WorkWise Presents Lead Generation 101: 12 Tips to Generate More Leads for your Business WORKWISEsoftware.COM Table of Contents Online Marketing 3 SEO 4 PPC 5 Social Media 6 LinkedIn 7 Twitter 8 Events 9 Trade Shows 10 Conferences 11 Referrals 12 Customer Service 13 Brand Ambassadors 14 Email Marketing 15 Newsletters 16 Content Pieces 17 CRM 18 Prospect Lists 19 Sales Funnel 20 Online Marketing The internet holds major opportunities for businesses across all industries and sizes when it comes to lead generation. Lead Generation 101 | 3 SEO If you’re not focusing on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your company, then you’re really missing out on a major business opportunity. Search Engine Optimization is the name for a variety of tactics that can be used to make your business’s website and online presence more accessible to customers on search engines and the web. SEO includes utilizing keywords, landing pages, contact forms, and more to enhance the quality of your website and have it rank better in search engines, such as Google and Bing. SEO also includes technical details of your website, including meta descriptions, title tags, alt tags, and more. When optimized effectively, your website can be seen organically by consumers who are looking for exactly what your business provides. PRO TIP Work with an SEO agency. They'll provide important recommendations to boost your overall online efforts, and can help educate you on best practices. Lead Generation 101 | 4 PPC If you have the necessary resources, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising has been proven to bring in qualified leads online. PPC advertising through Google, Bing, and other search engines is a way for your business’s website to be advertised beyond traditional SEO methods, as described previously. PPC advertisements show up above organic search engine results, giving you an advantage over competition. Unlike SEO, PPC isn’t a free online marketing strategy, so you’ll need to be well-versed in keywords, ad design, and more if you want to see a strong ROI. PRO TIP Pay-Per-Click advertising can be challenging to master. Get educated on all things online advertising, and even get Google AdWords-certified through Google Partners. Lead Generation 101 | 5 Social Media Contrary to popular belief, Social Media can do more than just facilitate conversations between businesses and consumers – it can actually sell. Lead Generation 101 | 6 Linkedin Perhaps the best Social Media platform for sales is LinkedIn. As the least “social” of the plethora of platforms out there, LinkedIn was designed for working professionals and businesses to converge in one space, making it the perfect sales and marketing platform. Now, we’re not telling you to go out and cold call all of your LinkedIn followers. What we are telling you is that you should consider sharing great content with all of your LinkedIn followers, and (depending on your specific business/industry) you might start to see prospects and leads come in naturally. There’s also a paid advertising feature that makes it even easier to get quality content in front of prospects. PRO TIP Become an active participator in LinkedIn Groups that relate specifically to your business's niche. Establish yourself as a thought leader in these groups. Lead Generation 101 | 7 Twitter Not necessarily known for its selling ability, Twitter is the perfect social platform for pushing out content and getting it found by the right people. If you’re consistently creating great content and sharing it on Twitter (and with the right hashtags), it’s bound to get in the hands of industry influencers. Take advantage of this, and reach out to the people who are enjoying the content you’re creating. While they may not be a lead or even a prospect, some of their followers might be. Getting retweets and likes can be a great start to getting your content in front of the right people. Like LinkedIn, Twitter also has paid advertising features, though it’s unlikely to be as targeted as a LinkedIn sponsored content piece. PRO TIP Research the popular hashtags that are being used in your particular niche, and use them along with high-quality content. Lead Generation 101 | 8 Events While it’s clear that online avenues are some of the best ways to generate sales, never forego traditional in-person methods. Lead Generation 101 | 9 Trade Shows If it’s right for the industry that your business is in, consider attending trade shows within your area of service, especially if you know that potential prospects will be in attendance. Utilize ExpoDataBase to find industry- specific trade shows that you might consider attending for your business, from agriculture and engineering to science, health, and medical expos. PRO TIP Stay at the hotel where the trade show is being held. After the festivities of the day are over, you'll likely be able to find key business owners socializing at the bar or lounge of the hotel. Lead Generation 101 | 10 Conferences Learn from the best and brightest in your industry, while also networking and connecting with potential business partners and sales prospects. While you’re less likely to leave with a handful of leads as you would a trade show, a conference gives you the chance to gain and share knowledge with industry experts, while also giving your company added exposure; just make sure you bring plenty of business cards. And if you can’t attend, consider sponsoring – you’ll get the visibility you’re looking for without PRO TIP Before you attend the conference, make a list of all of the speakers and attendees that you're interested in speaking with. It'll help you be more prepared once you're there so you won't be overwhelmed by the amount of people. Lead Generation 101 | 11 Referrals Customer referrals are a necessity for a business’s success. If you’re not satisfying customers but instead pushing them away, you’re bound to fail as a company. Lead Generation 101 | 12 Customer Service Probably the most indirect way to generate more leads for your business is customer referrals through quality service and support. If you’re treating your customers right, providing them with the answers that they’re looking for, and maintaining a positive and support system, you’re bound to leave your customers satisfied and, in turn, create a natural funnel for referrals to come in. PRO TIP Speak in a language that makes sense to your customers. Don't treat your customers like a number. Value their feedback, and offer them human-centric support. Lead Generation 101 | 13 Brand Ambassadors If you’ve achieved the above successfully, and have satisfied all of your customer’s needs, there’s a chance you’ll be creating brand ambassadors. These ambassadors for your brand will likely share social media content with their followers, promote your brand online and offline, and be your greatest supporter, even after the purchasing process is complete. Brand ambassadors are crucial to building a successful brand, as they’re the ones that will come back for more products and/or services, and bring in the enthusiastic referrals that you’re looking for. PRO TIP To keep and promote your ambassadors, consider providing incentives. This can come in the form of customer loyalty programs or other promotions to engage the brand ambassadors and have them share their joy with your product/service. Lead Generation 101 | 14 email marketing Email marketing has developed into a proven business development tactic used almost universally, sometimes to a fault; however, email marketing can be done correctly and help drive lead generation. Lead Generation 101 | 15 Newsletters Build your brand and strengthen your business’s customer base with email newsletters. This proven content sharing technique gives your prospects a reason to open your emails and learn more about your products and services. Work with the marketing department in your business to incorporate some specific content topics into the newsletter that you think will make prospects want to engage. In addition, offer the chance for individuals to subscribe to your company newsletter, automatically sending them relevant information on a monthly or weekly basis. PRO TIP Create and share newsletters in HTML format. Text-only email newsletters are no longer the preferred email template. Lead Generation 101 | 16 Content Pieces Within these email newsletters, consider including relevant blog posts, white papers, and any other major content pieces. You’ll be connecting with prospects on a level that they’re looking for, while also growing your website traffic and blog readership. Even without a newsletter, emailing relevant product information or white papers can provide a boon developing qualified leads. A white paper on the ROI of your product can make the difference between the prospect choosing your product over a competitor’s. PRO TIP The length of the content and the depth of it should be equal. If there's no real point in creating a piece of content, don't do it. Save your time and energy on something of true value and depth. Lead Generation 101 | 17 CRM Beyond lead generation, CRM software organizes business processes and, when utilized correctly, pushes sales team to become as efficient and effective as possible. Lead Generation 101 | 18 Prospect Lists By utilizing a CRM, you can organize your lists of prospects based on a number of criteria, making contact management as simple as possible. In addition to creating a more orderly sales process, CRMs are often equipped with marketing automation features. With this dual functionality, CRM can automatically pull leads through marketing tactics and shuffle them into the CRM dashboard, eliminating countless down-time and providing sales reps with more time to focus on nurturing leads and generating sales.