Lead generation is key when starting up a business. The rule is simple: More leads equal more sales (given you can convert those leads well, though…) However, to make lead generation work, you need some tactics.
There are plenty of lead generation tactics you can adopt, but I’d suggest you to focus on just three tactics: Ringless voicemail, Facebook ads and online referral program. Here’s a brief explanation on each.
1. Ringless voicemail
Ringless voicemail is a technology that delivers voicemail messages to cellular phones without actually calling them. Ringless voicemail contacts a provider of a cellular service via a business landline and delivers voicemails thought the landline. The provider then moves the voicemails to the space on a server that belongs to the recipient of the voicemail and sends the recipient a notification. Because of the way ringless voicemail works, the technology doesn’t interrupt consumers and consumers don’t incur any charges for the voicemails. All this makes ringless voicemail an extremely effective way for startups to generate leads.
Startups can use ringless voicemail in a number of different ways and scenarios. Many of the software-as-a-service startups sell their software via online demos. A visitor comes to the website of a startup, learned about what the startup has to offer and schedules a demo. In this scenario, the startup could use ringless voicemail to remind the lead about the demo. The ringless voicemail drop could occur several hours before the demo.
Technology is supposed to help people get more done and be more productive and effective but in reality many people feel overwhelmed by it. They have their smartphones, tablets, and computers and try to do too much in too little time, often forgetting about previously scheduled appointments. This is why a voicemail reminder can be very effective in helping a startup boost lead show up rates.
One of the benefits of ringless voicemail is that it is not possible to listen to multiple voicemails at once. People can have multiple web pages open on their computers, multiple apps running on a smartphone and tablet but they can only listen to one voicemail at a time. This is why when you drop ringless voicemail, you can be sure that you will get your prospects attention. This is also one of the reasons why ringless voicemail can be so effective in helping startups accomplish their goals.
In addition to sending reminders, startups can use ringless voicemail to keep their customers and prospects updated on latest developments and products, to bring lost customers back and to keep current customers coming back more often.
To make your ringless voicemail more effective, segment your customer and prospect database and tweak the voicemails for each segment. For example, in the of lost customer reactivation, you have a person who has been a customer for a while and then suddenly stopped patronizing the startup.
Typically, customers stop being customers for several reasons. They may not be happy with the service that they are receiving. It is also possible that they have moved or switched to a competing service or product. The goal is to bring the customer back. The customer may not want to talk to a live person, but he or she will most likely listen to a voicemail with an attractive offer designed to bring the customer back.
2. Facebook advertising
Today Facebook advertising is one of the most effective ways to advertise a business. There are several reasons for it.
First, Facebook allows marketers to target audiences very precisely. You can target your audience by all kinds of criteria, from standard demographics such as age, gender, marital status and income to hobbies, interests and even life events. For example, on Facebook, you can target people who have recently got engaged or changed their relationship status to divorced or single. Facebook keeps track of everything that its users do when using the website, from topics of status updates to people they friend and pages they like. As an advertiser, you can take advantage of all this data.
In addition to extremely precise targeting, Facebook makes it possible to re-target audiences. Here’s how it works: someone may have clicked on a Facebook ad and ended on your website. They have looked around but for some reason didn’t buy anything. If you install Facebook pixel on your website, you can then show ads only to the people that clicked on your ad before, visited your website but didn’t buy anything.
To try and convert such leads, you can make a much better offer or you can offer a completely different product. You can also conduct a survey as to why somebody didn’t buy from you. This kind of advertising can be very effective because essentially it allows you to enter the conversation that people have in their minds about your product or service. If somebody clicked on an ad and visited your website, has spent some time there and didn’t buy, you know that they are interested in what you are selling. Your best strategy in this case is to remind such visitors about your business and that’s exactly what Facebook retargeting allows businesses to accomplish.
Finally, Facebook advertising can be extremely effective for startups because of its flexibility. You can run ads on Facebook with a budget of as little as $5 a day. You can turn your ads on and off whenever you want to. If you just need a few new leads, you can turn your campaigns on, drive traffic or collect leads and turn the campaigns off immediately after you get the leads that you needed.
3. An online referral program
Some of the most successful startups on the planet, including companies such as Uber and Airbnb, became tremendously popular in large part because of referral programs that they ran.
For example, Uber and other ride-sharing apps have referral programs for both users and drivers. A user would try Uber for the first time and experience what looks like magic: a car shows up in a few minutes after tapping a button. Then, the user would get an email offering a reward for recommending the app to his or her friends.
This strategy is applicable to many other businesses, too. For most businesses, customer acquisition is very expensive. It takes time, money and effort to find prospects and convert them into customers.
At the same time, when a person hears about a business from a friend, family member or co-worker, he or she has a much higher level of trust because if a friend of the person knows is using the service or product, it must be good. This is why conversion rates when selling to referred customers are typically much higher compared to sales to cold traffic.
The person that refers his friends to a business in a way becomes a brand ambassador because people only recommend things to others that they like.
Robert Cialdini, the author of the book Influence, has discovered that people have a need to stay consistent. Applied to referrals it means that when someone recommends a business, that someone will be likely to use the business more because of the need to feel consistency.
Finally, referred clients typically are less price-resistant. This has to do with the issue of trust. If their friends recommend a business and are paying the fees and prices that the business commands, it must mean that these fees and prices are justified. That’s how referred clients think and this is why they would often not question pricing.
Now over to you
Have you tried any of the tactics above? If so, what do you think of the tactics? Or, have you ever use any lead generation tactics that aren’t mentioned here?
