A good lead is an individual who, ideally, is in your target audience and who shows interest in your product or service. In short, a quality lead someone is your chosen demographic that is interested in your product or service, has the budget to work with you, and is motivated to get started.
When you have higher-quality leads, you’ve got a better chance at closing them and that’s exactly what you need to grow your business. How many of you have been in the same boat as I have and dealt with prospects that you really shouldn’t have wasted time on. I’m not saying they are perfectly wonderful people, they just aren’t the right customers for you and when you spend time on leads that are never going to close, it’s usually because they were a good fit to begin with. A quality lead is a lead that is the best fit for your business.
What follows will be a guide to lead generation. More specifically, we’ll be sharing 5 easy yet effective ways you can start generating quality leads immediately.
By implementing and executing one, or all, of the following strategies, your business can finally begin to see success.
So, if you’re looking for a better way to grow your business, this article is for you! Here are five ways to generate quality leads!
Lead Generation is Critical
Generating leads no matter what size of business you have should be a top priority for your company. Fortunately, we’ve got you covered with some ideas you may not have thought of that you can implement pretty quickly.
If executed effectively, generating leads should become a fully automated system that
allows you to generate a consistent flow of leads and free up time to focus your efforts on other business operations.
Check out these 5 Ways to Generate Quality Leads
- Do a Marketing Promo Video with a Discount on Your Services
- Offer a Free Small Service in Exchange for a Testimonial
- Connect with those Who Have Relevant & Sizeable Email Lists
- Create a Simple Landing Page with an Opt-in That Leads to an Educational Video
- Create a Directory for Those who Share Your Demographic
Do a Marketing Promo Video with a Discount on Your Services
Marketing promo videos aren’t anything new, however, they have proven effective, especially in recent years due to the rise in video popularity. Simply producing and launching a marketing promo video, however, isn’t enough; you need something that will draw potential leads in and capture them in hopes of conversion. The most obvious and effective way to do this? Offer discounts on your service or coupon codes that are eligible for a designated period of time. After all, who doesn’t love free stuff, right? If you can’t offer a discount or freebie, you’ll need to come up with something creative that you can offer.
Once you’ve produced a captivating promotional video and you’ve decided on what offer, it’s now time to distribute it. As you can likely guess, distributing it across all social media channels, both organically and paid, is going to result in the greatest return on investment, because well, social media can reach nearly everyone on the planet!
Using well-devised calls-to-action within the copy and the video itself and encouraging viewers to take a specific action will result in more quality leads. The key is to make sure you get your video seen by the right people but that’s a lesson for another day.
You want to do all that you can to get the best possible results with your video. And with all the video templates sites out there, it’s easier than ever to create a compelling video. You can create a solid video that’s just 15-seconds long that can generate leads.
Offer a Free Small Service in Exchange for a Testimonial
Exchanging a free small service for a testimonial is a classic yet effective marketing strategy. The key here is to find someone whose testimonial will really work in your benefit. Do they have a large circle of influence or a recognizable name within your target audience? If so, reach out to them and see if they are interested. Another option is to reach out directly to a client you’d like to work with and offer a free service. If you knock their socks off, they may give you a testimonial and hire you for more services!
Do make sure you have well-defined terms on what your freebie will be. The last thing you want is for someone to take advantage of you. Unlimited revisions for instance should be off the table for freebies.
While you may think that exchanging free services for testimonials has the potential of being somewhat deceptive, it’s important to understand that it’s not an underhanded strategy but a commonly used marketing tactic used across industries. Not only is it allowed, but it’s encouraged! If you truly believe in what you offer, this shouldn’t be of any concern to you.
Promo Email in Exchange for a Commission or Free Service
As you’re likely starting to see, connecting with other relevant bodies, businesses, and brands who share similar demographics and who boast sizeable email lists can be a tremendous advantage, both for you and your collaborators. Similar to tip number two, you can also offer free services, commissions, and/or referral fees to relevant people or businesses to send out a promotional email to list. You just want to be sure that the list is made up of your target audience.
The same commission structure is used in working with social media influences who partner with brands; consider it a similar negotiation but with a business affiliate instead of an influencer. Although your affiliate partner may have substantial influence with their own list.
The key to generating quality leads is to first get in front of as many relevant eyes as possible, and second, provide an offer paired with an encouraging call-to-action that they can’t refuse.
Collaborating with similar businesses and brands through referral fees and commissions is a great way to get in front of prospects who already have an affinity for the messenger which gives you added credibility.
Landing Page with an Opt-in to an Educational Video
Another effective marketing strategy for generating leads and increasing conversion rates is the implementation of a landing page. If you’re not familiar with what a landing page is, it’s simply a singular static web page that only populates when an action is taken via a marketing promotion (i.e. video, email, social), online advertisement, or search result; It can be looked at as a direct extension of the promotion or advertisement themselves. The primary intention of a landing page is to, you guessed it, generate leads. How does a landing page work, you ask? Yet again, another great question…
Simply put, a landing page is a web page comprised of marketing copy and content that includes an opt-in which leads to some sort of value for the visitor; in this case, a 20-minute-or-less educational video that populates immediately, no sales pitch required! There are probably a number of things you could teach in 20-minutes that your prospects would find valuable enough to want to opt-in for. Once they give you their contact info, you can reach out to discuss possibilities. Hopefully, they’ve already digested your tutorial to see how knowledgeable you are. This will build that crucial first step in the know, like, and trust factor.
Landing pages have large amounts of proven data behind them that suggest their effectiveness at boosting click-through rates, conversion rates, lead generation, and sales. That is if the campaign is executed effectively. Once you’ve captured the lead and acquired them to your list, the sky is the limit as to how valuable they can be to your bottom line.
Create a Directory for Those who Share Your Demographic
Consider creating a directory for people who share your demographic. They get a listing for free, and you can build a referral partnership with them. Unfortunately, many businesses fail to identify relevant partnerships and when they do, they’re unsure how to begin the conversation. Here’s how it works…
Simply put, all that’s required is for you to create a web directory comprising business listings for those who share your demographic. Outreach to prospective businesses that fit the bill and offer to add them to your directory. Once contact has been made and the conversation surrounding partnerships has begun, you can strategically discuss lead generation and referrals in exchange for some type of value; just be sure to begin with the value part first!
Here’s a case scenario:
I was speaking with a college test prep company that said they got their best leads from college admissions consulting companies. But they only worked with one. I recommended they put a directory up on their website for that service then outreach to these companies and consultants to give them a free listing. That way they can start conversations on how to get referrals from them but offer them something of value first.
In short, some of the best leads, though somewhat manual compared to the rest of the tools and tactics discussed above, come from partnering with people and businesses that share your demographic. Ensure that both parties are benefiting from the relationship and you’re off to the races!
Don’t Leave Leads on the Table!
Every business relies on the generation of leads in one form or another. Failing to act on implementing strategies that will help generate leads will only result in missing out on your potential growth. Even by implementing one of the above strategies, your business will begin to grow in ways you never thought imaginable.
Remember, don’t leave leads on the table. If you’re already spread too thin, considering outsourcing to expert freelancers who can take some tasks off your plate so you can generate more leads. Download our free guide to find out how.
