Digital marketing can do a lot of heavy lifting for brands. There is a digital strategy for almost every marketing goal, including targeted advertising for generating leads. In fact, because digital marketing can provide extremely targeted advertising, the tactic excels at lead generation.
Once your brand’s marketing goals and the foundation of your strategy are set, what other critical pieces can be added to help you maximize your digital efforts to generate leads?
Keep reading for eight tips on making the most of lead generation through digital marketing.
1. Create a digital marketing strategy for lead generation
It’s important to have a well-defined marketing strategy if you want to make the most of your targeted advertising efforts. It isn’t enough to simply want to generate leads online. Your strategy should align with business goals. For example, if you want to build your email list, then your strategy should focus on form fill and lead information collection. However, if the goal is to convert leads, then shoppable ads or driving traffic to product pages should take priority. Either way, targeted advertising should be focused on generating leads for your end goal.
2. Optimize website for lead generation
Your website is a central element for lead generation. Particularly as part of nurturing leads, your website should deliver a user-friendly experience with responsive features. You want to keep customers within your ecosystem to learn more about your product, and your website is an invaluable tool to guide customers through the sales funnel. Compelling landing pages with engaging content can also be utilized and should be optimized for lead generation/form fill as well as to provide positive user interactions.
3. Content marketing and lead magnets
Content marketing is another key facet of lead generation. Engaging content delivered through targeted advertising or via your brand’s owned social channels will attract prospects. Lead magnets should go beyond the blog and be used as tools to capture leads. Options for lead magnets include eBooks, webinars, white papers, infographics and more. Think about what would best fit the information you want to share and your audiences’ preference for receiving information before deciding which type of content to create. These high-value pieces of content can be behind an information wall, asking prospects to share their contact information to access these engaging content pieces.
Here’s an example of a lead magnet prompt from Search Engine Journal’s website:
4. Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process through which your website, landing pages, content and social media targeted advertising include highly searched keywords and phrases. This strategy can help improve online visibility, drive organic traffic and attract potential leads. Optimizing engaging content for search engines can be accomplished through providing high-quality content, using internal and external links, including a strong call to action (CTA), creating pillar content and other strategies.
5. Social media marketing
Social media can be amazing for lead generation. In 2023, an estimated 308 million people leveraged social media in the U.S., and that number is only expected to grow. Not only does it have a huge audience, but many social media platforms offer extremely targeted advertising options which are excellent for lead generation. Plus, brands can post engaging content on owned profiles, creating a community of followers.
There are many tactics that a brand may employ for social media advertising. Here are a few examples of successful lead-generation campaigns:
Exclusive offer Testimonial
Retargeting
6. Email marketing
Email marketing is another form of targeted advertising and is an opportunity for brands to nurture and convert leads. To make the most of this targeted marketing, it’s important to build segmented email lists, grouping customers with similar interests together. This way emails delivered to the audience will speak to them and add value, instead of cluttering up their inbox (likely triggering an unsubscribe). Effective email campaigns will have attention-grabbing subject lines, contain content of value and include a strong call to action (CTA). Be sure to track performance to see what’s working and what needs to be tweaked.
7. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
PPC campaigns play a vital role in driving immediate traffic and leads to your brand. PPC advertising, ads which are delivered during search and paid for when the target audience clicks through, are an excellent lead generation tactic. When creating PPC campaigns, think about what your target audience might search for when in need of your product. For example, if you sell interior paint, your customer might search for: Paint colors for toddler room. These types of keywords and phrases can help your ad get delivered to the right target audience. Ad targeting and budget management are critical when it comes to PPC campaigns, as keywords/phrases vary in cost.
8. Data analytics and tracking
As with all marketing efforts, data analytics plays an important role in lead generation. Lead tracking, finding the source of customers and then serving targeted advertising to guide the audience through the sales funnel, can mean the difference between a successful and unsuccessful lead generation campaign. There are many tools that brands can use for lead tracking, but one of the best is Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Also, be sure to tap into any social media tracking options. Large platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X and others often have robust reporting. There is significant value in analyzing data, as it allows brands to improve strategies, thereby making the most of the marketing budget and the biggest impact on customers.
Lead the way
Digital marketing is a key avenue for lead generation. Once the basis of your marketing plan is established, you can use these eight tips to make sure that your digital marketing strategy reaches top performance. Utilizing lead generation tactics on digital channels will help ensure that you’re reaching your target audience online and making the most of your marketing efforts.
The experts at Beyond Fifteen can help your brand generate leads through digital marketing. Connect with us to learn more!