Lead Generation Strategies: 6 Ways To Get Customers & Grow Your Business
Every business gets its leads through one of these six lead-generation strategies.
New businesses should master one or two of these strategies at first, but the best businesses will use some variation of all of six lead generation campaigns.
I’ll give an overview of each of these marketing strategies, and give some unique lessons I have learned in implementing them in my work.
1. Inbound/Owned Media:
Your website traffic and your email list are owned media.
No one can take them away.
You own your website.
You own your email list.
Having an awesome website, even if it is a simple one-page website, is a non-negotiable in today’s digital marketing landscape.
Social media platforms will come in and out of style. You can be banned from them in a heartbeat, but your website is yours. Almost every sales funnel that we will talk about will be used to get people to your website... so you want to make sure it is good.
Search Engine Optimization 101
How do you actually get people to your website?
One way is through inbound traffic. This is where you create high-quality content and web pages that show up in search engines like Google.
The additional benefit of creating Search Engine Optimized (SEO) content is that it will help to define what your business does.
For example:
What is the one key phrase that you want to show in search engines for?
What are people typing into Google when they are looking for things similar to your product or service?
If you are not crystal clear and actively trying to rank for those keywords, then people will not accidentally stumble across your website.
Also, even if you are trying to use paid advertising as your primary lead generation strategy you are still going to need to know the keywords you want to show up for, so why not use them on your website too?
Therefore, it makes sense to channel your marketing efforts to create high-quality webpages that both site visitors and search engines love.
SEO can work to help you rank for keyphrases connected to your business.
It can help you rank for questions related to your business.
Search engine optimization matters just as much for local service. businesses too. And, local SEO is often easier to rank and quicker to start showing results.
Luckily for you I have a FREE SEO course that walks you through this entire process step by step.
Email Marketing 101
To build an email list from your website you need to give someone something of value for free in exchange for their contact information, these are usually called lead magnets.
These can be within your content, a button on in your header or footer, or a pop-up that displays once someone has been on your webpage long enough.
For example, at Sandstone Care I interviewed a lot of parents who just wanted to know if their kid’s mental health or substance use struggles were bad enough to need treatment. It was hard for them to clear or quick answers.
I worked with Sandstone’s clinicians to create a quiz where parents can answer just a few questions, and determine if they may need support. They put their contact info in a lead gen form at the end of the quiz and their answers are sent directly to their email inbox with a video from a clinician explaining their results.
Afterward, we reach out to people each week to share relevant content. We also have a custom CTA button they can click in the email just incase they do need support. Even if they are not ready to come to treatment right now, we want to be in their inbox when they are ready.
The best part of this method of generating leads is that it can be completely automated. Once, I have built my lead magnet funnel and email sequence I don’t have to do another thing. Every follow-up email is scheduled well in advance.
Pros of Inbound Lead Generation:
Can help you build traffic to your website
Once something is created it can work for years and years
Content can be used to help convert people in your sales cycle
A low-cost way to generate leads
Cons of Inbound Lead Generation:
This type of marketing takes months and months to build up
This requires a general understanding of the fundamentals of web design and SEO.
2. Paid Advertising (PPC and Social Media Ads):
Paid advertising is when you pay a search engine or social media to have your content show up in front of people. This is a fast and efficient way to generate leads.
With PPC (Pay-Per-Click) marketing campaigns on Google Ads, you can target potential customers based on demographics and search keywords when they are looking for your product or service.
Social media advertising, on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, enables you to reach your ideal customers with highly personalized ads even when they are not actively searching for your product or service.
PPC ads are great because you only pay when someone clicks on your ad, and you know that they have some buyer intent. You can also choose what words you want to show up for too.
Social media ads are great for getting the word out and for brand awareness. Though this type of advertising is less trackable and the people who are scrolling on social media are not usually looking to buy, it can be a great introduction to your brand.
If you have more time than money, then SEO and organic marketing is the way to go.
If you have more money than time, then paid advertising is your best bet.
Pros of Paid Advertising:
A much faster way to generate traffic to your website
You can determine a clear cost per acquisition of a lead.
It’s trackable. When you do advertising right, you’ll know exactly how much you have to spend to get a client or lead. Then you can adjust your budget as needed.
Cons Of Paid Advertising:
It costs money, especially at first. Algorithms take a while to find the right people for your business. You will eat the cost of this time when just starting out.
It is only scalable... to a point. Increasing how much you spend can increase your leads, but with most ad platforms there is a cut-off point where more money doesn’t equal more leads at the same cost.
As soon as you stop paying it stops working.
3. Earned Media (Social Media Following)
Social media marketing is when you build an audience of connections and followers on a social media platform by posting valuable content that is entertaining, educational, and persuasive.
Though this is often the first thing people think of when generating qualified leads, it is actually one of the hardest ways to make money as a business.
The reason social media platforms seem like the GO-TO choice is that we only see when it is working. This is known as survivorship bias.
The key to social media is creating content that is entertaining AND informative. Generally, people go to social media to be entertained, not to learn.
Therefore, if you are going to be teaching people about something connected to your product or service, it better be fun and stir up some sort of emotion.
Going onto social media only to promote your product makes you seem thirsty and salesy. And, no one wants to do business with those kinds of people.
Influencer Marketing On Social Media
Your marketing team can use social media to reach out to influencers in your industry and leverage their credibility to generate high-quality leads. I do this by asking people to be quote contributors for my blog posts.
The people I reach out to are happy to have their insight valued. You promote their perspective within the article, and they are much more likely to share your article on their social media as well.
LinkedIn is especially helpful for b2b lead generation, especially for SAAS businesses. It makes this process super simple because you can sort people to reach out to by industry and mutual connections
Social media is also a great place to add, case studies, testimonials, or really any content that will position you as an expert. This will ultimately help you build brand awareness and attract potential clients.
Pros of Social Media Marketing
It’s free, and can be a great testing ground for your ideas
It can get your message in front of a potentially large audience if your content is good enough
It builds goodwill with your customer base because you are giving free helpful content
Cons of Social Media Marketing
It takes time to build up an audience
It has a lower conversion rate of your audience that will buy from you
Your audience is controlled by another business and can be taken away from you overnight
4. Outbound (Cold Calling and Messaging)
Outbound lead generation is when you reach out to people in your target audience and build a relationship by offering something of value. This builds upon the reciprocity principle, which states that people are much more likely to give you something when you have first given them something, even if it is small.
At Sandstone Care, we reach out to school districts to promote our free virtual support groups for parents who have kids struggling with mental health or substance use challenges.
In return, these districts will often refer out to us if some of their kiddos need our services and list us as a resource on their website.
The key here is leading with free value first.
I knew we were on to something when after a presentation a school district said that she needed to go back and see what their budget was for this support.
I told her that everything we were offering her was free, and it blew her mind.
“Look how great my product or service is!” is not a good way to build a relationship.
“Hey, I want to give you something for free that will make your life better, no strings attached” is way better.
The Trojan Horse Podcast Outreach Method
One of my favorite ways to do outbound messaging is to create a podcast whose ideal guests is ALSO your ideal customer.
It can be very challenging to get an hour with anyone busy and whose time is valuable.
But, when you reach out to them to be a guest on your podcast, people are often flattered and will accept.
Many times they will not even ask how many downloads or subscribers you have. However, it is good to have a few high-quality episodes on hand to show them that you are legit. It’s also helpful to show examples of how you have promoted past guests on social media as well.
Once a relationship and rapport are formed, any other communication with this person will be much easier.
While inbound strategies focus on drawing potential customers in, outbound methods involve reaching out to them directly.
Cold calling and messaging can be highly effective when done correctly.
Using outreach apps and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools like Octopus.io. This lead generation tool allows you can streamline your outreach and ensure that you're reaching the right people.
Cold calling can be especially useful for B2B marketers to connect with potential leads and offer solutions to their pain points.
Pros of Outbound Messaging
It’s free, except for some paid tools
Can be a great way to start new relationships
Can have a scalable system
Cons to Outbound Messaging
It can take time and persistence to get your messaging right
Requires tactful salespeople
Can turn off some potential customers if done wrong
5. Strategic Partnerships (Networking and Business Development)
Strategic partnerships are when you build a collaborative relationship with a business whose products or services complement your own products or services.
By networking and forming relationships with other businesses, you can tap into each other's customer bases. For example, a startup may partner with a more established company to access its existing customers. This strategy can be mutually beneficial and lead to a steady flow of new leads.
Our business development team at Sandstone Care, called Outreach Ambassadors, reaches out to private practice clinicians and other treatment centers to build relationships.
If Sandstone Care isn’t a good fit for a client reaching out to us or if they need a lower level of care, we refer out to these other organizations.
These places are thankful that we are giving them business, and in turn, if they have a client who is a better fit for us in the future, they reach out to us.
These strategic partnerships will also sometimes leave us reviews or recommend our services to another treatment provider.
Everyone wins.
Strategic partnerships require an abundance mindset. You have to believe there are more than enough people who need help. Otherwise, you might selfishly hoard a lead even if you are truly not the best fit for them.
I once knew a cycle studio that had a referral program with a circuit training gym. I was shocked to one day see the cycle studio with a booth in front of the circuit training gym’s doors.
When I asked the circut training gym’s owner about this she wisely stated that they realized that even though both of their services were fitness-related, people often bought memberships to both places!
Lastly, I would add directories to this mix. Many directories like Psychology Today, Amazon, and G2 are free to set up a profile for. You provide their visitors with local or specific options, and they get website traffic.
Pros of Strategic Partnerships
You can tap into someone else’s client base
You can help everyone you come into contact with, even if it is not your business that get the sale
You build goodwill in your community
Cons of Strategic Partnerships
Takes time to build up
Requires consistent effort to maintain relationships
Requires well-structured leadership and sales team training
6. Affiliate Marketing:
Affiliate marketing involves partnering with individuals or businesses, and promoting their products or services in exchange for a commission on sales generated.
For example, when I ran an online fitness coaching business I had Amazon affiliate links for all of my recommended gear that I was always suggesting to people. These people were going to buy the stuff no matter what, I just made sure I got a cut.
With Amazon, you also get a cut of the person’s entire checkout cart. So if you send someone to Amazon to buy a twenty-dollar jump rope and they also buy a thousand-dollar treadmill, you get a cut from everything.
This is even better for subscription-based programs because you can get a recurring cut of their purchase. For example, my fitness clients often bought nutritional supplements or meal prep kits regularly from an organization I partnered with.
This became a regular revenue stream for me independent of my coaching services.
Pros of Affiliate Marketing
Can be a recurring source of revenue through automation without additional monthly time investment
You get money for things you recommend anyways
Can sometimes give your customers a discount for their purchase
Cons of Affiliate Marketing
It can take some time to set up and get approvals for different affiliates
Many social media platforms require you to disclose affiliate links even though it doesn’t cost the customer anything extra
You cannot control the rates you get from affiliate to affiliate
Not All Leads Are Created Equal
Lead scoring is where you have a rubric for how you judge an unqualified lead from a qualified lead.
For example, when someone calls Sandstone Care for teen or young adult treatment they are logged in our system as a lead.
If through our conversation we learn that they have private insurance to pay for our service, that they are in the age range of people we treat, and they are close enough to one of our locations they become a qualified lead.
From this new list of qualified leads, we will only convert a certain percentage of them to be admitted to our program.
As you go down the sales lead funnel progressively gets more narrow the farther you go down the lead generation process.
For Sandstone Care, it looks like:
Lead capture > qualified lead > admit
The amount of people who go from one stage in the process to the next is what makes our conversion rate.
The reason this is really important to know is that different lead generation strategies will have different conversion rates.
The conversion rate of people who become admit to our program by subscribing to our newsletter or through our lead magnet will always lower the amount the conversion rate of strategic partnerships we form in the community.
Understanding this gives you a sense of scale when it comes to your efforts. SEO will help your long game, paid ads will help your short game.
What do all six lead generation tactics have in common?
All of these strategies are some form of content marketing.
Traditional content marketing is when you educate or add some value through pictures, words, or videos to build an audience of people who will buy from you when they need your stuff.
Even if you are doing paid ads, will need to drive people to a website that has content and a call to action.
Even if you are doing strategic partnerships you will need to offer something of value to start the relationship.
Your content can be webinars, white papers, templates, or free tools, really anything that will truly help your customer survive in the world.
Basically, content marketing is lead generation marketing. You exchange value for contact information to get a lead, then they exchange money for your product or service later on.
Also, you’ll notice that a lot of these lead-generation efforts bleed into one another.
If I use a podcast to form a strategic partnership, I may also share a video of that podcast on social media.
If I create a lead magnet opt-in for website visitors I might also you it as a tool in my outreach sales process.
Conclusion
The article discusses six lead-generation strategies for businesses to acquire customers and grow their operations. The strategies are as follows:
Inbound/Owned Media: This strategy involves leveraging your website and email list as owned media assets. It emphasizes the importance of an excellent website and the role of search engine optimization (SEO) in attracting organic traffic. The article stresses the need for clarity in SEO keywords and optimizing landing pages for paid advertising campaigns.
Paid Advertising (PPC and Social Media Ads): Paid advertising, including Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and social media ads, is a fast and efficient way to generate leads. It allows businesses to target potential customers based on demographics and keywords, providing a clear cost per acquisition. However, it also highlights the cost and scalability limitations of paid advertising.
Earned Media (Social Media Following): Building an audience on social media through valuable and engaging content is discussed. The article cautions that social media marketing can be challenging and emphasizes the importance of creating content that entertains and informs. It also touches on influencer marketing and its benefits.
Outbound (Cold Calling and Messaging): Outbound lead generation involves reaching out to potential customers and offering something of value to build relationships. The article advocates leading with free value and discusses the "Trojan Horse Podcast Outreach Method" for building rapport. It points out that cold calling can be effective but requires persistence and tact.
Strategic Partnerships (Networking and Business Development): This strategy involves forming collaborative relationships with businesses whose products or services complement your own. It highlights the mutual benefits of referring customers to each other and the importance of an abundance mindset.
Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing entails partnering with individuals or businesses to promote their products or services in exchange for a commission on sales. The article discusses the benefits, including recurring revenue, and drawbacks of affiliate marketing.
In conclusion, effective lead generation is the lifeblood of any successful business, and the six strategies discussed here offer a comprehensive toolkit for acquiring and growing your customer base.
While each strategy has its unique strengths and weaknesses, the common thread that ties them all together is content marketing – the exchange of value for contact information.
Whether you're investing in SEO, paid advertising, social media engagement, outbound messaging, strategic partnerships, or affiliate marketing, your ability to provide valuable content and build relationships with potential customers is paramount.
It's important to recognize that not all leads are created equal, and understanding your conversion rates at each stage of the sales funnel is key to scaling your efforts effectively.
Lead scoring allows you to prioritize and nurture those prospects most likely to convert into loyal customers.
Furthermore, the versatility of these lead-generation strategies is such that they often complement and overlap with one another. For instance, a well-crafted podcast can become a tool for forming strategic partnerships and a source of content for your social media marketing efforts.
In the end, the success of your lead generation campaigns depends on your ability to provide real value to your audience. Whether it's through informative blog posts, entertaining social media content, or a genuinely helpful lead magnet, your goal is to establish trust and deliver solutions to your customers' needs.
By applying these strategies with diligence and creativity, you can harness the power of lead generation to drive growth and prosperity for your business.
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