Generating Leads

What does it mean to "Generate Leads?" How do you do it well?

I once heard a speaker share a story about two different types of hunters - the smart hunter and the dumb hunter.

The question is - which are you?

The story goes as follows - there are two brothers who go hunting every season, but their approach to the sport could not be anymore different.

The first hunter enjoys driving out to a 1,000 acre wood on the first day of the season. There are literally over a hundred thousand deer in the area - it's huge, but also provides more potential. The hunter suffers hiking at least 5 miles a day, stalking, hoping, praying that one of those many deer will land in his crosshairs. The problem is, despite the strength in the numbers game, he comes home every year empty handed.

Now let's look at the other brother. He's younger, but savvy. He spends his time wisely. His choice of hunting ground is smaller, only a 50 acre wood. There are less deer per acre, but his methods are different. Instead of stalking deer his first day, he sets up a corn feeder deep in the woods. It's set on an automatic switch to spray corn in a bag 20 foot radius at 10:00 AM every day. He sets up the device, leaves, and doesn't return for weeks.

The first day, the spring makes such a loud noise that it scares away any deer in the area. But the deer are curious, they come back to the area to see what the ruckus was, and see that somehow magical corn has appeared before them. After a few days, they are trained to realize that the sound of the loud spring means one thing - food.

The hunter returns after a few weeks and sets up his tree stand right above the corn feeder. By 10:30 AM, he's packing his deer carcass into his truck and heading home.

This is a great example of lead generation. What's your "corn" you're using to generate leads to your customers?

Your area of potential clients/customers may be like the 1,000 acre wood, a metroplex of opportunity and growth. But if you don't learn to generate leads, you won't be effective - no matter the size of your region.

What is Lead Generating?

Lead generation refers to the process of generating interest among consumers for a product or service with the end goal of turning that interest into a sale. In the world of Online Marketing, lead generation often involves collecting a site visitor’s contact information (the definition of a “lead”), usually through a web form or survey.

In the marketing world, lead generation is an imperative step for many businesses. In these cases, products and/or services can cost thousands of dollars and normal site visitors are less likely to purchase a product directly from the business website.

Collecting leads, then, allows the businesses to gather information to prospective customers while also nurturing them through e-mail marketing and other means before reaching out to them directly to make a sale. In other words, lead generation takes a beat to look at the whole customer – as a person and not just a potential patron.

This means building and nurturing a genuine relationship with them in hopes of a long-term connection between seller and buyer.

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Why is Lead Generation Important?

Lead generation is an important process for the growth of a business. The marketing funnel and buying process have both changed, therefore marketers should work to refocus their marketing efforts to stay relevant. If potential customers make it known that they are interested in your business, it means they are no longer strangers when it comes time for you to contact them and offer your products, services, or solutions.

How Does Lead Generation Work?

The lead generation process has two main components: attracting traffic to your site and then convincing that traffic to share contact information with you through lead collection efforts. To recap, collecting a lead online usually entails the use of a form on a website.

How do you get traffic to your website in the first place, though? This can be done a number of ways, and mainly depends on your business’ goals and financial constraints. The following are some of the most effective ways businesses use to attract traffic:

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing is an online advertising strategy that involves paying search engines like Google and Bing to display ads on their search engine results pages (SERPS). Since search engines are the primary way people navigate the Internet, engaging in search engine marketing is a great way to raise awareness amongst your target audience and ultimately drive traffic to your website.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Like SEM, Search Engine Optimization is a strategy that involves getting traffic from search engines. Instead of paying for ads, however, SEO involves optimizing elements of your website for search engine algorithms so that it appears higher in organic search results. Some ways of doing this are through keyword research and subsequent strategies, updating existing content, and creating new content based on your findings.

Display Ads

Display ads refer to a type of advertising that involves the use of video, images, audio, or text to get the word out on your business. These ads are often purchased on relevant websites to help drive traffic back to your site.

It’s time for your readers to start applying what they have begun to master. Leave your reader feeling like they learned a lot. In this last section, you can write one or two paragraphs that remind your audience what they have learned; what are the first steps they can take to apply all your advice and coaching (i.e. make reservations to the perfect restaurants in Paris for an upcoming holiday; purchase vitamin supplements or make an appointment with a nutritionist; or check their SEO search engine rankings and keywords). Provide them the needed links (can be an affiliate) to get going and encourage them to soar.

Social Media

Social Media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn have become some of the most important and popular sites on the web with millions of users worldwide. With this in mind, you can use these platforms to interact with customers, raise awareness for your products and services, and direct traffic to your website. Posting content to social media platforms is easy and effective, making this one of the most sure-fire ways to draw in site visitors and potential customers.

Once you have visitors arriving at your business site, you then have to convert them into leads using an online form. Some ways to do this are as follows:

Content

The production of high-quality content can almost guarantee that users will be more likely to offer their contact information. This common practice in lead generation involves creating all sorts of content, from white papers and infographics to ebooks, videos, and blogs. The main idea of creating high-quality content is to entice the user with useful information as a solution to a common problem they have. At some point throughout or at the end of each type of content, provide a call to action that invites users to provide their contact information.

Lead generation is an important part of every business, so understanding how to do it and why it’s important is a large part of business success.