The problem with many new businesses today is that it becomes very difficult to attract customers because of all the competition. What is the method by which you obtain new customers? The number one way to do so is to generate leads. Here are some great suggestions to help you generate leads.
Make an offer to potential leads that is hard to refuse. This can be a discount, a give-away, or some source of information that they’ve been dying to have. It needs to be relevant to them, or else you’ll never get them to respond. Try a few different things to see what works the best.
Look to affiliate marketing to generate leads and even customers. Why do all the work for leads when you can have others do it for you on commission? Affiliate programs are a very effective way of introducing your product to new audiences. In fact, you’ll see a lot of content created around your product or service. That’s very effective.
Always seek validation of lead information. Verifying real-time information for a lead is important. If you take the time to make sure that you have a good phone number, zip code and/or email, you can ensure that the lead you have is strong. Not doing so can waste a lot of your time.
See if you can sponsor local events in any way. Maybe you can buy uniforms for a Little League team, or have a banner at a church garage sale. If so, be sure to show up at the event yourself so you can shake hands and get face time with potential leads.
Talk to business owners in related industries. They may be willing to share leads with you, by sending their customers your way. For example, if you own a shop where you sell balloons, talking to a florist about a joint venture is a great way to get leads from another business.
Door knocking is always an option, so don’t rule it out. This can even be true if your business is B2B. Visit businesses and ask them about who they’re currently using for whatever it is you’re selling, then let them know why you’re the better option. Leave some materials behind and move on to the next location.
Your phone can be your friend. Pitching your product or service to the local community and businesses will drive more business than you expect. No matter the product or service, someone always needs it. This means getting on the phone and finding them.
Hold a party for your best sources of referrals. Make it worth their while to show up by providing great food, drinks and entertainment. If you show them you appreciate their help, they’ll continue to bring you leads and you’ll all end up better off for the arrangement between you.
Use time sensitive offers to generate more valuable leads for your business. Since people usually want what they can’t have, they will be more likely to sign-up if they know the offer is set to disappear. Stay true to your word and dissolve the offer at your stated deadline, then count your new leads!
Remember that people respect honesty more than hype, so when you try to generate more leads, leave an open and honest offer on the table. Adding bells and whistles just makes you look like a generic salesperson who will do whatever it takes to get people to buy. Generate leads with a quality presentation and you gain permanent customers instead.
If you want your website to generate leads, it needs to clearly tell people what you’re expecting them to do. Do you want them to sign up for a newsletter? Be sure that the sign up form is near the top of the page and is obviously the way to do so.
Customer referrals are one thing, and a referral program can definitely work. But, take things a step further by asking your customer base to provide testimonials. This can really work out for you, as people read through these reviews often to determine if they want to do business with a company.
Make sure that your lead database is good for your business. What you sell may only be geared towards a certain niche audience. It won’t help you, then, to get leads that fall outside of that niche. These leads may not be anywhere in the neighborhood of your customer demographics.
Make an effort to get traffic to the page that is your best lead generator. This could be a full survey or your stand-alone splash page. Whatever the case, you need the traffic. Focus on driving traffic to your webpage to help ensure success.
Word-of-mouth referrals may seem like an old fashioned approach to gaining more customers, but they are like gold when it comes to generating leads. If you want to raise the stakes a little bit, come up with an offer or deal that potential customers can’t refuse. You may even be able to come up with content that goes viral in order to generate even more leads.
Avoid becoming overly focused on contests. You will only get customers that want a prize instead of a true customer. Hold a contest every once in a while to generate leads.
Test your lead generation marketing campaigns. Sometimes simply changing a call-to-action or offer will lead to a whole lot more leads being generated. You won’t know unless you test. You should always be testing something. This can have immediate and lasting effects on the leads being generated by your company.
Keep lead gathering simple. Do not force your potential lead to fill out endless amounts of information. Use simplicity such as name and email gathering at first and as they look further ask for more. Your initial info gathering gets you a potential lead, but the further information you gain will allow for qualifying potential.
Now you are started down the path to success. You don’t want any lead you can get, but the ones that lead to good business. You ought to have gained a strong sense of how to get the customers willing to stick with you down the road.
