Well, lead generation is nothing else, but actions aimed at reaching a chosen group of our potential customers with a marketing message.
Why a chosen group? Because one of the crucial elements of creating a marketing strategy is defining the target group for our products or services. If something is supposed to be good for everything, it will be good for nothing – before you take up any actions aimed at winning new customers, think about WHO YOUR CUSTOMER IS. And it is not that they need to have long, curly hair and a perfect sense of humor, but they need to represent a group of people that is most interested in our products or services because if we direct our message to the entire population, the chance of success is close to the chance of putting a ball into a golf hole from the height of 30000 meters, that is close to zero. If you know the answer to that question, let us proceed then!
How to encourage the recipient to fill in a form?
Content is the rocket fuel that drives your actions in marketing. For the purposes of this article, we are going to narrow down the scope of actions and set the following goal – generating a lead. A lead can consist of the name and surname of a natural person or a representative of a company, telephone, e-mail address, company or institution name, or even information related to preferences, and interests – everything depends on what information we need and what is the profile of our business. The more information you can obtain about the potential customer, the better you will be able to adjust your actions. Let’s go on!
At this stage, you need to establish the form of presenting your content that will catch the recipient’s interest. For example, it can be an e-book, case study, video, or article. REMEMBER that the materials must be educational. Also, do not forget that the group of recipients can be varied, it can include persons that know your products and services and thought about making a purchase, but they can also be persons that do not know of your existence. There is no universal form, although there is a universal goal – attracting attention.
Remember also that your potential customer is just as busy as you are and will not be willing to spend much time on consuming your content, so do not try to rise to the heights of eloquence because you might overwhelm your recipients who will not understand the specialist terms you are using. Convey content that is “comprehensible”, “readable”, and “easy” – one that everyone will understand, like and, at the end, say “oh! that’s interesting!”
Landing page
We have already prepared materials to entice our recipients. But, as you know, we need to find ways to convey our work. Like in a supermarket, in order to promote muffins, you need to create a stand; here, it is similar – you need to create a place where interested parties come and help themselves to whatever you have prepared. Our “stand” is the landing page.
Primarily, it is an expression that is surrounded by an aura of a complicated and expensive process, which is a wrong impression and, if you have it, give it up quickly because I’m about to make things clear.
A landing page is a web page that serves a specific purpose, e.g. generating a lead (lead = telephone number, e-mail address, name, surname, company name, etc. separately or all at once depending on the needs). It is just ONE VIEW, without a menu, without a complicated architecture, with simple graphics, devoid of elements that distract the reader’s attention, one that encourages them to do a specific action, e.g. fill in a contact form with data that constitute our lead.
What should you remember about?
- Form – here, the users leave their data and you yourself decide what those data will be, depending on what information should your new lead bring; do not forget for a moment that people are reluctant to provide their personal details, they protect their privacy and are increasingly more sensitive about it. However, a lead should allow contacting them, so the e-mail address and/or telephone number should be required. It is worth knowing their name as well so that we know how to address the person.
- Call to action — it is a button, usually a coloured and rectangular one, labeled with the name of an action we want the user to perform. Remember that whether the user sees a button and then reacts, that is performs an “action”, determines the success of your campaign. Therefore, you should make sure it stands out (e.g. with a contrasting colour) and is well visible right after the web page is opened, indicate the action to be performed by the user, e.g. “Send”, “Download”, and be the only clickable element on the page. It is important that the button is correctly linked.
Get the user’s interest with a catchy heading. If, for example, you have used an advertisement to direct traffic to your landing page, the heading should refer to the advertisement so that the user does not get the impression that it has been some kind of mistake.
Do not try to create content full of sophisticated stylistic devices because the visitor at your landing page will probably only scan the content without focusing on the details and not read every word (which obviously does not mean that you can let yourself be unprofessional or use sloppy language, as it would degrade you in the eyes of your recipients). The most important thing is that the recipient understands us, becomes interested, and does the action we want them to do. Remember to emphasize the benefits and attributes that will solve the problem our users have. You can use images instead of a wall of text; eyes like images!
- Think about where the contact form data are to go. It can be an e-mail address (preferably one dedicated for that purpose, so that you are not overwhelmed by the flooding information), but it can also be an external application that your landing page is integrated with, e.g. e-mail marketing program, CRM system, etc.
- Thank you for taking the action! The thank-you page is often omitted because there are always some thank-you words expressed somehow. Frequently, it is just a simple message that will automatically appear in the form window, but it does not have to be like that. Although the thank-you page is a subject for another, equally long article, I would like to emphasize its importance. The user has performed the action – opened the landing page, scrolled down, filled in the form, and clicked “Send.” Success! We’ve got it! We are happy because we have achieved our goal, we have won a new LEAD, we performed LEAD GENERATION AND we ARE HAPPY! I suggest you stop here for a moment and imagine yourself on the other side of the screen – ok, I’ve sent my details, I’m waiting for the next thing to happen and don’t know if I’ve done it right or wrong, probably right I guess. I’m thinking about it and, for you, I’m the freshest lead who is waiting for something to happen. And there is this unused space to make sure that the recipient gets some positive emotions, to build a relationship with them, and encourage them to use our brand. That is why someone wise has come up with another complicated thing, which is UX so that our pages are not only visually beautiful but also practical, functional, and created to guide the user through the website so that they do not get lost, irritated or just turn the page off.
Where are my recipients??? And here we are where we started. If you defined a target group for your products and services, things are easier now because you know where to find them! How you will try to reach them depends on your budget for the campaign. The spectrum of possibilities is wide, and the conversion can be just as satisfactory. Recipients can be drawn to your landing page through, for example, a Facebook advertisement, e-mail marketing, and sponsored articles. If your budget is limited, try to post banners or links redirecting to the landing page on your own website, blog, or fanpage.
Lead generation does not have to be a difficult, complicated, or expensive process. Nevertheless, it can be a failed investment if it is done badly. The most important thing is to have a correctly formulated goal, based on the SMART concept – specified, measurable, achievable, real, and timed – and subsequently a prepared action plan with every stage bringing you closer to achieving the goal. Because promotional campaigns are like journeys to the unknown. If you do not take a specific direction, you will not know where you will end up, you will not be able to measure the distance, you will not know how much it will cost you, you will not know why you go there so you might not pack what is needed. Although the entire escapade may end quite well, there is a risk of losses, which no one would want.
