Our society is not the same as it was 50 years ago, so why should your lead generation tactics be trailing behind time? It’s time to hang up the cold calls and trade out the trade shows. Here are five simple, time-efficient, and often overlooked ways for your company to create new leads.
5. Webinars: Webinars are a win-win both for your company and your consumer. The appeal for the consumer is obvious: getting hands-on, and oftentimes free, training without leaving the office. For your company, webinars are less time consuming than cold calling prospects and more effective than sending out mass email campaigns. The greatest appeal of a webinar, though, is that potential prospects are willing to part with their contact information, such as phone number and email address, just to sign up. Each piece of personal data is a potential new lead for your company. Watch your company’s revenue increase without leaving your office chair.
4. Videos/ YouTube: Who has the time to sit through a PowerPoint presentation or entertain a 15-minute phone conversation when the consumer is not yet sales-ready? Short videos that are posted to your company’s webpage, social media, and YouTube account can give your business a leg-up in an increasingly visual, commercialized world. In fact, videos are rapidly becoming a valuable resource for generating targeted leads, with a 55.8% increase in video spending among B2B marketers in 2013. Effective lead gen videos should be brief – about two minutes, as the golden rule, visually compelling (think graphics), and captivating (tell a story!)
3. Quora – Although you may not have heard of this website, this rapidly-expanding Q&A service might be your lead generation’s secret weapon. The way Quora works – like Yahoo Answers or the now defunct LinkedIn Q&A tool – is that users ask questions about any topic, from dish detergent to gluten-free food recommendations, and other users provide answers. You can capitalize on this trend by becoming an “expert” in categories relevant to your business by simply providing answers to posted questions. Write a comprehensive answer, sneak in your company’s blog link at some point in your response, and then sit back as companies and individuals are led directly to your site.
2. Twitter – You could write a 2,000 word white page about your company’s service — or you could condense that into 140 characters. That’s #leadgeneration on Twitter for you. By implementing strategies such as Promoted Tweets, which makes your tweets appear on targeted users’ feeds, and clear hashtags that make your company searchable, Twitter can be an invaluable (and time-efficient!) tool for your business. To gain more followers, make sure your tweets are a mixture of promotional and entertaining. And, take advantage of Twitter’s “Lead Generation Cards” – an advertising feature that allows your company to build email lists right on the social media site.
1. LinkedIn – The very website that you use to market your own professional abilities can be vital in your company’s lead generation campaign. The site actually drives 80.33% of all leads generated through social media, including Facebook and Twitter. Your company can utilize LinkedIn as a lead generation tool through both the site’s Group Discussions section and your company’s webpage. It's been shown that posts with question marks in their title that are accessed on weekdays around 2 p.m. are most likely to convert LinkedIn users to potential sales leads.