Lead generation strategies: Part I

Wondering what “Lead generation” actually means?

Well, in the simplest language, lead generation is the most important aspect of marketing which means initiation of consumer interest or inquiry into products or services of a business. It is basically a process of collecting names and contact information about qualified prospects which will be contacted by the salespeople for generating orders. It involves direct response advertising and telemarketing.

Leads may come from various sources or activities, for example, digitally via the internet, through personal referrals, through telephone calls either by the company or telemarketers, through advertisements, and events. A study from 2014 stated that direct traffic, search engines, and web referrals were the three most popular online channels for lead generation, accounting for 93% of leads.

We know that a steady stream of leads is an essential component of keeping a business afloat – but coming up with original and efficient ideas to attract and convert qualified leads is easier said than done. Here are some of the proven and actionable ideas to energize your lead generation efforts:

1. Write exceptional ads:

Stepping into the shoes of a searcher you will realize that most ads just suck. They’re boring, they’re indifferent, and one isn’t any more enticing than another. Betwixt such a chaos where everything looks the same, there’s a huge opportunity to come in with something exceptional and blow the competition away! Writing better ads can raise your CTR above the expected average, giving your quality score a hike.

2. Create a product video:

Researchers have proved that 65% of us are visual learners. As a matter of fact, product explainer videos can generate leads at a rate of up to 33%. When done correctly, videos can keep us engaged and can inspire us to take an action. So, videos do not need to be long and complex.

3. Give better offers and fewer choices:

The top 10% of landing pages have conversion rate 3x to 5x average the average. As an answer to “How do they make it possible?” – by giving better offers and fewer choices. Moreover, as per Hick’s Law – fewer choices mean less confusion, resulting in more leads. As an inspiration – “MySiteAuditor” decreased the options on a free trial sign up a page from six to one and saw 25% jump in their conversion rate.

4. Offer a lot of compelling opt-in opportunities:

You can present numerous opt-ins by turning every blog post into an opt-in page.  You can give away PDFs of your blog posts, worksheets, webinars, free reports, live demos, resource guides and what not! Instead of placing the opt-in in a sidebar, make a pop-up. You can’t make the visitors say yes, but there is no point making it easy for them to say no. According to a research, this tactic increased leads by 32 %!

5. Avoid mentioning SPAM :

Privacy is a major concern for all the visitors landing on your page. It is absolutely fine to reassure privacy but you should prefer doing it in a fun manner. In other words, assure privacy without using the word “SPAM”. In case of any doubts, you may run A/B tests to be sure your sign up forms are optimized for conversions.

6. Remarketing:

Remarketing is an efficient way to connect those visitors to your website who may not have made an immediate purchase or inquiry. It allows you to present targeted ads in front of a defined audience that had previously visited your website – as they browse elsewhere around the internet using YouTube, Google or even Facebook. Remarketing using the Google Display Network gives you 92% reach in the U.S., across millions of websites, videos, and devices.

 

Customers love live chat

In the digital era, business are engaging more and more customers through online channels. The demand of the market for the businesses is to provide full support to its online customers and enhance their online customer experience.

With the traditional supports like phone, email and self service, live chat is also a great tool for online customer support and it adds to happier customers, increased conversions and a marked reduction in the service costs. Continue reading “Customers love live chat”

Training your live chat agents: Essentials elements of the training process

Training live chat agents

What if I ask you how’ll you train your live chat agents?

Your response would probably include statements like:

  • Make them familiar with the live chat platform they’ll be working on.
  • Educate them about the products and services that your business deals in.
  • Provide them an access to all that they require for resolving the customers’ queries (knowledge base, canned messages etc.)

Continue reading “Training your live chat agents: Essentials elements of the training process”

GDPR : All you need to know about the big data privacy revolution!

GDPR

What exactly is GDPR?

GDPR is a solution to customers’ woes!

The entire world is familiar and “scared” after the latest cases of data breaches.

Well, in today’s era, data breaches are real. Some people with malicious intent steal your data and then eventually mishandle it.

GDPR is one such legal framework, introduced by the European Commission to eliminate such mishaps. This data privacy revolution sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information of individuals within the European Union (EU).

When does GDPR come into force and whom does it apply to? 

Though the European Commission came up with a plan to protect valuable data so as to make Europe ‘fit for the digital age’. However, the regulation was enforced after six long years. Thereafter, it has finally come into force today, i.e. 25th May 2018.

Coming to the application of GDPR, it applies to all the organizations operating within the European Union, no matter what scale or size. The regulation further applies to the businesses outside EU which offer goods or services to customers or businesses in the EU.

GDPR compliance: 

As per the terms of GDPR, the organizations have to ensure the following things without failing:

  • The personal data (name, address, photos, and IP address) should be gathered legally and under strict conditions.
  • The data is protected from misuse and exploitation.

In case an organization fails at doing so, it will have to face certain penalties. They may have to pay fines up to €20 million or 4% of their global annual sales, whichever is bigger.

The ultimate warning:

If an organization has always abided by the respective data protection rules, GDPR won’t be much of an issue. However, for the businesses that have taken data privacy lightly all these years, most importantly the small-scale businesses that don’t even realize they are impacted, GDPR is going to be a real trouble.

GDPR, in no way, doesn’t stop the organizations from serving their customers and collecting their data. However, the businesses need to ensure that they are collecting and storing this valuable customer data on a lawful basis. They further have to ensure that they respect the wishes of people who want to have their data deleted.

The regulation mainly aims at boosting the rights of individuals and enable them to control their data. So, the organizations that fail at providing the desired proofs of proper handling of sensitive data, they are sure to face penalties within 72 hours of the data breach.

Does your organization take good care of its customers’ data?

Facebook lead generation: The best ways to make the most out of it

Facebook lead generation

Facebook is a great place to be individually or as a business! When you take your business online especially Facebook, you get vast opportunities to boost its success. When it comes to lead generation, Facebook has a treasure of options to garner the best quality leads. Here are the top ways to help you with the same:

Continue reading “Facebook lead generation: The best ways to make the most out of it”

How to hire the right lead generation agency for your business?

Lead generation

There are times when a business’s marketing team is so much into some elements of the marketing campaign that the others are left out. Or there are instances when the team is about to launch a new product and needs more and more new leads. That’s the time when the team needs an assistance from a lead generation agency so as to drive more leads.

Since it takes the right agency to get the desired results. So, it’s imperative that a business chooses the right lead generation agency. Here are the best tips to accomplish the same:

Continue reading “How to hire the right lead generation agency for your business?”

Some more lead generation myths that need to be busted right away!

Lead generation myths

Businesses, no matter what scale or size, can often get stuck in the lead generation maze! They often struggle to extract the best results out of their inbound marketing efforts.

The reason?

Well, it may vary from a poor choice of inbound marketing strategies to a crazy practice of blindly holding onto some weird lead generation myths!

Continue reading “Some more lead generation myths that need to be busted right away!”