Lead generation strategies can help you get more leads to bring you closer to acquiring customers. However, acquiring leads isn’t as easy as people may think. Sure, you can acquire leads in several ways. But if you aren’t attracting the right audience, they’ll never convert. In this article, we’ll share some of the lead generation methods and strategies that’ll help you bring more paying customers. Whether you’re looking for B2B lead generation strategies or B2C, this article has something for both key audiences.
11 Lead Generation Strategies to Try in 2019
#1. Publish an Ebook
One of the most powerful lead generation strategies involves publishing an ebook. This ebook should be hosted on your website for it to be most effective. You can offer it as your exit intent pop-up on your website or place it on your opt-in form on your website. The secret to creating an ebook that generates leads is to write about your exact topic. For example, if you offer Facebook Ads services, what’s the one thing people struggle with the most? Well, they probably struggle with making money with Facebook Ads. You could write an ebook called “How to Make Money with Facebook Ads.” That opt-in form will generate relevant traffic. And you can upsell your services since you’ll find that the people looking to solve that problem were your exact audience.
#2. Create Blog Content
One of the most viral lead generation strategies is content marketing. Top brands generate leads this way the most. The best way to grow a successful blog is to start with really low search volume keywords that are high intent. Then, you’ll want to expand and go after keywords with higher search volume. And as you grow your audience bigger, you keep expanding until your able to go after keywords with the highest levels of search volume. You’ll also want to update your blog posts every six months (content freshness) which helps skyrocket traffic again. You’ll need to promote every blog post you create so that it helps you rank in search engines. The secret to this tactic comes down to execution. You need to keep creating content for months, even if the growth is slow. Aim for articles that are at least 2,000 words to help you play in the big leagues.
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#3. Curate Content
The best lead generation strategies are those which find leads in underrated places. You can generate leads by sharing other brand’s content. What? Yup, using Linkiro, you can share content from other blogs on social media and it’ll add an email opt-in form to their website. That way, even when you curate other people’s content (because you’re busy and it’s hard to always share your own) you can still build an email list and generate more leads. Pretty cool, eh? So, if you find great content that’s relevant to your audience, share it – and generate leads with this method. You can see it in action here.
#4. Create Lead Generation Ads
Using Facebook and Instagram’s ad platform, you can run lead generation ad campaigns. The focus of the campaigns will be to get the information of people who are interested in your business. You can collect email addresses with these campaigns to build your email list. This will allow you to remarket to this audience. And by remarketing the audience, you turn that cold lead into a warm lead. This will help ease them into the funnel of becoming a paying customer. People not only need to hear about your brand, but they also need to hear from it. And while lead generation ads help with the first step, you still need to nurture the relationship with the lead.
#5. Do an Email List Swap
Partnerships in business can help elevate your brand. Finding another business with a relevant audience and that’s relatively the same size can be tough. However, if you find a brand like that, you might want to reach out to them about a co-marketing partnership. One of the lead generation strategies you can execute is an email list swap. For example, if you’re both in the tech space but you have the same audience but different products, you might choose to cross-promote each other. Maybe you recommend their tool in one of your emails or they recommend you in theirs. But this isn’t the only lead generation strategy you could do. You can also, cross-promote each other in your content, share a booth at an event, or host a contest together.
#6. Run a Contest
Speaking of contests, this is one of the fastest lead generation strategies that work well for both B2B and B2C businesses. One of the best-kept secrets when it comes to contests involves the runner-up prize. The big prize winner tends to steal the show. However, don’t forget to offer a runner-up prize to everyone who loses. The prize could be a discount to a product you sell on your online store or a free consultation for your services. This will help you warm the leads you’re generating and bring you closer to converting the sale. This is one of those lead generation strategies that tend to work like a charm.
#7. Partner with Affiliates
Finding affiliates through affiliate networks can be pretty competitive. A little trick that works well for finding affiliates is to find bloggers with affiliate links on their website. If you regularly do backlink outreach, you should have a column in a spreadsheet where you mark off which bloggers use affiliate links. When you do your backlink outreach you should already have the copy prepared for the situation and offer an affiliate link so that they can monetize their post by referring your product. Now you’ve not only incentivized the blogger but also gained a backlink and potentially recurring blog traffic. If you haven’t partnered with affiliates before, this is one of the best lead generation strategies for B2B.
#8. Host a Booth at a Conference
A great way to generate leads is by hosting a booth at a conference. Some products are really difficult to understand and sometimes doing a demo or answering questions can help you build an audience. To collect email sign-ups at the conference, you can run a giveaway so people can win a prize. Another popular option is a photo booth or having a photographer take photos that you can email to conference attendees at the event. As long as you can connect your engagement activity to something that requires an email, you’ll be more likely to generate leads. Some conferences have contests where people gain points for visiting your booth, if setting up a booth at a conference, be sure to ask what activities they have planned to get attendees to check out vendors.
#9. Create a Tool
One of the lead generation strategies you can use to get more leads is to create a tool. No, not like the software of your business. For example, a t-shirt mockup generator tool can help you generate leads as they may need to give their email address to download the designs. It can also be used to ease people into your funnel as after they’ve designed their t-shirt, they can use your business to create it. Ultimately, the tool you create for your business will have to be relevant enough to your business to entice people to sign up for it. Find a tool idea that has high search volume and you’ll be able to generate more leads this way. By creating a tool, you can also get added to free tools lists which will allow you to gain backlinks which can also result in recurring traffic.
#10. Create an App
When it comes to lead generation strategies, you’ll want to make sure you have all your bases covered. Apps are a great way to generate leads. For example, say you own a to-do list tool for software, you might be able to generate a whole new demographic by creating a to-do list app for iOS and Android. The tool is still similar but allows you to sell to a greater audience pool. You can ask people to register or log-in with their email. This email can then be used to reach out to them about your desktop version or to upgrade for more features. And since you’ll have your desktop version, iOS version, and Android as well, you’re taking more ownership of your market while still serving your key target audience. So if you’re looking to generate leads, this can be a great way to expand your brand.
#11. Create a Webinar
Creating webinars can be a profitable way to generate leads. To succeed with this lead generation method, you’ll need to focus on top of funnel content. For example, a webinar on how to make money blogging to promote your blogging course can be a great way to ease people into your funnel. You can teach people a few of your best secrets on how you’ve generated sales from blogging. The content of your webinar needs to help persuade people into believing that you’re the expert on the topic. And that the quality of your webinar will match the same high standards of your course. The webinar itself acts as a way to warm-up leads. After the webinar is over, you can email everyone a link to your paid course. The focus of this lead generation strategy is to emphasize warming the lead to bring them closer to conversion.
#12. Host an Event
Hosting an event is a great way to generate leads. Facebook is a great example of a mega-brand who does this well. They host a Boost with Facebook event which is a day jam-packed of seminars about how to succeed with Facebook and Instagram ads. Outside of their seminars, they have a ton of Facebook experts who are available to answer any question you may have so you can receive better and more personalized support. The goal of the event is to educate potential advertisers so that they’ll be more likely to use Facebook or Instagram ads over the long-term. You can also host a conference, one-day event, meetup or virtual event to help generate more leads. If the emphasis of your event is on providing value or education, the tie into your business must be clear. You can collect registrations via email to build a list of leads. And you can create a more personal connection at the event which will be more likely to bring them further along your sales funnel.
#13. Partner with an Influencer
You can get influencers to help you generate leads. No two influencers are the same. For example, you might partner with an expensive influencer who generates a bunch of fake social proof. Or you might partner with another who converts those leads directly to sales. The focus of the influencer is to make sure it’s the right audience and niche match. For example, in ecommerce, some brands choose to partner with a pretty influencer with a big following to promote their fashion brand. However, oftentimes, the attractive female influencers have big male audiences and so even though several people saw and engaged with the post, they weren’t the right audience to buy it. You can use a tool to help you find the right influencer for your business. A good bet is to focus on niche bloggers whose posts get a lot of traffic rather than a social influencer.
Conclusion
These lead generation strategies can help you connect people to your products or services. Whether you focus on building an email list, running ads, or creating blog content, you’re essentially bringing people closer to your amazing business. Generating leads is still only one step of the process, you’ll still need to do the heavy lifting to convert them into paying customers. However, with the lead generation methods listed above, you’ll have warmed up your leads bringing them a step closer to conversion.
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