of help’.
That doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy, but at least they have a demonstrated need and, if you keep delivering value to them, when they’re ready to buy, you’ll be right at the top of their list.
The lead magnet is only the first step. It needs following up with a nurturing process – usually a set of automated emails.
But it also needs promoting so people know it’s there – get the news out via your social media posts, newsletters and don’t forget to add the link to your email signature as well as on your website home page. Don’t hope to grow an effective lead magnet by just having a form on your website or creating a landing page and hoping people will find it.
Show off your knowledge and skills
You do this by education – in other words demonstrate your knowledge on social media, blogs, in your newsletters, on YouTube or with a podcast.
Get your knowledge out where your target clients are looking in the press, broadcast media and by guesting on other people’s podcasts or YouTube channels.
The more people hear/see you talking knowledgeably about your core subjects, the more they will rate you as an expert.
Strategy before tactics
First the goals – what you want to achieve, then the plan and finally action. Get your ducks in a row and it will all fall neatly into place. No goals, no plan, just lots of action will get you poor results!
