Mistakes. We’ve all made them. Whether it’s heating up a spoon in the microwave or saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, but some mistakes can have a more significant impact, for example, an effect on your sales and revenue! If you want to know the six most common mistakes in lead generation and how to avoid them, keep reading.
We’ve already defined lead generation in a previous article, so we will only briefly summarize it here. According to the Oxford Dictionary, lead generation is the action or process of identifying and cultivating potential customers for a business’s products or services. The responsible team for this process is the marketing team, which generates leads and forwards them to the sales team (in charge of closing the sale).
But finding the right leads for your company is not exactly a walk in the park. Even though marketers have more tools and resources than ever before, it’s still tough to find qualified leads. Learning how to generate leads effectively is a long process requiring a lot of trial and error. Mastering this process can be both challenging and time-consuming (to say the least!).
If you’re having trouble generating high-quality leads, you’re probably making one (or more) of these mistakes:
“You are out of business if you don’t have a prospect.”
Understanding who you need to be talking to is the first step of any marketing strategy. The second step is understanding why. Unfortunately, many companies just focus on basic data. They don’t really understand the real reasons behind their customer’s actions. Why do they want to buy your product? How will they benefit from your service? What does your brand give to them that the competitors can’t?
If you don’t know who your customers are, you won’t know where to find them, and even worse, how to approach them. Try selling a product to someone you don’t know anything about – you’re probably going to fail miserably.
For example, let’s say you are a company that sells premium beauty products. In this case, your ideal customer would be women, aged 30 to 50, who are interested in skincare and beauty. But, where can you find them? If you want to send a message that will both reach and resonate with them, you probably won’t be advertising in motor & car magazines because your target audience simply won’t be there. You need to find out where they are, what type of content they’re consuming, and what they like to reach them. Magazines like Vogue, Elle, Vanity Fair, beauty videos on YouTube, and even specific social media channels could be ideal. The same thing happens with online lead generation (but a little bit more complicated). You first need to know your target to know where you are most likely to catch their eye.
Do you know where your visitors are coming from? If you don’t have the proper tracking installed, you’re missing out on valuable information regarding your potential customers.
To ensure your lead generation funnel is accurate, there are certain tools you might want to implement. Google Analytics can help you track your website traffic (plus, it’s free!). Google Search Console can provide great insights regarding your SEO standing. And you can never go without a good CRM tracker like Hubspot or MailChimp. Do your research to find the right combination for your business.
Social media is an effective (and low-cost) source of lead generation – if used strategically! It can help drive more traffic from your different platforms and channels, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, or even TikTok. There’s no limit to how social media can help contribute to a successful lead generation campaign.
Think about all the potential it has: According to Statista, the number of Facebook users in the United States will reach 324.76 million, up from over 297 million in 2020. That means you can narrow down and reach your ideal target audience in just a few clicks. And the best news is that this audience just keeps getting bigger and bigger!
You must be thinking this is a dumb mistake, right? Well, think again. It’s actually quite common. A lot of companies forget to invite their users to take action! Whether it’s inviting them to make a purchase, discover more about your products, or sign up for a newsletter, you should always prompt your users to do something. When you don’t, you’re missing out on a big opportunity.
Headline, title, benefits, call to action, UX, and design. Believe it or not, a minor tweak can make the biggest difference! It’s essential to test and optimize your landing pages actively. Even if you’ve already achieved satisfactory results, keep going! Don’t conform. You can always be better, do more.
Also, running periodic reviews that ensure everything is working correctly is vital. Many companies forget to pay attention to outdated or broken links. Imagine how many customers you could be losing because your landing page has an error you didn’t realize was there.
“Persistence is probably the single most important skill that you will need to make your business a success. Almost nothing you will try will work on the very first attempt.”
Sometimes, lead generation doesn’t work because you gave up way too soon. It’s a complex process, and it needs time and lots of practice to achieve your goals. It is important to keep repeating the process and making improvements to see the expected results.
Lead generation can be highly complicated even when you know what you’re doing and make no mistakes.
If you’re not sure how you can get started, or if you’ve already tried lead gen without any successful results, then the best thing you can do is leave it to the experts. At Boldr, from simple to complex, we build teams that take on work, earn your trust, and equip you to focus on the highest value things that you do best! Finding qualified leads can take ages. The good thing is, you can sit back and leave it to our lead generation experts. List building, lead nurturing email campaigns, appointment setting – all of this and more, handled by a global team of professionals. Put the lead in lead generation with world-class services that fit seamlessly into your core business. Get a free consultation here!