In honor of the Christmas, I thought I’d cover the 12 days of lead generation for small businesses. That’s 12 lead generation techniques or ideas for your small business. This year we’ve had fun diving deep into SEO as well as looking at Facebook last week. (Part two will be next week!).
Before we get started I want to refer you back to the Future Proof Marketing Strategy episode where we talked about “Start With Why.” Getting your Why is so important and if you able to communicate that you’ll attract leads! In addition, you’re going to have to have the attitude of Gary Vaynerchuk and be crazy passionate about your business. If you can look at this list through that lens I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of it.
1. Connect With Past Clients
This is quite possibly the lowest hanging fruit for any business. As a lead generation tactic, it probably doesn’t stand out. It’s ROI is harder to determine. However, I will say this, if real estate agents ever go extinct, it won’t be technology that kills them. It’ll be because they never called. Talk to your past clients and people you know, they want to send you business but probably don’t know how.
2. Email Marketing
I meet with business owners and the only thing more surprising than the number of them that don’t speak to their past clients and friends is the fact that they don’t do any email marketing. While I’m no fan of boiler plated newsletters, even that is more effective than doing nothing. With low cost and no-cost options out there there’s no excuse for not having an email list and using it. For those of you saying, “gee whiz, duh” – you’d be surprised to know that the majority of small businesses don’t send e-mails.
3. Find A Referral Partner
In our 12 days of lead generation, this one tip could be the most profitable and most rewarding. I’m suggesting you find a business partner that you can hopefully refer business to and vice versa. Every business has other businesses that are either in the same space but non-competitive or businesses that “touch” the same customer. In Real Estate, there are several options from a mortgage broker to insurance. However, some others are harder. A home inspector could partner with a real estate agent but they could also partner with a contractor.
4. Networking Groups
If you are at loss to find a referral partner the best place to look is at a formalized networking group. Groups such as BNI (Business Networking International), PowerCORE and even the local Chamber of Commerce are all great sources of finding a referral partner. The key to networking (and frankly for almost all of these steps) is to add value! Don’t go in there hoping for leads, attend these meeting hoping to help someone.
5. LinkedIn
Take that same strategy of Networking groups and apply it to LinkedIn. Yes, LinkedIn has spam, but there’s also a community there and if you build your profile and spend time there you’ll find that you can make connections with just about anyone, including your ideal customer. I know LinkedIn might feel antiquated (I feel this way about facebook) but you know who is doubling down on it? Gary V.
6. Facebook Groups
Facebook groups are great for joining a community, adding value and then potentially making connections. Use the same strategy that you would above. Look for people to help and you’ll get your help too.
7. Reddit (or Quora)
If you’re struggling to find an online community there’s likely a reddit for that. There’s even a Real Estate reddit. Reddit gets a lot of flack for being the closest thing to the dark web that most people will see, but it’s really not that bad and most the communities are filled with like minded people in their niche. So be nice, add value and make connections.
8. Write A Book (or Resource Guide)
This isn’t quite as obvious to some businesses but you’re writing this resource guide or book to giveaway. You give it away usually in exchange for someone’s email (see email marketing above!). This book does a few things, it builds credibility, allows you to start off being a giver and potentially can help you close more leads because they potential customers have had a chance to read your content from your voice.
9. Webinars
Online businesses and Saas (Software as a service) companies get webinars, but my small service businesses don’t. Webinars can be for everyone, but you have to figure out what your customer actually wants to learn more about. For my real estate agents, it might be a 1st time home buyer seminar that is in webinar format, for my insurance agent clients, it might be a frequently asked question or a how to set up your business insurance. Webinars are great at answering common objections that clients have in a non-threatening environment.
[bctt tweet=”Webinars are great at answering common objections that clients have in a non-threatening environment.” username=”@4rdmarketing”]10. SEO – Answer Questions
I mentioned above about Reddit and Quora, as well as webinars — all rely on questions being answered. SEO (search engine optimization) is very much like this as well. In fact, by definition, Google tries to display the most valid answers to users questions. So think of your most common questions and start answering them, check out our SEO FAQ episode if you need to get ideas.. For bonus points, do this via video or better yet, follow our future proof marketing plan.
11. Local SEO
Over 90% of the businesses I talk to do not leverage Google places or Local SEO the way they should. It’s free and easy to get started (hard to master), simple go to google.com/business. If you’d like more tips check out our local SEO guide.
12. FB Live
To demonstrate how powerful Facebook live is for business owners, I did this podcast on it. At the time of this writing I had more views on that video than any single download of a podcast and at the same time, I generated 3 leads. Your mileage will vary but if you do this consistently you
Recap of the 12 Days Of Lead Generation For Small Businesses
Hopefully, you enjoyed the 12 days of lead generation for small businesses, be sure to tune in next week for Facebook A to Z part 2. As always, we look forward to your comments and emails!
