Did the Covid-19 pandemic put a damper on your lead generation efforts? How do you plan on getting back on track? These are tough questions that businesses and indeed marketing teams must deal with. The reality is that businesses the world over took a hit and soon realized they could no longer affect the business world like they used to. Not with the marketing practices they used previously. So, what’s the way going forward? Authentic marketing. Building relationships with key individuals by personalizing our messages, being human, and providing value. The kind of value that shows our prospects that we care about and understand their struggles because we’re facing them, too. Here are five such lead generation strategies. Own Your Audience “We have xxxx number of followers on social” Many marketing teams like to brag about their large following on social, which is all good except that these followers could disappear in seconds. Why? All these followers are rented audiences. You’re relying on a third-party platform to interest and communicate with their audience. Every form of communication is regulated by the platform and should they decide to disable your account, it’s game over. How do you keep from losing contact with your followers? By owning your audience. An owned audience comprises followers who are specifically built by your business for your brand. They are audiences that consume your content because they signed up for it directly and not through a separate business. Top tactics for building your audience include: Provide value to lure audiences to your platform. Create and gate unique content or invite audiences to virtual occurrences in exchange for their email address. You can also offer special discounts for people joining your email list. Self-host virtual events. Maintain better control over audiences by self-hosting virtual events. You’ll have greater information about attendees, including their demographics and preferences while marketing relevant products/services. Develop a content strategy. Having a content strategy allows you to provide consistent value, answer questions, entertain, and learn about your offerings. Being consistent keeps your brand in their minds. Make Cold Calls Many sales experts will admit they had to work through anxiety as they made sales cold calls. Rightly so, since this high-pressure environment is riddled with daunting quotas and some not-so-kind experiences. Barging into a stranger’s life to convince them that they need your services is no mean feat. Yet those who keep at it, and improve their technique with every call see tremendous success. Useful skills here include: Positivity. People are going through tough times, and they may project that on you. Don’t take the effect of a bad cold call on to the next one because people can discern discouragement in your voice. Give yourself a few minutes to calm down then approach your next call like it’s the best one of your life. Be empathetic. Be a good listener, focus on identifying their pinpoint, and show that you understand their frustration. Try recounting a situation when you encountered something similar or helped a business that did. Be charismatic. Statistics and selling points are great, but how you deliver your pitch counts as well. Illustrate your points with color by taking some creative risks. Inject relatable anecdotes and humor to make your conversation memorable and encourage engagement. Leverage LinkedIn LinkedIn statistics show that generating leads on LinkedIn is up to 277 percent (yes you read that right) more effective than on other social networks. How do you harness this amazing potential? Improve targeting through company-matched audiences. Through the campaign monitor feature, you can create specific audiences and target them. It means your content will be served to the decision-makers in the companies you would like to work with. Take advantage of the platform’s lead gen forms to gather data. Sending LinkedIn users to your website means you’ll need a landing page handy to direct them on the next course of action. You can halve the task by using the lead gen forms within the platform. Check metrics with company engagement reports. From engagement volume to ad performance, impressions, and website visits, company engagement reports provide insightful metrics for LinkedIn members engaging your brand. Conversion Marketing It’s easy to get lost in building backlinks, crafting copy for paid search campaigns, and other digital marketing efforts that you overlook conversion optimization. Conversion marketing revolves around maximizing website traffic to your site to uplift conversions aka getting your site visitors to take desirable actions. Best practices include: Creating appealing landing pages. Appeal here refers to visual appeal and functionality. Create simple pages that focus on sharing coherent information, layouts, colors, and fonts that are easy on the eye and one CTA. Ensuring your copy speaks your audience’s language. Whether it’s in your emails, ads, or content, create content that resonates with audiences. Tell a good story that addresses pain points and eliminates fear by providing viable solutions. Keeping the conversation going. Abandoned carts are real, but don’t let them close the conversation. Reach potential buyers via email and encourage them to complete their transactions. It may provide a great channel to learn what kept them from finalizing the first time around. Video Marketing A wyzowl study revealed that up to 80 percent of marketers surveyed used video to generate leads. This strategy may be used to fuel traffic and engagement by people looking to make informed purchase decisions. When you gate video content, you may collect email addresses from interested viewers for nurturing. How can you leverage video to hit your marketing goals? Create videos based on popular search queries. Go for keywords with reasonable search intent. If people are actively interested in and searching for topics touching on your industry, consider creating videos around them. This way, the video will rank well and generate leads. Ensure the video aligns with your offerings. Viewers look for videos that both educate and provide solutions. Go into detail regarding the problems your offerings can solve and position your brand as the ideal solution provider. Avoid being overly specific. Content wears out over time and loses engagement. Super-specific topics take away the flexibility of adding fresh videos continually to re-engage viewers.