When Prospects Come To You
At the end of all digital marketing activity lies the goal to drum up more business—aka, lead generation.
If you’ve been following our blogs, you’ll know that we’re huge advocates of generating leads through inbound digital marketing. This post sums up the series and explains the surprising benefits of helping future customers find you!
What is Lead Generation?
Leads are people that:
- Meet your target market criteria,
- Have indicated some interest in your product, and
- Are therefore viable to pursue (for sales).
Lead generation is the process of generating that interest in potential customers.
Types of Online Lead Generation
Traditionally, there are two distinct lead generation strategies: outbound and inbound.
You’re most likely familiar with outbound lead generation. Those calls and emails “out of the blue” to introduce you to a new product or service and convince you to buy.
Advertising is a form of outbound marketing; the brand seeks you out.
Inbound lead generation, on the other hand, draws the customer in. In this instance, you the customer, actively seek the brand—only you don’t know it yet. Bring yourself up to speed. Here are quick links to the topics that we’ve covered in our inbound lead generation series.
- What Is a Digital Marketing Strategy and Why Do You Need One?
- How to Take Over the First Page of Google Search Results
- Why Blogging Is a Marketing Strategy Essential
- The Power of Podcasts
- Boost Your Conversions with Lead Magnets
- Landing Pages for Higher Paid Search and Sponsored Ad to Prospect Conversions
- Lead Nurturing via Drip Email Marketing
Generating Leads through Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is the process of attracting future customers organically.
Here, clear branding messaging, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Social Media Marketing (SMM) blend around strategic content marketing to deliver value at every stage of one’s purchasing journey (or buyer’s journey).
Essentially, inbound lead generation facilitates a customer’s discovery of your brand. The idea is to be there with useful content long before the prospect has any intention to purchase (also referred to as “buy” mode).
Instead, they become aware of your brand by other means. It could be while they are still researching their options, or looking up solutions to a distant yet related need. Engagement with your content develops familiarity (with that, a sense of loyalty) and creates the desire for your solution.
When they are ready to make a purchase, your brand is a natural choice.
Inbound Content Marketing in Action
Let’s take a look at how a landscaper, Lan’s Landscaping, may attract new business through content marketing
- A prospect, Joe, has a lifeless garden and wants to spruce it up. He’s thinking of doing some DIY gardening.
- When Joe’s on Facebook, he looks up “Garden Ideas” and follows a page or two with good pictures and how-to’s. He doesn’t realise it, but he’s followed Lan’s page.
- Joe also searches a general topic like, “What flowers can you plant in Spring?” and finds Lan’s blog as a top result on Google.
- Joe has made a favourable association with Lan’s Landscaping. He trusts the brand.
- Joe signs up to Lan’s monthly newsletter filled with landscaping tips and tricks. He continues to follow Lan’s on Facebook. So, Lan’s stays top of mind.
- One day (through Lan’s content marketing), Joe learns that trees will add the functionality he’s wanted all along—but that is out of Joe’s DIY capabilities.
- Familiar with Lan’s service offering and already convinced of their reliability, Joes calls Lan’s to complete his garden. Lan’s has made a customer for life.
Business Benefits of Inbound Digital Lead Generation
- Customers discover and choose your brand for themselves, fostering greater loyalty.
- Your content delivers value from day one, cementing consumer trust.
- Some content types, like blogs and videos, are excellent educational tools for complex services, or where there are multiple purchasing decision-makers.
- Unlike ads (that often have a limited lifespan) your content keeps on working, attracting people in the same phase of their journey. You invest once, but yield many.
- For this reason, organic and content marketing are far more cost-effective, lead generation
- Then, because you are attracting the right, targeted customers, inbound also has a higher return on investment (ROI).
Are you ready for future costumers to convert themselves? Let us show you how!