Lead generation is important for any venture of any scale to turn a consistent profit and grow. This requires a good and efficient lead generation strategy. Lead generation is getting an actionable customer base that has an interest in your products or services and leads to an increase in your business output. The most common step included in all lead generation strategies is initiating conversation with your customer base and then providing them with your information and contact details for a follow-up regarding their interest or feedback on your products and services. An imperative part of finding new leads in a business is structuring the user marketing experience so that it is easy for customers to have engagements with your brand and company. Many people wonder whether they need lead generation or demand generation. Both are necessary and should be a part of the lead generation strategy, which should lead to the exchange of information or a meeting with a potential client. 

You can purchase leads as well, but you should work on building a lead generation marketing strategy as that can help you convert strangers into consumers and followers of your brand. Before you begin working on formulating your lead generation strategy, here are some strategies that you should know about. 

1. Engaging Directly

If the product that your business sells has a very high price or something that can be billed using a monthly retainer, your best approach would be to engage directly with your customers to generate new business. If your business has a revenue model that includes a low price high volume approach, this is not the option for you. You should consider reaching your client base by using social media platforms, email marketing or even by phone or in-person to establish in their minds that your company or brand is a good fit for their needs. 

2. Leveraging LinkedIn

LinkedIn is especially helpful if your business has a B2B model, it can help you see profitable results. Your lead generation strategy for LinkedIn should include building connections with industry leaders who are relevant to your brand as a way of generating business opportunities. A potential connection who asks you for a recommendation for a service they may be offering can soon become your customer. 

Another method you can use as a part of your LinkedIn lead generation strategy is building connections with a group of members of your audience, engaging with their posts or messaging them directly to tell them about your products or services. This will be more efficient if your profile itself is able to convey the message that you will be able to meet a need they have. If not, then your message or attempts of engagement can be viewed as spam and ignored or even hurt your brand credibility. 

3. Advertising and Retargeting

Apart from social media platforms, you can also include pay-per-click ads on search engines as a part of your lead generation strategy. This means you can advertise your brand for searches that may be relevant to the services or products you offer, thus increasing the chances of people visiting your website. PPC ads also give you the ability to show your online visitors visuals of your products using retargeting. It can take some time for you to see the results, but it is an effective method to add to your lead generation strategy. 

4. Asking For Referrals 

Getting a referral from a customer is among the oldest methods of generating leads. If your product or service has satisfied a customer, you can ask for their feedback or user experience or ask them to share it with their friends who can also benefit from this. Some customers may readily agree but you should consider incentives for this system. 

5. Writing Guest Blogs

This is an effective method for generating business through referrals. Content marketing will help you in improving Search Engine Optimization. A guest blog will help you make improvements in your industry connections, generate traffic from an audience that is relevant to your brand and also help you gain relevant industry backlinks. 

You can begin this as a part of your lead generation strategy by writing guest blogs for those in the industry that are relevant to your brand but are not in direct competition with you. If you wish for this lead generation strategy to be effective, try to write guest blogs for those companies that have relevance with your industry as well as your location. 

6. Ranking In Search Engines

When someone searches for your services or products online, you have to make sure that you are easily found. You have to include SEO and SEM as a vital part while developing your lead generation strategy. This includes researching the keywords and phrases that people are likely to use that are relevant to your industry. After this, work on the optimization of your website content. Gaining an organic ranking can be difficult but the leads generated from this strategy will be consistent for a long time. 

7. Answering Forum Questions

This will help you establish your expertise in that area or subject matter. This can also lead to lead generation if done well. You can answer questions on forums such as Quora and Reddit, beginning by finding the questions that are relevant to your forum. The answer should be with a call-to-action statement, highlighting how your products or services can help solve the problem of the person who has asked the question. 

8. Offering a Free Tool 

This is an effective option to include in your lead generation strategy. But it depends on the type of product or service your business offers and if you can make a tool available to your customers for free without removing the need for purchasing from you. 

9. Interviewing Influencers 

If you interview some of the leaders in your industry, you will be able to open up a lot of doors for your brand and business. This is a very efficient way to hold your network as well as gain insightful learning from experts in the industry. These interviews will also help you in generating very powerful content. 

You can create a video file of the interview, use it to write a question-answer-style blog post or use it in a podcast. Having the interview in so many different formats will help in leveraging its content to bring those users who are interested in your online website or social media platforms. You can also invite others to the interview and gather information about potential customers to help you improve your lead generation strategy. The influencer may also share that interview or its information on their channels of marketing this leading to your reach and ROI getting multiplied. 

10. Starting Networking

Building your network may not lead to direct lead generation. But it helps in the nourishment of your professional relationships and opportunities. Try by selecting a networking event that is relevant to your industry as well as local. This way you can keep the cost of travel to a minimum while at the same time ensuring that you capitalize on this opportunity. Do not go into the event with conventional expectations such as a good ROI. 

You can meet businesses that complement yours, partner with them or build a connection for sharing of leads that is mutually beneficial. You can meet an influencer who will be able to help generate a great piece of content that can expand your marketing strategy. Networking is also a very good way of getting opportunities for guest blogging. There will be multiple returns from networking and perhaps will tune out to be one of the best decisions you make for your business. 

11. Creating an Email Offer

It is not necessary that leads will only be generated by meeting new audiences. You may be sitting on the business potential that is untapped and present in your email list. If you have gathered your own list of subscription emails, you should take into consideration putting a special offer, a discount or a time-limited offer that can help a passive onlooker become your customer. 

You can also make a special offer available to people present on someone else’s subscription email list. Actively partnering and networking with businesses that are complementary to yours will lead to the promotion of your brand in the industry. It will enable you to structure deals that will let you gain promotions for yourself for a wider relevant audience. 

12. Writing Helpful Blog Comments

Do not leave formulating your lead generation strategy for the last minute. A business owner or executive of marketing operations should ensure that they have subscribed to relevant publications for their industry along with the blogs of their competitors. This will help you have a clear understanding of the competition and also help you see various opportunities that exist. 

If you take notice of the readers that leave comments on some of your blog posts that have not been sent an answer, give a response with personal insights. You can also include a call-to-action statement or some relevant information about your website that is helpful to them but also helps highlight your brand, and how it is relevant to their query or comment. But be cautious while doing this, generating leads through comments on the blog. It can be difficult to frame the comments in a way that does not get them marked as spam. Your competitors will also not be happy about you hunting for leads in their audience.