Lead generation continues to be a top goal of every marketer. In today’s economic climate is increasing the business pressure to supply a steady stream of new customers. It’s ultimately what will drive a business, but marketing strategies often are not optimised for the best conversion rate.
Using digital media as a tool to promote businesses is a challenge mostly for small and medium sized firms. Even with an online presence, firms struggle to convert this into something which can help their business grow.
A report by UK Business Digital Index (produced by Lloyds Bank with Accenture) found that 38% of small businesses in the UK had no basic digital skills. Only 45% of those surveyed said they had created social media communities, 49% had no website and 66% invested nothing in digital skills.
Digital marketing can really boost business growth, it’s essential for businesses to have an online presence and develop a strategy to generate leads from this.
So what are the most effective tactics for lead generation? Ascend2’s survey results demonstrate some clear insights which validate our own client experience.
Email, web page and content marketing are the top 3, illustrating the importance of not only bringing traffic to your page through content but optimising your web or landing page for a high conversion rate not just for your product, but email as well.
So now we know the most effective online channels for lead generation, how do we optimise them?
Email outperforms all marketing channels when it comes to generating leads. The increase of email usage in 2016, with the average open rate at a record high of 21.3% (via Clicky) put the ‘email is dying’ debate to rest. This means for 2017 we’ll see email become more personalised, utilising the wealth of data from advanced analytics towards our consumer habits and preferences.
With email it’s important not to be afraid to sell, it’s a balancing act. You want to appear valuable and maintain your subscribers by offering free and useful content. The emails you send out should be a healthy mix to persuade your subscribers you’re still valuable and their subscription is worth it. Short, simple and shareable promotions and insights that address your audience’s areas of interest will perform best.
Website/Landing Pages
Your landing page needs to be easy to navigate with an attention grabbing call to action button. You should concisely address exactly what you do in benefit-driven copy while expression what it is you offer that’s special. Don’t overfill the page with visuals that will distract from the main copy, keep it simple.
Logically place your CTA, where people have read your main copy and are now persuaded and ready to take action.
Consider what keywords people have searched to reach your web or landing page and whether you’re targeting them effectively with your copy.
Optimise Your Content Marketing
B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than those who don’t, and 81% of businesses have reported their blogs as “useful” or “critical” to B2B lead generation. (via Marketo)
Infographics
We know, infographics may have got some bad press as captured in Business Insider,
“Infographics are what happens when you take the worst of PowerPoint and the worst of Excel and throw it into Photoshop.”
But they’re easy to digest and result in shares which lead those all important backlinks. A well designed infographic with bold new facts will attract gain interest and can often be converted into meme’s for use in social media.
Utilise Market Resources for SEO
As with the nature of digital marketing, google and your competitors produce an abundance of valuable information you can utilise. use keyword analysis to direct you towards what’s trending and help you spot gaps where you can cover a subject from a different angle, or in a different form of media. If you recognise a topic as popular, but it’s primarily covered through blog posts, why not represent it visually?
Use Linkedin For B2B
Linkedin is a highly effective social media for lead generation, especially for B2B marketing. Build up your contacts, post Pulse articles and join relevant groups to push your visibility and profile to front of mind. Ensure your page is simple and states your target audience, value proposition and service you provide. Publish valuable content regularly to gain more exposure.
The stats, % of social media leads coming from each platform:
- LinkedIn – 80.33%
- Twitter – 12.73%
- Facebook – 6.73%
- Google+ – 0.21%
Via (Oktopost)
Can You Generate More Leads In 2017?
The answer is undoubtedly yes. If you create an integrated marketing approach that brings together strong tailored content that targets specific audiences, optimises insights and data in your presence online and utilises the right mix of media.
To learn more about how tweak can help you build a successful Integrated marketing strategy, give us a call for a free audit and advisory session.
