10 Tried-and-True Methods to Generate More Leads

You’ve poured your heart and soul into creating an awesome content marketing strategy. You’ve started blogging, you’ve shared promotional content on Facebook and Twitter and even tried to directly engage with your audience.

And then…crickets.

In spite of your best efforts, you’re still not getting the lead flow you need in order to turn your small business into the next million-dollar brand.

How do the highest converting websites generate quality leads? How do they get visitors to click and convert? And, most importantly, how can you do the same?

Below you can find 10 tried-and-tested lead generation strategies.

It All Starts with Content

Your content is the backbone of your small business. It plays a crucial role in establishing yourself as the go-to leader in your industry. So, the fact that 76% of marketers plan to increase their content marketing investment this year should come as no surprise.

More than that, creating compelling content is probably the best and most effective lead generation strategies you can apply. In fact, reports have shown that companies which are creating quality content frequently are generating 67% more leads per month than those who aren’t.

Optimize Your Content

It’s irrefutable that content can be a great way to generate leads. But, it needs to be found first. Making your small business thrive means you must go beyond simply “writing content”. You need to learn how to optimize your blog posts for the right search term so you can get targeted traffic.

Write on LinkedIn

LinkedIn can be one of the best online lead generation tools. However, many small business owners completely ignore this platform.

LinkedIn is a huge network of potential leads. All you need to do is spend a few minutes every day adding connections to your network and investigating the connections of your contacts. Take advantage of LinkedIn’s advanced search filters and use them to identify relevant prospects and connect with them directly.

Practice Social Listening

One of the most effective lead generation strategies, often overlooked by website owners, is social media listening. Social media is an excellent lead resource. More than that, it gives you the chance to connect directly with those who are currently interested in what you are doing.

More and more potential customers are asking questions about different products on social channels. By engaging with those who mention your brand or who have a problem that your product can solve, you will tap into a valuable resource of potential leads.

Answer Questions on Quora

Quora is a question and answer based social media platform with tens of millions of users posting questions every single day on different topics. If you start answering questions, users will notice your profile and most likely check your website.

Share Videos On YouTube

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. With video content becoming more and more important, now it’s the perfect time to make YouTube part of your lead generation strategy.

YouTube allows you to create and maintain your own channel where you can share videos, tutorials and other types of video content. This will help you stand out and attract more leads.

Use Webinars and Live Chats to Prove You Are an Expert In Your Niche

One lead generation strategy that has proved to be effective is creating webinars and live chats. Here’s how it works. You chose a topic relevant to your industry and to your audience and you discuss trends, news, problems and so on. It is good to invite a few guest experts to join the conversation.

Promote your webinars or live chats on social media and invite your audience to ask questions, comment and join the discussion. Be sure to respond to questions promptly and provide participants with contact information, where they can get in touch with you and learn more about your products or your niche expertise.

Interview influencers

Reaching out to leaders and your niche influencers and interviewing them for your blog is another great method to generate more leads. Make sure you ask clear and relevant questions. Send an email to the blogger before publishing your article to check if there is anything about the interview he or she wants to change. Once the article is up, let the influencer know.

Create Quizzes

Creating quizzes and posting them to your blog and social media channels can make your content more engaging and hook more customers. According to Buzzsumo, on average, a quiz gets shared 1,900 times, which is a lot higher than the number of shares you might get from infographics or long-form articles.

One of the best things about quizzes is that you can use existing content to create them. Take a look at your best performing article. Could you turn it into a quiz?

Give Before You Ask

Capturing leads is one of the most important steps to creating a successful business. But, asking visitors to give up personal information, such as their email addresses, can be annoying.

One of the biggest challenges marketers face is earning the trust of their audience and convincing them that you are not going to spam them. A simple “Sign up Here” or “Subscribe” isn’t effective anymore, so you need to come up with new ways to capture leads.

One of the best lead generation marketing strategies you can use is giving something before you ask for a lead. By offering a lead magnet, such as discount, a free e-Book, a template or a free software tool, you will build trust with your audience. And, as Neil Patel from Quick Sprout puts it, more trust will inevitably lead to more leads.

Capturing leads requires much more than creating a landing page and crafting a compelling call-to-action button. You need to explore your audience’s needs and find new and unique ways to connect with them. You need to try different lead generation strategies and see which one suits your business the best.

What other lead generation strategies do you know to be effective? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.