Many businesses spend a great deal of time and resources on lead generation. This is completely understandable since, without a consistent influx of new leads, a business simply can’t grow. So marketers go out and invest in proven tactics that drive prospects towards your brand’s sales funnel:
- Email Marketing – It’s got the best ROI in the business
- SEO – We all want to be on the first page of Google
- Content Marketing – Everyone’s got a content success story
- Social Media Marketing – There are over two billion active social media users globally
That’s all good and well. After all, here at TechExploreBd, we’re all about the pillars of lead generation. But, sometimes, we have to remind ourselves to think outside the box.
Everyone receives marketing emails, and we get bombarded with advertising constantly. It’s getting increasingly difficult to cut through the noise, so the demand for innovative new tactics is at an all time high.
When we say new tactics, we’re not talking about re-inventing your current strategies or developing new lead generation channels per se. We mean other things you can do to complement your current efforts and give them a much-needed boost.
Creative Ideas for Lead Generation
Here are a few creative strategies that are not as common as the typical lead generation tactics employed by most marketers:
Include a CTA in Your Email Signature
Of course, you include CTAs in your emails. However, we’re talking about taking it one step further and placing a CTA button at the end of your regular work emails right underneath your signature. It can link to your latest piece of content or to your primary landing page.
This works especially if you send a lot of emails, which isn’t too hard for most of us. A wide variety of people in your network see your emails—be it personal or work related. This way, they’ll also see a unique CTA. Who knows? You might just catch the right person’s attention at the right time and… Presto! A new lead.
Syndicate Your Content
Content syndication amplifies your brand’s content by leveraging the audiences of complementary brands. By placing your content in front of relevant audiences that you may not have reached otherwise, you can generate more leads and increase your business opportunities.
Additionally, you can improve your search engine rankings by getting backlinks to your website through syndicated content. Be sure to only syndicate your best content. This strategy works best when the content is valuable and relevant to a specific audience. SEO is just a bonus.
Answer Questions on Quora
This question and answer platform is rapidly gaining popularity. In fact, Quora now has over 80 million active users.
Through the full-text search feature, you can look for questions that are relevant to your specific niche or interest. By consistently providing helpful and educational insight, you can get noticed by your target audiences who use the platform. This strategy is great for building brand awareness.
If you’ve created content that specifically addresses a question on Quora, then you can place a link to it in your answer. If the content is relevant enough and the question gets a significant amount of traffic, you can expect to see a few new visitors trickle in.
Speak at an Event
There are a wide variety of trade expos and conferences that you can join or attend. But becoming a contributor to these events will majorly amp up your credibility as an authority in your field. Not only that, but you’ll also have the undivided attention of a relevant audience, which is a huge opportunity to impress.
So the next time you get invited to speak at an event, say ‘yes’ as quickly as you can. It doesn’t hurt to volunteer for these events either.
Experiment with Interactive Content
Visual content is a huge trend these days, and what better way to keep up with the fad than to do something even more innovative? Interactive infographics are rare, primarily because they are difficult and expensive to produce. But, if you have a team of graphic artists who are willing to go the extra mile, then why not?
Delighting prospects and customers is a key component to the success of any marketing strategy. With an entertaining and engaging interactive infographic, your brand stands out and becomes that much more memorable. Brand recall is high, and brand awareness goes through the roof.
Delighted customers are great promoters, and they will likely share your interactive content. Don’t forget to include an embed code and social sharing buttons to make the job easier.
Give Away Useful Templates and Spreadsheets
Not everyone’s great at customizing spreadsheets, especially if they use formulas. So, if someone else does it and gives it away for free, it’s easy to see the value. Prospects will gladly opt-in in exchange for this highly useful template.
So from here on out, compile the templates and resources you use for your company, and transform them into downloadable offers to help your prospects simplify their processes and workflows.
Create Gated Videos
User attention is becoming increasingly harder to retain, and not everyone’s patient enough to read through long articles. Short videos are much easier for users to consume. Create an entertaining video that can help address your target audience’s problems and challenges.
Use an opt-in video to generate leads. Wistia’s Turnstile, for example, allows you to place an opt-in email form with a CTA on your videos.
Conclusion
These creative strategies will help your brand stand out from the noise when used in conjunction with your current marketing and lead generation strategies. Remember that creating helpful, useful, and educational content is key to delighting your prospects and gaining their trust.
So the next time you’re looking for more leads, give these creative tactics a try. You might just find a new favorite channel for your brand that produces high-quality leads.