by  BUSYSOFTWARE

7 Lead Management Tips for Small Businesses

Expansion of the customer base is a key priority for most small businesses. Business growth is a long-term process and can be challenging. Which is why entrepreneurs should consistently work towards lead generation. So, what is lead generation exactly? Let us first understand what constitutes a lead.

A person or a business that is interested in the products or services you are offering is a lead for your company. Simply put, they are your potential customers. Lead generation is a process of invoking interest in a client so that a sales pipeline can be established. This helps in generating revenue for your business.

Here we will discuss some effective tips that will help your sales and marketing team target the right leads and get them to buy your product or service. Let us get started!

Tip 1: Know Your Audience
Your first job is to identify your target audience. Having a vague idea of who they are is not going to work. Research thoroughly about factors such as age, gender, education, occupation, location, lifestyle, and interests. You can also dig in more and get numerous other parameters to shortlist your target audience. Being specific will prevent you from wasting resources and time on those leads that are not going to get converted. To get started, ask the marketing team to put together a detailed report on your potential target market and their behaviour.

Tip 2: Make the Most of the Social Media Platforms
At the moment, social media is the most popular medium where you can easily interact with your target audience. The best part is that it is free of cost. Cultivate your presence on major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to attract new customers and engage the existing ones. Create quality content and ensure that you are well-versed with the current trends so that you can effortlessly converse with the followers. These online conversations can help you understand your customers’ thought process, which in turn will assist you in improving your lead generation tactics.

Tip 3: Use Paid Advertising
Once you have narrowed down your target audience and the best mediums, you can use paid advertising to widen your reach. Are you worried that you have to spend a big amount? Worry not. You can promote your business through social media platforms that are extremely economical. Even then, start by buying a small amount of ad space just to figure out how it benefits your business. If you are getting a positive response, then you can think about capitalizing on ads by investing more.

Tip 4: Use Analytics
Go for the top lead management software that can help you analyse, collect and track the sales leads. It helps you in keeping all your leads in a centralized database. You can also manage the existing as well as the prospective leads so that they do not get lost in the pipeline. Managing your leads through a lead management software helps you to save a lot of time, resources and database errors.

Apart from the lead management software there are free analytics tools such as Google analytics that can help you monitor your website’s performance. It gives you statistics on factors like number of visits, locations, popular pages, bounce rate, etc. This gives you an idea of how your potential leads behave and what kind of content you should cash on as well as avoid so that you can push the conversion rate. You will find similar analytics tools on social media platforms too. Use these tools consistently so that you can grow your organic reach and minimize your dependence on paid promotion.

Tip 5: Get Eventful
If you are involved in B2B products and services, then events can prove to be of great means to approach your potential leads. Speak at conferences and local events to share your knowledge and gain recognition. Another way is to host webinars to remotely connect with people. Participating in business expos is also a good idea to make new contacts and observe what your competitors are up to. Plus, if your company is organizing an event, then you can also live stream it on social media platforms or YouTube to widen your reach. However, owing to the current times of lockdown, webinars and social media live streams are great for connecting and interacting with your potential audience.

Tip 6: Try email marketing
Email marketing can be a successful way to retain your existing clients and encourage them to buy your products and services again. However, make sure that you use email marketing very carefully. You do not want to end up annoying the leads with thousands of meaningless emails that will ultimately cause them to unsubscribe. Relevant content is must. It is equally important to be thoughtful of what your email communication is. Go through the mailer two to three times before sending it out to your target audience. Make sure you send emails in the appropriate amount and their content is relevant and of top-notch quality.

Tip 7: Offer free samples or trials
Free samples or trials is a great technique that allows the lead to experience your product or service. You can give out samples during events and even add them in shopping bags and deliveries. On the other hand, if you are selling virtual products such as software then you can urge visitors to sign up for a 30-day trial so that they get a chance to use some of your best features, which will hopefully encourage them to make a purchase. After all, a small freebie does not hurt anyone, right?

Lead management can be a long-drawn process that encompasses a lot of trial and error. However, it is important to stick to it, so that you can create a sales system that suits your company and clients the best. Likewise, your lead generation strategy should be dynamic so that it effectively serves the changing needs of the client.