Continually expanding and growing the sales and customer base of your small business is a very thorough and challenging process. There are many important things that you should follow carefully. One of the best ways to grow your small business is by generating sales leads. A sales lead could be a person or company that can potentially become your client and will buy the product or services that your business offers.
As mentioned earlier, growing your business is not always easy. That is because generating sales leads for your business is not also that simple as many people think. There are many misconceptions when it comes to managing a business, and those misconceptions might sometimes cause some problems if left uncorrected. So, if you’ve been having a hard time generating leads for your business, don’t give up! There are still many opportunities to make up for the mistakes, and you can start by double-checking some of these tips on how to turn possible leads into actual customers.
Are you targeting the right audience?
This is the most basic and fundamental step in generating a sales lead for your business. However, it is also very crucial that you perfectly execute this step. If you are targeting the wrong audience, then chances are you might not be able to connect and reach out to them ideally. Thus, you will not be able to persuade them into buying your products or services.
It is important that you vividly picture out your ideal target audience. Who are those people specifically? What are they doing? What are their problem/s that require your product or service? Can they afford the solution you offer? Those are just some of the many things that you can ask yourself to clearly have a picture of your target audience. If you don’t have a good grasp of who your target audience is, then make sure to revisit and re-think it as soon as possible.
Do you promote your services/products enough?
Another important thing to remember when it comes to generating sales leads for your business is by having a promotional plan. This should help you gain more leads because your target audiences are seeing your products/services. That can only happen if you are effectively promoting it.
There are many possible options when choosing a certain method or strategy for promoting your business, which is why you should have a complete and in-depth.
marketing plan so you can easily have an idea of what promotional strategy you should apply in your business.
Are you aware of and using the best online marketing strategies?
This last question relates to the first 2 questions above. Many small business owners still believe in the idea that there is a magic marketing strategy, which will magically make any business grow. However, that is not true. It all depends on you and how you will strategize and market your business. It all falls down to knowing your target audience and the ideal marketing strategy that is perfect for both your target audience and your business itself.
There is no single perfect marketing strategy that will magically be effective for any kind of business. The answer to all these questions always varies for each business. The reason why that business is yours is that you are the one who knows it, how to run it, who the target audiences are, and how it will grow, and many more. With that, if you still haven’t found out yet the perfect marketing strategy for your business, below are some of the most commonly used and well-known marketing strategies that might be effective for you.
Facebook Advertising
In 2015, there were 2 million small-medium business owners that used Facebook advertising mainly because it is a very effective, affordable, and easy way to promote your business and gain sales leads. Moreover, another great thing about using Facebook advertising is that it lets you target specific people based on the different characteristics and information about your target market.
Other than those things mentioned above, another reason why Facebook advertising is more common and effective for many small businesses is that it’s easy and simple to use. You will just need to think of and create a solid headline for your business, a concise and good description, an image/logo, and links to your business. Once you have already crafted and contented with those, then you are now ready to have your Facebook advertisement.
Google My Business
Other than having great advertising, it is also very helpful for your business to rank your Google My Business (GMB) listing. For businesses that are targeting local audiences or clients for their products/services, this is probably one of the most powerful tools that you can use, and there’s a high potential that this can really contribute to the growth of your business.
If you are not yet familiar with GMB, one good example is when someone, a potential client, searched Google for a certain service or product like “Roofers in Chicago”. The first item on the result might be a paid ad. However, below that, there will be a Google map blurb that shows the top 3 businesses near the location of the client that offers the service/product that they need. If you can boost the ranking of your GMB to that top 3, then it can give you many possible sales leads without the help of advertisements. Some of the keys to boosting your GMB ranking are just simply optimization and gathering numerous reviews and citations from other people.
Google Adwords
It is already no surprise that this strategy is already on the list. There are thousands of queries in google search every second, which is why it is one of the best advertising strategies to utilize when growing your business. Google Adwords has already produced many positive results for many businesses and that is why it is still one of the top-tier marketing methods despite the fact that it’s already existed for a long time.
However, utilizing this tool is not as easy and simple compared to other marketing tools. It is important that you know the crucial elements of how you can fully optimize and get the most out of this tool. Also, it is not that affordable compared to other advertising channels and the competition is very high, but it is worth all the effort.
Content Marketing
In case you are not familiar with it, content marketing is a strategy wherein you will consistently create and give your audience relevant and useful content like video, blog, online course, etc, that will attract potential customers into buying your product or service. The key to this is SEO optimization, readability, quality of your content, and consistency.
In comparison with the earlier mentioned strategies, content marketing focuses on the long-term growth of your company. It is really normal that generated sales of this strategy are just low in the early stages, but when implemented effectively, it can certainly carry and provide more than enough sales for your business.
Social Media
Today, using social media for your business is already a must. A huge number of people are already preferring to use social for inquiries and customer support. It is important that you already have an established social media account for your business because if you don’t have one, then possible clients might rather look for other businesses that have an established social media presence.
Oftentimes, business owners would think if their business needs a social media account. The answer to that is yes, but a more sensible question to answer is whether how much time and effort should you devote to growing your audience’s reach on social media. It really depends on the need of your business and your marketing plan to make this social media marketing strategy work effectively.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is probably the foundation of the concept of digital marketing. The idea behind this strategy is called “lead nurturing”. Of course, not every person who visits your business website will instantly buy your product or service. That is why it is important that you should just save some of the important contact details about them, and you can have that by using a “lead magnet”.
A lead magnet is a free product, service, or subscription offered to the visitors of your website in exchange for their email. This will help you grow your audience by distributing marketing emails about your business. The advantages of this strategy are low-cost, easy to implement, and wide reach.
Now that you know some of the best online marketing strategies available for your business. The next thing is to identify which of these strategies will work for your business. Not just simply generate leads, but would significantly boost the sales of your business and give you an edge over your competitors.