Facebook acquired three major apps (Messenger, Whatsapp and Instagram), the most popular password “123456” was revealed and Apple launched Iphone 11 Pro Max, were some of the biggest tech news you might have missed last year.
But, the 2019 Most Successful Lead Generation Tactics story that told, 80% of the leads generated were from social media, content marketing generates three times as many prospects as outbound marketing (but costs 62% less) and email marketing was the most effective tactic by 42% of organizations, was really hard to miss.
This year, you have the power to hit the headlines with the 7 lead generation ideas for Q1 (and Q2) 2020.
- Socialize On The Right Platform
- Follow the king, Email Marketing
- Optimize and Get Searched
- Engage your Market in Events
- Content Means Creating More
- Multiply Wins with Account Based Marketing
- Find, not the best, but the Right Influencer
Socialize On The Right Platform
Social media has undeniably become an integral part of lead generation. It brings tremendous opportunities like collaboration and connectivity among users, and access to and disseminate information. Thus, enabling businesses to reach its target customers quickly and convert them into qualified leads.
- The top 3 social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but LinkedIn, which ranks 5th, works best in terms of professionalism. It’s a thriving hub of professionals and business owners.
- Define your goals by determining which areas of the business you would want to improve, how would you like to reach and communicate with customers, and what you need to learn about their needs, wants and habits.
- Examine the type of content that is most effective in generating traffic. Is it blogs, videos, podcasts or photographs? Once done, decide which social platform is best for your product.
Follow the king, Email Marketing
Although social media and all other lead generation tactics are important, email marketing ruled. In fact, it delivers 4400% roi and continues to grow in usability. From 3.7 billion global users in 2018, it’s expected to reach 4.3 billion by 2022, making it the third most influential source of information for B2B audiences.
- Establish your goals by determining what you want to achieve, which approach to use, who to engage, type of content to use and how to measure success.
- Build an accurate and updated email list to better connect with your audience, offer targeted campaigns and be able to measure results. It may include categories like new and existing clients.
- Choose the email campaign that is aligned with your goals like newsletter, event invitation or offers, and the appropriate channel/s to use.
Optimize and Get Searched
To increase site usability, is the ultimate goal of SEO. You have to be searchable which means you need to be the first to be found by your target customers before anybody else on the web. And the best way to be easily found is to rank high.
- Write comprehensive, compelling articles using well researched keywords and actionable headlines that your target audience use.
- To gain quality backlinks, do guest blogging, and utilize infographics and internal links to draw more traffic, but ensure quality on each content you create.
- Optimize your website for different channels in order to reach your target customers on whichever platform they are using and at their most convenient time.
Engage your Market in Events
There’s more to than just sharing new knowledge and skills with your event attendees – creating experience. Create the best experience for each prospect you reach out to from the time you first contacted them until the post event outreach. This will give them the reason to keep you in mind for possible partnership.
- An updated and accurate data list is key to any marketing campaign. Ensure you have filtered the right accounts and utilize multiple channels like voice, email, chat, mobile and social media to reach, engage target attendees.
- Keep a complete checklist of tasks, timelines and program flow to keep you guided on pre event, actual and post event marketing.
- Track your lead conversions.
Content Means Creating More
Marketing is basically conveying your brand message to your target audience. And one of the most effective and leading marketing channels where you can share relevant information and ideas about your brand is content marketing. As your target audience becomes knowledgeable about who you are, what you can do and where to find you, a certain amount of interest grows in them which can lead them to engage and eventually convert into users.
- Before you distribute any content, know who your audience is, where they hang out and what their needs are.
- Talk to them and ask for feedback, suggestions, and what else they would want to know.
- Monitor and nurture them throughout the buyer’s journey.
Multiply Wins with Account Based Marketing
Account based marketing will let you connect with key decision makers via inbound and outbound channels to drive the purchase process. If you are seeking specific high- value customers, want to achieve higher ROI, align sales and marketing efforts, reduce resource waste and be able to track goals and results, this is the right process for you.
- Define your ICP (ideal customer profile) and discover high value accounts in your targeted list.
- Personalize your messaging in such a way that it addresses a specific business challenge.
- Determine optimal challenges and consider the ones that are effective on your targets.
Find, not the best, but the Right Influencer
Brand influencers are individuals with a strong media presence who share their thoughts and opinions about a product or service on a social platform. And as more people are leaning towards the social sphere for varied purposes, having the right brand influencer on social media to talk or represent your brand will optimize your reach and engagement with your target audience.
- Choose a social media influencer who can speak and represent both your brand and your target audience.
- Know their reach – which social platform are they most followed, are the platforms appropriate channels for your industry type, how do they engage with their followers.
- Check their authenticity. They should be speaking from experience and tell personal stories about your product or service – subject-matter-experts and credible brand evangelists.
These are just a few of the best lead generation ideas for 2020, but you can create a zillion stories out of them, if done the right way.
