Lead generation is important for businesses of all shapes and sizes, but it’s especially significant for small businesses that depend on new clients to maintain profitability and drive growth. If your small business is making costly mistakes with lead generation, you may be in trouble. The sooner your correct your course, the less these problems will hold you back.
The goal of lead generation has always been the same: To find someone who has a need or pain point that your brand can satisfy, and put your products and services in front of them at the right time. But while the goal remains the same, how businesses manage lead generation has evolved.
“Lead generation once meant educating potential customers who have never heard of you or your product,” marketing executive Shelly Kramer writes. “Today, because of the internet, buyers are informed. They have a wealth of information at their fingertips, they do their own research, and are more likely than ever to take the first steps toward a purchase on their own.”
The role of lead generation in today’s marketplace is to reach prospective customers as early as you can in this research phase. The objective is to be in the right place at the right time with the right content and persuasive calls-to-action.
As the role and execution of lead generation have evolved, many businesses have become stuck in the past. Other businesses find themselves ill-prepared for tackling today’s unique challenges. Either way, most businesses are making costly mistakes.
In order to catalyze your team and enhance your lead generation efforts, you’ll need to correct the following mistakes:
Content is the unsung hero of lead generation. While everyone wants to focus on conversion forms and calls-to-action, it’s the content that educates, nurtures, and motivates prospects to take action. If you have a poor content strategy – as most companies do – your lead generation efforts will continue to be watered down.
Bolster your content creation by carefully aligning topics with pertinent pain points and needs. Then disseminate this content in places where your target market is already spending time.
There are businesses that effectively collect leads, but find it hard to capitalize as a result of poor organization. Don’t let this be you!
You can jumpstart your efforts to stay organized by using lead generation software that streamlines manual processes involving spreadsheets and word documents, allowing you to manage leads in a single, consistent place.
Is there a time and place for buying leads? Perhaps. Is it something that should make up a large portion of your lead generation strategy? Absolutely not.
For businesses that have trouble generating leads, it’s tempting to purchase an email list or buy a list of contacts from a company that specializes in providing “qualified” leads. However, this approach ultimately waters down your long-term viability and compromises future growth.
No matter what sort of sales pitch a data company gives you, you can’t buy quality leads. They must be generated firsthand in an organic fashion. Stop wasting your money; put your time and resources towards strategies that yield a healthy ROI.
“The biggest lead generation mistake company’s make is assuming that people care more about your brand than they actually do,” marketing insider Michael Brenner suggests. “73% of people surveyed recently said they could care less if the brands they use disappeared tomorrow. You have to provide value from start to finish.”
If you’ve had past success, it’s tempting to rest on your laurels and assume that your brand name will pull through for you. And while it may have some impact, it’s not enough to justify easing up on your lead generation efforts. Execute with the mentality of a fledgling startup and you’ll be much more likely to succeed.
The good news is that it’s never too late to recognize your mistakes and correct course. Whether you’re making one of these mistakes or all of them at the same time, you have the potential to strip your strategy of these blunders and rebuild an approach that’s rooted in strong, sustainable principles that are proven to generate results.
If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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