Gone are the days when merely educating the public about your business existence is enough. Even if they know about the product and services that you’re offering, there’s never an assurance that they pick you among others. Why would they? There are about a handful of other businesses out there who offer the same or even, a better set of products and services than you. And most of the time, these businesses are selling it for a lesser price or their business name is already prominent in the industry – so your likelihood of becoming a preference among all the existing business is obviously low. Yes, you’ve already exhausted all your marketing efforts, but it’s no longer sufficient today. This should be coupled up with efforts in lead generation.
Lead generation should be an integral part of any business. Your business should not stop the moment your customers know your business, but you should pour out time and effort to turn these customers into profit. You should ensure that they will eventually reach out to you and make a sale. And as a business, you should make the right approaches to get the proper response. Here are some ways you can boost your leads for profit:
Know Your Customer’s Problems: If you’re new to business, you might think that the market follows the one-shoe-fits-all kind of concept; that customer X will want to buy what customer Y brought. Nope, you’re wrong; business doesn’t work that way. If you want to stand out from the competition, take the time to know your customers. Once you get to know them, it’ll be easier for you to understand their problems. You’ll have the chance to put yourself in their shoes and offer them the most personalized solution your business might have. Through this, you’re not only gaining customers, but you’re creating a relationship with them. Remember that businesses can sell the same exact products, but what will make the difference is the service and user experience that your business will give to the customers.
Understand and Use SEO: Customers are always online. And if you want to reach out to them, you should make a strong online presence. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will help you with this one. Your digital campaign should be efficient, so you’ll have higher chances of being on top of Google’s search result page. Once you’re visible on the search result page, it will be easier for customers to contact you and visit your website. The more online visitors you have, the higher the traffic which also translates to possible sales.
Save all Lead Generation Data: Sure, not all of your marketing efforts are effective. But don’t disregard the information you’ve gathered during these failed attempts. It’s important to take note of your customer buying journey, even if it did not give you positive results. All of this information can be useful when you’re planning for a new marketing plan. You’ll now know which parts of the buying journey to improve on and what types of customers see your business unappealing.
Make Sure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly: It’s difficult to see someone who never uses their mobile phones on a daily basis yep, everyone is inseparable from their mobile phones. People are doing everything with it. If you want to connect to your potential customers, make sure that you’ll create avenues of communication for them. One thing you can do is to make your website mobile-friendly. Your website should be developed into an app which customers can easily download. Your app should be responsive and updated because if it’s not, your customers will do their business elsewhere.
Use Social Media to your Advantage: There are a lot of social media platforms out there which you can utilize to connect with your customers. But just because signing up is free, doesn’t mean that you should try out everything. If you do, you all probably compromise content because you all have issues with time and worse; you might not be able to handle all of these over time. And being unresponsive online can quickly create a negative image for your business. To generate leads from social media, you might want to consider these:
- Make connections online and don’t be scared to be the first one to message a customer;
- Add Call to Action buttons in your social media accounts;
- Take the time to answer all of the customer concerns and no, that generic reply will no longer work. It’s best that you make your responses personal (hint: use emojis);
- Share a post of a customer who is using your product or service;
- Like and comment back to other customer online activity they’ll feel at ease that a human is behind the page.
Encourage Word of Mouth: Among all the marketing strategies in business, word of mouth has been one of the most successful. If you’ll ask why, simple it’s free for the business and customers are easily influenced whenever they hear positive feedback from a friend. The customers know that when friends rave about how satisfied they were with a service or a product, it’s a fact and they’re expecting the same kind of result the moment they try it out themselves.
In conclusion
You should not wait until a customer knocks on their door and asks for your business list of the products and services available for them. You should make the first move in getting the customer attention and make sure that they stay loyal to your business. After all, you’re trying to build a long-term relationship with them so make sure that you pour out all your resources for them to keep coming back to you.