Are you looking to generate more leads in 2019? Who isn’t. Leads are what your business needs in order to scale. While you certainly want to focus a lot of your attention on customer retention, that doesn’t mean you throw your lead generation efforts out the window.
So, how do you capture leads in 2019? There are several things you can do. Some strategies you’ve likely heard of, while some newer approaches may be less familiar to you, but are sure to help you amp up your efforts.
Before you can work on nurturing your leads and sending them along your specific buyer’s journey towards becoming a customer, you need to first capture them. It’s the first step, and it’s a crucial one. Here’s some of the best ways to capture leads in 2019.
You don’t always have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to lead generation. Forms are still one of the most popular (and effective) ways to capture leads. Instead of thinking up a brand new approach, focus on optimizing your form for conversions so that you get the most people to complete it.
Check out the above study from Hubspot. An impressive 83% of marketers cite web forms as their highest converting lead capture tool. While you may implement other lead capture strategies (that we will discuss later), you should not abandon or rule out using a simple web form to capture leads.
Part of the reason forms work so well are because they are familiar. Most of us have submitted a form at some point in order to download an eBook, sign up for a newsletter, or become a user at a website. We understand the process and are willing to complete the form in exchange for what we want. However, with that in mind, you still want to create a quality form that users will actually complete.
If you are seeing low conversion rates on your forms, consider A/B testing various elements in order to see what your specific customers actually respond to. The average number of fields on a form? Five. However- if your form converts best with 10 fields, then stick with 10! Those who A/B test their forms can expect to see about a 10% higher conversion rate.
Web forms are great, but another excellent lead capture method is to head to social media. In particular, Facebook makes it incredibly easy for brands to set up lead capture forms that allow users to quickly and painlessly provide their information. The above example shows you just how quick it is. A user sees an ad on their timeline along with a ‘Sign Up’ button. Clicking the button sends them to the lead form. What helps set these forms apart is that a lot of information is pre-filled in, saving the user valuable time. All they need to do is complete the rest of the form and hit submit. Closing the form takes them right back to where they were on their timeline.
By optimizing your lead capture process so that a user can complete the form without having to spend much time or navigate from what they were currently doing, you are sure to see in increased completion rate. Combined with Facebook’s targeting options, you can make sure that your lead form isn’t just displaying to anyone, but to people who are likely to be interested in your brand or product. The Miami Dolphins did just that and found that 25% of their new ticket members came directly from leads from Facebook. Simply put- Facebook lead capture forms work!
Don’t do all the hard work on your own- have your existing customers help you! Setting up a referral program is an excellent way to increase your amount of leads. Essentially, a referral program incentivizes word-of-mouth marketing, which we already know is incredibly effective. Who are people most likely to believe when it comes to deciding where to shop? Other people. In fact, 92% of consumers trust referrals from people that they know.
Give your customers a reason to share your business with their friends and family by creating a referral program, like the one shown above. The simpler your program is, the better. Typically, a user will be given some type of link or code that they can provide to friends and family. If a new user follows the link or code and becomes a customer, both people get some type of discount. Simple, easy, and effective.
Wondering how to get this all set up? We recommend using a tool like Extole– it landed on our list of top lead generation tools with good reason. They will handle your entire referral program, including if you engage in any offline efforts.
Once you’ve got a solid idea of who your target demographic is, it makes sense to work with relevant influencers in order to capture more quality leads. By linking up with an influencer whose audience is similar to your own, you are essentially accessing their audience in order to turn them into leads (and eventually customers) of your own.
Influencer marketing has become one of the most popular marketing strategies of late, and with good reason. Similar to referral marketing, the idea is have other individuals do your marketing for you. A user may not believe marketing messages directly from a brand, but they are likely to believe friends, family, and influencers they follow. 67% of marketers have said that influencer marketing has helped them reach a more specific audience.
The key here is to make sure you are working with the right influencers who do have an audience that is similar to your own. Check out this complete guide on influencer marketing– it’s got great info on topics like how to find the right influencers, how to set the right goals, and more.
Finally, web push is an effective way to capture leads and a great tool to use in conjunction with something like a web form in order to help boost your completion rate. Previously, if a user didn’t happen to provide their contact information, you were more or less of out of luck. Without their email you can’t send email campaigns to try and engage them or target them directly via social media.
However, with web push, you’ve got another chance! The opt in process is much quicker- it just takes one click. Once a user clicks to allow notifications, they are in. No inputting information or clicking a confirmation link in an email. At this point, you can retarget them with a web push notification that encourages them to come complete your form. Use your web push campaign to advertise your lead magnet, if you’ve got one, or to share what they will have access to once they complete signing up.
Include an action button on your notification that will help encourage your subscriber to click back and complete your form. This is a great way to capture leads that have shown interest in your brand but haven’t fully committed to signing up, registering, or completing a form. Try your best to get them back by retargeting them via web push.
Pro tip: Here are some other great ways to improve your web push click through rate. Keep in mind that users who subscribe to your web push notifications are already leads even if they don’t complete a form of yours. Retarget them with other web push campaigns as well in order to start the nurturing process and edge them closer to conversion.
Capturing leads is a necessary part of your overall marketing strategy. By regularly introducing a new stream of users to your brand you are sure to keep things trending in a positive direction. Once you’ve captured those leads, you can nurture them, target them until they convert, and focus on securing them as customers for life.
Rely on tactics like web forms, social media, referrals, influencer marketing, and web push to help you capture leads in 2019. Don’t feel like you have to stick with one thing- the more lead capture efforts you get started with, the more leads you’ll end up with!
What’s your favorite lead capture method? Let us know by sending us a message!
If you are looking to incorporate web push into your lead capturing efforts, head this way to start your 14-day free trial. You can also read up on all things web push in our Beginner’s Guide.