Lead generation in digital marketing is the process of enticing and engaging leads. The goal is to attract leads that not only want your product or service but will have an actual use for it.
There are unlimited ways that you can generate more leads for your business. The truth is, every business is different. You may have seen one business succeed by generating leads through an email marketing campaign. Another may have generated leads through hosting a webinar. The ways to generate leads are truly endless. The problem is that for every marketing strategy, there is a marketing guru that will tell you that strategy is the best way to gain leads. Another person may tell you that the same marketing strategy is a waste of time. So then who are you supposed to trust? We hear you and we know that it can be confusing. It makes the average person wonder, “What is the best way to generate leads?”
The failure to attract leads is oftentimes just a disconnect between you and the strategy that you are using. The strategies you’ve been using may not have been thoroughly researched, well thought out, or may just be overused. Building your business marketing and lead generation based on something that will not work is just setting yourself up for failure. It’s like building a house on a weak and crumbling foundation. There’s not a good way to do it.
The best way to generate leads online today is by being patient and following the right steps that will prepare you for future success. The first step is very important because it sets the stage for everything else that you will do.
- Identify Your Ideal Target Audience
You first need to identify the most perfect and ideal customer. Without first identifying this, you will have no success in your marketing attempts. You will truly have no idea how to successfully sell your product. You need to know your customer base.
You need to clearly identify your ideal audience’s demographic, geographic and psychographic details. This might entail their age, gender, income, occupation, where they live, and their attitudes, beliefs and opinions. The more clearly that you are able to identify your audience, the better you’re online lead generation will be. Identifying your target audience will also help you determine their wants and needs, as well as their fears and frustrations. This information will help you determine what to advertise to help satisfy those needs or fears.
- Give Your Audience What They Want
Your audience is looking for someone or something to solve their needs. With so many similar businesses out there, it may seem difficult to stand out in the crowd. But, you will have an advantage if you choose to appeal to those locally. All it takes is a little research! One of the best ways that you can get their attention is by appealing directly to them. Once you have their geographic, demographic, and psychographic details, you will already have a solid idea of your audience’s likes and dislikes. All you will need to do is provide them content that directly addresses their needs and fears. You should also try to release content that matches their consumption style.
- Research and Create
One of the most important things that you can do is to identify what kind of content that your ideal audience likes to consume. You can do this by split-testing things such as videos, audio, emails, or articles. Once you’ve lined up your preferred content creation style and their preferred consumption style, then you will be on the road to success. You will be speaking their language and it will be nearly impossible for them to refuse! When your audience voices a problem and your business provides a unique solution, you will see success in no time.
Once you have your content created, you can exchange that content for a name, a phone number, an email, or anything you want. With that information, you will be able to advertise your products to those people in the future. You can even give your content away for free. You just need to make sure that you have an exceptional Call-to-Action that will entice your audience to enter their information.
- Be Where Your Audience Is
This is a lead generation strategy where most people fail. One of the most important things that you should do is to push out content on the social media platform that your audience is using. In other words, be where your audience is. A common mistake that people make is picking the channel first and then posting their content there. This isn’t the smartest move because businesses are marketing where their target audience isn’t even active or present. If your target audience isn’t active or present where you are posting, then you should not be posting your content there. Stop listening to the marketing gurus that are telling you otherwise! You need to first identify where your audience is and then focus on distributing your content on that platform.
We suggest checking out Facebook because it’s known as one of the most effective places to generate leads online. Not only does Facebook have a massive amount of users, but it also has an easy to understand and detailed advertising platform. We also encourage businesses to consider YouTube. YouTube is a search-based platform, which makes for a great advertising tool. Users can log in and literally look up an exact solution for a problem that they have.
- Now… Create Online Ads
Another mistake that most people make is that they start their marketing journey with paid advertising before they sort out the details. People tend to go into paid ads not knowing what’s going to work, what content is going to resonate with their audience, or if they’re distributing their content on the right channel. This tactic leads to wasted money and tons of losses. Paid advertising should always be your final step because you need to know all the information in steps 1 through 4 before you start spending your money. At this point, you know your ideal customer, their wants and needs, and what kind of content you need to create. By knowing all of this information about your audience, you will have a pretty good idea of what’s going to work and what’s not going to work. From there, you can freely spend money on paid ads with the confidence that it’s going to work.
Just by following these five steps, you’ll be ahead of your competition and conquering the lead generation! Before you do anything, remember that you first need a strategy and then a tactic.