Get More Leads in 2016

As 2015 winds down, most organizations are deep into their planning for 2016. They are setting revenue goals, negotiating budgets, and establishing quotas. Establishing lead generation/lead conversion requirements is a critical step in finalizing the growth plan for 2016. Below are some points to be considered when evaluating your marketing strategy/tactics and building a plan that produces more and better leads in 2016.

Evaluate 2015 tactics.

What tactics did you deploy last year? Were they effective? Did you get the results you expected? More importantly, did you get the results you needed to support your revenue goal? It’s important to measure more than just lead volume. You need to measure lead quality. Did the leads that your marketing tactics produced progress through the sales pipeline?  Did they produce new customers?  If not, then it’s time to adjust your strategy and tactics. Don’t just repeat your marketing plan and expect different results.

Understand your target persona. 

Before you decide on your marketing strategy and tactics, you need to have a real clear understanding of your target. After all, if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time. What are your target verticals segments? Who are your target decision-makers and influencers? What is important to them? What keeps them up at night? How does your product/service help them? How do they seek solutions? Where do they go for answers? How do they make decisions?

Blog frequently about relevant topics. 

Blogging is one of the best ways to communicate your unique perspective and expertise to the market. It allows you to position yourself as a thought leader and a subject matter expert. It only works, though, if you’re writing about topics that are relevant and interesting to your target personas. Read your content from the prospect’s point-of-view and ask yourself “So what?” and “How does this impact me?” Too many organizations write about the community service projects their teams worked on or awards they’ve recently won. While those topics are nice, do your prospects really care? Your blog should be used to educate your prospects—not sell to them.

Review your Call-To-Action (CTA) placement.  

Don’t let your online content become a dead-end. Strategically placing CTAs on your website and blog will provide a path for your prospects to further educate themselves and continue to explore your solution. Without CTAs you may not have much to show from the thousands of visits to your site. They come. They view. They leave. Well designed and strategically placed CTAs will enable you to convert more visitors to leads. Make sure your CTA’s are more than just a tool to schedule a consultation. While consultation offers are great for bottom-of-the-funnel prospects, top-of-the-funnel prospects are not likely to click on them. Provide a CTA for them that is less of a leap. Offering an eBook or white paper to download makes it easier for them to click. 

Create more premium content. 

Premium content is content that is used to convert a visitor to a lead. Premium content is typically gated. This means the prospects must provide their contact information in order to download the material. One or two premium pieces may not be enough. You should have a premium content piece for every stage of the buying process (top, middle, and bottom of the funnel) and for each buyer persona. Also, keep in mind that you’ll probably have repeat visitors and you want to make sure they see something new and fresh on their return visit.

Create different types of premium content. 

Don’t get locked into creating the same types of premium content. Try to offer your prospects something new and different. Premium content can include eBooks, white papers, case studies, check lists, score cards, webinars, podcasts, SlideShares, infographics and videos.

Reevaluate your landing pages and forms. 

Are your landing pages inviting? Do they adequately describe the content that is being offered for download? Are prospects getting to the landing page, but not completing the form? Are you requiring too much information on the form? Is it too cumbersome or intrusive? Make it easy for your prospects to respond. Capture their names, companies and emails. Get a phone number if you can. While it’s nice to get a lot of other demographic or profile information, you don’t want to lose potential leads because you’re asking for too much information.

Promote your content. 

Your content can only be effective if it’s read and it can only be read if people can find it. Don’t hide it on your website. Make it easy to find. Embed the key words that your prospects use in their online searches into your content. This makes it easier for Google and Bing to find your content and improve your organic search rankings.Publish links to your content on social media. Share your content via email with your prospects and clients. You can also do paid advertising (AdWords, banner ads, etc.) to promote your content.

Reevaluate social media. 

Does everyone in your organization have a social media presence? Are they continuously expanding their networks? Do they share your content with their networks? Do you have corporate LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook pages too? Social media that is continuously monitored and updated with relevant content can be the cheapest and easiest way to grow your audience.

Inbound marketing mixed with outbound marketing. 

Don’t settle for just an inbound marketing strategy or just an outbound marketing strategy.  The answer is both. Each methodology will enhance the performance of the other if their execution is integrated.  For instance, every outbound email should include at least one link to your online content (website, blog or a premium content landing page).

The old adage of “plan your work and work your plan” is a perfect fit for developing a successful marketing strategy. If you shoot from the hip you run the risk of waking up sometime in Q2 of 2016 and realizing that you’re already behind your revenue goal and your pipeline is bare. Execute these best practices with discipline, track lead generation and conversion KPIs, make adjustments along the way to optimize your results, and you will be well on your way to generating more leads in 2016.