In this blog, we identify some of the most popular techniques used worldwide to generate leads.
Imagine this: your free, open-to-all business networking event has just come to an end. Many prominent businessmen and women were in attendance, the networking sessions were fabulous, and the food was excellent.
However, you forgot to do one simple thing: register attendees.
So when it came to the end of the event and attendees left without saying a word (not one business card in sight), you had no way of contacting them to follow up. And to make matters worse, you couldn’t remember all of their names so adding them on LinkedIn was out of the question.
As a result, you didn’t generate a single lead.
Now imagine if you operate your website the same way.
If there’s no way for you to capture the details of interested parties or for them to get in touch with you, your website is failing you big time. It’s exactly like inviting lots of people to an event and letting them leave without finding out who they are and why they were interested in attending.
At the very least, your website needs to convert at least 2% of the traffic it receives into leads for your sales team to engage with.
“A website within the IT and Software sector should, in an ideal world, be converting a minimum of 2% of its traffic into qualified leads for your business; if it is struggling to do that, then the chances are it is not engaging enough and failing to seize sales opportunities.”
- Verity Dearsley, Managing Director at Huble Digital
Having the ability to capture visitor data is what makes a website powerful. Take a look at Amazon, Facebook and Google – visitor data (and data in general) is what made them the giants that they are today. The ability to capture a user's details and provide a personalised experience from that point onwards has literally transformed the success of these companies.
If your website is not getting enough leads for you at the moment, fret not. This article is to help you secure some quick wins and start getting leads.
Fast and Furious Techniques
1. Allow your website visitors to add you and your colleagues on LinkedIn
This is one of the easiest ways to get leads or at least generate interest. Upon accepting a new connection on LinkedIn, send them a simple message to find out if they visited your website and found you that way.
If someone connects with you have visited your website and found you, there’s a good chance they’re interested in what you do. If someone connects with you and hasn’t visited your website – your message to them will encourage them to do so.
Please note that to ensure this technique works perfectly, make sure your LinkedIn account looks professional. This means having a decent profile photo and introduction to build trust.
Here’s a good example from Be Found Online (our sister company in Chicago).
2. Offer free trials (or even a free entry-level service)
Giving versions of your product or service to people for free is probably the best way to gain trust from your prospects and one of the easiest and fastest ways to generate quality leads.
Think about it – you let interested parties test your product and/or service for free for a specific period. After that period, you offer them the ‘professional’ version of your product or service (one which includes more options, features or better pricing). If they’re interested in your product/service and want to get more from it, they can easily sign up. You’ve removed the barriers to entry and effectively ‘marketed’ your offering.
Some businesses even offer entry-level services for free to secure leads. HubSpot, for example, offers both a free CRM and free trial for their marketing and sales tool – this is an incredibly powerful way of generating leads, building trust, and getting visitors to “feel” like their customers before they are paying any money.
At Huble Digital, we offer basic SEO and HubSpot audits for free. You can learn more from Be Found Online.
3. Offer demos, video tutorials or downloadable guides
For those who are about to make a decision and buy your product or service, ensuring you have product demos, tutorials and downloadable ‘how-to’ guides available is crucial. These assets will help those in the later stages of the buyer’s journey to make an informed purchase decision. That said, make sure these assets are locked behind a form; you want people to provide you with their details in exchange for them. This can be a really effective way to generate sales-ready leads.
4. Answer questions via a members-only forum
This is another way to generate leads and works really well for certain businesses. Remember, people want answers. Those who are looking for answers in relation to products or services you sell will most definitely subscribe to newsletters, blogs or forums to find them.
If you know prospects use members-only forums and see that they have questions, why not sign up yourself and start helping them? For existing members interested in what you do, it’ll help to build trust and they’ll advocate on your behalf (i.e. if someone else has a similar problem they’ll direct that person to the forum). Over time, as more new users come to the forum for your expertise, they’ll visit your website as well – potentially downloading other content and becoming a leader in the process.
E.g. A lot of companies in the B2C space use Reddit as a means to engage with their community and solve problems.
Slow But Steady Techniques
1. Provide solutions via eBooks
Focus on something related to your area of expertise or industry – something unique that your prospects will want to download and read.
For example, technology vendors could create an eBook on disruptive technologies that have changed the business world and how they can be used.
Another option would be to create a market research report. Do a survey to collect original data (as this will give brand-new insights) and discuss your findings in a report. Your prospects will definitely want to download it as the information is invaluable!
At B2BML, we create high-quality eBooks regularly – all of which address current industry challenges. Click here to take a look, maybe you’ll get some ideas and inspiration.
2. Create a case study to assist them further and entice them to download your eBooks
Share success stories of clients that have used your services. This will show your prospects what you are capable of and persuade them to work with you.
Also, make sure your case studies include a call-to-action (CTA) for other relevant middle or bottom-of-the-funnel content assets on a landing page. This way you move prospects further into the buyer journey and increase your opportunities for conversion.
See our case studies page here as an example.
3. Blog regularly and make sure your subscription CTA encourages people to sign up
The most powerful subscription CTAs can be summed up in a few short and sweet words:
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Timely, Accurate, and Useful.
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Don’t miss out on this information weekly or monthly.
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Subscribe now.
These are just a few examples, but the idea is to persuade readers to engage or feel as though they’re missing out!
4. Show past examples of your newsletters to get visitors to subscribe with an enticing reason
Most of the time people are reluctant to subscribe to a newsletter because of spam – but showing prospects how cool your past newsletters are can get them to open up and subscribe.
Of course, before you start giving old newsletters away, make sure they’re valuable enough. If they’re not, you’ll have a difficult time convincing prospects to give you their contact information in exchange for your new content.
5. Encourage referrals – one of the most overlooked activities
Referrals may not happen immediately but they are, in my opinion, the most valuable leads.
And yet they are often overlooked. Referrals from clients, partners, associates or friends are so valuable because these are leads genuinely looking for a solution. So, as these leads are further into the buyer’s journey, the sales cycle is shortened by anything from 30% to 50%.
Generating leads should be an ongoing priority for any business, especially as nurturing leads to a point of purchase can take a long time depending on the type of business.
With this in mind, it’s always a good idea to utilise multiple ways to generate leads so that you don’t miss out on any new opportunities whilst working on existing ones.
And it’s something HubSpot can help with.
If you are interested in learning more about how HubSpot can help you generate and nurture leads - as well as do several other things - get in touch with us today to speak to one of our specialists.
