Ensuring the continued growth of customers and profits is the backbone of a growing business. Using Marketing Channels, to promote, present and push your business so you’re delivering the right messages to the right audience at the right time is a vital part of lead generation. To get the most out of each channel, learn how to create quality content designed for lead generation.
Harnessing Social Media
Although social media has various platforms, you don’t have to be present on every single one. This is why identifying your buyer persona is so important, once you know which platforms they are using, target those. Consistency is key. Ensure you project the same brand message across all platforms. Understand how each platform has to be addressed differently and tailor your content for each. It’s also important to ensure you are posting often enough, weekly posts are recommended. Social media can also be a vital part of referral marketing, potential customers can see what current and past clients say about you and the conversations you have with them. And remember content can be re-purposed; turning a blog into a LinkedIn post or a short video could inspire a Twitter thread. Checklist for Lead Generation Optimisation on Social Media:
- Focus on valuable content
- Be consistent with the brand message
- Know what platforms your buyer persona is on
- Don’t sell
- Be human – Don’t be too serious
- Interact with the audience
How To Use PPC
Pay per click is a highly effective channel for websites doing online lead generation. You can instantly appear on page one of a search engine like Google and be in front of people who are searching for your solution to their problem. One of the biggest mistakes made with PPC is visitors get directed to the home page. Landing pages are specifically designed to generate a direct action from a visitor. The key to a successful PPC is to go direct to the point, focusing everything on your landing pages with one end goal in mind – lead generation. Potential customers are in the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey when presented with PPC. In the building products industry, PPC can be most beneficial for a quick boost to traffic or to keep a brand presence in a competitive space.
Checklist for Lead Generation Optimization for PPC
- Clear, easy to understand language
- Have a gripping offer and CTA
- Focus on keywords
- Convey authority
- Direct to a specific landing page
- Track conversion
Make SEO Work For You
Search engine optimisation serves as a funnel, bringing a stream of leads to your website, making your website one of the best lead generation tools you have. As you improve your content with SEO, it will keep attracting more and more traffic over time. SEO is vital in the early parts of the buyer’s journey, creating awareness of your brand. This is why quality content is so important to SEO. A potential lead is more likely to come across your company through a blog that answers a question related to a keyword search term. Many building product businesses focus too heavily on ‘bottom of the funnel’ leads and therefore end up neglecting ‘top of the funnel’ content (I.e., blog posts). This content builds awareness of a building product brand and a steady stream of organic traffic that didn’t know about you before, allowing you to build trust and convert more visitors.
Checklist for Lead Generation Optimization of SEO
- Identify your buyer persona
- Define your leads
- Identify target keywords for content optimisation
- Create valuable content
- Monitor rankings
- Better content > more content
Using Email Marketing
In conjunction with being one of the older channels for B2B marketing, 59% of B2B marketers say email is their most effective channel in terms of revenue generation. Email marketing can be used to communicate with people across the stages of the buyer’s journey. You can introduce them to your company, make them aware of the services you provide by sending marketing material directly to their inbox. You can send them reviews and testimonials and finally encourage them to contact you. Advancements in marketing technology mean personalisation is a lot easier and can be done en-masse and email automation gives you the means you can communicate to thousands of potential clients at once. It can be used in conjunction with marketing intelligence databases like Glenigan or Barbour ABI to target leads on projects that are ideal for your business.
Checklist for Lead Generation Optimization of Email Marketing
- Segment mailing lists
- Use personalisation
- Write an intriguing subject line
- Each line of copy should encourage people to read the next
- Keep it short
- Always include a CTA
- Follow GDPR rules
Don’t Forget Referral/Word of Mouth
Referral marketing is deliberately encouraging your customers to tell their friends about you. Whereas word of mouth is organic recommendations that your customers share with other people. With 83% of people believing brand recommendations from friends, WOM is one of the most effective marketing techniques. This is why referral marketing is a great way to generate leads, it encourages organic word of mouth. How can you implement referral marketing in the building products industry? Set up a referral programme and give an incentive. By offering your customer an exclusive discount and a discount for a partner/colleague they are more likely to refer as they are benefiting from it. Ask yourself, ‘are you getting enough testimonials after a job?’ 55% of people trust user-generated content more than any other form of marketing. Referrals are vital as a lead moves from the awareness stage to the consideration stage in the buyer’s journey.
Conclusion
Using a varied amount of marketing channels means you’ll cover more ground, so you can communicate your messages to potential leads at a time and place that suits them. Remember to monitor your website traffic and social media interactions to discover avenues for optimisation. Conversion rates are the most important metric to track to make the best use of marketing channels and determine your success. But remember the fundamental purpose is to drive traffic to your website, turn them into leads and then sell your product to them. And making use of the correct marketing channels, as part of the 7 pillars of lead generation is a key component to your success.
