18 Lead Generation Strategies – a must know B2B tips for your agency

Running a digital agency and struggling with leads? I will bet my lunch money that all you need are some fresh out of the box lead generation strategies.

& here they are.

These days the common problem I hear from marketers is that they don’t get enough clients. They can’t attract their desired prospects. They can’t transform leads into conversions. And that is because they do not have good lead generation strategies.

Sometimes they lack the creativity and at best have 2 lead generation strategies.

The truth is we’ve all had our ups and downs in our efforts to attract clients.  Trust me,  it’s not the end of the world.

The good news is that as long as you know the necessary steps required to expand your client base, there’s a chance that you can generate new leads for your digital agency. In today’s post I’m going to show you what those tactics are.

Here are 18 tested lead generation strategies you will find:

1. Set Up A Referral Program

Do your clients love your services? How often do they share your digital agency with their network?

Do you know referrals are a powerful way to generate new leads and gain clients?

In fact, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from their network. 

So get in the game. Set up a referral program to ensure that clients receive rewards when they make successful referrals.

You can use apps such as ReferralCandy to give customers referral links,  reward customers for successful referrals and track the results of referral programs—with the least amount of time and effort.

2. Use Database Marketing to Build Segmented Lists

Database marketing is focused on creating elaborate customer profiles to generate leads. These profiles contain information such as customer’s names, purchase histories or mailing lists.

This information is used to create segmented email lists based on the client’s industry, company size, interest and needs.

Creating the database takes time, but it’s effective. By segmenting customers based on behavior and profiles, your digital agency can create personalized messages that are tailored to fit  their needs.

3. Create Gated Content With Valuable Information

One of the best lead generation strategies is simply to create an eBook or whitepaper that contains valuable information. 

This is the best lead magnet business can have.

Gating powerful resources that provide value to your prospects behind a form is a clever strategy for acquiring leads. If done in the right way, an intelligent whitepaper or ebook can make a tremendous impact, making it worth your cost and time to create it.

However, you need to draw a fine line between when to gate and when not to. Having a healthy combination of free gated content and downloadable resources can be the perfect recipe for lead generation.

Here are some tips to follow in order to make your gated content a huge hit:

• Create valuable, informative and excellent content that will make your prospects pass out their personal information
• Request for as little information as you can-remember to keep your forms short and ask for only the necessary contact details
• Tell your customers what they are getting and why they’re signing up for. However, if you plan to use their contact information in other ways, mention it to them clearly
• Don’t gate everything-try to provide free resources too

Here’s an illustration on how HubSpot uses gated content:

Here are 20 types of lead generation content that you should put behind your landing page.

4. Use Experiential Marketing to Provide Unique Branded Experiences

Experiential marketing is the act of creating unique branded experiences. Rather than sending messages, this strategy is focused on creating opportunities or events where potential customers can interact with the brand.

Experiential marketing activations may be in the form of events like concerts, festivals and tradeshows. But the trick to winning with this strategy, is to create fun and original interactive activities. A good example is the large interactive posters posted by Google around the San Francisco Bay Area. The interactive posters generated tons of hype when it allowed consumers to vote regarding where it’s $5.5 million would go.

5. Provide Free Audits

As one of the top lead generation strategies is providing potential clients with free audits.

Ask clients to fill out forms so that your agency’s digital experts can review their digital strategy and campaigns. Prove your value by analyzing their content page, link structure, site traffic,and competitors.

Not only will these reports allow your agency to propose solutions to a client, but it will also get your business  to standout from other agencies.

6. A/B Testing

Do your website visitors prefer clicking red buttons over the green ones?

You may not know.

Now how about this: will more number of people fill out your “Contact Us’ form if you do not ask for their phone number?

You might still be wondering.

It’s surprising to note that most businesses are unaware or ignorant of these things. They do not focus on the behavior of their website visitors. If you are one of them, you should start paying attention to user behavior today.

If you test two different versions of the same web pages, you can easily identify the elements that will drive more leads.

Do your forms have a button called “Submit?”

According to a study on lead generation, forms using the “Submit” button have relatively lower conversion rates compared to those using words like “Click Here” or “Contact Us Today.”By changing the wordings on your website’s buttons, you can drastically increase your conversion rate, eventually improving the number of leads you generate.

In addition, adjusting some elements-like writing better headline copy, adding customer reviews, and removing the navigation bar, your company’s conversion rates can go up by 100%. Check out these shocking 12 A/B test results.

By A/B testing certain elements on your website, you can convert more of the traffic you already have. The beauty of A/B testing is that it converts more of your existing traffic without the need to send extra traffic your way, a technique often referred to as conversion rate optimization.

7. Use Marketing Automation Software to Build Email Campaigns

It’s easy to send an email, but what about using email as one of your lead generation strategies?

These days, marketers use marketing automation software to engage with customers using email marketing sequences (here‘s a guide). These sequences are a series of emails which are sent according to a specific time interval or an action triggered.

For example,  a subscription to a marketing section of a blog could act as a trigger. Once a lead has become a subscriber, you could introduce these customers to products that might interest them based on the topics or sections they subscribed to.

This is very important step in creating good lead generation strategies.

8. Measure Your Success

Since you spent so much time researching leads and crafting messages, you have to make sure that your lead generation strategies are making its intended impact.

Measuring your campaign’s effectiveness is simple. Using a URL builder to generate UTM (Urchin Traffic Monitor), you can evaluate your page’s performance in Google Analytics.

For the uninitiated, here’s the difference between a link with a UTM code and a link without a UTM code:

1. Without UTM Code:
   • https://buffer.com/business
2. With UTM Code:
   • https://buffer.com/business?utm_source=pricing-page&utm_medium=cta&utm_campaign=landing-page-try-buffer-for-business

Here’s a guide that explains everything you need to know about UTM parameters.

Besides Google Analytics, you can use apps such as MailChimp and Vero to determine your success.

It’s important to note that a high CTR (click-through rate) does not automatically translate to a lot of conversions. But on the bright side,  with the right analytics, you won’t be walking blindly on the road to improving your digital agency’s lead generation.

9. Provide Amazing Offers

Not all of your leads are ready to purchase your services or talk to your sales team. So, how do you ensure that customers make a purchase at the end of the buying cycle?

You can generate new leads by providing amazing offers for customers. A new customer might be interested on a video guide, whereas someone near the end of the cycle may be more interested in a free trial.

By providing customers with valuable content or advice on how to maximize your product, you can nurture your leads.

10. Word-of-Mouth Marketing on Social Media

Not surprisingly, once a consumer posts a raving review of your digital agency on Facebook and Twitter, chances are people in their network who see the post post will keep your agency in mind. In fact, Nielsen found that 84% of consumers trust the recommendations made by their family and friends.

But, it’s not just consumers who follow this line of thinking.

Google thinks the same way too.

The tech giant’s new search algorithm, ensures that content  with more shares are better ranked.

In short, if you’re not focused on online word-of-mouth marketing, then chances are you’re losing out on a lot.

11. Focus on the Dream 100

The Dream 100 is a sales strategy that encourages you to make a list of the top 100 prospects that you would want most as clients. Once the list is made, you have to spend time and effort in building relationships with the prospects on the list. Comment on their social media pages, like their posts, subscribe to their blog and attend their events.

Achieving results with this strategy takes time—but it’ll put you in you dream client’s radar. Who knows? Pretty soon they might actually want to work with you.

12. Increase Brand Awareness by Attending Events

You don’t land coveted clients just by sending cold emails. Instead, you should attend networking events to meet potential prospects in real-life. Talk about your business in conferences and seminars. Feature your agency in trade shows and demonstrations.

You’ll know you’re making an impact, when people in your area know your digital agency. By latching onto opportunities to increase brand awareness, you can generate new leads and expand your customer base.

13. Create an App

Another way to great lead generation strategy is to build an app that people in your industry can like and share. It doesn’t need to be an interactive game—just something that will add value to marketers.

Do your clients have problems with networking? Create an app that allows them to connect with various agencies. A good example is the Pitchmate app created by the Woedend advertising agency. The app allows marketers to get acquainted with the best agencies in Amsterdam. With just one tap, users can send invitations to set up a meeting.

Now, that is one way your agency can turn heads.

14. Write Guest Post in High Authority Sites

Attract new leads by writing guest posts on high authority sites such as Entrepreneur, Hubspot and Buffer. Offer actionable advice that would be of interest to your targeted clients. And, remember to add a few backlinks to your agency.

Who knows? A popular blog post could allow potential clients to discover your business and encourage them to seek out your services.

Interested? This guide will teach you everything you need to know to make this hack a reality.

15. Create Tools That Prospects Need

Creating tools can be a challenge, but if it is something that prospects truly need, it’s worth the effort. Take for instance, Hubspot’s Website Grader Tool. When users enter the URL of their site and their email on the form, the tool assesses the site in terms of performance, mobile traffic, SEO and security. It also provides users with recommendations on how to improve the site.

16. Use Webinars to Beat The Competition

No firm would like to hire your consultant or agency if you aren’t an expert in your field. Period.

As an agency, you need to prove and not merely tell your potential customers that you’re the authority. Building authority is a long-term strategy but probably the best lead generation strategies.

Leads simply find you.

The most feasible way of doing this is through webinars.

A webinar is an economic and effective way to get your useful message in front of your target audience who actually asked for it at the time of registration. Webinars offer a fantastic technique to break down the cold cyber barrier and get in touch with your potential clients while also generating new leads.

Rally Point Webinars used webinars to acquire over 100 qualified leads, resulting in six opportunity-based meetings. Eventually, this led to $50,000 in services.

Here are some bonuses of hosting webinars:

– Reciprocity

According to Robert Cialdini, a Professor of business, marketing and psychology at Stanford University, people have a tendency to repay favors, even if it looks irrational. For instance, it was seen that customers were more willing to purchase a car at a dealership if they were given a free coffee by the salesperson. Similarly, by giving a free webinar, it’s likely for your leads to reciprocate the favor by hiring you.

– Authority

You become an authority in your niche by hosting a webinar.

– Likability

We are more willing to make a purchase from people we are more drawn to. A webinar gives you an opportunity to spend some time with a prospect, who is listening to you, building a relationship, establishing rapport, and gaining your trust.

– Scarcity

Successful webinars often end with scintillating offers like “The first 5 companies who uses our services from this webinar will get a free X.” This scarcity ups the probability of your leads taking immediate action.

Another point worth mentioning is to link your webinar to useful content.

If you host a webinar and link it to a useful content, your leads will take you seriously since you are offering them something invaluable even before asking them to register.

HubSpot has linked its webinar to useful content, giving users the main objective of the webinar along with the presenters as shown below:

Source: neilpatel.com

The challenge faced by most agencies while hosting webinars is getting sufficient people to register. However, you can increase the number of webinar signups by linking directly to a useful content.

Uberflip is an expert at inviting readers to register for forthcoming webinars right from a blog post.

17.Use Google As Your Login

The ultimate benefit of using Google as your login is that you can personalize your efforts. You can efficiently deploy effective marketing when you see and address your prospects as individuals and not as a group. It’s for this reason that Trello and SugarCRM connect with individuals.

Flickr has more than 112 million users since they allow users to sign up using their Yahoo account as shown below.

Most digital agencies do not use this hack to gain more leads. The fact of the matter is that a majority online entrepreneurs, content marketers and bloggers have a Google account.

The internet has brought about a great degree of convenience in our lives. Our names, addresses and other contact details are now stored on reliable sites like Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. This has made it possible for businesses to create a flexible and easy sign-up flow.

One main reason why Google has countless users is because with just one Google account, you can log into YouTube, Blogger, Google Analytics, Google Docs, Google Drive and more.

In the same way, if a digital company allows its target audience to come aboard using LinkedIn, Google or other popular social platforms, they will possibly get more leads.

18. Discard your generic enquiry forms

Most consultancies and agencies use out-dated, dull forms on their websites at the cost of their leads.

Remember that your form is the last step in the lead generation marathon. Your form design precisely segregates your leads from your non-leads, and has a considerable influence on how many leads you actually get by the end of the day.

In simpler terms, the better your lead capture forms, the higher the chances of receiving quality leads to your business.

So, how do you work on improving your form?

Here are some points to keep in mind:

• In what ways can you help them?
• How much will your services cost?
• How are you different from others in the industry?
• Do you feel confident of what you’re talking about?

Instead of using an utterly boring form like most agencies, you could perhaps offer your visitors a free proposal, a personalized audit, or an introductory consultation.

HubSpot has done a great job with their marketing grader form as can be seen below.

According to a 2015 form conversion report created by Formstack, here are three efficient techniques to ensure that your forms are properly optimized:

• Mix it up – Place different types of forms in different parts of your website. For special campaigns like events and contests, create totally new forms.
• Have your mobile users in mind – Over 50% of internet access takes place on mobile devices. Make it easy for your mobile users to type long answers.
• Length matters – Very often name and email fields are more than enough to ask from your users. So, build smart forms that automatically hide or show questions based on the response of your users.

Here are 21 examples of lead generation forms that convert splendidly.

What’s your top 3 lead generation strategies?

As you can see, there’s a lot of ways you can generate leads for your digital agency.

These 18 lead generation strategies are just the beginning.

Fortunately, if you constantly focus on these lead generation strategies, pretty soon your number of leads will grow.

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This post was created by two lead generation strategies experts Pankaj Mondal & Anton Kraly. Anton is the Founder & CEO of Performance Marketer. And Pankaj is an enthusiastic writer having contributed to multiple blogs in fields such as SEO.