Top 10 Ways to Generate Leads for a Startup Online

Here’s a list of some cool options that have lain neglected in your arsenal so far. Those who are too lazy to use these to the fullest will have to bear the brunt of lack sided approach as market leaps and adopts new technologies.

Here’s an easy guide of how and where to start.

In past we have discussed how it’s essential to establish a relationship with existing and potential customers  before you hop on to ways of selling.

Its imperative to be present on one or multiple forums where you can speak about everything ranging from solutions, how your product or service can be of help to them and also where you or someone representing your company is available in case customers wanna reach out. Such inquisitive audiences are already a warm lead.

Gone are the days of direct blatant marketing. Market is more conducive for those who converge their brand with something extra and be an accelerator to the ecosystem. You will see almost all brands following this strategy where they speak of the customers issues instead of plainly advertising and trying to sell something which is a fit for all.

Establishing yourself and your brand as a forerunner in your domain is half the battle won even though it takes time and perseverance. Sharing ideas, industry trends and news, entertaining queries and offering a well-guided product is all a part of successful sales strategy.

Therefore before attempting to sell its important to connect with the customers and once they become your audiences it’s easy to churn sales. Your Audiences are your filtered leads who are also your potential source of revenue.  If all that makes sense then start connecting with them now.

Once we discuss the ways to connect we shall move on to how people connect and find each other and their interests using technology and how effective utilization of some online tools can prove to be highly beneficial in creating fruitful leads with little or no cost at all.

For example as we step into 2017 those who are trying to connect with their customers with low-quality blog posts are passé. The market is already geared up for high-end content that has its utility over multiple domains. Take for example ebooks which have a high selling rate of about one-quarter of total books being sold in countries like the US and Europe. This trend is soon catching up in India.

1.)    Ebooks and Newsletter :

These can be useful to access on multiple devices and can be shared as a link. A typical ebook of a marketing brand features transcribes of interviews, a hefty collection of blogs and exclusive opinion and reviews of your product from the industry experts. However, creating one can be time-consuming depending on the subject taken up. If you like you may cut the time drastically by engaging an outsourced writer who can watch all the videos and interviews, make notes and transcribe the ebook with some understanding of the topic of course. Again newsletters should be more than an honest description of your services but it should also include how you have helped customers in the past, achievements and awards, success stories, industry trend and reviews on related topics.

2.)    Writing a blog :

Blog writing keeps you at the center of focus.  It also depicts you as an authoritative figure on the subject and someone who can resolve the reader’s misconceptions. A detailed topic cab is broken up and can be taken up maybe in a series of the blog post. The main purpose should be to prompt the visitor to take some action. Either like your blog and share it on their platforms. Visit your website through a call to action button set down below in the blog which will make the visitor go to your website to grab may be a free offer after they leave some vital information about them which can be utilized later.

Besides this constantly updating and posting on blogs is helpful in keeping you on top of the search positions on Google and other social media. Blogs can also be add ons or extension of what’s on your website. Writing blogs consistently is not easy and lots of people lose focus, taking help from someone who can research on the topics makes it quite easy.

Publicize the blogs as much as possible on social media and thru mailers. Efforts put today go a long way and sometimes you will be surprised to see how people visit and read blogs which weren’t published lately but respond to a blog written a long time ago.

3.)    Emails :

Gathering a list of email contacts can be time-consuming but it can minimize the efforts of contacting targets individually. There are several bulk mailers which can mail in bulk and keep a track of how well the response rates are. Before drafting a good email it’s important that one checks the keywords used in the subject line as it should be most effective for a high click-through or open rate. It’s then easy to replicate and work on similar lines.

The success rate majorly depends on the subject line. People have a long list of emails in their inbox so it’s important to craft the subject line according to their interests, problems or something that is compelling enough for the reader to open it. Understand what type of people are on the email list and their age group, demographics, likings and interests, preferences and time they are likely to reach their inbox.  People have limited patience to stick with unsolicited emails so it better be concise along with detail info supplied on the blog or the website. Use light images and call to action here as well.

4.)    Marketing on Facebook:

Marketing on Facebook and twitter can go hand in hand and ideally these two should be linked. It works similar to your blog. It’s a must to have a list of useful topics and material to be showcased on Facebook. There are enough feeds on everybody’s page and it’s mandatory for your post to stand out and be tempting enough for the viewer to stop by and open it. Visuals or videos are a popular source of getting higher attention.  Embedding these articles with a share option for various platforms is also advisable to get more leverage and promotion on multiple domains.

5.)    Marketing on twitter:

Twitter is an effective tool to increase your brand awareness and keep up with the latest developments in your segment. You can put your content here along with videos or links to your website and give it a boost via SEO by posting regularly. It also helps t get instant reviews and opinions from people who are leaders in your niche or those who follow you. Searching for the latest happenings on twitter related to your domain and commenting helps you get the right recognition which goes a long way  in putting a face and humane approach to your brand as well.

However twitter has a limitation of posting 140 characters and therefore the content should be very hard-hitting and focused without any over explanation or verbosity. Of course, you can retweet later with your comments and add to what’s been said initially. Place a hashtag # to the videos so people can easily search the videos later.

6.)    Marketing on LinkedIn:

It was explained in detail in the last session however just to reiterate what works. Join target groups to engage and involve by value adding conversations. Interact offline or outside the group with those who seem to be the potential customers or build further on those who need more info and are interested in knowing solutions you can offer.

Do an advanced search of your ideal profiles. LinkedIn identifies and saves your search parameters and later throws back similar results based on past searches.

Take help of influencers as their word carries a lot of weight. They can share your campaigns either paid or unpaid. You can also host an interview with them on your website.

Try capturing the list of official emails of added profiles through Apps like Sales Umbrella. You can use email automation tools to send bulk emails later, this app even has other cool features like tracking down the visitors and CRM tool ect

7.)    YouTube:

This is the single largest repository of videos and what makes it different from the other sources that host similar videos is that here your videos remain for longer and even though sometimes the video is deleted YouTube keeps a copy of it. It is the number one choice over any or all medium combined for people who seek information. You can create videos displaying your expertise and authority.  A series of consistent video postings in the form of a series can be more convincing than any other conventional medium and help on building trust and a relationship with the customers.

8.)    Trade shows and webinars:

This can be more effective than twitter and LinkedIn for some service providers for whom keeping abreast with latest industry developments is a must. It’s the best opportunity to get people involved. It’s a great way where customers ask more about your product or share their experience using one of your products. Involve customers and feature them side by side in a question and answer session. It is easy if you are a pro; you can manage the show. Through lots of brain storming, sharing some light moments and some excerpt s, bringing an expert on board and having a joint discussion and in the end, rewarding some of the participants can make webinar a hit.

Similarly trade shows can serve as an amazing opportunity to be tête-à-tête with the movers and the shakers of the industry and exchange business cards.

There is always a tussle between methods which work best for one organization.

9.)     Google searches:

Almost 90% of the people who are in the buying phase pore their queries in Google and see at least 10 -14 different sites before they head on to a decision-making phase.

Getting your sight on top is more than doing some good keyword research and sharing back links. Here are few of the parameters that should be kept in mind while optimizing your website.

Content should always be focused to answer specific and unique queries which serves its purpose to the user. Using long phrases with these specific keywords are cheaper for PPC purposes.

Mobile searches form a significant part overall searches; almost more than 50% of search world over and it’s important to create content around it. Mobile users want to know and act fast. Content should be optimized for mobile search meaning they should give a good mobile user experience. Keep the news AMP ready. Accelerated mobile page is a stripped down version of the website which is mobile friendly to download.  Accelerating the speed in general is also one of the criteria for leading the search ranking.

Featuring yourself for local accessibility by constantly updating your website for local updates, local phone numbers and events.

Google is fast optimizing its search engine to better understand queries and combinations. Sometimes searching on mobile is more cumbersome and voice searches can be many times faster. Creating content which caters to direct questions built around voice search should therefore be kept in mind.

Your website should be a source of news for other sites so they can link up to you. This is another great way to jump the ranks. Keeping the twitter account abuzz with activity is another factor as Google now features tweets and considers it as a parameter for SERP – search engine result page.

While creating website content keep in mind what user looks for, what your competition is offering, how you can stand apart from them.

Although organic searches can be very successful almost 6 times as successful than the pay-per-click campaign;  PPC if taken up and managed correctly can give very high convertibility. The PPC campaigns can be cost bearing but it makes sense to hire a full-time agency to monitor and manage the campaign. The result that it brings in terms of convertibility is something to vouch for.

Its advisable to use both the SEO and PPC together and do in-depth research on which keywords ranked higher in search results and use them over others in future. These keywords can also be used in making tags, description and page content.

10.)  Cross promotions and co marketing:

Brand tie ups are a great way to promote each other. It’s helpful to share list of clients with each other as referrals. Check the list and churn the potential clients before launching a campaign so efforts aren’t wasted and only potential customers get targeted.

Team up with existing customers and offer incentives for promoting your product and services. There testimonials are of utmost credibility. Others get to know what lies in store for them and what benefits to expect out of a product.

The list isn’t exhaustive of how to leads can be managed and gained but these are the building base upon which you can build your dream system of lead generation and  take the leap by utilizing some of the cool tools mentioned and rake in the moolah.

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