Inbound Marketing Commandment #7: Thou Shalt Create Lead Generation Materials

As part of the LeadG2 series on "The 10 Commandments of Inbound Marketing" we're looking at each of these ten commandments and the importance of each one. The seventh of "The 10 Commandments of Inbound Marketing" is: You must have premium content (white papers, guides etc) on your website if you intend to generate leads. (Tweet This)

You will never create any leads without lead generation materials. When you have a visitor come to your website, it’s important that you have some type of offer for them to convert on in order for you to be able to continue to reach out with additional offers and communicate with them. If you don’t have any content for your visitors to convert on, your website acts purely as a brochure—and doesn’t do too much for your company’s bottom line. Regardless of whether it’s a top-of-the-funnel offer (blog post subscription, a guide) or a bottom-of-the-funnel-offer (demo or consultation) the key is that you have something that your visitors can convert on.

What are Lead Generation Materials?

Lead generation materials are anything that you can put on a landing page and have someone fill out a form to receive the information.  Some of the easiest pieces of lead generation materials to create are checklists, ebooks and newsletter signups.

The Most Common Lead Generation Materials Include:

• Case studies
• Press releases
• eBooks
• Webinars
• Podcasts
• Videos
• Contact page
• Tutorials
• Free demo
• Free trial
• Training materials
• Newsletter signup

If your goal is to generate leads for your business, you must have premium content on your website.

The 10 Commandments of Inbound Marketing

1. Thou shall not put pen to paper before conducting research and understanding your target persona.  (Tweet This)
2. Sales must be involved in your inbound strategy at each stage from conception to implementation to follow up. (Tweet This)
3. Your website must be mobile optimized or responsive. (Tweet This)
4. You must have a written plan for lead follow up that’s agreed upon by both sales and marketing. (Tweet This)
5. You must have someone responsible for your inbound marketing program. (Tweet This)
6. Consistently be publishing content on your blog. (Tweet This)
7. You must have premium content (white papers, guides etc) on your website if you intend to generate leads. (Tweet This)
8. Do not ignore SEO / Organic search.  This is your website’s lifeblood. (Tweet This)
9. Thou shall not publish content for the sake of Google. Write for humans not Google. (Tweet This)
10. You must use a CRM. (Tweet This)

Make sure to subscribe to the LeadG2 blog to get each of The 10 Commandments of Inbound Marketing and other great blog content delivered to your inbox.   Or you can download The 10 Commandments of Inbound Marketing which includes all 10 of the blog posts and some added content.