What is Lead Generation and how does it work?

Lead generation refers to the holistic approach that ensures you direct the right audience to your platforms and then convert them to become buyers of your products and services. Often your own website lies at the center of lead generation. Social media and email marketing, events, and telemarketing function as crucial components to channeling your potential customers towards your website which is also usually your sales funnel.

Insights on lead generation have been discussed in some of my previous blog posts: I have talked about lead generation through social media promotions here and here. Beginners who are yet to embark on the advent of social media channels may find this useful to learn about rules of engagement and for those still struggling with which channels to pick, here are some pointers.

For those of you who have successfully created distribution channels through which a steady traffic of audience keeps visiting your site, the next question is ‘do they know what to do once they are on your site?’ Succinctly put, your website should easily disseminate answers to the following questions your audience may have:

• What do I buy?
• Why should I buy the item from this particular website?
• How much should I buy?
• Where should I pay and what facilities are available to process payments?
• Is there an incentive for me to buy more?

If your website conveniently provides answers to these questions, then the assumption is that your potential customer has now become a buyer. Once this transformation has taken place, there is one more significant milepost to reach. You need your new customer to leave his or her email address or contact details on your website. This would enable you to reach the person in the future; possibly with an offer to make another purchase.

This of course is the ideal case. But what should you do in case they do not make an immediate purchase?

The golden rule in this situation is to at least get their contact information so you can reach out to them with future offers.

How do you get your potential customers to share their contact details?

Lead magnet:

Usually, collecting a visitor’s email address is achieved by strategically placing a lead magnet on your website. A lead magnet is something of value that you offer your potential customer in return for their email address. It is usually an instantly downloadable whitepaper, eBook, or anything along those lines. Although it needs to be of value to your audience, it should not prevent them from buying your product or service. It needs to be a valuable teaser. Not more, not less.

Email marketing:

Once you have collected their email addresses, you could begin your email marketing campaign. Remember, this should be all about offering value whilst selling your product. Successful email marketing consists of a mix of hard selling and continued information gathering. The more you know about your audience, the better you can target them when offering your products. Most importantly, do not spam their inboxes, rather, be present. Email marketing is one of the most powerful sales tools you have available when people are not in your store, on your website, or already using one of your products.

Social Media:

If a potential customer on your website has not yet become a customer and not yet parted with their contact details, the bare minimum you would require from them at this point is to get them to follow your social channels. This would give you another shot at including them into your sales funnel via social media marketing in the future. To this end, make it easy for them to find your social channels. On those, you keep them entertained with your content on it that creates value for them.

Lead generation takes time. Like anything else, it is a process but a process that would pay off in the long run. So persevere, keep adding value, and soon enough you will see potential customers become customers, returning customers, and maybe eventually even customers with testimonials to bring in more new customers.

Let me know if you have any questions. Feel free to reach out through any one of my social media channels or book a free consultation here.