Effective lead generation strategies for SMBs

Lead generation is the first and most important stage of a sales cycle, In fact, I’m not exaggerating when I term it as a “sales engine”. Lead generation strategies followed in this stage reflect directly on the sales revenue. If the leads generated are not of high quality, by that I mean if they don’t fit your ideal customer profile, your sales pipeline could end up very weak.

Lead generation includes the process of collecting a database of potential leads with their contact information. As small and medium businesses’ strategy is to spend less and gains more, lead generation tactics should not become an overhead and deliver more. As a process, it helps to direct targeted audience into your sales funnel so that you can move on to lead nurturing.

The lead generation strategies for SMBs are based on low budget ideas, few of them are;

Exit intent popup

You can set up an exit intent popup in just 5 minutes. An exit intent popup helps you to track the movements of users on your website or mobile application and pops up an offer or opt-in form when they try to leave your website. When you know that your visitors are leaving your website without acting on a CTA like, registering or buying, you can interrupt them and re-direct them to take specific actions.

Large companies have been using this technique to achieve outstanding results by implementing it as a part of their marketing strategy. You can use this when people are abandoning carts, leaving your pricing page, or landing pages because these sections of website allow people to make the most important decision to buy.

Add call-to-actions

Also known as CTAs, they are used to draw people to use a particular app or website. They provoke immediate responses. For instance, they provide consumers with compelling reasons to make a purchase immediately. An example – ‘Offer expires in 5 hours’.

You can include CTAs in brochures, flyers, catalogues, emails etc. Sales pitches incorporate a series of small CTAs that lead to a final CTA. This prepares the consumer and compels them to take the action. CTAs need to be effectively designed with click-worthy content, changing a single word can drastically increase the traffic and vice versa. For example, you can creatively include what your product can offer and how to actually sign up and use it for free. Your “Sign up for free” CTA button should stand out predominantly over everything else on the page.

Share best practices or success stories

Most of your prospects would like to know if your product really stands up for what you project, can it deliver the solution a prospect is looking for? And the best way to answer this is to showcase what it did for your customers, and how their businesses benefited from your product or service. Prospects will relate to the challenge mentioned in these examples and understand how they can be answered.

While you share your success stories, write a brief compelling introduction, with CTA which requires customers to fill in their details, if they want to download them. This way, you will know that these prospects are trying to find a solution to the challenge mentioned in your story and might be interested in acquiring the products or solutions.

Guest blogging

Guest blogging is an indirect method of generating leads. It increases your web traffic, thereby introducing prospects to your solutions. It’s a method used by bloggers to increase blog traffic and the backlinks within will drive traffic to the website. Guest blogs are usually published on other websites that attract higher traffic.

Before you guest blog, you  need to:

• Provide compelling content focused on your niche
• Post the content on those websites where readers fit your niche
• The content of the blog should be engaging
• The blog owner is active in social media

Add testimonials

These are similar to success stories but differ on who is writing it. Success stories are written from your end, whereas testimonials are given directly by your customers, in their own words.

Customers reach out to social media to appreciate your product or customer service or even your company. You can leverage these testimonials and publish them on your website. This adds to the credibility of your product. Testimonials also demonstrate your success, so many of your potential customers will look for such demonstrated successes from customers like themselves before making a buying decision. With this in mind, you should build case studies that feature customers that are similar to the audience you’re trying to attract as well as the successes they are trying to achieve.

Add social proof

Word of mouth marketing on social media is one of the best ways of generating leads. According to Nielsen,  84% of consumers trust the recommendations made by their family and friends. There are many portals that allow you to get connected to potential leads, one such portal is LinkedIn.

You can get connected with leads, and understand their interest levels. Initiate conversations in the network, LinkedIn Groups, which allows people who are interested in that particular service/solution/product to comment or react.

Did we miss on any of the low budget lead generation strategies for SMBs, please comment and let us know in the comments below.