Strategies for generating leads in 9 steps
We have put together a very detailed step-by-step guide for you to know what is involved in collecting qualified leads.
1. Define the persona
Without a persona, there isn’t even a business, let alone a marketing strategy (and even lead generation? No chance).
So, it may seem like a marketing tip, but it’s actually a business tip: define your persona as soon as possible, preferably before even opening your CNPJ. Ok, this doesn’t mean that starting the business before defining the persona is a proof of failure, especially because the persona can change over time.
But, know that without the persona, there is no way to communicate with someone because you won’t even know who that someone is.
When we carry out a marketing campaign (whatever its aspects, i.e. digital, offline, influencer marketing, etc.) the first place we look is the persona. After all, without knowing what she needs, there is no way to project the success of the campaign.
2. Find out what the persona is looking for
Once you’ve personified your company’s target audience, the next step is to find out what solution (or solutions) they are looking for.
This can be done in two ways:
- Research your customer base;
- Use of keyword survey tools.
It is perfectly possible to use both strategies simultaneously. In the first case , you hire a research tool — like Question Pro — and send the form to your customers’ emails.
It’s important to clarify one thing: just because your customer entered their email while making a purchase in your store doesn’t mean they became a lead. To generate leads you need to obtain the email address (or other point of contact) with the owner’s consent and they will receive promotional content , as we mentioned above.
An alternative, then, to convert your customers into leads is to send them a gift (such as a digital magnet) in exchange for authorization to include them in your lead list. This is important because it increases the chance of getting them to come back and buy again.
The second way to find out what the persona is looking for is using tools like AnswerThePublic, SEMRush, Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, etc. They collect the most performed searches within your niche and return the most used keywords.
This way, you understand what the persona is looking for and can go to the next step.
3. Create a lead magnet that solves a momentary solution
Your main product is what solves 100% of the persona’s problem. The digital magnet, therefore, must solve a momentary pain for the target audience. The opportunity with this bait feature is, firstly, to show the dominance that your company has in the field and, secondly, to demonstrate how efficient it is.
Let’s take a quick example: your company sells investment advice to very fortunate people who are looking to increase their wealth.
Considering that the persona does not understand investments, an e-book that details all types of possible applications in depth is excellent.
Fixed Income, Shares, BDRs, Treasury Direct, Funds… The e-book must cover everything and in as much detail as possible. When the person opens the material, the first thing they will do is look at the number of pages — the larger they are, the better the first impression will be.
As the lead reads the content, they will understand your company’s expertise. However, did you realize how “knowing the types of possible applications” is just a momentary pain? This doesn’t solve the entire lead problem.
When this lead is ready to start investing, they will need a specialized consultant. And guess who he’ll remember?
4. Create a landing page with a unique CTA
Don’t confuse landing page with hotsite. Hotsites are temporary and dedicated to a finite campaign. They have subpages for the user to navigate and build their perception of the campaign.
On the other hand, the landing page is a single, busy page. The user has nowhere to go but scroll down the navigation. In other words, all the information you want to expose must be contained in the storytelling.
In addition to this objectivity in navigation and information arrangement, another characteristic of landing pages is the single CTA. There is no space for any other buttons (such as “discover our channel”, “access our website”, “see this post”, “discover our case”, etc).
In the same way that the user can only navigate by scrolling the screen, they can only have the option of clicking on the button that will make them a lead.
5. Clear and cohesive form
After the persona reads your landing page and becomes interested in downloading/accessing the digital magnet, they must fill out a form. Therefore, it needs to be very clear and concise so that you can generate leads.
Many entrepreneurs make mistakes here, going too far to the pot (extensive forms) or asking questions that confuse the user.
We recommend that you ask for a maximum of two contact information: email and cell phone. And when giving a title to the email field, write “email”, “your best email”, “enter your email address”, etc., and not “address”.
Have you ever thought about it, a person just reads “address” and writes the address where they live? Or, do you just read “cell phone” and write the operator? Burnt lead and a lost opportunity.
6. Optimize your pages for SEO
With the landing page ready, it’s time to pay attention to SEO optimization so that it ranks well in search engines. In fact, the ideal is to apply SEO concepts during page construction, to avoid rework.
After optimizing your landing page, here are two tips for building good organic traffic:
The. Linkbuilding
Place links to the landing page in related articles on your blog. Thus, you contribute to the user experience by offering them complementary material. Search engines consider this when ranking both the landing page and the pages that send the traffic.
B. Specialized blogs (guest post)
Do a good survey of blogs specializing in your niche and offer a guest post. In return, you ask for permission to place a link to the landing page.
This way, you generate notes from sites outside your domain (showing search engines that the landing page is relevant) and, in addition, build a relationship with communicators in your niche.
7. Create bait-related content
Remember our example of the investment consulting company? The lead magnet was an e-book that showed, in detail, all the possible applications, right?
How about publishing smaller, just introductory content about each type of investment?
By doing this, the company attracts precisely people who have no knowledge about that specific type. At the end of the content, she has the opportunity to obtain much more complete material (accessible through the landing page).
This type of content can be published in the format of:
The. Blogposts
Blogposts rank very well and are written content that demonstrates the know-how that your company has. They are often the first contact a customer has with your brand. The CTA for the landing page is at the end of the content.
B. Infographics
They explain a subject in a very visual way, making it easier for the reader to understand. They work very well to take the heavy load off complex subjects. CTA for the capture page should also be at the end of the infographic.
w. videos
If infographics are already more interactive, imagine videos? Did you know that YouTube is the second most used platform for internet searches, second only to Google itself 1 ?
Audiovisual content is powerful, so pay attention to the script and rhetoric to publish an attractive and engaging video to, in the end, draw the user to the landing page.
The link must be in the video description — don’t forget to say this during recording.
8. Deepen the approach with webinars
Perhaps the jump between an introductory video/blogpost and the e-book is too aggressive for people who are at the beginning of the journey. So, webinars are ideal to fill this gap.
Webinars are long, recorded, scripted videos . They are normally one hour long, with dates and times to be displayed and serve to present slightly more dense content about the solution your company sells.
It is possible to generate leads with webinars, releasing the access link only to those who provide the email. It works very well, because people who are not interested in delving deeper into the subject are not yet ready to become your leads.
9. Ad campaigns
Just because you have all this variety of content published doesn’t mean you should rely solely on organic traffic. Traffic campaigns for landing pages are very welcome at this point.
Segmentation is one of the greatest assets of digital marketing, but even if you attract the right audience and know how to communicate with them, before people buy they will want to find out who your company is.
When they come across the immensity of content already published, they will realize the solidity of the brand and many shallow objections will be overcome immediately.