As the end of the year approaches, it’s time to start evaluating our progress during 2021 and what goals we look forward to accomplishing in 2022. That includes the world of business. There is no doubt that small businesses have been going digital more than ever during the past year.
As a result, learning to implement and improve marketing strategies becomes extremely necessary to succeed online and finally “survive.” Therefore, what is or should be the most crucial marketing goal to focus on as a small business? That’s the age-old question we hope to help you answer in this article.
In a survey by Service Direct made to 250 local service businesses last year to identify their marketing goals, 48% of local service businesses stated that increasing lead volume is a top priority, followed by improving lead quality at 42%.
There is a very valid and accurate reason behind these responses. And that’s because the more leads a business receives, the higher chance they will have of booking more jobs and bringing in more revenue. However, companies tend to see a higher return on investment with a smaller amount of high-quality leads rather than a surplus of bad leads. To understand this, let’s dig deeper into how lead generation works.
Lead generation is essential to the survival of any business. Leads can be people interested enough to come into your store. Or those who visit your website to see if your location services what they need. A vast majority of users search online for local services or products before ever making a decision.
The difference between website traffic and leads is that more traffic means more exposure for your website and your business. More leads mean more business through the door. For that reason, optimizing your website for more leads comes down to a lot of testing until you know what brings in conversions. It’s not necessary to completely redo your website for leads. But there are several ways you can leverage your website to bring in more sales and leads.
There are many different ways to start generating leads. And it all comes through good marketing efforts. But you have to know what types of marketing and messaging will help your audience connect at the optimal level. Simply collecting a bunch of email addresses for email marketing messaging is not lead generation. If you’re serious about turning a profit, what truly matters is building a funnel that brings in high-quality leads to keep a successful business going. Email marketing can be a part of that funnel, but it’s not the only step. Therefore, how do you define a ‘high-quality’ lead?
High-quality leads refer to leads with a higher propensity to convert into paying customers. The higher the quality lead, the more likely they are to purchase your product or service. This classification should be determined using lead scoring techniques that systematically attribute values to your leads based on criteria like lead behavior, lead source, product fit, and persona match. High-quality leads typically have a strong product fit, which increases their customer lifetime value and retention.
Understandably, businesses want to get more leads because they want more customers of this kind. However, most of those new leads are spam calls, price shoppers, or just people who aren’t actively seeking the company’s services.
For this reason, the phrase “quality over quantity” in lead generation is more pertinent than ever. While most companies want to bring in as many leads as possible, research shows that there is more success when lead quality is a top priority.
Focusing on lead quality is a big step and can feel frustrating for many local service businesses as it requires them to be ready to put lead volume on the backburner. While it may seem stressful to scale back the volume of leads, there are things a local service business can do to start bringing in high-quality leads quickly that can make a much more significant difference to your bottom line.
By making sure your website provides the best user experience possible, your content and design will do their job to lead the visitor through the sales funnel. The sooner you optimize your website for conversion, the quicker you’ll get the desired outcomes. At this point, you have to create a user-friendly page filled with engaging content and explicit messages to create lead magnets for every stage.
An effective way to do it is by providing valuable guides, checklists, or downloadable e-books that will help you gather detailed information from your audience. You can also add CTA buttons like “Estimate the Cost”, “Contact Us,” and others to track users that are ready to convert.
Lead scoring is an important part of lead generation, especially when looking into the quality of leads. Developing and utilizing an effective lead scoring system will help you understand the value of your leads and where that value is lacking. Plus, with an effective lead scoring system, you’ll be more likely to catch quality leads that may have otherwise slipped through the cracks.
Remarketing can be a great way to get higher-quality leads as it allows companies to connect with people who have already considered their services. When you take time to use remarketing tactics such as social media ads, aligning your CTA based on customer need, and segmenting your remarketing campaigns by service offerings, you’ll begin to see an increase in lead quality.
User intent, also known as search intent, is the main goal a user tries to achieve when searching for a query. It can be classified into three different categories: go, do, and know. It helps align the objectives of your company and your customers. Giving people what they want, instead of what you think they want, will attract people ready to buy from you. Good content, user satisfaction, and focusing on the target audience are ways that SEO User intent drives higher lead quality.
Think of using localized lead magnets to make sure you gather emails from the local area only. Because it’s is one of the most effective ways to get all the needed details of your potential leads, we recommend the following: creating a guide for buying a house in a specific city, email-gated videos, e-books, and all sorts of calculators to help users estimate property sale price or to get advice on something.
Then, don’t forget about your leads. It’s not only about collecting emails but also about keeping in touch with them to convert leads into clients. That doesn’t mean you have to become pushier in your tactics. That will push you right into spam folders. Instead, you can use a situation when people download a guide from your page to ask whether they found it helpful as a follow-up email. You can even automate sequences to ask your users for feedback or suggest checking out related content.
You have a huge advantage to easily rank for your target keywords if you add local keyword modifiers. For example, instead of setting the keyword “best attorney” to get the first-page position, you can shift your focus into “best attorney near me” or “ best attorney in Florida.”
Since Google provides you with the auto-complete suggestion when you start typing in some search terms or questions, you can use this to your advantage to use these exact words and phrases when describing your services. This way, when a person searches these phrases, your business’ website will be showing up in SERP (Search Engine Results Page). At this point, all you have to do is to use a special tool to track your rankings and get notified every time some changes come up.
When a person searches for something local on Google, the map pushes organic results underneath it, making it possible for businesses in that area to stand out when someone is looking for the related product and service online. That is why you have to add your page to Google My Business to improve your visibility and increase your website’s SEO opportunities.
When you have your Google My Business all setup, it’s time to dive deeper into all the potential listings you can add your business into. It won’t take a lot of your time but will potentially increase leads to your page as users looking for services in listings have a high conversion rate. They already have a need to put their money into some local product or services and just need the listing to point them in the desired direction.
Since digital marketing is constantly evolving, you’ll hear various new methods for generating leads for your business. In some industries, sticking to the “old but gold” tactics will always work best. However, relying on creative innovation can make the difference between success and failure. The world is changing. It’s moving online. And your business needs to be ready for that.
Remember that what works well for one local business may not be that efficient for the other. Online marketing is an unstoppable test and tries to find what strategies and techniques meet your goals the most. Make sure to find your edge, refine your strategy, and greet 2022 with a fully prepared lead generation strategy to grow your business better than ever.
At GREENstick, we offer affordable SEO services for small businesses. Outsourcing expert help can allow you to focus on other crucial areas of your business. Contact us today for more information or if you’re ready to get started.
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