6 Lead Generation Strategies For 2018:

To make more sales, you need more potential customers coming into your business. Yes, you can look at getting repeat business from your clients, increasing their average number of transactions, and increasing your prices to help generate higher profits, but for substantial growth, you need to expand your client base.

In this article, I’m going to highlight for you 6 Lead Generation Strategies that I’m recommending for 2018!

1. Get to Page 1 of Google

Can you remember the last time you googled something and went as far as page 2 of the search results? No, you can’t because no one does! You’re most likely to look as far as 4 or 5 results down on the first page of Google and thus it’s essential that you are appearing on that first page of results if you want organic traffic visiting your website!

These kind of web visits are the most important – as the people searching for your services or products have a genuine need/desire to buy now, hence their search. But if they can’t find you, you can’t cash in on their need.

2. Optimise Your Website

Following on from the point above, once you’ve sorted out your SEO and are appearing on page 1 of Google, you need to make sure your website has the best chance of converting these leads into a customer.

You need to create an easy, slick, yet engaging experience for each website visitor, giving them tangible value and focusing on the benefits that your service/product can provide to them. You also need to find a way that you can get something in return from each website visitor, like an email address. These people are on your website for a reason – they have an interest in your business and thus they are a potential lead. Attaining an email address from them would allow you to retarget them with an automated email marketing campaign, for example, increasing the touchpoint’s you have with the lead and increasing the likelihood of them buying from you in the future, or buying again.

To get someone’s email address upon them visiting your site, try using a lead capture form if you’re a service provider or a free download that offers them value. Position yourself as a strong source of information and value, and you’ll be able to move the lead further down your sales funnel with ease.

3. Publish More Often

Content marketing should undeniably and unequivocally be one of your lead generation strategies this year. According to research conducted by HubSpot, companies that publish 16 or more blog posts per month generate 4.5 times as many leads as those who publish 0-4 monthly posts!

If that does not cause enough for making sure your blog on your website and social media sites, I don’t what is! One thing you could try to implement this year is compounding posts – blog posts that follow on from one another and focus on a set topic or subject. These are a powerful tool because they generate more attraction over time, as opposed to other posts that generally peak when they’re first published.

4. Use Paid Search For Remarketing

One of the best ways to generate leads and move people further down the sales funnel is through paid search. Almost 65% of people who are looking to buy online click on an ad on Google!

However, a very small percentage of people visiting your website is ready to buy on their first visit and can resist up to 7-8 times before they are ready to request further info or make a purchase.

That’s why using paid search or paid advertising on Facebook, for example, can be really beneficial – it can ad as another touch point or reminder to someone who has visited your site. Remarketing your services in front of people who have already visited your site, for example, is something you can set up very easily with either Google or Facebook, and doing so will help move leads further down the sales funnel.

5. Raise Your Social Media Game

Social Media presents a MASSIVE opportunity for your business in terms of lead generation. Many customers will judge a company on their social media activity and presence, and raising yours is a great way to increase your brand equity!

Social Media sites are even making it easier now for SME Businesses to generate leads: Facebook has introduced specific ‘lead generation’ adverts that allow you to attain email addresses and phone numbers of interested parties, and LinkedIn was built for professionals to network with one another and is a great resource for B2B companies looking to increase leads!

6. Automate Your Emails

An email will be a quarter of a century old this year. Of all it’s digital counterparts, it’s the longest existing marketing resource. It might not be new or sexy, but it is still highly effective and there’s a reason it’s such a big part of many businesses marketing strategies! 64% of marketers say that email is their most effective lead generation channel.

With the rise of mobile and tablet technology, people are actually opening their emails more often than they were in years previous. With nearly 60% of emails being opened on mobile first, however, it’s a different game now than it used to be.

The average adult receives 147 emails a day. What are you doing to stand out? Automating and personalising your company’s emails depending on the recipients’ activity should be your strategy for 2018. You can now automatically send a specific email to a person when they perform an action on your website, such as making a purchase or filling out a form. This would allow you to automatically present an up-sell to that customer, or explain to them the best benefits to be had from the product they looked at on your site.

With marketing automation software, you can use your CRM to send targeted emails at the rights people, at exactly the right time. Not only will this reduce admin and wasted staff resources, but it’ll put your content in front of your prospects at key moments.

By Dom Belcher