If I could describe lead generation, there is oxygen. Lead generation is one of the primary things you need to do to grow your sales. The other two are Qualify prospects, sales calls, and closing. Sales are oxygen to your business, and you cannot stay long without them; you will die.
You can stop doing lots of things, but sales don’t. This post will only talk about outbound lead generation, how to do it, what it is, and the best strategies to make the most clients. So let’s get started.
Lead generation:
A lead is another word for a person in the sales world. A lead is an interested person in your offer. Lead generation means that you created a system that will help you reach out to interested people or potential clients. So there is a universe of people who may fit into the descriptions you set for an ideal client, but that does not make them potential clients. They may not be willing to buy from you right now or may not fit perfectly into the criteria. So lead generation filters all of these and saves you time by only speaking to the right people at the right time.
Inbound lead generation: You may be familiar with this now, or you won’t. I will explain it here. Inbound means that they reach out to you first. What does this mean? It means you have a blog, post, or social account. This person texted you or commented on your stuff. It could be a referral from clients. There are many ways in which they can come from. The point here is that they reach out, raise their hand, and admit that they need help and are interested in what you have to say.
This is the most straightforward kind to convert because there is no resistance. They are in buy mode and got interested in you.
Learning the basics:
- No matter what they sell, every business should do outbound lead gen in more than one way. If you rely on word of the month or referrals and suddenly run out of them, you will die, grow slower, and have more cashflow problems.
- There are paid and organic ways to do outbound leads. We will explain them in this video. There are no excuses here, and it doesnt matter your marketing skills, budget, or time; there is a way for you here.
- Only some social media accounts work for everyone. Be careful here, and only some things work for some. Stick to what makes sense to you and what goes with your budget and personality, clients are everywhere, and you can pick the channel that works best for you.
Best Social Media Channels for Lead Generation
It is a social channel, meaning people go there to hang out, interact, and chat. It’s effortless to engage and interact with people on this channel. The problem with Facebook is that there are a lot of fake accounts, so be careful with who you speak. Facebook ads are another great way to get clients if you know the basics or have a great agency to help.
It works for B2B or B2C businesses, and you can easily find anyone there.
It is part of Facebook, they share the same ad platform, and whatever you post on the business Facebook platform, you can post it on Facebook and Instagram. It’s also a very social platform; people are friendly and easy to reach out to. There are millions of influencers out there who can help you promote your services for a fee. Its primary use is for B2C businesses.
This is a business platform. If you have a B2B company, then this is your platform. You can pay a sales navigator and filter who you target, employee count, role, years of experience, location, etc. Linkedin is less friendly than Facebook, and people are there to do business. You can also do ads here and pay for exposure.
- Youtube
Youtube is part of Google, and it works the same way. People type something and expect to get an answer to it. People create content around those questions and send traffic to their websites. This is one of my favorite platforms; people get to see your face, listen to what you have to say, see proof, and interact with you. It works for B2B and B2C businesses.
Organic Outbound Lead Generation
1.- Facebook person profile – You can post content related to your niche, add potential clients as friends, and interact with other people’s content. You can have meaningful and business-related conversations from here. The goal is to move the conversation outside Facebook and book a call. I will recommend you add 20 people daily and post content frequently.
2.- Facebook Groups- You can create your group or be a part of a few. Here you can grow your level of exposure, meet new people and see what kind of content people want and need. You add them as friends afterward and repeat the process
3.- Linkedin – Create an account with LinkedIn, add your company info, a description, and all your links; reach to people every day, tell them what you do and how you can help them. Book sales calls. This is the best method for B2B outreach.
4.- Email Marketing – After growing your social media accounts, you will want to reach out to people via email and reiterate what you have to say here. I’ve found that people get busy and sometimes don’t have time to respond on social media; send them valuable emails with free tips and advice to help them with their struggles and move the person into a sales call.
Paid Outbound Lead Generation
Paid works if you have a proven product and a bigger budget. You can grow your universe of clients a lot by doing paid ads because you can choose more locations and reach out to many people simultaneously. Now be careful with how you do it, follow a strategy, or hire an expert. Otherwise, it will be like playing at the casino and throwing away your money.
The strategy works the same for any platform. You create a compelling offer, you create a website or landing page, and you make good ad copy.
- Have a funnel or website that concerns a problem that most of your ideal clients have. Mention the keywords they are interested in, add your Facebook pixel to the website, and click to action button. This means that people click on a button that will redirect them to your offer.
- Have an offer. This offer must be something of small value, and you want to break the ice and the resistance to change. Most people give away free PDFs, webinars, coupons, samples, analyses, etc. The offer aims to get their contact info so that you can send them emails afterward and convert them later.
- Create a compelling ad copy- The ad copy is the cover of your book. People will judge you based on this copy, and they will decide if it’s worth clicking on it or not. A book is always judged by its cover, and so will your ad. Make sure you know who your ideal client is and how to wake up in them a desired and need to change their current state. Add a nice photo that sparks interest and curiosity in your ad.
- Create a strategy; from converting a stranger into a client, there are several stages. You can hire a pro or how to do it yourself.
Examples of Outbound Lead Generation
1) Cold calling
Cold calling is making phone calls to people randomly to get them interested in your products or services. Many companies still utilize cold calling as their outbound lead generation strategy. However, the results vary from company to company, depending on how they implement cold calling activities into their marketing plan.
There are many benefits to cold calling, the first being that it is an essential human habit to pick up the phone when it rings or receive messages from unknown callers. Another merit of cold calling is that you can talk to more people in one day than with other strategies like advertising on search engines. Some companies can only get 1-2 conversions daily, even with large ad spending.
Cold calling challenges include:
- Getting past gatekeepers.
- Talking about your product/service on the phone.
- Convincing buyers during sales calls.
Sales representatives face many challenges but require skills and experience, which most marketers lack.
2) Social media marketing
Social media marketing involves gaining traffic or attention through social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn (establishing an account on each site is often a prerequisite for participating in social commerce). These sites provide businesses with information about their audiences (who’s using the site, what they’re interested in, and demographic information.) which can be used to develop personalized interactions to reach them more effectively (customer relationship management CRM).
Social media is rapidly changing how organizations engage with current and potential customers through highly interactive channels where organizations are more visible than in the past. When combined with a good marketing strategy, social networking sites can be an effective way to advertise. These activities include blogging, posting information on corporate websites, creating profiles on social networking sites, and participating in target forums/social groups/blogging communities. As the use of social media continues to expand rapidly, with mobile devices like smartphones and tablets becoming all-pervasive, understanding how users behave across different channels is increasingly crucial for businesses wanting to reach their intended audiences effectively.
3) Content marketing
Content marketing refers to attracting and retaining customers by consistently creating and curating content to change or enhance consumer behavior. It can be used as part of an overall digital marketing campaign. However, it commonly refers to original blog posts, industry reports, eBooks, white papers, video blogs (vlogs), webinars, and infographics. Such documents are written for prospects and customers to acquire business through expanding thought leadership.
Content marketing was born out of the digital marketing need to be relevant in any channel or device. A less expensive way to achieve relevance is by producing more content with better quality. However, engaging prospects and customers is challenging by just talking about your products or services. Content Marketing adds value to the reader through information, expertise, and entertainment, creating a relationship between the consumer and the brand. It can also lead them down an unexpected path of discovery-bringing new products into view they hadn’t previously considered.
The content must be attractive enough for consumers to remember you when they are ready to purchase (consideration). You hope they will share this information through their social networks (word-of-mouth), and when they become customers, they will continue to read and share your content (retention).
4) Industry events
Industry events such as seminars, workshops, and conferences can also help outbound lead generation for your business. These could help you maximize opportunities for generating new leads and developing existing ones creating goodwill among your target audience. If you are hosting an event, invite people relevant to your business plus influencers who can act as opinion leaders to attract more attendees (new leads) before the day of the event. You might also ensure that it works with reputable event agencies with excellent connections with other marketing professionals and good marketing strategies for events
It’s all about consistency
I’ve seen many people start with a method and a week later stop doing it. Because they feel rejected, get negative comments, or are making up too many excuses for it. The goal is to pick on things and stick to them, not to get distracted by others’ successes. Most of the time, you are prospecting on Facebook, but then you see an ad of someone having success on Instagram, so now you want to have success on Instagram tomorrow. Please consider that maybe this person has been doing it for the last two years, and his clients are different from yours. What do you like? To write, to speak to pose, to show examples, are you funny or serious. Pick a platform for this kind of people and be consistent for at least one year.
Conclusion
Evaluate your current lead generation strategy, set up goals for your business, and create a plan. Choose the best platform that goes with who you are and where your clients are hanging out. Be consistent and have fun.
Remember, there are no excuses here, and you can always find something that fits you
