So you want to start capturing leads, because leads = money … right?
Wellllll, it’s almost true, but let’s dial that in a little…
People that you have given value to, who have chosen to join your email list to get more value from you, can turn into paying “fans” of you and your business if you do it correctly.
It’s as simple as that.
But simple doesn’t always mean easy, and if you’re reading this, I’m sure you find lead generation challenging, just like most marketers and business owners have at one point.
In fact, well over half (61%) of marketers say generating traffic and leads is their top challenge.
There are so many lead generation channels these days that many marketers just don’t know where to start, or where they should put their energy.
Should you focus on using Facebook ads to find your leads?
Or should you focus solely on content marketing and grow your following organically?
Keep reading to learn more about the best approaches you can take to grow your following, nurture your leads, and get the sales you’ve been wanting.
What is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is the process of attracting prospects (or leads) and then nurturing them until they buy what you’re offering. In essence, there are three parts to lead generation:
- Attracting your leads (organically through content, or through a front-end offer)
- Nurturing your leads (GIVING them VALUE)
- Following up with your leads with relevant products or services until they buy.
Attracting Leads (Part One)
There are a number of ways to tackle the first part of your lead generation strategy, because it will largely depend on what your product is, who your ideal customer is, your budget, etc. With that said, the most common strategies of attracting leads include:
- Blogging
- Ads (Facebook, Instagram, Google, TikTok, YouTube)
- Social Media Marketing
- Networking
- Webinars
- Online Courses
The most popular of these strategies fall under one category:
Content marketing.
And there’s a reason for that!
According to a study done by Demand Metric, content marketing generates three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less.
In fact, there are a ton of FREE ways to go about your content marketing strategy, meaning you have more money to invest in yourself and your online business in other ways, while still pulling in leads and getting sales.
So what exactly are these free content marketing strategies?
Organic Lead Generation Methods
The three big ways brands are building audiences organically is through TikTok, IG Reels, and Instagram Hashtags:
TikTok/IG Reels
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year… I’m sure you’re well aware that TikTok has blown up as a social media favorite among many.
These two platforms are BY FAR the easiest ones to ‘get lucky’ on by posting consistently.
But let’s let the stats speak for themselves.
In 2019, TikTok was the fifth most downloaded app. Then in 2020, it shot up to #1. It’s now one of the most popular apps that everyone is carrying around at all times.
And this popularity does not seem to be slowing down.
There are countless stories out there about how it’s easier to “blow up” on TikTok than on any other app.
Just look at Charli D’Amelio, who focuses on doing dance videos where she dances for around 30 seconds, and in just over a year, she amassed 98 million followers on the platform.
That’s just her follower count from today as I’m writing this. By the time you’re reading this, I can guarantee that number will be higher.
Estimates from Cloutmeter show that engagement on the app is at a staggering 51.3%, yet only 5% of marketers are using TikTok.
So what does this mean for entrepreneurs? It means there’s a HUGE opportunity to grow an audience organically and quickly.
And a large audience means more opportunities to sell your product or service to hundreds or thousands (or maybe even millions!) of warm leads.
From your TikTok account, you can send your leads to your website, your Instagram, etc, and you can market your product right there on the platform.
Another new way to increase organic reach is by using the new IG Reels. These are similar to TikTok but they are on Instagram.
While these aren’t as popular as TikTok right now, they have the huge advantage of being on your Instagram account, so everything is in one spot and the growth you gain from your IG Reels will translate straight to Instagram followers.
Instagram Hashtags
What are some other ways to grow on Instagram?
Instagram hashtags!
But it’s not that simple. You can’t just use a bunch of hashtags on every post and gain a following.
Turns out, there’s a right way to post hashtags, and a wrong way to post them. And doing it the wrong way can not only not work, but it can actually hurt your brand.
On the flip side, doing it the right way can skyrocket you to gaining the audience you dream of. An audience of followers that are active and interested in you and what you offer.
Just take a look at influencer and successful entrepreneur Allie Reeves who has used this method to grow her online following from nothing to thousands of followers…
Which has translated to growing her business to thousands of dollars in revenue per week.
Allie found this hashtag method the hard way– but now that she’s mastered it, she used it to generate 6 figures in 2020 alone!
Nurturing Leads (Part Two)
Ok so now you’ve grown a social media following and you’ve got the leads coming in. What now?
This seems to be the part where a lot of people get stuck.
You might be thinking, “What do I actually do with these people?” and “How do I get them to actually buy from me?”
The way to do this is by capturing your leads’ emails (building a list), and then providing continuous value (nurturing them).
You need to be continuously feeding your audience with relevant content that they can use. You want them to feel like they struck gold by finding you.
and lastly, Following Up (Part Three)
Once you have an audience that you’ve added to your email list and fed continuous value, it’s time to build on that.
Keep doing everything that is working, but now let’s put an offer in front of these (now hot) leads.
So how do you even get started with this whole thing?
A simple landing page is really all you need to get going.
But how do you create a landing page? Do you have to know how to code?
Oh no, don’t worry, you don’t have to have a tech bone in your body to get a landing page up and running.
That’s because there are tools out there, ranging from entry-level to mastery-level, to help you build pages that look good and work well.
For anyone just getting into online business, lead generation, or pages… Online Sales Pro (OSP), will do all of the work for you, and make it super easy.
OSP helps you capture your leads, monitor them, and automate email marketing to them. It’s so easy to use that you can have a high-converting landing page up in under 5 minutes. It’s insane.
Online Sales Pro focuses not only on setting up your sales funnel, but also optimizing it so you can get the best results possible.
Easy-to-use and quick functionality, along with the hundreds of hours of training available for users, make Online Sales Pro the perfect tool for beginners and people who want to just get their sales funnel out there quickly and efficiently.
(It also has a companion app that delivers leads straight to your phone IN REAL TIME, so you can follow up instantly with your leads.)
Wrapping Up
Okay– that was a lot of information, I know!
But really going through all of this information and using it to generate leads and make those sales is DEFINITELY worth it.
So let’s recap what we’ve gone through in this article, so that you’re ready to get started right now!
There are three main parts to a lead generation strategy:
- Attract your leads (put something they want in front of them)
- Nurture you leads (make them feel like they struck GOLD finding you)
- Follow up with those leads (keep doing what’s working, but now it’s time to send them an offer)
Once your strategy is up and running and you’ve nurtured those leads, trust will be built between you and them. (They will see the value in what you are offering.)
And once you’re at that point, these leads will see your offer as a no brainer.
If you follow these steps and this guide you will succeed and get those sales you’ve worked so hard to get!
Emory J Hobel
Co-Owner/CMO at OnlineSalesPro
Born and raised in Charlotte, NC (one of the few natives still there.) Emory started out as a professional photographer and model (you may have seen him on a Dirt Devil vacuum box a few times.) During those 8+ years, he was stacking his talents in marketing and online business. Determined to succeed, he consumed every piece of information he could find. Now Co-Owner/CMO of Online Sales Pro, he and his team are out to become the go-to lead generation platform for business owners starting their online journey. When he’s not pushing the limits behind his desk, you can find him traveling to places like Cape Town, or on his mountain bike somewhere in the forest.
OnlineSalesPro.com
