{"id":43456,"date":"2023-10-20T15:28:42","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/five-top-lead-generating-tips-for-2014-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:28:42","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:28:42","slug":"five-top-lead-generating-tips-for-2014-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/five-top-lead-generating-tips-for-2014-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Five top lead generating tips for 2014 – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Generating leads is an all-important task for businesses and especially so for solo traders, start-ups and smaller businesses.<\/p>\n

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Too many businesses end up taking a haphazard approach to lead generation, so here are five simple strategies you can use to find quality leads for your business this year.<\/p>\n

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1. Start with a strategy<\/b><\/p>\n

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So many people in business take a scattergun approach to lead generation, going for mass marketing to spread their message, without really knowing if the message is getting through to their target market.<\/p>\n

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Start at the very beginning, and decide who you want to target, advises Peter Griffith, the Asia-Pacific director of training and consultancy firm for businesses, rogenSi.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDetermine the look and feel of your ideal customer. Who are they, where do they live, work and play? Also, consider their habits and lifestyle, and think about what they buy and from which companies, how they shop, how they access information and how they make decisions. Also, think about their business and personal needs, and how you help fix these,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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The best lead generation technique depends on the company, their industry, the products\/services they sell, who they want to sell them to, how they differentiate from competitors and the brand they want to promote, he says.<\/p>\n

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Ask anyone even moderately tech savvy and they\u2019ll tell you there are only two options \u2013 search engine optimisation and Google AdWords, he says.<\/p>\n

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2. Make your website work harder<\/b><\/p>\n

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Your company website should be working hard to generate leads for your business, so make sure it\u2019s up to date and has all the bells and whistles.<\/p>\n

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This should be the central hub for all your marketing and lead generation, says Marnie Ashe, head of consulting for Reload Consulting.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNot only will this allow for greater tracking of where your leads come from, what makes them inquire and ultimately what makes them become a customer, but also provides a central point for inquiry, allowing your potential customers\u2019 details to be fed into a marketing database for future use,\u201d Ashe says.<\/p>\n

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Increasing enquiries on your website can be easily achieved by making sure it\u2019s easy to find your contact details, with a phone number on every page a good idea, and your contact page easily accessible from your navigation, she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAlso, have an enquiry form on every page. The easier it is to enquire, the more chance you have of a prospect inquiring. But keep the enquiry form short and sweet, you can collect more information when you follow up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Also, consider adding a live chat service to your website, which is like having a friendly sales consultant greet people and offer them live assistance about your service, and can cost around $10 a day. Check out Web Reception or Live Chat Monitoring, which both offer this service.<\/p>\n

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3. Get social<\/b><\/p>\n

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One of the best things you can do for your personal brand and business is to take social media seriously. When done well, building and communicating with your network of followers will build loyalty and trust in your business, and ultimately build sales.<\/p>\n

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A compelling and active LinkedIn profile can also work well to generate new leads, according to Joe Fox, marketing director of web development and digital marketing agency, Studio Culture.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are so many opportunities that people are missing by simply not updating their LinkedIn profiles and networking with other business owners or potential customers on the platform,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Catriona Pollard, director of Sydney\u2019s CP Communications agrees, saying LinkedIn is without a doubt the best place for b2b lead generation.<\/p>\n

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\u201cA basic account on LinkedIn will allow you to build relationships and maintain contacts, as well as give you a lot of transparency into your extended professional network. You can generally contact your first degree and second degree connections using LinkedIn InMail, even if you don\u2019t have their email address,\u201d Pollard says.<\/p>\n

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By upgrading to LinkedIn Premium, you can contact people outside of your network and gain further insights into who is viewing your profile, she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou can also directly target new leads using LinkedIn\u2019s advanced search, which allows you to drill down and filter people by role type, company or industry, leading to high quality leads.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Facebook is another great tool. Melbourne business coach Maureen Pound suggests offering a free report on your Facebook business page to get people into your sales funnel.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMake sure that whatever you are offering is really useful and alleviates some sort of pain for your target market, such as \u20185 biggest mistakes people make when starting out in business\u2019, or \u2018how to get your baby sleeping through the night\u2019, for example. There\u2019s lots of software out there to help you do this, such as lead pages,\u201d Pollard says.<\/p>\n

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4. Do the little things<\/b><\/p>\n

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Understanding why and how you help people, and focusing on what problems you\u2019re solving for them and how you solve them is paramount, says Frances Pratt, who explains sales to non-sales people.<\/p>\n

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\u201cUse this information to get your message out there. This should be the central thing you talk about in your advertising and promotions. Use this information to tell them about what you do and to ask questions when you\u2019re meeting people,\u201d Pratt, of Metisan says.<\/p>\n

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Also, always ask for repeat business, she says. Once you\u2019ve got something great for someone, ask if there\u2019s something else you can help with.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s amazing once you have achieved something, how people will open up with more problems that they need help with.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Also, make sure you\u2019re talking to the right people, who have the budget and power to spend with you.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo many business owners spent time on people who aren\u2019t the decision maker, or aren\u2019t willing to pay, which is a huge waste of time and energy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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Businesses should shake their approach up a bit. Replicate what works 80% of the time using lead generation sources that have previously proven to lead sales. But 20% of the time, be inventive and try new lead sources, recommends Susanne Mather, executive director of Employment Office.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOne example in the recruitment sales business is that 80% of the time, we source leads from recruitment advertising, calling businesses that are advertising for staff themselves.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut 20% of the time, we do things like take photos of the tent lists in the foyer of CBD high rise buildings and cold call them all. Or take photos of the logos on the sides of buildings and trucks when we\u2019re out and about, and cold call these,\u201d Mather says.<\/p>\n

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5. Get serious about content management<\/b><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s crucial to have a robust content management system as a place to conveniently store, manage and access both new leads and leads you\u2019re revisiting, says Mather.<\/p>\n

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Every team member at Employment Office starts the day with exactly 20 new leads entered in the CMS, which are sourced from a variety of channels, no excuses, she says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s important for lead generation to be a carefully thought out part of the sales process, and it needs to be executed with consistency.<\/p>\n

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\u201cInvesting in a program that really works for your business is something you will thank yourself for again and again, and has the capacity to repay the initial expense many times over.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Once you\u2019ve got a great way to manage your leads, adopt the \u2018find, wash, enter\u2019 process,<\/p>\n

This refers to finding leads strategically and consistently, washing leads to make sure they\u2019re not being approached by colleagues and entering those leads into a content management system so they are easily accessible and manageable, she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Generating leads is an all-important task for businesses and especially so for solo traders, start-ups and smaller businesses.   Too<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,21,13,1,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}