Connect with us

MARKETING

Planning a Successful Lead Generation Process in 8 Simple Steps

Published

on

Lead generation tactics are a key part of your marketing strategy, but it’s not enough to just chase all the available leads without a good plan.

Planning your lead generation process in advance will help you organize your efforts, define your goals and stay on track.

This is an essential skill because leads are the fuel that powers your sales engine. It doesn’t matter how well you design your website, sales will not happen just because of that.

Lead generation is still a necessary part of any marketing strategy.

How To Plan A Successful Lead Generation Process

  1.  Understand Your Target Audience
  2. Define Your Business Goals
  3. Choose Your Tools
  4. Prep Your Landing Page
  5. Create Your Content Strategy
  6. Review Your KPIs
  7. Automate Your Process
  8. Iterate Until You’re Lovable

Planning a successful lead generation process is always a combination of art, science, and creativity. With the best practices, you can increase your chances of landing more leads and converting them into customers.

1. Understand Your Target Audience

Advertisement

The first and fundamental stage in a successful lead generation process is knowing who your brand will serve.

If you don’t have a clearly defined target customer, then your message will be vague and unappealing.

To be able to cater to the needs and expectations of your customer, you need to understand who they are and what’s important to them.

Rather than promoting a product to everyone, you can be more specific about who your brand serves and spend more time understanding their pain points and goals.

So, defining your target audience will help you narrow down your scope.

You can start by creating a buyer persona. The buyer persona can be created in a variety of ways, but there are three important elements you need to consider:

Advertisement

Group: This is the main identifiable group of target customers based on their demographics and psychographics. A group is like a target market: It serves as a general description of your brand’s target audience, which serves as the focus of your marketing efforts.

Demographics: These include the gender, age, education, and socioeconomic status of your prospective customers. Demographics can be used to narrow down your list of prospects.

Psychographics: These are the attitudes, preferences, and interests of your prospective customers. Psychographics help you understand why they would want to use your brand’s products or services.

Goals: Understanding your target customer’s goals will help you identify how your brand can serve them better. Goals are the expected outcomes customers want to achieve using your products or services.

The most important component of a lead generation process is the buyer personas and their goals. Figuring out your target market can help you narrow down your list of leads,  Define the requirements of your brand first before diving into the mechanics and tactics that will generate leads.

2. Define Your Business Goals

Knowing your objectives is essential in any lead generation process. If you don’t have clear and specific goals, then it will be difficult to measure the success of your campaign. You need to know why you’re attracting and engaging leads, which will help you narrow down your list of prospects.

Advertisement

To define your business goals, you’ll need to consider three things:

  • What do you want to accomplish?
  • Why do you want to accomplish it?
  • How you will accomplish it?

It may seem simple at first but it’s not. However, answering these questions will help you set specific and measurable goals for your business.

If you’re new to marketing, setting clear objectives can feel overwhelming. Ask yourself the “why” question first, because it should align with your company’s mission and vision. The “what” and “how” questions should be answered based on your business goals.

These objectives should be realistic and measurable, so you can track your progress over time and make adjustments as needed.

3. Choose Your Tools

1654005959 802 Planning a Successful Lead Generation Process in 8 Simple Steps

A soldier never goes to war without his weapons, right? It’s more than wise to be well equipped when starting out in the lead generation space.

The proper tools can help you get your workflow organized, improve your productivity at important levels, and as a result, you’ll save time and you can focus more time and energy on other areas of your business.

Also, you should make sure not to spend money on shiny tools that won’t contribute to the progress and success of your campaigns.

Advertisement

4. Decide on Your Content Strategy

One of the most important aspects of lead generation is creating a compelling and effective content strategy.

You need to have the right content in place to capture potential customers. It will help you build trust and increase awareness for your brand.

You’ll want to focus on unique, original, informative, engaging, and eye-catching content that has a proven track record of bringing in more leads.

When thinking about your content strategy, think about the information you can provide to your target market that will meet their needs and answer their questions.

In addition to the type of content you provide, the frequency with which it’s updated will also be an important factor in identifying your brand.

You should have sufficient content to address the needs of a specific group, but not so much that it feels overwhelming.

Advertisement

However, the most crucial part of any content strategy is optimization. Produce highly optimized content that will attract organic traffic to your landing page. We can talk about this in another article.

5. Prep Your Landing Page

You’ve done your research: You have determined your target audience, defined the goals of your business, and identified the tools that will help you reach your objectives.

It’s time to create the ocean where you’ll attract your big fish.

No matter the method of lead generation you choose, you will eventually need to bring your leads to a landing page. Your landing page will serve as the finishing pod for your leads. It’s where they will either become paying customers or continue on their search.

To improve the chances of turning your leads into customers, make sure to prepare and optimize your landing page by keeping in mind the following:

  • Make it easy to navigate; don’t bury them down several layers deep.
  • Give them a clear call to action.
  • Present information and pieces of content that are valuable.

One of the most important elements of a landing page is the CTA button.

Your goal is to encourage potential customers to take action, so make sure you equip your landing page with some options that will get them to click on your CTA button.

Advertisement

You can use the following elements to help prompt your prospects to take action:

Call to Action Button: This element gives your leads a clear call to action by telling them exactly what you want them to do. It’s important that you keep it short and concise because all too often people will skip over CTA buttons.

Form: It’s important that you’re clear about what information you need from your leads. Don’t make your form too long and don’t leave anything out.

Free Report: This can act as a gateway to prompt your leads to give you their information. A free report only requires an email address, which is a good way for you to start building trust with your new leads.

Video: If you’ve got a video that describes the value of your offer, then it’s great for increasing the chances of getting your prospects to take action.

6. Review Your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

1654005959 242 Planning a Successful Lead Generation Process in 8 Simple Steps

KPIs act like a compass so you don’t lose sight of where you’re headed. Just as you set a goal when designing your lead generation process, you should be able to set the same goal again using key performance indicators.

Advertisement

Don’t start a sheet with 100s of KPIs when you’re just starting out. Again, start with 5-6 which are good indicators of where you’re going, and then add on as your business grows.

You need to set up your metrics so that you can measure how well your lead generation efforts are doing.

This gives you an opportunity to track every step of your campaign and identify gaps in your process that may need to be addressed.

7. Identify and Automate Your Process

It’s important to keep things moving smoothly while your lead generation is running.

Identify processes that are missing or could be streamlined and automate your lead generation process so that everything runs well at maximum capacity.

In fact, some businesses can’t function without this type of segmentation. One of the ways you can set up your process to be as efficient and effective as possible is by using automation tools.

Advertisement

Automation tools have been proven to help small businesses save time and money with their lead generation efforts. Not only will they automate lead tasks, but they will also ensure that the leads follow a consistent flow through your sales funnel.

8. Iterate Until You’re Lovable

A successful lead generation process is something that you can improve and refine over time.

Even if you’ve defined everything perfectly the first time, adjust continuously based on your KPIs report.

In order to make adjustments, you need to change processes and add on new elements to the lead generation process.

It’s important that you keep your business fresh with new leads, so don’t be afraid to tweak things up where necessary to get them into your sales funnel.

Wrap Up

With these few key steps, you can begin building a lead generation strategy that will help you become successful in your B2B marketing efforts.

Advertisement

Creating a more effective lead generation process is going to require that you think outside the box and experiment with different methods.

Even if something doesn’t work out the first time, it’s important that you try again so you can make adjustments and figure out what works best for your target market.

Source link

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address

MARKETING

How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

Published

on

A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

Advertisement

Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

Advertisement

Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

Advertisement

“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

Advertisement

Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

Advertisement

Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

Source link

Advertisement
Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

MARKETING

Trends in Content Localization – Moz

Published

on

Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

Source link

Advertisement
Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

MARKETING

How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

Published

on

How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

(more…)

Keep an eye on what we are doing
Be the first to get latest updates and exclusive content straight to your email inbox.
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address
Continue Reading

Trending

Follow by Email
RSS