A few simple and cost-free ways in generating leads

Lead is a person who has, in some way, shown interest in product or service that your company is providing. Attracting and converting strangers into buyers and loyal customers is the vitally important part of sales process. Even with an average product or service you will still win with lead generation. Because leads mean more revenue, and more revenue usually means more profit.

There are many ways of generating leads, and they all deserve equal attention. I will present you some of them, to begin with:

1. Direct engagement with customers

This should be one of your top priorities. Create live chats, help centers, live forums or social media groups, and connect with potential customers. Be present and answer to any inquiry directly. If you have resources, create special team for customer support that will be present all the time. This will help you establish healthy relationship with your customers and build more leads. There is no better customer than satisfied one.

2. Landing pages

Known also as “lead capture pages”, are one of the most effective way in generating leads. Landing page is a web page visitor lands on for a distinct purpose. You can use various promotional channels such as social media to link and drive traffic to the landing page so you can start generating leads.Your website should be easy to navigate and have all relevant information about your product or service. Tip- keep landing pages simple. Complex page that takes too much time to load or understand won’t even register a second chance from most visitors.

3. Direct mail

E-mail marketing features the concept of direct engagement. It’s very flexible medium that you can use for selling products or service, to generate leads, follow up inquiries, keep in touch with former customers…

First, keep multiple mailing lists. Update them on daily basis with new data. Also, keep track of your customers, they may come back. Send to all of them special offers and deals, discount announcements. It’s important to avoid a junk mail look when working with direct mail. You will achieve this by being clever creative, original and by good targeting. Think about subject line, it should be enticing so that it makes recipient want to read the content. Content should be brief, concise and engaging. Include images in mail, because an image can speak more than 1000 words. Consider integrating call-to-call button. And don’t forget to incorporate social media links in your e-mail, so that readers can be easily redirected to your social media pages.

4. Newsletters

If you don’t have newsletter, you are missing out one of the simplest way to generate more leads. Put a newsletter sign up in every possible place that makes sense on your web site. Also, put a newsletter sign on your Facebook page, on your blog… You can always offer free e-book, seminar or discount in exchange for subscription. Regularly send newsletter to your audience, which can either be free or paid subscription. Use newsletter to position you as authority in your market place through informing and educating your target market.

5. Social media networking

If you are being serious about your business success, you just can’t ignore social media networks. Keep in mind that networking is about being authentic and genuine, and building relationships and trust. Content that you are posting, same as with direct mailing, needs to be original, interesting and engaging.

Social media helps you target your audience more effectively, generate leads, get feedback from customers, increase website traffic and search ranking, promote your business with little to no budget. So use social media smart to maximize the exposure of your business. Explore all possibilities that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn… are providing to your business.

6. Blogs

Give a real value to your blog. Write on various topics related to your business. Keep your blog interesting, educational and informational. Your headline and image (always insert an image) should capture readers attention, and your content should hold it. You need to work on promoting your blog. What’s the use of having one if no one reads it! Post articles on your social media pages and groups that you are in. Consider convincing another blogger that have readers to send them your way. It’s proven way of getting more readers. Many successful bloggers recommend that you should work more on promoting your blog, and less on writing it!

Each lead generation channel process is a bit different, yet your goal is always the same- to get new, potential customers to know about you. When it comes to lead generation, one method does not fit all. You need to explore and educate yourself all the time. You should test various methods, to see which one fits your needs best.