There’s no magic formula when it comes to generating more leads. However, establishing a combination of lead-generating concepts will help you nurture and grow relationships with potential buyers. This will ultimately provide your business with credibility and long-term value, which can, in turn, convert into customers. As a business owner, you should already see the power the internet has in reaching potential customers. However, you may be struggling with knowing the best methods to generate leads and more buyers for your brand. In this article, we will break down the basics of using online marketing and share 5 ways to generate more quality leads for your business.
1. Optimize your Website for SEO
If you want to increase website visitors, aka leads to your business, one of the first things you need to do is optimize your website for SEO. SEO utilizes targeted keywords, strategic content, and other tactics that improve your visibility in search results. SEO is incredibly valuable if your business’s target audience is local. SEO works by ensuring your site shows up in the search results when someone searches for keywords or phrases that are similar to the products or services you offer.
Let’s say you are a restoration company. If someone searches for “water damage restoration” or “mold remediation.” Since that’s exactly what your company services, your business should show up, right? What if “water damage restoration” is nowhere to be found under your service pages, on-page content, title tag, or even your service descriptions? Search engines use this specific content as well as a host of other SEO tactics in order to scan your website and determine if your website is relevant to the user’s query. If it’s not present, you’ll have little to no chance of ranking online.
On-page optimization takes a lot of work, but it’s worth the effort. It will improve your visibility in the search results, which drives more leads to your website. SEO is a great way to generate organic leads for your website with advertising.
2. Utilize Targeted Paid Advertising (PPC)
Online Ads are a favorable way to generate quick results and massive brand awareness. Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to generate online leads. It’s also available anywhere and everywhere on the internet. Platforms such as Google, Bing, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and so on all offer PPC ads with highly targeted capabilities. Depending on your objectives, budget, and keyword phrases, you can generate an incredible return on investment.
One of the main reasons PPC is so popular is that it allows you to target very specific audiences and phrases. For example, if you a pest control company that offers termite control treatments, you can create an ad that appears when that phrase or something similar is searched. So when someone searches for “termite control,” your ad can appear front and center, giving the prospect the infinitive to click through to your website. You’ll pay a few dollars for that click (and potentially more depending on that keyword’s popularity), but it that person becomes a customer and signs up for a 12-month treatment contract, it’s worth it, right?
The ROI on PPC ads is generally pretty great if you know how to set up your ad for success and control your budget. If you see that an ad is performing very well and you want to increase its visibility and target similar phrases, you can always increase your ad spend. On the contrary, if you see some keyword phrases performing poorly, you can always turn it off and stop paying.
Your ad can be position not only on social platforms and search engines, but also across websites, blogs, videos, and so on. Target paid advertising is a great way to get the word out about your brand and generate quality leads that align with your business.
3. Create a Presence on Social Media
Social media can vary from industry to industry. Some businesses, such as retail or food industries can be more dependent on social media to drive new customers. That being said, many users turn to social media to book appointments, make purchases, find resources, and conduct research. This may come as a surprise, but nearly 68% of shoppers visit a company’s social media channels in order to determine its credibility. They will read online reviews, customer feedback, and their overall professionalism before making a purchase. So if you don’t have a social media presence with consistent posts and activity, your leads may not get the information they need to take you seriously.
To create leads with social media, you need to have a good idea of the type of content to put out, and the right channels to use. You don’t need to saturate yourself on every social media platform if your target audience doesn’t use it. For example, if you sell software, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are good platforms for generating conversation and awareness about your business. You might not have any use for Pinterest, Instagram, or TikTok.
Another key driver with social media is adding value and authenticity to your brand. These are great platforms for sharing your story, and company culture, engaging with customers and building relationships. It’s not always about how many likes and follows you have, but rather showcasing what makes your brand unique and helpful to the end user. When the end users see this, they are far more likely to trust your business and refer it to others.
4. Generate a Steady Stream of Positive Reviews
We’ve said it time and time again – reviews are golden! Reviews work as a tool of social proof or reassurance of the credibility of a product or service they’re considering. Customers are looking for a reason to choose you over the competition, and nothing speaks louder than hearing what other people have to say about you. This is exactly why they can be a powerful lead-generating tool for your business. Reviews have become a primary source of information that customers use to decide what to buy, and many won’t even make a buying decision until they’ve read reviews online.
Online reviews aren’t just “trust signals” for customers, they can also be one of your most powerful SEO weapons. Google and other search engines use reviews to measure the relevancy, authority, and trustworthiness of your brand. They will prioritize those businesses in which customers have a lot of positive things to say of them because they don’t want to send users to a noncredible source. Why is that? Reviews are based on people’s experience with your brand, and their review summarizes their trust or lack thereof from that experience. So, when you look at Google now factoring trust and customer experience into their SEO recipe, and reviews provide that exact element, you can see the importance of online reviews for your SEO.
5. Offer Valuable Content
To get more leads online, you might want to consider giving them some content that they find useful or helping them in some way. By educating them or solving a problem before they’ve made a purchase, you’re more likely to create loyalty to your brand. Content marketing can come in many forms, from blog posts to email campaigns, eBooks, and more. Content marketing can be a great way to build trust and authority with your brand, giving potential leads more assurance to do business with you. Consistent content will also give you an SEO boost with search engines. When they see your website producing relevant content on an ongoing basis, it sends a strong signal that your business has valuable expertise and knowledge and thus is a good site for the end user.
Email Marketing is a great way to nurture online leads. By sending targeted messages to a list of subscribers, you can walk interested shoppers through every stage of the buying process. Email marketing is a very important part of nurturing leads and growing them into potential buyers. Plus, email marketing is one of the most inexpensive marketing tactics available. It also has incredible targeting capabilities to help you deliver the right message at the right time, which can help open doors to potential leads and create a sale.
Final Thoughts
Online marketing is a great way to generate new leads for your business, but it’s only the beginning. Proper lead management is essential to ensure you are tracking potential customers’ behaviors and making adjustments along the way. Track every marketing campaign you utilize to determine which methods drive business and waste your time.
That’s it! We shared 5 ways to generate more leads, and as your digital marketing partner, we can help you generate even more leads for your business. From SEO to custom websites to social media and more, we can help grow your leads and turn them into customers.