How to Generate High Quality Leads!
First of all, you may be asking yourself - what exactly is a lead? Is it an email address, a phone number, a contact address? In simple terms, a lead is an individual or organisation with an interest in what you are selling. So, as each business' product is different - a lead can come in many different forms. You dictate what defines a lead for your business.
Capturing the Correct Unique Identifiers
Let's bring it back to basics. Over the years, you've moved address multiple times - if today's rental economy is anything to go by! You've collected a fair amount of email addresses, from different work emails to using different personal email addresses (hopefully moving on from that embarrassing email address you made when you were 12 - and you've possibly had a few mobile numbers. So all of these would be seen as your unique identifiers i.e. how you could be contacted.
When it comes to digital & social media marketing, some of the main unique identifiers a business would be looking for are;
Mobile Phone Number
Email Address
First Name
Surname
Home address/City
Think about each of these and how unique each is to you and how many of each you may have.
Landing Page Lead Magnet VS Form Submission
What is the best way to capture leads? This varies for each business - depending on how qualified you want these leads to be and what you will do with the information submitted.
Are you trying to collect email addresses to add to your mailing list? Are you trying to gather leads from potential customers to sell a product to? Are you trying to get feedback on your current products and services? These are all questions you must ask yourself as you are designing your lead generation campaign.
What is a Landing Page Lead Magnet? This is where a custom landing page is created solely for the purpose of collecting leads - potential customers usually land here from browsing your website or by being served an ad.
What is a Form Submission? This is a form that your prospective customers would fill out on a social media platform after being served an ad. A very simple and effective way to collect leads - as you can choose exactly who you want to target.
Now the obvious question - which is better? And the honest answer - it depends. At each stage of any marketing campaign - your audience will reduce in size. So if someone has to click on a link to submit their details to you - you are likely to come across more link clicks than Lead Magnet submissions as the customers with less intent will decide to drop off. So it all comes down to how qualified you want your leads. Do you want lots and lots of email addresses to target on an email blast? Or would you prefer lower lead volume, but with an audience with a higher intent on interacting with and purchasing from your business? Each business' needs are unique so there is no definitive answer.
"Free" Products Offering
Notice how we put the word 'free' in quotation marks? Just think about that.
Often times when you are exploring the internet, you get a notification that a business is giving away their latest product for 'free' in a giveaway, or you are prompted to download the latest industry report for your business - but there's a catch. You must submit your contact details i.e., one of your unique identifiers.
Although this may appear great to you as you are getting a quality product for 'free' - the business has now collected your data as a lead and will use this in an upcoming marketing campaign.
As marketers, the most valuable asset we can gain is our customers' data - so we can make informed data-driven decisions on who our best audiences are. This information can then be relayed to our sales team who will then get in contact with our ideal customers and hopefully convert them to a paying and reoccurring customer!
Timing
Great! You've collected a few leads - but you're not sure when to contact them. Once again, this depends on each individual industry but, contacting someone within the first 24 hours from when they submitted their details is critical.
Creating an automation tool within your CRM could prove to be extremely beneficial - The Lead Management Study found that there is a 400% decrease in odds of qualifying leads when they are not contacted within the first 10 minutes. Simple automation such as "Thank you for expressing your interest with *Business Name*. One of our team will be in contact with you shortly" could prove the difference between securing a customer or losing them forever. Once this automation is sent, make sure to follow up on your promise to contact them - the sooner the better!
Are you struggling to generate consistent leads for your business? Or are your sales team complaining that their leads are of low quality? Let us know here, and we can turn those potential leads into converted customers!