Lead capture strategy in 2021 is easy to understand and difficult to master. Too many organizations think that the key to capturing leads is to find that one magical approach. Then everything clicks into place, right? A capable digital agency knows that lead captures rely on multiple approaches that are designed to build on each others' strengths.
Lead generation and capture can rely on web forms, which are still effective. Now add in chatbots, live chat, surveys, and even quizzes.
Content creation generates visitors and if you're not doing it yet, you're trailing your competitors. It takes advantage of how search engines work to display results in response to common search phrases. Content can be a blog entry about your industry, a product, a service, or something of your expertise that you can share. It can be a video, an app, a quiz, a game, an interview, a white paper. You can gate more valuable content with forms that ask for contact information.
Content is evergreen, so it will keep on generating incoming leads long into the future. It also gives you something to share regularly on social media that followers will find valuable, and may share. This helps create a community around your brand on social media, and increases the chances that a piece of this content will go viral and develop a broad reach.
>> Check out this recipe for evergreen content.
Email still carries an incredible load of lead generation. The thing is, you've got to refresh your lists. This keeps them appropriate to your target market, prevents you from wasting time and money on outdated information, and prevents you from sending a cold email to customers you already have.
Beyond this, it's not that difficult to customize a email. HubSpot reports that personalized emails have a 75% greater chance of being clicked, and a concordant likelihood of seeing a response. Personalizing emails can be done with software that's 15 years old. It's remarkably easy to do with anything newer. If you don't take the time to do it, leads will often view your brand as uncaring or incompetent.
Finally, segment your email lists. Leads may be drawn in by different content. If one submits information because of your industry analysis, a second signs up to get product information, and a third comes in because of your brand narrative, they're not all looking for the same thing from you. If you have email lists delivering tailored content that speaks to their already-proven interest, they're much more likely to continue engaging.
Customers expect a very quick response. Take too long in responding, and they'll look somewhere else.
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If your competition responds faster than you do, it doesn't matter if the customer prefers your brand. They'll go with the competition instead. Yet you probably don't have the staffing to respond to all these queries. Chatbots are able to handle the majority of questions quickly. They're primarily built to help customers narrow down a purchasing choice quickly, and to handle frequently asked support questions.
This takes the brunt of customer service off your live personnel so they can give their attention to more complicated questions. Chatbots can hand off these more complicated queries to staff, but even if that takes a minute, your customer has been engaged and is more likely to wait for a live response.
Chatbots can pretend to be a real person, but they don't always have to be. Businesses that serve younger generations should know their target market can spy chatbots more quickly and won't always mind talking to a bot as much as their older counterparts. That transparency may even be appreciated – just be sure to let them know that live help is on the way should they need it.
The oldest lead generation strategy is just as important as ever. It just takes place in a new medium – social media. Your current customers are either satisfied or they're not. Your best customers are your repeat customers. A handful of them can produce more revenue for you than all your other customers combined. The better the customer and the more satisfied they are, the more likely they are to recommend their friends, family, and business contacts come your way.
This won't generate the bulk of your leads, but it will generate extremely high-quality leads. You can manage existing customers through segmenting email lists tailored to particular interests as described above.
The personal touch still means something, though. A check-in or a quick thank you note for their business, via email or social media, makes someone feel appreciated and connected to your brand.
And be sure to respond to comments on social. Really. Businesses with successful social media appeal are swarmed with potential customers. They often then fail to engage most of them. Even if it takes a moment, respond to your comments. If nothing else, respond to the ones that are complementary or ask questions, or the ones that come up first as top comments. This doesn't just engage those commenters – it also shows your responsiveness to anyone else looking at that comment.
Invite commenters that have a question to message your business. Now they're a lead, and they've done all the hard work.
Don't get your brand dragged into arguments or deep conversations on social media. There are certain kinds of comments to avoid engaging. Do display responsiveness to honest comments and invite those who are already engaging with your business to take the next step.
Make sure your business is listed in online directories, from LinkedIn to Google. Chances are good you know the basics for a lead capture strategy in relation to Google. What about Bing? While providing only a fraction of Google traffic, households that use Bing have much higher incomes. Are you listed on Yelp? Sure, it puts you at the mercy of reviewers, but it's also how many customers make a decision on purchases.
If you have a physical location to provide products or services, is it up to date on Google Maps? Will it come up when they put your type of business into the search bar to look for nearby locations? This all becomes a bit much, and it's one of the places where a digital agency can step in and ensure that you're easy to find on search engines, social media, directories, and apps across the board.
If you need help launching your lead capture strategy, contact the THAT Agency team today at 561-832-6262. And don't forget to check out our Guide to the Best Practices for Digital Marketing in 2021. It's free to download and provides valuable insight into the top digital marketing tactics poised to make an impact:
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