Every sale starts with a lead, so as a small business owner you naturally want to generate more of them in order to fill your sales funnel. We have five straightforward strategies to help you leverage your online presence to generate more leads for your small business and convert them into sales.
1. Pay Attention to Your Website
Many business owners create a website, only to neglect it once it’s up and running. It’s important to pay attention to your website and perform regular maintenance – an outdated site reflects very poorly upon your business. As well as keeping your information up to date, make sure to keep an eye on loading speeds, mobile optimisation and ease of navigation. Internet users have very little patience for websites that are slow to load or difficult to use, and won’t hesitate to defect elsewhere.
2. Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for generating new leads. The higher up the Google rankings your site climbs, the more visitors you will receive. You want your site to show up on the first page for your chosen keywords. Research by HubSpot found that 75% of search engine users never scroll past the first page. If you’re languishing on the second page, you’re missing out on a whole host of leads.
3. Make Sure Your Site is Content-Rich
A content-rich website will help enormously with SEO – each new post or page creates new opportunities for prospects to find you. Of course, being found is only half the battle. You need to fill your site with engaging and informative content to ensure that users stick around. Many leads won’t yet be ready to buy, which is why you need to nurture them with content marketing.
Your website content should educate your prospects and establish trust. You can use content to communicate your brand values and identity, as well as helping your audience understand exactly how your products and/or services will improve their lives.
Of course, this strategy requires time and consistency – you can’t publish a single blog post and consider it a job done. However, if you continue to publish informative and relevant content over time, you will not only attract a wealth of new leads but have a much easier time converting them into paying customers, too.
4. Google Ads
As discussed, search engine optimization and content marketing take a little time to yield results. If you’re looking for something faster, throw Google Ads into the mix until your other strategies pick up traction. Google Ads are a cost-effective way of promoting your latest content, such as ebooks and webinars, to attract new leads. By offering value-packed free content in exchange for users’ contact details, you can grow your database and fill the top of your sales funnel. This strategy will give you a list of leads who you can then continue to nurture through content marketing in order to land those all-important sales.
5. Build Relationships
Ultimately what the above four strategies do is create opportunities for you to build relationships with your leads. At least 85% of the leads you generate will not be ready to buy from you in the next 90 days; however, that is certainly not to say that they never will. Do not neglect the 85% – instead, build a relationship with them and ensure that you remain front of mind. That way, when they are ready to buy, you will be right in front of them as the obvious choice.
Conclusion
By maintaining a content rich, search engine optimized website, using Google Ads and nurturing your cold leads, you can attract and convert many more customers for your small business without breaking the bank. However, in order for the above strategies to work you will need to remain consistent with your efforts rather than expecting overnight results. With time and sustained action, you will see impressive results from the above strategies.
