In general, lead generation serves as a solution for your organization to target customers who are most likely to support your business. In other words, lead generation gives you more chances of selling your product or service to a person than randomly calling them.
Leads are people who express interest in your organization. Chances are they got wind of your product or service after taking a survey for an existing problem. That survey that you sent out would contain their personal information, which you can utilize to resolve their issues directly.
In the current business landscape, there are more ways to generate leads than by putting out surveys. Here is a closer look into this marketing strategy and how you can apply the best practices to boost your business.
What Is Lead Generation?
Lead generation, in the simplest terms, involves attracting customers. You want prospects to find your business so you can nurture their interest and convert them into a customer. Besides putting out surveys related to your products and services, prospects can find your business through online content like blog posts, or in live events like job fairs where you can hand out job applications.
These strategies have a primary goal of attracting potential customers and turning them into actual customers. So, you would implement these lead generation strategies to learn more about your customer, what they need, and how your business offers are exactly what these leads are looking for to solve their dilemma.
However, you don’t want to give away all your assets in one go. You might overwhelm your potential customer and turn them away. You want to ease them into your services so they naturally find your business interesting enough to close a deal.
You want these leads to eventually buy your product or service without feeling forced. Think of it as building trust between your customer. You convince them that you have the answers to their questions, they naturally become interested and then support you.
Significance of Lead Generation
Lead generation is important because it creates an organic interest in your business. The natural transition from a potential customer to an actual customer makes your business more reliable than when you buy leads.
Yes, some companies buy leads instead of generating them because, for them, it’s a quick way to sell a product or service. These people might find the nurturing stage a time-consuming effort. So, they opt to skip reaching out to prospects, gathering their personal data, and setting up communication lines with them.
The problem with that method is that there is no guarantee that the customers they bought will remain loyal. Perhaps the purchased leads had no interest in a company’s business in the first place. So, they wouldn’t stick around for a product or service that does them no good.
Thus, generating leads helps establish your core audience. Once you take your time in warming up your prospects to your business, you will end up with a delighted and loyal customer who desires to come back again and again. It should go without saying, but customer loyalty ensures you remain in business for a long time.
How Does Lead Generation Work?
In general, the lead generation process starts when a potential customer gives you their contact information to show they are interested in your offer. Suppose you have a blog post that a potential customer found by searching for an answer to their problem. By the end of reading your blog post, they follow a link in the form of a call to action (CTA).
That CTA takes a lead to a landing page for your product or service. A CTA can be an image or button. In essence, it encourages a person to take the next steps in resolving their issue after going through the online content they found.
A landing page is a web page where your lead can enter their information. This page is like the online equivalent of a survey form. However, a lead will only enter their personal information if they get something valuable in return. This item of value is usually an online course or e-book that warrants an exchange of information.
Once you have a lead’s information, you have generated a lead. With a lead that you generated organically, you will know how to resolve their issue effectively. That is, you will know what page on your website they came from, so you can target their concerns through their activity.
How to Improve Lead Generation
Lead generation strategies involve navigating different platforms. Consider familiarizing yourself with the top platforms that offer the greatest leads. Here are some popular social media platforms that you can utilize for generating leads:
- Facebook: Facebook also has a feature called Lead Ads that targets users who are most likely to want to see certain ads. You can capture leads by utilizing this Facebook feature and showing your ads to potential customers.
- Twitter: This platform features Lead Gen Cards, a tool that generates leads in a post without having them leave Twitter. Twitter users already submit their personal information when creating an account, which Twitter will collect into a card. Once a user determines that your Tweets are useful to them, they can submit their card to become a lead.
- LinkedIn: Like Twitter, LinkedIn has a Lead Gen Forms feature, which automatically fills a form with personal information once they interact with a CTA. Instead of a card, LinkedIn uses a form, which you might consider more comprehensive than a card.
Conclusion: What Is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is about turning potential customers into paying customers by easing them into your business. You would gather prospects through your online pages and then they submit their personal information. They will only submit their information willingly if they determine that your product or service is what they need.
Visit our website to learn more about the best practices in lead generation. At Create By Influence, we specialize in helping local real estate, financial services, contractors, gyms, and e-commerce institutions establish effective marketing plans. Consider following us on Instagram and Facebook to keep up with the latest online marketing strategies.
