What Your Lead Generation Agency Should Be Doing for You

In your hunt for a lead generation agency, you’ve likely found they all promise the results you want. But how do you know which ones can actually deliver? You don’t have to test them all out — you just need to ask. Anyone can buy a list, but if you want an agency that funnels qualified leads, these are the services your agency needs to provide.

Premium content

The highest quality leads come through search engines. These are people who are actually looking for someone like you, so you need to make it easy for them to find you. A qualified lead gen agency can help you determine specific keywords that users might search when looking for your type of business. A top agency will then write content to help you rank higher in searches for those keywords. This content should also partner well with your other marketing and social media efforts to form a cohesive lead generation strategy.

Landing pages

Landing pages are another great way to capture the attention of people who are already looking for what you offer. In your content marketing and social media, include a link to a single page which highlights one of your products or services and provides a lead capture form. Interested prospects get enough information to spark their next step while the lead capture form makes that step a simple click. A qualified lead gen agency will talk with you about which of your products and services should have designated landing pages. A top agency will help you determine what information or images should be included on the pages and how those links should be incorporated into your complete marketing strategy.

Bottom Line

Premium lead generation services provide you with more than just names and numbers. Top quality agencies work with you to ensure your website, social media, and broader marketing strategies are working together to achieve strong results. Healthy lead generation typically takes one to two months to get up to speed, so choose an agency that starts the process with a strong, complete strategy.

Use Facebook to Generate Small Business Leads

Facebook has gradually become a major advertising platform for small business. Used properly,  a Facebook ad campaign can be tailored to your specific needs. Here a few tips for building a campaign to successfully bring in new leads.

Define your audience

Before you begin creating ads, you need to understand the customers you want to target. Develop personas about the people who use your products or services, including age, gender, geography, profession, and interests. These details will bring clarity to your campaign as you develop your strategy.

Design your campaign 

The Ads Manager on Facebook allows you to select the type of campaign you want to run. The “Lead Generation” option will help attract prospects who are further down in the sales funnel and already considering solutions like you have to offer. Be sure your ads have a strong call to action so leads will know how to take the next step.

Target your ads 

This is where knowing your ideal customer profile comes in handy. Use your audience personas to tell Facebook the demographics, interests, and behaviors of your prospects. Facebook will then display your ads for your ideal audience.

Set your budget 

If you can identify your audience with specific details, then set a smaller budget. Facebook will display your ads for fewer viewers, but you know your ads will be relevant to their interests. If you aren’t sure who your audience is, set a larger budget so Facebook can reach more people across a wider spectrum of demographics. 

Bottom Line

Facebook has many excellent tutorials and training videos to help you learn how to use their platform. With over 2 billion users on Facebook, a strong ad campaign can become a healthy source of new leads and money well spent.

What to Look for in Lead Gen Services

It’s true, no one will be as passionate about the success of your business as you are. But that doesn’t mean you have to do everything yourself. When your hands are full managing every aspect of the business you’re passionate about, it’s time to consider outsourcing a critical (and time-consuming) function like lead generation. 

With so many lead generation providers out there, how do you determine which is the right one for you? How do you find the experts who can get results? Here are some questions to ask to be sure you’re in the right hands. 

Can they reach your audience?

One of the first questions you need to ask lead generation agencies is whether or not they are familiar with the audience you need to target. A SaaS company has a much different audience than a retail business or a professional services firm. Ask if they’ve worked with businesses in your industry before, who they think your audience is, and the type of approach they will take to reach your audience. Of course, you know who your customers are, but if they don’t know where to start, they aren’t likely to find new customers for you.

What are their KPI’s?

You use key performance indicators to tell you how successful your processes are, and your lead gen agency should be using them too. Ask your potential agency how they generate leads, how many they expect to generate, and how they determine if the leads are qualified for you. Most important, ask them how they determine if their efforts for you are successful and what they will do if their efforts don’t reach that standard. 

Bottom Line

You will be relying on the expertise of the lead gen agency, so you need to be sure they have true expertise. A top quality agency will ask you similar questions to determine if you are the right client for their services, and they will have concrete goals for work together. If their goals don’t match your goals, start looking for another agency.

Generating Sales Leads Through Social Media

Facebook has over 2.4 billion users. Instagram has 1 billion users. Twitter has 1.2 million users. With that kind of audience, your business marketing strategy better include social media as a source for generating sales leads. But you won’t get results with half-hearted attempts. Develop a clear strategy to reach your target audiences.

Content

Posting quality content to your social media accounts can help generate and convert traffic. Address topics that concern your potential customers, call out their pain points, and provide actionable answers to their questions. Then link your posts across the various platforms and your own website. Become a source of truly useful information to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. When prospects are ready to purchase, they’ll know who to go to for products and services. 

Ads

Social media advertising allows you to market to your specific audience, build momentum, and generate a steady flow of leads. But don’t just throw money at social media ads and hope for the best. Start with the training and tutorials offered by each platform and learn how to create a successful campaign. You have the option of setting specific parameters for who you want to target, so take the time to develop detailed personas of your client base. Then create ads with focused messaging, quality images, and clear calls to action.

Conclusion

Social media can be a rich source of leads if you put the effort into doing it well. Post quality content, develop strategic ad campaigns, and direct traffic to actionable landing pages on your website. Most of all, consistency is the key to gaining social media momentum.

How to Choose a B2B Lead Gen Agency

B2B lead generation is no game. A steady flow of leads directly impacts the sales and revenue of a business, so it’s no wonder companies spend thousands of dollars to ensure a healthy pipeline. Contracting a B2B lead gen agency can make this time-consuming effort more cost effective.

However, since sourcing quality and quantity B2B leads is sometimes as much art as it is science, make sure to find the right agency for your business. Consider these attributes when conducting your search.

Expertise

Many agencies work within a specific industry and are familiar with the products, services, and terminology of that industry. Because of that experience, they are more likely to understand your business, your target audiences, and the pain points of your qualified leads. Find an agency with that built-in expertise in your industry so they can spend less time trying to understand you and more time sourcing your leads.

References

While years of experience is frequently a good indicator of quality work, lead generation is a game that changes every day. With new technologies and processes, younger firms also have the opportunity to get results. Instead of simply looking at the date the agency was founded, ask for references and call those clients. Talk to someone who worked directly with the agency about their experience, the agency’s workflow, style, and responsiveness. Finally, as whether they got the results they had hoped for.

Bottom Line

There are thousands of B2B lead gen agencies out there. Finding the right one doesn’t have to be like pulling a name out of a hat and hoping it’s a good one. Do the research, ask the questions, and get that perfect partnership.