Small businesses face many challenges in the day to day, one of which is simply bringing in the people they want to do business with. Lead generation can look tricky from the outside, but with a little push in the right direction, your business can get a generation strategy that works for you in no time. Below are our best tips and tricks to generating more leads for your small business.
Create lead-swapping opportunities
Sharing leads with related companies is a great way for both your businesses to acquire likely interested clientele. For the best results, leverage the technology available to you to make sure these lead swaps aren’t just a big waste of time. Use your preferred small business CRM to track the leads shared with you and what returns you’re getting on them. If most of the leads from a certain company don’t turn out to bring any business to you, perhaps you should reevaluate the businesses you’re swapping with.
And, of course, this strategy is only for companies you’re on good terms with—swapping leads with your biggest competitors wouldn’t be a wise business move!
Automate your marketing
There are plenty of tools out there that can help take the stress and workload of lead acquisition off your team. Applications like drip can automate pop-ups, email lists, and other web-based marketing tactics, and other tools like Agorapulse can manage your social media for you. Although marketing should always be genuine and personal, some tasks just don’t need human hands on them 24/7. Find the programs that fit best with your company to automate the more menial marketing tasks and clear up some room in your schedule for other important tasks.
Utilize referral partnerships
Many leads can come out of making strong partnerships with other small businesses. With referral partnerships, you can get a percentage of the revenue from referrals you send to other businesses, and they can get a percentage from customers they’ve referred to you.
Before starting a referral partnership, it’s a good idea to have a knowledgeable adviser or business coach look at the partnership to make sure everyone is clear on the stipulations of the deals. Make sure to include all the nitty-gritty details, such as the quality of leads, percentage tiers, and total sale amounts.
Comment on other blogs
Your own blog isn’t the only tool at your disposal. Commenting on other blogs in your industry can help get your name out there, familiarizing possible leads with you and your expertise. In your comments, be kind, helpful, and show interest in what the blog post is actually saying. Don’t use the comment section to advertise yourself; rather, engage with the content that’s already there, and readers will be more likely to show interest in who you are and what you have to say.
Offer something for nothing
New customers might choose your business over another through an incentive that is cost-effective for them; and there’s nothing more affordable than a free good or service. If you’re a contractor, you can offer free design consultations; if you’re a baker or caterer, you can offer free tastings, etc. Offering something while expecting nothing in return is a great way to build trust and a solid relationship with a potential customer.
Be content-based
If your lead generation strategies so far haven’t worked out, maybe it’s time to take things from a different angle. Content-based lead generation focuses on producing regular, high-quality content, which in turn boosts your placing on search engines and increases your visibility.
Search engines want to provide users with the quickest, simplest answers to their questions. This is an easy goal to focus your website on. Your pages and blog posts should answer the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your company—and of whatever business your company deals with. Provide solutions to problems that your clientele is likely having. Answer questions that you get asked in your day-to-day, or address concerns you hear a lot of leads having. The accuracy and consistency of your content is the key to driving your website traffic and ultimately your lead generation.
Small businesses run on their relationships—but starting these relationships is often the hardest part. With careful planning, thoughtful strategy, and the tips above, your lead generation process is sure to bring in the customers you’ve been searching for.
