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Lead generation strategies for your business

06/21/202108/25/2020 by scmarketing

The main purpose of your online lead generation strategy is to get people to visit your website.

Online lead generation encompasses a wide range of tactics and digital marketing campaigns depending on platform you choose to capture leads. So, we thought we’d take a closer look at some of the tools and the strategies you can employ to help increase website traffic and increase your chance of quality leads.

PPC lead generation

Pay Per Click or PPC is a way of advertising on Search Engine Results pages (SERPs). Google ads are generally the most popular. With Google getting 3.5 billion searches a day, you can see why. PPC is a great option for lead generation but it’s important to get the content of your ad right to entice a click in the first instance.

We also recommend creating a specific landing page so that your web page reflects what people have clicked to see. This will help you avoid bounce rate as those clicks will be from warm leads.

You then need to make sure you have good keywords targeted to your audience as well as negative keywords to help extend your budget further.

Our blog what is PPC has further background detail on this lead generation tactic.

LinkedIn lead generation

LinkedIn is a great B2B social media networking platform. When attending events, even virtually, there’s always the networking opportunities to add contacts to your network post event. By messaging either prior to an event or post event, you have a great hook to personalise your message of introduction which is likely to get a connection made.

With more remote working, LinkedIn has really come to the fore for networking and lead generation. The LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a great asset to grow your network by being truly targeted to find the right prospects for your business. Learn more about how LinkedIn can help you grow you discover prospects.

Facebook lead generation

If you think of Facebook as a search engine, having your business present on this social media platform at the very least offers a place for you to be found with contact details, business hours and your latest updates. But most importantly it offers reassurance and brand awareness about your business services and products.

For some businesses it may not necessarily be the primary social network platform but it’s always useful to post updates to help drive traffic organically back to your website. If anything, it’s important for increasing brand awareness and improving SEO (search engine optimisation).

Facebook Ads was launched in 2007. Facebook Lead Ads are all about lead generation and the process is simplified to attract prospects. Pre-populated forms make it easy for people to fill out forms on their mobile. You can customise forms to improve the quality of the leads you attract.

Your website and lead generation tools

Eye-catching call to action buttons are essential on a website. It helps guide the visitor – your potential clients – and helps them navigate the web page. Also create pop-up boxes for email sign up forms to your website. This can be achieved with a lead generation tool such as Hubspot.

A virtual tool such as Hotjar has a heatmap which represents how visitors to your website are navigating their way around your site. You can see where site visitors spend time and where they don’t.

Tips for campaigns

It’s important to organise leads so that you can make it a successful lead generation campaign. This is where lead generation tools and software can help. They can help you understand more about the people visiting your website and what pages they are interested in so that you can tailor information accordingly. It can help you capture email addresses simply. Or understand what they looked at on your website before completing a form.

As a Hubspot partner, we can help you with marketing automation and CRM for your business to help make a really effective lead generation campaign.

What’s important about any lead generation campaign is to continue to be insightful with your communication, providing answers to challenges that you know your customers face. Your ongoing content marketing plan should factor in where prospects are on their buyer’s journey. Someone at the beginning of the buyer’s journey might be interested in insight like an ebook, whilst someone who’s now familiar with your company might be more interested in a free trial or demo.

Inbound marketing agency in Surrey

If you’re looking for qualified leads become a lead generation magnet with the help of Smart Cow. Take a closer look at our marketing services or book a consultation and we can discuss a digital marketing strategy that’s best for your business.

We specialise in digital marketing for accountants as well as providing digital marketing services and web design for local businesses within Croydon.

What to consider when embarking on your social media strategy

Guide to LinkedIn for business

08/18/2020 by scmarketing

LinkedIn, the social media platform that allows you to build and engage your professional network, has launched a comprehensive guide to LinkedIn for businesses.

With over 30 million companies on LinkedIn and 675 million users, LinkedIn offers an influential social media platform for businesses to increase brand awareness with an interested audience.

If you are a business that regularly engages on LinkedIn or you are looking to grow your network and enhance your lead generation strategy, this guide will help you get the most from the social media channel.

The guide includes advice on how to tell your brand’s story on LinkedIn. It offers social media management tips, community management advice, information on paid social and ways on how you can drive business forward with your LinkedIn page.

Understand your audience

What’s key with using LinkedIn for your business, as with any marketing activity you embark on, it’s crucial that you know your target audience. This way you can create content that is relevant for them and ensures that your messaging will be of interest and ultimately lead to engagement.

When using LinkedIn, it’s important to remember that it is a business focussed channel and to keep content tailored with this in mind. Thinking about how your business services or products will help your target audience will really help engagement and generation of quality leads.

Now that many more people are working remotely and virtual events are the fashion for now, and probably for the foreseeable future, linking in with prospects is much more prevalent and somewhat expected.

But you also need to remember that your employees are also on LinkedIn so encouraging them to share and like company content will help extend your reach. As the LinkedIn guide says: ‘your employees are your greatest asset and typically have 10x the reach of your LinkedIn page.’

Keep content fresh

As we’ve mentioned before in our blog, by tailoring your content to your audience not only will this help position you as a thought leader in your field but also builds brand awareness and trust. But it’s not just about talking about your own products and services.

The LinkedIn guide reminds readers to ‘mix up content’ and encourages platform users to follow a ‘4-1-1 rule.’ If you share one piece of content about your company/brand, then share ‘an update from another source and four pieces of content by others.’ This could be an interesting article from a publication, or a new report just launched. All of which should be relevant to your target audience and be from a credible source that has similar values to your brand or is perhaps a client, supplier or partner.

Social media agency

If you’ve been embarking on more digital marketing, including social media for your business, but need some guidance or support, we’re a social media agency in Croydon working with local businesses including accounting firms. We work closely with companies on their online lead generation which includes social media strategies.

So, if you’re looking to improve your social media presence as part of your overall marketing strategy book a FREE consultation with us. Let’s see what marketing avenues and social networks are right for your business and which tactics can help you reach potential clients and achieve business growth. Set up a time for a chat and let’s see if there’s anything we can do to support you with a social media campaign or other digital marketing services.

Key to success – focus on one thing

08/05/2020 by scmarketing

In a recent interview with the BBC the co-founder of LinkedIn gives insight into the secret to success for start-ups – “focus on one thing”.

Allen Blue said: “Focus your team. Your team can be tremendously creative and innovative, but only if you define the problem they’re trying to solve as narrowly as possible.”

This is invaluable advice for companies wanting to grow their business. It’s important to harness the expertise of the whole team when brainstorming. By constantly looking at ways to solve a problem you will bank other ideas that will help your firm in the long run. So, be open to suggestions but all the time remember that keeping focus on what you are trying to achieve will help you reach a solution faster and improve efficiency.

Solving problems is also about growing your network, which is what LinkedIn is all about and why it came about. This business social media platform is a great way to debate, share and solve solutions. Whether that’s to engage with people you meet at networking events or through the myriad of groups available on LinkedIn. Or perhaps you want to use it to share your tips and advice as part of your marketing strategy to improve your SEO, LinkedIn increases your network and therefore your expertise as you have a knowledge base at your fingertips.

Social media for your business

If you haven’t already explored LinkedIn for your business, perhaps now is the time.

There’s over 700 million LinkedIn members so it’s a significant social platform to tap into and a great way to continue conversation with a new business lead by asking if you can connect on LinkedIn.

But when you are on this social platform and you’re completing your profile or sharing posts, just remember Allen’s advice to focus on one thing. This is a great reminder to target your marketing communication to your audience for successful brand awareness of your products and services.

Watch the full interview with Allen Blue on the BBC.

Digital marketing mix

We’re a digital marketing agency based in London and Croydon. If you need support for your online marketing plan, encompassing your social media strategy, then book a free consultation with us.

The aim is for your business to become a lead generation magnet which is why we recommend a mix and match approach to digital marketing. Following a review of your current marketing activity we’ll look at ways to improve SEO to help you rise in search engine rankings, work on your content marketing for your website and social media as well as implement any paid search as and when deemed necessary.

Social media resources

NetWORKing it baby!

03/12/2020 by scmarketing

Networking is a great tool to meet, learn and collaborate. It’s about growing your business, making new contacts, winning new clients and selling your wares.

We’re advocates of local networking groups (the business card is still key at such events) but it’s not just about turning up to a breakfast meeting or attending a lunchtime network session. Use the digital marketing tools at your disposal to network your socks off and generate quality leads.

Are you on LinkedIn? If not, get yourself on there as soon you can.

Just like attending a networking session, LinkedIn is about growing your network of contacts to help grow your business.

As a business2business (B2B) social channel with networking at its core this social media platform allows you to connect with other professionals, clients, colleagues, prospects and employers.

Pre event LinkedIn activity

Whether you’re attending an actual networking event or going to a trade exhibition or conference, the organisers usually share a list of attendees before the event. If you don’t receive one, it’s worth asking the organiser just in case.

Check what companies you’d be interested to do business with or collaborate with. Then send a message to them via LinkedIn to say that you’re also attending the same event and whether they would like to connect. It’s all about building your network.

Our blog – How LinkedIn can Grow your Business – has key points for you to consider.

Post event check list

Remember to log your new contacts into your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system.

Follow up with contacts you’ve met at the event expressing how good it was to meet.

You could send an email with information pertinent to your lead. If you discussed a specific topic, continue the conversation.

Connect with them on LinkedIn!

Research local networking groups

As part of your business development strategy and ongoing networking on LinkedIn, take a little time to research the local networking groups near you. With flexible working on the rise and more people setting up their own business, new style networking hubs are cropping up more and more. Whether it’s speed networking, breakfast briefings or socials, get searching for what’s near you.

Social Media for your business

If you feel you need a kick start on using social media for your business, get in touch today and we can talk about the best digital marketing approach to generate leads.