Did you know that 61 percent of businesses rank sales lead generation as their number one challenge? For small businesses, generating qualified leads is even more challenging because of limited resources and channels.
But is it really that hard to generate new leads?
It is when you don’t know the right lead-generation strategies. But with the right lead generation tools, systems, and strategy, generating sales leads is much simpler. Let’s explore some proven ways to attract sales leads for your small business so that you never have to look for new customers again.
Why sales lead generation matters
A sales lead is an individual or business that can potentially turn into your customer. Sales lead generation is critical for the survival and growth of a small business. A healthy and flourishing business has its sales pipeline filled with leads or potential customers that keep converting into new customers. This not only generates revenue but also allows the business owner to develop expansion plans and think long-term.
In comparison, a business struggling to generate sales leads is always on the brink of disaster. With no clients in sight, it cannot function profitably or make any long-term growth plans.
What to look for in your sales leads
Not all sales leads are an ideal fit for your company. You must carefully evaluate leads and develop a system to qualify the most relevant sales leads for your business.
In general, a high-quality sales lead requires the solutions you offer and shows interest in doing business with you. Plus, it belongs to the industries you serve and has the necessary budget and business volume to make it worth your time.
You can easily develop a sophisticated lead scoring and qualification system using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. A sales CRM helps you automate the lead-generation process, organize leads from different sources, and assign lead scores to easily identify high-quality leads that your sales teams should prioritize.
How to generate sales leads for your small business
Now you know what types of leads you’re looking for and how to evaluate them. But how do you go about finding them? Here are a few ways to do effective B2B lead generation for sales.
1. Optimize your site and landing pages for conversion
Your website and landing pages are critical for converting cold traffic and website visitors from various sources into sales leads. But if you don’t optimize your site for conversions, most of your traffic will bounce away, wasting your marketing, advertising, and traffic generation resources.
So, before anything else, make sure your site and its main landing pages have the following qualities for a high conversion rate.
- Quick load speed
- Responsive website design
- Clutter-free design
- Main promise in the page headline
- A clear connection between benefits and features
- Credibility signals (logos, affiliation, awards)
- Social proof (testimonials, active users, positive reviews)
- Lead magnets to attract subscribers for email marketing (It can be a free training program, case study, webinar, eBook, white paper, or any other valuable resource addressing a customer pain point)
- Opt-in form to collect the user’s phone number, email address, and other contact information for follow-up.
- Call-to-action (CTA) buttons
2. Create brand awareness with content marketing
Content marketing is the practice of creating high-quality, credible, and actionable content that shares free value with your target audience and positions your brand as an authority.
It’s one of the most efficient and affordable ways small businesses can generate high-quality marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) and sales-qualified leads (SQLs). According to research, 67 percent of marketers have successfully generated leads using various content marketing strategies in the last 12 months.
Here are a few ways you can leverage content marketing for lead gen:
- Start a blog that covers the fundamentals of your industry and answers the most burning questions of your audience through detailed blog posts.
- Start a podcast with industry leaders, technical experts, successful customers, marketing partners, and other sources of knowledge for your audience.
- Grow a YouTube channel covering the most common questions your audience has.
However, to make content marketing work, you must combine it with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
3. Drive qualified traffic with SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of understanding what your audience is searching for on Google and creating content that answers their search queries while positioning your brand as the best solution.
SEO and content marketing work hand in hand. The content you create for your blog, podcasts, and YouTube channels must have search demand and be optimized for the right keywords so that your audience can find it.
If your content is helpful and comprehensively answers your audience’s questions, addresses their pain points, and matches their search intent, you can generate high-quality leads for SEO.
4. Ask customers for referrals
According to research, people are four times more likely to buy when referred by a trusted contact. So, the easiest way to find new sales leads is by asking your past and current customers for referrals.
But not every customer would happily refer your services to their contacts. This is where a customer relationship management (CRM) system like Act! comes in. A CRM helps you track customer satisfaction, build relationships, improve lead nurturing, and identify the users most likely to recommend your services based on their experience of doing business with you.
By running targeted outreach email campaigns for referral requests, you can successfully persuade your customers to spread the word about your products and services and generate new B2B sales leads.
5. Encourage customers to write positive reviews
Did you know that 93 percent of customers say online reviews impact their buying decisions? Positive reviews about your product/service on relevant review sites can play a critical role in generating sales leads for your business.
Here’s how you can encourage your ideal customers to leave positive online reviews for your brand:
- Contact your email list to request reviews.
- Share review templates to make their job easier.
- Ask specific questions about their service experience and turn their feedback into a review that customers can post online.
- Offer discounts and incentives to publish positive reviews.
6. Run targeted advertising and marketing campaigns
Apart from the organic sales lead-generation methods we’ve discussed, you must also invest in advertising to generate leads faster. Here’s how to do it:
- Identify your audience’s favorite social media networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, or any other).
- Create multiple optimized ads promoting an attractive offer (free training or valuable resource).
- Start with a small ad budget, analyze the results, and find the best-performing ad.
- Increase your ad reach through better targeting and an increased budget.
- Route your ad traffic to an optimized landing page designed to convert visitors into leads.
Build a lead-generation system for your small business
To generate leads consistently, you must invest in a system that provides the necessary tools to attract, convert, manage, and qualify leads to your sales funnel.
This is where Act! comes in. Using Act!’s landing pages, marketing automation, and lead-scoring features, you can make your lead-generation process more efficient, focus on the highest-quality leads, and generate a higher ROI on your sales efforts. Try Act! for free today.
