Filtering all the leads will help you proceed to the M.Q.L.s (marketing qualified leads) and S.Q.L.s (sales qualified leads), so you will know where to invest time and money.
There are many ways to collect leads some of them are free and for the others, you have to pay. Before you start collecting leads keep in mind this: You don’t need tons of leads that have no correlation with your company, you need leads that are very close to your target customers. So if you are an accountant having 100 emails from company owners is more valuable than having 1.000 emails from women who have bought shoes.
That said the first step is to create your buying persona (or multiple buying personas) and target them. That will save you time and money later, when you will have to categorize your leads.
Collect the data from your website visitors:
Before you start spending your $$ make sure you collect as many leads as you can from your website visitors. Use widgets asking their email to subscribe to your newsletter, offer a guide (delivered to their email) or webinars, offer discounts for subscribers, and use the exit intent page.
As mentioned before you have to collect as much data as you need in order to better categorize your leads. Yet having big forms will discourage people to complete them. Ask their email and their first name, then send them an email asking for more info, using, for example, a nice survey.
Here is a widget that offers gifts (discounts and free products), in order to play you have to give your email and then you spin.
Using Facebook Messenger
In my previous article, we discussed chatbots and out-of-the-box ways and tactics we can use them. Chatbots can be used to collect leads. Create a quiz and ask for the email in order to send the results.
You can go on step further and create a sequence of questions that can help you identify the MQLs and SQLs.
Here are two of the questions we ask in our chatbot in order to categorize the leads.
If you want to go one step further you can use the Facebook Comments Growth Tool. Using this when someone comments a specific word or phrase (coupon for example) they will receive an automated message (the coupon code in this case). You can also ask their email to send the coupon there.
Manychat offers a big variety of Growth tools you can use as touchpoints. Full-screen messages, buttons, boxes, links, exit-intent pages, and many more.
Create properties
Having many properties and using touchpoints on them is a great way to collect leads. Use and promote all your digital properties (social media accounts, website pages) and also use friendly properties in order to have as many touchpoints a possible.
Furthermore, you can use your physical properties (stores for example) as touchpoints. Create QR codes and your customers to complete a form (maybe by offering a discount). When designing these, keep in mind what is the minimum size for QR codes to ensure they can be easily scanned by customers.
Also, you can ask their email for free wifi (or ask them to scan your Facebook messenger code) if you are a hotel or a cafe. We also discussed how you can use chatbots to create loyalty programs.
In GrowthRocks we use our business cards as a touchpoint, inserting the Facebook Messenger Code on them.
Paid Advertising for lead generation
Once you create something valuable (a guide, free webinars), you can promote it on social media platforms. You can create a landing page as a destination, where you will ask for the email and some more info and then send the guide or credentials to enter the webinar.
Furthermore, some platforms offer Lead Generation as an ad type. You can create this ad and people will be asked to fill in the info you need. Some of the info (like name and email) will be automatically filled making it very easy for the user to complete the form.
Here is an example of a Lead ad on Facebook.
Using referral programs
One of the best ways to generate leads is by using referral programs. Either leaderboards or contests you can activate people and make them bring you leads.
Referral programs are used by companies like Airbnb, Facebook, Dropbox. The main idea is to offer something (exclusive content, gifts, discounts) and ask people to bring you leads. For example, Dropbox offers extra space for every people you refer and creates an account. Airbnb offers discounts to both you and the person you will refer to once he makes his first booking. Social networks are based on the word of mouth and offer you many ways to invite people from your network into the platform.
Viral Loops offers a big variety of referral programs like milestones, eCommerce referrals, leaderboards, and prelaunch.
This is a leaderboard created by Viral Loops.
The black hat way
You can always find leads using “grey” or illegal means. Buying email lists is a way to increase your leads. You can send cold emails or create custom audiences on Facebook, Adwords etc.
Furthermore, there are tools that can help you scrape web pages and collect info (emails, names) or collect data from Facebook groups
AND PAY FINES
You have to be extremely careful especially after 25/5/2018 (G.D.P.R. becomes enforceable), or otherwise, you will have to face big fines.
Therefore, building an email list is usually a better option.
Before You Go
Leads are essential for your strategy. You can collect them by using the traffic of your website, with Paid Advertising, using a referral program, or with Black hat tactics.
So, create your buying personas and start collecting leads :-).
Theodore has 20 years of experience running successful and profitable software products. In his free time, he coaches and consults startups. His career includes managerial posts for companies in the UK and abroad, and he has significant skills in intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship.
