While it’s certainly true that some of your leads will be generated by word of mouth and referral source connections, that doesn’t mean your lead generation strategies should only be a passive effort.
As a professional, you understand that investing a bit of effort behind a worthwhile initiative can help it gain momentum. The same can be said for lead generation.
There are three basic strategies you can use to increase lead generation:
1. Amplify Your Content
Your website, blog, email campaigns and social media marketing all work together to feed lead-generating content to your clients, prospects and referral sources. These access points help interested onlookers find your business and give “tire-kickers” an idea of the benefits they’ll get when they connect with your business.
Take the following steps to move prospects from cold to qualified:
- Provide relevant and engaging content that connects with your target markets
- Amplify your content through multiple access points, such as your blog, website, email messaging, social media and other online channels
- Include calls to action in your messaging
- Maintain consistent communications to create repetitive touch-points
- Experiment with a fresh approach as needed – be willing to try something new
The key to successful nurturing is to consistently position your content in front of your onlookers.
2. Keep Your Eyes On Your Metrics
Without the reporting and metrics tools behind your efforts, you’ll never know who is responding to your marketing. You’ll also miss out on determining which content is garnering the most interest. Metrics and reporting pull double-duty by helping you connect with nurtured clients and prospects while also giving you a feel for what’s resonating with your audience.
3. Pursue Your Prospects
Frame out a system for maintaining consistent communications, and include clear calls to action in your messages. Your efforts truly begin building momentum when you tap into the results generated by your marketing and proactively follow up on your warm leads.
Identify your rainmakers, offer incentives based on achievement and build a system of lead follow-up accountability into your strategies.
Using the example of an email campaign, your marketing and lead generation workflow could resemble a plan following these basic steps:
- Gather contact information for your clients, prospects and referral sources and create a marketing list
- Create email messages with informative, timely information that will be of use to your target markets
- Launch your message and monitor readers clicking on content that has a direct tie-in to your service offerings
- If possible, set alerts on such content to inform your rainmakers as new leads come in
- Follow up via phone or email to contact your warm leads and begin a conversation that may segue into a new opportunity for your firm
Granted, these are simplified tips, and there is some work involved in launching and maintaining strategies that consistently generate warm leads. However, today’s professional marketing options are endless. It is often possible to outsource a number of the steps along your prospect’s journey.
Consider which steps your firm would like to maintain in-house, and which would be more efficiently handled by a third-party resource. With a little push behind your marketing and lead generation initiatives, you’ll be scaring up more new opportunities in no time.
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