Whatever your marketing strategy, one of the main goals is to capture leads and consequently build a consistent email list for your sales team to work with.
At this point, the first thought that comes to mind is to take a shortcut and buy an email list. But it certainly won't take long for you to realize that this practice, besides being a crime under the penal code, doesn't yield the expected results and can even lead consumers to view your company as inconvenient.
Remember that the concept of a lead is directly linked to a potential customer, and if this person has never interacted with your company or provided you with their contact information, it means they haven't authorized you to contact them and reduces the chances of them accepting your offer. That is, if they even open it. After all, an unexpected message always runs the risk of being marked as spam, and it probably will.
This unwanted inquiry has become such a constant and annoying problem that, for some time now, the best anti-spam services have been filtering and prohibiting the import of purchased lists, classifying this practice as invasive and unethical, as it violates user privacy. Not to mention that even if someone opens your offer, they're unlikely to identify with a brand they don't recognize, and the chances of conversion are slim.
Generating leads can be a complicated task, but when you convince someone to provide you with their contact information, you've already started a relationship that can be long-lasting and profitable for your business, given that the likelihood of them being qualified for sale is much higher.
Where to start
Before anything else, define who the leads you want to generate are; this will guide all your work. Think about the type of person who makes up your ideal target audience, personify them, and create campaigns tailored to their characteristics.
Considering your product or service is also crucial, since the return time is directly linked to the complexity of the sale. No one changes cars as easily as they change phones, for example, nor do they decide to go to college as quickly as they enroll in a gym. The complexity of what you want to sell will determine the best way to convert your visitor into a lead and give you an idea of how much effort will be required.
Once that's done, here are three good ways to generate leads to build your list:
Landing Pages
Landing pages are one of the most common forms of lead generation. If you work with performance marketing, you can create a specific page that clearly demonstrates your offer and encourages visitors to fill out a form requesting more information, a quote, etc. If you opt for content marketing, you can offer valuable content, such as ebooks and webinars, in exchange for user information. In this case, calls to action can be on your company's social media page, your website, or even your blog. Clicking on the call to action takes the user to an external page with the form, and typically, after completing the form, they are redirected to the company's website or to a thank you page with a new offer.
pop up
It's very common to find people who find pop-ups annoying, which is why many companies reject them. However, when used well, pop-ups can be a great way to generate leads without compromising the user experience.
The key principle is to use a tool that lets you choose where and when the pop-up appears. If you can control the context, it can become convenient rather than annoying. This can be done by selecting triggers and cookie settings that prevent the pop-up from being displayed more than once to the same user, becoming annoying.
Pop-ups can appear on blogs, with invitations to subscribe to your newsletter, for example, and in various other navigation locations, but the most common use is on the website itself.
Some, like the scroll box, are very simple and discreet, located on one side of the page, while others, like the Welcome Mat, are more aggressive and take up the entire screen as soon as the visitor accesses the site.
Use your best judgment and choose the one that best fits your offer and your audience. Test different pop-ups and measure your conversion rate with each one.
Paid Media
For those in a hurry and willing to invest in building a solid list of leads quickly, paid media can be the best solution, and the cost-benefit is palpable. The biggest advantage of sponsored link services is audience segmentation, as Google and Facebook are accessed by thousands of users daily and have access to data that identifies them and reveals their online behavior. Because they are professional platforms, measuring results is also easier, and tracking them is extremely important for campaign changes and planning future strategies.
