We may live in an era of instant gratification, but that doesn’t mean consumers make hasty decisions. Recent studies have shown that 88% of consumers conduct online research before making a purchase; 60% use search engines to find the products they are interested; and 61% of shoppers read reviews before making a decision
Not long ago, companies relied on advertising to reach prospects and persuade them to buy their products. Today, the efficacy of most advertising has decreased in favor of peer-to-peer recommendations and informative and contextualized content.
But, what type of content offers can get visitors to convert to the next stage of the buying process?
eBooks
When contextualized to the needs of your consumers, eBooks are one of the most popular types of content used to generate leads. They can help you educate prospects, gain credibility, and establish your organization as a leader in your industry.
Here’s the catch. You notice we said that the eBooks needed to be ‘contextualized’?
It takes time to craft a quality eBook. So, before you invest all that time and energy into creating one, you need to make sure that your audience is truly interested in the topic. Do keyword research or look at your most read articles (via your website analytics) to determine what people are looking for and create content that aligns with your audience’s interests and needs.
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Email Nurture Campaigns
Yes, email. That’s right. It’s not dead. But this isn’t the cheesy email newsletter you might be thinking about. Instead, an email nurture campaign is a series of emails you send to someone who opted into your email list (such as when they download your eBook). Unlike an email subscription, the prospects who are a part of the nurture campaign receive a finite number of emails over a specific duration of time.
For example: let’s assume you create an eBook or some type of a downloadable piece of content that you offer to your website visitors. Some percentage of your website visitors choose to give you their email address in exchange for the content. They will then receive a series of emails over the course of several weeks. Each email is informative and is written to help move them through the sales process, perhaps leading them to request a meeting with you or a member of your team. Make sure the emails contain useful information and aren’t full of mindless sales jargon. It needs to be relevant.
Demos and Trials
Prospects may be interested in your products or services, but aren’t yet ready to invest. They want to make sure your products can help them solve their problems before making the purchase.
Offering a demo or a free trial is an excellent way to give prospects a taste of what your product/service can do for them and is one more step toward becoming a customer. The opportunity for prospects to test your product prior to purchase increases the likelihood that even if they don’t buy right away, they may later on.
Templates and Worksheets
One of the easiest ways to drive new leads and customers is to offer a downloadable template or a worksheet of some sort.
Templates provide prospects with a framework for creating original creations. For example, if you provide web design services, you may offer prospects free WordPress templates to convert them into leads and move them down the sales funnel. If you provide design services, you may create a template for a brochure that prospects can use.
Worksheets give you the ability to offer a tool of some sort that helps your prospects. For instance, if you provide bookkeeping services to business owners, you may provide them with a budgeting worksheet that helps them plan their annual spending. Or if you run a moving company you can provide a moving checklist that movers can use to plan all the details of their move.
On downloading any of these offers, your prospects will begin receiving emails via the email nurture campaign noted above.
What sets an effective lead generation strategy apart from other tactics is that every action is planned with a clear marketing objective in mind. Experiment with different types of content to determine which one resonates with your prospects best.
If you’re struggling with building and implementing an effective lead generation strategy, we’ll be happy to help you. Contact us today and let’s discuss your marketing needs and figure out a way to make your small business thrive.
