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Lead generation. It’s essential to keep your business going and growing. It also requires a strategy to actually work and we’re not just talking about a popup on your website to capture emails.
Lead gen is an art form in and of itself. It’s also a great opportunity, one that often goes untapped due to one-dimensional approaches that don’t even scratch the surface of what’s possible.
What can you do? Well, in the digital space alone there is ample opportunity to add your voice to the conversations that convert. We chose a few of our favorites to get the wheels turning on how you can turn lead gen into successful strategy. Try them all or just a couple and you’re bound to improve your lead generation game.
Write Regularly for Your Blog
Let’s start with the most basic form of content marketing, considering content is such an important cornerstone for lead generation. Writing regular blog posts might be the best and easiest way to demonstrate your expertise, which is what most prospects are after.
Just like you, they are looking to grow their business and sharing your knowledge can help them do just that if you’re in the B2B space. For B2C efforts, it’s an opportunity to show how your product or service solves common problems.
A blog with regular cadence is key. Keep in mind that one of the first places prospects go when they get to your website is the blog or news section. Old or stale content can be an instant turn-off. If you’re not already, keep the content flowing on your blog and keep pace with website visitor expectations. Like with many other tips and tricks in this post, it’s important to expand your reach within your industry. Write a guest post for another blog to reach a new audience. This win-win creates content you can cross-post on your own blog too.
Publish a White Paper or Ebook
Those blog posts can come in pretty handy when executing our next tip. Multiple posts about the same subject matter can be easily converted to a white paper or ebook. Tally up the posts that make the most sense together, edit as needed and then design them appropriately for PDF distribution.
You’ll then possess a great piece of gated content you can require a name and email to get. We mentioned those popups you have for email capture on your website. Well, this gives prospects an incentive to subscribe.
Speaking of gated content, another great idea is undertaking your own market research to create a report is thought leadership gold. This takes considerably more time and resources, but the results could net you more email addresses and warm leads.
Create Educational and How-To Visual Content
Video content is key in any lead gen strategy. Social platforms like Instagram are placing ever-more emphasis on video and YouTube has dominated the space for more than a decade and a half.
Educational and how-to video content is yet another way to demonstrate your expertise or illustrate how your product or service solves a problem. The more polished, the better, but even a smartphone can capture some pretty decent footage.
It’s appropriate to include the concept of a free course or webinar here. The engagement with your captive audience is priceless and you can again use the free presentation as a vehicle for building that email list.
All these kinds of content can feed even more blog posts as they can easily be transcribed and presented in an editorial format. As a bonus, a webinar presentation can be reshared as a deck on social media, further stretching the value of the time and effort it takes to produce.
Get Featured in Industry Pubs and Podcasts
So, your blog posts, PDFs and even presentation decks are great for another way to demonstrate thought leadership. Use your existing content to pitch industry publications, who might feature it as guest posts or articles. These demonstrations of your expertise might also earn you a spot in one of the pub’s articles dealing with the subject you’re pitching. Being included as a source gets you and your company out there and on the minds of readers within your own industry.
This also applies to the audio realm. Have a favorite industry podcast? Pitch an idea for an episode that just so happens to feature you or an expert from within your organization.
Pay for Social Media Advertising
This is where gated content comes into play again. Use social media to boost exposure of your aforementioned whitepaper, ebook or even a deck of presentation slides. Paid social media increases your reach exponentially and in highly targeted fashion. If you’re going to take the time to create all this content, paid social is just one more way to make it worth it.
Automate Your Email Campaigns
And, of course, you better have a plan for all those emails you’ll be capturing. Consider automating your email campaign and let your e-communications software lead your leads further down the sales funnel. This ensures your prospects are getting the right message at the right times or when they take certain actions.
These are just some of the ways to up your lead gen game beyond a simple popup simply asking for an email. You’ll notice that whatever step you take starts with good content that either demonstrates thought leadership or solves a problem, so remember always to use your expertise to leverage lead generation.
About The Author
Andrew is a master strategist with more than a decade of experience on both sides of the media equation. He’s an expert in planning, buying and executing marketing strategies with analyzation and reporting skills to match.
Andrew’s career has been filled with certifications, awards and accolades since graduating from LeMoyne College with a degree in communications. As the leader of media management at ABC, he’s the ideal client advocate when it comes to tactics and placement within any size budget.
He was drawn to the creative-forward setting of ABC, where he subscribes to the idea-based ethos of putting the message and client first.