As we’re entering Q4 of this year, one of the questions or requests that comes up quite often in our networking gatherings and calls with prospects is ‘Yeah I know all about marketing but what I really want to know is how do I get more leads?’

Good question and bottom line, marketing is all about getting more leads and ultimately getting more sales. The thing is, you can’t start with getting more leads without knowing your market really, really well and then being very specific on what you’re offering that market. 

If you don’t know your Ideal Target Markets and your Ideal Clients in those markets and you’re not clear on your primary offering to those clients … That’s where you have to start.

In a previous Viral Essence Blog, 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗜𝘀 𝗜𝘁 𝗦𝗼 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗧𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀?… we talked about the first three steps to take.

1. Your Overall Target Market
2. Your Preferred Target Markets
3. Your Ideal Target Markets

Your Ideal Target Markets are relatable businesses that can use your product or service. When you dive deep and look into your Ideal Target Markets, what you’re doing is identifying narrow segments of people you’d like to connect and work with using these 4 criterias.

1. What Values Do You Share With Them?
2. Do They Have Similar Interests And Lifestyles?
3. What Are Their Pain Points?
4. What Solutions Do You Offer Them?

You can dive much deeper into this by looking at the Blog titled 𝗗𝗼 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀? 

Now Back To Lead Generation … What Is It?  

Lead generation is the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into someone who is interested in your company’s product or service.

If you’re a business owner or offer any kind of professional service, generating high quality leads is the lifeblood of your business. Quite simply, it’s how you get new clients.

To successfully generate leads and convert them into clients, your marketing strategy must reflect your client’s needs, wants and desires.

Simple right … without leads, there are no sales, and consequently, no revenue. When done well, lead generation nurtures qualified prospects from tentative interest all the way to becoming clients and ultimately, the ambassadors and advocates your brand relies on.

Before you connect and sell anything effectively, you need to understand…

1. Who your ideal client is.
2. What their key purchase drivers are.
3. What their challenges and wants are.
4. How your product/service transforms their lives for the better.

“What Does Your Potential Client Want?”

This is the fundamental and foundational question that Lead Generation asks!

Once you’re able to answer that question and tie it to a high-converting landing page, you’ll consistently generate leads. You’ve still got to turn the lead into a client, but it’s the starting point!

Marketing relies on several channels to drive leads to your businesses and boost your conversion rate. Some of these channels are SEO, paid ads, social media, email and landing pages.

Before we break down and look at each channel, it’s important to know there are two types of lead generation … inbound and outbound.

Inbound Lead Generation 

That’s when the prospect initiates the interaction with your business. This is you being HUNTED. A potential client will look for and find your content, product or service using the search engines. They may see your offer directly or through a social media link, love your article, connect with you and fill in a form with their contact details.

Outbound Lead Generation 

That’s when you initiate the interaction with the prospect. This might be done through a paid ad on Google or any social media channel, email outreach or direct mail. This is you being the HUNTER.

Most businesses will find the best strategy is a mix of both inbound and outbound marketing to achieve their lead generation goals.

How does SEO fit in?

For lead generation to be successful, people have to interact with your business!

This is most likely going to happen online, which means you’ve got two options: organic traffic reach or paid traffic.

When prospects are looking for an answer to a question, what’s the first thing they do? They Google it.  Google processes more than 3.5 billion searches every day, and the businesses that appear at the top of these search results are benefiting.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of your content on your website or social media posts, is the perfect tactic because you reach people at the exact moment they’re looking for the information you have. They’re engaged, and they’re ripe to be converted into a lead.

The other big benefit of SEO is that you’re not paying for each click.

So What About Paid Ads?

The problem with SEO and inbound marketing is that it’s a slow process. If you need immediate results, then paid ads can be a much better option.

By investing in paid search ads or social media ads, you can get your brand in front of a very targeted audience. It’s great for your visibility and it allows you to drive a high volume of traffic to your landing pages.

Unlike with SEO though, you’re paying for each click, so it’s vitally important that everything you do is optimized. From your headlines to your landing pages, everything has to be geared towards turning visitors into solid leads.

Email Marketing

Most of your leads are going to end up in your sales funnel because they’ve given you their email address. Email marketing plays a big part in nurturing leads. They may not be ready to buy your product or service today … but they’re interested so this is the way to stay connected and build your relationship with them.

Landing Pages 

Optimizing your landing pages or home page is an essential part of lead generation. Small changes to these pages can make a big difference to your conversion rate.

That’s a quick overview of lead generation and we’ve really only scratched the surface.

So … Are You The Hunter Or The Hunted?

To be effective as a lead generating machine … You Have To Be Both.

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