4 activities to help you generate inbound leads

Generating outbound sales and inquiries typically involves actively chasing your customers. It involves a lot of hard work and some companies do find a model that actually works for them. However, most companies just wait for customers to come to them or try traditional marketing through TV, radio, print or telemarketing.

Recent studies however, found that:

• 86% of consumers skip TV ads.
• 200 million people are on the Do Not Call list.

These statistics are proof that marketing strategies need to evolve because more and more consumers have become unaffected when it comes to marketers’ attempts to get them to buy products and services.

People are tuning out traditional marketing tactics. If you want to attract customers, you need to try using online marketing and search engine optimisation to generate inbound leads.

Why is online marketing a better option for promoting my business?

Online marketing techniques such as website search engine optimisation and direct email marketing that utilises email marketing tools are best for your company because:

• You don’t have to have a big budget to market your business.
• With online marketing, you and your competitors perform at the same level.

How can you generate inbound leads effectively for your business?

Approximately 60% of companies have already incorporated some form of inbound marketing into their marketing strategy as of 2013. Following are good strategies that will enable you to generate inbound leads:

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
  You’ve heard it before and we’re reiterating it – strong SEO will help you rank higher on search results. If you want to stand out among your competitors, you need to use best practices by making sure that you build links to your products and/or services.
• Set up a blog in your website
  This is the easiest and most cost-effective way to get inbound leads for your business. The best thing about it is, this is a good way of telling potential customers how you feel and what you have to offer them.
• Email marketing
  You need to remember that each customer is unique. You need to make sure that you communicate with each one in a way that he/she wants to be treated. You have to customise your message and your offers to each recipient. You also have to adjust the frequency of your emails to each customer.
  It is also important to use different landing pages in your email campaign to ensure that you send the right message to the right people.
• Social Media
  According to the 2012 State of Inbound Marketing report, “Social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing.”
  You just need to make sure that you publish relevant content in the right place at the proper time. By doing this, you give helpful information without being interruptive.

Inbound leads are crucial to your company’s success. When people call you in response to your ad, they are typically customers who intend to shop at that moment or plan to make a purchase in the near future. The hardest part of your sales pitch is done because they have come looking for you and/or your product/service.

If you need help with your Email marketing or if you want to speak with a search engine optimisation consultant, contact Complete Cloud today and our specialists will gladly assist you.

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