Learning About Lead Generation

Sep 17, 2021

You know the feeling: You’re in the middle of something important and all of a sudden your phone rings. The screen reads “possible spam” and you send it straight to voicemail, trying not to be too annoyed. With lead generation, you can get your customers’ attention without being that business that’s always spam-calling.

Defining Your Leads

Simply put, a lead is anyone who, at any point, shows any interest in your business. Generally, leads engage with a business after an initial point of contact (think: email marketing or website discount codes) and not as a result of a cold call or cold contact. You can think of leads as the buying cycle a website visitor takes to become a paying customer.

Paid Versus Organic

It’s much easier to make that transition from visitor to customer when the initial interest in your business is organic and much cheaper. That said, there are some instances where it makes sense to pay for lead generation. New businesses that need to build a reputation before even thinking about growing a social media audience can get a real boost from pay-per-click (PPC) or paid search ads to start traffic flowing to newly-built websites.

Once you’ve garnered an audience through inbound channels like your blog, social media channels, and keyword-optimized content, the lead generation process can begin to send customers down the appropriate funnels. 

The Lead Generation Process

It’s easy to understand why lead generation works so well by breaking it down into four steps.

  1. Visitors discover your business through the inbound channels mentioned above. 
  2. They then act on a call to action (CTA) that encourages them to take the next step.
  3. The CTA redirects to another website page to capture the lead’s information.
  4. Leads then fill out forms to submit in exchange for a special offer.

Once you’ve assembled the pieces,  you can put them all together to create a template of sorts for your content marketing and SEO work. 

Which Lead Gen Methods Work?

If you get creative with your marketing partner, you’ll find a long list of channels to leverage to generate leads. We’ve discussed some of the most common:

Content

This is the text and graphics that sit on your website landing pages that speak to your customers’ pain points. Use that content to entice landing page visitors to click the corresponding call to action, which they’re more likely to do when your content is created to delight and engage.

Blogs

Also considered website content, blogs are a great piece of real estate for building a lead-generating machine. Blog posts can be tailored to your lead generation campaign goals and include a unique call-to-action based on the blog topic. This content is ideal for businesses that offer seasonal products or services.

Social Media

If this seems like the most obvious choice of channels for lead generation efforts, that’s because it is. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are built on engagement, meaning calls to action are baked into the user experience. This is excellent news for businesses and brands looking to build organic interest and drive organic website traffic and conversions.

Take a Comprehensive Approach

There’s no question that the right lead generation strategy can offer your business a windfall of revenue, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy for owners to tackle on their own. It’s also worth pointing out that lead generation doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it’s just one element in an overall marketing plan. 

Our approach to lead generation is different. Because we “Do It For You” with comprehensive marketing services for a set monthly fee.  All of our programs include fundamentals like building or redesigning a new website. Most importantly, we also nurture and maintain your site for you with ongoing new content, technical updates, security, and SEO best practices to continuously improve your search results.

We also link your site to the rest of the top online platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and we nurture those accounts with a steady stream of original content.

Whether you just want to look professional to prospective customers or employees who are “kicking your tires” or if you also want to gain a steady stream of new leads and phone calls generated from Google searches that lead to your website, we can help. Contact us today to get started!

The post Learning About Lead Generation appeared first on Cole Dalton.

Forecasting the Next Ten Years of Marketing

10 Apr, 2024
Marketing is gearing up for significant changes as we enter the new decade. With new technologies, shifts in buyer behavior, and changes in consumption culture, the way businesses reach out to customers will look very different in the coming years. While we can't say what marketing will look like in 10 years, we can examine emerging trends and strategies to forecast its future. Here are some predictions experts are suggesting could take shape moving forward. Increasing Personalized Advertising Personalized marketing should undergo even more profound transformations in the coming decade, leveraging advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and data analytics to forge deeper customer connections. With the ability to glean insights from vast amounts of data, companies will craft highly tailored ads and messages that resonate with individual preferences and behaviors, fostering stronger brand-consumer relationships. From dynamic content customization to predictive marketing algorithms, the era of hyper-personalization will redefine how businesses engage with their target audiences on a one-to-one level. Advanced Device Communication The proliferation of voice-enabled devices and virtual assistants heralds a new era in consumer engagement, requiring marketers to adapt their strategies to communicate effectively through these mediums. As voice technology continues to gain traction, companies must anticipate the rise of voice commerce and tailor their approaches to accommodate this emerging trend. By leveraging conversational AI and natural language processing, brands can deliver seamless, personalized experiences that resonate with consumers, whether shopping, seeking information, or interacting with digital assistants. Wider Use of Virtual Reality Virtual reality (VR) is poised to become a ubiquitous tool in the marketer's arsenal, offering immersive experiences that transcend traditional advertising methods. With VR, brands can transport consumers into captivating virtual environments where they can interact with products and services unprecedentedly, fostering deeper engagement and brand loyalty. As VR technology becomes more accessible and sophisticated, expect to see a proliferation of immersive marketing campaigns that leverage the power of virtual experiences to captivate audiences and drive conversions.

The Power of Storytelling

12 Mar, 2024
Marketing tends to focus on analytics and systems, but we sometimes forget about one powerful tool that has existed since the beginning: storytelling. From our ancestors telling ancient myths to be passed down for the generations to come to modern-day brand narratives, stories have held the power to inspire and connect in all different ways. Today, consumers face a constant bombardment of advertisements and catered content; using the power of storytelling in marketing campaigns has become critical for businesses, especially smaller firms aiming to create meaningful connections with their target clients. Why Storytelling is an Effective Strategy When a brand uses storytelling to convey its message, it connects with the audience emotionally. By telling a compelling story, marketers can create a memorable experience for consumers, making them more likely to remember and engage with the brand. Additionally, storytelling allows marketers to communicate the brand's values and personality more authentically. Instead of bombarding consumers with sales pitches, storytelling enables brands to share their stories and build trust with their audience, increasing brand loyalty and customer engagement. The Emotional Resonance of Stories At the heart of storytelling lies its ability to bring out emotions and create profound connections on a human level. Unlike traditional marketing messages focusing solely on product features or sales pitches, stories can engage the audience's imagination, stir empathy, and spark genuine interest. By weaving narratives that resonate with their target audience's hopes, dreams, and challenges, small marketing firms can create a powerful emotional bond that transcends transactional relationships. Building Brand Identity and Authenticity Storytelling is a potent tool for small businesses to authentically define and express their brand identity. Through compelling narratives that reflect their values, mission, and vision, small firms can differentiate themselves from competitors and carve out a distinct identity in the minds of consumers. Whether recounting the founder's journey, highlighting customer success stories, or showcasing the company's commitment to social responsibility, storytelling allows small businesses to humanize their brand and foster customer trust and loyalty.

A Guide to Employee-Generated Content

13 Feb, 2024
In a world of "influencer marketing" and brand deals, companies can easily overspend their marketing budgets and get caught up in the frenzy. An influencer may feature your product or brand only for their videos to perform poorly. At best, you lose out on the money spent sending the product to the influencer and whatever you spent on hiring them. At worst, your business gets a bad reputation online, and customers don't take your brand seriously. Consider that influencer marketing is just the "shiny new toy" in marketing. In that case, companies should continue to produce consistent, cost-effective outcome. One source for this? Your Employees. Employee-generated content refers to any videos, pictures, or copy that employees publicly post about their position and the company. Find out the benefits of employee-generated content (EGC), what this content can look like, and how to implement EGC into your overall strategy. What Does Employee-Generated Content Look Like? The beauty of employee-generated content is that it can take many forms. Any content your employees make that involves details about their role, the company itself, or the relationships they've developed with coworkers or customers/clients can be EGC. A simple, straightforward EGC piece can be an employee spotlight for new hires or veteran employees. You can choose to craft employee spotlights as infographics with a picture of the employee along with some fun facts about them, write a long-form piece from an interview with the employee speaking about their time at the company, or even long or short-form videos with the employee speaking on their experiences. While these methods may require the help of a graphic designer, copywriter, or videographer, the idea is that the employees generate the content by speaking about their experiences and introducing themselves. Other ideas for EGC pieces might be "day in the life" videos following a specific employee throughout their day, reflections employees have from conferences or professional development opportunities, employment milestones or recognitions, or even just pictures employees take with each other or showing what happened that day. There are limitless options and iterations for employee-generated content, and the key is to find out what works well for your business and why.
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