Whatever your marketing strategy, one of the main objectives is to capture leads and consequently build a consistent email list that your sales team can work with.
At this point, the first idea 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, does not bring the expected results and can lead consumers to see 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, nor provided you with their contact information, it means they have not authorized you to approach them, which decreases the chances of them viewing your offer positively. 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 be.
This unwanted solicitation has become such a constant and annoying problem that for some time now, the best anti-spam services filter and prohibit the importation of purchased lists, classifying this practice as invasive and unethical, as it does not respect users' privacy. Not to mention that even if the person opens your offer, they will hardly identify with a brand they do not recognize, and the chances of conversion are minimal.
Generating leads can be a complicated task, but when you convince someone to provide you with their contact information, you are already starting a relationship that can become long-lasting and profitable for your business, given that the probability 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 that makes up your ideal target audience, personify them, and create campaigns directed at their characteristics.
Considering your product or service is also fundamental, as the return time is directly linked to the complexity of the sale. No one switches cars with the same ease as they switch phones, for example, nor decides to go to college with the same speed as they enroll in a gym. The complexity of what you want to sell will outline the best way to turn your visitor into a lead and give you a perspective on how much effort will be necessary.
Having done that, here are three good ways to generate leads to build your list:
Landing Pages
A landing page is one of the most common ways to generate leads. If you work with performance marketing, you can create a specific page objectively demonstrating your offer and prompting the visitor 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 the user's information. In this case, the calls to action can be on your company's social media pages, on your website, or even on your blog. By clicking it, the user will be directed to an external page with the form, and normally after completing the form, they are redirected to the company's website or to a thank-you page with a new offer.
Pop-ups
It is very common to find people who find pop-ups annoying, and therefore many companies discard them, but when used well, pop-ups can be a great way to generate leads without compromising the user experience.
The fundamental principle is to use a tool that allows you to choose where and when the pop-up should appear. If you can control the context, instead of being intrusive, it can become convenient. 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, thus becoming bothersome.
Pop-ups can appear on blogs, inviting users to subscribe to your newsletter, for example, and in various other browsing locations, but the most common is to use them on the website itself.
Some, like the scroll box, are quite simple and discreet, sitting 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 common sense and choose what best fits your offer and your audience. Test different pop-ups and measure your conversion rate with each of them.
Paid Media
For those in a hurry and willing to invest to build a good lead list in a short time, paid media can be the best solution, and the cost-benefit is tangible. The biggest advantage of sponsored link services is audience segmentation, as Google and Facebook are accessed daily by thousands of users and have access to data that identifies them and reveals their behaviors on the web. Being professional platforms, measuring results on them is also easier, and monitoring them is extremely important for making changes to campaigns and planning future strategies.