Its fall, you set up your apple cider stand outside the front of your house, and suddenly there is a line of neighbors ready to pay you $0.50 for their warm glass of the sweet taste of autumn your parents helped you make. It’s amazing how easy that was, but as a business, much like the child version of you selling apple cider, things have changed; customers don’t come nearly as easily. The first step to growing your customer base is generating leads. How are you generating leads? Do you understand the true importance of lead generation for your business?
What is a lead?
Before you can truly understand the importance of lead generation, you should know what a lead is.
A lead is any person who shows interest in a company’s products or services. Leads are at the beginning stages of the buying/purchase funnel. If a person shows interest in your business, they are considered a lead and an opportunity for you to gain a new customer.
Leads can be generated from multiple sources; however, most leads are generated from a company’s marketing efforts.
Why is lead generation important?
The importance of lead generation should be obvious. Leads give your business more potential customers, and customers and new sales are key to your company’s success. Not just any lead will do, you need to find the right leads and target the audience that you have defined as your ideal customer. You can drive all the leads you want to your business, but if they are not the right ones, they will never convert to customers.
As with your apple cider stand, lead generation has evolved. Leads used to be developed by meeting people, cold calling, and purchasing lists. While these techniques may still work to some extent, they are more a thing of the past and shouldn’t be your only lead generation source.
Thanks to changes in technology, we now have numerous lead generation options. In the last 10-15 years advances in technology have made it extremely easy to target and acquire ideal leads.
How can you generate new leads?
In today’s world, there are so many possibilities when it comes to generating leads for your business. We review a few below:
- Embrace Digital: When it comes to generating leads, creating your digital footprint is the first step you should take. This includes using social media channels, creating content such as blogs, acquiring reviews and feedback, engaging with the right audience, being recognized by various associations, having followers and connections, amongst so many other options. Let your presence be known in the digital world so leads can find and connect with you and your organization.
- Ask for Referrals: Let your customers speak for you. Ask for referrals and encourage customers to provide you with reviews on social media, review websites, and to speak to their friends, colleagues, and family about your products and services. Embrace word of mouse advertising and let your customers drive leads to you.
- Utilize Data: Understand your target audience and know where and when you can get in front of them. You should be in the physical and virtual locations they are. If you know they are frequently in the airport, purchase an out-of-home advertising package for that location. If they are on social media for a large amount of time, embrace SocialAds. Understand the websites that they frequent and leverage BannerAds in those locations.
Above, we have only reviewed a small snippet of ways to generate leads for your business. While acquiring customers is not as easy as it was in your childhood days, the possibilities are endless in our digital era. The importance of lead generation for your business can not be denied and you need to ensure that you are continuously driving quality leads to your organization.
At Water Bear Marketing, we believe that in today’s world, there is no room for guessing with your advertising dollars. Our goal is to drive leads to your business through a variety of ways. Let us get you the leads, so you can focus on turning them into customers. We offer digital and out-of-home advertising solutions to allow us to be in front of your ideal audience throughout their daily lives.
