There are dozens of methods you can use to reach your customers. Every marketer, marketer and company director should get to know them and try out the ways that make sense for their product or service. Take inspiration from the top 10 methods for generating leads used daily by companies around the world.
1. Natural traffic from search engines
Natural traffic includes those potential clients who came to your website on their own, not from paid advertising. The most effective way to boost natural traffic is to:
- create regular relevant content on the site, such as news or blog articles,
- optimise the site for SEO
The more you work on these two points, the higher search engine algorithms will rank you.
2. Affiliate marketing
Simply put, affiliate marketing is about working with other websites. Blogs, magazines or other non-competing sites can promote your products or services in exchange for a backlink, for example. Alternatively, in exchange for a portion of the revenue from successful orders from clients they bring to your website.
But remember, only sites that have something to do with your product will bring you quality leads. If you sell impact drills, a backlink on a hamster breeding site probably won't help you.
3. Social medias
Find out which social networks your customers are most likely to be on and then look for ways to reach them. In B2B business, in most cases it's LinkedIn, where it's very easy to connect with, for example, managers or buyers of key companies.
4. Direct marketing
Direct marketing = approaching potential customers directly. The aim is to get customers to take action, for example to subscribe to a newsletter, visit a website or make a purchase.
Direct marketing takes many forms, for example:
- sending personalised business emails,
- targeting paid online ads,
- handing out flyers
- or cold calling customers.
We write about when and how it makes sense to try cold calling in a separate article.
5. Personal meetings at events
Trade fairs, conferences or networking events. These are just a few examples of events where you can meet potential customers. All it takes is a short contact and an exchange of business cards or a connection request on LinkedIn and you have a lead. Live events are great opportunities for marketers to establish a closer relationship with potential customers right from the first contact.
6. Referral or feedback
They say that a satisfied customer is the best marketing, and that's what referrals are all about. If you have very satisfied clients with whom you work perfectly, take advantage of it:
- write or film a case study with them,
- offer them discount codes for their contacts
- or ask them for a reference to your website.
7. Traditional marketing
Traditional marketing is still a good way to find leads for companies whose clients don't spend as much time online. This includes:
- TV commercials,
- radio ads,
- billboards,
- advertising in newspapers and magazines.
8. Guest posting
Publishing professional articles on established websites in your industry is not only a good way to gain leads. It's also a great way to show potential customers that you're an expert and quickly gain their trust.
9. Landing pages
The Landing Page is the first page that potential customers "land on" when they visit your website. It can be a homepage, a product page or even a blog article. However, some companies create special landing pages targeted at a specific group of customers or a specific keyword they are searching for.
For example, if a company manufactures swimming pools, they create a seasonal landing page to remind customers of the best time to order a pool so they can swim in it in the summer and add an order form. The landing page can then be publicized with, for example, performance advertising.
10. Performance advertising
PPC and social media ads are one of the most popular methods of lead generation because they can attract a large number of leads in a short period of time. On the other hand, they do not boost the growth of orders in the long term, so it is advisable to combine them with, for example, improving organic traffic, see point 1.
