Want more sales? Need to grow your business? Use the Top 7 Methods to Generate More Leads!
If you read Friday’s blog, you know that one of the best ways to increase sales is to generate more leads. It’s easier to sell to someone who is interested in your good or service and contacting you, rather than you cold calling someone who is unfamiliar with your business and may not be interested. Here is the million-dollar question: how do you generate leads? Maybe you’ve sent out tweets. Possibly you’ve posted on Instagram. Maybe you posted on Facebook and tagged customers. Well, you’ve probably done all of these things. Did you get any leads? Maybe one or two, but not enough to make a difference. It takes a lot of work to generate more leads. The secret to getting them? You have to use multiple approaches and spend a lot of time promoting yourself. It truly is a full-time job. However, if you have the commitment and devote the time, the leads will come.
To help you get more leads, we’ve compiled the Top 7 Methods to Generate More Leads. Whether you’re involved in business services opportunities or on a budget or have no idea where to start, these tips will help you brainstorm what is your best route to take when to get your phone ringing. Remember, the more people you connect with people in-person and online, the better chance you have of scoring a new customer. Try a few methods, and play with them. Give them a chance to work, but evaluate after a bit of time to see what is working and what you can do to make them stronger.
Top 7 Methods to Generate More Leads – Publish Blogs.
Writing and maintaining a blog is a very effective way to generate more leads. It allows you to connect with potential customers on a more personal level. You not only have the reader’s attention, but you can clearly define your company’s mission. However, you don’t want to make your blog an endless sales plug. The key is to achieve a happy medium: quality content and subtle marketing. The best way to do this is to create interesting, timely content. Make sure your blog is easy to read and an appropriate length, which is between 750 and 1500 words. To get your marketing in, have a prompt to have your reader sign up for a newsletter. Add in some catchy images and marketing on the borders of your blog. Finally, you want to be posting regularly. Your blog should ideally be updated every day. This can be tough if you are working on your own. Try to post a new blog at least four times a week. Get the most out of your blog by promoting it during peak hours, which is typically mid-day.
Pro-Tip: To get your blog noticed more, make sure to submit it to blog directories and backlinks. There are many lists floating around the internet with the ‘top 40 free backlinks for your blog’. Check each link. Some sites will make you pay to have your blog featured. Others will not allow you to submit unless you have both a widget and link linking back to the backlink. It’ll take a bit of searching, but you’ll find the right backlinks and will get the traffic to generate more leads.
Top 7 Methods to Generate More Leads – Create Monthly Newsletters.
We just mentioned having a pop-up reminder on your blog to get people to sign up for your newsletter. Do you have a newsletter? You should. A monthly newsletter shows a more creative side to your business, which can be helpful in some of the dryer industries. Newsletters don’t need to be very long. A simple one or two pager that catches the eye so someone will read and not move it to their email’s trashcan. Like blogs, you don’t want the entire newsletter to be a nonstop sales pitch for your business. Readers will unsubscribe quicker than the blink of an eye. Keep your newsletter brief. Share an overview of highlights and current events in your industry. Include some testimonials from customers. You may even consider adding a customer highlight showing how your product or service helped a customer. Do this tastefully, don’t make it 200 words of pure bragging with 20 words on the customer. A newsletter is also an amazing way to get people excited about upcoming exciting news in your business.
What’s the most important thing to do with a newsletter? Make sure you have sign-up popup everywhere on your website and ask for customers’ emails when they check out at your store or talk to you on the phone.
Top 7 Methods to Generate More Leads – Tweet! Tweet! Tweet!
Tweet! And then tweet some more. Twitter is a full of opportunity. You can generate a ton of leads from twitter at no cost. Tweet to influencers, brands, and associations to get retweets and likes. I can’t say it enough, don’t make your feed a nonstop self-promotion ad. By all means, promote your company, your blog, and your newsletter, but add it other content. Tweet funny pictures. Retweet current events. Create some tweets about your thoughts on industry trends and news. Don’t forget to hashtag using # to keep your tweets linked to the trending topics.
Pro-Tip: To better engage your Twitter community, follow everyone who follows you. Make sure to send our tweets to your followers to thank them for following, retweeting, and liking. This is an almost certain way to get retweeted and expand your audience. For new followers that have a large following, make sure the tweet includes a picture of their page, profile picture, or banner photo. Most of the pages with a lot of followers use their profile picture and banner photo to promote their products or services. By including one of these photos in your tweets, you’re more likely to stick out from the crowd and get retweeted.
Top 7 Methods to Generate More Leads – Do an Interview.
Reach out to some local magazine and newspapers about doing an interview on your company, its mission, and what it means to you and the community. Writers love doing interviews. A one-on-one interview provides great, interesting content and requires less work on the backend for the interviewer. No research, just writing and editing. It also keeps content local, which is favorable against the national online giants. People like to support and buy local. By having your interview published in a newspaper or magazine’s social media network, it gives you exposure to the entire local network. The more people who learn about you, the more likely you are to generate leads.
Don’t limit yourself to local connections, it’s worth reaching out to publications on the national level. You might not get them right away, but keep trying. After doing being published in some local publications and as your following grows, you may get the attention of the big names, like the HuffPost.
Top 7 Methods to Generate More Leads – Go to Networking Events.
Whether you run an online business or have a traditional brick and mortar store, check out some networking events. Sometimes these events are web-based, others are more traditional and you have to go in person. Networking events are a great way to expand your professional network. It’s easier to make a lasting impression on someone in person than it is online. The goal of networking events is to meet other professionals. Maybe you’ll find new customers, which is great, but you could gain more. Talk with people about their businesses and their goals, you may find a business that compliments yours, like realtors and moving companies. Consumers love a one-stop shop. Look for these types of connections and connect with the owners after the event. You’ll want to discuss the idea of recommending each other to customers. Businesses that do this not only generate more leads, but also grow their business relationships.
Top 7 Methods to Generate More Leads – Post Fliers, Infographics, and Business Cards.
If you have a traditional brick and mortar store, you might want to post fliers, infographics and business cards around town. Are you envisioning a cork board full of fliers and card?s Well, that’s pretty much the idea. It seems outdated, but you can still get some leads from posting fliers, infographics, and business cards. Because you’ll already have some from attending networking events, you should make the most of the money you spent on them. Ask other local businesses if you can leave them there for people to take. You can reciprocate and do the same.
If you have an online based business, you can also use online infographics in email marketing campaign and publish them on your social! Infographics catch readers attention and give them an easy overview of your business. It’s up to you to decide if printing infographics, business cards, fliers are for you. Consider your market and your customer demographic. If these people are local and you have the material already, why not post them. However, if it doesn’t suit your market, that’s okay, there are plenty of options for other options.
Top 7 Methods to Generate More Leads – Use an Advertising Firm’s Lead Generation Program.
What better way to get leads than running an advertising campaign with a professional? Advertising sites selling business opportunities have a huge online presence. Advertising with one of these companies gives you great exposure, as their social media platform can make millions of impressions in just one month. The best thing? They can write a blog about you, publish you in their newsletters, and tweet about you! They can also provide you insight into how you can better define your content to attract more customers and leads.
Ad campaigns vary in price depending on the firm and what type of package you need. Luckily, most firms will give you a free consultation to help you decide what is best for what you need. Do you need to be at the top of the website? Do you need to be featured more than biweekly? Whatever it is you need, the experts will guide you so you can save your time worrying and get back to answering the calls from all your new leads.
