Whether you’re a chiropractor, own a SaaS company, or run a law firm, B2B and B2C companies vary widely in their business models. Yet, the things they have in common are the desire to generate leads and drive business growth.
Though achieving these goals through marketing can be time-consuming, this article will present the top growth methods for successful marketing execution. Here you will learn how to accomplish three ways to help you become a better marketer:
Create multifaceted content
Build customer relationships
Adapt to new tools
Plus, you’ll know how to implement each method by utilizing the top tactics below. Here are the top three approaches you should consider implementing today.
Creating Multifaceted Content
Content marketing isn’t just for B2C brands. B2B companies are also making a significant jump in this marketing realm by creating a strategic content marketing strategy.
Yet, when it comes to helping entrepreneurs become better marketers, they must focus on creating content for more than one channel. This approach uses well-rounded subject matter to attract new leads and convert prospects by focusing on audience pain points in different areas of the internet.
Here are a few tips to help you implement a multifaceted content strategy.
1. Create Buyer Personas
When developing different content, understanding who the content is reaching is important. You should have a clearly defined audience, known as a buyer persona.
A buyer persona gives you a picture of an ideal customer. The details of a buyer persona include demographics such as age, income, location, etc. In addition, you should describe the buyer’s personality, interests, goals, wants, and needs.
2. Align Content to the Sales Funnel
Once you create your buyer personas, you can add an extra layer to your content marketing strategy by mapping the buyer’s journey. In essence, it helps to create “evergreen” content that addresses customer issues at each stage of the sales funnel.
A sales funnel’s purpose is to nurture the prospects at each stage, helping them move closer to sales. The process works like this:
Awareness: This is the top of the funnel where prospects are looking for information to help them articulate their problem. Content at this stage should focus on the buyer’s pain points rather than the product or service. Examples include informative blogs, ebooks, guides, infographics, etc.
Consideration: The buyer at this stage understands their problem and is now ready to find solutions. Consider creating content focusing on specific solutions to solve the buyer’s problem. Examples include webinars, product features, and comparison blogs.
Decision: The buyer is ready to compile a list of solutions. You can create brand-specific content at this point, focusing on the benefits of your company’s offerings. Examples include case studies, reviews, and demos.
3. Measure Return on Investment
Once you start creating content to maximize traffic and convert leads, you must understand the results of your content marketing campaigns by analyzing data. Based on your goals and timelines, consider using metrics to measure your results, including:
Total leads such as email subscribers, purchases, and free-trial sign-ups.
Total impressions from Google Analytics.
Traffic from the content you publish.
Changes in bounce rates.
Once you analyze your results, you can use this information to maximize future content marketing strategies for success.
Establish Customer Relationships
One method of helping entrepreneurs become better marketers is forming organic relationships with customers. Customers are savvier than ever and don’t want you to bombard them with sales pitches or advertisements.
Instead, they prefer to get to know you first. That way, you understand them better and can create products that cater to their needs. One way you can start building customer relationships is through social media.
You can use social media to post customer reviews or user-generated content to attract new buyers and increase your customer base. Engaging prospects and providing valuable content your customers find share-worthy across various platforms is also useful. Additionally, you can gain regular feedback and distribute content that fosters engagement and drives website traffic.
Here are some tips to help you get started on social media and form relationships.
1. Choose the Right Platforms
Not all social networking sites were created equal. That’s why it’s important to consider which platforms you’ll use for your business carefully. The best way to decide is to look at your target audience’s demographics and determine where they spend their time on social media.
B2B businesses mostly rely on LinkedIn or Facebook to reach their target audience. For example, a broker might be interested in connecting with users to gain qualified leads for buyers interested in purchasing a home. Meanwhile, B2C companies might use Instagram or TikTok to engage users since their target audiences are mainly on these platforms.
2. Think Creatively
Avoid being afraid to create fun content. Social media is a place to develop personal connections. So whether you’re a B2B or B2B brand, it’s important to show the human who’s behind the other side of that screen.
Consider putting yourself in your audience’s shoes and what they might find interesting. How can you mix intriguing and easy information for your audience to consume?
Making an additional effort like this can help you connect with your audience and stand out from the competition.
Adapt to New Tools
Marketing is constantly evolving. There will always be new trends and directions to explore. While it’s not necessary to master all things at once, you can still become a specialist in an area or possess multiple technologies.
One example is discovering how to make video content for marketing.
Video content is one of the most powerful tools for marketing today. Hubspot Blog Research found that 88% of B2B and B2C brands have an entire team dedicated to creating video content.
Yet, why is video such a staple of marketing? It helps raise brand awareness, increase revenue and advertise products.
If you’re considering going in a new direction with video, here are some tips to help you get started.
1. Focus on Stories Instead of Sales
If you want more people to watch your videos, create value for them instead of focusing on your brand. The best video content shares stories that connect with the viewer’s emotions.
For example, suppose you’re a doctor specializing in sports medicine. In that case, you could tell a story about how your business changes clients’ lives. Essentially, you can develop a story about how you’re making a difference in your community.
2. Be Strategic in the First Few Seconds
Attention spans are short these days. Therefore, a successful video provides clarity and gives viewers confidence that what they’re watching is worth their time.
Consider grabbing attention with a hook, such as a quick preview of what’s coming in the video. You can also attract more viewers by creating a high-quality thumbnail. The best thumbnails are clear and begin to tell viewers what they’ll gain from watching your content.
3. Create a Call to Action
Always include a call to action that aligns with your marketing goals. Do you want them to visit your website or share the video on social media?
You can easily instruct your viewers to take action by asking them in the video through someone speaking or using text.
Either way, adding a call to action is easy and can create results you wouldn’t have without one.
Use These Top Methods to Become a Better Marketer
You can ultimately reach your business goals using these methods to become a better marketer. Without these strategies, you won’t be able to collectively produce results such as obtaining leads, increasing revenue, and scaling your business growth.
The marketing space is crowded. Therefore, these tactics will allow you to distinguish yourself from those with similar offerings.
What other methods can you share that have helped you to become a better marketer?
Eleanor Hecks is the founder and managing editor of Designerly Magazine.
She’s also a web design consultant with a focus on customer experience and
user interface. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dogs, Bear and
Lucy. Connect with her about marketing, design, and/or tea on LinkedIn!
Generating leads is all about capturing a prospective buyer’s attention and compelling them to investigate further. And while you certainly don’t need to be a gifted novelist or best-selling author to create dynamic content that will generate more leads – in fact, the skillset of a copywriter is quite different than that of an author – you still need to convey information succinctly and compellingly, often with the written word.
It’s worth exploring why you hate writing. There are likely some underlying reasons that can be identified, and steps can be made to transform a vital activity you hate into one you love. But instead of that noble pursuit, this article is going to focus more on immediate fixes or workarounds so that you can create marketing content that will generate more leads for you today, despite your hatred for writing.
Actionable Tip #1 – Hire A Freelance Copywriter
Delegate, that is often cited as a key component to success. When a task needs to get done, and you lack the skillset or the passion required, chances are there’s a professional you can turn to who will do the job for you.
There is no shortage of freelance copywriters looking for work. You can place an offer on popular job boards for writers like ProBlogger or BloggingPro. Or you can look for freelance copywriters on popular Facebook groups for freelancers like Cult of Copy.
When you do find a freelance writer you want to hire, you will need to provide them with a bit of direction – similar kinds of content they should look at to get an idea of what you want, a narrow word count range, specifics about the call to action that should be included.
What You Can Expect to Pay
Most freelance writers charge by the word. You are likely to find writers charging anywhere from 4 cents a word to 8 cents a word. Be wary of a freelancer who offers to do the job for less than 4 cents per word. They are more than likely to be amateurs, and it is unlikely you will be satisfied with their work.
Many freelance writers will ask for a percentage of the conversions their content garners for email campaigns, and some freelance writers will want a combination of per word compensation and a conversion percentage.
It’s Hit or Miss
Finding the right freelance writer for your needs is a bit hit or miss. You may need to hire more than one before you find the best writer for your needs.
Any professional writer will have a portfolio you can look at, but it’s important to remember that they write for their clients. So, their portfolio is not always indicative of their voice or style but rather the voice and style the client has asked for. When you look at a prospective freelance writer’s portfolio, what you want to be on the lookout for, above all else, is variety. The writer’s portfolio should give you an indication of how flexible and versatile the writer is.
Actionable Tip #2 – Get Better at Writing with Online Courses
Hiring a freelance writer can get expensive. Plus, even if you do find a good writer who meets your needs, it is unlikely, in the long run, that you will be able to get as far as you want to go with content marketing if you, yourself, have a strong dislike for writing.
The most common reason people give for not liking writing is that they don’t feel confident in what they write or feel they are simply bad at it. Perhaps they don’t even know how to begin writing a piece of marketing content.
The good news is that you can easily address these issues. There is no shortage of competent professionals willing to share their tools of the trade. It’s always a good idea to level up your career through training, and if you feel that writing is a particular weakness, consider taking an online course in copywriting.
There are several good training platforms you can check out to find the right course for you. Many of them are free, though you may have to pay to receive a certification.
Often, a blank screen or a blank page can provoke anxiety in people. This is another common reason cited why some people hate writing. If that sounds like you, perhaps you should consider dictating your lead-generating marketing content and let AI software create a transcript for you. If you choose this approach, you will still need to do some editing. But at least you won’t have to work from a blank screen or off of an empty page.
A substantial amount of leads are generated online through video content. However, creating good-looking and engaging video content requires some technical know-how – recording and video editing. And the equipment you need to make something of a high enough quality is more than you would need to write a compelling piece of copy. However, creating engaging video content could be an example of taking a weakness (you hate writing) into a strength (you are obliged to make great video content).
While it’s debatable whether a picture is worth a thousand words, in any event, it is true that when it comes to creating marketing content, a picture (or a series of pictures) can save you from having to write a thousand words.
You’d still need to write a caption or a quote and a call to action. But by relying on pictures, you could create compelling marketing content that will generate more leads for you without having to do much writing.
The Bottom Line
If you hate to write, that’s understandable. Though to create lead-generating content without putting down at least a few words is tricky. However, there are a few workarounds. At the end of the day, it’s best to focus on what you’re good at, what you’re passionate about, while taking steps to try and fortify your weak areas.
QUESTION: Why do you hate writing? And how are you able to create marketing content that will generate more leads for your business? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
PS. We now offer done for you marketing services, so if you want a mix of blogs written for you and writing your own hit reply button and ask me how that works.
The B2B market has irrevocably changed in the last few years. Customers are better informed and expect a different, more personalized type of service. Strategies that worked even a few years ago are becoming outdated, leading CEOs and VPs of Sales to seek new ways to generate leads.
Our 2021 Ultimate Guide to Lead Generation for B2B Service Businesses will teach you how to update your strategy.
How to get more B2B leads in 2021?
While the question for many businesses is “How can I get more B2B leads?” the real question should be, “How can I get more qualified B2B leads?”. Quality over quantity.
So, we’ll focus on how to get well-qualified leads.
How To Implement the Right Lead Generation Strategy
Choosing the right strategy depends on several factors, including:
#1. What is Your Product or Service?
When customers buy your product or service, they are fundamentally purchasing a solution to a problem. A good product addresses a specific pain point. It could be that you save them time, money or offer them a solution that’s not on the market. Whatever it is, make sure that your marketing materials demonstrate the value of your solution.
#2. Who is Your Target?
Understanding who you are trying to sell to requires deep research. What are the demographics, what don’t they like about competitor’s solutions, how can you make life easy for them? Etc.
#3. What is Your Business Revenue Model?
Different revenue models require different lead generation strategies. One-off purchases, scaled pricing, and subscription prices require their own considerations and knowledge of various consumer personas.
#4. Where Do Your Customers Hang Out?
Specific platforms have distinct demographics. If your B2B consumer persona is serious business people, try LinkedIn. If they are Millennials, Instagram could be the right place.
Tips to Plan Your B2B Strategy:
Understand your customer persona
Underline the value of your product or service in your marketing materials
Understand that different business models need their own approach
Concentrate your efforts in the places your personas congregate.
Five Channels for B2B Lead Generation
#1. Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is all about content and solid SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It is still one of the most effective ways to get site traffic — and leads — to your site.
Capturing leads can be done with this process:
1) Write helpful content that targets keywords and questions relevant to your product.
2) Valuable content will help you rank and appear in the SERP when your target market is searching for solutions.
3) Once your leads visit your site, you need to find a way to get their details.
4) Use gated content that requires them to leave their name, phone number, and email address.
Which Gated Content Can Act as a Lead Magnet?
This content will depend on your product, service, and target audience. But some of the types of content that attracts leads are:
White papers or ebooks
Webinars
Research
Demos
Email series
In short, offer your prospects valuable content, and they’ll arrive.
The thing to remember when using inbound content as a strategy is that it takes time to bear fruit. So keep at it. It can take as long as 6 to 12 months.
#2. Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
If you need something quicker than inbound marketing via SEO, PPC advertisement is a solid strategy.
This process involves paying for site traffic. There are several pros and cons here.
Pros:
-Lots of traffic
-Potential to target your demographic
Cons:
-Expensive
-Can get expensive
-Not all traffic is verified
Additionally, there are lots of options available in the ad space. Banner ads and ads that target demographics via social media (for example, Facebook) are good. Additionally, Google offers a wide range of services to get your product or service in front of the right eyes.
Native ads are another appealing option. These are the ads that appear like native content on a news feed or other digital publication.
#3. Social Marketing
Having a social media presence is crucial for most products or services. Creating brand awareness and establishing expertise and credibility in your field are great ways to get attention.
1) Make social media posts that are interesting, helpful, and include your CTA. However, it’s not always time for the hard sell. Most of your interactions will be with people in the awareness stage of the sales funnel, so a gentle approach is the most effective.
2) Use social media to drive traffic to your site or landing page. You can use content like blog posts, videos, or other values to achieve this. Once you’ve got them there, you can try and capture their details.
How to Generate Lead Through LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a fantastic resource for B2B leads. This platform is where most prospects are.
Here is a proven lead generation strategy for LinkedIn:
1) Make a solid profile.
2) Be active with posts and in relevant groups. Make connections.
3) Engage, make connections, be helpful, demonstrate how your solution can help.
4) Collect relevant details and contacts, which by now should be warm leads
#4. Influencer Marketing
Millennials have become skeptical and untrusting of traditional advertising. For this reason, influencer marketing took off because it offered something similar to trust and word of mouth.
However, while marketers generally used it for B2C products, influencer marketing has become popular for B2B recently.
Depending on your niche, this can be very effective. And not necessarily by using well-known names. Micro or nano influencers can be very effective, with the bonus of locking down on very tight demographics they serve.
#5. Outsource Lead Generation
While the above tactics are effective, outbound lead generation still gets the best results. However, many businesses struggle to generate enough leads for their sales people.
By outsourcing cold calling and appointment setting, you can let your reps focus on their core competency: closing deals.
With the assistance of a B2B lead generation service, you can make sure each prospect is fully qualified and warmed up already, leading to higher conversions for your sales team.
Conclusion
B2B lead generation costs time and money. Formulating strategies that work for your market and your target audience is vital. Using a combination of inbound and outbound marketing, you can make sure your lead pipeline is full of quality prospects interested in your product.
Author’s bio: John Dubay is the Managing Partner at Leads at Scale, an outsourced sales support company that helps B2B companies generate well-qualified leads at scale, ready to be closed.
Copywriting Secrets to Generating More Leads for Your Business
Copywriting is a key player in any business’s lead generation process. Every campaign email, advertisement, blog, or landing page you write must be engaging and impactful enough to convert your visitors into leads, and those leads into sales.
The trick to achieving this lead conversion is to create content that captivates your visitors. You need to get them interested in your products and services, keeping their interest long enough to convince them to invest in what you offer.
Here are 6 essential tips to create copywriting that generates more leads for your business and boosts your bottom lines as a result.
1. Bear Your Customers in Mind
Your copywriting should always focus on the needs, interests, and demands of your target audience. If your headings, topics, and calls to action aren’t converting visitors into leads, it may be time to consider updating your content strategies. If your content grabs the attention of your visitors, this will reflect in your improved conversion rates.
One effective way to ensure that your copywriting strategies are to take the reviews and opinions of past customers into consideration. Read up on past testimonials, reviews, and customer communications to find out the most notable benefits of your products and services from their points of view. You can incorporate these strengths and benefits into the future copy to ensure that you’re highlighting your business’s offerings in a positive and compelling way.
The copy on your sales pages should showcase customers’ positive reviews and experiences with your products in a way that tells your leads exactly what they can expect when they invest in them. Your sales copy or content copy can also touch on how you have addressed past product concerns or updated your offerings to meet the changing needs of your target market, showing that you’re attentive to your customers’ preferences and open to their suggestions.
For example, instead of headlining your landing page with a simple headline such as
● ‘Freelance Job Finding Tool,’ you could use the headline ● ‘Instantly Find Great-Paying Freelance Jobs Online with Us.’
The latter benefit-based headline immediately tells visitors they can expect excellent service from your business and that they can benefit directly from buying your offerings.
Creating captivating written content that increases your lead generation rates will also require an in-depth knowledge of your core audience. You need to know your target market in and out if you want to be able to use the right persuasive language to convert them into customers.
You can write your content using certain personas to help you engage with your audience more effectively. This approach allows you to address specific age groups, demographics, interest groups, and pressure points with content that’s relevant and approachable to them.
Approachability is key when it comes to lead generation, and by writing using a persona, you can make your brand’s identity seem more relatable to potential customers while offering them persuasive media that truly resonates with them.
2. Focus on Calls to Action
Calls to action (CTA) are an obviously crucial element in any business’s written copy. However, what many companies don’t realize is that their copywriting strategy should have its basis on a single, focused CTA rather than multiple, general directions.
You can use focused, imperative language to instruct potential customers on which steps they should take next. CTAs like:
● ‘call us now,’ ● ‘book your spot now,’ or ● ‘sign up for a free trial today’
are all effective, as long as a single, clear action gets priority in your text. Terms like ‘inquire’ and ‘contact us’ may suit B2B businesses more, while B2C companies can use CTAs such as ‘buy today.’
Don’t suggest further reading, flood your readers with pop-up ads, or bombard them with unnecessary actions.
Use your sales and service web page copy to tell them the benefits of your product or service and instruct them to take direct action to reduce the incidence of choice paralysis. This is one trait of being a good copywriter.
In contrast, your blogs must offer useful and actionable information that adds additional value to the products and services your brand already offers, like how-tos, guides, and relevant news.
3. Work on Your Customers’ Emotions
Copywriting is as much an art as it is a science. Using emotive language can go a long way in pointing out the benefits of your products and engaging your audience.
Headlines like ‘Take the Stress Out of Supply Chain Management’ allow your content to resonate with your readers’ potential stress points and give the impression that your brand empathizes with them. It’s crucial to word your copy in a way that highlights the fact that your readers’ lives will be easier if they invest in your products and services.
4. Be Generous with Your Visitors
You could offer your website visitors a free eBook, guide, or digital download in exchange for their email addresses or contact details. Free gifts like these act as a lead magnet to convert visitors into leads, and they also enhance your brand’s reputation, which could generate even more valuable leads in the future.
5. Focus on Readability
Today’s online audience has a short attention span, and you need to capture it quickly lest you lose it forever. You can make your content more readable by using brief sentences and paragraphs, easily legible fonts, and bullet points to help get your information across quickly and concisely.
Tools like the Flesch reading ease test can help ensure that your content is as readable as possible. This tool measures readability and grade level, helping you find out whether your content will reach the intended audience.
The trick to making your content readable and engaging for your readers is to model each page of written content after a step-by-step process. Use a combination of headings, brief paragraphs, infographics, block quotes, and lists of imagery to keep them immersed throughout. This will also keep your content skimmable.
Using descriptive headings will allow your audience to find the areas of your content that they’re most interested in.
6. Create and Stick To Strategy
Your copywriting strategy should always focus on creating a copy that generates leads and converts them into paying customers. Once you’ve gained a keen understanding of your audience, use specific strategies to stand out and highlight the benefits of your offerings in a relatable way.
Copywriting Tips for Writing Emails That People Open
Use these 8 elements of high-opening email subject lines to craft emails that people are more likely to open.
#1. Self-interest
Using terms like ‘you’ and ‘your’ allows you to address your readers directly and to engage them with communication that speaks to their own interests.
Examples include:
○ ‘Simplify Your Life with These 3 Time Management Apps’ or ○ ‘Pressed for Time? How [your tool] Can Help You Streamline Your Work Schedule Today’.
#2. Curiosity
Email subject lines that get people curious about what the mail contains are a great way to ensure that your emails actually get read. You can draw your readers in by adding intriguing headlines like:
○ ‘Open for a Surprise’ or ○ ‘You Won’t Believe Our Festive Deals This December’.
Give your readers just enough information to arouse their interest and then leave the real explanations for the body of your mail.
#3. Offer
Nothing catches someone’s attention quite like a great deal or a special offer. Your email subject lines for offer-related emails need to be short, concise, and catchy in order to distinguish them from the many other emails your target audience receives daily.
Headlines to use include:
● ‘Spring Sale—Offers Just for You’ ● ‘Get 15% Off on All Purchases Today’ or ● ‘Sale Alert! Up to 40% Off Your Favorite Beauty Products’.
#4. Urgency
Conveying a sense of urgency in your email subject lines will compel your readers to click immediately. It’s essential to persuade your readers to read your promotional emails the second they receive them, as most people don’t go back to review past emails. Examples of urgency include:
● ‘24 Hours Left on Our Special Offer—Don’t Miss Out!’ and ● ‘Only One Week Left to Take Advantage of Our Free Webinar Program’.
#5. Humanity
The personable language will prevent you from sounding robotic in your sales emails and allow your readers to better relate to your brand’s identity. Terms like:
● ‘oops’, ‘our bad’, and ● ‘woohoo’ can add a human touch to your email correspondence.
#6. News
Most people will appreciate updates on your business. You can use subject headlines like:
● ‘We’re Open Late This December! Our New Holiday Shopping Hours’ or ● ‘We’re Going Online—Here’s What You Need to Know About Our New Online Store’ to share important news about your enterprise.
#7. Social proof
People are more likely to trust a brand that others have rated positively before them. You can make your emails more persuasive by adding subject headlines like:
● ‘It’s Overwhelming How Much Love We’re Receiving!’ or ● ‘Here’s What Chicago’s Best CFOs Have Had to Say About Our Products’.
Remember to include photos and designations of the people giving the testimonials in your emails, as this adds credibility to the message you’re sending your target audience.
Tips for Writing Attention-Grabbing Headlines for Blog Articles
Your blogs’ headlines have the power to captivate your readers—or drive them away. Catchy headlines are especially important if your goal is to gain more leads.
Attention-grabbing headlines will motivate your audience to click on and read your blog posts. They may even convert potential customers into active ones, which is crucial to your business’s success. Readers who are bored by your headlines will likely go elsewhere, and it may take more effort to recapture their attention in the few.
Here are our top tips for writing attention-grabbing blog article headlines every time.
1. How-to headlines
‘How to Write Attention-Grabbing Headlines for Your Blog Articles’ is a good quality headline for a blog article. It addresses your readers directly and focuses on people’s need to gain valuable new skills.
Computers, mobile devices, and the internet have made it easy for people to find answers or information. All you need to do is determine what problem your product addresses, and what the solution is. Once you have this information, point your readers in the right direction with how-to guides designed specifically to answer their most pressing questions.
2. List headlines
List articles are popular because psychologically speaking, humans crave certainty and predictability. A blog headline like ‘10 Ways to Earn Money Online While Traveling’ tells your readers precisely what they’re in for—that there are 10 different ways to earn money online while they travel. They can also decide if they have the time to read all ten listed methods.
3. Curiosity
This is another psychological copywriting tactic that plays on people’s natural curiosity. Your readers want to learn, and they want to know what their peers know too. Questions are an effective form of writing a copy for headlines as they prompt readers to think about the answers to the questions. For example, a headline reading ‘Are You Really Ready for Marriage?’ would get plenty of attention from single people, people in relationships, and even those who are engaged who want to make sure that they’re ready to take the plunge.
4. Threat and warning headlines
When it comes to writing topics to attract more audience, these headlines are extremely compelling to readers, most of whom want to avoid problems before they occur.
Headlines like:
● ‘Do You Recognize the Warning Signs of Early Dementia?’ or ● ‘Here’s Why Social Media Addiction is the Next Great Health Crisis’
promises essential tips to help your readers avoid these issues before it’s too late.
Headline Template Hacks
Last but not least, these headline templates are all based on highly effective content writing strategies like the ones listed above. Use them in your next blog posts to captivate your readers and improve your blog engagement rates:
● What [#] Studies Have to Say About [Subject]
● [#] [Noun] That Are Proven To [Desirable Outcome]
● [#] Ways To Be [Adjective] When You Don’t [Verb] [Adjective]
● How To [Verb] An [Audience] With The Best [Subject] Tips (+[#])Free [Resources])
● [#] Data-Driven [Noun] From [#] Of The Most Popular [Noun]
● [#]+ Easy Ways To [Verb A [Noun] That Will Skyrocket By [#]% In 1 Year
● How To Use [Noun] To Increase Your [Desirable Outcome]
● The [#]-Minute, [#]-Step Solution For The Best [Noun]
● How To Rock A [Noun] That Will Save You Tons Of Time/Money
● How To [Verb] Your [Noun] For Massive Growth
● To The [Role] Who Will Settle For Nothing Less Than [World-Class Outcome]
● Break All The Rules And [World-Class Outcome]
● How Your [Service Provider] Is Ripping You Off And What To Do About It Right Now
● I Found A [Adjective] Way To [Get Incredible Outcome]
● See Why We Have An [Adverb] [Adjective] [Social Problem] In Just [Short Time]
● [Influencer Or Celebrity] [Emotional Reaction] [To Thing That Basically The Whole World Already Understood]
● Is This The World’s First [Good, Bad, Or Desirable Thing]?
● How To Survive Your First [Good, Bad, or Desirable Thing]
● Who Doesn’t Like [Somewhat Accepted Taboo]? [Unexpected Answer With Tease About Why]
● I Spent [Time] [Working Toward Goal]. I Just [Quitting Statement]. Here’s Why.
● I Don’t Regret __________. But Here’s What I’d Do Differently
● Would You Do [Unimaginable Thing]? I Just Did.
● Who Else Wants __________?
● The Secret Of __________
● Here Is A Method That Is Helping __________ To __________
● Little Known Ways To __________
● Get Rid Of [Problem] Once And For All
● Here’s A Quick Way To [Solve A Problem]
● Now You Can Have [Something Desirable] [Great Circumstance]
● [Do Something] Like [World-Class Example]
● Have A [Or] Build A __________ You Can Be Proud Of
● What Everybody Ought To Know About __________
● How To __________ Every Day
● How To __________ As a [Role]
● Give Me 30 Minutes And I’ll Give You [Desirable Outcome]
● Try These 5 [Tactics] For A Week, And Be Twice As [Productive].
When I launched my first three businesses I did so with a sizable budget to fund my startup costs. But, when I started my consulting business back in 2007 I found myself in a very different situation. For the first time in my life I had no income coming in.
My husband was in the midst of a long season of unemployment after I had already sold my previous businesses. We had three hungry mouths to feed at home, so I was determined to launch my new business leaner than ever before — like as close to zero startup costs as possible.
That’s when I decided to figure out the LinkedIn thing.
LinkedIn is an incredible free tool to market your business. Once I invested the time to figure out how to get better at using it, I was able to track 6 figures of annual new business all came from LinkedIn.
So, if you want to start monetizing LinkedIn here are 9 tips to help you start generating leads for your business:
Lead Gen Tip #1. Have the Right LinkedIn Success Mindset.
Thousands of business owners are killing it with LinkedIn, but new clients aren’t going to come flooding in if all you’re doing is logging into LinkedIn to accept connection requests and post a few comments here and there.
LinkedIn will work for you if you put forth the right consistent effort. I love this famous quote:
“Your diamonds are not in far distant mountains or in yonder seas. They are in your own backyard, if you but dig for them.” ~ Russell Conwell
If you’re not sure whether your target market is on LinkedIn watch this video where I share 5 reason why you should be marketing your business on LinkedIn.
Lead Gen Tip #2. Craft a Stellar LinkedIn Profile for Instant FIND-ability and GET-ability.
Keep in mind the user experience on LinkedIn. People will land on your profile in 2 ways. Direct search and an indirect search. Direct search is easy low hanging fruit because they are typically ‘buy intent’ – ‘hire intent’ searches. Potential clients search LinkedIn for the type of person they are looking to hire. This is why you want your profile to be SEO optimized for the right keyword phrases. Your LinkedIn profile should also have a professional looking photo of you. Most people skip profiles where there is no picture or only a logo.
Indirect search can happen in many ways. For instance, let’s say you post an update on your personal LinkedIn profile and you share a few tips about a frequently asked question you get. Let’s say you currently have 1,200 1st degree connections and 45 of those connections liked or commented on your post. Not only does your post get seen by your 1st degree connections, it also gets eyeballs from the connections of the people who commented on your post. So if your 45 comments each had an average of 1,200 connections then your one post can also reach 54,000 2nd degree connections. You’re bound to get some of those people who saw your content click on your profile to find out what exactly you do. They will skim your profile for all of 3 seconds. If they don’t immediately get what you do, they WILL MOVE ON to find someone else.
So, you don’t want to miss out on this EASY passive lead generation opportunity simply because they don’t get what you do. That’s why it’s so important that your LinkedIn profile captures an immediate GET-ability (and wow factor).
Naturally, you want to have the updates you post on LinkedIn reach more people. So, be sure you develop the habit of sending targeted connection requests to grow your 1st degree connections.
Lead Gen Tip #3: Create Customized Connection Requests
When searching for connections on LinkedIn, you are given numerous filters to choose from. This allows you to get really strategic with your search.
You are able to drill down to where someone lives, where they went to school, what their interests are, and so on. With this information, you can take it and personalize your connection requests.
Lets say, For Example, you search for CEO’s and filter by 2nd degree connections located in Philadelphia. Instead of sending a pre-baked template to someone, study their profile and find a way to insert a question about their city in your request.
You can also ask about things like the weather, their sports teams, and much more.
By creating customized connection requests, you break the ice and open up an easy dialogue with the other person.
Lead Gen Tip #4: Don’t Spam Connections. Talk to Them.
When it comes to messaging your connections on LinkedIn there are two common pitfalls occur. Pitfall #1. You send out tons of requests to connect, but then fail to talk to them after they accept. Pitfall #2. You blast straight into a sales conversion. From its inception LinkedIn was not built to be a marketplace to bombard members with advertisements and solicitations. LinkedIn was designed to foster relationships.
If you use LinkedIn to blast straight into solicitation messages to cold connections, you’re just going to burn through those connections.
Instead, just follow the natural sequence of relationship building when having 1-1 conversations on LinkedIn. For instance:
Customized invitation
Welcome / build rapport message
Engage message
Give value message
Value follow up message
Invitation to call, coffee, interview, etc
If you have a well written profile and tagline often times you can go from step 2 straight to step 6, but it’s good to have a 6 step sequence like this to continue the conversation for people who aren’t ready to be a client of yours.
If the idea of messaging people individually feels too daunting, I use a tool called Auto Text Expander to speed my responses to FAQ’s when I’m on desktop.
When I’m messaging people from my mobile I just use the keyboard shortcuts on my iPhone which functions the same way as Auto Text Expander. I can reply 10x faster when all I have to do it type in 2 or 3 letters I set up.
Lead Gen Tip #5: Use Trigger Events to Engage and Re-Engage
Not all of your prospects will be ready to talk about your services immediately. However, they may be ready in 6 or even 12 months from now.
Your goal is to remain in their minds, meaning you’ll need to continue engaging them.
Fortunately, this can be done easily with trigger events. These are situations that will provide a comfortable way for you to re-engage with someone if they’ve shown no interest in your solutions so far.
These situations include:
they engaged on one of your posts (liked, commented, or shared)
they viewed your profile
they’ve published an article on LinkedIn
they’ve posted a status update on LinkedIn
they had a job change
they were promoted
they engaged on one of your posts (liked, commented, or shared)
they or their company were mentioned in the news
they’ve published an article on LinkedIn
they’ve posted a status update on LinkedIn
By re-engaging in this manner, you are more likely to stay on their radar and be top of mind when the time comes that they need the solution you offer.
When you’re posting an update, whether it’s a simple text update, a picture, a video or audio LinkedIn allows users to follow various hashtags. This way, they can get content on a topic in their feed, even if they don’t follow specific influencers for it.
Additionally, when you post an update, LinkedIn will auto-suggest hashtags, which can give you some inspiration for what to include.
You can also do a quick search a topic in LinkedIn and you’ll be able to see the number of followers on that hashtag.
Here’s an excerpt from SEO expert Neil Patel where he shares the importance of posting videos on LinkedIn to grow your business.
Advantages of Video
Native videos are videos that are uploaded directly to LinkedIn or created on the platform itself, as opposed to embedding videos from other sites, such as Youtube, Vimeo and more.
There are numerous advantages to using native video. According to Neil Patel, “A staggering 84% of buyers reported that they had been convinced to buy after watching a brand’s video.
And that same study found that 97% of businesses believe that their video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.
That means the right type of video will help you sell and engage more.”
How to Upload Native Videos
To upload a Native Video, go to your feed, and you’ll see a button with a camera icon next to “start a post.
From here, You can directly upload a video between three seconds and ten minutes in length. This will appear directly to your update feed, allowing your audience to start watching your content immediately.
The dimensions of a native video can be from 256×144 to 4096×2304, and the orientation can be Horizontal or vertical, though vertical videos will be cropped into a square in the feed. Native video’s will also loop automatically.
Using Analytics
Another advantage of Native Videos is that, Once you post a video, you are able to see detailed analytics. This includes things such as the number of views, likes, and comments your videos are receiving.
Additionally, you can also see audience insights, including top companies, titles, and locations of your viewers.
You can find these insights in the dashboard section of your LinkedIn profile. This works on both mobile and desktop.
Click the drop-down that says “Me” and scroll down until you see “Posts and Activity.”, which brings you to a feed of every post you’ve ever uploaded to LinkedIn.
At the bottom of each post, you’ll see a breakdown of it’s likes, comments, shares, and views.
With this information, you can begin to understand if you’re reaching the people and companies that matter to your brand.
Lead Gen Tip #8: Get to the Point Quickly in Your Videos
On Social media, attention spans are short, so there’s no time for you to waste. This means that you need to hook your viewers by getting to your point quickly at the beginning of your video.
LinkedIn themselves recommend capturing attention with a hook in the first 0 to 3 seconds.
From there, seconds 3 to 15 should be used to identify the problem or opportunity, and should address one of the biggest pain points of your potential customers, in order to really draw them in and entice them to watch the rest of your video.
After you have successfully hooked your viewers and drawn them in, seconds 15 to 50 should be used to describe the solution. Explain what you’re offering and why it’ll help your viewers.
Lead Gen Tip #9: Use Closed Captions for your videos
When a video comes up on your feed, it begins playing automatically. However, it is also muted by default.
It’s estimated that up to 85 percent of social media videos are played with no sound.
This makes adding closed captions/subtitles to your videos essential.
Even if your video isn’t heavy on speech, doing so will make them more accessible. LinkedIn even has a closed captioning feature, making it easy to implement.
To add captions:
Click the video icon near “start a post” and select the video you’d like to upload.
When the preview shows up, click the edit icon on the top right to see the video settings and then click select file to attach the associated SubRip Subtitle file.”
Lead Gen Tip #10: Make Use of LinkedIn Showcase Pages
Let’s ask Darren Travers, who shares, “Showcase pages are add-ons to your LinkedIn company page for highlighting a specific business unit, initiative, product, service, or for targeting unique demographics. They are standalone pages, meaning people can follow them without following your main page.
If you have multiple target audiences or brand personas, you need Showcase pages. With them, you can avoid over complicating your main page and creating confusion for your audience by spreading out your offers and messages across multiple pages.
To create one, simply click ‘Admin tools’ on the right of your company homepage and select ‘Create Showcase Page’ to get started.”
Lead Gen Tip #11: Make Use of Sponsored vs Targeted Updates
If you have a LinkedIn page for your company, then you are able to take advantage of two powerful features. Targeted Updates and Sponsored Updates.
With Targeted Updates, you can target your content to a specific audience. This is useful for many reasons, such as if you want to show specific content to your investors, and other content to your consumers. However, the segment you are targeting must have at least 300 followers for you to use this feature.
Sponsored Updates: Sponsored updates are paid posts that allow you to reach a broader network. If you would like some content to get even more visibility, or if you want to get your content in front of people who aren’t following your Company Page (or your employees) you can pay to sponsor it.
To use targeted updates:
Click on start a post from your Company Page
Click on “Anyone” and you’ll be taken to “Who can see Your Post?”
Click on Targeted Audience and you’ll be able to customize what audience you want the post
While Targeted Updates can be used to build an organic following, Sponsored Updates allow you to pay to get your posts in front of a larger audience to further build your following.
These will appear in the your audience’s feed and look like a normal post, the only difference being a “sponsored” label next to your company name.
You are also able to target specific audiences just like you can with Targeted Updates.
To use Sponsored Updates:
Post an update to your company page and click the “Sponsor Update” button.
Within the Campaign Manager, name your new campaign.
Target your campaign by choosing Location, Company, Skills, etc.
Choose Your payment option. You can select either Cost-Per-Click (CPC) or Cost per 1000 impressions (CPM).
Conclusion
So, there you have it. I just shared 11 tips to help you start generating more leads on LinkedIn. If you’re starting at zero, don’t be overwhelmed by trying to implement all 11 by tomorrow! Bookmark this page to review it each day and decide to implement one at a time until you add all 11.
If you’d like to nail down your LinkedIn profile faster check out our free and paid LinkedIn Profile Makeover services for you here:
QUESTION: What’s one thing that’s been working well for you on LinkedIn? Share With us in the Comments below!
Content marketing isn’t just for B2C brands. B2B companies are also making a significant jump in this marketing realm by creating a strategic content marketing strategy.
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