Kevin Payne — October 30, 2019 Lead generation continues to challenge marketers
65% of businesses consider generating traffic and leads as their biggest challenge. (Image Source: Venture Harbour)
Between the introduction of the digital space and advancing technologies, one would think marketers all over the world would have no problem generating more leads for their businesses.
This is, however, far from the actual case. As the playing field has shifted, so has lead generation become more challenging for marketing departments around the world.
For one thing, consumers’ habits have changed drastically. Marketers now have to deal with multiscreening – or the way a consumer will rapidly switch their attention from one device to another.
This makes it difficult to even catch prospects’ attention, much less entice them to sign up as leads.
And then there are the varying opinions and points of view on just about every lead generation tactic out there. Which strategies should marketers actually believe?
Cost-effective lead generation strategies
When in doubt, don’t settle and resort to spending all your money in a blanket marketing campaign.
Effectively reach the right leads with as little an investment as possible, making the most of your marketing budget.
Read on for 7 must-try strategies that are cost-effective and will provide the best ROI for your lead generation campaigns.
1 Review your buyer persona
One of the best ways to make the most of your lead generation campaigns is ensuring that you’re targeting the right leads from the get-go.
After all, you don’t want to be churning out dollar after dollar in your campaign, only to get a handful of low quality conversions.
In fact, according to MarketingSherpa, almost 80% of new leads may never convert to sales.
This number can be much higher for your business, especially if you aren’t attracting the right leads in the first place.
To avoid this mistake, take a good look at your buyer persona.
Once you’ve put in the work to really understanding your buyer and all the different factors that may affect their decision-making, you will be able to create better campaigns and attract hot leads right away.
If you haven’t created a buyer persona yet or are in the process of reviewing yours, take care to be very clear about who your buyer is.
Make sure your buyer persona tells you your buyers’ goals, their frustrations in meeting those goals, as well as anything else that might affect their purchasing decisions, such as having to consult with a company VP or any possible fears or objections.
Example of a clear buyer persona (Image Source: Lemlist)
2 Create co-marketing campaigns
Everyone is out there trying to grow their audience and impact.
So creating meaningful partnerships with related players in your niche can provide a synergistic effect for both you and your chosen partners.
Co-marketing campaigns may include techniques like curating content, running local targeted events, guest blogging or training, and even backlink exchanges.
To create your own high-quality co-marketing campaign, identify strong players with whom you can create a mutually beneficial partnership.
Do your research to find the best players whose audiences you’d like to tap.
Decide on what kind of co-marketing campaign you’d like to implement, then define specific roles and expectations from each party.
The most important step is to really do your research to find the best players whose audiences you’d like to tap.
Once you do that, brainstorm beforehand for possible partnership ideas before you actually reach out to prospects.
3 Maximize LinkedIn
If Facebook is the social network for just anybody to share personal stories and insights, then LinkedIn is the professional’s Facebook.
As a business, LinkedIn is ripe with leads who may benefit from your solutions.
Create a comprehensive profile complete with relevant keywords to help your leads find you.
LinkedIn’s search algorithm is similar to Google’s, so keywords optimization plays a big role in getting discovered organically.
For more complete tips on maximizing your LinkedIn account to generate sales leads, read up on them here.
LinkedIn’s Sponsored InMail feature also allows for reaching leads straight in their inbox. (Image Source: Strategic Internet Consulting)
4 Use paid ads to tap into search marketing
Pay-per-click (PPC) ads can be a quick way to generate quality leads because you’re already appearing when the lead is warm – meaning, they’ve already made a search online and are looking for your solution.
Take a manager looking for a project management software for remote teams. They could enter “project management tool” on Google and then see paid ads for certain software.
Say the top paid ad result’s title was exactly The Project Management Tool for Remote Teams.
Could you count that that manager will be clicking through to check out this solution?
Most likely yes.
Doing PPC campaigns are also cost-effective in the long-run because you only pay for the amount of clicks you get from your ads.
This means no more shelling out thousands of dollars in advance and crossing your fingers that you get the reach and conversations you want.
You can always try to navigate the world of PPC marketing on your own.
To avoid eating up too much time and resources, outsource the task to experienced marketers. As these experts can make sure your search marketing campaigns are crafted for conversions from the very beginning.
5 Optimize your email signature
If cold emails are part of your outreach strategies, then optimizing your email signatures is a lead generation step you should not skip.
Include relevant details and links in your signature, but be careful not to overdo it.
When in doubt, stick to a short benefit people get from your business as well as all the ways they can get in touch.
Link to a relevant opt-in or landing page, or even make an offer that directs readers to more details.
Be sure to add a human touch by including you or your sales team’s names and photos too.
Example of an optimized email signature for generating leads
6 Make your lead magnet extremely irresistible
To make sure a lead doesn’t leave your site without opting in, offer them a free incentive that can quickly solve one of their pain points.
Be it a checklist, a white-paper, or a PDF walkthrough, there are a variety of lead magnets you can offer to your audience.
Pro-tip: This is where your buyer persona comes in handy.
Review their pain points to reaching their goals and think of offering an incentive that gives them a quick, actionable win.
As an added way to make your lead magnet look too good to pass up, include mockup images of your offer so your leads can visualize exactly what they’ll get from you.
To help you create the best lead magnet, read through these top tips to turn any lead magnet offer irresistible for your website visitors.
7 Tap into your personal network (and your employees)
A study by Nielsen has shown that 90% of consumers trust product recommendations from people they know.
This means leads could be sitting right in your own network or that of your employees.
How employee advocacy campaigns benefit a business. (Image Source: Tribal Impact)
When planning out lead generation campaigns, include employees in every corner of the company.
Encourage them to share lead magnets and offers – findings from Smarp show that employee advocacy can generate up to 450% return on investment.
For a successful employee advocacy campaign, set clear goals and benchmarks for employees to follow.
Provide all relevant tools and materials to make the sharing process as seamless as possible. To encourage employee participation, consider putting up an internal incentive program.
Key takeaways
Generating quality leads doesn’t have to be an uphill battle involving a lot of time and resources.
Implement just a few of these different cost-efficient strategies outlined above and you can be well on your way to getting those first 100 qualified leads in 90 days or less.
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