Leads are important if your business is seeking to generate sales. A lead is a person or business that is interested in the products or services that you are selling. Without a constant flow of leads in your pipeline, your business will struggle to make sales.
According to Small Business Trends, for 50% of micro business owners, (businesses with 10 people or less), getting customers was the #1 challenge.
You can’t get customers if you don’t have a constant flow of leads.
So, why aren’t you generating leads?
You don’t have a solid marketing strategy in place
A marketing strategy is a plan of action to get you from where you are to where you want to be. If your goal is to reach $1,000,000 in revenue this year, you need a clear plan with objectives and actionable steps that you’re going to take to get there. Then, you need to execute on your plan consistently.
You’re relying on referrals and word of mouth
Don’t get me wrong, I love referrals, but relying on referrals alone will keep your business in a constant state of feast or famine. This is because you never really know when you might get another referral. Another reason is that most business owners that rely on referrals do not have a strategy in place to actively generate referrals.
Your website isn’t designed to convert visitors into leads
Most websites are simply a brochure that provides information, but are not designed to convert visitors into leads. A great example is when you land on a website, but there isn’t any message above the fold, so you have no idea what that company does. You need to ensure that your website has a strategically placed call to action, social proof that will resonate with your target audience, compelling content that clearly communicates your value, and lead magnets that will get your visitors to act.
You don’t have a follow-up strategy in place
“98% of consumers don’t make a purchase during their initial visit to a brand website.” Therefore, you need a strategy in place that will allow you to continue to follow up with visitors. Ideally, you will want to acquire their email address by making an irresistible offer that cause them to want to exchange their email. You should also seek to acquire their mobile phone number for text message marketing. However, if you’re not able to do so, an easy option to remain at the top of your visitors’ minds is retargeting, which is the practice of continuing to show ads to prior visitors once they have visited your website.
Your website isn’t user-friendly
Investing in a robust website is one of the best decisions that you’ll ever make as a small business owner. Your website is crucial to your success, as it serves as a major gateway for you to engage with your target market.
Having said that, you need to make sure that the user interface is easy to understand and navigate. Simplicity is key, so make sure your website has quick loading times and that all the buttons, checkboxes, and links are working. Also, be sure to have a concise checkout or payment processing system if you are an ecommerce business.
Without taking these steps, your audience will be frustrated and compelled to look elsewhere.
You lack consistency
Too many small business owners try to do everything themselves. If you get too busy servicing your customers, things will fall through the cracks, such as your marketing. For example, if you’re managing your social media yourself, and you didn’t plan and schedule your daily post ahead of time, you may go days or even weeks without posting, which will lead to lackluster results.
You give up too soon
I see it all the time: a business gets excited about launching a marketing campaign, but the results don’t come in right away and they give up. You need to give your campaigns time to work. As you run your campaigns, you are going to learn what works and what doesn’t, which will allow you to continue to optimize and achieve better results. According to the rule of seven, a prospect needs to see or hear your message at least seven times before they will take action to buy. If you stop your campaigns too soon, the chances of you generating sales are very slim.