Your digital marketing strategy is a jigsaw with many moving parts, but one of the most significant is creating a well-oiled lead generation machine. Without inbound traffic to convert, your business ceases to make any money, and thereby ceases to exist. Whether your strategy is generating traffic, converting visitors to leads, or converting leads to customers, it is a great idea to have multiple routes your customers can follow, all reflecting a well-rounded user experience.
There are so many facets to a successful lead generation strategy. So let’s first have a look at some of the basics, and then explore some extra little tips you can utilise to maximise your lead generation potential.
The Basics
The most simple thing that will produce the best results, is creating content. Creating a host of content will boost your SEO, your trust, your credibility, generate reviews and referrals, and build an audience. Establishing yourself as an expert with a wide array of knowledge is a key way to garner leads.
When you create content you primarily boost your site’s SEO, which will revitalise your organic traffic and search engine rankings. Refresh the information on any landing pages, blogs, or training resources on your site, optimising specific short and long keywords, title text, alt text, inter-linking etc. Your on-page SEO changes will improve your google rankings and generate organic traffic instantly!
Email marketing is one of the most undervalued lead generation strategies. Your contact list is yours to own, so make sure you utilise it fully. You can personalise email templates, and target specific demographics, locations, ages etc. Email marketing may seem unglamorous, but write it off at your peril.
One final basic lead generation tactic is leveraging social media and paid ads. Social media is a powerful tool for sharing content and interacting with your audience, providing a one-to-one platform for an improved user experience. Paid advertising is a very traditional way to secure leads, just make sure your content is crafted specifically for the demographic you’re targeting, and that you’ve got a hook to draw people in!
These strategies make up the main pillars of your lead generation strategy, so let’s have a look at some more in-depth ideas.
SEO and voice search
Everyone knows that SEO is a fundamental part of your digital search strategy. Optimising your content for Google is not new, and it is massively important. However, with the rising number of smart speakers in people’s homes, it could be an idea to optimise some of your keywords for Siri & Alexa.
Our search queries when we speak are somewhat different to how we type. We obviously speak a bit more ‘conversationally’, or should definitely try too, so our queries make a lot more grammatical sense. Whilst previously we might have just searched ‘Weather London’, we might now be searching ‘What is the weather like in London’. Optimising your content for voice search alongside your regular typeface SEO is a great idea to try and target an extra search channel. One that most businesses won’t be targeting in their lead generation strategy.
Image Search
You also have an option on Google to search with images instead of text, so for businesses in retail and e-commerce there are huge opportunities for instant traffic. You have the opportunity to capitalise on customers snapping pictures out and about, instantly searching for a product. Optimise your alt text, and alternative attribute keywords on any images on your site, helping customers to find you for that quick sale!
Mobile App Ads
Another lead generation strategy could be to try to target specifically mobile customers. It’s not just about making your content optimised for mobile, but making your products and services appeal to them too. Taking advantage of app based advertising is an option. About 85% of the time we spend on our phone is spent in an app, so services like Google AdMob are great for targeting mobile customers only.
Location specific campaigns are very accurate on mobile, so targeting users within a certain geographical distance from you is a great option. You can open up an extra lead generation search channel compared to the google adwords/PPC campaign on desktop search engines.
Video Marketing
The way we consume content is evolving. People now generally prefer to watch, rather than read, so producing video content is sort of a must. About 90% of consumers say that videos influence their buying decision, so there really is a need for video content nowadays.
Videos are SEO gold for starters, so that’s already a reason to be using video marketing. How-to guides, video testimonials, filming events, or just silly snippets are a great way to start! They build trust, credibility, encourage social shares, and will help to generate leads too.
You should try producing different lengths of video content. Short snap videos of 10-30 seconds are easy to digest, contain key information, and will satisfy everyone’s goldfish like attention span. Longer videos are great to go in depth into topics and provide real context to your brand and strategy. Having a real variety of video content will massively improve your lead generation results.
Influencer Marketing
Social media is full of influential people. It would be very easy to just pick someone who has a big audience, throw some money at them to get some traffic, and get some mediocre results. The most important find in any influencer marketing strategy though, is that you align your business with an influencer who matches your brand’s personality and position.
They might be an industry expert as opposed to a celebrity endorsement, but you can align your beliefs and create much more meaningful content together. Finding someone who can speak to your target audience, and has their trust and engagement, will generate more relevant leads for your business.
Final Thoughts
There are so many channels you can utilise to develop a brilliant lead generation strategy. Optimising the basics of your SEO, and creating varied and consistent content are really the most significant steps you can take to develop organic traffic. Once you’ve established the basics you can then explore video or influencer marketing, slightly more customised SEO targeting, or mobile advertising.
It is crucial to open multiple channels, streamlining your lead generation tactics for the best results. Make sure that your customer journey is efficient, and that your content, whatever or wherever it may be, demonstrates the same brand personality across the board. And finally, it’s important to note that consumer behaviour is constantly changing, so keep an eye out for any developing market trends to ensure that you’re ahead of the game when it comes to lead generation.
If you would like to find out more about your digital marketing strategy, contact our team here!
