How do you get leads for your small business? How do you increase sales? Well, this article will answer your question in detail. Most business owners are so much preoccupied with the day-to-day running of their businesses that they hardly have time to attract and win new customers. But businesses cannot survive if they don’t have an ever-flowing pool of new customers. This explains why marketing is the lifeblood of any business—small or big.
Hunting for sales leads can be difficult. And that’s why many big businesses hire in-house lead generation experts. But what if yours is a small business that cannot afford that cost? Will you have to give up lead generation altogether? The answer is No. Here are 10 creative, low-cost ways to generate for sales leads for your business. Implement them and you will see great results.
Top 10 Creative Ways to Get Sales Leads for Your Small Business
1. Write for established offline publications
Chances are that your potential customers are reading certain publications either to entertain themselves or to equip themselves with enough knowledge to help them make well-informed decisions. Such publications include newspapers, magazines and journals.
A smart way to reach out to new customers is to have information about your business published on such platforms. Remember, to really catch the interest of prospects, your article must be offer value to the reader, not written from a marketing perspective.
2. Start a blog
Gone are the days when testimonials were enough to generate sales. People are now more careful and skeptical than ever. They only want to buy products and services from businesses they trust. A proven way to establish this trust for your business is to start a blog and offer lots of valuable information for free. If your posts are helpful and invaluable, prospects will be convinced that you really know your stuff and will most likely do business with you.
3. Start a referral program
Word of mouth marketing is one of the most powerful ways to bring more customers to your business. If you offer high quality products or services, your current or past customers will most likely tell their family and friends about your business, thereby sending more customers your way. But you can encourage your customers to do even more of this by promising certain rewards for each new customer they refer.
4. Participate in online forums
You can register with and participate actively in online forums and communities that your potential customers visit frequently. By providing detailed and professional answers to questions and sharing lots of helpful information, people will deem you an expert, and will do business with you. A subtle way to market your business on these platforms is to include a brief but catchy statement that includes the name of your business, what you do, and your contacts.
5. Collaborate with other companies
Another smart way to get new customers is to create alliances with other businesses that offer products or services related to yours and whose customers will most likely be interested in your offers. For example, if your business offers event decoration services, you can get more customers by collaborating with catering service providers in your locality. This is because most people who hire catering services for their parties and events will most likely need your services, too.
6. Stage seminars and workshops
People usually attend seminars that promise lots of value, especially when admission into such seminars is free. Find a good seminar topic that will attract the attention of your target customers and stage a free seminar on that topic. The more relevant your topic is to the needs of your prospects, the higher the turnout will be. And if the attendees really find the seminar helpful and valuable, they will do business with you and refer others as well.
7. Offer incentives to new customers
People jump at any opportunity to save money. So, another smart tactic for attracting new customers to your business is to offer an incentive to new customers, such as a discount off their first purchase. Advertise this incentive in all your marketing campaigns, so prospected will be aware of it.
8. Use cold calling
This involves contacting people who might be interested in your products or services and telling them about your business and what they stand to benefit from your offers. You can cold-call prospects using various communications media, including email, telephone, and direct mail. You won’t get responses from everyone you contact, but some will respond. The more compelling your offers are, the higher the response rate will be.
Even if some don’t respond, it might be because they don’t need your products or services at the moment, and they have already noted your business against the time they will need your offers. So, non-responsiveness may not necessarily mean non-interest.
9. Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Most people now use search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing to find information about products and services they need. SEO involves the adoption of proven tactics for improving the rankings of websites in search results pages, so that these websites will be seen by potential customers who need information related to the content of these websites.
10. Track your results
Always track the results of your various lead hunting campaigns to figure out what’s working for your business and what’s not. This way, you can get even more customers by focusing more on working tactics and ditching the less effective ones.