Lead Generation Strategies (Part II)

After reading up on the foundations of an Inbound Lead Generation Strategy, it’s time to touch on the actual strategies employed by marketers all over the world.

We have come a long way from the traditional lead generation tactics employed by older generations of marketers and salespeople. We have gone from outbound to inbound because, as we have realized time and time again, the world is ever changing and along with the constant change and evolution of technology and processes, we have come to learn that in business and marketing, the inbound methods are what work best, inbound is the way to go.

Now, when it comes to lead generation, you are probably wondering what are good inbound lead generation tactics that, given the present scene, can give you the most optimum results. Lucky for you, in this article, we’re going to discuss that, as well as how to measure the effectiveness of your inbound lead generation tactics.

Let’s continue!

Common Lead Generation Tactics

In the past, the most well-known and frequently utilized lead generation tactics include cold-calling, outbound emailing, as well as cold approaching.

The common characteristics of these outbound lead generation tactics is that they can be disruptive, in that the level of attention that they will require from the target audience is usually a lot, which would mean these prospects targeted by these tactics will have to drop whatever it is they are doing in order to find out what the message is. In this day and age, these efforts will usually end up being ignored. People hang up on old-calls, irksome emails are promptly labeled as spam, and with cold-approaches? People literally run away as soon as they get a whiff of a “sales pitch”.

Nowadays, businesses mostly resort to inbound lead generation tactics to fuel their sales funnels. Every now and then, something new comes up. A new strategy, a new medium, a new development that can influence how the general inbound methods are applied. There is always a new trend that swiftly changes how the game is played.

That being said, what are good inbound lead generation tactics used these days?

Keep scrolling and find out!

Popular Inbound Lead Generation Tactics that Work

For the longest time, popular lead generation tactics that are implemented by businesses mainly include content marketing– examples would be blogs, websites, and  infographics published through various social media pages. Here, you see a simultaneous implementation of content and social media marketing.

You can also inject a bit of Search Engine Optimization which, some sources say, have the highest online lead generation Return Of Investment (ROI), most probably because of its low customer acquisition cost. Then again, these are all very general. And you are here because you wanted to find out what are the good inbound lead generation tactics. So that’s exactly what you’re gonna get.

And here you go.

Educational Blog Contents

Creating and publishing educational content on your website at least twice a month will help you organically reach higher rankings. This also lets you earn your target audience’s trust, allowing you to build a reputation as a reliable source for a certain topic of interest. At the same time, as you gain their trust, they become more and more inclined to share your content across social media channels.

Content Marketing Campaigns

This utilizes unadulterated inbound methodology: attract, engage, convert, and nurture website visitors by giving them a reason to take action in the form of sharing relevant articles, videos, and various other forms of content. This includes the creation of landing pages, smart forms, segmentation lists, email templates for nurturing leads and workflows to support the campaign.

Guest-Blogging

In relation to publishing content regularly with the goal of organically reaching a higher ranking on web searches, guest-blogging, or the act of strategically including links to other websites in your content, will lead those websites to link some of your content into theirs, too. Linking non-competitor industries into your content every now and then will only enrich your referral network.

Enticing Calls-To-Action

You might notice that these tactics are all interrelated. As our featured “valuable” resources and compelling offerings pile up on our web page, it is imperative that we create a clear conversion path for those random, curious page visitors so they would know exactly  what to do next. Common examples of clear CTAs are content downloads or your regular “Download Now”, newsletter sign-ups, content subscriptions, free website assessments, and various other free offerings.

Compelling Content Offers

Of course, to get page visitors enticed enough to click on your CTAs, you have to ensure that your content offerings are compelling and valuable enough to your target audience.

Social Media Marketing

EVERYONE is on social media these days, which makes it logical that social media marketing is among the best and most popular lead generation tactics. It’s tantamount to casting your net into the part of the sea that’s teeming with fish.

You have to be where the people are. After all, people= leads.

Inject Fun Engagement Activities

In relation to social media marketing where you make use of social media such as Facebook and Instagram, you can get creative in the process by coming up with games that will engage more and more people and eventually turn them into leads.

Let us give you a clearer example of how this is done:

An airline company can give away free roundtrip tickets for two to Spain for a chosen account owner who will be sharing their content and tagging another friend.

A shoe brand can give away coupons to the person who can design the best-looking shoe using Instagram Stories.

Really, the list can only go on, but you get the picture.

Paid Social Media Campaigns

Social Media like Facebook and Instagram, among others, earn through ads. Various companies and brands all over the world own business accounts that allow them to increase the reach of their campaigns by paying for these social media channels. And here’s the catch, you can curate your target audience for this, and you can pattern them to your own buyer persona.

Through paid social media campaigns,  people who fit your buyer persona can be reached by your ads, which will ultimately translate into leads.

Social Media Networking

This is an avenue for you to introduce your brand or gain higher regard from industry peers/partners or even competitors. With consistent sharing of content, and other relevant articles on social sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn– not only do you increase your visibility, you also get to share expertise which results in you earning a reputation for being a reliable brand.

How to Gauge Success of Lead Generation Tactics

Learning all that, you probably are now wondering– how to measure the effectiveness of your inbound lead generation tactics?

Simple– by calculating the total cost of your strategy. From its creation, implementation, and the actual generation of leads.

Then you compare it with the leads you have generated, and the revenue you got from the sales that result from these leads.

That’s how to measure the effectiveness of your inbound lead generation tactics. It’s all about revenue.

Wondering how you can improve your lead generation tactics to increase sales and grow your business? Download our eBook today!