Small businesses need every tool possible to get leads.
It’s a major part of staying in business and growing.
Without new leads, there are no new customers.
Obviously, the right tactic is to get as many qualified leads as you can.
The bigger your lead list, the better your odds of earning new customers.
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Just Because You Get Leads Doesn’t Mean You’ll Make Them Customers
Here’s a word of caution if you happen to have high expectations.
Not every lead you get will become a customer.
You likely already know that by now, but it needs stating.
There is a big difference between a lead and a customer.
Customers are the people who have exchanged money for your goods or services.
Leads are simply another opportunity to earn a customer.
The point of getting leads is to increase the number of opportunities you have.
While many of the things on this list make closing a lead easier, it’s still up to your sales process to finish the job.
But if you don’t get leads, they don’t get the chance.
These Are The Actions Your Small Business Needs To Get Leads
It’s time to get leads.
Since this isn’t something that happens on its own, you need to know what your part is.
Thankfully, the actions you have to take are easily defined.
I’ve broken them up into related categories today to make it easier to understand.
You don’t need to do them in this order.
In fact, it’s probably better if you have them ready at once.
But because there are multiples that serve the same purpose, it makes more sense to explain them together.
Let’s get to it, shall we?
Make Contact With Potential Leads
If you’re going to get leads, you need to make contact first.
Contacting potential leads is a matter of putting your brand in front of them.
Nobody can become your lead if they don’t know you exist.
They’re not going to find you by accident.
You’ve got to put your brand out there to be found.
And you need to know the most effective ways to do it.
There are just a few things you’ve got to get a handle on.
Once you do, it should be simple for your target audience to see you.
That initial contact is what’s going to help get them interested in becoming your lead.
Optimize Your Website To Get Leads
The most common place to get leads is through search.
As the first point of contact for most of the web, search provides leads who are typically more qualified in the early phases of their buy cycle.
Logically, this is one avenue you want to guarantee contact through.
You might be familiar with a process called search engine optimization, or SEO.
Even if you don’t really understand what to do with it.
Optimizing your website to get leads through search is about making sure your site gets shown to searchers who want the information you have.
You want to answer the questions your target market has about your industry.
But if Google is going to know you have the answers, you need to tell them in the right way.
That’s going to involve a little work on you (or your web designer’s) part.
Run through the content on your main website pages.
Look at the home page and every service page you have.
Make sure they’re following all the SEO best practices.
Which you may not be familiar with…
It’s OK, though.
There are a ton of free SEO tools out there that will help you to optimize your pages.
Put them to use and make sure your website is ready to be found.
Reach Out To Get Leads From Other Audiences
Search optimization won’t get leads for you right away.
It’s a constant task that works over time.
But, because the results are so good, it’s a necessary action.
So, what do you do in the meantime?
As you wait for search to work, it’s time to bring your company, and your expertise, to audiences you know are looking for it.
You’ll do that through other websites and forums in your industry.
Borrow the audiences that others in your industry have built. Share on XThere are likely leaders in your industry that, while they’re technically your competition, aren’t companies you directly compete with.
Those industry leaders have likely already developed audiences who engage with educational content.
These audiences may even reach out and ask questions.
Chances are most of this happens through other blogs and forums.
Jump into the comments of those blogs and forums and connect with those audiences.
People you find there are already looking for a company like yours.
Offer value to them related to the topic you’ve connected on.
For example, if you’re reaching out in the comments section on a blog, you can expand on the ideas.
Leave your feedback and any information that wasn’t covered in that article.
Share that there is more to learn about the topic.
Indicate why your comments come from expertise by introducing your brand and your website.
When a reader finds your comments valuable, they’ll head over to see what you have to offer.
Get Leads To See You With Pay Per Click Campaigns
You know, while you’re reaching out to the comments section, Google and other search engines can still help you get leads.
They have an awesome fast-track to page one results.
Not-to-mention you can use the same tactics to get onto tons of other websites as well.
Pay-per-click campaigns are an awesome option for making that first contact.
Through a little bit of dedicated research and a budget to back it, you can show up in sponsored ads across the web.
While it’s not the most budget-friendly option for small businesses to get leads, it’s an effective one.
Constructing ads for PPC campaigns takes a little time and effort to get right.
You’ll have to understand keywords and ad copy.
If you’re using images, you’ll need to make sure they fit the guidelines of the platform you’re advertising on.
And, of course, you’ll need to track the success to make sure you eliminate any campaigns that aren’t getting a reasonable ROI.
However, if you handle your PPC campaigns correctly, you’re guaranteed to get in front of the right audience quickly.
Those well-crafted ads will draw them to you so you can get them as leads.
Engage With Your Potential Leads
Once you’ve reached out to contact the leads you want to get, you should see some attention.
Your website and the comments you left on others should get a little feedback.
People who you’ve reached out and met through one of the methods we talked about should begin looking for you.
Now it’s time to engage.
The people who’ve seen you around the web need to know that you’re not just a person in the industry.
You’ve got to show them that your brand is something the industry has to offer.
It’s time to make conversation with the audience you’re beginning to build.
By making the effort to start the conversation or join into ones already happening, you can start to build a level of trust.
That trust is going to help get leads in the future.
Get Leads From Social Media Platforms
Most of the conversations on the internet happen on social media.
Because it’s the place where so many people spend their time, it’s the place where the most interaction happens.
It’s also the best place to engage your target audience.
By digging into social networks and learning the ways that each of them helps you engage your audience, you can get leads through engagement with much higher efficiency.
Master the content that works best on the platforms that make the most sense for your brand.
Share as often as makes sense.
And no matter what, make sure you respond to every comment left by your audience.
This is the most important step if you intend to get leads.
Failing to actively engage with your audience will leave them feeling cold towards your brand.
They want to know they’re being heard and will find another company that will listen.
Through that engagement, you can form trust.
Trust helps you get leads.
Answer Questions To Get Leads
A great way to engage with your audience and get leads is to answer their questions directly.
On sites like Alignable, Quora, and Reddit, people have questions about your industry.
They’re looking for answers that you can likely provide. What better way to show them that your company is the right one to work with than to demonstrate your expertise.
And it’s a great way to enter a conversation with them.
By providing the answers that your audience is looking for, you’re much more likely to get them as leads.
With your answer, refer them back to additional content on your website that they can learn more from.
This reinforces the ideas you shared with them and shows them that you’re much more than just a face in the crowd.
It also brings you an opportunity to get leads from the people it drives to your website.
After all, when someone else has the same question, they won’t have to ask it after coming across an answer like yours.
You’ll get more people to your site than just the person whose question you answered.
Convert Your Audience To New Leads
Now it’s time to get leads from the new audience you built.
Just like sales from leads, not every audience member will become a lead.
You need to get right with that idea early.
If you’re paying attention to what’s happening that stops them from becoming a lead, you can make improvements over time.
That’s going to allow you more chances to get leads in the future.
But for now, you need to know what you’ve got to do to convert your new audience members.
Include A Great Lead Magnet To Get Leads
When people begin to visit your site, you need to make sure they’ve got a reason to give you their contact information.
You’ve also got to do something to start qualifying them as a lead.
And that’s where the magic of a lead magnet comes in.
Lead magnets help you get leads by finding out who has a problem your company can solve.
They also help differentiate what that problem is.
Each lead magnet helps separate your audience into different groups to help you communicate with them.
Starting with a lead magnet based on one of your products or services, trade for their information.
Visitors will gladly trade for the information they need to solve their problem, or at least bring them closer to a solution.
Nurture Your Audience With Emails To Get Leads
Some of your visitors won’t be enticed by your lead magnet.
They’re not quite ready to enter the buying journey yet.
However, they might sign up for your newsletter.
That’s the key reason these still come into play.
And you need to use that newsletter to bring your audience to the point of readiness.
When you can learn to use emails right, you can get leads from your newsletter.
Crafting amazing emails can give your newsletter list the incentive to move towards a sale.
The information you send to them can suggest the pain points they face.
As you indicate there may be a problem they didn’t notice, their mind starts moving towards a solution.
Once they’re in that space, your lead magnets will draw them in.
Get Leads By Bringing Them Back With Notifications
In the same thread as emails, notifications can help you get leads from site visitors.
Push notifications are the automated messages that let your audience know there’s new information on your site.
As you publish a new article, push notifications go out to all your subscribers with a link.
They’ll see your new content on their phones and desktop browsers.
Interested subscribers will click the link, taking them to content that helps them see the problems they may be facing.
Through those blog articles, your audience will move towards the sales process.
There, they’ll also find those lead magnets.
Lead magnets that draw them back in.
Then you get leads.
Driven through push notifications.
If You Want To Get Leads You Need The Tools
Taking these actions will help you get leads through the internet.
With them, there’s no reason you should have trouble making sure your lead list is big enough to keep making sales.
Stick to it and see the growth you need.
