Expert Panel, Forbes Business Development Council
Senior-level sales & biz dev executives from Forbes Business Development Council share firsthand insights.
No matter what industry or business type, lead generation is an important aspect of company success. The best strategies end up bringing in a significant amount of new traffic, when done correctly, which of course means positive growth for your business. As such, lead generation strategies should be carefully designed upon current and predicted trends in order to be relevant and effective for as long as possible.
Yet, lead generation is not one-size-fits-all, and many factors should be considered before you decide upon a strategy that’s right for your company. To help provide some guidance, 11 members of Forbes Business Development Council share the strategies that have worked for their businesses, along with how companies can utilize each approach to gain more qualified leads.
1. Know What Your Clients Want To Hear
One way to improve your online lead generation strategy is to know what your potential clients want to hear. Develop your ideal customer profile (ICP) and learn why your best customers chose your service or product. You'll be able to craft your message to attract clients similar to your ICP and gain more qualified leads. Know what your clients want to hear, not what you think they want to hear. - Christian Valiulis, Automatic Payroll System
2. Use The Digital Door Knocker Method
Over the last two years, we have perfected a strategy that uses door-to-door methods in the online world. One of those being, we only select online platforms (e.g. Facebook) that allow us to simulate a door-to-door interaction. The door knocking process works because the pattern is to interrupt, educate and call to action. By following this process online, our leads have multiplied by 500%. - Chris Lee, Solgen Power
3. Create Consistent Content That Drives Value
Always creating and putting out more and more content that drives value for potential customers is one of the best ways to generate leads online. Some of the folks I know have done a great job creating content on YouTube and also speaking at various events, recording it and then putting it out in social media in order to be helpful. - Mehul Agarwal, Taliun
4. Use Inbound Call Tracking
Lead generation typically focuses on form fills, but inbound calls offer massive value to marketers. A call from a landing page is higher intent than a form fill. Marketing call tracking generates a phone number for each landing page and routes the call with campaign context to the right sales rep. Marketing gets credit for the lead and can then optimize campaigns for more inbound calls. - Howard Brown, RingDNA | Inside sales & enterprise sales acceleration software
5. Utilize Third Parties
We have had much success utilizing third-party vendors who specialize in online lead generation. This has worked well for our firm because we did not have an in-house digital marketing expert, but we had an immediate need to increase leads to our sales team. We have been able to partner with industry-specific lead generation firms that have helped us to target the exact prospects we want. - Jen Tadin, Gallagher
6. Focus On Personal Branding Via Social Media
Digital marketing has completely changed in that it's now much more personal and individualized. One thing that has helped us is the executive and leadership team putting in the effort to build their personal brands via social media and then promoting content about our company or other authority content in our industry. This actually helps SEO as well because our social shares have more reach! - Jared Shaner, Trellis
7. Aim For Better Video Engagement
I continue to be surprised at companies that do not use video on the landing page. You do not need high production value (sometimes the raw genuine videos actually convert better). Use a video on your page to help presale why they should fill out your form, get your lead magnet or whatever. If you don’t have a video, get your phone out and film one today. It’s a game changer. - Don Markland, MoneySolver
8. Be Open To Trial And Error
Over the years, we have tried many different ways to generate leads for our respective businesses and the process of trial and error has allowed us to figure out what works for each of our companies. Any business interested in getting more qualified leads should be open to trying all kinds of possibilities to discover what works best. - Adam Mendler, The Veloz Group
9. Say Something Important
The effective use of mass media is the way to gain more qualified online leads. Communicate something meaningful and inspiring to the largest possible audience you can afford. The message is the key to success. If you don't have anything interesting to say, don't spend the money. Give potential customers value and a purpose to engage with you and you will see immediate improvements in lead generation. - Marty Wolske, Highway Equipment Company/New Leader
10. Consider Starting A Podcast
We are 31 episodes into our own podcast, which has proven to be incredibly helpful in building awareness and brand credibility, making our subsequent outreach more effective. It was particularly effective in booking meetings within large Fortune 500 companies, either through inbound leads from people who listened to the podcast or via outbound outreach featuring this as part of the outreach cadence. - Daniel Rodic, Exact Media
11. Implement Chatbot Marketing
Chatbots are the next evolution in automated marketing. As consumers use their phones less and less for actual talking, chatbots can engage them and obtain the required information to identify a qualified lead without the cost of an actual human. This is a solution that gives both the consumer and the business exactly what they want—lost cost, low commitment engagement. - Beau Barnhart, Rescue One Financial