Make a customer, not a sale.
— Katherine Barchetti
When it comes to effective marketing, capturing leads is a high priority. Exposing your product to a bigger list of contacts with higher intent can go a long way. From start to finish, lead generation encompasses sparking interest in your consumer for your product or service and keeping them engaged to capture their contact information. This is then used for later messaging that they would be interested in (to push them through your sales funnel).
The most important thing to keep in mind during lead generation is to never lose sight of who your customer is. Provide them with the insight and resources they really want; i.e., make a customer, not a sale.
Overall, four components round out lead generation:
- Offer
- Call to Action (CTA)
- Landing Page
- Form
To start, advertise an offer for a high-value product or service (e.g. e-books or free consultations) to your identified and targeted audience. Provide them a call-to-action that directs those who click on the offer to a landing page to download the resource. Landing pages are specific pages on your site that can only be reached through a direct link or URL. On this page (or in the advertisement, depending on your preference or platform), set up a form for the viewer to fill out before they receive the full resource. This is where the leads generate: Typically an email address is captured to enter into an email marketing campaign.
The success of the four-step process depends on the form. It’s like running the baton relay in track; no matter how much of a lead is gained by the previous runners, the race isn’t won until the last runner carries the baton across the finish line. Without a form, your company won’t be able to retain the generated lead. The form collects customer information in exchange for the offer promised in the first stage of the process.
Our informative PDF gives 30 tips for lead generation. For the purpose of this article, I have focused on the basics:
Developing Customer Interest
Lead generation is the first step in gaining a customer base. But it won’t come easy—it’s important to offer a solid product to grab the attention of and retain this initial customer base. Here are a few of the ways outlined in our guide to effectively capture interest:
- The Element of Scarcity: When supply goes down, demand naturally goes up. Use “limited-time offers” to make your consumers think your product is facing unavailability.
- Use the News: Be timely. When the 2013 Superbowl lost power for 34 minutes, Oreo launched a “Dunk in the dark” ad within just minutes that gained incredulous popularity. Read more examples of this in our guide.
- Offers Linked to Buying Stages: Not everybody is ready to “Contact Us” just yet. Appreciate the earlier stages of the acquisition process.
Designing and Implementing
Thoughtful implementation of design elements in customer-critical content will increase lead generation potential. In our pdf, we go into much more detail, but here are a few pointers:
- Eye-Catching CTAs: Are your calls-to-action at a place on your website where it’s not easy to access? Keep them “above the fold;” on the top half of your website so your viewer doesn’t have to scroll to see it. Content existing below the fold loses about 50% of your viewers.
- High Contrast: Make your CTA stand out and get right to the point with contrasting colors from the background to get as many eyes on it as you can.
- Well-Constructed Landing Page: Make sure your viewers aren’t clicking on your CTA and going to a landing page that’s not relevant. They’re clicking on it for a reason—to get straight to what was offered with as little other jargon to read through as possible.
Taking Advantage of All Lead-Generating Opportunities
- Thank You Pages: Once you’ve exchanged your resource for their contact information, it’s important to still make an effort to appeal to them and keep them interested. These pages, which appear after they fill the form, are valuable real estate. They’ve trusted everything you’ve told them so far, so take advantage of this opportunity while it’s there to provide another offer or content.
- Keep Customers Grounded: Once customers get to your landing page, do your best to keep them there. Removing main site navigation features from this page will keep them from getting distracted or overwhelmed.
- Emphasize Offer Benefits: Don’t just explain what’s included with your offer—clearly define why it’s valuable. So instead of saying, “this e-book includes this, this, and that,” explain that “this e-book’s (feature) can help grow (a certain aspect) of your business by X percent.”
It’s undeniable that putting together a well-rounded lead generation plan has a lot of i’s to dot and t’s to cross. The rest of these tips are available through our informative pdf. Learn more about how we can help you make your marketing efforts matter.
