A typical business process goes through a linear route: Create a product or service, mass market it to all channels, and wait for sales to generate. But sometimes, it doesn’t always go as planned, especially if you’re in the startup journey.
For this reason, marketers have tried doing it the other way around — reach out to customers and turn their needs into wants. Lead generation is a viable strategy for all types of ventures to get their names out to their potential customers amidst the noisy e-commerce world.
The Whats and Whys of Lead Generation
Simply stated, a lead is any person who shows interest in your product or service in one way or another. Lead generation, therefore, is the process of looking for potential customers and attracting them to purchase (this depends much on what your business goals are).
This means utilizing any strategy, action plan, or tactic that will get them to give you their contact details, so you can reach out and market.
As we’ve mentioned earlier, the online world is filled with enterprises all trying to advertise their products. With lead generation, you can get heard and encourage purchase through relationship-centered personalized ads, as opposed to mass marketing.
When everyone else is doing it, what exactly can you do to maximize lead generation? We rounded up five effective tactics for startups to help you get a head start.
1. Create irresistible opt-in offers
When it comes to gathering contact information: the more opt-in opportunities, the better! If you’re an expert in your field, put up lead magnets such as PDFs and reports, webinars, and online demos. This will attract your audience to submit their details in exchange for resources.
2. Keep your signup forms short and user-friendly.
Most users will abandon a lengthy and difficult form — everyone is guilty of this. As such, keep an effective signup page by minimizing typing requirements, removing unnecessary fields (less is more!), and providing clickable options instead of drop-downs.
3. Run a giveaway centered on referrals
Consumers love two things the most: Sales and Freebies. Running giveaways is a proven effective way to gain not just engagement, but leads as well. Prizes can be as simple as a 10-percent discount in exchange for their contact information. You can skip on the extravagant giveaways. What’s important is to make it enticing enough to get your users to refer and invite more people.
4. Offer free trials and gated content.
Give your users a glimpse of what you have to offer through free trials or removing content gates in exchange for their contact information. Additionally, you put them one step closer to purchasing by allowing them to experience your product or service.
A quick word of caution: Gate only high-quality content. Restricting access to all of your articles and resources will only annoy your visitors.
5. Utilize lead generation tools
Ask any marketer: A good lead generation tool can do miracles for your business. Tools and plugins, such as a LinkedIn lead generation tool, are helpful to generate leads with minimal effort, alongside other strategies that you can put your focus and energy on.