How To Take Your Next-Level Lead Generation Strategy

Regardless of the industry you are in, you need a solid sales and marketing strategy to succeed. However, the world has become more competitive than ever, and companies from all around the world are targeting the same customer base.

To get an edge over the others in your industry, a lead generation strategy that takes into account modern tactics and technologies is essential. Otherwise, you find yourself working harder, spending more money, and generating fewer leads as time goes on.

In this article, we will discuss various ways to optimize your lead generation process, including emerging technologies, proven sales tips, and more. Let’s get started:

Chatbots

The manual process of handling customer inquiries and leads can still work, but it is extremely time-consuming and costly. That’s not to mention that companies implementing chatbots can increase their close rates by 59%. This alone makes it worth it to create a chatbot for your company.

A chatbot can emulate the experience of speaking with a live representative. The difference is that the bot will be more consistent, as it only does what you program it to do. It can answer common questions that would otherwise clog up your sales team as well as guide prospects to the right place to finish the sale.

Personalized Sales Process

People already have an issue trusting salespeople. You only make matters worse when you attempt to convert a lead that is not a great fit for your company’s offering.

To counteract this, you can leverage technology to ensure that your lead generation is more customized to the right customers.

For instance, you can create online qualification questions that ask customers what they are looking for when they are looking to purchase it, and other preferences they have. If they pass this “test”, the software can pass these leads on to your sales team to finish the job and bring in new revenue.

Lead Magnets and Low-Cost Products

If you aren’t using some kind of “temptation” to bring new leads in, you are leaving money on the table. Often, it makes sense to offer free or low-cost products upfront. This decreases the friction for a prospect to take any action that leads them to purchase your primary product later on.

As an example, a B2B software company that offers payment processing can offer a downloadable PDF with “7 Things You Need to Know About Payment Processing.” The value you are offering is information.

The right prospects will find value in this lead magnet and come to trust your expertise, potentially turning into a customer later on.

Welcome Sequences

Let’s imagine that you effectively bring a prospect into the top part of your marketing funnel. The reality is that your job is not done yet. You still need to get them to like, know, and trust your company.

One way you can make an excellent impression on leads is to create a powerful welcome sequence.

This is an email sequence that lays out what your company is about, welcomes the lead onboard to your customer experience, and provides value upfront. It should also communicate your brand’s personality in a way that sets you apart from the rest. Modern email technologies allow you to automate these sequences easily.

Product Warmup Email Series

Another way to leverage email technology is to create an automated email sequence that builds up to a pitch of your product. Once you create this sequence, it can run forever with little to no maintenance or time required.

Modern email marketing software even allows you to select when the emails go out and to whom. For instance, customers who take certain actions like purchasing, downloading a lead magnet, or responding to previous emails can take higher priority, so you are only focusing on the hottest leads.

Forums and Online Communities

In the past, if you wanted to see what your customers were talking about and interact with them, you needed to travel great distances or wait for them to come to you. Now, you can find exactly where your target market is congregating and create engagement with potential leads.

Facebook, Instagram, and industry-specific websites are excellent places to start. You can get a firsthand view of the language they use or the needs they express and even answer questions to build your authority and increase your lead generation rates.

Use Your CRM Data

Too many companies underestimate the power of a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) database. You can keep track of your leads, increase the communication speed between various departments about leads, and use the data to make smarter decisions.

For instance, you may discover that customers with certain job titles, incomes, or geographical locations are more likely to convert into a sale. From this information, your sales team can more efficiently engage with the right leads that will lead your company to success.

Harness the Power of Keyword Research

Understanding what your market is searching for and targeting them directly is one of the greatest technological breakthroughs in modern marketing. Google’s Keyword Tool, for instance, allows you to see estimated search volume for virtually any term you can think of.

By spending time on keyword research, you can craft lead generation campaigns that appeal directly to the issues on your customers’ minds.

You can even discover new sales angles that you would never have known about without it. This means you can reach your market organically (for free) or at a lower cost with paid advertising.

Optimize Your Landing Page

Your landing page is your welcome mat to your potential customers. To take these leads and nurture them properly, your landing page needs to be optimized.

Firstly, you should use image compression software to ensure your design assets are not causing your page to load slowly and turn away leads.

Secondly, you can use A/B testing software to see which headlines, sales copy, and CTAs are most effective. These resources are often affordable or even free and greatly increase your ability to generate leads.

AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Emerging Technologies

AI, ML, and smart analytics are some of the most important technologies to emerge from the 4th industrial revolution, driving greater automation, smarter insights, and, consequently, more efficiency into every business process imaginable.

If you’re building a business for the digital age, you are most likely using some AI-based tools already.

AI can be beneficial for analyzing advanced data sets of your market. You can predict consumer behavior and create a marketing message that appeals to this segment of the market.

For instance, AI can do the work of advanced lead scoring. This uses historical data to gauge whether certain customers are worth pursuing based on previously successful generated leads. That way, you are putting your resources into the core group of prospects most likely to convert into a sale.

Wrap Up

You can have the best product or service in the world. But if no one knows about it and you don’t funnel leads the proper way, it doesn’t matter. For your business to grow, you need to earn new leads in the most efficient way possible consistently.

This is easier said than done, of course. Therefore, use the advanced technologies and marketing strategies in the article above. That way, you can bring in new leads and close deals while staying within your budget.