Guest Post: How to Develop Stronger Lead Generation as a Small Business

You thought launching your business was going to be the hardest part of establishing your brand. Not so…

Many small business owners are struggling with lead generation. 61% of marketers say the biggest challenge is generating traffic and leads.

But you don’t have to be one of them.

As a small business, you need to position your brand directly in the path of prospective leads and give them a reason to visit your website. With a robust lead generation strategy, you can gather their contact information, such as their name, email address, or phone number, that will help further your sales efforts.

Sound overwhelming?  

We’ve got a few tips to help strengthen your lead generation campaign so that you can continue to draw visitors to your website effortlessly. And above all, learn how to convert them into loyal customers.

Ready to get started?

1. Optimize your website

First on the list: optimize your site for conversions. You can’t perfect your strategy if you’re not covering the most essential aspect of the game.

An easy-to-use website can increase sales and conversions by 15%. That means incorporating enough white space for a clean layout that offers intuitive navigation, and creating a responsive design so that visitors can use your website on any device.

But the most important thing is to deliver your message loud and clear. Make it easy for potential leads to understand what your business is all about within seconds of landing on it. Use large, simple text to state your mission statement. 

2. Create effective landing pages

As a small business owner, you need to make the most of every opportunity of getting more leads. 

You need to develop landing pages that will help you connect with a visitor. That could include gathering an email address or inviting them to watch your latest webinar. Your aim is to maintain communication until they convert into customers, and repeat doing this, so they eventually become loyal ones.  

In fact, consider creating multiple value propositions for different landing pages. This will allow you to reach a different target audience demographic for each campaign.

HubSpot states that businesses that increased the number of landing pages from 10 to 15 saw a 55% increase in leads. To ensure that each of your landing pages is on target, start off slow. According to marketingexperiments.com, 62% of B2B companies utilize up to 6 landing pages in their lead generation strategy.   

Creating a well-designed landing page requires:

• A compelling headline
• An attention-grabbing sub-heading
• A clearly visible CTA 
• Interesting copy
• Including your main keyword in both your URL and the meta title
• A fast loading time

3. Use the power of social media

With 3.81 billion people actively using social media, this should be a part of every business owner’s strategy. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram are some of the most popular platforms. 

Depending upon your target audience, you need to focus on the channel where most of your target audience is active. But, keep in mind that 89% of B2B marketers turn to LinkedIn for lead generation, so you should consider directing your efforts to this platform as well. 

However, in order to hit the right target market with the right message, you need the right strategy. To get the most out of your current LinkedIn campaign, you may need to get a little guidance. Companies like Linked Lead Ninja offer products and training services specially catered for LinkedIn. 

Generally speaking, no matter which platform you decide on using, there’s a great deal of potential in social media that you can tap into. But it’s time to go beyond brand awareness and engagement. By keeping an active and updated profile, you can generate more interest in your business and bring in more leads. Simple aspects that you should not overlook include:

• A descriptive summary of the business
• A professional-looking profile photo
• A link to your website
• Contact information
• Relevant hashtags 
• A showcase of recommendations from other businesses/users

4. Incorporate promotion plans

There’s nothing wrong with promoting your own company. The easiest way to generate more leads is to offer:

• Free samples
• Giveaways
• Contests
• Appearances at conferences and local events
• Webinars

Be as creative as you want. People will do anything in exchange for a free gift or special discount. 

Simply ask yourself whether it’s an email address you need, or a share/like/ tag on social media. This will effortlessly leverage your small business and generate more leads.

5. Use email marketing

Email is an effective and affordable way to generate leads. According to weblizar.com, 74% of consumers prefer to communicate with brands through email. 66% proceed to make an online purchase because of an email marketing message. Moreover, a person who receives an email offer will spend 138% more than those who don’t receive one.

Impressive, huh?

Small business owners can collect email addresses from various sources such as webinars, conferences, and landing pages. To effectively maximize this opportunity, you need to combine and organize your email list. Segment it according to where a customer is in the buying journey.  

More importantly, to get one-time customers to return to your brand, you need to offer a strong incentive whether that’s through useful, relevant content or a promotional discount. So, the best way to keep your business on your customer’s radar is to maintain rapport, either with meaningful emails or periodic newsletters. 

Your email marketing campaign will be more effective by applying the following tips:

• Use an attractive subject line
• Avoid words like “free” or “percent off” to prevent triggering the recipient’s spam filter
• Offer high-quality, relevant and valuable content
• Use a simple CTA
• Send when they are most likely to be opened, preferably within an hour of being sent
• Create and optimize a landing page for each email campaign

6. Don’t negate the importance of local SEO 

53% of web traffic comes from organic search. That makes SEM and SEO powerful tools in lead generation. But according to HubSpot, 97% of consumers are searching online for a local business. That means you need to invest in local SEO.

A website with unique content specifically tailored for the local community can help generate a significant amount of traffic to your site. To show up in local search results, however, you need to implement the following best practices:

• Claim a Google My Business listing.
• Keep business information up to date.
• Use proper keywords.
• Upload clear photos taken inside and outside the business so people can get an idea about what your business looks like.
• Provide customer reviews and ratings.
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Final Thoughts

You’re probably wondering why so many entrepreneurs struggle with lead generation. The answer is quite simple: Anyone who doesn’t have the right strategies in mind cannot create an effective plan. The digital world is constantly evolving. That means you need to stay on top of the latest trends. 

More importantly, even when you’ve got the online recognition you’ve been dreaming of, and you’ve designed the perfect product, it’ll all be for nothing if your business doesn’t produce a steady stream of customers.

But with the above tips in mind, you can continue to generate more leads. However, you shouldn’t stop here. By consistently working on building a scalable and repeatable lead generation process, you can ensure that leads keep coming in.

And that will help your business grow and remain profitable.