There’s an expression in sales that makes for a great opening sentence: ‘Make sure your pipeline never runs dry.’ No, the expression isn’t talking about an actual pipeline, but rather it refers to generating leads.
As a businessperson, if you want to make sure the lights always stay on, you need to have a steady stream of new leads you can pitch to! The fact of the matter is that every business needs sales to survive and making sure you have new leads is how you make more sales! Are you picking up what I’m putting out there? Good. Read on to learn tips on creating a successful lead generation strategy.
Identify Your Target Customer
One question: if you can’t identify who your target customer is, how can you possibly market to them? Yeah, you need to identify your target customer.
Content is King
When it comes to having a powerful online presence, all law and order follows this one rule: content is king. If your business has creative, unique, and informative content, I promise you that you will have a steady stream of new leads.
This concept should directly apply to your social media strategy as well. I want you to spend time researching your competition and find out who has the largest and most engaged social media presence. Once you find out, you need to ask yourself what are they doing that is getting the people so excited? Chances are, they have great content on their social media page and you should probably follow their lead before they take your customers.
Have Helpful Content
If you aren’t helping people, what use are you? A great way to generate leads is to provide content that is helpful. You want to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry so people will turn to your company as their go-to resource. This makes selling a whole lot easier than cold calling uninterested clients.
Offer an Opt In
The best way to build leads is to have visitors of your website opt in and give you their email address. How is this done? Typically, businesses will tempt visitors with offers of access to their daily newsletter or promises of sending you an eBook for giving them your email.Of course, your content must first be good enough to have people WANT to come back.
I recommend asking your visitors for their email address after you have given them a bit of value. If they like your content, your chances are good that they will gladly send you their email address.