Lead Generation Campaign
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How to Launch a Lead Generation Campaign as a Startup
By Robin Anderson
You have worked for months, or even years, carefully building your product. You are certain you know your primary persona, your product solves a problem they are willing to pay for, and now you are ready to sell. How do you get customers? Build a lead generation campaign.
To get started, let’s clarify the elements that become part of a lead generation campaign, starting with the definition of a lead.
Definition of a lead:
A prospect that has some level of potential in becoming a client. The individual usually shows interest and provides their information to your company.
There are different types of leads as well as leads that are in a different part of the customer journey. The first is a Marketing Qualified Lead, known as a MQL. They have engaged with some of your company’s efforts - such as comments on social media, or downloaded a white paper from your website, but aren’t ready to buy. A Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) are leads that have expressed interest in what you are offering and are considering a purchase. How do you get leads? Through lead generation efforts.
What is lead generation?
Lead generation is the process of attracting prospects to your business and increasing their interest through nurturing, all with the end goal of converting them into a customer.
This process involves creating content that encourages engagement with prospective customers - a lead generation campaign.
What is a lead generation campaign?
A lead generation campaign is a strategic marketing effort that aims to attract and capture potential customers’ interest in a product or service, generating valuable leads for a business.
Start with your strategy. What is your goal? What types of leads are you seeking to capture? Identify the steps a prospect will have to take to go through the customer journey starting as a marketing qualified lead, to a sales qualified lead to converting into a customer. Next, identify the content that you will need to create to move them throughout the process. The range of content for creation will include social media posts, email copy, blogs, educational videos, customer testimonials, etc.
The point is to create content that will be enticing, encouraging those who are interested to engage. This is the beginning of your process for capturing leads - the customer journey, qualifying, and moving them to conversion as a customer.
If you have a strong target with access to emails, you can start with an email marketing campaign. Sending them an email that requires a response to identify themselves as having an interest, aka lead. And if you don’t have a list, consider running an ad on a social media channel where your target audience spends their time. Create an offer that is educational, such as a Thought Leadership piece, or a webinar. Send them to a Landing Page that requires them to fill out a form that includes their email address to download the piece or signup for the webinar. Once they click on ‘submit’ you have a marketing lead.
Now that you have their email, you can start contacting them with additional offers or opportunities of engagement that moves them from initial contact with educational information to more detailed information about your company and product becoming a sales lead. From there, customer demos, and free trials are a way to move that prospect into a paying customer.
There are a number of marketing automation programs that can help you execute, track and analyze the results of your efforts. Using these tools will enable you to monitor where you are attracting engagement and where you are losing interest. This will allow you to test and tweak your campaign over time.
Why is lead generation important?
Lead generation is one of the most cost-effective ways of gaining customers and revenue. Your company benefits in many ways:
Increased revenue opportunities
Generating interest in your product offering to capture leads allows you to reach and eventually convert these leads into customers - ones that are willing to pay. You gain more than the benefit of revenue. You have an audience that can provide customer testimonials demonstrating trust in your brand, make recommendations for future product features that make your product better and builds loyalty, and more.
Cost-effective marketing channel
Lead generating through email marketing is very cost effective. Simply utilize an email marketing automation tool (many of which allow you to try for free) to gain access and attention to your initial leads.
Enhanced brand building
Targeting prospects with high-quality, educational content, enabling them to see how you are solving a problem they encounter can be one of the best ways to shape and strengthen your brand.
Long-term growth potential
Aside from converting prospects into customers, this is also a way to build your community, to establish long-term relationships with customers translating in to future revenue with new and improved or complimentary products.
Lead generation campaigns are an essential way of growing your business. They require you to have a solid understanding as to your persona, create messaging that resonates with them, demonstrate your ability to truly solve their problem in a way that is appealing (willingness to pay) and be prepared to engage with them over the long term. Doing so, you’ll gain trust and loyalty which will translate into a positive contribution to your company’s bottomline.
Need help with your lead generation campaign? Contact Us today!
Fun Fact Friday
In a unique collaboration, the Van Gogh Museum partnered with Pokémon to create a special collection featuring Pokémon in Van Gogh’s famous post-impressionist art style. This partnership became a huge hit, especially for the merchandise, which was so sought after that it crashed the museum’s website. The items were so popular that they’re now being resold for as much as $700. This blend of classic art and modern pop culture created an unexpected buzz, something Van Gogh could never have imagined.