11 Tactics for Lead Generation That Actually Work

We’re a new agency. We’re in the business of creating growth for our clients based on tried and tested experience and techniques.

But despite all that experienced-enough-to-know-better-ness, it’s hard not to have our heads turned by those seductive shiny promises to overnight lead generation success.

Usually if something looks too good to be true, it’s because it is.

So we’d like to get real about lead generation here and share with you some tactics for lead generation that actually work.

1. Who?

Make sure you’re focused on the right customers. Refresh your buyer personas. Who are your target customers? When did you last review them? Have they changed over the last six crazy Covid months? What are the issues they’re seeking to solve?

2. What?

How can you help your personas achieve what they’re trying to do? Does your proposition need to be reviewed? What are you uniquely placed to offer those personas?

3. Message

You need to get your content refreshed and ready:

– Keyword strategy – with your offer and your customers’ needs in mind, do some keyword research to make sure you can optimise well. If you’re a smaller business with smaller budgets, long tail keywords are probably your best bet for success.

– Problem / benefit-led content – you need some content ready to use to fuel whatever communications push you go for. What stories can you tell that speak to your target customers’ challenges, wherever they are in their buyer journey? If you know what your message is, you can spin that story into any content format you need – white-paper, blogpost, email copy, social ads etc.

– Nurture flow campaign content – lead nurture can be automated or hand-cranked. It’s not just for those with expensive marketing automation platforms. Organise a series of content pieces that can form a campaign designed to take your buyer personas on a journey.

4. Activation

– Referrals – how easy can you make it for people to refer, recommend or give you testimonials? Start with the warmest folks in the networks closest to you: clients, ex clients, partners, peers and alumni and ask them for help. Draft an update note that outlines what you’d like them to do, with a shareable email they can simply forward to refer you and your business. What can you offer in return for their help to make it worthwhile – can you connect them to others?

– Prospecting – how can you go about generating new prospects to market to, for short term results and also over time? The fastest way to build your marketable prospect list is to create a lead magnet:

• Events: create an event, use paid advertising, get people to attend / sign up for a newsletter. Boom – you can start to nurture those leads.
• Content: create a pillar piece of marquee content, use paid advertising, get people to download / sign up for a newsletter. Boom – you can market to them.
• Advertising: paid social, PPC and digital ads can help to raise profile over time as well as support specific campaigns. The ‘watch out’ here is that this can be expensive and needs to be targeted closely. It’s essential that you keep an eye on your cost per acquisition (CPA) / customer lifetime value (CLV) ratio.
• Content marketing: an ongoing strategy of developing SEO optimised content to build authority and an audience overtime. This is particularly important for your company’s blog, where getting a conversion rate of 2 to 5% is the optimal goal. However, it is not always easy. 25% out of 23 marketers participating in a Databox survey reported a lead-to-visit conversion rate of just 1-2%.
• Nurturing: working with existing prospects. We know it takes many touch points with a potential customer before they convert. Can you put a proactive campaign in place to accelerate leads through several touches in short succession, with the goal of conversion? The key is to make sure each touch is respectful and focused on delivering value in and of itself to the customer, and leads them on a journey. You need to be creative, consistent, and gently persistent. What should the touches be?

Overnight success is the result of one thing: luck.

But you know what they say. The harder you work, the luckier you get.

We hope our tried and tested techniques above will make your lead generation work harder for you.