.svg "SpotDevLogoOrange (2)")
To ensure you’re yielding the maximum potential revenue for your business you need to make the most of every potential lead source.
You may be running ads in the traditional media and have a strong digital presence, but there is always more you could be doing. Here are four effective lead generation techniques we bet you’ve not thought of before.
‘Lumpy’ mail
When you receive marketing materials in the post, whether that’s to your home or your business, what do you do with it? The likelihood is that it goes straight into the recycling box.If your organisation is sending out post to promote yourselves then there’s a good chance your recipients are doing the same thing — which means your hard earned advertising budget is going straight in the bin.
But there is another way.
‘Lumpy’ mail refers to any direct mail marketing communication that, due to its unusual shape or size, can’t be missed. It might be a box of chocolates, bouquet of flowers, or it could even be a message in a bottle — the options are limitless.
The key is to grab their attention with a unique way of promoting what you do, so make sure your lumpy mail is in some way related to your product or service, as well as the content of the letter.
Inbound marketing
The internet has changed the way organisations must market themselves in order to get ahead.Where they once relied on ‘disruptive’ tactics — cold calling, cold mailing, television and radio ads etc. — that required the organisation to approach the consumer, they must now seek to solve the problems and answer the common questions of their target market, instead bringing the consumers to them.
Inbound is based around the following four stages:
• Attract - driving traffic to your website;
• Convert - generating leads from this additional website traffic;
• Close - turning those leads into paying customers;
• Delight - continuing to engage with these customers and turning them into promoters.
In order to push the consumer along these four stages you need to create content that appeals to each stage of the buyer’s journey. This journey involves three stages:
• Awareness - the consumer knows they have a problem but isn’t sure of what it is;
• Consideration - they’ve identified the problem and now want to know how to solve it;
• Decision - they know how to solve it, and have to decide on the most suitable solution.
Downloadable content offers
Answering your target market’s problems is all well and good, but how does it help to generate leads?
Sure, users who read your content may remember your name and return to spend money with you at a later date, but that’s difficult to measure and won’t deliver immediate leads.
This is where gating your content comes in.
By placing your most valuable content behind sign-up forms you can capture key information that you can then use for remarketing to them with more tailored content, or approaching them regarding how your products or services could help them solve their problems.
Aim to create three content offers per subject area — one catering to each stage of the buyer’s journey. Here’s an example:
Let’s say a recruitment agency wants to drive more sign-ups to their professional CV reviewing/writing service. The content offers for this might look like this:
1. 10 Reasons you’re not Getting Interviews - one of which is a poorly written CV (Awareness stage);
2. 5 CV Writing Tips for Beginners (Consideration);
3. Top 3 Benefits of Professional CV Writing Services (Decision).
This is a brief overview of what inbound marketing is (I could write thousands and thousands of words on it), but for a more thorough explanation, check out our Guide to Running an Inbound Marketing Campaign.
Guerilla marketing
This is more of a concept rather than a specific idea that you can go away and start utilising immediately, but it is one of the most effective methods for generating interest and social media buzz.Each day we’re exposed to hundreds of marketing messages from a range of sources, which makes it incredibly hard to stand out from the crowd. Guerrilla marketing aims to strike a chord with the consumer by delivering a brand message in a truly memorable way.
This tactic is most commonly used offline, but can include online marketing campaigns too. Check out these 80 examples of the best guerilla marketing campaigns for some inspiration.
Host a webinar
Showcasing your expertise within your industry is one of the best ways of getting consumers to sit up and take notice. In the pre-internet days, organisations might choose to hold conferences or seminars and, although this can be an effective tactic, it is time and resource intensive to set up.
Webinars are the perfect solution for SMEs who have knowledge to impart but don’t have the budget to set up a physical conference.
You can use webinars to introduce yourself to an industry if you’re a startup, stand out from competition as an authority or promote a specific product or service, and there are a number of platforms you can use to host them. Alternatively Google Hangouts on Air, a Google+ feature, allows you to host webinars for free!
Check out our eBook below, 9 Things You Can Do to Generate More Leads, for a detailed explanation of how to set up your free webinar, as well as to discover more ways you can drive new leads to your business.
Our content includes affiliate links. This means that we may receive a commission if you make a purchase through one of the links on our website. This will be at no cost to you and helps to fund the content creation work on our website.