In the digital world we live in, marketing online can be a huge lead driver for your business. You just have to know when, where, and how to best utilize online tools to get people interested in your business. But how do you attract customers and turn strangers into leads?
Step 1: Attract
First, you have to make people care about your business and the solutions you provide.
Creating content is the perfect way to establish credibility as an expert in your field and provide relevant knowledge to your target audience. Blog posts, white papers, infographics, podcasts, and videos with your name or logo attached to it are highly effective marketing methods.
But remember, great content won’t make a difference if people can’t find it. Posting consistency is key. Stay relevant and top of mind for your followers with a regular content posting schedule. A smart content strategy will help you effectively promote content, repurpose it for multiple channels, and reach your goals.
Don’t get lost in your followers’ feeds or Google searches. Social media algorithms and search engines prioritize content with specific and relevant keywords. Dig into content on search engine optimization (SEO) to optimize your website so it ranks higher in results pages. Use hashtags and location tags in social posts to ensure your content dominates users’ feeds. If you do both of those things effectively, you’ll increase the amount of organic (aka free) traffic to your website.
If you are looking to expand beyond organic content, try paid social ads or Google AdWords. Invest a little time and money into creating an enticing campaign. Facebook and Instagram ads are a great place to start — plus, there are a wide variety of campaign types to fit every goal or budget.
Step 2: Convert
Once you’ve gained a customer’s attention, it’s time to turn them into a lead. This is where clear, concise call-to-actions (CTAs) come in. You can include CTAs anywhere — in your email header, at the bottom of a blog post, a button on an Instagram story, at the top of your website, etc. Make sure your CTAs are compelling and eye-catching to grab attention and that they always compel someone to take a step forward.
Landing pages are an excellent destination to direct interested leads. You can tailor the content to your target audience’s specific interests. What challenges can you provide solutions for? How can you fulfill a desire for them? Why is your company a good fit? Sell your business and provide the user with detailed information on next steps.
Whatever your desired outcome, make your CTA extremely obvious and intuitive for the viewer. Maybe it’s clicking a button, filling out a form, commenting a question, or calling your sales team directly. This is an essential step in establishing a relationship with your lead and gathering the information to convert them to a customer.
Speaking of collecting the right information, data is extremely important. Wherever you’re directing traffic, be sure to gather contact information like email addresses or phone numbers so you have a way to follow up. If you are serious about knowing your traffic, there are a lot of CRM tools, like ActiveCampaign, that will help make this process even easier.
Step 3: Track & Repeat
You can’t improve if you don’t measure your progress. Set goals, analyze metrics, and identify which methods are performing well. Discover which users were most engaged or what pages on your website are generating the most traffic — then do more of that. Making small adjustments and learning from your results is the best way to improve your digital lead generation strategies.
