Obtaining consumer data for prospecting can be difficult and stressful, but it doesn’t always have to be. There is no shortage of consumer lead generation methods, but it is important to keep yourself up to date on these methods. With the ever-changing marketing landscape, there are new methods based on technology, mediums, and platforms. By keeping up to date with these new lead generation methods you can ensure you reach the correct audience in a timely and effective manner. There are steps to take before you go searching for new lead-generation methods. You need to review your current methods as well as analyze your competitor’s efforts. After this, you will have a more complete picture of which methods are not working, what methods your competitors are implementing and where there is opportunity for improvement.
Content Marketing
The term content marketing is typically thrown around a lot in 2024 and is a very large net containing dozens of different marketing efforts. Some of the most popular content marketing efforts are videos, blogs, podcasts, case studies, infographics, graphics, pictures, and more. Content marketing is not only the type of created content but also how you share your content with your audience. Whether you are using your website, video hosting platforms, social media, SEO, SEM, and more.
Content marketing has become extremely popular due to the customization, personalization, and overall cost of creating the content. Through this method, you have full control over what your audience sees, and how they interact with it, as well as customize a strong call to action.
Blogs
Blogs are a very important part of content marketing in 2024. This is a huge initiative marketers have leveraged to cast a wide net to anyone interested in your industry. The goal with blog writing is to generate more website traffic in hopes that if X people come to your site a percentage of them will want to learn more. Just because someone is interested in your content or the problem your content is solving doesn’t mean they are the right person to buy from you. Additionally, blog writing is one of the largest contributors to SEO as it is easy content for Google to scrape and serve to users based on search terms and the targetted keywords.
Multimedia
The use of multimedia is similar to that of blogs, it is a way to attract a large number of people interested in your content to either learn more, get an answer to a problem you are solving, education, or entertainment. Regardless of the reason they are consuming your content, the expected result remains the same. To attract an audience that is interested in what you do, sell, and who you are with hopes that a percentage of those people will contact you to learn more. Similarly with blog writing, multimedia is a great contributor to SEO as Google will look at tags, descriptions, and closed captions to learn more about your content and serve it when appropriate.
Social Media
As social media is so widely used there is no shortage of social media platforms. Each one of these platforms can be leveraged to reach a different audience and allow that audience to engage with your content in different ways. For this reason, not every business should be on every social media platform. The easiest way to decide which platforms are best for you and your business is to judge the type of content you would be able to create consistently. For example, if you are creating multiple different products or are involved in frequent shows and events then a platform like Instagram would be a good fit as you can document these visually. If you are a B2B SaaS business you might not have lots of visual content to share but can provide blogs, new features, and data insights then LinkedIn and/or Twitter would be a good fit.
SEM
Have you ever searched for something in Google and been surprised that the first result is an ad but it turns out it is exactly what you are looking for? That’s because that company understands their customers and can target the relevant keywords and search terms their customers typically search for. On average you need 8 touchpoints before you make a sale, which means this is only a stepping stone in your audience’s decision-making process. Persistence is key and ads are a great way to remain top of mind when your prospects are searching for alternatives or additional information.
Website
Beyond the content you provide on your website to generate traffic and leads (case studies, blog, videos, etc.) other efforts are very beneficial for your lead generation. Implementing tools such as live chat, newsletter sign-ups, CTAs, free trials/sample data/free assessments (if applicable), quizzes, and more. All of these tools have the sole purpose of keeping a website visitor engaged and hopefully reaching out to your business.
CTAs
Everyone knows that you need a CTA on your website, but you shouldn’t just have the same “Contact Us” CTA on every page. The CTA should be relevant to the content on that page. If you are talking about a new product or service “Learn More” would be more appropriate. Or if you are talking about your SaaS then “Start Your Free Trial” makes more sense. This is why it is helpful to look at the content on your page and either use a CTA that makes sense or create the page and the CTA goal in tandem. Having a website with an engaging and relevant CTA on each page is the most effective way to turn your website into a lead generation machine and collect as much as consumer data as possible for prospecting.
Live Chat
By not using a live chat on your website you could not only be missing out on leads but also supporting your prospects and customers. As we all know, people can be impatient, and if someone needs an answer or assistance now and can’t get it they are likely to leave. While you are online you can assist those who would have otherwise left because they couldn’t find what they were looking for or had a question. Even when you are offline the live chat is working for you to collect consumer data as the chatbot will display a “offline” message and ask for them to submit their inquiry. Not to mention most chatbots will utilize AI and serve FAQs, blogs, and other content to help solve any issues until you can respond.
Newsletter
Using a newsletter sign-up is a great way to gather consumer data to deliver tailored content with the sole purpose of converting them into a customer. Commonly, businesses will use newsletters to serve the recipients with service/product updates, recent content they published, links to social media, and any offers they may offer. This is a fantastic way to let your customers and prospects stay up-to-date with your business and give them direct access to your best content.
Sample Content
Free trials, sample data, and free assessments are on the rise. As there are so many businesses in the market all competing for the same customers it can be hard to show that you are the right choice. So, instead of trying to convince them that you are the right choice you can show them. Let your prospects find out firsthand if you are the correct fit for them. This way you collect their consumer data, can speak directly with them on their use case, and answer any questions they may have. If it turns out your offering isn’t for them, it isn’t a loss or a waste of time. Your offering isn’t going to be for everyone, but it is important to understand why. Then discuss with your team if it’s an improvement you should look into or something that you don’t see as an opportunity.
Quizzes
Using a quiz is a great way to have your website visitors engage with your website, leave their consumer data, and get something in return. Often businesses will use quizzes, spin the wheel, or calculators to give discounts or special offers. It’s important to incentivize your visitors to complete the task at hand to increase the completion rate.
Consumer Data Lists
On top of all of your inbound lead generation methods, there are still ways to expand your lead generation. This is commonly done through the purchase of curated lists and using a cold outreach program to turn leads into prospects. Most list businesses will have filters they can implement that allow you to narrow down the list to exactly who you are most interested in reaching.
Managing Your Consumer Data
Now with all of these methods of collecting consumer leads it can be hard to manage all this data yourself. This is where a reputable CRM comes into play. CRMs are not just tools to store all of your prospects and customers, but it is a tools to help you leverage your content, relationships, and deals to close more business. With a CRM you can collect prospects from all of your lead generation efforts, track what they did to engage with your business, how often they engage, and any notes you or your colleagues have left.
Using a CRM is crucial when you have a deep lead generation effort as most CRMs will offer tools within them for a seamless experience. They will collect your leads from your website, SEM, social media, etc. and then provide tools to follow up with prospects and send newsletters. Then you can create a scoring system internally that will notify you or send automated reach-out attempts to convert your prospect to a customer.
How Cleanlist Can Help
Cleanlist is the largest consumer data company in Canada and can provide high-quality and up-to-date customer data. Using Cleanlist you can pick geographic regions, gender, ethnicity, home ownership, and more. This way you can be sure you are targeting your ideal customer profile. Leveraging Cleanlist’s database you can target the audience you are most interested in and pair this with the inbound lead-generation methods you have implemented. These two lead-generation methods allow you and your team to reach your ideal audience as well as keep track of your prospect’s interactions with your website and other efforts.
But, you don’t have to take our word for it. Cleanlist offers a free data assessment where we can provide counts on the criteria you are interested in and provide the coverage available before making a final decision. Not only that, but, Cleanlist can take it a step further and help you with your database and ensure all your prospect and customer data is up-to-date and correct for all your prospecting and customer retention campaigns
