What’s up, Boujee Bosses, we are back with more tips! Today we are talking all things lead generation. For those of you that don’t know what lead generation is, it’s simply a marketing process that initiates consumer interests and pulls them into a sales funnel for whatever product or service you’re providing. The most popular usage of lead generation is through email and even text messaging as of recently. Now, I know what you may be thinking. “It’s 2020, email marketing isn’t as effective anymore!” That is where you are wrong. Email marketing typically generates $44 for every $1 spent, so I’d say it’s worth the investment. And even if you aren’t offering any products or services for sale just yet, it is never too early to start building rapport with your audience, they’ll be more likely to convert into customers later on if you cultivate genuine connections now. So, with that being said, I’m going to share five must haves for prosperous lead generations. Let’s jump right in!
Web Software with Plug-ins
First things first, you need to make sure that you have a website that allows plug-ins. Plug-ins allow you to connect external software/apps to your website to produce things like those pop ups you see on websites. So, long story short, plug-ins are a necessity for lead generation. Speaking from personal experience with wordpress.com, you have to purchase the business plan just to be able to attach plug-ins, which is $300/yr. When I first started incorporating lead generation, I only had the premium plan ($96/yr), so naturally I hit a wall. I could still create my landing page and automation, but I couldn’t attach it to my website and the link wasn’t fully customizable. By the time you’re reading I will have switched over to wordpress.org, where you can access email plug-ins (among a variety of others) for free. This leads me to which email service provider to choose from.
Email Service Provider
For those that may not know what services email providers entail, they allow you to create landing pages, email sequences and automations. I’ll elaborate on what all these terms mean later on, but email service providers also allow you to easily send out mass emails as well. If you checked out my Branding 101 Freebie then you know I use ConvertKit as my email service provider and I have the $29/month plan. There is a free version, but as with most software, you have to keep their watermarks and the features you can use are limited. The most popular email service provider is MailChimp and it’s also the cheapest, so you can use that if you’re on a tight budget. They also have a free version. It is also worth noting that the email service providers prefer that you use is an official email, aka not a free Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail. I use gsuite for ours (hello@themelaninperspective.com) and I have the basic plan ($6/month). It’s not required to have an official business email, but it cuts down on spam and other errors.
Market Research Data
Before you actually begin creating your lead generation content, you first need to gather data from your target audience about the type of content they’re looking for. Check out your social media insights, website analytics, and other things of that stuff for indirect data. Also do polls and check out their comments on your posts, to gather direct information straight from the source. You’ll waste so much time trying to create lead generation content that you think your audience be like. Don’t act on assumptions, collect the right data that you know will perform well. Market research not only lets you know what type of content you want, but it also it let’s you know the types of products, services and information you need to be producing outside of lead generation.
Lead Magnets
Now, on to the content! Your lead magnet is your hook! Examples include freebies like checklists, worksheets or resource guides like my Brand Building 101 freebie. They can also be discount codes for your product/service offers, cheap e-books (or free) or webinars/masterclasses. The list goes on and on! You can either plug these lead magnets directly into your site as pop-ups or create a landing page for them. You will be able to design one using your email service provider templates and just attach the opt-in. However, I do not recommend making a lot of these. Pushing out new lead magnets every month will not gain you more traffic and it will be a waste of time that you could’ve put towards other things. I would just start with one or two and test the content out in different formats to see what your audience responds to the best.
Automations
This is your meat and potatoes! Catching someone’s attention is a lot easier than keeping their attention. Now that you’ve hooked your audience, you want them to stay subscribed and engaged with your email lists. This is where email sequences and automations come into play. Email sequences are a series of emails that are scheduled to automatically go out to certain email segments. Automations are when you link email sequences with your lead magnets. You ever put in your email for a discount and got a bunch of emails about other sales afterwards? Or put in your info for a freebie and started getting weekly newsletters? These are automations. If you’re subscribed to my email list, you know I do the latter and it makes a world of difference.
I hope this list was helpful in getting you started with lead generation! Make sure to check out my Brand Building 101 freebie where I talk about this and other necessary tasks to legitimize your brand if you haven’t already. Let me know what you think of the tips I shared today in the comments below and on our social media pages!