The Small Business Guide to Generating Leads That Last

As a small business, it’s important to ensure you’re generating leads. But how? In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of leads and ways you can generate them.

What is Lead Generation and Why is it Important for Small Businesses?

Lead generation refers to the process of gaining customer interest for your products or services. A ‘lead’ is anyone who expresses interest, for example, by filling out a contact form, has used your product – often by downloading freemium versions of your software, or attending a webinar or other event.

Lead generation is important as it essentially boosts your revenue and growth. Without leads, your business runs the risk of remaining stagnant. By generating good leads who are ready to make a purchase, you can increase your conversion rates and reduce your sales cycle.

For small businesses, lead generation strategies need to prioritise quality leads—the people who are most likely to convert and become repeat customers. When a lead has been acquired, it should be allocated to the right salespeople based on their strengths to ensure smoother customer journeys and, ultimately, more conversions.

Generating Leads for Small Businesses

Now, let’s get onto what you can do as a small business to increase your chances of gaining good quality leads. Here are our top tips.

A Solid SEO Strategy

First things first, you need a good SEO strategy. An SEO strategy is a plan to improve your website’s visibility in search engine results. And, basically, the higher up you are in the SERPs (search engine results pages), the more likely you are to get leads.

The basics of an SEO strategy include:

• Keyword research. Keywords are the foundation of SEO. They’re the words or phrases a user searches for in order to bring up relevant results. You can use tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Google Keyword Planner to find relevant keywords with high search volumes that you can target with content.
• If keywords are the foundation, then the content is the walls. High-quality content that considers keywords provides users with context, useful information, and credibility in order to decide on whether to purchase. Content has the power to guide your lead to the ‘buy’ or ‘contact’ button, especially when considering the sales funnel.
• Backlinks are like the roads to your house, as they are a way of earning valuable links to your site. They will guide traffic to your website which will improve your search positions. By getting links from a website with high domain authority, this will look even better to Google. However, you must be careful not to build backlinks from a low-quality, spammy site as this could cause penalties.

SEO can be a complex thing, but it will benefit you to get expert support in order to gain the most leads. By working with a local SEO service, you can significantly boost your business’s visibility and drive targeted traffic in your local area which can lead to more sales.

Cold Outreach

Cold outreach involves contacting target audience members who have previously shown no interest in your products or services. This is usually done via email or phone and requires a lot of patience and practice. However, done right, it can generate some great high-quality leads.

To do this, you need to pitch to people who fit into your ideal customer profile. For example, a marketing agency may want to contact fast-growing startups that need help with branding and brand awareness. You can therefore reach out to founders and directors who might not have the time to focus on scaling their business.

Even though the name suggests otherwise, cold emails should always be personalised, concise, and value-driven. They should focus on how your business can solve their specific problems. Make your points clear and early in the email to catch the recipient’s interest straight away.

Utilise Ads

Search engine and social media ads are great ways of gaining leads as you can target your ads precisely based on age, gender, location, and even interests. You can also focus on specific keywords.

Although online advertising is pretty straightforward, it can involve a lot of trial and error. Here are some ways you can get started:

• A/B testing. You can continuously test different variations of ads to see which performs best. You can test elements of your ads like the headlines, images, calls to action (CTAs), and more to see what your audience is most likely to respond to.
• Optimise your landing pages. Ensure the pages your ads click through to are ready for conversion. This means having a clear CTA, minimal distractions, and relevant content that matches your ad’s message. If you’re using clickbait to draw in users for them to find a page that’s completely irrelevant to their search, this can negatively affect the effectiveness of your ad.
• Monitor and adapt your budget. Make sure you’re regularly checking your ad spending and performance to ensure you get the best ROI. If some ads or campaigns underperform, you can just reallocate your budget to those in order to (hopefully) get better results.

Use Referral Networks

Referral networks can help generate leads by encouraging your existing customers to recommend your business. Sales referrals are great for lead generation as many consumers trust personal recommendations over other marketing efforts like paid ads.

An example of a referral network is this:

A company selling beauty items could offer their existing shoppers a discount in order to recommend new customers. This incentivises referrals whilst strengthening business relationships. Existing customers are clearly happy to repurchase from you, and it’s a win if their recommendations become return customers too!

Word of mouth also works by attending events, joining online forums, and participating in community groups. The more you put yourself out there and show the value of your business, the more likely others are to recommend your business.

Make the Most of Social Media

Finally, don’t neglect your socials! The majority of your customer base is going to be on at least one social media platform, be it Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or X. Social media offers a way to get to know your audience at ground level. You can see the content they most interact with, reply to customer comments, and foster a stronger relationship. By improving the relationship you have with your audience on social media, you’re more likely to gain leads from it.

Unlike direct advertising, using social media platforms involves engaging with your audience through meaningful interactions and sharing valuable content, for example:

• Sharing informative articles, tips, and insights to position yourself as an expert in your industry. This is likely to keep your audience engaged whilst attracting leads.
• Interacting with your audience by liking their UGC (user-generated content), sharing relevant content, and replying to comments, making it easier to approach potential leads.

There are also many great social media tools you can utilise, such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and more.

All in all, lead generation is an important part of running a small business. By following our useful guide, you can ensure you’re attracting regular quality leads to help keep your business generating income.