In today’s Nigerian traditional and digital marketing landscape, the biggest challenge many traditional agencies face is generating a strong sales funnel that will generate quality leads for their business.
According to B2B Marketing Technology Community, nearly 50% of B2B marketers’ lead generation budgets will increase this year, compared to 44% that will remain the same and 7% that will decrease.
This then begs the question, how should marketers be allocating their lead generation budgets in the most effective way?
This post showcases 10 ways traditional agencies can best utilize their resources to generate more leads:
Content Marketing
According to Demand Metric, content marketing generates 3 times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing, but costs 62% less. However, many traditional agencies are still battling with outbound marketing methods in hopes of generating more successfully close sales.
To be truly successful in generating leads in today’s market, content marketing needs to be an integral part of your marketing strategy. Brands today need to act more like publishers rather than advertisers. A new era of branded storytelling is rapidly replacing traditional advertising and sales-led marketing, which poses both new challenges and new opportunities for agencies.
The key to be successful at content marketing is creating content for all stages of the sales funnel. This approach allows your agency to deliver useful information and resources to impact buying decisions whether a customer is just discovering you, starting to follow and trust you, or comparing you to competitors in the final stage of their purchasing decision.
Free Downloadable Resources
In addition to blogging, offering your potential customers free downloadable resources as part of your traditional agency’s content marketing strategy is a successful tactic for building your credibility and earning the trust of your buyers.
This strategy will ultimately generate leads. When potential customers view you as their go-to for knowledge and resources, you’ll build a loyal following and ensure multiple touch points for lead nurturing.
Understanding what your audience needs and wants is the key to getting them to download your content and return later for new resources. Be strategic about what you create, make it visually attractive, enticing, and useful, and be sure to promote your free download on your website and via all other online channels.
Networking
In today’s world, networking extends beyond one-one person events, conferences and seminars. LinkedIn, the social media world’s exclusively professional network, is an excellent place to market your agency.
According to Reachforce, 44% of B2B marketers have generated leads via LinkedIn, whereas only 39% have generated leads through Facebook and just 30% through Twitter.
What’s the best way to leverage LinkedIn for generating leads? Research relevant LinkedIn groups and start contributing to gradually get your brand in front of prospects. Search for potential customers by industry and job function, send them a connection request, and direct mail them with a well-written pitch. And, make sure your company page is well put together and that you’re sharing content and knowledge to build your credibility.
Email Marketing
According to BtoB Magazine, 49% of B2B marketers spend more time and resources on email than on other channels, and 59% of marketers perceive email to be the most effective channel in generating revenue. With a strong strategy in place, email marketing is the tried and true channel for not only generating and nurturing new leads, but also retaining customers.
Successful email marketing has many variables. For starters, you must understand your different audiences, and how to segment your lists and craft compelling copy.
Optimized Web Forms
Every digital agency should be using web forms to generate leads, but best practices definitely apply and your best leads are likely not coming from your contact page. Here are three important ways to make sure your forms are optimized:
- Length matters more often than not, name and email fields are enough to ask for. When they’re not, build a “smart” form that automatically shows or hides questions based on how users respond.
- Consider your mobile users more than 50% of Internet access occurs on mobile devices, where tiny touchpad keyboards can increase how long it takes to type long answers.
- Change it up try placing different types of forms in different areas of your website, and create new one altogether for special campaigns (contests and events are among the highest-converting forms).
A/B Testing
A/B testing can be intimidating to non-technical marketers or those unfamiliar with it, but it’s actually rather easy to master and it can make a huge impact on your website’s ability to generate leads.
A common A/B testing tool, can help you test multiple elements of your website while also providing insight into the behavior of your site’s visitors.
Here are just a few potential tests that can have a great impact on your lead generation:
- Calls to action: Test varying phrases such as contact us, learn more, or get info to see what best resonates with your audience
- Copy: Write different headline tests to learn what style and tone work best – creative? professional? casual?
- Forms: Test out the length of your forms, and what information you request
Free Audits
Providing potential clients with highly valuable free audits and proactive recommendations is a surefire way to instantly prove your value. Digital agencies can generate qualified leads by embedding an SEO audit tool on their website, which instantly generates visual, white-labeled reports for potential customers, pinpointing specific actions your agency can help them with. Cater your follow up pitch with solutions and ideas specific to their website and company, and you’re at an instant advantage over competitors.
Other companies utilize their strategists to conduct manual audits and provide customized recommendations via email or a sales call. This approach can work too, though is more labor intensive.
SEO and Online PR
Interestingly, worlds of SEO, digital marketing, and public relations are overlapping, and marketers must adapt to these trends. While all PR is geared towards ensuring a brand’s awareness, reputation management and gaining visibility among target audiences, traditional PR has focused on press releases, print media, and events and press conferences, where online PR focuses on branded content, influencer marketing, and SEO.
Despite the differences, both forms of modern PR are here to stay. However, many agencies are reaping the benefits of digital PR solely because it’s impact is more measureable. What’s more, online PR is evolving, and basically void of rules, and so the possibilities for creatively spreading your message and interacting with your audiences are endless.
Highlight Your Team
People want to buy from people. In today’s digital marketing landscape, just being another marketing brand with a website and a logo will get you nowhere with potential customers.
Connect with your audience by highlighting your team in fun and engaging ways add photos and bios of your employees to your company about page, and include their personal interests and/or social media profiles.
Create a company video that puts your account managers front and center and displays their expertise and personalities. These fun content projects will show your potential customers who they’ll be working with if they choose you, and can be the piece that ultimately wins them over.
Conclusion
Traditional agencies can leverage so much on the resources available within online advertising. Start today by building a digital marketing plan that converts prospects to customers. Thinking of implementing any of the above digital marketing strategies, click the link below:
