Have you ever stopped to consider that there are marketing activities you are doing right now that may be counterproductive to your goal of getting more leads for your sales team? Think that's not even a possibility?
In actuality, while you may be generating activity, or things that make you feel good (Look how many Facebook likes we have!) the truth is that it may not actually get more leads. Every aspect of your marketing should drive people to your website.
Here are four ways you could be negating your own efforts to get more leads just by focusing on the wrong thing:
BLOGGING. You didn’t see this one coming, did you? That’s right; blogging may not be getting you leads. Why? See if this sounds familiar: you “blog” once a month (if you have time) about the latest deals that your company closed or the latest updates to your software. You treat your blog like a repository for company press releases. Believe it or not, this doesn’t provide any value to your prospects or clients. They are looking for ways to solve their problems. How do you help them? Do you know your stuff? Do you know their pain points? It also doesn’t help you.
It doesn’t bring people to your website since, more likely than not, you’re not optimizing any of these posts around any keywords or key phrases. And, if you’re only blogging when you have a chance to get around to it, the frequency is such that you may as well not even bother. To drive traffic to your site and get more leads, you should write a blog article at least two to three times per week. Plan out your editorial calendar in advance. Provide content that is valuable to your prospects. This is a great way to get more leads.
TRADESHOW MARKETING. How many of these do you do in a year? You find organizations that are specific to your target market and send all of your best sales people to the annual conference. You have a great booth in a great location and have a drawing for a fabulous item. Attendees come by to enter the drawing, and they are given a brochure and a business card. (Maybe they’ll call you.) The problem with most tradeshow leads is that they never make it back to marketing where someone can provide follow up actions. Chances are also pretty high that the brochure was quickly thrown in the trash when the attendee arrived home from their trip.
Here’s an idea: Create a landing page for attendees to register for the giveaway. Instead of giving them a brochure, follow up with a valuable piece of content specifically related to the focus of the tradeshow. Then, nurture the lead the way you would a visitor to your website.
FACEBOOK ADVERTISING. Let's go ahead and get this one out of the way now. Getting more likes, while it feels good, does not equate to more business. I love Facebook ads and, if they are a fit for your business and your personas, you should definitely make this part of your marketing plan. But, if you're running Facebook ads that are not pointing to a relevant offer (with a landing page on your website) then shame on you. At the very least your ads should promote posts that link to blog articles of interest to your target market. This strategy should apply to all of your online ads. Point them to a page where you can track conversions to leads and then to customers.
EMAIL MARKETING. If you are still buying lists and blasting out emails to anyone and everyone on them with no regard to whether or not they actually want to hear from you, stop. Please. You know what happens when these emails are received, right? At best, they are just deleted, at worst they are marked as “spam” and you get a black mark against your email server. (Get enough of these and you’ll have trouble getting emails through to anyone.) Instead, use your emails to nurture prospects into leads by providing valuable information such as links to blog articles, case studies, tip sheets, etc.
Your website is your best tool to get more leads for your sales team. It just needs the right strategy for how it is put together and content that focuses on solving your prospects’ problems. Website visitors who download content and become leads should be nurtured through the sales funnel with email that provides value. Those leads will turn into customers in no time when it is evident that you actually care about them and are able to help solve their problems. You may even find that they invite others with similar pain points to visit your website as well.
