Digital Lead Generation for Small Businesses
I hope you’re doing well guys.
This is going to be quite a long and in-depth article about digital lead generation for small businesses.
I’m going to keep this information as actionable as possible, so you can go away and take action on the things you learnt.
This article will cover all the absolute fundamentals that every small business has to be doing to stand a chance of generating leads and sales on the internet.
Lets jump into it guys, here is the complete guide for digital lead generation for small businesses.
Get on Google My Business.
Google My Business is Google’s online business directory, this is how you get found on Google Maps and other Google Search Engines. It’s super easy to join, you just need a Google Account to sign in and then you can build your listing.
Head to Google My Business to sign in and create your listing.
When building your listing with Google My Business, be sure to write in-depth information about your organisation. This helps Google understand what your organisation does, and this helps them show your listing to the people who are searching for you and your services/products.
Make sure to thoroughly fill out your services information, if you offer services. This will help people find your organisation, when they search for your service. Quin Sport & Nets are a great example of how to fill the services section correctly. Have a look at their in depth service listings.
Google My Business listings are great for generating leads because they allow people to go to your website, find directions to your store and give your phone number a ring. Making it super easy to generate leads.
This is by far one of the easiest ways to increase the availability of your business and generate more leads.
Join as many online business directories as possible.
Although Google My Business is by far the best online business directory, joining the other smaller directories is still worth doing.
In Australia some of the other directories I recommend are Bing, Yelp and Yellow Pages. But different countries might have other directories which are more popular.
The important thing with directories is that all the key information (phone number, email, address and website) are consistent across all the platforms. This shows Google that your business is legitimate and that you can be trusted. This in turn will improve your search engine optimisation (SEO) which essentially means more people will find you on Google.
Build a great website.
Your website should be the online hub of your business, so you need to have a website. Your website should have a simple goal of generating leads for your business.
Fortunately it isn’t difficult now to build your own website using online programs like Squarespace and Shopify, or you can pay a professional to do it for you. Websites builds are becoming cheaper so be sure to shop around to find the best business to help you.
As I touched on before, your website should have the goal of generating leads. Now there is lots of ways to achieve this, but it all depends on your business. If you’re a service business you will want to encourage people to contact you. If you’re a product selling business you will want your website to be selling your products.
I made a couple of quick tutorials for how you can use Shopify and Squarespace to build your website. Your website doesn’t have to be the fanciest, so don’t get too caught up making it look good. It’s more important that your website works on mobile and desktop devices, so that everyone can access your website.
As I mentioned before, your website should be the hub of your businesses digital presence. All the other activities you do on the internet should push traffic back to your website. Because your website will generate leads for your business.
Quin Sport & Nets are an Australian sports nets company that produce netting for all types of needs. Looking at their website, you can see the detail that goes into each category of netting they offer. This in depth level of content is great for producing a website that people will love.
Make Google love your website.
When I say “make Google love your website” I’m talking about SEO.
Search engine optimisation is the process of increasing the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing the visibility of a website (Wikipedia, 2020). Essentially in simple language, allowing people to find your website on Google.
Now the process of SEO is quite complicated, you’re basically trying to prove to Google that your website is valuable. I won’t go into details about how to do SEO, because it’s all very dry and boring. But if you want to know more, just Google it.
The power of being on the first page when people search for your product or service is the best free marketing you will ever get. Once people see your website on the first page, they can go onto your website and become a lead for your business.
Get active on social media.
Now social media can be the biggest waste of time, or it can be done correctly. I’m going to give an example of both.
Business A: they post 5 times a day on Facebook, Pinterest and Snapchat. What they post is absolute rubbish which no one cares about and no one reads. People get sick of seeing Business A posting, and eventually unfollow.
Business B: they post once a day on Facebook, but their posts are thought provoking and encourage social interaction. This causes people to pay attention to their posts. People get value from what Business B posts, and therefore they share and like the posts.
I don’t think I need to say it, but please don’t be business A.
Here’s my key pieces of advice for using social media correctly and generating leads with social media.
1. Only use social media platforms that reflect your business. If you’re a lawyer, don’t be on Pinterest…
In Australia Facebook is a good social media platform to use, because almost everyone uses it. Don’t over extend yourself and try to be on every platform, pick 1 or 2 social media channels and do them well.
2. Only post high quality content which people will want to see. If you’re not proud of what you’re posting, don’t post it.
We all hate seeing spammy shit posted on social media. So don’t let your business post it. Everything you post should be high quality, I don’t care if this means you post only once a week. Quality is better than quantity.
3. Show your personality on social media, people want to interact with humans, not businesses.
I love seeing people on social media, because they’re human. I don’t want to see boring corporate business posts.
4. Don’t try to sell your products/services on social media, instead just provide value and eventually people will buy.
No one likes being sold to. It’s obvious and it doesn’t work. So don’t even try it on social media, instead there is a better way. You post consistent high quality posts, this leads to your followers trusting you. Then when your customers need your product or service they will buy from you.
Start producing content online.
This a really long term strategy, so keep on reading if you’re into this sorta thing.
So what do I mean by produce content? I mean you need to start creating content like; videos, podcasts and blogs. The concept is really simple, you build an audience who consumes your content, and then you convert this audience into leads for your business.
Here are my tips for getting started with creating content.
1. Choose a medium which you enjoy. If you like writing, do blogs. If you like talking, do a podcast. If you like filming yourself, do a Youtube channel. Because content creation is such a long term strategy, you need to enjoy creating the content.
2. Start slow and have low expectations. Creating content takes a lot of time and doesn’t deliver results quickly. So lower your expectations and keep consistently producing content.
3. Don’t be fancy. Don’t limit yourself by expecting your content to be perfect. People are happy to consume your content even if it’s not perfect.
4. Focus on providing value. People will only consume your content if it brings value. You need to drop your ego and really think about what your audience will want to consume .
Learn Facebook Ads.
Facebook and Instagram ads are super cheap and the best way to get started and learn digital advertising.
I always recommend Facebook Ads because their ability to target people is scary. If you want to try our Facebook Ads, you have to go to Facebook Ads Manager and sign in. They will require billing details, but you should be able to get started after that.
When using Facebook Ads the best strategy for lead generation is through education. Here’s how the strategy works.
1. I create a blog/video about a topic that is related to my business. For example the topic might be “how to use Google Ads” because I do setup Google Ads for businesses. Throughout the article, I make sure to mention that I deliver these services and to contact me for information.
2. I then create an advertisement which promotes this article on Facebook.
3. Then I target this ad at people who might be interested in my services, so I choose to target small business owners.
4. Because business owners are interested in how to use Google Ads, they are really likely to click on the ad and read the article. Then if they need help with Google Ads, they can come to my business for help. This is super effective for generating leads because people don’t feel like they’re being sold to.
I made a Youtube video about how to get started with Facebook Ads, you might find it helpful.
If you’re scared of losing money on Facebook Ads, you shouldn’t be. The minimum spend is $1 per day, so it’s super cheap to get started. So get out there and try Facebook Ads.
Get testimonials and reviews and share them.
In order for people to trust your business, you need social proof that your business is good at what it does. Social proof can include reviews, testimonials, logos of companies you’ve worked with and case studies of your work.
You should be sharing this social proof everywhere you can so your potential customers see it. So put it on your website, your socials and even in your emails.
Conclusion:
Getting started with generating leads online can be daunting, as there are so many places to start. I think the best way to get started is by deciding on a lead generation strategy and sticking with it.
For example here is my lead generation strategy for my business IPM Media.
Focus on local SEO. I want to be found in my local region, which is Adelaide.
Focus on content creation. I want to have a reputation as an educator.
Use my website as the main lead generation tool, I want every customer who visits my website, to be compelled to like my business.
I hope you learnt a few things reading this article.
Stay safe and healthy guys.
