By now, you’re probably aware that lead generation is a crucial part of any business strategy. But with so much conflicting information available, it can be difficult to know just where to start.

Here’s how you can get started with lead generation:

Know Your Leads
The first step is to have a thorough understanding of exactly who your potential customers are. Everyone on your team should share this understanding, and every part of your lead generation strategy should be tailored specifically to the needs and wants of your potential leads.

This part of the process may be surprising- especially if you create a survey or speak directly to your current customers. Don’t be surprised if your demographic is much different than you had imagined or you gain unexpected insights into who your customers are.

Use Content Marketing
Content marketing is a large part of lead generation. Your goal is to find people who haven’t yet heard of your company (and may not even realise they have a specific problem that needs to be solved) and introduce your brand. From there, you’ll begin to convince those people that your product or service is the best option for their needs.

Content marketing is an excellent way to do this. Your goal is to be a valuable resource for these people and educate them about what your product does and how it can solve their problems. Consider how your potential leads will interact with you online. This could be through your website, social media, or mobile app. Then, decide which types of content you can create for each channel.

Prioritise SEO
SEO and content marketing go hand-in-hand, and if you haven’t yet created an SEO strategy, it’s a good idea to get this started early on in your lead generation process.

Your goal with SEO is to increase how many people find your website organically- through the search engines. You’ll do this by choosing the right keywords which will tick two main boxes: Your potential leads are searching with them, and you have a chance of ranking with them. There are now so many websites online that you’ll find you may struggle to rank for basic keywords. Instead, you’ll often have a lot of success if you focus on long-tail keywords.

Social Media
Every business needs to have a social media presence in 2018. But it’s not enough to just have a Facebook or Twitter account that you update once a week. Social media can be a great way to create leads, but can also be used to connect with potential customers, attract reviews, and answer questions from current customers.

Of course, you won’t need to be active on every channel. You’ll need to pick the channels where your potential leads are most likely to hang out. If you’re marketing to millennials or generation Z, this might be Snapchat, while B2B businesses do well on both Facebook and LinkedIn.

Collect Email Addresses
Email marketing should always be a priority when it comes to lead generation. While email has been around for a lot longer than most popular marketing channels, it still continues to outperform newer channels like social media.

These days, most people are wary of giving out their email address. We all get enough spam as it is. That’s why you need to convince people to hand over their information in exchange for something they want. This could be a whitepaper, ebook, e-course, product trial, or anything else that will attract their attention.

Once you have a list of email addresses, you can connect with potential customers. Keep it useful and lighthearted, and avoid constantly sending similar emails with no real benefit- otherwise, people will begin unsubscribing.

As you can see, there are many things to consider when you’re getting started with lead generation, and these are just a few of the main points. If you’d like us to help kickstart your lead generation strategy, get in touch today.