The buying process has evolved, and with it… Advanced lead generation systems are used to get in front of those prospects.
Marketers must discover new ways to generate leads and break through the noise. Instead of reaching audiences with mass advertising and bulk email blasts, marketers now focus on building brand visibility and customer relationships through Facebook ads funnels, paid traffic sources, and email marketing and drip campaigns.
Image source: trackmaven.com
The sales cycle is giving way to the new buyer's journey. Today’s buyers are in control.
According to Forrester's research, buyers seek out three pieces of informational content about a vendor for every piece received in a marketing or sales campaign. Nowadays, buyers are self-educated. Therefore, a marketer's job is to be heard through the noise and devise new ways for leads to find the brand.
Consumers are now up to 90% of their way through the buyer's journey before they ever speak directly to your company. Their mind is already pretty much made up when they talk to you.
To have a marketing impact today, you need a solid grasp of inbound marketing and advanced lead generation systems. Here are a few advanced tactics to help your business generate leads without breaking the bank.
1. Create an affiliate program to foster lead generation
Affiliate lead generation programs or partner programs are when the sponsoring business rewards participating websites for directing leads and sales to their site.
Sometimes, they are referred to in the industry as CPA programs. They're often "zip submits" or "email submits." You want to ensure you have a general offer if you venture into this territory!
Now, affiliate marketing lead generation systems (i.e., affiliate programs) are created to spread the word about a business's products and generate more leads. A partner program benefits the vendor and the affiliate since the former generates more sales while the latter gets a commission between 5% and 75%.
Here's an excellent example of how a physical product manufacturer uses affiliate marketing tactics to drive lead generation and sales. Essentia Mattresses offers a certain amount for each sale through your referral link.
To launch a partner program, you can use a cloud app, like Ambassador, which is a bit pricey for a small business. There is also a more affordable solution, ReferralCandy, to reward customers for recommending your product.
Want to skip the tech setup altogether? Join an affiliate marketing network like ShareASale, where you can join as a merchant and get the technology worries out of your way.
2. Create and distribute an online course
A well-developed email or video course is like gaining free access to an actual training class. For busy marketers, this offer can bring high ROI for a meager investment.
Let's look at an example from a Buffer course. Buffer gives away 25 social media growth ideas over 25 days in exchange for an opt-in. Here is their page: https://buffer.com/email-courses
Buffer created the email course to repurpose existing blog content into smaller, more digestible pieces. They put it behind an opt-in gate to grab targeted leads to engage with over email.
To deliver an email course, you must create your opt-in page using any page builder.
Then, you'll have to embed a lead-grabbing form on your page. You will get the opt-in form code from your email marketing service provider (MailChimp, GetResponse, AWeber, etc.).
Finally, you must set up an autoresponder sequence in your email marketing service. This step aims to deliver a series of pre-written email messages, which are the actual content of your email course.
Also, you can quickly turn cold traffic into leads using a simple, proven lead-generation template you can download here.
Now, you can follow the same process to deliver a video course over email. Instead of typing in the content in the email body, you will include a link to the videos. Upload your videos to Vimeo or YouTube for free.
Alternatively, you may publish your free video course in marketplaces like Skillshare or Udemy. These marketplaces give you the additional benefit of free traffic from hundreds of thousands of people who visit those sites every month.
3. Use specific keywords for lead generation
Organic search marketing is arguably one of the most valuable long-term advanced lead-generation tactics. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is primarily based on optimized content for specific keywords to attract search engine visitors.
DemandGenReport's B2B survey pointed out two trends that vendors need to consider to draw the attention and gain the trust of modern B2B leads:
- Relevant content is the key: 75% of B2B buyers said it is essential that the vendor's site highlight relevant content that speaks directly to their case; 66% said it is vital that the website addresses the requirements of their industry.
- Leads expect personalized content relevant to their needs regardless of whether the company has access to their information: 71% of buyers expect a customer experience tailored to their interests and situation, even if they conduct an anonymous web search.
Getting to #1 in Google is much more complicated today than five or ten years ago, but the results will amaze you when you manage to get on the first page for long-tail keywords.
One of the most popular advanced lead generation systems is blogging because it is free and a great way to build up your visibility on Google. Publishing keyword-rich content doesn't mean "writing for Google bots"; You should always keep your reader in mind. An insightful piece of content is also great for building trust in your brand and helping to nurture leads through your sales pipeline.
Don't forget to put a form on your page to turn cold traffic into leads. See a proven lead-generation template you can download by clicking here.
Always get specific with your keywords. Know exactly what you want to rank for, and repeat precisely that phrase (or synonyms and variations) in your content. Be precise about the area and keywords you use in your local marketing campaigns.
For example, if you are a dentist in Las Vegas, do not just promote “Las Vegas Dentist.” Also, encourage your services, such as “Las Vegas Teeth Whitening” or “Discount Cavity Filling in Las Vegas.” The more specific you are, the better the chances your site will show up for that exact search phrase when prospective customers search on Google.
If you want to learn more about structuring your content for better SEO results and free lead generation, read this guide by Brian Dean of Backlinko.
4. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for better lead intelligence
Sales Navigator is a sister business to LinkedIn that operates independently from your LinkedIn entirely. It is rapidly becoming a much-needed tool for any B2B sales professional since LinkedIn has the largest database of business leads in Tier 1 countries and worldwide.
You can target your audience via 31 contact properties, like job title and date when they started their current role. You can also find prospective customers by 14 company attributes like the organization's size and location.
The huge volume of data, the high data quality, and the multiple ways you can cut and dice information using all the different attributes compile an excellent way to prospect and target the right leads accurately.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is an advanced lead generation system, but you can try it for free here: https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/sales-navigator
5. Get Leadberry to reveal your website visitors
If you don't have a system to identify visitors on your website, they remain anonymous. Knowing who has visited your website in real-time via email alerts allows you to identify new leads visiting your site for the first time and existing prospects as they revisit during later stages of the sales process.
Using Leadberry is a cost-effective way to determine who visits your web pages.
Google Analytics recommends Leadberry and can provide you with the names of the organizations visiting your site and the email addresses of the key contacts you target.
6. Form Strategic Alliances
This lead generation tactic is all about partnering with companies with complementary products or services to raise awareness of your brand. Complementary goods are products or services that tend to sell together. So, finding companies that sell those products will increase your competitive advantage instead of hurting it.
Co-marketing partnerships are one of the most efficient business lead-generation ideas by far.
Take the example of Wistia and Infusionsoft. Wistia provides professional HD video hosting with viewer analytics. Infusionsoft is a Small Business CRM, Sales & Marketing Software. They put together a guide for small business video marketing and marketed it on this page:
Partnerships vary from highly complex relationships to more straightforward arrangements, where the small corner store partners with a supplier on a small-scale promotion. Such alliances will help your company to get marketing access to the audience of your partner company. Thus, it's a cost-efficient way to reach more targeted leads.
In sniffing around for a possible alliance, look for marketing-oriented companies that have a quality product and sell to the same customer persona as you do. You may also steer away from companies or people whose politics and values don't coincide with yours and could hurt your brand reputation.
7. Participate in Podcasts
Podcasting is having a Renaissance because the content is accessible for people to consume wherever they are. From the aspect of marketing, it’s a relatively high-growth and highly-converting channel. It’s perhaps 5 to 10 times more effective than a similar proven marketing channel: guest posting.
Why do podcasts drive higher lead conversion rates?
First, listening to someone on a podcast creates a much more personal relationship than reading a blog post they wrote.
Second, it’s more difficult to skim podcasts like you can touch an article so that people will look at the whole story behind you and your business; they won't just be exposed to the headlines.
Another long-term benefit of being featured on a podcast is boosting your SEO. Because the podcast host will publish it on a show page, they will also link to your website, similar to when you post guests. The Google ranking bots will love the diversified link profile.
They are wondering how to get featured on podcasts. One way is to look for podcasts people like you have been on. Who is an authority in your space and a few years ahead of you? Also, look for relevant new and noteworthy Podcast shows in iTunes. They’re fresh, so they will need more guests to release more episodes.
Advanced lead generation systems for marketers and entrepreneurs
Sales is a numbers game. The more leads you feed into the top of your funnel, the more customers you will get. It is really that simple.
The pressure is always on the marketing team to deliver qualified leads to the sales department or through the sales funnel. We all understand the importance of lead generation – it’s coming up with fresh and practical ideas that can sometimes be tricky.
If you want us to create a lead generation funnel, click here to schedule a call!