Lead generation is the lifeblood of any business. While there are many effective ways to attract qualified leads, often you a little something extra to jumpstart your efforts.
While we aren’t suggesting that you forgo the tried-and-true methods of lead generation, there’s no harm in augmenting those methods periodically. What follows are some ways to do just that.
1. Consider product videos. A majority of people are visual learners. Consider posting videos that illustrate how one of your products works.
2. Get rid of (the word) spam. Research shows that when a company proclaims that it will never spam a customer, just reading the word spam makes a person less likely to buy. Protect your privacy is a better phrase to use.
3. Make sure your call-to-action stands out. When you make your call-to-action LARGER it results in more leads. Speaking of calls-to-action, more is almost never better. Instead of sprinkling a variety of calls-to-action on your webpage or in an email, stick with just one. Research shows that when people have too many choices, they are less likely to make one.
4. Don’t be afraid of a little self-promotion. Promoted tweets and Facebook posts get you more customer exposure. While these type of posts often get a bad rap, the truth is that as long as your promoted content is original and offers something of value, these posts can payoff.
5. Update your blogs. We all know how important original content is but updating blogs (when appropriate) can work just as well. If you previously wrote about an industry trend and new numbers come out regarding that trend, simply update your original blog to garner attention without spending a lot of extra time.
6. Make the most of your signature line. Studies show that the simple act of linking the signature line in your emails back to your website or landing page can increase traffic back.
7. Administer a quiz. When you offer a quiz on a timely and relevant topic, you can also gain a number of new leads. Make sure the quiz is simple to use, however, or people won’t bother to take it.
Adding a little something extra to your lead generation efforts doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort. The payoff, however, makes it well worth it.
Seven Ways to Come Up with Blog Topics
Content MarketingSeven Ways to Come Up with Blog Topics. Blogging can do wonders for a business. Driving traffic to its website and converting that traffic into leads are just two important benefits of blogging. Blogging also helps a business become seen as a thought leader in its industry which helps establish trust with current and prospective customers.
While it is easy to see why blogging is so important to a business, blogging itself can be much more difficult. Many times it isn’t the blogging itself that causes issues, rather the ability to come up with blog topics over and over. In order for blogging to successfully promote your business, it must be done on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, coming up with new and fresh ideas can be extremely challenging.
If you feel as if you have hit a wall in terms of blog post topics, rest easy. What follows is a list of ways to spark your creative juices and have you back at the keyboard in no time.
1. Ask questions. These questions don’t have to be profound. Next time you are talking with a client just ask that client what his or her biggest challenge is right now. And customers aren’t the only ones you can get ideas from, either.
2. Interview experts. People love to read interviews with leaders in their industry who have been successful. Interviews are great blogs because you don’t have to come up with the content, the interviewee does that for you.
3. Brainstorm. It seems simple but how many times have you asked your co-workers and sales team to sit with you for a few minutes and just throw out ideas. You might be surprised at how many topics you gain from such meetings. Bring donuts and the room will be packed!
4. Use personal experience. Think of a time when you learned an important lesson from a failure. Or when you stuck with an idea no one else believed in and it paid off. These types of blog posts make for great reading because they personalize the author.
5. Spy on your competitors. What are your biggest competitors writing about? If they are getting a lot of likes on their blog posts see if there is anything you could learn from their methods or topics.
6. Keep up on current events. This is a great way to write timely and creative blog posts. Sporting events are a good example. How about a post on how hiring employees is like preparing for the NBA draft.
7. Take a look back. What were your most popular blog posts? Consider updating those posts or expanding on them. Chances are they will be popular once again.
Blogging can be difficult but is essential to the success of your business. Hopefully the ideas listed above will make the task of blogging a little easier.
The Best Ways to Market Your Small Business in 2017
Small BusinessIf you are looking for the best ways to market your small business, you need to know what the latest trends in marketing are right now. The problem is, it can be difficult to distinguish an important trend from a passing fad.
While you want to be on top of the latest trends, you also must be aware of what really works. Usually the answer is a combination of the hot new trends and the more tried-and-true methods. It also is important to remember that what is hot today may not be hot tomorrow.
So what is hot today? According to many marketing experts, in 2017 the following marketing techniques will gain small businesses the most traction with customers and prospects.
What is hot this year may not be hot next year. But as a marketer you must keep up with what speaks to consumers at this very moment.
Simple Ways to Jumpstart Your Lead Generation Efforts
lead generationLead generation is the lifeblood of any business. While there are many effective ways to attract qualified leads, often you a little something extra to jumpstart your efforts.
While we aren’t suggesting that you forgo the tried-and-true methods of lead generation, there’s no harm in augmenting those methods periodically. What follows are some ways to do just that.
1. Consider product videos. A majority of people are visual learners. Consider posting videos that illustrate how one of your products works.
2. Get rid of (the word) spam. Research shows that when a company proclaims that it will never spam a customer, just reading the word spam makes a person less likely to buy. Protect your privacy is a better phrase to use.
3. Make sure your call-to-action stands out. When you make your call-to-action LARGER it results in more leads. Speaking of calls-to-action, more is almost never better. Instead of sprinkling a variety of calls-to-action on your webpage or in an email, stick with just one. Research shows that when people have too many choices, they are less likely to make one.
4. Don’t be afraid of a little self-promotion. Promoted tweets and Facebook posts get you more customer exposure. While these type of posts often get a bad rap, the truth is that as long as your promoted content is original and offers something of value, these posts can payoff.
5. Update your blogs. We all know how important original content is but updating blogs (when appropriate) can work just as well. If you previously wrote about an industry trend and new numbers come out regarding that trend, simply update your original blog to garner attention without spending a lot of extra time.
6. Make the most of your signature line. Studies show that the simple act of linking the signature line in your emails back to your website or landing page can increase traffic back.
7. Administer a quiz. When you offer a quiz on a timely and relevant topic, you can also gain a number of new leads. Make sure the quiz is simple to use, however, or people won’t bother to take it.
Adding a little something extra to your lead generation efforts doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort. The payoff, however, makes it well worth it.
Seven Simple Ways to Drive Backlinks
Content MarketingSeven Simple Ways to Drive Backlinks. If you are a small business owner looking to improve your content marketing efforts, driving more backlinks to your website is essential to your success. This can be a difficult task, however, if you aren’t sure how to generate backlinks.
While everyone talks about content marketing and all that it can do for a business, it can be difficult to gain traction-especially in the beginning. What follows are some ways to generate the all-important backlinks necessary to get your content noticed.
Building backlinks is easier than you might think. The key is to always be reaching out to others to gain important backlinks.
Why Asking for Customer Reviews is Difficult (but Still Necessary)
MarketingWhy Asking for Customer Reviews is Difficult (but Still Necessary). Customer reviews and testimonials are one of the best ways to increase sales. This is especially true for small-and medium sized businesses that don’t have a huge marketing budget.
Consider this statistic: 90 percent of shoppers say they take online reviews and testimonials into consideration before they make a purchase. Therefore, if you aren’t actively encouraging customers to comment on your products and services, you are potentially losing out on a lot of business.
So why is it so hard to get customers to write reviews? Well, maybe customers aren’t really the issue. Instead maybe we should look at ourselves and ask why it is so hard to ASK customers for reviews? And asking for reviews is difficult. There is no way around it. It’s kind of like asking someone to pay you a compliment. It just feels wrong. That’s why so many business owners back away from the task.
While this aversion is natural, it also can be costly. Customer reviews and testimonials are some of the most effective marketing techniques out there. The best part are that they are absolutely free. In light of these facts, business owners simply can’t pass up the opportunity to ask customers to review their products and services.
While asking for testimonials is never easy, there are some ways make it as painless and effective as possible.
Build solid relationships. Asking for reviews face-to-face or over the phone is the most effective way to get someone to agree to write a testimonial. But here’s the caveat: you need to have a relationship with that person. So make sure you know your customers (which is the best way to keep them loyal in the first place). Customers that know you and appreciate your products or services will be more than happy to help you out with a testimonial. The fact that you took the time to actually stop in or call them is simply icing on the cake.
Email it the right way. In some cases asking for reviews by email is your only choice (and make sure it is before you ask this way). When requesting a review via email take the following steps:
Evaluate. If you aren’t getting a lot of positive responses, go back to the drawing board and evaluate your approach.
Obtaining customer reviews can be a tricky prospect. However, the payoff is too significant to ignore!