8 Effective Strategies to Generate More Inbound Leads

You know how vital quality leads are for your business. There’s no getting around it. 

You may be in the corporate world or you may own and operate a small business. But sales is a competitive industry, bottom line. How are you to stand out from your competition? How are you to justify your budget in light of that competition? 

A lot of your tactics to accomplish this and gain a competitive advantage are shots in the dark. You reach around for the light switch to shine the spotlight on your business. Your inbound marketer puts out campaigns in the high hopes that you will appeal to your target market. But are you doing the market research for it? 

Your end goal is to generate leads that you can turn into loyal customers. 

But what’s the secret? It feels impossible to make it work every time. How do you get quality leads who want to engage with your brand in the first place? What if your content creators have an incurable case of writers’ block one day, or your marketing department has a bad week? 

You go for inbound leads. That’s the secret. 

What Are Inbound Leads?

The secret is useless if you do not know what inbound leads are. You cannot carry out effective inbound lead generation if you are not familiar with the basics. 

Inbound leads, or their generation, is a way you can attract buyers to your business. You do not reach out to them to make a sale, they come to you because your content was so captivating. It is the process of putting together content that targets a particular audience. Then, you publish that content to market to your ideal buyers. 

The content you put out is the catalyst, the first step in an action plan for both you and your customer. It is the foundation that the building blocks of a mutually beneficial relationship rest on. 

So you have the content. What next? 

Consumers will visit your site, or stumble upon it in search engine results. Then, they get the information they are looking for. And in the process, they learn about your brand and what you sell. They check out your blog posts and social media pages. 

If you have the right information there, they grow to trust you and contribute to your working relationship with them. 

Inbound vs Outbound Leads

Maybe you are more familiar with outbound sales and outbound lead generation. 

This used to be the prominent way to approach sales. But it is different from inbound leads and far less effective. 

To recap, inbound leads are ones that reach out to you. This could be either through direct communication channels or through other ones, like referrals. 

Outbound leads, in contrast, are ones that you find through contacting them – not the other way around. Think of cold-calling or cold-emailing, if you can remember that far back. These leads did not give you any indication that they wanted to work with you in the first place. 

In this case, you did research on their social media pages, whether intentionally or by finding them by happenstance. 

Both have benefits, sure. But as you can imagine, you are far less likely to come across irritated consumers hanging up the phones when you opt for outbound lead generation. With inbound leads, there is no more of them pleading with you to leave them alone, or leaving nasty reviews on your site. 

What Is an Inbound Lead Qualification?

You may already know this. But you have to qualify your leads to turn them into prospects. That means you are one step closer to a definite customer who stays with your brand for a while. 

So what is an inbound lead qualification and why might it differ from a typical lead qualification? 

Inbound lead qualification is when you identify if an inbound lead will provide value for your business. They generate themselves through your company’s website. Then, you and your inbound marketing team or business development team have to figure out if they fit in with your brand. 

Why is it an important process, though? 

You do not want to waste time and resources on lead generation and qualification. You want it to be as smooth of a process as possible. You also want to be able to customize your content for the right audience, not just any old Joe Schmo. 

Here are the steps to follow for this process: 

• What characteristics and traits do you consider in your leads that make them “good” or “bad” leads? List them out. 
• Take advantage of automation programs to screen your leads with the above traits in mind. 
• Double-check that automatic work. Was it correct? 
• Find a uniform process your team can use to qualify them effectively each time. 

Here’s How You Get More Inbound Leads

We’ve sold you on the idea of inbound leads, haven’t we? Yep. But now you want to get them in your corner. You are tired of wasting time on low-quality leads. They have become a plague to your business structure and productivity levels. 

No worries. We cooked up the perfect list of eight effective strategies to put in place for your business to generate more inbound leads. Read on for more inbound lead solutions. 

Level-Up Your Content

It’s all about your content. When we say that, we mean that you need content that will catch your audience’s attention and keep them coming back for more. 

No more social media posts with improper spelling and unclear messages. Banish the unwieldy existence of blog posts that drone on for what feels like hours. 

You need quality content. Make it relevant, make it count, and make it original. 

You want to incorporate images, videos, and GIFs for a visually appealing element in the body of your content. And own the power of simplicity. You want to get your point across, and nothing more. Align your content with the right formatting. Consider never thinking about Comic Sans MS for a font. Ever again. Like, never again. Above all else: deliver content that targets the right audience. 

Post More Blogs

Your blog is key. But again, what are you posting there? The idea of inbound leads will not work if you have the wrong blog posts. 

A lot of the time, people find their information on blogs. And that is for any range of topics. So they value the time they spend on a blog post. They do not want to waste hours of their busy day trying to understand your point. 

If they like what they see, though, you have yourself a customer who will not be hard to convert. This tactic also brings you higher up on search engine results the more you hit the nail on the head with your blog content. 

Offer valuable information there. Do not be tricky or use clickbait to trap leads. It will not work and you will give yourself a bad name in your market. 

Create Clever Website Design and Layout

Have you ever seen a website with such clever design and easy-to-navigate layout that you got chills? It’s one of the most pleasant experiences inbound leads can have. 

Your website is often the first time a lead interacts with your business. Ensure that it is a memorable interaction. It should look professional. It should not look like a first-year undergrad student who is taking a graphic-design elective created it.

But remember the K.I.S.S. acronym: “Keep it simple, stupid.” Again here, simplicity is how you appeal to people. That is more so than any complex design. 

Landing Pages and Chatbots

Your landing page benefits you way more than you know. When someone clicks on your website, they want to be there. So redirect their click to a landing page where they can input their contact information. Then, you know how to reach them when it matters most. 

But it should be specific to your industry and audience. You need to make it clear to them what you are asking them to do. And list the benefits of them putting their information in. 

Also, a live chatbot can serve as your digital customer service rep. It will not cost you the big bucks, and the ROI speaks for itself. 

Effort on SEO

People head to the oracle that is Google to find answers and solutions. You want to provide those answers and offer them solutions. That’s ground zero for inbound lead management. 

And how many people scroll past page one (or two, or three…) on their search engine? Not a lot, that’s for sure. You want to be high up on the search engine results. You can do so by using search engine optimization (SEO). 

Your URL, meta tags, and keywords matter carry a lot of weight here. 

More on Social Media Marketing

What do your brand’s social media pages look like? If you answered “Eh, they’re pretty good,” then stop where you are. You need to elevate your social media marketing strategy. 

Across the world, people use social media to build brand awareness. Use platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more to build yours. 

Create Stunning Videos

Even if not everyone is a visual learner, most of us gain value and perspective from visual resources. Besides, the vast majority of people are visual learners. 70 percent, in fact. 

The next time you host a product launch, accompany your campaign material with a video. Put it on your landing page, in your blog content, and anywhere that it fits. 

And make sure the message of the video matches your brand’s voice and what you are selling. You could be witty, funny, or professional. There is always room for an engaging video in your content. 

Always Include Effective CTAs

It is appropriate to put this one last. Your CTAs are the last thing your customers should see. Don’t overthink them, but think about them. 

Make them short and sweet. But make them represent an offer that your audience cannot say no to. It will benefit both of you. 

Conclusion

“Align, align, align.” You saw that word a lot in this blog post. Why? 

Because it’s important. At Selling Revolution, we know that channel alignment is key to your business success. And we have the other secrets and solutions that will push your company to the top of your industry. 

Our stellar team has the decades of experience you need to make more sales and keep them coming, time after time. You want sales training that lasts for your team, and we have it. You want inbound leads that stick around, and we know how to get them for you. 

So do you want them? Does your business need them? Yes? Great. Then we need you to click here to book a call with us today.