When you think about building a business, you likely start with a product or service. But there’s more to building a business than just creating a product and trying to find customers. To build a sustainable business, you need leads. You need enough leads to keep your doors open and keep you growing. You may need to provide a webinar, a phone consultation, a demonstration, or even a test drive. Generating leads takes research, patience, and a clear understanding of what’s going on in your market. Whether your business is big or small, it’s impossible to scale and grow without a thought-out plan. To help you with this, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide on lead generation that covers everything from the basics of lead generation to advanced strategies for generating high-quality leads.
1. The first step is to define your target market.
The first step in creating a successful strategy is to define your target market. Your target market is the group of people who you think will be most interested in your product or service. If you’re selling a product for gamers, for example, then your target market would be gamers. Your ideal target market will be composed of a few key demographic groups. Those groups are likely:
- Males and Females between the ages of 18-34
- People who are primarily interested in sports, culture, or technology
- People who enjoy spending time at home
It’s really important to pick influencers from within these groups because growing your network requires building relationships, not following trendy hashtags on social media. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you narrow down your list of potential influencers:
- Direct focus on a niche: Your influencers need to have a narrow focus on a niche if they want to produce truly exceptional content. Don’t look for “many faces, many niches” bloggers—instead, focus on a specific segment with a smaller audience.
- Smart angles: Influencers must think creatively when approaching topics such as major sports, pop culture, or dating. This is one thing that I’ve noticed about bloggers: They have multiple angles. This variety of content appeals to different audiences.
- Quality posts: Creating content with the end user in mind will allow you to connect with your target market for topics that matter to them.
- Audience targeting: You can get very specific as to who you want to see your content. A good idea is to find out who links to a competitor’s posts and ask them who they are targeting with their links. This can be a great way to get a very specific audience for your product or service.
- Be patient: In order to become widely read on the web, content marketing takes time.
2. Get people’s contact information.
Once you’ve got a reader’s attention, ask them to sign up for your newsletter or follow you on social media. You can offer them a freebie, a discount, or a downloadable PDF in exchange for their contact information. You can also conduct quizzes, where you ask readers for basic demographic information and rate their knowledge of your subject. Both leads and readers are more likely to buy from someone they trust. Ask your readers to sign up for your newsletter or follow you on social media, and you’ll build a possible lead.
3. Get your message in front of them as many times as possible using different channels so they’ll keep seeing it.
Most of us are on five to seven social media channels right now. As a marketer, it’s important to remember that you have to be on all of them. The more channels you’re on, the more exposure you can get for your content. Using newer platforms may seem scary at first, but getting your feet wet and testing will help you become comfortable and identify a niche for your content. No matter how many platforms you are on always be testing and measuring. Usually one or two platforms will be the cream that rises to the top.
Most people seem to think that social media is selfish. In reality, social media is all about collaboration. I’ve met many people on social media, but only a handful have become successful. Why? They share what they know. So, if somebody shares this article with family and friends, it will also reach their followers on LinkedIn. It’s sowing and reaping. In the same way if you don’t share your successes on social media, then most likely nobody will know about them either. Being original is the best way to stand out when it comes to social media. If you want to realize half of the ideas expressed in this article, you need to be on multiple social media platforms every single day. The simplest way to do that is be so active on each platform that you generate attention and unique touches for your brand. But not just any content, original, interesting, and relevant content is how you cut through the noise. It’s important that you create a content strategy that fits the audience profile of each platform.
4. Ask for the sale!
Once you’ve got a customer interested in your product or service, the next step is to encourage them to make a purchase. If you’re a consultant, for example, you’ll want to ask them for their contact info so that you can follow up with them later. It’s a great sales tactic that has a strong likelihood of converting new customers. We call it the ‘high-pitch, low-response’ sales tactic, because it’s exciting and it has the potential to yield quick results. We usually only do it to direct marketing businesses.
Here’s how it works:
In the beginning, this strategy produces a classic salesman-style pitch where a customer responds with enthusiasm and the call ends with a pitch about the merits of what you’re selling. This kind of call usually lasts for about 30 minutes or so, and the customer ends up with too much information to digest. Most times, though, it’s a pleasant surprise, and the customer appreciates how much value you’ve provided.
In addition to the ‘high-pitch, low-response’ approach, you can also vary this tactic depending on what the market needs. For example, in case there’s no immediate need for your product or service, you can still address the needs of your customers by listening to their questions and suggestions. That way, you can validate the problems they’re currently facing with your product or service and give them new solutions. Of course, this has to be a problem your product or service is capable of solving, not a problem you think your customer has, such as needing to get something urgently — like a prescription — from someone else. Once you have validated the need and problem your customers are currently facing, it’s time to hawk. But no matter how we phrase it, the sales pitch has to be compelling.
Conclusion
In order to thrive in today’s business landscape, you need to make sure that your business is constantly developing and improving it’s sales pipeline. While this may seem like a lot of work, it’s a necessary step for any business in order to remain competitive and profitable. By arming yourself with the right information, you’ll be on your way to staying ahead of the pack.