Lead Generation: The Key to Effective Prospecting
So, what exactly is lead generation? Lead generation refers to the process of gaining the interest and awareness of potential customers through marketing, advertising and sales efforts in order to increase future sales.
In digital marketing, replenishing your sales funnel with leads on an ongoing basis is essential. It is from here that you’ll convert leads into paying customers! So how do you go about generating, qualifying and converting leads??
At Telomere, we advise the studios we work with to adopt a multi-prong approach to lead generation. To create a cohesive strategy, we recommend you start with these four steps.
1. Identify your target audience.
This is one of the most critical steps in your lead generation plan. If you skip over this step, or move through it too quickly, you’ll end up with leads that aren’t very likely to want your service. A few variables to take into account:
Age
Location
Gender
Education level
Income
Marital status
Interests
In addition, you want to consider your specific services and who they might appeal to. Who are your current clients? Your current clientele is often the best representation of who you should be targeting. Oftentimes this is where the disconnect can occur. You may think of your space as appealing to XYZ when in reality, your customer base is entirely different. You need to have these two things in sync for any lead generation efforts to be successful.
2. Understand the various lead generation channels.
The number one issue we see with studios is only investing in one type of lead generation channel. The idea is to have each of these channels work together so that you have synergy across your mediums as well as a greater reach.
Social Media: Everyone is on one social media platform or another. Social media goes beyond Facebook and Instagram–LinkedIn is a popular platform for instance that can help generate leads. Each of these platforms allows you to deliver messaging that is on-point with your target audience and has analytics built in so that you can assess what is and what isn’t working. Keep in mind that you still need to have a plan in place for what to do with your leads. If you’re creating unique content on IG for instance but potential clients are just “liking” your posts, you’re missing a crucial step in the conversion process. You want to see interaction with your posts as well as a drive to make a purchase or book a service.
Email Marketing: Email marketing is one of the most effective lead generation tools available because you can customize your content based on a user’s behavior and/or purchase history. A good email marketing strategy will include multiple lead generation campaigns that solely focus on nurturing leads from showing interest to making a purchase.
PPC Advertising- Pay Per Click Advertising. As far as a lead generation tool, PPC advertising is modifiable, scalable and when handled properly an invaluable way to bring in new customers. When paired with a proper lead nurturing email and SMS marketing strategy, you’re ensuring new eyes are not only seeing your service, but they are given the proper opportunity to learn and become paying customers.
3. Create invaluable content.
Content marketing and the accompanying strategy are key to effective lead generation. Content strategy ensures that you’re creating unique content across multiple mediums that meet the needs of your leads as well as your existing clientele. Content can be delivered in a variety of ways from blog posts to videos, webinars and podcasts. One of the most crucial steps in optimizing your content is to ensure you’re targeting the appropriate keywords for SEO purposes.
And finally, make sure your content is driving your leads to the appropriate page where they can learn more and book/buy/exhibit the behavior you’re looking for!
4. Don’t forget to promote!
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the content-producing stage and forget you need ample time and resources to promote your content. If you skip this step, most of your hard work will never be seen by the leads you’re trying to reach in the first place. Content promotion can be delivered through paid channels like ads or organically through blogs, social media posts, content linking, keywords (SEO), and more. The goal is to have your content reach as many people as possible, ideally, in the demographic/audience you’re targeting. When you create your overall lead generation strategy, be sure to provide a clear path for your content to be released and shared with your prospective clients!
Lead generation can seem like an enormous, never-ending task, especially for solo business owners, but when you break apart the steps into a more concrete path, you’ll find that a natural cadence and rhythm will occur. The key is to make sure all of your channels and efforts are working with one another so that when you have a new lead you can rest assured knowing that they will be cared for, and converted into a paying customer.
Telomere Consulting provides business consulting and marketing services to studio owners in the boutique fitness and yoga space. The Telomere team helps you navigate business strategy from conception to implementation. We provide end-to-end marketing support and would love to hear from you. Click here to book your free intro call. We want you to treat your business the way you treat your body – making the right choices now to optimize its potential for a long and healthy life. Visit us here to learn more.
