As a past business owner, understanding how lead-generation campaigns work and what they have to offer will help you generate more interest and grow your customer base significantly. Even if you hire a third-party service to help with lead-generation efforts, having a basic understanding of how things work is essential. Here are steps you should take to improve lead-generation efforts while keeping sight of and improving your funnel conversions:
Start at the top.
If you have a long buying cycle, lead generation advertising can get expensive. Beginning at the top of your funnel may seem somewhat counterintuitive when you have many touch points, but it is necessary. By doing this, you can take advantage of the more affordable lead generation techniques & targeting methods to help you get in front of your prospects as early as possible. This puts you in the position to engage with prospects through their entire buying cycle.
What is even better is that prospecting channels, such as Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn, provide many targeting options that let you focus on the proper targets. This is somewhat tricky, especially with search, if you are selling a service or product people are looking for. With this, you have a bigger selection to target, but when you diversify your media spend, it gives you new opportunities to convert your prospects. For example, create ads on several social media platforms highlighting what you offer. Make sure you target audiences you know are interested — for example, if you are selling winter sports gear, you want to avoid targeting people in the south. Even generic filters like this will help you gain interest and traction and find the top-of-the-funnel prospects you are searching for.
Flaunt your content.
Content is an effective way to capture the middle and top of the funnel leads. Content gives you something of value in exchange for your prospect’s personal information. Content also lets you collect information. This means you can begin to segment your prospects based on the content they look at. When you engage with your content, your audience will begin to self select into various market segments. This will help evolve your marketing strategy as you move forward, as well. Content also provides you with a means to re-engage while offering value in exchange for something.
Don’t ignore the middle of the funnel.
This area can be a “weak spot” for businesses that are reliant on PPC (pay-per-click or paid advertising) for lead generation. As advertisers begin to move up the funnel, they may go to the top — which is fine. However, a disconnect is created when you generate top-of-the-funnel leads & treat them the same as your bottom-of-the-funnel leads. This is when you get frustrated when the same results are not achieved. Leads you generate at the top of your funnel are much more affordable than leads at the bottom of your funnel, but they are not as ready to buy. This means you need a re-engagement strategy to ensure you have a good return on your efforts. When it comes to improving your lead generation campaigns, you have to consider an array of things.
For more thoughts about lead generation, view the free video entitled Marketing For Business Owners Session 1.
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