Are you searching for ways to stand out from your competitors to reach a wider audience? If so, you may want to implement a lead-generation strategy, or a strategy used to transform casual site visitors into loyal followers of your business.
With an abundance of information and resources available online (check out the numbers in real time from Internet Stats), anyone can perform a search to learn about a product or service without ever stepping into a store or speaking to a sales person. In other words, by the time a shopper finds your website, they may already know a lot about your product. Traditional methods of encouraging shoppers to make purchases — like explaining your products’ merits or highlighting why your services are effective — don’t work anymore.
Today, it’s more effective to establish trust among your audience members. You want your business to be top-of-mind once shoppers are ready to make their purchases. How exactly can you create trust through an effective lead-generation strategy to help your business thrive?
Lead generation explained
Lead generation is a method of attracting site visitors and converting them to leads, or people who are potentially interested in purchasing your products or services.
According to HubSpot, the idea behind lead generation is to give potential shoppers the chance to get to know your business so that they want to buy your goods or services. This will save you time and energy — instead of handing out fliers on the street corner or cold-calling people during dinner, a lead-generation strategy gets followers to come to you.
How do I create a lead-generation strategy?
- Outline your audience’s pain points. To create a lead-generation strategy, start by outlining your shoppers’ pain points. What are they frustrated with? What problems do they want your product or service to solve?
- Create a resource to pique their interests. Once you figure out what your shoppers want, you can create a resource to pique their interests. This resource should demonstrate that you are a knowledgeable source for reliable information. This will create a sense of trust among your audience, as you’re not making a hard sell; rather, you’re providing additional value by helping shoppers learn about something they’re already interested in. For example, pretend that you’re an independent travel agent living in New York City. People come to you because they want to visit unique places unknown to tourists. Many are foodies and like to brag about the obscure, off-the-grid restaurants they’ve been to. You decide to create an in-depth guide about the best quirky bars and restaurants located across the city. You call it, “10 Unique Bars and Restaurants in New York City That Locals Don’t Know About.”
- Promote the resource. To promote your guide, you write a few blog posts describing what readers can expect to find when they read it. You also use some of WordPress.com’s networking features to expand the reach of those posts. You decide to post on social media, announcing your new guide to fans. An effective tweet might include the cover of your guide and the message, “Your search for one-of-a-kind restaurants in NYC is over — download this guide today!”
- Collect information in exchange for the resource. Readers are asked to provide their names and email address. Once they supply the requested information, you use their contact information to build relationships with them, in turn transforming them into leads. People will be happy to provide their email addresses if they receive something that helps them in return. You won’t obviously be promoting your travel booking services — instead, you’ll be showing potential shoppers that you’re knowledgeable about New York City. When the time comes for them to book trips, you’ll be the first person they think of.
7 Creative Tactics to Generate Leads on Your Website
If you want to connect with your audience and spark engagement, there are some creative ways you can do so without making your calls to action (CTAs) too pushy. These tactics respectfully encourage them to take action without overwhelming them with information or otherwise coming across as bothersome. Keep reading for seven great ideas for CTAs that generate leads, not annoyance.
1. Add lead forms to videos
Video content is a great way to engage your audience. Still, traditional video embeds are one-way traffic: video content streams to your visitors’ browsers, but nothing comes back to you.
Tools like Wistia and Vidyard change that, letting you add CTAs or lead generation forms to the pre-roll or post-roll of your videos. Unlike traditional video ads, you’ll have full control, which means you can implement your content in a way that reflects and respects your visitors.
2. Create a helpful tool in your niche
One proven method to encourage your audience to offer their information is to provide something of value. Creating a tool that helps people accomplish something relevant to your niche is a great way to do this.
For example, Moz offers a free search engine optimization browser toolbar that more than 500,000 people use. The only catch? People have to sign up to use it.
Could you offer a calculator? A content generator? A template?
Get creative and you can come up with an awesome, helpful tool.
3. Launch a newsletter
A big part of generating leads is getting those coveted email addresses from your audience. So, what if you made people excited to hand over their email addresses by offering a curated newsletter?
For example, Bloomberg offers a free newsletter to connect with its audience by sharing the latest tech news.
4. Quiz your audience
Quizzes are a fun, simple way to engage your audience and learn more about them.
Visitors enjoy filling out quizzes, so this one feels more like an interesting activity than a boring lead generation form.
Depending on your niche, you can either go with a casual, personality-style quiz (think Buzzfeed) or a more serious quiz that helps respondents make a business decision.
5. Add feedback forms to your website
Most attempts to generate leads focus on reaching out to your audience, but you can also flip the script and add feedback forms to help your audience get in touch with you. These could be open-ended questions or specific surveys, like the Net Promoter Score.
By empowering your audience to provide their thoughts, you open the door to form a connection without having to rely on pushy sales tactics.
6. Create your own Facebook community
If you want to connect with your audience, your website isn’t the only good place to do it.
Creating a public or private Facebook community around your website or niche gives you a chance to connect where people spend most of their digital time — on social media.
7. Interact in relevant third-party communities
Beyond creating your own community, you can also interact in third-party communities that exist around your website’s niche.
The key to success here is to be respectful. If you go in with the goal of being genuinely helpful, you can generate leads for your website without making people feel like you’re only there for promotion.
A good lead-generation strategy is an effective way to get more business. Take the time to create a useful resource and promote it online. Once you’ve done this, fans will come knocking on your door in no time.
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