Lead generation, including converting leads, is one of the biggest challenges for businesses today.
Most people give up after a few attempts at lead generation because it’s just too hard. If they do generate a lead, they often don’t know how to convert it into a sale.
3.05 billion USD was spent by businesses in 2021 on lead generation in the United States. It is expected to reach (if not surpass) 3.24 billion USD by the end of 2023.
But it’s not just about spending money. Generating leads the right way is equally important.
Our guide will help you generate and convert cold leads successfully. Inside you’ll find tips and tricks for generating high-quality leads and advice on how to close the deal once you’ve got them interested.
By the time you finish reading this guide, you’ll know how to:
- Get started with generating leads
- Nurture your leads until they’re ready to buy
- Convert your leads into customers
So let’s get started.
Businesses need to generate leads to make sales. But what is a lead, and how can you get started generating them?
A lead is simply someone who has shown an interest in your product or service. They might have visited your site, joined your email list, or downloaded one of your ebooks.
There are two main types of leads:
- Cold leads are people who have shown some interest in your product or service but aren’t ready to buy just yet.
- Hot leads: These individuals are prepared to make a purchase and just need a little push to seal the deal.
How To Generate Your Leads
When you first start out with lead generation, you’ll want to focus on cold leads. These are people who need a little more education before they’re ready to buy.
Hot leads are great, but they’re also harder to come by. You’ll usually have to wait until a cold lead has been nurtured and warmed up before they’re ready to buy.
So how do you generate cold leads? There are a few different ways:
- Social media: Use social media to drive traffic to your website or landing pages. You can also use social media ads to target specific demographics.
- Content marketing: Write blog posts, create ebooks and whitepapers or produce videos that educate your audience about your product or service.
- SEO: Optimize your website and content for search engines so that people can find you by searching for relevant keywords. Build backlinks to further improve your rankings.
- Paid advertising: Use Google Ads or other paid advertising platforms to drive traffic to your website or landing pages.
- Cold emailing: Look for leads that match the content you create, then try to do cold email outreach.
Bonus tip: Use an email finder tool to automate your cold email outreach. It can help you quickly compile a list of email addresses and create email campaigns for your prospects. Read this guide to save time and increase your chances of connecting with the people you want to reach.
Now that you know how to generate cold leads, let’s look at how you can nurture them.
How to Nurture Your Leads
Just because someone is a cold lead doesn’t mean they’ll never buy from you. Most people who eventually become customers start as cold leads.
The key is to nurture B2B leads until they’re ready to buy. This involves building a relationship with them and educating them about your product or service.
There are a few different ways to nurture your leads:
- Email marketing: Send helpful, informative emails to your leads regularly. Email marketing can also be used to promote special offers or discounts.
- Lead magnets: Use lead magnets such as ebooks, whitepapers, or courses to educate your leads about your product or service.
- Landing pages: Use landing pages to collect leads and promote special offers or discounts.
- Social media: Use social media to stay in touch with your leads and build relationships with them. You can also use social media ads to target specific demographics.
Now that you know how to nurture your leads let’s look at how you can convert them into customers.
How to Convert Your Leads
So you’ve generated some cold leads and nurtured them until they’re warm. Next, you need to close the deal and turn them into customers.
There are a few different ways to convert your leads into customers:
- Special offers: Use special offers or discounts to incentivize your leads to buy.
- Free trials: Offer your product or service a free trial so your leads can experience the value first-hand.
- Money-back guarantees: Offer a money-back guarantee so your leads feel confident about their purchase.
- Testimonials: Use testimonials from satisfied customers to show your leads that others have been happy with your product or service.
Lead Generation: Pro Tips
Use Call-To-Actions (CTAs)
It makes sense that you’d expect a lead to move down the sales funnel and convert to a paying customer after going over what your online business has to offer, wouldn’t it?
Most people need a little nudge, and a clear call to action can help you achieve your goals.
New leads or cold leads won’t become paying customers right away, but you can use a call to action (CTA) to get them to sign up for your mailing list or schedule an appointment.
CTAs can help nudge cold leads over the edge toward committing since they’re usually hesitant.
Don’t Rush It
The fact is that everyone loves to buy things, but nobody likes to be sold. Making it blatantly apparent that your goal is to maximize your sales numbers as soon as you gain your audience’s contact information might turn them off.
Instead, make sure you don’t push too fast when converting leads.
One of the best ways to facilitate conversions is to build a relationship with them over time. If you don’t, you risk losing the sale.
The Takeaways
The bottom line is that generating and converting cold leads takes time and effort. But if you’re patient and put in the work, you’ll eventually see results. And those results will be worth it.
So, do you have any tips for generating or converting cold leads?
Author: John B. Martyn, Content Manager at Brightest Minds
