One of the most frustrating problems a business faces is lead generation. In order to meet sales goals, your service or product needs to be seen by enough people. This means taking a structured approach to generating new leads. Luckily, there are a few simple ways to do this.

1. Know your numbers

When generating leads, there are three important numbers to keep in mind. Your sales goal, your conversion rate, and your lead goal. For example, imagine you want to generate 100 sales. This is your sales goal. And, from past sales, you know that you have a conversion rate of 10%. Knowing this, you’re able to determine that to hit your goal you need at least 1,000 leads.

These numbers are helpful, because it gives you something concrete to look at. Many business owners simply try to generate “more leads”. And while growth is always good, having a goal in mind will help you meet your specific goals.

2. Build an organic foundation

There are two key ways to generate leads. The first is through organic traffic. This is the non-paid content your audience finds you through. Blog posts that show up in search engines, social media posts, and podcast episodes are all examples of organic traffic. An organic traffic strategy will not generate leads quickly, but it builds momentum over time. What’s more, it’s an entirely free strategy. By building an organic foundation, you’ll be able to generate traffic and leads even when you’re not paying for advertising.

One of the best steps you can take with your organic leads is to get them onto your email list. This often happens through a freebie, or leads magnet, and allows you to follow up with an offer. You can even automate the process, making it a mostly hands-off approach.

3. Grow quickly with paid advertising

Beyond the slow growth promised by organic content, there’s paid advertising. This is the fastest method of lead generation, and includes any method of exchanging money for visibility. Most commonly, this means running ads through Google AdWords, Facebook, or other social media platforms. It’s even more important to know your numbers when using this method of growth, because you can monitor the success of the advertising campaign and tweak accordingly.

Often, this strategy works well on top of an organic strategy. The content created for organic purposes can be promoted through paid ads when you need a quick injection of leads. This allows you to build your list and hit your numbers more.

Choose a mixture of methods that works for you

Businesses with large budgets have the ability to lean heavily on paid advertising. Other businesses fall back on a consistent organic approach, paying for ads only when they are in the midst of a marketing push. 

There’s no wrong way to go about generating leads, but the strongest strategies incorporate both organic and paid methods, and are approached with a clear understanding of the numbers you’re looking for.

For more information about how to generate leads for your business, contact us.