Posted at May 17, 2017 9:04:12 AM by THAT Agency | Share

How to Get More Inbound Leads || THAT Agency

Every business wants them. Check that, every business needs them. A consistent and predictable flow of leads is essential for any business to grow and increase monthly revenue. In this post, I’ll highlight how you can shift your focus from cold calling and transform your website into your best salesperson by generating a larger volume of inbound leads.

Focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Give cold calling a break, and start optimizing your website for search engines. If you’re a smaller business, don’t worry about trying to rank for those short-tail keywords. One, it’ll be near impossible to compete and two, stats show that 50% of search queries are four words or longer. So take the time to understand what your target audience is looking for and start optimizing for those keywords.

Another reason why seo is so important for generating more inbound leads is because it’s natural discovery. When users find your website on their own, it feels like more of a win in their minds. Instead of feeling like they were sold from a cold call or ad, that feeling is eliminated and replaced with the satisfaction of finding something useful.

Analyze your target audience

This should be done before you revamp your website’s seo as it determines who you center your keywords around. As an inbound marketing agency, we see a lot of companies focusing their efforts on what they would search for instead of what their audience is searching. This results in wasted time and a lack of results.

It’s important you start with your audience, and work from there. This way you’ll be able to understand their challenges, and provide them with an organic solution to their problems.

Optimize for conversions

If your site regularly gets a high volume of traffic but has a low conversion rate, shift your focus to conversion rate optimization. This might be removing unnecessary elements from the page that might be distracting users from converting. You can also run A/B tests to see what works and what doesn’t. There are a handful of elements on landing pages to test for conversion, and contrary to popular belief it’s more than just switching a few colors around.

The best way to optimize for conversion rate is to remove anything that stops users from converting. While elements might make the page appealing, if it distracts users from the value you’re providing then you should think twice about including it on the page.

Create Content that Wins

Continuing the trend for getting more inbound leads, this starts with your audience as well. Just because you know what they’re searching for doesn’t mean they’ll come straight to you and automatically convert. You need to make sure you can provide them with something valuable in order for them to convert.

So what does winning content look like? Anything your audience engages with. I know that might sound like a sellout answer, but there’s no magic, “push this for success” button for generating inbound leads. Here are just a few ways you can use content to your advantage:

Continually post to your blog

60% of marketers say that blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority, and for a good reason. It not only provides users with valuable content, but simultaneously improves your seo rankings as well.

Video video video

I’ll say it again; video. Google reports on mobile alone in an average week, YouTube reaches more 18+ year-olds during primetime TV hours than any cable TV network. This one of the many reason why you should shift your focus to digital instead of traditional media outlets.

Produce long form content

Write up an eBook or whitepaper that explains the benefits your company provides. Help your audience make an educated decision in your favor by giving them the information they’re looking for. This is a great way to keep your content fresh and diverse. Not everyone always wants to read a blog post, so switching it up every now and then for more detailed pieces is a great way to keep them engaged.

Allocate budget towards pay per click

Even though we’re dedicated to inbound marketing, we understand the value that pay per click advertising brings to your digital marketing campaign. This paired with conversion rate optimization and quality content creation will go a long way; given you go after the right keywords.

This is a great option if you’re in need of some quick results and have the budget for it. If you’re budget is tight, this might be an option further down the road to get in front of keywords with a higher search volume, so your best bet would be to focus on some of the other mentioned tactics.

Implement, Analyze, and Learn

If you do all of this but don’t measure anything, you might as well have done nothing at all. Truth be told, this might be the reason why you’re looking to increase inbound lead generation. It’s important to understand where you are currently so you can know where you’re going for the future.

Establish a benchmark. Set a goal. Learn from your efforts so you can make a data-driven decision about what to implement in the future. It’s an ongoing process of trial and error. When you continually learn from your marketing efforts, your users are the ultimate decision makers.

When your users are happy, they convert. When they convert, you make money and reach your goals. Listen to your users and always listen to how they react to changes you make so you can create a sustainable and predictable flow of inbound leads.