Strategies to Try Out for More Effective Lead Generation

Effective lead generation requires higher-quality interactions
Personalizing emails and focusing on opt-in lists brings in more interested leads
Active social media posting and blogging help build brand exposure and authority
Old-fashioned networking, both one-on-one and in groups, makes it even more personal
Smart Funnel specializes in lead generation strategies so our clients don’t have to!

If your business isn’t quite booming the way you’d like it to, you may need an infusion of new blood. By that, we mean customers and clients. No business can grow for very long without a continued influx of sales. Getting sales, of course, requires having leads to follow up on in the first place. There are both good and bad ways to get leads. The bad ways will get you leads that aren’t very interested in what you have to say. Effective lead generation, on the other hand, provides you with a constant stream of people who want to know more about what you offer. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that traditional lead generation strategies can be made even more effective.

Personalize Email Marketing

Email marketing has been around for decades now, and so has undesirable spam. Ethical marketers know that the best way to reach their prospects by email is to make sure that those prospects already want to receive their emails.

There are a couple of ways to go about this. Some unsolicited cold email may be unavoidable, but the key to using it effectively is to respect the wishes of those we communicate with. When we reach out to somebody who then asks not to be contacted again, we should do as they request and remove them from our list. Those who don’t ask to be removed, however, may turn out to be excellent prospects in the future, or refer us to somebody else who is.

Another important strategy for using email relies on opt-in lists. We can create these lists using our websites, including blogs and social media. By providing landing pages with clear calls to action, we can invite site visitors to share their email address with us in exchange for a subscription or download. This way, we provide something of value to them in exchange for something of value to us.

Anybody who subscribes to one of these lists, and continues engaging with the content, is a great candidate for direct personal follow-up. And that personal aspect is crucial. To use this technique as part of a more effective lead generation strategy, follow-up emails should be crafted with the specific prospect in mind. It’s okay to use canned form emails, as long as they provide space to include the person’s name and some specific interests they might have. It should take a moment, at least, to personalize an email.

Double Down on Social Media

Another important way to generate leads that are valuable to your company is by leveraging social media more effectively.

Social media isn’t just something that your workers use to kill time in between prospect calls. Everybody on your team should be actively reaching out to potential prospects via social networks. This means using the “$1.80 strategy” that Gary Vaynerchuk recommends.

At a minimum, you or a social media specialist that you hire should be researching trending topics, especially on LinkedIn, and leaving your “two cents” on at least 90 posts per day. This will take some time, and it’s important for your comments to be relevant and not spammy. The benefits of doing this, however, are dramatically increased exposure for your brand, and a heightened perception of authority that you will carry with your prospects.

These tactics apply to other social media networks as well, such as Instagram, and even Facebook. Facebook can be especially useful for small local businesses looking to connect with their neighbors.

Write a Consistently Helpful Blog

Something else that you should definitely do for more effective lead generation results is to write a truly useful blog.

Although you should post consistently, quality is far more important than quantity. If your blog posts provide truly valuable content, answer customer questions, and help educate potential prospects, you will gain more interested potential clients.

Similar to the benefits of increased social media activity, authoritative blogs provide you with credibility. That credibility translates to trust. Trust becomes sales and sales become revenue.

Make sure that every post you write includes links and quotes from other authoritative sources, and that you do your research. Search engine optimization is important so that people can find your information. It’s more important, though, to keep them there once they arrive, by ensuring that they can trust you.

Network in Person and in Groups

Another way to generate more leads that marketers often overlook in the information age is the value of old-fashioned networking.

There are so many benefits to meeting in person that you just cannot get from online interaction. One-on-one networking gives you and your prospects the opportunity to get to know each other on a more intimate level. This is an important way to discover how well you’ll be able to work together. That compatibility can greatly affect the amount of value that you can provide each other. The relationship between a business and their clients is a partnership of sorts because both sides do truly provide something of value to each other, or at least they ought to. A relationship that doesn’t provide value to both parties is not usually one worth maintaining.

In addition to this kind of personal networking, organized events can be of great value.

One excellent strategy you can employ is for your top salespeople and executives to volunteer to be presenters at an organized networking event. Not only will this exposure provide you access to numerous potential prospects, but it will also bolster your authority within your industry.

Never let an opportunity to meet people you can help, and who can help you, pass you by!

Effective Lead Generation With Smart Funnel

Effective lead generation comes at a cost. There’s no way anyone’s getting around that. It requires more effort than simply purchasing a list that somebody else put together. That list might not even be relevant to your industry.

Smart Funnel’s lead generation strategy revolves around helping our clients build quality lead generation programs at a lower cost. Our specialized teams of professional sales development representatives help implement outreach strategies across multiple platforms. They specialize in sales enablement and lead generation so that you don’t have to. You can build up your authority and your client base while still focusing on your core competencies and your bottom line.