In the highly competitive world, we live in, for every idea we have, there are dozens of businesses doing the same. As a business owner, this makes life very difficult when trying to get the attention of potential customers (better known as marketing leads).
We know that as an entrepreneur, your time is mostly invested in activities such as running your business, hiring the right people, creating a website, or finding new products; and there is little time left to generate strategies that attract leads.
Do you feel identified? Or are you just looking for new strategies to grow your business? Whatever your motivation, we’re here to help. In this article, we’ll talk about what leads are, the types of leads there are, and the top 10 strategies for attracting quality leads.
What are leads
A potential customer is, as its name says, a person or organization that can become a consumer of a certain brand or company. Potential customers of a business share some characteristics (such as age, gender, interests, or purchasing power).
To define who are the potential customers of your business, you have to analyze existing customers or define ideal users, know the benefits of your product, research your competitors, segment your audience, and finally define the market niche. Don’t worry! It is a fun process and simpler than it seems.
Types of Leads
To better understand your leads, and therefore create more effective strategies to convert them into frequent buyers, we divide them according to their buying habits. Let’s see the types of potential customers :
Potential customers by purchase frequency: How often would customers buy? If we take into account the frequency with which they make purchases, we can divide potential customers into frequent customers (they buy regularly), regular customers (they buy less often than frequent customers, but can easily increase their frequency), and customers occasional (they buy only from time to time, mainly when there are offers or other sporadic motivations)
Potential customers by purchase volume: How much would customers buy? If we take into account the volume of purchases, we can divide potential customers into high-volume customers (they buy in large quantities, and represent a good source of income for the business), average volume customers (they are in the average amount of product), and low-volume customers (they buy smaller quantities, and they can likely increase their frequency).
Potential customers according to the degree of influence they exert: How much can they positively influence other potential customers? These types of potential customers show a high degree of interest in the product or service, they know it thoroughly and they talk about the product with other people. These types of leads are ideal for helping companies grow.
Strategies to attract quality leads
We say quality leads because these strategies seek to attract leads that have a high probability of becoming buyers. The strategies we’ll talk about later range from online efforts to in-person initiatives that will help get the word out.
Depending on the type of business you have, choose which ones are most suitable for you. We recommend focusing efforts on 1-3 ideas, implementing them, and measuring the results to see if they worked. These are the best strategies to get leads :
Create a strategic website
Create forms to grow your database
Engage in conversations with your customers
Produce relevant content
Use the power of SEO
Share customer testimonials
Collaborate with complementary businesses
Make alliances with influencers on social networks
Create brand activation events
1. Create a strategic website
We have talked a lot about why your business needs a website, but in this case, we are going to be very specific: your website is the place where your leads find you, learn about you, and leave their information so that you can contact them.
Many of the strategies we are going to talk about are digital, and this is only possible if you have a professional website that includes all the elements that customers may be looking for (your story, products, contact details, policies, etc.). To create a strategic website, make sure the design is intuitive, navigation is easy on both desktop and mobile, and visitors have a way to contact you.
Creating a professional website should not be difficult or complex, when using an editor like Wix you can choose from hundreds of professionally designed templates, and customize them with your information and your brand design. Remember to add eye-catching buttons that lead to the right places.
To learn more about how to create a professional website and what elements it should contain, we recommend our guide on how to create a website.
2. Create forms to grow your database
To have more potential customers, you have to create a database where your relevant information such as name, email, and other fields such as telephone, age, or date of birth are stored. A form within your website allows visitors to leave their data and automatically captures and stores this information.
If a person took the time to fill out a form, they could probably become your client, so the job is practically done, all that remains is to follow up on those leads through emails or personalized promotions.
Through a form you can obtain key information from your customers, for example, you can ask them how they found out about your company to understand which marketing campaigns are working best.
3. Engage in conversations with your customers
By speaking personally with your customers, you can tell them about the benefits of your product, your company’s mission, or perhaps what makes your business unique, as well as answer their questions and make personalized recommendations.
If you have a face-to-face business, this can be achieved when customers enter your store or perhaps go out to find them with samples of your products or information brochures. For digital businesses (and offline businesses too!), engaging potential customers in conversation is very easy via live chat on your website.
Talk to your customers, listen to them, and use the opportunity to influence them to buy your products. Do not forget the most important thing: capture and store their data to be able to contact them again.
