Digital, online, e-whatever. Today, everywhere you turn there is a new solution that you can find online. But one thing remains the same, time after time: you need to make the most of lead generation when you run a business.
And that means you need to pick the right approach to it. You have either inbound or outbound sales. You have outbound and inbound marketing tactics to match. But how do you know what works for you? What about knowing what works for your team?
Outbound and inbound lead generation are two different things. Outbound lead generation is interruption-based while inbound lead generation is permission-based. But what does all this mean? How do you know which one suits you best?
Let’s take a closer look.
What is Inbound Lead Generation?
Inbound lead generation is how you attract a customer lead to your business. To go about this, you have to create and publish targeted content. This targeted content’s primary purpose is to captivate and engage your new leads.
And ultimately, your efforts will drive these customers to act. It will urge them to do something (like reach out to your brand). Then, you and your buyers begin a relationship that benefits the both of you. They get something out of their relationship with you and your brand, and you get what you came for: a sale.
This type of lead gen is great for B2B sales. If customers are buying online, they are hanging out online. Inbound leads already want to be there. So they tend to look into what they are going to buy before they make the actual purchase. They check out reviews, yes, but they also look at your company directly. What are you posting? How do you engage your customers?
When it comes to inbound lead generation, the ball is in the buyer’s court. How will they reach out to you? How do they want you to interact with them back? When do they want this interaction to happen?
Some pros of inbound lead generation include:
- It is a long-lasting approach when compared to other lead generation tactics
- Makes you stand out from your competition in the eyes of your leads
- It makes potential buyers more comfortable when they do reach out to you
All in all, it also costs less than outbound lead generation. But we will talk more about that below.
What Are the Ways to Generate Inbound Leads?
You will find a lot of inbound lead generation tactics out there. It can even get confusing when you are looking for solutions for both your business and your customer base. But we have the top eight inbound lead generation efforts for your company to make its way to long-term growth.
Blogging
BloggingThough inbound lead generation is customer-centric and ends with them, it starts with you. Blogging, or posting on your website’s blog, is a great place for you to start. When you put out helpful content there, you establish yourself as a leader in your industry. You give yourself a voice that customers can rely on.
Blogs also help you to rank higher in search engine results. For that to happen, you need to take advantage of search engine optimization (SEO) when you write your blog posts. Also think of your ideal buyer every time you write one. Write for them. Have a conversation with them. You will turn yourself into the big name that everyone wants to turn to when they need to buy.
Lead magnets
A lead magnet is something free to your customer that you give them to get their contact information. And once you have that, this is when you start sending them valuable information through your content. It could be a newsletter, press release, or e-book.
Content marketing
Use content marketing to bring potential customers to your website. Then, you can use this tactic for inbound lead generation. Use this as a roadmap that guides your leads through your site and into your corner. If you have the right content, they will come back to you as their trustworthy resource time and again.
Social media marketing
People spend time on social media. That’s just a fact; it is where they want to hang out. And since they are already familiar with various platforms, it is easier for you to guide them through to take the action you want them to take.
Product demos
Nobody wants to buy something they know nothing about. It causes anxiety and can lead to buyers’ remorse. But you can fix that by offering free trials or product demos. And if your product or service is the right fit, you turn your lead into a loyal customer.
Paid advertising
Facebook, LinkedIn and Google are all prime examples of platforms to put out paid ads with. You can redirect your leads to the internal page where you need them to complete a task, or action item.
Email marketing
Email marketingEmail marketing may very well never become a lost art. Email has been around for almost as long as we can remember. And it is not going anywhere, either. If someone is on your email list, they want to be there. They would unsubscribe if not. Send them emails of value and they will engage.
Retargeting ads
Abandoned shopping carts plague your business, right? If not, you at least have some customers who forgot about your business altogether. Get your customers to come back and complete their purchase by retargeting ads.
What is Outbound Lead Generation?
Outbound lead generation is different from inbound lead generation. Why?
Because outbound lead generation means the ball is in your court, not the other way around. It is when you open the doors to communication for your customers instead of them reaching out first.
Think of cold calling and cold emailing. These are the more traditional tactics that you might use. But there are other ways too. Not to mention that cold calling and cold emailing tend to have a negative connotation. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Sure, nobody wants an unsolicited request for their money in their direct messages on Facebook or LinkedIn. Consumers do not want you to call them in the middle of their work day to tell them all about why “this product is so great! Nobody can get enough! So what do you say? Wanna buy?”
And we are in a day where we are all predominately digital. People already have full inboxes of spam they have to spend time deleting and organizing into folders. Don’t waste their time. If you do, you will end up wasting theirs.
But that’s enough on that. Inbound lead generation is what many business owners and sales teams are moving toward. But outbound lead generation can work very well if you know what you’re doing. And that is exactly what you are about to learn: how to use outbound lead generation effectively.
“Traditional” is not synonymous with “old and decrepit.” So stop treating outbound lead generation like an old patient who you need to take care of while it is on its last legs of life.
Instead, appreciate its value as a traditional player in the game of sales. And realize that tradition is not something you can just sweep under the rug. Try it out! See if it works for your business model.
Here are some pros of outbound lead generation:
- You get to extend your reach to more people at once
- It allows for a tighter grip on your strategy to get to your target market
- You can often reach your audience before your competitors do
As always, we have some tips on how to generate outbound leads as opposed to inbound lead generation. Read below for the details.
How to Generate Outbound Leads?
It’s okay to stray from the crowd. To stand out in your own right. But if you are going against the grain, do it well and make sure you have measurable and effective results. That is something you really need to keep in mind if you find that outbound lead generation is the best fit for your brand.
Here, we have the top seven ways to go about this type of lead generation.
PPC (pay-per-click) advertising
PPC is a simple concept in theory. It is just what it sounds like, where you pay a small price every time someone clicks on your ad from their search engine results.
Here, you still have to use keywords like you would with your SEO content. But PPC is more of a direct and sure way to boost your search engine rankings. It also makes the process of discovering the right information easier for your target audience. They get the information at the top of their results page and from there, it can stay at the top of their minds.
Content syndication
Content is a popular word these days. You need it everywhere. On your social media pages, blog posts, website, you name it. And it does matter. You cannot deny that. But you need to broaden your horizons when it comes to posting your content.
Where are you putting it? You cannot just set it down on your blog page and expect it to take care of itself. You have to make sure it reaches as many people as possible, and that they are the right people.
With content syndication, you use paid and unpaid tactics. Guest posting and external website posting of your content both work well here.
Direct mail
You may not want to use direct mail as an effort by itself. But it still works quite well when you mix it in with some other outbound lead generation tactics. Plus, we all like to get a little something in the mail every once in a while.
Event marketing
Events! Just by being humans, we cannot help but get excited about going to an event. Human nature, et cetera, et cetera. But this is very effective on a business level, not just a personal one. Event marketing is how you put names to faces. And it is valuable for you and your leads.
Inside sales
Inside sales reps are a cross between your sales team and marketing department. They will qualify your leads to make sure you are making the most of your time and your customers’ time.
Email marketing
Email marketing is important for outbound sales too. Think of it as similar to the type of email marketing we talked about earlier. But this time, you can promote yourself to new leads. You may find the exact same level of success as you would with our former mention of email marketing.
Lead nurturing
Nurturing is not just for after you score a lead. You have to nurture your leads and existing customers throughout the whole process.
Conclusion
You have a better idea now of whether outbound or inbound lead generation is right for you, right for your business. And most of all, you know the tactics to go about a successful lead generation marketing campaign.
But maybe you still feel stuck. That’s okay.
You know what you can do to offer solutions to your leads. Those are customer-centric solutions. And here at Selling Revolution, we have the solutions you need to get better-quality leads. These are you-centric solutions. We know that you spend a lot of time focusing on your customers. That’s what you have to do.
But we focus on you and providing unique, custom-fit solutions for you. That’s what we want to do. And we will every time.
Maybe you need to boost the number and frequency of your sales leads. You might be in the market for better sales training so your team can keep those leads coming. Maybe you do not have the right sales team yet, and you need to start anew by recruiting top talent. Our expert team at Selling Revolution can help you with that too.
We know you have a one-of-a-kind business. You need one-of-a-kind team members who help you win all the time. So start with us.
Check out our blog for more helpful advice like you read here today. And when you want to set everything you read into motion, it’s time to reach out to us.
Click here to book a call with Selling Revolution today and start your own sales revolution.