We live in a world driven by marketing, and as the internet plays a larger part in our daily lives, we will continue to see innovative and inventive ways that companies and brands increase lead generation. Below is a list of the top five effective tools for lead generation.
Website optimization
If your business is centered around e-commerce and the online space, then one of the first things you have to consider in order to generate a lead is to ensure that your audience has a positive experience using your website.
Your website or landing page is extremely important in making an impact on your potential customers. It is the central hub for which information about your business and the types of products and services that you offer is first seen. Your business’ mission and vision should also be clearly visible so people know your message and what you stand for as a business.
Website optimization should, therefore, be high on your priority list. What you want to achieve is an efficient design that makes it easy for people to navigate and find certain answers should they have any questions.
The site design should focus on customer experience than purely marketing products or services. It should also include one or two calls to action such as subscribing, downloading, or making a purchase.
Search engine optimization
Ask any digital marketing expert on how to increase lead generation and they will all say to focus on search engine optimization. In a day and age where online presence is one huge factor for the success of a business, it is crucial that businesses stand out amidst other competitors. They do this by being the first to show up when a particular need or product is searched.
SEO is great for generating leads especially for organic web searches that many consumers use on a daily basis. Having a good ranking in many search results will mean visibility for your business’ website or landing page which in turn leads to a lot of lead generations. Together with an effective content marketing strategy, many digital marketing experts recommend focusing a good deal of their marketing strategy on increasing their search ranking through SEO.
One suggestion many experts recommend doing in order to rank higher in the search results is by creating great content. Despite changes in the algorithms that drive ranking, having really good content will mean the site is a little more resilient to fluctuating ranks should algorithms change.
Pay-per-click
Using pay-per-click advertisements is still a good way to help businesses drive leads and conversions. It can help in increasing traffic to a site or landing page and when used correctly could even target the intended audience of a brand or business. If your business is fairly new, then pay-per-click is the most ideal way for you to reach as many people as possible because it can generate a lot of leads in as short a time as possible.
Google AdWords is one example of a PPC advertisement tool that many e-commerce businesses have used extensively. Other PPC tools also include Bing Ads, Display Networks, and Facebook. There are more tools that focus on PPC and they all have their strengths and weaknesses but these top 3 are the most popular tool when it comes to a paid advertisement.
It is true that there are many marketers who look down on PPC as an effective marketing tool but their aversion to this tool comes in the wake of other newer marketing strategies. They don’t realize that PPC has existed despite these new tools because it remains to be an effective way of generating leads whether it is towards websites or social media platforms.
Social media
Speaking of social media, this should not be counted out as another tool to increase online presence and lead generation among online businesses. What’s great about social media is it is very active. There are thousands of new users that sign up to the numerous social media platforms and the activity in each one is quite high.
If you are a business that wants to target the younger demographic, then you should think about increasing your business’ social media presence. With almost 2 billion users across different platforms, this is a space that is ripe with opportunities for lead generation and eventually conversions.
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are ranked as one of the highest user engagement compared to other platforms. Facebook is known for the number of comments that each post gets, while the photo/video sharing app of Instagram is known for its Instagram follower count that many users constantly pay attention to.
Through social media, businesses get an insight into how consumers behave, their purchasing history, as well as their interests. This type of data is especially crucial for brands and businesses to create targeted ads and campaigns.
Email marketing
Just because email is largely thought of as a relic of the early 2000s doesn’t mean it doesn’t have any value as we move deeper into the 21st century. Many people still pay close attention to the emails that they get every day. Many experts still consider email marketing as an effective way to generate leads, a lot more effective than an Instagram follower count.
Many reports have also indicated that email still has the power to influence a consumer’s purchasing behavior, especially in this age where users are bombarded with ads and information the moment they get online. It’s been reported that over 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase if they receive adequate information about the product or service. One way to disseminate information effectively is through email since a majority of people still check on their email every day.
This list only covers a small portion of an almost exhaustive list of tools for lead generation. There are certainly other ways that online businesses increase leads and conversion. The main takeaway here is that in order for a business to thrive in today’s internet age, it’s important that they make use of all available tools to increase not only leads but their online presence as well.
