Generating leads both high in quantity and quality is a marketer’s most important objective. A successful lead generation approach is what keeps the funnel full of sales prospects while you slumber. Astonishingly, only 1 in 10 marketers feel their lead generation campaigns are effective.
There can be a lot of action points in any lead generation campaign and often times it’s difficult to know which parts need fine tuning. So what goes into a best-of-class lead generation action plan? First, let’s take a look into the mechanics of high performing lead generation campaigns....The best lead generation campaigns contain most, if not all, of these components. From a tactical perspective, a marketer needs four crucial elements to make online lead generation happen. These include:
CREATING IRRESISTIBLE OFFERS
Yes. It’s one of the most powerful words in the human language. And if you think about all the things we do as marketers, it’s ultimately to get people to say “yes” to our offers. Why do these elements work? Because they trigger a physiological reaction that makes an offer more valuable. People need to perceive the value of your offer to be greater than what you’re asking for in return. The higher the perception of value, the more irresistible the offer.
CALLS-TO-ACTION THAT ROCK
Calls-to-action (CTA) are the secret sauce to driving people to your offers. If your CTAs aren’t effective at capturing people’s attention and persuading them to the click, then it makes the offer useless. CTAs can be used on product pages (non-landing pages), in display ads, email, social media, direct mail and pretty much anywhere you can market your offer. But not all CTAs are created equal. In a world where every brand is fighting for consumer’s attention, it’s critical that prospects choose your offer over your competitors.
LANDING PAGES THAT CONVERT
Landing pages are one of the most important elements of lead generation. In fact, according to research landing pages are effective for higher percentage of B2B and B2C businesses. The use of landing pages enables marketers to direct website visitors to targeted pages and capture leads at a much higher rate.
What’s great about landing pages is that they direct your visitors to one particular offer without the distractions of everything else on your website. Visitors are on a landing page for one and only purpose to complete the lead capture form.
OPTIMIZED FORMS
Forms are the key to a landing page. Without them, there is no way to “convert” a visitor into a lead. Forms come in handy when it’s time for people to sign-up, subscribe to your site or download an offer.
MULTI-CHANNEL LEAD GENERATION
Marketers must utilize many other channels in order to maximize their lead generation efforts. In this sense, a channel might be a retail store, a website, a social media platform, an email, or search engine marketing. The objective is to make it easy for buyers to research, evaluate and purchase products in any way that is most appropriate for them. It’s all about having the right marketing mix.
CONCLUSION
Generating leads online has the power to transform your marketing. Using great offers, calls-to-action, landing pages and forms, while promoting them in multi-channel landscape, this can reduce your cost-per-lead while delivering higher quality prospects to your sales team. Continue to tweak and test each step of your online lead generation process in an effort to improve lead quality and increase revenue.
