Impressions are everything when you see a post being shared on the web, whether that’s on Twitter, Google, or even as a show note in a podcast; it can give a site an opportunity to collect your information so they can contact you about themselves at a later date.
This is what Lead Generation is. It not only helps the visitor to the site but also to the business in tailoring their needs.
Usually, when someone comes to your site, they arrive at your homepage. But in Callnow’s case, the product is the ‘callback’ feature, so even if you land on the ‘pricing’ section of our site, our USP is still there and still visible at the bottom of the browser.
It can then generate some discussion between us and the visitor, where they are called back to ask for more information about why they visited us. That is an example of lead generation, and how we can better understand a potential customer.
Since the early days of the internet, as far back as when Amazon was simply a book store, ‘lead generation’ has been in some form or another. Landing pages can instantly give an impression and a lead, but without going a step further, they could go somewhere else after losing interest.
So what else could be done?
Blog Posts
This very post you’re reading (and I hope my other posts as well) can be an example of lead generation. It’s also a way of visitors understanding who’s behind the business, and how we see technology shaping part of our future going forward, while also looking back to understand what people did or didn’t enjoy about past technology.
Comments are a good way of readers interacting with the author to give their opinion of the topic in question, but it can also optimise future ideas for other posts; so it could influence more or less of the topic written about.
Email Newsletters
Newsletters have been around for decades now, but they are a great way of having links and contact forms sent straight to someone’s mailbox. There are many types of newsletters; some have a simple list of links that relate to a specific topic, from great iPads peripherals to what’s new on Netflix, the variation can be massive.
Usually, the first lead is asking someone for their e-mail, which can be a pop-up from their site, or even from their social media accounts. Then once the newsletter is sent, they’re given curated content, with leads to other sites.
Social Media
It’s a good chance that by reading this so far, you have at least one social media account that you use for personal or business use.
This alone is a great way of ‘lead generation’, as you can directly interact with customers or potential ones in a short amount of time.
Twitter has become the destination for brands to communicate with complaints or enquiries about their products, and some responses have even become viral, either to the detriment or advantage of their brand.
But when a social campaign is used well, it can make the business more ‘human’ to followers and as a result, can attract plenty of leads. Other social networks focus on other avenues such as video and sharing content to one another, and these can also be used, but it needs to make sense for the business, otherwise, it may give out a confusing message.
What’s the End Goal?
The main goal in all these examples is to simply generate new business; to understand what a customer wants, and using the information obtained, to better understand the needs as well.
The homepage does need to make a clear and concise message to generate the leads, but the above examples can also go a step further in generating more, and making the businesses much more welcoming as a result.
By Jamie Brown
