3 Sure-Fire Tactics to Attract More Leads (and Be Better Looking)

When it comes right down to it, marketing is simply about attraction – delivering your best come-hither stare and, fingers crossed, being taken up on the offer. It’s the alchemy of art and science, and is (or should be) in continuous play throughout the entire customer lifecycle.

But attraction has to start somewhere. In most cases, “somewhere” is the top of the funnel with lead generation. (It’s no mistake that most organizations spend the largest chunk of marketing budget on acquisition.) And it’s primarily done with content marketing – the ages-old technique that marketers continue to struggle with.

There are countless ways content marketing is used to generate leads. The good news is this:

The majority of content marketing-fueled campaigns (which, in the digital world, is approximately all of them) – no matter how cool, clever, or covetous – are done using a mere three tactics.

Here they are, including three ways to use each tactic to attract leads and entice them into your funnel.

TACTIC 1: Search Marketing

You’ve probably seen the stat (and there are a few variations depending on the research firm that did the study, but they’re distinctions without a difference): Somewhere between 60% and 90% of people use a search engine to begin researching a product or service.

If staying in business is part of your plan, search marketing is a must, plain and simple.

Search marketing offers a golden opportunity to get in front of prospective buyers at the exact moment they’re looking for information about a product or service you offer. Better yet, search marketing has the net effect of pre-qualifying leads; if a person clicks on your listing, it’s because it matches what they’re looking for right now. More traffic from your target audience means more chances for a sale.

How to use content marketing to generate leads

Whether you focus on organic search, paid search, or a combination, the principles for generating top-of-funnel leads are the same.

1. Write for your audience. One of the biggest mistakes marketers make is writing content (e.g., eBooks, articles, blog posts, press releases, product sheets, etc.) for the search engine, rather than the customer. Gaming the system worked once (very briefly), but it doesn’t anymore. Search engines continue to become more sophisticated in using semantics to deliver results that meet searchers’ queries. So your job is to create content for your ideal customers – their interests, pain points, wants, needs – and do it using natural language.

2. Speak the searcher’s language. This is a continuation of #1 but worthy of its own entry. To be found by your ideal customers, you need to know the terms – the words and phrases – they’re searching on. This allows you to create content that connects to their wants and needs, and select keywords that resonate and align with their research efforts.

3. Optimize your website content. Remember that today’s search engines (Google in particular, but also Bing and many others) are smart enough to understand a rich spectrum of semantically relevant terms and phrases. So use them throughout your webpages. This will help search engines find and deliver your content to the people who are looking for it.

TACTIC 2: Social Media Marketing

Like it or lump it, social media plays an important role in the lead-gen process. Here are three data points to consider:

• 74% of consumers rely on social networks to guide purchase decisions. (Sprout Social, Sep 2013)


• 80% of marketers say social media efforts have increased website traffic, and 66% say it’s measurably increased lead generation. (Social Media Examiner, May 2014)


• 100% of business decision-makers use social media for work purposes. (Forrester Research, Jul 2013)

Social media marketing is the umbrella term for using social networking sites – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, VK, Vine, etc. – as marketing tools to gain the interest and engagement of potential buyers. (Make your social life easier: Get the social media cheat sheet here).

Though it doesn’t work the same for all organizations (some types of businesses seem better suited for “social” than others), social media marketing gives brands the opportunity to optimize visibility, create relationships with people who otherwise might never know about them, and become more “real” to consumers.

How to use content marketing to generate leads

Imagine you’re at a cocktail party and casually standing with a handful of folks engaging in interesting conversation. Then imagine a stranger joins your circle and proceeds to pitch you on buying one of the watches he has on the inside of his trench coat. You’d probably think, “What a buffoon!” Your group might disband, move away, or shun him outright and unceremoniously.

Whether in person or online, being social is not about pushing an agenda. To generate leads using social media marketing, you must be viewed as a trusted advisor and expert in your industry, you must contribute value to network participants, and you must do it consistently over time. Because it you’re viewed as a fly-by-night opportunist with an ulterior motive, you’ll get the boot. So …

1. Provide a mix of content. Offer a wide selection of content types and formats to ensure there’s something valuable for everyone (e.g., eBooks, videos, infographics, images, blog posts, checklists). Content variety increases your visibility and also the potential that your content will be shared … which increases your reach.

2. Place calls to action in your content. Tell people what to do and give them a quick and obvious path (usually a link) to get there. Make your calls to action visible and specific to encourage people take the next step; e.g., sharing your content, accessing it, linking to it, or starting a direct conversation with you.

3. Gate your high-value content. Note, do not do this too much because it can sully your followers’ trust if it’s the rule, rather than the exception. But for top-tier content such as templates, training, and tools, experiment by placing a short (short!) lead generation form in front of it. People who fill out the form to get the piece are somewhat pre-qualified, and they might be interested in learning more.

TACTIC 3: Email Marketing

Say what you will about email (and self-proclaimed specialists often have lots to say, much of it a bit snooty), the bloom has never fallen off this rose. Day after day, year after year, B2B or B2C, email flourishes beautifully. It’s easy (particularly with today’s automation technologies), it’s inexpensive, it’s measurable, and it works.

What more could a marketer ask for?

It’s also extremely flexible and adaptable; email is used successfully at all stages of the buyer’s journey, making it unique among marketing tactics.

How to use content marketing to generate leads

Since the top of the funnel is all about generating leads and jump-starting relationships, a common question that arises is this:

How can email be used to generate leads? After all, before I can send an email, I need a list to send email to. If I have this list, doesn’t that mean I already have a list of leads?

No.

Having someone’s contact information is not synonymous with having someone’s interest. Simply because someone says, “Hi, my name is Jane and I live in Omaha,” doesn’t mean Jane has any intention of engaging with your brand.

Email marketing is how you start a conversation with Jane and, over time, entice her along the path to purchase … aka, convert her to a bona fide lead.

There are three ways you can do it:

1. Tap into third-party and co-branded programs. Work with a partner to get your messages, offers, or materials included in their email campaigns. If you choose your partners wisely (e.g., businesses with products and services that are complementary to yours), this can vastly extend your visibility to a new pool of potential customers.

2. Use trigger email. These are messages that are launched (triggered) when a specific action is taken by a prospect. Common uses include “Did you forget something?” messages that are sent to people who abandon their shopping carts, “Thank you” emails when someone fills in a form, and “Write a review” requests after someone makes a purchase. Trigger emails help marketers understand where someone is on the buyers journey, what their level of engagement is, and what they’re interested in.

3. Segment your lists. Going back to that list of names you already have, segmenting them – even when very little information is known about them – lets you target prospects by what you think (or what you know, depending on how much information you have) they might respond to. It’s one of the most powerful tools in the email marketing tool belt. (Read the Grow Your Email List white paper.)

The Gift that Keeps On Giving

Attractiveness and appeal – to prospects, customers, partners, investors, distributors, resellers, etc. – make the customer-brand relationship go round; the “it” factors that move prospects from awareness to interest to conversion to advocacy and, hopefully, keep them coming back for more.

Content marketing is the key that starts the lead gen engine at the top of the funnel and keeps the pipe flowing with new opportunities to make an impression and a connection, and to generate leads. Do that well and consistently and revenues will surely follow.

Learn More about Content Marketing

Interested in a deeper-dive look at how content marketing generates leads? Download the free eBook: Attraction 101: Content Marketing .

“Venus de Milo” image. Source: Wikipedia, open access.

“Perfect rose” image by Liz West, used under Creative Commons license.

“Gift box” image by Michael Schwarzenberger, used under Creative Commons license.

3 Sure-Fire Tactics to Attract More Leads (and Be Better Looking)