As a business owner or marketer, you're always looking for ways to bring new prospective customers into your sales funnel. Without a steady stream of leads, your sales pipeline can quickly dry up. That's why an effective lead generation strategy is so critical.
Lead generation encompasses all the marketing activities aimed at identifying, nurturing, and qualifying potential buyers for your products or services. Done well, it keeps your funnel full of sales-ready leads. But generating quality leads is often easier said than done these days with so much digital noise and competition for attention.
Here, we'll explore proven lead generation tactics and how AlphaGraphics' integrated marketing solutions can power up your lead gen engine. Let's dive in!
The Importance of Multichannel Lead Generation
There was a time when businesses could rely primarily on one or two lead sources like trade shows or print advertising. But today's buyers are continually bombarded with marketing messages across a multitude of channels.
That means you need to take a multichannel approach, leveraging both digital and traditional marketing channels to effectively reach and engage your target audience at multiple touchpoints along their buyer's journey. The Marketing Rule of Seven says that you need to reach your audience at least seven times in order to influence their decision. When you open up more channels for lead capture, you exponentially increase your opportunities to get in front of the right prospects with the right messaging at the right time.
The channels you'll want to focus on will depend on your business, products/services, and target customer profiles. But some of the most effective channels for lead generation today include:
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Email marketing
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Content marketing (blogs, ebooks, webinars etc.)
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Social media marketing
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Search engine marketing (SEO and paid ads)
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Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM)®
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Events and tradeshows
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Referrals
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Telemarketing
The key is strategically integrating these channels so your lead generation efforts are cohesive, cost-effective, and delivering consistent branding across every touchpoint. Done well, multichannel lead gen can shorten your sales cycle, improve lead quality, and boost conversion rates.
The Power of Print for Generating Leads
While digital lead gen channels are important, it’s a combination of online and offline channels that will best power your lead generation strategy. Printed marketing materials can be highly effective for capturing attention and driving response in our digital age precisely because they provide a refreshing tangible experience. In fact, direct mail is more effective than ever, especially used in combination with other tactics.
Most people are bombarded by hundreds of digital ads and emails every day, which are relatively easy to skim past or outright ignore. But a well-designed printed piece that arrives in their mailbox or that they pick up at an event has a much better chance of stopping them in their tracks.
That's why integrating print elements into your lead gen mix is so important. Consider printed pieces like:
These can all play a powerful role in attracting interest from new prospects and driving them to your website or storefront where they can then be nurtured and converted.
Directional Signs and Graphics: A Lead Generation Secret Weapon
While most businesses think of signs primarily as branding and wayfinding tools, did you know strategic signage and graphics can also be an incredibly effective lead generation solution?
Think about how many potential buyers are passing by your storefront or business every day. Are you taking advantage of bold, eye-catching signs and window graphics to capture their attention and drive them to action? With smart signage, you can entice prospects to come inside, sign up for your mailing list, scan a QR code, attend an event, or take another first step into your sales funnel.
The Bottom Line on Direct Mail for Leads
While you may think of it as a "traditional" channel, direct mail continues to be one of the most powerful and cost-effective lead generation solutions available today. Despite the digital revolution, direct mail has endured and evolved as a lead gen superstar for one simple reason – it works!
Industry research shows that prospects are actually more likely to engage with and convert from direct mail pieces than digital channels like email marketing. When executed properly with smart data analytics and variable data printing for personalization, direct mail delivers exceptional ROI for lead generation programs.
Lead Scoring And Qualification
Of course, generating a ton of raw leads is only half the battle. You need proven strategies for qualifying, prioritizing, and scoring those leads as well so your sales team can focus their efforts on the hottest, most sales-ready prospects.
Lead scoring is the practice of assigning numerical values to each lead based on how well they match your target buyer profiles and exhibit engagement behaviors that indicate sales-readiness. Factors used for scoring can include things like:
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Demographics/firmographics data matching your ideal customer profile
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Email open and click-through rates
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Content engagement behavior
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Event attendance
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Demo requests
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Site activity and web behaviors
Higher numerical scores get assigned to the hottest, most qualified leads so your sales team can prioritize their outreach accordingly to the most sales-ready opportunities.
Lead nurturing workflows, progressive profiling, and marketing automation tools all play a key role in developing and implementing an intelligent lead scoring and qualification system. And of course, your overall lead volume and quality will dictate how successful your nurturing, scoring, and sales pipeline process can be.
That's why integrating physical marketing into your lead gen efforts is so powerful. These tangible, offline channels tend to drive incredibly high engagement and response rates. So combined with your digital marketing, you'll be generating more high-quality leads that you can cultivate and score for sales prioritization.
AlphaGraphics: Your Local Lead Generation Partner
From lead-driving direct mail campaigns to eye-catching signage and vibrant print materials, AlphaGraphics is your local source for integrated marketing solutions that fill your funnel with quality leads.
Our marketing professionals can help at any stage of your lead gen process:
We bring all the capabilities together under one roof to execute unified, multichannel lead gen campaigns that reach your customers through multiple touchpoints and drive response. So you're able to attract, capture, and convert more of the right buyers for your business.
Want to optimize your lead generation efforts? Partner with the lead gen experts at AlphaGraphics today!