22 Ways Companies Can Generate More Leads

According to State of Inbound Report, 2017, 63% of marketers say their top challenge is generating traffic and leads.

The aim of any good company is to provide a service or product of value to its customers. No matter how great your service or product is, if it doesn’t reach the intended customers and add the desired value, you will not be in business very long.

That is why it is critical for your company to generate quality traffic and leads. This is the beginning of making a sale and getting your product to the intended user.

Are you finding it challenging to generate more leads for your business?

Don’t worry. We’ve got your back.

Below, we share with you proven ways in which your company can generate more leads today.

1. InstallSkrapp

This one of our favorite tools for getting targeted leads on LinkedIn. It’s an easy to use Google Chrome extension and web app that integrates with your LinkedIn user interface. It allows you to find email addresses and save leads from profiles, searches and groups.

Here is a link to a quick easy to follow guide on how to use Skrapp for efficient prospecting on LinkedIn.

You can create an account and get 150 emails for free every month. If you want more emails, you can opt to upgrade and get 1000 emails every month for $39/month; 5,000 emails every month for $69/month; 10,000 emails every month for $119/month or 20,000 emails every month for $149/month.

2. Install Dux-Soup

Dux-soup is another great tool for lead generation on LinkedIn. It’s a prospect and profile management browser extension which allows you to automate profile visits. You can even endorse and/or send multiple messages at the same time.

It also allows you to make tags, take notes and get email addresses of other potential prospects, rather than the first degree connections.

It has both a free version and a paid version. The free version allows you to visit, take notes and tag up to 100 profiles or 100 members of a group per day. The paid version costs $15 per month, and allows you to visit, take notes and tag unlimited profiles per day.

However, due to LinkedIn’s user regulations, you probably don’t want to view more than 100 profiles per day anyway.

To get you started on how to use use Dux-Soup to generate leads on LinkedIn, please take a look at this one minute demo, on 3 ways to visit profiles using the free starter edition.

3. Enter Industry Awards

Awards are usually given in recognition of excellence and/or achievement. Entering industry awards is a great way to generate leads for your company.

In addition to increasing your brand visibility and credibility, it also helps to attract talent, boost employee morale and with benchmarking for your business.The process of applying for an award forces you to critically look at your business and ensure that you stand out from your competitors through innovation, growth, diversity, customer service and strategic thinking.

There’s a huge variety of awards both locally and internationally that your business can be involved in. Below are some recommendations you might want to consider.

a. HubSpot Impact Awards

The HubSpot Impact Award is open to all HubSpot partners and is a recognition from HubSpot for your ability to deliver amazing client work in 5 categories: Client Sales Enablement, Integrations Innovation, Inbound Growth Story, Website Design and Graphic Design.

Applications are currently open. You can learn more on these awards here.

b. Marcom Awards with Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP)

Marcom Awards rewards excellence in the marketing and communication industry. This competition is open to individuals, companies and organisations from over 100 countries around the world.

c. Awwwards

Awwwards are awards for excellence in design, creativity and innovation on the internet. These awards seek to recognize the best developers, designers and web agencies in the world.

d. Ava Digital Awards

Ava Digital Awards is an international competition that recognizes excellence by creative professionals responsible for the planning, concept, direction, design and production of digital communication.

The competition is open to all individuals, companies and organizations involved in producing any type of project involving digital media for external or internal audiences.

4. Get interviewed on a Podcast show

Since its inception in 2005, the use of podcasts has been steadily rising. In March 2018, Apple Podcasts passed 50 billion all-time episode downloads and streams.

According to 2018 podcasts stats and facts reports, 45% of monthly podcast listeners in USA have a household income of over $75K – vs 35% for the total population. This makes podcasts a great platform to develop high quality leads.

Getting interviewed on a podcast show positions you as a leader and an influencer in your niche. This gives your brand credibility and can help you reach new audiences.

Find out more on how you can generate leads from a podcast here.

5. Install a ChatBot on your website

Live Chats enables agencies to reach out to their website visitors and communicate directly with them in real time. They are faster than email and cheaper and more efficient than phones. This improves customer service and experience.

Statistics show that, 44% of online consumers say having questions answered by a live person while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a website can offer. A further 63% said they are more likely to return to a website that offers live chat.

Service leaders anticipate customer chat will grow exponentially in the near future. This makes Live Chats a must have feature on your website, otherwise you run the risk of being left behind.

6. Leverage your already existing best content:

I love this because you can generate leads without generating more content. You can do this in two ways:

i. Look at google analytics for your best performing blog post.

Look at the content and think how you can generate leads from the people interested in that content.

Instead of using an old ‘contact me if you need more information’ provide a template, worksheet or document related to the content they want; but they are required to give you their email address.

ii. Tweak the Headlines:

You can re-purpose the content by tweaking the headline to attract more clicks.

A headline that always works well is “How to do something cool without doing something that sucks’ e.g. ‘How to generate more leads without creating more content.’

7. Speak at small company events.

While speaking at great marketing events is usually great for creating credibility, it is not effective for generating leads. The bigger the event, the more the audience is likely to think you will be busy after speaking. Also, the competition for the same audience is great because there are many marketing companies or agencies trying to pitch to the same audience.

However, small industry specific events are a gold mine. At a small event of about 40 – 100 people, chances are high that there won’t be great competition - if any at all- present. Therefore, you easily come out as an expert. The audience also sees you as more accessible so you can have more (and deeper) conversations after the events which turn into better leads and more clients.

8. Generate Rich Media Content, Less frequently but consistently.

Instead of posting content daily or every week post less but excellent quality content. Apply the 80/20 rule - 80% of your leads, will be generated from 20% of your content.

Take more time to create content that is 10 times better than the best content available on the topic. To create high quality content:

• Know your ideal client or buyer persona.
• Keep it compelling
• Mix up your media – a part from having a well written blog post, use multimedia like videos, slide shows, photos, playlists and recipes to keep your audience engaged across a variety of formats.
• Present value, not a pitch – Focus on educating, entertaining and delivering value

9. Create human connection online

People buy from people that they like, know and trust.

You can generate new leads by establishing a human connection with your ideal clients online. The best way to know, like and trust people is to meet them in person. Nevertheless, there is a way we can help our prospects towards knowing, liking and hopefully trusting us online.

You can do this by generating written, image and video content that gives a peek into your process and your people. Showing the inner workings of your company expands the opportunities prospects have to start knowing and liking you before contact is made.

Leverage social media for example to share light moments and the lighter, human side of your team for example when you are celebrating someone’s birthday or having a team building event or staff ‘fun day.’ It’s easy for people to relate to you in such circumstances.

10. Did someone say FREE?!

Have you seen what happens with children when free candy is thrown at them? Or how crazy adults go when free T-shirts are being launched on 4th on July? What’s that ‘free T-shirt’ idea you can give on social media or on your website or blog? This could be for-example a free 60 second introductory consultation, a free e-book, a free tutorial etc.

Most people will have no problem giving their name and email address to get something of value at no cost at all. This is a great way of generating leads and the beginning of potentially converting them into happy customers.

11. Adding a Quiz

Remember the personality tests or assessment tests we used to take growing up?

Agencies would love to assess themselves too! Adding a captivating or compelling quiz on your website or social media is another way to generate leads.

You will need to invest some time to come up with a quiz or assessment that will be of value. Ask the questions first, and at the end of the quiz, request for the person’s name and email address so that you can send the results analysis to them. Very few people will be unwilling to share their contacts after taking the quiz.

12. Building Complementary Tools and Software

Building complimentary tools and products can not only sell and create new revenue streams, but can also market your company's services to the people who are signing up for these products.

What challenges, needs or questions keep coming up from your clients? Is it something you can develop a tool, calculator, and decision tree to help them answer? If yes, making such a tool will give people with similar questions a reason to keep coming back to your website.

You can check out examples and get tips on how to get started on developing such tools at The Guide to New Business Tools for Agencies.

13. Host Webinars

Are you hesitant about using webinars as a way to generate leads for your business? Don’t be.

Webinars are a great way to establish brand trust and credibility, supplement your content marketing and generate high quality leads from anywhere in the world.

Never hosted a webinar before? Or would you like tips on how to improve your webinar hosting experience? Here is a Guide to Running a Successful Lead Generation Webinar.

14. Write a Book in Your Niche

Writing a book is one of the most powerful and quickest ways of establishing yourself as an expert in your niche and gives you credibility, therefore generating more leads for your company.

Instead of writing one long full-sized book, focus on writing short books with a narrow niche. Readers today have a short concentration span. They’ll be much more motivated to buy a book that focuses in their exact challenges.

For example, readers will be more eager to read a book titled ‘How to Network at Business Conferences' instead of writing one titled ‘Networking Today’

15. Scout Industry Websites

Check industry sites crunchbase to see those companies that recently got funded, manta, startup ranking, etc. to search for potential clients.

16. Use LinkedIn Jobs

LinkedIn is a professional networking site with over 500 million users. About 45% of readers are in the upper ranks of their industries: managers, VPs, CEOs etc. A whopping 93% of B2B marketers consider LinkedIn to be the most effective site for lead generation.

A part from sharing content, and networking through LinkedIn another way you can generate leads is by finding out which companies posted jobs recently for marketing positions or services that your company offers and offer them your services.

17. Partner with Venture Capitalists or Angel Investors

Both angel Investors and venture capitalist firms provide funding to businesses, especially startups or existing businesses seeking to expand. Partnering with them will ‘keep you in the know” of the clients who get funding. This way you get to be first picking for the clients they fund.

18. Partner with Accelerator programs

Startup accelerators support early-stage, growth-driven companies through education, mentorship, and financing. Partnering with them will give you access to potential companies who can be clients for your B2B business.

Here is a list of Accelerator/incubator programs that could help you as you get started.

19. Partner with co-working spaces

Co-working spaces such as WeWork, MindSpace etc. consist of members who work for a range of different companies, ventures, and projects. They are a beehive for companies needing Marketing services. So start pitching to them.

20. Host events

On the fence about hosting an event to generate leads for your business? Don't be -- you should do it!

Start hosting your own marketing events to educate your potential audience and generate new leads.

A part from helping to raise your brand profile, provide education and build communities, events can also directly drive business by providing the opportunity to meet with potential customers and stay close to existing ones.

Live events allow human interaction which gives people a chance to interact and get a feel of your business. They also give you a chance to find out exactly what your customers want, and reservations- if any- they might have about doing business with you.

Hosting an event helps you collect valuable information through the registration process.

21. Speak at events

Becoming a speaker at events is one of the most effective ways to generate leads today.

It gives you a chance to speak in front of a highly targeted, interested group of prospects and to demonstrate that you’re not only very likable but also know a lot about something they need.

Even if you speak for free, you could walk away with one or two clients who could lead to six figures in annual revenue.

Finding a place to speak could take time and effort. You could get one through referrals from your clients, friends and networks. You could also volunteer to speak at marketing events that accept pitches like MarTech, and TED.

22. Referral Program

A customer referral is generally a higher quality lead because it comes from someone they know and trust for example a friend, a colleague or a business partner. The person doing a referral generally knows the brand and the needs of the other person.

Having a solid referral program for your business is one of the best and easiest ways of generating high quality leads.

Referrals come from customers who are happy and satisfied with your product or service. Therefore it is important to make sure that each of your clients have a wonderful experience at every stage of interaction with your business.

Would you like to build a referral strategy for your business? Or would you like to improve on the one you already have existing? Here are 8 powerful referral strategies that will double your sales.

Which of the above ways did you find most interesting and are going to implement in your business? Or have you tried applying any of the ways discussed above for your business? We would love to hear what your experience was like.