People visit your site for varying reasons, and not all of them are ready to buy your products or services. Most of them probably don’t even know about your brand yet. This is why lead generation is important, to gain interest and initially establish your brand among potential customers.
Getting the right results here will depend on your lead generation process and the structure of your sales funnel. Let’s break down these terms to ensure that you engage potential customers, gain the edge over competitors and see your brand soar.
Content Overview
What is a digital marketing lead?
What is lead generation in digital marketing?
Why is lead generation important for businesses?
Best Practices in Lead Generation
What is a digital marketing lead?
A digital marketing lead is anyone who shows an interest in a product or service as they see it online. However, they may not be at the stage where they are ready to buy. Usually, they require more information. This is where you need to engage them. Otherwise, they might find some other providers whom they find responsive to their needs.
What is lead generation in digital marketing?
Lead generation refers to the process of identifying online users who are looking for solutions and getting them to engage with your website or social media business page. The usual lead generation process in digital marketing is providing a free or affordable resource, in exchange for the contact details of a lead.
Once you have that information, the website visitor now becomes a lead. You can nurture them as you establish a reliable brand until you influence their buying decision. You do this through the use of a sales funnel.
What is a sales funnel?
The sales funnel represents the customer journey from being a site visitor or someone who engages with a social media post, until the time that they buy your product or service. This begins with the moment they are introduced to your brand to the point where they become customers.
There are various sales funnel strategies. One of the easiest ways to approach this is by thinking about what happens when a potential customer visits a website.
A lot of times, a potential lead learns about your brand through search engines. They use search engines to answer questions they have or solve a problem they are experiencing.
Eventually, they find a site that offers the product or service they think they might need to solve their problem. They then need to be nurtured, until they are convinced to commit to a purchase.
Why is lead generation important for businesses?
Lead generation is the best way to establish trust, especially for people who do not know your brand yet. It also helps you expand the reach of your marketing efforts because you capture potential customers who are at varying stages of the customer journey.
Best Practices in Lead Generation
Various practices should be included in your lead generation strategy. Here are the best practices we’ve proven to be effective so far:
1. Create The Right Buyer Persona
One of the most critical elements of your lead generation strategy will be creating the right buyer persona. This helps you understand:
- Who your client is
- Their pain points
- Their interests
- Purchase behaviors
If your brand can provide answers or solutions to the common problems of the person that represents your buyer persona, they are more likely to become a lead.
2. Get The Technical Details Right
A high bounce rate could kill your chances of lead generation. That’s why you need to ensure that the technical aspects of your site are on-point. If your site is clunky and loads slow, you are missing out on a lot of opportunities. Your website must load fast, be optimized for mobile use, and be more engaging.
3. Automate Your Communication Process
The best way to do this is with a chat feature on your website. It can help you automate responses, so you don’t have to manually respond to every question. The most engaging websites usually give the leads an option to call in case the automated responses are irrelevant.
Remember, a live chat can be a lead generation tool that you can use to gain contact details including emails from customers.
4. Use Interactive Content
As well as providing value to the user, interactive content builds authority in your niche. It can also help you create an accurate buyer persona with the data that you can gather. You can also use the data for improving your services and creating processes to nurture your leads.
Something like a quiz on your site can be a great piece of interactive content, where results can be sent through email or even be shared on the spot, through different social media platforms.
5. Use Pop-Ups The Right Way
Pop-ups are often cast in a negative light. However, visitors will respond well to pop-ups if the offer is irresistible enough for a call to action. A pop-up should provide so much value that not taking action would feel like you are losing an opportunity. Give it a simple and clear call to action so that visitors know what steps they should take.
6. Get Real Customer Testimonials
You need to get customer reviews from people who had a positive experience with your business. Positive reviews can increase your sales exponentially. It’s like other people are selling your products and services, without the need for any additional push from you or your sales team.
In a publication by Entreprenuer.com, studies reveal that 90% of potential buyers read online reviews before the purchase. 88% admit that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
This can only be as effective as the actual customer experience you are providing though. Because a negative review will push potential leads away.
Conclusion
Lead generation can help grow your sales exponentially when done the right way. It should be an integral part of your sales funnel.
While there are lots of steps you can take to get more leads, you should start by gaining a deeper understanding of your site. You can do this with Website Value Scan. This will provide actionable data that you can use to improve your website in key areas. It can show you the perspective of a visitor and ensure they love what they find when accessing your site for the first time.
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