How can your business generate leads?

Understanding lead generation vs demand generation

Demand generation involves building awareness, becoming and staying relevant, and fueling the interest that results in a quality lead. This is where online marketing strategies come into play, and it includes all of the interactions that precede a business transaction. There are several ways to begin this process, some more effective than others.

Lead generation comes next. For business-to-business marketers, a lead is someone who completes an opt-in form, downloads a company resource, or attends a sponsored event or webinar. These are people who have demonstrated valuable levels of interest in your product or service and are at various stages of the sales cycle. A substantial quantity of leads is necessary for accurate analytics of your campaign's effectiveness. Handled with care, these contacts can become leads, and eventually clients or customers.

Generate leads with search engine optimization

Direct traffic, online referrals and search engines are responsible for the large majority of leads. If you follow SEO best practices within the pages of your site, those in need of your product or service are more likely to find you.

However, simply viewing a page is not the same as closing a deal. This is where effective opt-in methods come in. The prospect is here; now you need their contact information. You can do this via sidebars, pop-ups, or a landing page that is an opt-in form in itself. A few tips for successful opt-in forms:

  • Incentive: what benefits come with signing up? Reassure readers you are not going to send thirty spammy sales emails a day, but that you have content of substance, whether blog posts, whitepapers, webinars or announcements.
  • Simplicity: the fewer fields required, the better. Ask only for what you absolutely need at step one; you can gradually gather more information as the relationship develops.
  • Call to action: make the purpose of your form clear, and try something more compelling than "Sign up now."

Social media lead generation

Actively promoting your company through LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter can help direct people to your site. This is a way to reach people who may not have been directly searching for your product or service, but whose attention your post caught enough to explore further. Joining industry-specific groups within each network helps hone in on these people more sharply. LinkedIn is a great bet, as it generates far more B2B leads than most other networks. While still a viable demand-generation source, social media is often more effective in the later stages, once you have established credibility and familiarity with your audience.

Laying the foundation of your email campaign

Choose an email service provider

Using an email service provider is necessary when sending to a large contact list. This way, you avoid being flagged as spam by internet service providers. It is worth reading up on the CAN-SPAM Act so your program stays compliant. There are several providers to choose from, each a bit different, so you can decide which one is best for your business model. With these providers you have access to templates to design professional emails that can be sent to your growing contact list. You do not need to write your own HTML or CSS, but you often still have the option. Many providers also offer testing and data that help you improve campaigns as you embark on segmentation and nurturing.

Congratulations: you have generated the demand and have a list of prospects for lead generation. Now comes the hard part, converting them into loyal clients. Read all about nurturing campaign strategies in part two.