10 Best Ways to Generate Sales Leads

KEY POINTS

• Defining your target market will help you find the right people for your product or service.
• Increase leads and boost sales with creative lead generation strategies.
• Implement remarketing, SEO, or online reviews to generate leads.

74% of companies make conversions their #1 priority, which proves the importance of generating sales leads. As a business owner, you know you wouldn’t have a successful business without your customers. And you wouldn’t ever grow your customer base without generating leads.  That being said, companies must find effective ways to find new leads and convert them into valuable customers on a regular basis. In this article, we’ll discuss ten of the best ways to boost your lead generation process and increase the volume of leads for your business.

What’s In a Sales Lead

Sales leads or prospects are people or businesses who have the potential to become one of your customers or clients. They have performed an action that has indicated they are interested in a company’s service or product offerings. This action is generally clicking on a link, signing up for an e-newsletter list, filling out a form, or interacting with an online ad. There are many different ways to generate B2B leads. However, sales leads are often found through a prospecting process that includes your marketing efforts including content marketing, advertising, networking, cold calls, gathering contact information, sending content to email addresses, social media, and other effective methods designed to develop qualified leads.

Sales Lead Generation Strategies

Lead generation is a critical aspect of company growth. Leads turn into customers, which turns into money that makes you a profit. Without these potential customers, you’ll be hard-pressed to keep your business afloat. You need a consistent flow of revenue to succeed, whether you’re a small business or a giant corporation.

A sales lead generation process begins with a lead’s contact details being introduced into a company’s sales pipeline (also referred to as a sales funnel). Thus begins the sales cycle. Sales reps from the sales team will use that data to send emails or direct mail, make calls, and utilize other techniques to build relationships with customers and persuade them to purchase products or services.

Pinpoint Your Target Market

Did you know that at least 50% of your prospects aren’t suited for what you’re selling? Marketing to everyone doesn’t work. With that in mind, the first thing required in obtaining your own leads is first pinpointing your target market. It’s about finding the right people for your product or service.

You’ll also need to go through the research process to learn more about your prospect’s needs. Discovering more about your prospects will help you determine if they are a good fit for your company’s products or services. If you concentrate on selling to your target audience, you’ll be able to generate high-quality leads that turn into sales.

Tips to Increase Leads and Boost Sales

Below are several tips and examples of how B2B companies can increase their leads.

1. Sales Leads Through LinkedIn

More than 84% of corporate-level or VP-level executives make purchasing decisions by using social media platforms. One platform you may turn to is LinkedIn. The platform directly connects sales professionals with decision-makers.  Use LinkedIn to add people to your personal network, communicate via the live chat feature, join groups in your niche, follow influencers, run ads, and use the Sales Navigator tool.

2. Host Webinars

Boost B2B lead generation and create brand awareness, attract leads, and boost overall sales with webinars. You can use webinars as online workshops, panel discussions, meetings, or lectures.  The format typically includes a discussion of a certain trend or issue within a specific industry and a Q&A. These special virtual events allow you to engage with a larger number of prospects at once and receive valuable feedback.

3. Try Remarketing

Use remarketing as a way to create quality leads by engaging with prior or current customers.  Remarketing uses an email list to re-communicate with people who have already bought something from a business. In fact, 53% of marketing professionals say email has been the most effective channel in the beginning stages of lead generation.

4. Write and Distribute Press Releases

You can use press releases to generate brand awareness and connect with local businesses that could be potential clients. These professional documents are an excellent marketing tactic, which can also establish credibility, build trust, and increase website traffic. Media coverage is one of the easiest ways to get your name out there, and the best part is, your press release will be there forever!

5. Invest in Marketing Automation

Marketing automation refers to sales intelligence tools that manage marketing processes and campaigns across various channels. Your marketing department can use marketing automation to save time and reduce costs by automating tedious tasks like qualifying leads and communicating with customers and prospects through email, social media, text, or even your website. With this real-time technology, you can deliver relevant content at the right time, which can significantly increase your leads.

6. Start Advertising With Google Adwords

Studies have shown that paid ads have a 200% ROI. Google Adwords is the most popular online advertising platform where companies can bid for clicks on their ad. It’s an amazing tool that gives you instant visibility to prospects through ads that show up in search results on Google and Gmail inboxes. You can use Google Adwords to precisely target your audience, which can help you tailor your ads and attract only the people you’re looking for. Google Adwords also has exceptional performance tracking to help you see how many users viewed and clicked your ad.

7. Use SEO

Another crucial factor in business success is showing up high in search results. This process is called search engine optimization.Search engines like Google and Bing have particular algorithms, and if your website doesn’t fit the bill, then your ranking may suffer. The algorithm works by looking at target keywords within your content, the quality and length of your webpage content, backlinks, search intent, site loading speed, mobile friendliness, site structure, and others.

The higher your score, the higher you’ll rank, which means you’ll be in front of a wider audience with more potential for leads.

8. Focus On Online Reviews

Customer relationship management is key. The most successful companies generally have a marketing campaign with solid reputation management in place to build trust and maintain a good online reputation, whether it’s a Google review or a review on one of your social media profiles.

What person would want to buy from someone with terrible reviews? Give your customers a good reason to give you a raving review, whether it’s stellar customer service, an excellent and impressive product, or hopefully, both.

9. Create Valuable Content

You’ve probably heard it said that “Content is king,” right? It’s true! Every company needs to create the most engaging and relevant content for its prospects and customers. After all, only compelling content will encourage someone to make a purchase.

You can do distribute valuable content through a variety of mediums, like a monthly blog post, newsletter, or landing pages for ads. You can also conduct and share case studies, write white papers, and post regularly on relevant social media networks. When your content is appealing, so are your products and services.

10. Participate In Trade Shows

Trade shows are special industry events that bring businesses from a specific industry together in order to share their products and services. These events typically involve workshops and presentations, exhibitions, networking, media interaction opportunities, and awards presentations.

The whole point of attending these expos is to connect with potential customers and network. They offer cost-effective face-to-face (and sometimes virtual) marketing and e-commerce. Most trade shows have gigantic followings, which will result in a large crowd filled with possible leads!

Which Strategy is Right For You?

Gone are the days when cold calling was your company’s only option to attract new sales leads. Now that you’ve seen some of the best practices for lead generation, you’re probably wondering which strategy will get you the best leads and increase sales.The best lead generation strategy is obviously a successful one. However, sometimes it can be difficult to determine what technique will work for your company. It often takes time, but it’s always wise to use multiple methods simultaneously, as all of the strategies listed above can offer tremendous benefits. The world of lead generation is full of possibilities! We understand it can be a bit overwhelming though.

Are you interested in learning more about long-term solutions and new ways to boost your free leads? Or maybe you’re stuck and unsure which strategy will best suit you. No worries! We invite you to see how other marketing teams are closing deals from their lead generation strategies: https://sendoso.com/solutions/sales/.