7 Modern Lead Generation Strategies in 2024
One of the most important aspects of running a business is knowing how to generate leads. Lead generation helps create interest from your target audience and drives high-quality traffic to your website. Whether you’re selling products/services B2C or even B2B, attracting new prospects is key to growing your brand’s reach.
This article will tackle seven modern lead generation strategies that your business can use to acquire more prospects and lead them to your sales funnel.
1. Start a video podcast and discuss topics with your audience
Video podcasts aren’t new, but they’re becoming increasingly popular as content creators turn to YouTube to entertain their audience and draw eyes to their brand. Video podcasts are more interactive than your standard audio ad since people engage more with the content. To start a successful podcast, you’ll need to discuss topics within your niche that your audience finds interesting.
Look for trending topics within your industry and incorporate them into your episodes. Many people run their lead generation strategies off podcasts, where they run ads in between episodes to generate traffic to their store or website. By selectively filling in the ‘commercial slots,’ you can maintain the episode’s flow while sparking interest in your brand.
Interviews are the most popular format of video podcasts where the host discusses the topic along with one or two guests. The format enables them to exchange ideas and bring in-depth insights to a specific niche. Educational podcasts also effectively generate leads as it is subject-based and offers valuable information that your audience may find appealing.
2. Offer a referral system with rewards or incentives
Despite the prominence of digital marketing strategies, nothing beats good old-fashioned word-of-mouth marketing. Plus, it’s easier than ever to recommend a product or service thanks to social media platforms. If you want to generate more leads and foster customer loyalty among your target audience, a strong referral system is a strategy worth implementing.
Reward-based referral programs are excellent at generating leads because they’re easy to track and bring quality leads to your business. Whenever a customer refers a friend or family member, there’s a good chance the person is already aware of your brand. Therefore, converting them into prospects is much easier than leads discovering your business for the first time.
You don’t have to develop a complex referral strategy to make it work. All you need is to add value to your customers to make your referrals more appealing. For example, you can create custom referral codes that your customers can share to obtain discounts. You can also take advantage of the referral by offering new deals to incoming leads.
Make sure to promote your referral system throughout your social media platforms and your website. You’ll be surprised how many new leads your existing customer base can bring.
3. Stay up to date on current search engine optimization trends (SEO)
The thing about search engine optimization is that it’s always changing. Your current SEO processes won’t deliver the same results in three months, six months, or even a year. Because of its ever-evolving nature, marketers should constantly look for the latest SEO trends to stay ahead of their competitors.
One example is the rise of short-form content. Over the past few years, marketers have constantly been pumping long-form content over 2,000 words, believing it delivers the best search engine results. Today, short-form content dominates the online space, whether on websites or social media.
When it comes to creating written content, your focus shouldn’t be on word count alone. You’ll experience greater success by incorporating the right keywords and conducting a thorough keyword analysis. Besides, people nowadays prefer short, digestible content as it helps them absorb the information faster than a lengthy blog post.
Stay up to date on the latest SEO trends and keep an eye on your competitors’ actions. Search engine visibility is one of the best ways to generate leads and organic traffic, so don’t get left behind by practicing outdated SEO tactics.
4. Publish relevant content
Content-based lead generation strategies continue to be a major driving force in helping businesses acquire new leads. Customers are always eager to learn more about their favorite brands, and creating content that’s in line with their interests can generate good traffic to your website. Search engines favor websites that answer specific questions as it immediately provides users with the information they need.
Focus on the who, why, what, and where on your blog posts to ensure that you deliver the most value to your site visitors. As local SEO becomes more popular, it’s also good to incorporate local search engine optimization efforts to boost your local presence further.
5. Get creative on social media
Almost every business today has some form of social media presence. If you’ve been concentrating on growing your follower base, you can reap the rewards by being creative with your lead generation strategies. We’re all familiar with PPC advertising and its power to attract leads. While it’s effective at capturing your audience’s attention, why not get creative and jump on the influencer marketing hype train?
Statista estimates the influencer marketing industry to hit a whopping $24 billion in 2024. That figure alone convinces most businesses to add influencer marketing into their lead generation strategies.
Adidas was one of the first to capitalize on the influencer marketing trend in 2015 with their My Neo Shoot campaign. The footwear brand collaborated with Selena Gomez on Instagram to show off its Neo line, a youth-oriented line of footwear and apparel. They invited people to showcase their Neo products with the hashtag #myneoshoot, and the result is a 41,000 increase in follower count.
When it comes to influencer marketing, it’s not about the follower count but more about how the influencer fits with your brand. You want to collaborate with an influencer that resonates with your brand’s messaging. Their personality and social media presence will ultimately draw new leads to your business, so choose an influencer that best matches your brand’s values.
6. Implement a live chat feature on your website
As technology reshapes our e-commerce experience, live chat is one lead generation tactic gaining traction. Live chat refers to the customer messaging software that enables customers to chat directly with a company’s chat support team. The great thing about live chat is that it provides instant communication between you and your leads, enabling you to address their questions quickly and guide them to your sales funnel.
You can incorporate a live chat feature on your website in one of two ways: a pop-up chatbox or a user-generated conversation. Pop-up chat boxes are ideal since site visitors see them immediately, and they can send a message with a simple click. Live chat does more than generate leads for your website as it also helps improve your customer service.
7. Offer unique deals and discounts
Many businesses have a common lead generation strategy to incentivize new customers through sales and promotions. You can modernize this approach by using online coupon providers like Groupon to generate new leads.
People who browse online tend to look for the best deals they can get. Groupon takes advantage of this by promoting discount vouchers for products/services. You gain access to Groupon’s unique audience and benefit from their in-house marketing efforts. When used correctly, Groupon can increase traffic on your website and attract new leads to your business.
In summary
There’s no way around it; lead generation requires plenty of planning and preparation. Businesses that take time to build their lead generation strategies tend to outperform the competition because they know how to attract quality prospects.
Experiment with these strategies and conduct solid A/B testing to see which method works best for you. Once you figure out which methods work best, stick to them and combine them with other marketing methods. By following the strategies mentioned here, you can generate brand interest and convert quality leads into regular customers.
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