Lead Generation

Imagine a customer that calls and asks YOU for your service instead of the other way around. A good Lead generation strategy involves a comprehensive marketing plan with measurable, strategic goals. I know you are nodding and saying yes right now. So how’s it done, right?

The art of lead generation has changed a lot since digital advertising came on the scene. It used to be you place an ad on radio, TV, Outdoor or print and wait for the phone to ring. You try some creative and hope for the best. Now you have to think about social and search and email and all those other big scary digital media channels. I kid, those aren’t scary! They are incredible data sources and can now help you to optimize your strategy, evaluate creative, audience targeting, improve conversion rates and ultimately get more leads.

Google has an amazing tool you should absolutely have and be using regularly with your digital ad campaign. With Google analytics you can track your customer’s behavior by looking at number of sessions, pages visited, click path, time on site, time on page, entry point, exit point an on and on. You can also track overall site data like users vs. new users, mobile vs. desktop and bounce rate. The amount of information you can gather seems endless.

What’s that mean for you? Well, for one thing, it means that you can analyze your customer’s behavior to determine how they are getting to your website (i.e. what ad platform, what creative, and what audience targeting is working) and how long they are staying on your website (i.e. how you look and what they are interested in).

From there, you can determine how to optimize your strategy for more conversions. You don’t have to buy blanket impressions anymore. You can use your money more efficiently by the buying of targeted, relevant audiences. You can change your media channel and creative to increase engagement.

Social media is a super popular platform for lead generation because it is so highly targeted. We all know Facebook gathers information on their users (unless you really don’t keep up with current events and news!) and they are eager to share it with advertisers. You can reach customers in targeted geographic regions, demographics, and behaviors specific to your product or service.

Social media users are recreationally viewing content they have opted in to receive, which makes them a great audience. Especially when your product or service is relevant to their lifestyle. Social media leads are attained by the users clicking through to your website, engaging with you, and either requesting information or making an eCommerce purchase. Sometimes all of this can happen inside the platform without the user even having to navigate away. Talk about convenient.

Call tracking is another part of a good lead generation strategy. If you are able to see where your customers are when they take action and then listen to their needs, you can really hone in on how to better serve them.

Web forms and chat are also a great way for customers to ask for more information without any human interaction. You know in this new digital world people like to look and get information from “behind the scenes”. The key to a good web form, and good leads, is to ask the right questions.

Email still works. Yes, it does. Through your email program you can track open rate, overall website clicks, click through rate (CTR), and unsubscribes. This information is a great indicator on what matters to your customer and will generate leads.

And, last but not least, Search and Display on major websites allow us to track, track, track. You can execute a great campaign based on experience and evolving your strategy.

So in summary, a good lead generation strategy involves tracking, some more tracking, some changes, some data analysis, some more tracking, and then more… I guess you get the point. Data is everything. The more you know, the more informed decisions you can make. It may seem like a lot, but in the end you are setting yourself up for success by managing your advertising dollars efficiently so each dollar goes that much farther.