Watch The Replay of Marketing Workshop ~ How to Get More Leads for Your Business in 2023 – CLICK This Bar to Register

PBC Logo 2020

Lead Generation Strategies What’s Working Now to Generate Leads for Service Based Business Owners

by | Attract More Customers

In today’s competitive business landscape, generating leads is more crucial than ever for service-based businesses. But what if there were secrets to unlocking more generated leads and boosting your bottom line? In this blog post, we’ll dive deep into the world of lead generation and reveal strategies that are working now. You’ll discover how understanding your customer value journey, mastering buyer behavior, and leveraging various marketing tools can revolutionize your generated leads generation efforts.

Key Takeaways

  • Understand your customer value journey and buyer behavior to design successful lead generation campaigns.
  • Leverage a variety of discovery marketing techniques, generate leads through forms or applications, and optimize the sales funnel for conversion.
  • Measure & optimize efforts with KPIs, hire/train inhouse team or outsource to experts, it depends on individual business needs!

Understanding Your Customer Value Journey

Image of a person using a laptop to research lead generation strategies

Lead generation thrives on the customer value journey. It helps businesses understand the stages a customer goes through before making a purchase, allowing for targeted marketing efforts. Businesses can smoothly convert strangers into potential customers through understanding the customer journey using effective lead generation strategies, including a well-planned lead generation campaign. Some components of a successful campaign are:

  • Website
  • Organic and paid social media presence
  • Job applications
  • Blog posts
  • Coupons
  • Live events

Service-based businesses thrive on a well-planned lead generation strategy. Training and support can help businesses reach their goals quicker, making it easier to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of lead generation.

5 Stages of Buyer Behavior – Search Intent Marketing

Image of a person using a laptop to research different buyer behavior stages

Comprehending the four stages of buyer behavior is pivotal in lead generation. These stages are:

  1. Awareness
  2. Interest
  3. Desire
  4. Action

Knowing these stages helps businesses design successful lead generation campaigns targeting potential customers at different points in their journey.

Effective online lead generation relies on optimizing your website and content for search engines. This allows potential customers to locate your business effortlessly when seeking relevant products or services. Good SEO means your page will keep bringing in leads for a long time, ensuring a steady flow of new potential customers.

Getting Found by More Customers

Getting Found by More Customers on Google

Businesses can amplify their visibility and attract more leads through discovery marketing techniques such as:

  • Google search
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • Podcasts
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Directories

With a well-rounded approach to discovery marketing, businesses can tap into new audiences and cultivate a steady stream of potential customers.

What is a Lead?

A lead is someone who fits your ideal customer profile based on their demographic and psychographic information. There are several types of leads: cold, warm, and hot.

Sales leads can be generated when someone applies for an open role, shares contact information for a coupon, or fills out a form to download content, all of which involve collecting information. Gathering a lead’s survey responses helps companies tailor initial communication to their specific needs and issues, enhancing the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.

What is a MQL? Marketing Qualified Lead?

A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a contact who has interacted with a business’s marketing activities but isn’t ready to receive a sales call yet. MQLs typically engage with a business by downloading free lead magnets, checking out specific site pages, or interacting with social posts. By nurturing these marketing qualified leads, businesses can eventually convert them into sales-ready prospects.

Identification of MQLs constitutes a significant step in the lead generation process, as it helps businesses focus their efforts on leads that show potential interest in their products or services.

What is a SQL? Sales Qualified Lead?

A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a lead that has been vetted and approved by the sales team – it’s ready to move on to the next step in the sales process. SQLs are potential customers who have tried out a product or service, maybe even on a free trial, and are now showing signs that they’re ready to buy.

Recognizing SQLs enables businesses to focus their efforts on leads that are more probable to become paying customers, thus conserving time and resources.

What is a Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel is the path a customer takes from discovering a brand to finally making a purchase. It typically involves stages like:

  • Awareness
  • Interest
  • Consideration
  • Purchase

Sales funnels help businesses monitor customer behavior to spot potential leads and nurture those leads to convert them into customers.

Comprehending and fine-tuning the sales funnel is vital in converting potential leads into faithful customers.

Top 10 Methods for Generating Leads Today

Some of the most effective methods for generating leads today include:

  • LinkedIn marketing
  • Content marketing
  • Lead magnets
  • Warm email marketing
  • Cold email marketing
  • Video marketing
  • Webinar marketing
  • SEO
  • PR
  • Paid advertising

Each of these methods significantly contributes to attracting and engaging potential customers, eventually steering them through the sales funnel.

For instance, some effective methods for lead generation include:

  • LinkedIn marketing, which allows businesses to connect with professionals and build relationships
  • Content marketing, which provides valuable information to potential customers, establishing trust and credibility
  • Lead magnets, which entice potential customers with valuable offers in exchange for their contact information

Leveraging these methods can help businesses generate high-quality leads and boost their overall lead generation efforts.

Leveraging LinkedIn for Lead Generation

LinkedIn is a powerful platform for lead generation, as it allows businesses to connect with potential customers and build relationships. LinkedIn, with its professional orientation, provides a unique platform for direct engagement with business owners and executives, hence it’s a crucial tool in any lead generation strategy.

The Power of Content to Generate More Leads

Content marketing is a crucial aspect of lead generation, as it helps businesses provide valuable, relevant information to potential customers. Businesses can cultivate relationships with potential customers and steer them through the sales funnel, thereby increasing conversion chances, by developing engaging content that caters to the needs and interests of their target audience.

Moreover, content marketing allows businesses to capture buyer information and keep their audience engaged, building trust and loyalty in the process.

What is a Lead Magnet?

A lead magnet is an offer created to entice potential customers and obtain their contact information. These offers can come in various forms, such as:

  • free ebooks
  • whitepapers
  • webinars
  • discounts

Lead magnets play a vital role in lead generation, as they provide an incentive for potential customers to share their contact information, aiding businesses in guiding them through the sales process.

Why You Need the Right Lead Magnets

Selecting appropriate lead magnets is vital for lead generation, as they attract your target audience by providing value and solving their problems.

Creating lead magnets that are relevant to your target audience and offer something unique that they can’t find elsewhere ensures that you capture their attention and, more importantly, their contact information. This allows you to nurture and guide them through the sales funnel, increasing the chances of conversion.

Warm Email Marketing – Why You Need to Grow Your Email Subscriber List

Expansion of your email subscriber list is crucial for flourishing lead generation. By providing valuable content and offers to your subscribers, you can build relationships with potential customers and guide them through the sales funnel.

Moreover, having a larger email list allows you to reach more potential customers, increasing the chances of conversions and driving sales.

Cold Email Marketing to Book More Appointments

Cold email marketing involves sending unsolicited emails to potential customers in an attempt to generate leads and book appointments. By crafting captivating subject lines, personalized messages, and compelling calls-to-action, businesses can reach a large audience quickly and book more appointments, ultimately increasing their lead generation efforts.

It’s paramount to adhere to all anti-spam regulations in cold email marketing while focusing on providing value to the recipients.

Video Marketing to Boost Lead Generation

Video marketing is an effective way to generate leads, as it allows businesses to showcase their services in an engaging and visual manner. By creating informative and entertaining videos, businesses can build trust and credibility with potential customers, demonstrating the value of their services.

Given the rising popularity of video content, integrating video marketing into your lead generation strategy is necessary to maintain a competitive edge.

The Power of Webinar Marketing to Generate Sales Qualified Leads

Webinar marketing is a powerful lead generation tool, as it allows businesses to provide valuable information to potential customers in an interactive format. By hosting webinars on relevant topics and addressing common pain points, businesses can engage potential customers and guide them through the sales funnel.

Research has shown that around 30%–40% of webinar attendees become leads, making it an essential strategy for generating sales qualified leads.

SEO Strategies to Getting Found on Google Searches

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a crucial element of online lead generation. By optimizing your website and content for search engines, you can ensure that potential customers can easily find your business when searching for relevant products or services.

Implementing effective SEO strategies, such as using keywords in your content and optimizing for mobile devices, can help your business rank higher in search engine results and attract more leads.

Building Instant Trust with the Power of PR

Public relations (PR) is an important aspect of lead generation, as it helps create a positive image of the organization and its offerings. By using PR to share interesting and engaging content, businesses can build trust and credibility with potential customers, ultimately increasing the chances of conversion.

PR efforts, such as press releases, social media engagement, and prompt responses to customer inquiries and complaints, can help businesses build strong relationships with their target audience and generate more leads.

Paid Advertising for Instant Results

Image of a person using a laptop to research different lead generation tools

Paid advertising, such as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns, can provide instant results by driving new customers and sales. By utilizing paid platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other social media platforms, businesses can target their marketing efforts and quickly reach a large audience.

Furthermore, paid advertising provides actionable feedback on marketing efforts, allowing businesses to refine their strategies and boost their lead generation results.

Lead Generation Tools and Technologies

In addition to the strategies mentioned above, businesses can also utilize various lead generation tools and technologies to streamline their efforts and improve efficiency. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems, landing page builders, and marketing automation platforms can help businesses manage and nurture leads more effectively, ultimately increasing the chances of conversion.

CRM Systems for Small to Mid Size Business Owners

CRM systems are essential for small to mid-size businesses, as they help organize customer data and interactions, allowing for better understanding and targeting of customers. Popular CRM systems include:

  • Salesforce
  • HubSpot
  • Zoho
  • Microsoft Dynamics

These systems provide businesses with features like automated customer segmentation, lead scoring, and automated marketing campaigns, helping target marketing efforts more effectively and save time and money.

Landing Page Builders

Landing pages play a vital role in lead generation, as they provide potential customers with a clear and straightforward way to access information. Tools like Leadpages, a popular landing page builder, help businesses create high-converting web pages that effectively capture leads.

By focusing on clean design and clear calls-to-action, landing page builders enable businesses to maximize their lead generation efforts.

Marketing Automation Platforms

Image of marketing automation platforms, a person using a laptop to research lead scoring and nurturing techniques

Marketing automation platforms can significantly improve businesses’ lead generation efforts by streamlining various marketing processes and providing valuable insights. Popular platforms like:

  • HubSpot
  • Marketo
  • Pardot
  • Salesforce

offer features such as automated email marketing, social media marketing, and lead generation, allowing businesses to manage and nurture leads more effectively.

By utilizing these tools, businesses can optimize their marketing strategies and drive more leads and sales.

Qualifying and Nurturing Generated Leads

Qualifying and nurturing the generated leads is vital to enhance the likelihood of conversion. By implementing lead scoring and nurturing techniques, businesses can identify high-quality leads and guide them through the sales funnel, ultimately transforming potential leads into loyal customers.

Lead scoring helps to prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert. It also helps to identify

Lead Scoring

Image of a person using a laptop to research key performance indicators

Lead scoring is a method that businesses use to determine which leads are most likely to convert. By assigning a score to each lead based on their behavior, demographics, and engagement with the business, companies can easily recognize which leads are more likely to convert into customers.

This allows businesses to allocate their resources efficiently, tailor their marketing strategies, and enhance their overall conversion rates.

Lead Nurturing Techniques

Lead nurturing is an essential part of having a successful online business. By developing connections with potential customers and providing them with helpful content, businesses can cultivate good leads.

A nurture sequence, for example, is a great way to provide potential customers with valuable content after they sign up, guiding them towards making a purchase.

Measuring and Optimizing Lead Generation Efforts

Businesses must incessantly gauge and enhance their efforts to guarantee the success of their lead generation strategies. Here are some ways to do that:

  1. Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to track the effectiveness of your lead generation efforts.
  2. Hire and train an in-house marketing team to focus on lead generation and conversion.
  3. Consider outsourcing certain marketing efforts to experts who specialize in lead generation. By implementing these strategies, businesses can fine-tune their lead generation efforts and achieve better results.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential for measuring and optimizing lead generation efforts. By tracking metrics like customer satisfaction, website traffic, sales conversions, and more, businesses can gain valuable data-driven insights into their performance.

This information can help pinpoint areas that need improvement, set goals, and make informed decisions based on the available data.

Hiring and Training Your In-House Marketing Team

For businesses aiming to elevate their lead generation efforts, constructing and educating a proficient in-house marketing team is indispensable. This team should include:

  • A marketing manager
  • A content creator
  • A social media manager
  • A web designer
  • A copywriter

Each member of the team should have specialized skills and expertise.

By investing in the development of their sales and marketing teams, businesses can ensure that their marketing efforts are tailored to their specific needs and goals, ultimately driving more leads and sales.

Outsourcing Your Marketing and Lead Gen

An image showing a graph with an upward trend, representing the success of generated leads through outsourcing your marketing.

For businesses deficient in resources or expertise to handle these tasks in-house, outsourcing marketing and lead generation efforts can be a feasible alternative. By partnering with external companies or individuals, businesses can access specialized skills and expertise while saving time and money.

However, it’s essential to carefully research potential partners and maintain clear communication to ensure a successful outsourcing experience.

https://www.paramountbusinesscoach.com/blog/outsourcing-vs-marketing-team/

To sum up, both outsourcing and maintaining an in-house marketing team present advantages and disadvantages in the context of lead generation. While outsourcing can save money and provide access to specialized expertise, an in-house team offers more control and the ability to quickly adapt to market changes.

Ultimately, the decision will depend on the specific needs, goals, and resources of each business.

Summary

In conclusion, effective lead generation is crucial for the success of service-based businesses. By understanding the customer value journey, mastering buyer behavior, leveraging various marketing tools, and continuously measuring and optimizing efforts, businesses can unlock the secret to generating more leads and boosting their bottom line. The key is to stay adaptable, innovative, and focused on providing value to potential customers, ensuring a steady flow of high-quality leads that convert into loyal customers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is generate leads?

Lead generation is the process of attracting potential customers through marketing efforts and collecting their contact information in order to create sales opportunities. It’s typically done online via a web form.

What is an example of generating leads?

Lead generation is the process of attracting prospects to your business and increasing their interest through nurturing, all with the end goal of converting them into a customer. An example of generating leads would be offering free ebooks in exchange for contact information like email addresses and names.

Where can I generate leads?

Social media, email marketing, discounts and coupons, conversations, and free content are all effective ways to generate leads. Take advantage of these tactics to get the results you need.

What are the key components of a successful lead generation strategy?

To create a successful lead generation strategy, understand the customer journey, target marketing efforts based on buyer behavior, and use various marketing tools.

How can I generate more leads for my service-based business?

To generate more leads for your service-based business, combine strategies such as LinkedIn marketing, content marketing, lead magnets, email marketing, video marketing, webinar marketing, SEO, PR and paid advertising to attract and engage potential customers.

The 2021 Ultimate Guide to Lead Generation for B2B Service Businesses

by | Attract More Customers, General, Leads

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.

However, to turn your social media into a lead-generating machine, here are two great tips.

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.

john dubayAuthor’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. 

6 Copywriting Secrets that Generate Leads | Paramount Business Coach

by | Attract More Customers, Business Growth Tips Blog, General, Leads

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].

Attract Clients on LinkedIn! 12 Things You Can Do in 15 Minutes

by | General, Business Growth Tips Blog, Marketing and Sales Blog Posts

Attract Clients on LinkedIn

A lot people I talk to think they need to be spending a ton of time to attract clients on LinkedIn.  But, in my experience when you know where to spend your time and what to focus on, you can accomplish a lot in little 15 minute spurts.

LinkedIn is a great resource for marketing your business to help you attract clients on LinkedIn with ease.  And it’s free. I used to spend $50,000/year in advertising. I love that all the marketing I do on LinkedIn is free!

Here are 12 tips to help you attract clients on LinkedIn in just 15 minutes a day.

1. Send 10 LinkedIn invites to continue to grow your network of your ideal clients and potential strategic referral partners. The more people you have in your network the easier it becomes to attract clients on LinkedIn. I noticed more prospects responded to my LinkedIn activity once I hit the 500 connection level.

2. Research 1 or 2 potential clients. This will help you target your services and they’ll be impressed by what you know about them.

3. Post 1 tip.  Choose 1 tip to share that solves a common struggle among your target market. Like bees to honey your tips shared consistently attracts clients and draws them to you while building your thought leadership.

4. Scan and search for relevant LinkedIn groups to join.  If you want to attract more clients on LinkedIn be found where your best prospects are. As of this writing (May 2018) I have found that the overall effectiveness of posting a new discussion inside LinkedIn groups have has shrunk quite a bit. Although there has been less engagement in LinkedIn groups, joining targeted groups is still a useful tactic to help you get connected with members inside the group who share targeted interest.

5.  Keep a friendly eye on your competition. Watch what your competitors are up to from their LinkedIn activities and what they post. This will give you a good idea about how you can differentiate yourself from them and add value in your own unique way. *You probably want to change your settings to anonymous prior to viewing their profiles.

6. Improve your profile. Your LinkedIn profile will either make a great impression or a terrible one. You don’t want people to be confused as to who you help, what you do and why you’re different than your competitors. Remember, a confused mind says ‘no’. Go through your profile and make sure everything is complete, up-to-date and you’re communicating the right messaging. Read it as if you were a potential client or partner and notice what they would see.

7. Recommend 1 person in your network. One great way to get recommendations is to give them. Be thoughtful about who you give them to though.  You should recommend those people who you have experienced their services.

8. Request 1 recommendation. Don’t just do great work for others. Ask them to recommend you as well. The best people to approach are those who already know, like and trust your work. There is a limit to how many people you can request recommendations from at one time. And you can’t ask someone more than once to recommend you if your request is pending. I know many of my own clients have told me what attracted them to me on LinkedIn was reading my client recommendations.

9. Leverage LinkedIn messaging. When you have a few minutes to kill, use  the LinkedIn app on your smartphone to send and respond to messages. LinkedIn Messaging allows you to communicate with other LinkedIn members that you’re connected to. On LinkedIn, you can only message your 1st-degree connections (and, within group pages, fellow group members) for free. If you aren‘t connected, you always have the option to send an InMail. Next to each person’s photo you’ll see a green dot that lets you know they are online and on LinkedIn, which means people tend to message you back right away.

10. Create a quick video. Yes, you can create a video in just 15 minutes if you get out of the perfection trap. Smartphones have great video cameras which already has easy options to upload straight to YouTube from your phone. Just talk for 1-2 minutes where you can share a couple of quick tips. Then you can upload your video right from your phone straight to your page on LinkedIn. What attracts clients on LinkedIn faster is giving them the ability to feel like they can “meet” you even when you’re not available in person.

11. Share your comment on 1 or 2 LinkedIn posts in your feed. Ideally, you should look for posts on topics in your area of expertise. This is a great way to network with people and add value to conversations.  Look for discussions that solve the problems of your ideal clients. When you add to the conversation, you’re showing the depth of your thought leadership on your topic and that not only attracts clients on LinkedIn the day you posted your comments, but even long after since your connections (and everyone else’s connections who commented) will have that post show up in all of their feeds as well.

12. Ask for an introduction. You can search LinkedIn for specific job titles as well as specific companies and geography and LinkedIn will show you a list of results and whether they are a 1st, 2nd or 3rd degree connection. It will also tell you who you are connected to who is connected to the potential prospect you wish to be introduced to. So, who makes a great strategic referral partner for you? Who is the ideal client / decision maker? You can find them all on LinkedIn, find how you’re connected to them and just ask for an introduction. It’s really that simple and easy.

If you’re currently not getting a steady flow of new leads and new clients from LinkedIn you’re stepping over $30,000, $100,000, even $250,000+ in new business.  It makes sense then, to invest in getting expert help.

So, LinkedIn is just one of multiple marketing tactics you should have in your marketing plan. If you’re not yet sure what your marketing strategy should be, be sure to download my free printable MARKETING CHECKLIST here

 

Marketing Checklist for Service Based Businesses

 

11 Great Tips to Generate Leads on LinkedIn for 2020

by | General, Leads, Management-Leadership, Success Mindset

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.

Your diamond clients aren’t hiding in mystery marketing land. They’re on LinkedIn. You just need to dig for them Click To Tweet

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.

RELATED: LinkedIn Marketing Tips – Is Your LinkedIn Photo Costing You Clients?

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.

Don’t spam your LinkedIn connections. Talk to them. https://bit.ly/2NfUfxB Click To Tweet

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:

  1. Customized invitation
  2. Welcome / build rapport message
  3. Engage message
  4. Give value message
  5. Value follow up message
  6. 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.

Related: Attract Clients on LinkedIn! 12 Things You Can Do in 15 Minutes

Lead Gen Tip #6: Use hashtags to get discovered

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.

Lead Gen Tip #7: Use Native Videos

@neilpatel 84% of buyers reported that they had been convinced to buy after watching a brand’s video https://bit.ly/2NfUfxB Click To Tweet

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

Neil Patel, Generate Leads on LinkedIn

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.

Upload Native Videos to Generate Leads on LinkedIn

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.

Use Video Analytics to Generate Leads on LinkedIn

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

Up to 85 percent of social media videos are played with no sound bit.ly/2NfUfxB Click To Tweet

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.”
UploadNativeVideos
VideoSettings
Adding an SRT Caption File

Lead Gen Tip #10: Make Use of LinkedIn Showcase Pages

@SpielCreative If you have multiple target audiences or brand personas, you need Showcase pages. https://bit.ly/2NfUfxB Click To Tweet
Darren Travers

What are 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 company page, you are able to take advantage of Targeted Updates and Sponsored Updates bit.ly/2NfUfxB Click To Tweet

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:

Team Motivation Ideas Coaching Call Sign Up

QUESTION: What’s one thing that’s been working well for you on LinkedIn? Share With us in the Comments below!

Margin