Top 5 lead generation methods and strategies If you are into an online business, you know how crucial leads are. It’s the oil that keeps the business engine running. Everyone fantasises about having thousands of leads knocking at the door. However, there isn’t any magic formula to scaling leads. But, there are certain ways you can create a lead generating machine for any business. And, I’m here to break down the how-to’s questions. If you are a web design company, you are in luck. Because I am discussing the 5 best ways to generate leads for website design.
Organic Search (SEO)
Many digital marketers claim that SEO is dead. I chuckle every time I hear this. Why? Because over the past 5 years of my digital marketing career, I have never seen anything grow as much as SEO. Who doesn’t love free traffic? SEO is the best way to generate long term leads. It should always be at the top of your lead generating chain. Think of it as an investment you do for 10 long years to reap the benefits afterwards. Yes, I’m afraid SEO is a long race. As a web design company, I can tell you that it’s going to be a tough ask to compete with the big sharks. There are companies that have been spending thousands of dollars to reach the first page. So, you may be wondering how you would be able to compete with the big names. Here is the thing: You can’t be the top spot overnight. It takes years of hard work to perfect the science and art of SEO to reach the first page. Now, the effective SEO plan is beyond the scope of this post. But I will give you the basic structure that you need to follow. #Tip1: Get yours on page right. Keep testing with your content. Change it every now and then to give search engines fresh content to consume. You can follow this guide to make things easy for you. #Tip 2: Sink your mind into anchor text study. Take 10 competitors anchor text and re –label it according to your test. Anchor text is everything in the post-penguin era. So, if you get this right, you can truly make a statement. #Tip 3: Create a link building campaign. What’s going to be your major source of links? Guest posts? Paid posts? PBN? You need to list down your major game changers. Also, use tools like Ahrefs to reverse-engineer your entire competitor’s link. #Tip 4: Get Social. Create a blog and engage with your audience. Although Google suggests that there isn’t direct co-relation with social signals, we know that it certainly has an indirect impact on the search rankings. Especially signals coming from G+ do have positive impacts.
PPC and Paid Advertisements
If you are looking for quick wins, PPC and other paid advertisements are the way to go. PPC that stands for, pay per click, is a system where you pay a certain amount for a click. Based on your target audience, you can choose the search engines that give better value. PPC can be a hit and miss game for the new ones. But in the hands of an experienced specialist, it can be a lethal weapon. If you are new to the game, I suggest you take from a PPC Management company. You don’t want to see your hard earned cash flow through the tunnel due to misconfiguration of your campaign. If you are a DIYer and want to take the accounts into your own hands, I recommend you understand the basics first. Start from the Google course itself.Then take a course from WordStream University.
Also, go through case studies of different business. It shows how businesses created an effective campaign to reap a tonne of benefits. You think you can accomplish something out of it? Yes, you can.
Cold Emails and Calls
This has to be the least effective of all the marketing strategies. However, there are companies that still implement the same tactics to generate a good chunk of leads. I have found many outsourcing companies especially from Asian countries like India and Pakistan that depend on cold calls for leads. It’s all processed down from call centres. What they usually do is buy a list of phone numbers and emails off business owners. Cold calling is an art that develops with experience in handling the clients. If you are a newbie, I would suggest you start with cold emailing. But here is the thing: Even if you are doing cold emailing, keep your marketing hat on. You can’t expect to hit jackpot every time you read the same script to every client. It’s your part of the work to do background research about the client and his business. Figure out the pain point of the business and make a detailed plan before approaching.
Remember this: you aren’t the only one that’s emailing or calling them for business. They might be receiving hundreds of calls every month. So, make sure you have a voice to prove.
Networking
A marketer isn’t lethal until he/she has a resounding network or connection. As a web design company, you should try to connect with like-minded people. I continuously suggest companies attend every web conferences in their respective cities. This is how you connect with your peers and make a long-term connection. A web design company can share views and leads with a digital marketing company and ask to do the same. Or you can follow a slightly modified outsourcing company formula. This is how it works:
Create a project estimation (this is the cost in which your company can create a website). Organise a meeting with few top web design companies Show them your proposal. Convince them on how you can reduce their cost and in the process maximise profit.
This may not be the exact blueprint. But you get the idea, right?
Freelance Websites
I think you might have seen this coming. There are numerous freelance sites like Guru, UpWork, and Fiverr that can generate qualified leads for your business. But here is one problem: These are competitive bidding sites. So, if you have any knowledge about how bidding works; you might know how difficult it would be to place a client in such sites. For the designers struggling to land clients on such sites may take it as a fallacy. However, it’s a fact that many top web design companies still get quality leads from these sites. Yes, they won’t be your $50000 projects, but they will still be better than a ramen price. If you are a Michael Jordon of web design, then you can also try sites like Codeable and Awesome web. They bring highly skilled designers and developer under one roof. You need to get approved in the first place. You can easily land $60 per hour too high paying clients through these portals. Wrapping It Up, There are many people in the web design community that land big clients continuously. They have probably found a way that reaps them great benefits and sticks to it. What tips do you have in your arsenal? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.