Shaan Rais is a professional speaker and leadership and organizational development consultant.
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Lead generation is often a big challenge for business leaders. With an increase in competition and information overload, it can be tough to track, reach and engage with potential clients. The market may appear like a jungle with many businesses struggling to survive, but there are various ways to overcome this significant challenge when proper planning and strategy are in place. With this in mind, I will be sharing three practical ways small businesses can generate leads.
1. Create a lead magnet.
What is a lead magnet? A lead magnet is an opt-in gift you offer your target audience in exchange for their contact information. With their contact information in hand, you would be able to stay in touch with those who interacted with your business by signing up for your gift. This is gold because, in my experience, anyone who signs up for your freebie already self-identify themselves as your ideal client.
There are many examples of a lead magnet, but below are a couple of possibilities.
• Quiz: Offering a quiz or assessment to your readers or target audience gives them insights and also helps them gain clarity on their path. You also get to learn more about them. This is useful for both product and service-based businesses. You can use a tool like Interact, Typeform or a Google form to create this quiz.
• Free guide: A free guide is typically a PDF document that is shorter than an e-book. It usually contains how-to information. For example, it could be a guide on how to manage your time daily for productivity. The more specific and helpful you can be, the higher chance of attracting high probability prospects who would self-identify themselves when they sign up.
• Free trials: You offer free trials when you want your target audience to experience your products or services before they buy. This is a good strategy when you are just starting out or launching new products or services. Most people usually offer a free trial for 30 days or longer. In the end, you are able to leverage the concept of scarcity because if the prospect does not sign up for the paid version of your product or service, they will lose the free version they currently have.
• Swipe files: This is a folder with multiple examples of one idea — e-books, checklists, online courses, etc. This is a great approach if you want to showcase a variety of products or services.
2. Promote the lead magnet.
Once you have decided on your lead magnet, you will want to promote it on a social media platform where your target audience congregates, such as Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, Reddit groups, Instagram, etc. You can also promote it on your website or leverage other people’s platforms by guest posting with a link that redirects the target audience to your website or the landing page for the opt-in or sign-up. Promote your lead magnet on all the platforms you use to reach your audience, including a podcast, YouTube or email.
Having discussed organic ways to promote your lead magnet, you can also promote your lead magnet by running a paid campaign. Here, you get to use different metrics such as location, age or status, and the platform algorithm will work according to your metrics to reach your target audience. Note that knowing your target audience is critical before attempting this route.
3. Increase your online visibility.
Lastly, you want to make your business visible online so that your target audience can locate you for free. How do you do this? Create quality content and share it where your target audiences are. In my experience, being committed to creating and sharing valuable content that is well-targeted will attract the right prospects. Your content could be short videos on target audience pain points, blogs, podcasts, social media posts, etc.
There is a saying, “Content is king.” It is a valuable tool to move your target audience from being a subscriber to a paying client. While you create valuable content, ensure it is optimized for search engines and be sure to research best practices around the platform’s algorithm so you can enjoy organic visibility.
In conclusion, the way to overcome a lead generation problem is to create a great lead magnet, promote it organically or through paid ads and make sure your target audience can find you.
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