Is traffic slipping through your fingers without converting into leads? For many businesses, the key to making sales is to first generate leads. Businesses often struggle with getting enough leads to feed their sales team. Or a business might have plenty of leads, but they’re not good leads, and the sales department is having trouble closing them into customers. Too frequently businesses have no idea where their leads are coming from. It’s possible that you are making critical lead generation mistakes without even noticing or realizing that it’s happening. In order to see better lead generation results, make sure you are avoiding these five common mistakes.
Lead Generation Mistakes
Mistake #1: Buying Lists
If you are having trouble generating leads, it can be tempting to buy a list. Unfortunately, there are many reasons why buying leads, rather than generating them organically, is a mistake. Perhaps the biggest reason buying lists won’t work is that quality email addresses simply aren’t for sale.
If the entire point of generating leads is to nurture those leads into customers, the leads you generate need to actually want to hear from you. Buying a list won’t propel you into greatness, it is much more likely to get your email marked as spam, which only harms your email deliverability in the future.
The leads you get from lead lists have likely never heard of your company. These people will not be familiar or interested in what you have to offer. Sending them an unsolicited email will only cause them to think of your business as annoying. Your leads need to opt in to your email list. You will be much more successful when you have grown your own email list.
Mistake #2: Working on One Program at a Time
Not everyone who visits your business is going to be enticed by the same offering or even be in the same stage of their buyer’s journey. You need to be offering multiple programs at the same time, rather than only working on one program at a time. Measure the various programs you have running so you can see what is working and what isn’t and then adjust accordingly.
Your website, email marketing, in-person events, and other marketing efforts should all be working together to generate leads. Some of your programs can be set to run automatically so they can drip in leads. Then those leads can be tied into some of the larger programs you are planning. Focus on creating valuable content to teach and nurture your leads down the funnel.
Mistake #3: Neglecting Your Website
Most buyers start research for products online. That means your website might be the very first place where a lead will interact with your company. First impressions matter, and it’s important to make sure your website is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and includes clear calls to action.
Think of your website as a tool to educate your audience about your company. Blogging is a lead generation powerhouse. Each new post is a new opportunity to generate new leads. Generating leads from your blog posts is simple, simply add a lead-generating call-to-action to every blog post. Frequently these CTAs will lead to landing pages offering free content like eBooks, whitepapers, checklists, webinars, and other items in exchange for their email address.
Mistake #4: Poor Communication With the Sales Team
Everyone in your office might know the definition of a lead in the general sense of the term, meaning a person who has indicated interest in your company’s product or service by giving you their information in some way. Beyond that, your sales team and marketing team might have different definitions of what makes a qualified lead.
A marketing-qualified lead is typically a lead that has been deemed more likely to become a customer compared to other leads. A sales-qualified lead is often a lead that your sales team has accepted as worthy of a direct sales follow-up. Getting sales and marketing to agree on a quality threshold is where things can get a little messy. Which is why it’s important to have some standardized sales and marketing processes and definitions. Sales and marketing teams should work together closely to make sure goals are aligned.
Mistake #5: Trying To Do It All On Your Own
Lead generation is a long-lasting process. It is essential to be persistent and nurture your leads until they are ready to buy. Reaching and attracting the right audience for your business can be challenging. Safeguard has the expertise to bring you solutions that will help manage and market your business.
Don’t waste time and neglect to bring in leads, contact Safeguard for a personal consultant that will help you grow your business. From email marketing to promotional apparel, discover for yourself all the ways Safeguard can help you build your business.