Inbound marketing is based on getting found on the internet, converting website traffic into leads and sales, and analyzing the effectiveness of your lead generation process.We’ve boiled this down to a recipe for success that has many moving parts, but all of them are within your reach. When time and resources are dedicated to the purpuit of these three things, you’ll find yourself better able to predict your lead flow and hit your lead generation goals. Here’s our recipe for effective lead generation.
Our recipe for effective lead generation
Part 1, Getting Found
1) Blog. Blog, blog, blog. Keep blogging. If you haven’t started a blog, do so immediately. If you have one, write for it consistently. We recommend a base of 3 new blog posts per week. Need ideas of what to blog about?
2) Keep other pages up to date. Blogging is great for getting fresh content out there for your readers and the search engines. . . but don’t forget the rest of your website. Update your news pages, about us page, service and product pages to stay current with your company and your industry.
3) Create content on topics that your audience cares about. Content should be helpful and interesting to your readers. Talk to your customers, sales team, and customer service team for ideas. Hey! Better yet. . . get them blogging, too, by creating some incentives for doing so.
4) Create content around keywords that people are looking for. A little time spent researching search phrases on Google Insights for Search goes a long way towards getting you listed on the first page of Google.
5) Optimize your content for search engine success. Use your keyword research in your article too, not just for the topic. Ideally, your keyword phrase should be:
- in the title of the article
- used once in the first two sentences of the article (or in a subhead in your article)
Remember that 70% of searches are for long tail keywords and they drive highly-targeted traffic to your website.
6) Don’t discount paid search. Paid online search, when executed in conjunction with an organic search strategy, is not inherently bad. It is a great way to drive leads around keywords that are too competitive to target in your organic strategy. Use paid search to target difficult but valuable keywords for which your competitors rank, unless they are branded, of course!
7) Push your content out through social media. Generate more traffic to your site by pushing your content out through social media. Also, include social sharing buttons on your content to grow followers and gain a broader audience.
8) Use your email list. If people have opted in to receive emails from you, send them your content. Consider a weekly digest of the content you’re producing. Remember, these folks asked for your stuff. . . so give it to them! Be sure there is a “Forward to a Friend” link on your email to get wider distribution and some new subscribers. It would be a good idea to add social sharing buttons, too.
Our recipe for effective lead generation continues next week with Part 2: Converting Traffic into Leads. Meanwhile, get started on these eight ideas.
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