How to Get Leads for Your Small Business

It’s an old sales refrain: Always be closing. The thing is, you can’t close unless you have leads. Getting leads is crucial for generating sales. So what are the best and most effective ways to generate leads for your small business? Here are some of our top tips!

Dig Up the Dirt

To start, you’ll need to identify the demographics of the people who are most likely to need your services or products. It can take a little digging to find this information, though. 

First, create an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) that you can follow whenever you’re generating leads. That way, you won’t waste time going down the wrong trail, chasing leads that will never create sales. 

The kinds of elements you should identify in potential customers are:

• Age
• Gender
• Income
• Location
• Hobbies
• Spending habits

Notice that “spending habits” aren’t the same as “income.” There are wealthy people who are stingy and middle-class people who need every new gadget on the market. Social media targeting has made this information easier to discover than ever before.

A reputable lead gen digital marketing agency can investigate social media pages and other sources to yield massive amounts of useful data.

Rely on Current Customers

Get to know the people who are spending money with your company right now. While this will help in determining demographics for future leads, it also shows your customers that you are listening to them. 

Retaining the customers you have is essential for pulling in those you don’t YET have. It can also invite word-of-mouth marketing! Those who are satisfied with your products or services are more likely to recommend them to others and leave positive reviews online.

Seek New Contacts

The essence of lead generation? Getting contact information for potential customers, including their email addresses, phone numbers, or social media pages. How? Make it worth their while to give it to you! 

Start by positioning your company as the expert in your field. Offer content that asks for their information. Creating an interactive blog that requires sign-in to comment, a free guide that they can download by filling in their contact info, or contests and giveaways. Identifying who’s interested and willing to let you reach out to them is key. 

By the way, start with emails before calls. No one likes to be interrupted during a meal or activity. In this era of smartphones, people prefer contact methods that they can respond to at their leisure. 

Create Relationships

We’ve said it once, but it’s worth saying again: You want to position yourself as the expert in your field. Blogs and guides are excellent ways to accomplish this goal. Even better? Methods that allow you to be seen and heard. 

Videos and podcasts give you a chance to talk at length about a subject without having to be present in person with each potential lead. 

The wonderful thing about videos and podcasts is that they let you become “digital friends” with large numbers of people at once. Encouraging people to subscribe and contact you for info can help to increase site traffic, too.

You can also offer courses or training seminars, whether they’re online or in person. The few hours spent creating this content will bring in people who would otherwise be out of reach.

Web Presence

One oft-overlooked tip? Make sure your website looks awesome. You don’t necessarily have to spend $30,000 on the slickest website ever, but you do have to make sure that your content is logically laid out with the fewest numbers of clicks to take people exactly where they want to go. 

Engaging in search engine optimization (SEO) or search engine marketing (SEM) will help bring people to your digital front door. A good lead gen digital marketing agency can help bring your website to the top of Google’s rankings (and then help you capture their information once they arrive!).

Become Noticed

If all this sounds daunting, don’t worry — we get it. There’s a lot to take in! That’s why we’re here. Insights ABM specializes in making businesses like yours stand out above the rest. When you’re ready to start getting those leads so you can “always be closing,” contact us!