In this post, we’re going to talk about what is lead generation, and its strategy that can be used for small of big business.
So, what is lead generation?
To clarify, let us start with its definition.
You often hear the word lead generation, if you are in the marketing and internet sales world. Lead generation tends customers to inquiry into products or services of a business.
Confused! let’s make it simple: “Lead generation is the process of identifying potential customers for your business products or services“. Meanwhile, to identify the targeted customers you must drag many marketing tactics. In other words, it’ll let your customers participate in your website.
For purpose like list building, acquisition of e-newsletters list or for sales leads, leads may be created. Lead can come from different sources or activities, i.e., via the internet, personal reports, telephone calls, advertising, and events, job applications, blog posts.
Why is lead generation important?
Every small or big business wants more customers to be involved with them. As a result, you need to market to potential customers first and gain their attention. Once you’ve done that now you can perform according to the tactics to convince your customers to buy your services or products.
In the above figure, you can see the lead generation process. The strategy you’ll be using for your business passes through this process. It doesn’t matter whether your company is a startup or already in a high position, each of them has to pass from this process.
In addition to get depth knowledge, let us talk about these processes:
- See
- Explore
- Trust
- Try
- Buy
- Advocate
The process starts with seeing the products or services. When a customer sees the product, they try to inquiry more about that product which is our second level. After knowing more about the product, either they will trust it or not. If the tactic fails to build trust, the process ends there.
But if the customer trusts the products, they’ll try the products. Once they’ve tried it and are satisfied with it, they’ll definitely buy that product. Finally, if the customer like the products they’ll recommend the product to others also.
Likewise, lead generation work. It might attract new customers or won’t be able to get any leads.
Strategy for Lead Generation
So, according to you what should be the strategy for lead generation?
Most of us think that the strategy used in this is similar in every situation. But is that so.
Can we use the same strategy for every service or each business?
Firstly, the reality is that the best lead generation strategies are completely different for each business. Secondly, you must figure out what strategy is best for each business. If you don’t understand this, that means you’re risking to make the wrong strategy fit to your business.
Here are some of the strategies that you must know about:
- Plan
- Develop and Create
- Distribution
- Capture
- Analyze and Track KPIs
- Cultivate Interest
- Convert to Sale
To clarify, let us talk in detail about these above strategies.
- Step 1: Plan
The first strategy ‘Plan ‘includes,
- Analyze current needs
- Set lead generation goals
- Develop buyer personas
In the very first step, you should know what are the needs of your business. You must analyze your current situation: it might be positive or negative points. Then you can set your goals. You can set goals according to your business needs and requirements.
Once you’ve set goals, now focus on developing buyer personas. Because this will help you understand your customers better in different ways. Understanding your buyer personas allows you to understand the best ways to reach your different customer groups. And know how to reach and speak to different groups of people in your personal life.
- Step 2: Develop and Create
The second strategy ‘Develop and Create’ includes,
- Develop an irresistible message
- Create valuable and attractive offers
- Create engaging content for websites
In this second step, you must try to develop an irresistible message. A message that is impossible to refuse by your customers. This helps your business to attract customers easily. Similarly, once the customers are attached to your business, you can offer them a valuable and attractive offer.
Now you can choose an attractive content for your website. Using those offers and content you can turn your customers to your websites.
- Step 3: Distribution
The third strategy ‘Distribution’ includes,
- OWNED- Websites, Blog, Email, Social
- EARNED- Reviews, Testimonials
- PAID- Social media, Ads, Events
In this step, you should use your websites, blog, emails for the lead. This will help your customers to know more about your business, products, or services. From there you can review the customer’s views and then take action according to that. However, you too can use paid services like, social media, you can create events or use PPC service.
- Step 4: Capture
The fourth strategy ‘Capture’ includes,
- Present offer to visitors/ audience
- Use enticing action
- optimize short lead capture forms
Here, you can offer different facilities for your online customers. According to your business, you can present them with many offers. In this way, you can attract your customers to use the call to action button i.e. download now, contact now, shop now, search now, register now, etc. that has been used for your event.
Once the call-to-action button is used by the customers, you can present them in a short form with their details like name, email address. This lets you know about your customers and you can send them new details about your services.
- Step 5: Analyze and Track KPIs
The fifth strategy ‘ Analyze and Track KPIs’ includes,
- Analyze leads to find a top source
- Compare content performance
- Monitor offers CTR and makes adjustments
To find out which source can be used for your service, you must analyze the leads. You should know where your customers are more active and what sources they’ve been using. Then you must monitor your services CTR (Click Through Rates). Monitoring your CTR can help your business evaluate your strategies for your business, fix issues, and improve overall campaign results.
- Step 6: Cultivate Interest
The sixth strategy ‘Cultivate Interest’ includes,
- Encourage continued engagement
- Show value in email campaigns
- Nurture long-term relationships
Every engaged customer to your business should be encouraged to use your service more and more. You can encourage them by providing some kind of offers so that the relation between you and the customer would long last. You can analyze the value of your service and show it to the customer for more impressions.
- Step 7: Convert To Sale
Similarly, the last strategy ‘Convert to Sale’ includes,
- Implement conversion strategy
- Segment visitors by behavior
- Personalize offers
In this last step, you must consider how to implement your strategy from old to new versions. You should always be careful because there might be some new, updated systems that might help your strategy.
Similarly, you can divide your visitors according to their behavior. Each people have a different taste in every field. So before targeting your customer you must know what type of visitor you’ve got and do they love. Finally, after analyzing their behavior you can offer them according to their behavior.