Online Lead Generation – Tips You Need for Success
Online lead generation is tricky, so I’m sharing the trifecta that will make your efforts more effective and get you more qualified leads!
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TIP: How to get more qualified leads with Online Lead Generation [Infographic Download]
Episode Overview – Online Leads Generation
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Blog Post: Online Lead Generation – Tips You Need for Success
TIP: How to get more qualified leads with Online Lead Generation
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TIP: Tips to Improve Your Online Lead Generation Efforts with this Powerful Trifecta:
- Organic
Attract the right prospects with good quality info.
Types of organic content – SEO optimized website, a blog, infographics, white papers and advertorial - Social
Have a social presence where needed and use it to build your tribe.
Ways to use social presence: for exposure, short videos, stories, limited links, groups, rooms, community building, direct messaging, bio links - Paid
Increase your reach and speed your efforts by supporting with paid ads.
Types of Paid Ads: Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, TikTok and more – retarget prospects that have engaged with your organic and social content - Then Follow These Steps to Further Optimize Your Efforts
- Lead Magnets
Have different ways to capture the contact info of your prospects turning them into leads
a) Types of juicy lead magnets: ebook or white paper with opt in, webinar, infographic, giveaway, mini course, virtual event or summit, survey or assessment, contest, templates, checklists, tools, resources, product trial - Nurture
Have a nurture system in place to automatically follow up with new leads and existing customers
a) Types of nurture follow up: email series, text messaging, outbound calls, survey, gamification, physical mail or boxes - Tracking
Track your progress and results to know what is working and what isn’t
a) Track your efforts with platform analytics, UTM links, Google Analytics, Google Trends, Ads reports, opt-in conversion rates, calls booked, webinar registrations, etc., top visited pages, lead scoringInclude a personal note
What’s In This Episode
Let’s talk online lead generation tips. My biggest tip? You’re probably wasting a ton of time and money on your marketing efforts. The good news? I’m going to share with you the benefits of both outbound and inbound marketing and the trifecta that will make everything you do more effective and get you more qualified leads.
Jenn Neal on online lead generation
Online Lead Generation – Tips You Need for Success
Marketing is underrated. There, I said it. Marketing is entirely underrated. I get it, online lead generation is tricky, but it’s definitely something that can be done. However, most businesses discredit marketing strategies.
Picture yourself working for a big corporate company (or maybe you already do.) What happens when a business is not doing great? They start making cuts. And can you guess which department gets cut first? It’s almost always marketing. Don’t believe me? I experienced it firsthand – actually, more than once! About six times if we’re being specific. Whenever a company I worked for wasn’t doing well, I would get laid off.
Let’s be honest, what’s the main reason companies don’t do well? It’s not because you need to lay off your marketing team, that’s for sure. A lack of income comes from a lack of customers resulting from a lack of leads. And to gain more leads, you’ll need a good marketing team.
Being Logical
If we are utterly logical about this situation, do you think getting the whole marketing department laid off is the answer to the problem? I don’t. But I believe there is an area of opportunity and a need to change the strategy the team might have.
So what is it that companies are doing wrong? Instead of focusing on lead generation, or even online lead generation, many companies are focusing on outbound lead generation. They’re having their sales team focused on making phone calls. If I say so myself, this isn’t a very effective method.
Outbound Marketing vs. Inbound Marketing
If you don’t know what inbound and outbound are yet, don’t worry! It’s super easy to tell them apart.
Outbound marketing refers to a company reaching out for leads. This means that the company starts the conversation and contacts or actively pursues the lead. Examples of outbound would be cold-calling, email spam, billboards, sponsorship, presentations, and advertising through TV, radio, or in-person contact.
Inbound marketing is a method by which you attract customers to you. Things like a blog, infographic, whitepaper, ebook, webinar, podcast, video series, and SEO can attract potential customers. (If you notice, most of these can be examples of online lead generation!) When potential customers see your content, they’ll clearly understand who you are and how you can solve their problems. For instance, they can find you on Google after a search. They see you and want to interact with your content, service, or products. (Check out this awesome article I came across for a beginner’s guide to inbound marketing.)
Both types of marketing are similar in their purpose. They both help you generate leads, create demand for your products or services, and give you a return on investment. However, they have several differences.
Differences between Outbound and Inbound Marketing
Okay, I love nerding out, so let’s talk stats:
- Inbound practice produces 54% more leads than traditional outbound practice
- Inbound marketers double the average site conversion rate from 6% to 12%
- Inbound marketing costs 60% (on average) less than outbound marketing.
While many big companies think they’re saving money by letting their marketing team go, they’re not exactly right. Although they don’t have employee expenses, their sales team focuses on a marketing strategy costing them about 60% more than inbound marketing would cost.
So, let’s look at some differences between outbound and inbound marketing.
Time
Effective marketing campaigns have excellent content, which requires a lot of time. Usually, your clients are already familiar with your product. This is also known as hot traffic. With outbound marketing, you’re the one searching for potential leads. While this method feels faster, you’ll find it’s time-consuming, and clients might be uninterested, unprepared, or unfamiliar with you and your products. Ultimately, with outbound marketing, you’re targeting cold traffic, leading to fewer conversions.
Control
When you approach potential leads (outbound), you control them and the quality of the clients you wish to have. With inbound leads, clients come to you, so you don’t have much control over who comes in.
Quality
Usually, inbound leads are more compromised leads. It’s warm traffic coming in. They already saw your offers and know a bit about you, but they want to know more. Inbound leads choose to engage with you, which means they trust you and understand your quality. With outbound, you still need to convince them. They’re cold traffic and much harder to convert.’
Targeting
Outbound strategies require you to be more specific about your targeting. You must research and identify the people you want to target to get better results. Inbound marketing doesn’t require you to be as specific. You rely on a general avatar to attract certain types of clients. As you work through and see the leads that are being attracted, you can tweak your message to attract people who would better benefit from your service.
Online Lead Generation
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying outbound marketing is not a good strategy. However, I am saying that it isn’t the best strategy. It’s better utilized as an excellent complement to inbound marketing. While some leads might not convert for outbound, they can become cold traffic. Once they’re aware of your product or service, they’ll start to engage with your content and relate more to you. As they discover more about you, they’re likely to turn into warm traffic and can eventually convert once they trust you and understand you have the solution to their problem.
While we all have our own strategies, we can all agree that online lead generation is becoming a huge part of our world. And I’ve realized that we were taught marketing all wrong. That’s why I created the Content Activation Method. It’s the perfect equation for creating and repurposing your content to attract the right people to you (aka online lead generation!) Want to know how to do it? Check out our new course – Content Connection Academy! It’s bright and shiny and brand new! You’re going to love it!
Related Posts
Lead Generation: A Beginner’s Guide to Generating Business Leads the Inbound Way
How to Generate Leads: 40 Effective Tips for Lead Generation [Infographic]
HOW TO GENERATE LEADS FOR YOUR BUSINESS – LEAD GENERATION STRATEGIES, TIPS AND TRICKS
The Four Types of Content Best for Social Media Marketing
What do you prefer to use as your marketing strategy – Inbound marketing or outbound marketing?
