Tag Archives: attracting potential leads

How to Improve Your SEO to Generate More Leads

How to Improve Your SEO to Generate More Leads One of the main features of a properly executed Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy is that, along with boosting traffic, it generates more leads. SEO needs some time work before you can see results. Generate more leads by improving your website SEO.

How SEO Helps Generate Leads

SEO isn’t obvious. Site visitors won’t notice its presence. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, will notice and will rank your site according to how it’s optimized for the search engines. SEO increases your site visibility and improves the user experience by boosting site quality, speed, and ease of navigation.

Because SEO helps your page rise in the ranks, it is a great tool for getting leads. Two of the ways search engines generate leads are:

  • Organic Search –  Results that appear in the search engine because the topic/keyword phrase emphasized on the web page has been searched for.
  • Paid Advertising –  Paid listings at the top or right of search results.

The beauty of the organic search method for generating leads is that is free! There are quite a few ways your SEO strategy can help you stand out in organic search.

Improving Your SEO Strategy

Act Natural

Avoid putting your SEO strategy before user experience. Your customers have little use for content that revolves solely around keyword density. Instead, write as though SEO takes a backseat to providing relevant content to your readers. Find the right balance between SEO and solid content.

Use the Right Keywords

Keywords are a vital component of SEO. The right keywords can bring targeted traffic to your site that is looking for exactly what you’re selling. Select keywords based on relevance, search volume, and competition.

High search volume keywords are the ones many people are searching for. However, you’ll be competing with lots of other brands with those keywords alone. Use lower search volume keywords to stand out more and find a more targeted audience.

Embrace the Locale

If you are a local business, don’t miss an opportunity to use local SEO techniques. Let people know where you are. Highlight your location often without appearing spammy. For example, if your photography business is located in Dallas, Texas, use keywords such as wedding photography in Dallas.

Make Sure Your Site is Responsive

Practically everyone is searching on their mobile devices. Having a site works on mobile as well as desktop gives you the advantage.

Start Blogging

An active blog provides fresh content, keywords, backlinks, and social media opportunities to your site. Publish relevant blog posts that make use of keywords and elements such as HTML tags ( particularly <h2> and <h3>) for easier scanning.

With a good SEO strategy, you can generate more leads and provide better content for your customers. Need help with your SEO strategy? Digital Hill can help! Contact Digital Hill today.

Overlooked Ways to Generate Leads Online

Overlooked Ways to Generate Leads Online Lead generation is an art that requires careful planning and a creative approach. After exhausting all the obvious channels, you’ll inevitably feel like you’ve hit a roadblock. Once you find yourself at this crossroads, change your tactics and try out these alternative methods instead:

Focus on other social media platforms

Expand your reach beyond out of Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Other places like Quora and Reddit are good to explore. Both platforms are social, but less personal and therefore, more targeted. They also cater to different interests, some even niche. Best of all, they have a large enough user base to make them worth a marketer’s time.

Design a free email course

People like valuable information as well as free stuff. Combine these two things in one package like a complimentary email course, and they’ll find it hard to resist. Whatever topic you choose to discuss, make sure you delve into it deep enough to make people feel like they’re part of a virtual class. If they find the experience useful, they’ll think, ‘If I already get this for free, I wonder what more I can get if I buy their products or services?’

Support a cause

Kill two birds with one stone – fulfill your civic responsibility and get leads at the same time. People are likelier to support a business with values that align with theirs, so choose a cause that’s not only close to your heart but also relevant to your brand. Sponsor a project with your charity, or donate part of your proceeds.

Start a podcast

Not everyone likes to watch or read content. Some people prefer to listen to content while running on the treadmill or typing emails at their desks. So aside from the usual articles, infographics, and videos, consider starting a podcast by uploading pre-recorded audio files or streaming a live online show. It’s a great way to appeal to people.

Create a quiz

There’s something about a quiz that draws people in. Maybe it appeals to vanity which is all part of human nature. Or maybe it piques curiosity, which is also part of human nature. Whatever the reason is, people can’t resist a quiz. It doesn’t have to be a full-blown – even a simple quiz that reveals an aspect will do.

These are just some of the alternative ways to generate leads online. You can surely come up with more on your own as long as you think outside the box. Get wacky, get crazy! Who says lead generation has to be boring?

Website Best Practices for Lead Generation

Website Best Practices for Lead Generation

The ultimate goal of an inbound marketing campaign is lead generation. Your site can attract a lot of visitors, but if all they do is browse and leave, then your efforts have failed.

To be successful, think of your website as a series of pages with elements that work together to turn a visitor into a potential customer. Lead generation follows a pattern which begins with a blog post, followed by the homepage, ‘about’ section, contact form, and a ‘thank you’ page. Every page corresponds to a step in the marketing funnel, starting with searching for info and ending with a submission of contact details. Let’s take a look at each one:

Blog Post

The blog post is the front liner of your website. It’s what people most often see first when looking for information on search engines. Traffic can come from a link posted on social media. The job of a blog post is to make people aware of your business. It should contain relevant information your target audience finds useful. It should be optimized with the right keywords to rank on the search engine and shared on social media.

Homepage

If your blog post generates interest, visitors will be curious about your business. They’ll go to the home page to learn more about your business and what it does. Make sure your homepage clearly explains what you do and how you do it to make visitors stay on your site and explore more pages. But what kind of details?

Visitors don’t necessarily know what you do. Provide a clear explanation of what your business does and how they help people. So on this page, share testimonials from satisfied customers and site any media attention you’ve gotten. Visitors will find it easy to see the value your business offers from people who have experienced it firsthand.

‘About’ Section

At this point, visitors already know what the business is, but not why it exists and who’s behind it. They want to know your objectives, your values, your vision, and mission. This should be included in your ‘About’ section. This your opportunity to earn visitors’ trust. Humanize your business by introducing yourself and your staff, talking about how the business started and share your vision for the future. People are careful about who they align themselves with. So if a business seems shady, they won’t trust it. Be transparent and open.

Contact Form

If you’ve filled out the first three pages, then it’s a quick step for your visitors to take action like filling out the contact form and leave their contact details. Once you have these, congratulations, you got yourself a lead. You can nurture your leads through email marketing and convert them into paying customers.

‘Thank You’ Page

Although the process of lead generation ends after the submission of a completed contact form, a new process begins right away — nurturing leads. You can start right away by showing heartfelt gratitude beyond the generic “thank you.” On this page, write a personalized message and offer additional value such as an Ebook download and links to more resources.

Do all leads follow this simple flow? Not necessarily, but it should give you a general idea of how visitors behave on websites.

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Tips for Lead Generation Campaigns

Tips for Lead Generation Campaigns
An effective lead generation campaign is made up of multiple elements working together. Here’s a list of these different ingredients along with ways to maximize them:

  • Tools

There are tools you can use to manage and store your leads. These tools will help you get to know your target market beyond names and email addresses. You’ll get access to crucial information, like what visitors do before completing a lead conversion form, and what they do after completing the form. You’ll know how they navigate the site, where they spend time, and what clicks they link. The best thing, some of these tools are free.

HubSpot Marketing Free lets you add contact forms and pop-ups to capture your lead’s information. If you already have forms, submissions will be automatically captured. Once a form is submitted, additional information associated with your lead’s email address will be gathered. You’ll see your lead’s public social profiles, giving you more insight on the kind of consumer they are.

Another free tool, HotJar, tracks visitor behavior through heat maps. These record movement on your website. You’ll see taps and clicks as they happened on your site. It identifies those parts of your site that are usable and intuitive, and the parts that aren’t. This can help you redesign your website to make it more user-friendly, especially for mobile screens.

  • Incentives

Creating engaging offers for every stage of the marketing funnel will help generate more leads. All conversions start out at the awareness level. They move down the funnel to the last level (which is advocacy) simply because they liked what they see at every stage and want to see more. So don’t ignore someone who’s looking around, in favor of someone who’s thinking of making a purchase. Treat both of them well.

The person who’s more interested in reading a brochure than signing up for a free trial may be persuaded to convert, but only if you nurture them from the start of the buyer’s journey.

Offers don’t have to be monetary in value at the early stage where people are looking for information. They’re not even thinking of buying anything yet, so deals like discounts won’t matter much. What’s important is relevant content, so offer e-books, whitepapers, checklists, or other resources they may find interesting.

  • Social media platforms

Many online marketers use social media to raise brand awareness. It’s not a surprise because it is effective. But it’s also effective for lead generation. Instead of posting links to articles, infographics, videos, and website content, you can post links to your landing pages with deals’. You can also post links to your best performing posts (a.k.a. those that generate the highest number of leads).

Use the unique features of your chosen platform. For example, Facebook lets you add a CTA button on your Facebook Page. With one click, it directs people straight to your website.

Twitter has Lead Gen Cards which generates leads within a tweet. When a user clicks on the CTA, that user’s name and email address will be sent to your form – all without them having to leave Twitter.

A lead generation campaign can go so many ways, but if you follow these tips, your own campaigns will blossom.

How to Use Double Opt-in Effectively in Email Marketing

How to Use Double Opt-in Effectively in Email Marketing
In email marketing, the best system for collecting quality email addresses is to use a double opt-in system. This is when subscribers undergo a two-step subscription process.

  • Part 1 – They sign up with their email address at your website.
  • Part 2 – They need to click on the confirmation link sent to their email inbox.

This process is necessary because it protects you. Anyone can type in someone else’s email address. Without a double opt-in system, people who don’t want emails from you may get them. Unsolicited emails are not only annoying,  but they’re also considered spam.

On the other hand, usually, people can’t access someone else’s inbox. So without a click on the confirmation link, no unwanted messages will be received.

Double opt-in also protects you from getting low-quality email address. Anyone who’s really interested in your products or services will confirm their subscription. You can be confident that your marketing efforts are focused on leads that have a high chance of becoming conversions.

Now that we’ve cleared why a double opt-in is important, the next thing to address is how you implement it. From users’ point of view, the additional step in the subscription process can be frustrating. For you, it’s just a click. For them, it’s about switching between browser tabs or apps.

Make it feel less like a task and more like a treat. Here’s how:

Set expectations on the website

Let people know what’s going to happen next, so they know what to expect. When you’re using a double opt-in, the page with the subscription form should let the subscriber know a confirmation email will be sent shortly. A reminder to check their spam folder is good, too.

Don’t forget that even if subscribing to websites is simple; not everyone is tech-savvy. A little help can go a long way for these people.

Write great copy in the email

Skip the generic “click the link to confirm” text. Instead, make a unique customized message that’s interesting, and reflects your brand’s image.

For example, if you’re a running an online shop for designer labels, replace the standard, “Sign up for our mail list” to something like “Be a VIP!”. In this scenario, exclusivity matters, so your copy should get that point across.

Offer a welcome gift

Gratitude goes a long way. A “thank you” message is enough in most cases. But if you really want to stand out to subscribers, go the extra mile and offer them something they want. It can be an exclusive sneak peek, a free whitepaper, a coupon or discount, or anything that’s related to your business.  Describe this in the email and have details appear on the confirmation web page when they have clicked the link.

Double opt-in will not get you as many email addresses as single opt-in. But the email address you get are people that really want to be on your list. In the end, that’s what matters more in conversion.

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Never Buy an Email List

Never Buy an Email List

Everywhere you turn, you hear email marketing gives you the best returns of any digital marketing method. However, attracting subscribers to your email list takes time and effort.

You may think that buying a list would save you time and effort. It’s tempting to shortcut the process of building your own list. But buying an email list brings a lot of trouble your way.

Poor Data Quality

10,000 records might sound like a great foundation for your email marketing efforts. The reality is that you end up with a list filled with data quality issues. Inaccurate emails, missing names, and other problems make the information practically useless for your company.

Failure to Comply with CAN-SPAM

Do you know how the list provider got the emails that they’re selling? If they put together the list without getting an opt-in from all parties, then they’re not following the CAN-SPAM act. If you use this list for your emails, guess what? You’re on the hook for any violations as well. It only takes a few fines from CAN-SPAM to ruin your day and your marketing budget.

Email Deliverability Problems

One element that spam filters look at when determining whether your mail is spam is the deliverability. If you have a lot of people marking your message as spam, the email filter is going adjust its behavior accordingly. You don’t have a preexisting relationship with the paid lists; it’s unlikely you’re going to offer something relevant to their needs. All the people marking your emails as spam adds up. It will be hard to get your message out there.

Violating Email Service Provider TOS

How closely did you read your email service provider’s terms of service? Many of the top companies specifically state that you can’t use a list that was paid for. After all, it’s their email servers on the line if you start taking actions similar to a spammer.

Poor Conversion Rates

Even if you get a paid list with a specific niche, you can’t truly know if you have a targeted audience at the other end. When you have a mismatch, you see poor conversion rates. Your organization also takes a reputation hit, which can further impact your conversion ratio.

List Saturation

Nothing stops an email list provider from selling an “exclusive list” as many times as they want. After all, how likely is it that you’ll find out someone else is using the same list? This list oversaturation results in a lot of people who are tired of their inboxes getting filled up with junk.

Need help building your list? Contact Digital Hill, we can help you develop a strategy using Waftio to do it right.

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How to Capture the Elusive Lead – Part 3 Capture

How to Capture the Elusive Lead - Part 3 Capture
You’ve attracted new prospects and engaged with them several different ways. Now it’s time to seal the deal and capture the elusive lead. You can accomplish this with lead magnets that give your leads something of value in exchange for their email addresses and other information. Here are a few options for lead magnets to implement for your lead generation campaigns.

Ebooks

An ebook is a long-form piece of content that positions you as the authority on a particular topic or market segment. The information given to your visitors should solve one of their pain points immediately. That way they’re likely to give you their email address in exchange for the offer. One way to create an ebook is to rework a series of 4-5 blog posts into one cohesive “mini-digital book”.  This can work well for business-to-business, and business-to-consumer.

Coupons

People love discounts and couponing, so this is an easy way for to get immediate value in exchange for their email address. Offer free shipping, a set percentage off their purchase or a buy one, get one type of promotion.   This is, of course, a great option for business to consumer-focused sites.

Email Courses

Need to get a lot of information across in a structured manner? An email course delivers lessons over a set time period, “dripping” the information into the visitor’s inbox. You have the advantage of increasing your touchpoints with your lead while giving them valuable information.

In-depth Tutorials

Answer the pressing questions that your audience has or simply make their lives easier with an informative tutorial. Tackle anything related to your product or industry, but be strategic. Create a foundation and educating future buyers with the info they need to make a purchase decision at the end of the funnel.

Buyer’s Guide

A buyer’s guide is another lead magnet that revolves around educating potential customers on their options. Create the most exhaustive guide possible that covers all important considerations when making a purchase.

Don’t just cover the features and considerations that make your product come out on top. Not every lead is an ideal buyer for you, and people will remember if you help them out with the process, even if they don’t buy directly from you at the time.

Free Webinar

A short beginner webinar is a great way to gather email addresses. Start with short live trainings on the basics of your product or industry. Record the training and send the training to your whole list. Or record several short trainings on several topics and bundle them together for a pay to view training series.

Simple Sign-Up

Some companies try to ask for as much information as possible when they’re capturing a lead. They have long forms or even a multiple part process. Prospects don’t have a long attention span before they go to another website so keep it simple. All you need to start your relationship building process is a name and an email.

You can use progressive profiling throughout your future relationship to find out more information. In the beginning, it’s better to treat lead capture as a slow and deliberate “getting to know you” phase.

How to Capture the Elusive Lead – Part 2: Engagement

How to Capture the Elusive Lead - Part 2: Engagement

You’ve made enough of an impression on potential leads that they’re aware you exist and have a basic level of trust in your company. Now it’s time to take the next step and engage them. This stage continues building the relationship and moving one step closer to converting a curious person into a lead.

Answer Questions

Social media offers a convenient way a prospective lead can ask you questions. This offers a prime opportunity for you to position yourself as a trusted and valuable resource. Social media management tools make this process easier, as you can get a single tool to handle all of the people contacting you through your profiles.

Invite Feedback

Market research used to be incredibly difficult and costly to get. Now you can invite feedback directly from your target audience. Polls, surveys, and live chats allow you to connect with potential leads and find out exactly what they think about your plans. You can use this information to tailor your solutions to your ideal customer.

Stay Responsive

Don’t ignore engagement, whether it’s on social media, email or another channel. Focus on the timeliness of your responses with the potential lead. Therefore, if you’re quick, they’ll know that you’ll be on the ball if they do business with you.

Acknowledge Engagement

Sometimes engagement doesn’t come in the form of a question. Your audience may share your content or reach out with an observation. Take the time to acknowledge the conversation, so they know you’re paying attention to them.

Be Social

One of the best ways to improve your engagement strategy is to put yourself out there on social networks. Potential leads will find it easier to reach out if you’re already active on social media. Furthermore, share useful content from your audience, and your own resources for trust building and connect with a wide range of people and companies.

Adapt to the unspoken rules and requirements expected for the social media site. For example, on Twitter, you need to master the art of talking in 140 characters or less and provide topical information. Your Instagram strategy will thrive when you have a strong visual strategy, while Facebook works better for more in-depth resources.

Engagement is a crucial step in getting more leads for your company. You go where your audience does and put yourself out there as a valuable and helpful company.

How to Capture the Elusive Lead – Part 1: Awareness

How to Capture the Elusive Lead - Part 1: Awareness

Are you on the hunt for the elusive lead? The prospect’s journey from your first interaction to the conversion can take place through many channels and goes through 3 stages: awareness, engagement, and capture.

What is the Awareness Stage?

Your potential lead has a problem that they want to solve. However, they don’t know much, if anything, about the solutions available, the relevant brands or how to choose the option that works best for their needs.

During this stage, the prospect is seeking out educational resources. They want to gain a better understanding so they can make an informed decision. You can start the lead capture process with a resource designed to give each visitor the information they need to move forward in the lead conversion process.

Channels to Use for Building Awareness

A mix of channels gives you the greatest opportunity to reach your intended audience with this informative content. When you put together your lead capture strategy, incorporate these channels into your plan.

  • Website
    Your website can act as a content and resource hub for your educational assets. You can put together a resource library featuring guides, ebooks, videos, and tutorials.
  • Blog
    A blog is an easy to set up channel that you can fill with helpful resources, topical information and curated content that’s relevant to a prospect’s needs. While the information may be similar to the resources available in your library, blogs tend to have a more informal approach. Blog posts also frequently have more visual content, so incorporate infographics, charts and other visuals into the content.
  • Social Posting
    Social media sites give you access to a wide audience and help you build awareness. You can target relevant hashtags, participate in Twitter chats and promote your educational content.
  • Email
    Email newsletters and e-courses help you reach prospects on mobile, as many people check their inboxes on their phones. You can deliver the right content to people in the awareness stage so they learn more about the way they can solve their pressing problems.
  • Forums and groups
    Niche specific forums and groups give you a lot of access to your potential audience. By sharing relevant, valuable content in this channel, you improve your visibility, so prospects find you during the awareness stage.

Once you position yourself in the right places to attract potential leads at the beginning of their journey, you move on to the next step: Engagement.  Stay tuned for this in a next post!