No matter what kind of business you run, generating leads is an important part of creating an effective content strategy. In last week’s article, we discussed how to use lead generation in your market strategy. In this article, we will be looking at specific methods you can use to begin generating leads. The reality is there are actually many ways to generate leads and when you’re just starting out, it can be overwhelming. The important thing to remember is not all leads are the same, and the way you generate leads needs to reflect the different lifecycle stages.

What is a Lead?

To quickly recap – what is a lead? According to HubSpot, a lead is any person who indicates interest in a company's product or service in some way, shape, or form. There are several ways people can reach out to companies; they may fill out a form on the website, call directly, visit their office or retail premise and more recently reach out via social media.

Now that we know what a lead is, let's look at 7 creative lead generation ideas.

Creative Lead Generation Ideas

1. Helpful Videos that Solve Potential Customers’ Issues

Informational, educational and helpful videos that solve a real issue for potential customers in a way that’s both entertaining and easily digestible is a great way to secure leads. You can easily create and upload a video to YouTube/Vimeo, embed that video link into a blog, post it on social media and send it out in an email EDM. If website visitors learn something useful from your business even just once, they’re more likely to do it again and may come back to you, ready to buy.

2. Leverage Customer Reviews

To leverage customer reviews, as the tip suggests, you need to have secured customers already. The power of customer reviews cannot and should not be ignored. Did you know 88% of buyers are influenced in their buying decision by reviews? Or that displaying reviews can increase conversion rates by 270%? Not to mention review platforms generally have a strong presence in organic search, making them a great way to expand your business presence and get noticed by the right people. When you encourage customers to leave a review on third-party platforms with strong SEO like Google, you increase the chances of being found by qualified prospects.

3. Create an Interactive Quiz

Interactive quizzes on your website are a great way for people to learn more about themselves, and what your business offers. The way a quiz generates leads is in order to access their results, quiz takers need to provide their email. Quizzes can be highly rewarding for both you and prospects because not only do they learn something about themselves, but at the same time they can learn about your company and how you may be able to help them.

4. Create an Email Course

Email courses are effectively like accessing a real life class, but for free. And, especially in the era we currently live in where everything is now going online, offering a well-developed and insightful email course is an incredibly useful way to generate leads for your business. Creating an email course is especially helpful for in-depth topics that would be best learned in a class environment. For example, as an Inbound Marketing specialist, I might offer an email course along the lines of: 20 Handy Content Strategy Tips in 20 Days.

5. Provide Deep-Dive Answers for Hard Questions

There are countless blogs, websites and resources out there. Type in any question about absolutely any topic on Google and you’ll find an article with answers. Yet have you ever thought about how many really good answers there are online? One of the main benefits of creating buyer personas is you learn the challenges and issues your prospects are facing in their lives. So, if you take the time to create an in-depth, step-by-step article that answers a burning question about an issue your prospect is facing, this serves as an excellent way to create a new lead. For example, you could create a blog post answering a question, and then link to an ebook which goes into more depth. In order for the prospect to access the ebook, they’ll hand over their email and just like that, you have a lead.

6. Host a Giveaway

Everyone loves a giveaway, right? In fact, giveaways are one of the most successful forms of lead generation. It’s important to remember, however, that if not done correctly, you could just end up with a stack of junk leads, which is a waste of your time. So, how do you host a giveaway correctly? Give away something people actually want. For example, as a marketing specialist, I might offer a free marketing strategy valued at $5,000. This kind of offer will not only generate qualified leads, but will also increase email subscribers and social media engagement.

7. Strategic Alliance

A strategic alliance or joint venture with another organisation whose audience is the same as your buyers is a great way to generate leads. Some simple ways you can do this are; guest blogging, creating a webinar or podcast together, or a contra agreement to promote each other’s business on social media or through email marketing.

Here are some quick tips to ensure your lead generation campaigns are successful:

• Understand why you’re doing it. Is it to generate new leads or nurture existing leads?
• Get clear who you’re targeting - which buyer persona are you targeting?
• Know where they are in the buyer's journey and their lead lifecycle stage so you can make sure that what you’re offering is of value and interest to them.
• Be specific with who you’re targeting don’t try to reach everyone, just the right people.
• Track and measure results so you can determine the return on investment (ROI) and if it was successful or not.