With the rise of digital marketing, lead generation has become a crucial aspect of any business.
Big businesses have always been able to generate leads through their websites, but small businesses can’t afford to spend thousands on digital marketing campaigns. Lead generation enables them to gain access to new customers that they may not have otherwise reached.
This article will discuss in detail the lead generation process and the steps and strategies to generate leads effectively. If you are however looking for a third party's help, make sure to check out our top lead generation companies list.
Table of Contents
What Is Small Business Lead Generation?
Lead generation is generating leads or potential customers that aren’t yet your customers. It’s the first step in the conversion funnel:
- Generation: find new prospects
- Conversion: turn those prospects into customers
Generating leads is essential to any business’s sales process, but it can be especially challenging for smaller companies.
Suppose you don't have enough money or manpower to do traditional lead generation strategies like advertising and SEO for small businesses (search engine optimization). In that case, there are plenty of other ways to generate leads for your small business brand!
7 Best Ways to Generate Leads for Your Small Business
- Supercharge Your Content Marketing Efforts
- Give Free Trials
- Build Your Community
- Engage with Your Customers
- Get Customer Reviews on Review Sites
- Optimize Your Website
- Implement Guest Posting
Each one will help give you more visibility in Google searches and get more people interested in what you're selling so they come knocking on the door.
1. Supercharge Your Content Marketing Efforts
To start, you need to have a content marketing strategy in place. This can include creating blog posts that answer questions or showcase products and services.
The most important thing when it comes to content marketing? It’s got to be good! It would help if you had compelling writing that keeps readers engaged and makes them want more.
Email marketing is another excellent way to generate leads through promotions and newsletters.
Paid ads can also get customers interested in your business, especially if you’re trying out new things or trying to reach a different demographic than usual.
This will help drive traffic toward your website, where they can sign up for more information about your company or purchase products directly from you.
2. Give Free Trials
Offering free trials is a great way to attract new customers and generate leads.
You can offer your product or service for a limited time, with the option of purchasing it if the customer likes what they've experienced. Or you could also provide a limited-time service for free to generate leads.
This approach lets you get feedback from potential customers before making any commitments, giving you valuable insight into their needs and preferences.
3. Build Your Community
Social media groups and communities are a great way to connect with your target audience. 64% of small businesses utilize social media in their marketing strategy.
Search online communities that are relevant to your business and join them. You can do this through social media, forums, and groups.
You can also use Facebook’s search bar to find these groups and type in keywords that relate to your niche or join an online community like LinkedIn.
Once you’ve found them, the next step is to engage with them!
4. Engage with Your Customers
A way to grow your customer base is to engage in online communities.
Get involved! Don't just lurk around -- get involved in conversations, even those that aren't directly related to what you do but still contribute something valuable as an individual with different experiences/perspectives than most others within these groups might possess.
Engage with the community by creating posts or answering questions where appropriate.
If someone asks a question, take time out of your day (or hire someone) and answer it, so they feel they got value from their time on these platforms.
Make sure you create unique value by providing links to great content you have published elsewhere that answers the question better than anyone else could have done it themselves (and provide credit when appropriate).
You can also offer discounts or other incentives for people who engage with you in the group.
This will help attract more followers and put you at the front of their minds when they’re looking for service providers like yours!
5. Get Customer Reviews on Review Sites
Reviews are one of the best ways to build trust with customers. They can help you reach new prospects by boosting your search engine optimization (SEO).
To get reviews, first: ask for them.
This is not difficult but requires persistence and patience—it’s a numbers game!
Write emails asking people who purchased from you to review their experience on sites like Google, Yelp, and Facebook.
You can also ask customers to rate you on these sites even if they haven’t purchased from you yet.
Next: respond promptly to negative reviews.
It’s okay if someone gives your business a bad review; that sometimes happens even when everything goes perfectly!
Don't ignore it or try to hide it; respond publicly in a professional manner and try to turn something negative into an opportunity for improvement.
6. Optimize Your Website
The next thing you can do to grow your customer base is optimize your website.
This will help customers find you more efficiently and increase the amount of traffic that comes to your site. There are a few things you should do to optimize your website:
- Try paid ads. Paid ads allow you to reach potential customers searching for what you sell through a third-party platform like Facebook or Instagram (or even Yahoo!). They'll appear at the top of their results by paying for these ads when someone googles something related to what they're selling (like "best flower delivery").
- Make it mobile-friendly. Most people these days use smartphones and will not want to visit a site that doesn’t work well on their phone.
7. Implement Guest Posting
There are many ways to leverage guest posting for your business, including by:
Building links. Guest posts can be used to build links to your website, which is a great way to increase organic search engine traffic.
You can use link-building campaigns to get other sites to link back to yours, which will increase its ranking in search results on Google and other search engines.
When people see that you've been featured elsewhere and are interested in what you have to say, they might click over and read more of what you do on your blog or website.
Building brand awareness. Guest posting provides another avenue through which potential customers learn about who you are and what makes your company unique—if done right, this strategy has the potential for viral growth as well!
Building reputation online by being an expert in a particular field (or at least seeming like one).
By writing articles for others' websites and sharing some of the knowledge from those writings on social media sites such as LinkedIn or Twitter, users will start following along with what interests them most within your industry niche areas.
They will also learn more about how knowledgeable someone like yourself is when it comes down to closer inspection time.
Building website traffic because of increased exposure via said platforms mentioned above plus having other blogs link back directly towards pages within yours; these scenarios together mean better chances at improving overall visitor numbers.
Why Is Small Business Lead Generation Important?
When it comes to the sales process, generating leads is the first step and arguably one of the most important steps. Because if you can’t get a lead into your pipeline, then there’s no way they're going to become customers—or even take out their wallets!
Lead generation is also one of the most cost-effective ways to grow your business. 91% of marketers state that lead generation is their most significant goal.
You don't have to spend much money on hiring people or buying expensive equipment since you're only investing time and effort in building relationships with potential clients.
Business owners need to discover ways of generating leads effectively and cheaply.
The first step to generating leads is understanding your target audience.
If you are a small business owner, lead generation is a key part of your marketing strategy. The following tips will help you get started:
- Understand who your target audience is.
- Create an appealing offer that would interest them in what they need or want from you (e.g., if they have a problem with their website design).
- Put together an email campaign with offers and discounts on products or services that solve their problems (e.g., if they need help designing their website).
Expert Insights on Small Business Lead Generation
We asked experts from top agencies working with small businesses: "What was, for your agency, the most effective method of generating leads?"
- Word-of Mouth Marketing
- Free Trials
- Custom Cold Emails + LinkedIn + Google Ads
- Building Your Brand on LinkedIn
- Comprehensive Digital Strategy
- Omnichannel Content Strategy
- Brand Personalization
- Intergrated Marketing Strategy
1. Word-of Mouth Marketing
Nick Fernandez, founder of Upsway Marketing
Word-of-mouth marketing is our secret weapon. When we deliver exceptional results and outstanding service to our clients, they become our biggest fans and advocates. Their personal recommendations generate a steady stream of new leads. We also actively give back to our community through volunteer work and networking events.
This helps us build relationships with potential clients and showcase our expertise through speaking engagements. Overall, our lead generation strategy is all about creating value for our clients and our community.
2. Free Trials
Shubhra Bhargava, Chief Design Officer at Excal Design Inc:
Free trials can help overcome customer hesitation and generate more leads. When someone signs up for a free trial, they also enter your marketing funnel, allowing you to nurture these leads until they convert into customers.
However, it's important to note that free trials may not be suitable for every type of business. Therefore, experiment with different offers to see what works best for your business model and target audience. Based on the results of these experiments, you can then decide whether to continue offering free trials or explore other promotional strategies.
3. Custom Cold Emails + LinkedIn + Google Ads
Christopher Snelling, CEO at TopOut Group:
Personalized cold emails are effective because they allow a less intrusive approach than cold calling. The key is personalization, demonstrating that you understand the recipient's needs. These emails are great for initiating conversations, building relationships, and gaining insights.
Without email response, we enhance our approach with LinkedIn outreach and networking. It adds a personal touch, showing we're real people behind the screen and fostering genuine connections.
Google Ads is crucial to our strategy due to its immediate visibility and high reach. We tailor our ads to our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) using demographics, location, and interests, ensuring efficient use of our marketing budget.
4. Building Your Brand on LinkedIn
Anastasiia Bahrii, Chief Delivery Officer at Addlium:
As an agency specializing in lead generation for B2B companies through LinkedIn, we naturally use this platform as our primary channel for generating our leads. We employ the same social selling techniques and lead generation framework on LinkedIn as we do for our clients.
To ensure high-quality results, we focus on building your brand and trust beyond LinkedIn. This includes activities such as:
- Sharing expertise on professional media and platforms;
- Building a strong portfolio that showcases your work and accomplishments;
- Collecting and showcasing reviews from clients on external listing sites;
- Providing value to your audience through webinars and other educational content.
5. Comprehensive Digital Strategy
Staci Cretu, CEO at Uncommon Marketing Works:
Staying agile with these tactics ensures growth:
1. Hyper-personalization: Use data or AI to craft uniquely tailored content.
2. On-page qualification: Employ forms to sieve quality leads, ensuring a right fit.
3. Automated integration: Bridge marketing and sales with automation for seamless nurturing.
4. Content marketing: Provide insightful blogs, videos, and podcasts to captivate audiences.
5. Community building: Foster active engagement on social platforms.
6. Customer engagement: Build trust via consistent interactions.
7. Reviews: Encourage positive feedback on platforms like Yelp.
8. Website optimization: Design SEO-friendly, user-centric sites.
6. Omnichannel Content Strategy
Megan Killion, Chief Consultant at MKC Agency:
I go to conferences, talk to my ideal audience, bring their problems back, and then create content around those problems with actionable insights.
Our lead breakdown is roughly 20% events, 20% LinkedIn (inbound), 20% referrals, 10% LinkedIn (outbound), 10% cold calling, 10% email outbound.
We double down on what works but keep our lead generation channels well-diversified. Omni-channel is the best strategy if you can do it. Deeply integrating myself in my ICP’s channels (slacks, discords, Reddit) has made LinkedIn and events ten times as effective as they were before.
7. Brand Personalization
Anthony Gaenzle, CEO/Owner at Gaenzle Marketing:
Clients don’t connect with a logo; they connect with the people behind the brand. We’re very active on social media, publishing content on our website and guest posting on other sites. Get your expertise out there, answer questions, reply to posts, and share advice.
Doing this leads to respect for your brand and shows that your agency is a leader. This tactic has proven far more effective than advertising, cold outreach, and other similar tactics. And the best part is the leads that roll in from our personal branding and relationship-building efforts are warmed up and ready to buy. We have a very high close rate, over 50% easily, with these leads vs. leads from other sources.
8. Intergrated Marketing Strategy
Michelle Guglielmo Gilliam, President at Point Taken Communications:
An integrated marketing strategy is the most effective way to generate leads for our marketing, PR, web design, and video production firm. We rebranded a few years ago, ensuring our website, social media, and other collateral speak to our ideal client personas.
We work hard to ensure our site ranks on page one of search engines for our keywords while providing valuable and informative content to our readers via our blog. We also use Google ads with targeted audiences and keywords, thought leadership tactics, and networking. Of course, testimonials and referrals are also great tools for lead generation.
Small Business Lead Generation Final Thoughts
The best way to grow your small business and generate leads for any business is to spark interest in your products, services, and expertise. 42% of businesses fail to succeed due to a lack of market demand.
If you make your business a success, these seven tactics will serve as a solid foundation for it.
Just remember that lead generation is a continual process and effort. Be sure to keep up with new technology and trends as they emerge. You can move on to even more effective strategies like automation to scale your business.
Take advantage of these techniques now to understand the value of your business and what it can do for them. Ask one of our best social media marketing companies for help!
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