New school marketers brought up in the Digital Age are often criticized for their lack of ROI. Having hundreds of likes on Instagram and thousands of followers on your company’s Twitter page might be the point of envy for some, but your old school execs probably aren’t impressed. The number of views from your last video and the amount of new sign-ups for the company’s newsletter don’t necessarily concern them. What they’re looking for is a profit.
Generating revenue from your online impressions is a small step in the digital marketing evolution. Your strategy should encompass everything from the first clicks on a user’s journey to the final taps of your company’s accountant. View your efforts in the context of your business’ larger revenue cycle. This process is by no means an easy one, but it is possible!
These five steps will help you transform your leads to revenue.
1: Knock, Knock!
Back in the day, if your company was about to seal the deal with a big client, there was usually a breadbasket involved ¾ dinner parties were the perfect setting for establishing trust between two business leaders. They also created great opportunities for your boss to crack his good old golf joke. Dinner jokes may seem like a cliché, but they play an integral role in the night’s timeline. You see, when you make someone laugh, you slowly establish a sense of trust with them, and in turn they’re more inclined to accept your offers.
You don’t have to take every single user out to dinner, but the same things can be achieved on a digital stage. Draw in users with your humor! Hubspot writer Kim Speier notes, “The brands that make humor work are authentic; they know their persona and they run with it.” A couple of brands who have made this technique work are Charmin, Clorox, and Old Spice. If your funny bone is an acquired taste, ask your local digital marketing agency for advice on how to start out. Use their SEO services to see which jokes actually get them laughing.
However, they didn’t just make people laugh; they made the humor relatable with real life situations, and that’s what made their brands memorable when shoppers went to the grocery store.
What You See is What You Get
You can do all the market research, hire the best designers, curate the most thoughtful marketing strategy, but all of it is meaningless if you aren’t satisfying your customers. One of the biggest challenges marketers are facing today is generating enough traffic and leads. According to Hubspot, this is an issue because marketers are unsure of where to focus their efforts.
Another factor contributing to the chaos is not having a big enough budget. Many companies are lucky enough to be able to employ a digital marketing agency, but if you’re a small business it can be really tough. It’s heartbreaking when your company needs to make cuts and you’re forced to work on a smaller budget, but we all have to work with what we’ve got!
2: Nose to the Ground
One of the cheapest and most effective ways to drive leads is to keep your nose to the ground and listen to your users. Engage with your audience on a regular basis! When they comment on one of your blog posts, write back. When they reply to your video on social, like their comments. Show your users you’re paying attention, especially when they write reviews on your products. Listen to feedback and view it in a constructive lens. Then provide your users with excellent customer service.
Furthermore, 92% of consumers nowadays read reviews and 80% of them trust them just as much as personal recommendations. Many brands will look to SEO services to hold the top rankings on SERPs, but you can land there organically with the help of your users. Your company reviews could be the main reason why all your leads are generating revenue, or they could be the reason why none of your leads are.
The choice is yours!
3: Influence Your Network
Influencers are powerful tools because they’re your public advocates. Jeff Bullas, digital entrepreneur and marketing blogger, says influencers will help generate more leads for your business because “your potential customers will see this as proof of your credibility and increase your chance of attracting new leads.” When increasing brand awareness on a larger scale, you’re also tapping into their networks the same way a top-notch digital marketing agency would. Check out this list of 20 marketing thought leaders you need to be following; maybe your future influencer is on this list.
4: Crown Your King
Dedicate time to creating high quality and informative content.
As Jeff Bullas puts it, “High quality content can be an asset for you as it attracts traffic to your website well beyond its publish date.” When your site produces material that consumers find useful, or your socials have relevant posts, users will flock to your channels because you’re providing them with the information they’re looking for.
When Zuckerberg aimed to turn Facebook into everyone’s go-to place to hear news, he hit a bulls eye. Become a leader in your industry. Publish blogs and create content that speaks to the current issues your users are speaking about. Develop theories, start trends, and take risks with your content. Find SEO Services that will show your team what kind of content is being engaged with on a regular basis and mold your content in that image…and make it better! Once you’ve tested the waters, report back with the analytics and update your strategy.
5: Shake Some Hands
Initiate the conversation.
Outbound marketing is still an invaluable tool and, as it happens, is still more effective than inbound marketing. Do it the old fashioned way; go out and have a conversation with real people. Take away the phone, the screen, the internet and just talk. Alejandro Rioja, entrepreneur and founder of Flux Ventures, got his edge by doing exactly that.
“Since not many people knew our brand existed, we had to go and personally sell our product to people in the streets. I probably approached hundreds if not thousands of tourists in the streets of Santa Monica and Venice, CA and pitched my product to them. The more I pitched, the more feedback I got, and the better our brand and product became.”
This is a classic example of going out and getting what you want! Be raw and genuine with your audience by meeting them in person. If that’s too out of the ordinary for you, try another old school tactic: snail mail! 53.5% of consumers report it’s the most effective way to reach them, so box it up, seal it with a kiss, and send your message their way.
Tip Rewind
Transforming leads to revenue is an entire process that needs to be thought out carefully. Lots of hard and deliberate decisions must be made in order to produce your desired results, but it will all pay off in the end! Remember, it’s about the journey and not the destination. Let’s see the steps one more time:
- Use humor to make your users laugh and draw in leads
- Engage with your audience and listen to your reviews
- Connect with influencers to establish your credibility
- Take time to produce quality informative content
- Use old school marketing tactics to revamp your strategy
