5 Steps to Easy Lead Generation

I’m sure you’re a very smart person. To be in business, you have to be.

As a business owner, you have to know a lot about your customers, your product, and your industry. Even so, sometimes I bet even YOU don’t have all the answers. So why not tap into the smart folks working all around you for help?

One of the best ways to generate leads, grow your business, and establish your credibility nowadays is to SHARE.

In today’s fast-changing world of search, subject matter experts (SMEs) get a lot of attention. So draw on your — and your team’s — specialized knowledge to establish your company as a subject matter expert.

Why?

Google LOVES original content. When deciding how your company should rank in its search engine, Google rewards websites that offer consistent and relevant content with a higher page rank. Thus —

The key to making your business more visible is to push your company’s story and collective expertise out there. Then sit back and watch the leads pile up.

OK. It’s not that easy . . . but it IS a lot easier than you might think.

Here are 5 easy steps to easy lead generation:

1. Develop a culture of sharing within your business — All successful businesses have a group of technical, support, and sales people that have tips and insights that are valuable to your customers. Tap into those resources and ask EVERYBODY at your company what they could share that your prospects might be interested in. There are many resources that can inspire your content creation. You or your marketing staff can then transform your employees’ tips and ideas into blog posts, FAQs,  links to industry news articles, etc. — and SHARE AWAY.

2. Create a process for developing (news or blog) articles and eBooks that organize what you know; then communicate that value — in detail — to your customers. You probably know a lot more than you think you do. Once you start brainstorming tips you can share with others, don’t recreate the wheel for each article or eBook. Streamline the process, so you can quickly get your great ideas out of your head and into the world. Learn why having a content strategy is important in 5 Reasons Your Business Needs Content Marketing.

3. Be consistent in your voice — All your content should be developed with the intention of helping your customers become smarter about how to use and benefit from your products or services. The tone should be how-to not hard-sell.

4. Find the right channels to distribute your ideas — Learn where your customers go to get information about your industry. Think beyond search engine optimization (SEO) and traditional social marketing. Discussion groups and forums are also great places to share your content to make your business name and services more visible.

5. Track and learn what works — Analytics tools are critical to a successful lead-generation program. They allow you to identify who is interested and what they are interested in. Learn more about email tracking in Demystifying Email Open and Clickthrough Tracking.

Once you get sharing, it’s easy to keep it going.

People love talking about what they do or how they do it. Creating a process to take what you know and using it to develop a content marketing strategy around lead generation can be highly beneficial to your top line.

So embrace the new rules for search — Use content (i.e.., tell your company’s story, share your expertise, and offer lots of engaging and useful content) if you want to move up in organic searches. Focus your marketing efforts on lead generation if you want to increase your sales.

For more ideas on how to develop a lead generation program to grow sales, call me at 262.373.4001 or connect with me on LinkedIn.