Do you need to make another lead generator for your client, but you’re failing to come up with new ideas?
Any incredible marketing campaign starts with new, eye-catching ideas; however, the creative process can require a significant time investment. Sometimes that extra time isn’t available with your demanding workload and facing client deadlines. That's where lead generators come in.
We’ve created a list of examples that will help you find the best money-making lead generators that will help you catch the attention of new clients and give you new creative energy for the old.
Keep reading for a dose of inspiration to kickstart your creativity.
Example #1: Expert Interviews
Expert interviews help customers know that multiple people believe in your company, not just you. Interviews can often provide a unique point-of-view for your content. Getting expert interviews are relatively straightforward. You can get them by reaching out respectfully to leaders in that niche. LinkedIn is an excellent resource for reaching out to industry leaders.
One of the perks of doing expert interviews is that there’s a chance to uncover expert secrets. Giving useful information shows the customer that you are committed to delivering the best expert advice and insight into the market.
In this interview with The Foundation’s CEO, Andy Drish discusses how expert interviews and influencers skyrocketed his career. In it, Drish explains how he frequently interviewed successful entrepreneurs and used a specific set of questions he knew everyone would want to see the answer to. By sharing these useful things with his readers, he kept them engaged, which brought them back for more creating engagement on his blog.
The interview with Drish is packed full of quotes, valuable business lessons, and plenty of actionable takeaways for anyone out there starting a new business. It also includes a popular interactive feature often seen on Reddit called “Ask Me Anything (AMA) which places the interview subject directly in the comments section.
This simple task allows Drish to continue his life lessons and expert advice with his readers, helping to push Groove’s reputation as a reliable source for expert information among its entrepreneurial audience.
Example #2: Interactive Tools
There’s a reason why brands like HubSpot, Moz, and Unbounce have invested the time and effort to create free tools. Tool-based marketing is one of the most popular marketing concepts because simple interactive ideas can generate multiple qualified leads.
In this example, we’ll look at Larry Kim, CEO of MobileMonkey. Kim states MobileMonkey developed a Free Keyword Tool for the Wordstream website so that marketers could use it to find new keywords in just a few minutes flat. The creation happened after Google decided to no longer use its free keyword tool, instead of pushing users to use the new Keyword Planner in the Adwords platform.
While some companies may look at the cost and value of their resources and employees when producing a free tool for users, Kim showed that they were able to generate more leads with their investment providing a high return on their cost.
Here’s how this Free Keyword Tool works: Just enter the URL website or a keyword that describes the subject you want to analyze. If you need to whittle things down, you can filter that search by choosing the industry and country.
What makes this tool unique from any keyword search is the way it displays the results. Once you press the “Search” button, you will instantly see some of the related keywords. All the other information is hidden, blurred, or obscured, keeping things focused.
The blur creates a curiosity gap for visitors, who feel like they’ve already started the process of researching their keyword. Once they have begun, all they need to do is take this next step to get their full results. And to do this, all they have to do is enter their email address. And that’s how you capture a new lead.
Example #3: Webinars
While webinars are widely popular in the business world for virtual meetings and information sessions, In the new world of COVID, it has become the norm to hold seminars and conferences solely online.
Bench Builders hosts their weekly webinars interviewing industry leaders for tips, tactics, and advice to help business owners. People who sign up for their newest webinar will get a reply from Bench Builders with the current webinar sent to their email, giving them the chance to own the webinar for later viewing. A copy of the webinar is handy for business owners who want to refer back to the information when there are tips or tricks they may wish to implement later.
Bench Builders publish their past webinars on their website, which helps to generate more organic traffic and email signups for webinars. By doing this, Bench Builders is fostering a safe atmosphere where customers can share their and also get free useful information.
Example #4: Video Courses/Coaching
Who doesn’t need a few daily reminders? The problem is, we slowly start to ignore the Post-it notes scattered all over our desks or computer screen.
That’s where Donald Miller comes in. Miller has found success with fun, short videos he sends to his subscribers. In these daily mini vlogs, Miller teaches business owners how to be active and efficient CEOs. Yes, you really can get all the coaching you need in these bite-sized pieces that you can ponder over while drinking your first-morning cup of coffee.
Example #5: Set up a Referral Program
92% of people trust recommendations from friends over other types of advertising — making word-of-mouth one of the most powerful types of marketing you can do.
But most people don't take control of word-of-mouth marketing. They just trust that people will continue to spread the word and they will get a steady flow of new business.
I don't know about you, but I like to know for sure I have new revenue coming and not leave it to chance.
A referral program is a great way to get the word out about your business. You can offer incentives like discounts or even free stuff for referring others, and both referrers AND referees will enjoy them!
Most referral programs offer either cash or non-cash incentives.
Cash incentives include things like gift cards where non-cash can be discounts, store credits, your product, etc.
For example, Dropbox's program is gamified to give away more storage when you refer people to their service.
Example #6: Podcasts
It seems like there are more podcasts everyday, but that’s because people are listening now more than ever. People love podcasts because they feel like a conversation they’re a part of. Listeners also tend to develop a bond with their hosts over the long-term.
Podcasters will use their podcasts to generate more leads by having listeners subscribe to their mailing list so they can receive the latest news, updates, and podcasts. Business owners can do this by posting their first podcast on their website to hook listeners and bait them into a subscription.
Example #7: Guides/eBooks
Free guides and eBooks are a great way to attract leads, and it’s effortless to get started. Digital Marketer offers a free guide to digital marketing, catering to in-house marketing professionals, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and marketing agencies. Every time someone enters their email for the free guide, they gain a lead.
Example #8: Checklists
Does your blog have instructional blog posts? If you do, take another look at them because these types of posts are just waiting to be turned into Checklists. Checklists are super easy to create from a blog post, just turn that post into a set of bullet points.
Remove any points that don’t contain any actionable advice and then split the list into several numbered steps, which make the outcome more achievable. Offer the checklist in free download form so people can print it and check things off the list.
People love to have that sense of achievement. If you make Checklists, they will come. As a bonus, add a bundle of Checklists for free with email signup to gain leads.
The Ultimate Webinar Checklist from HubSpot above is a practical and valuable lead magnet. Hosting a webinar is a balancing act, and webinars are extremely popular right now, as we’ve previously discussed. Having a checklist like this is helpful for all the new webinar hosts and informs them of everything they need pre- and post-webinar.
Example #9: Cheat Sheets
If your blogs cover complicated topics, a great idea is to offer readers a cheat sheet. Cheat sheets are one-page sheets that they can refer back to when they need to refresh their memory. Cheat sheets can include things like definitions of keywords or a summary of key points.
Having a cheat sheet takes the pressure off readers, so they don’t have to remember all of your key points or feel like they have to implement your strategies immediately. Instead, it just requires readers to opt-in to your list, especially if you’re having them enter emails before download.
In this example, Jay Acunzo offers a Visual Cheat-Sheet for Editing to Help You Move Faster. The goal with this Cheat Sheet is to help readers edit their work while moving quickly through the process. Cheat Sheets provide people something to quickly glance at while working through their tasks, making it a complementary tool for an existing process.
Example #10: Guestbooks
Guest blogging is a well-known backlinking strategy, but it doesn’t come without strings. For many, to have quality content on their blogs, website owners will request that guest blogs are exclusive to them and not be published elsewhere. The agreement is common because Google prefers high-quality content over duplicate content.
If your guest bloggers are not willing to be exclusive to you with their content, what you can do is put all of these pieces in an eBook format and offer it as a signup freebie. If you already have the blog content, all you have to do is set up lead magnets and an email campaign that adds them to your contact database.
Example #11: Workbooks/Worksheets
Workbooks can bring an enticing lead generator when used correctly. For example, our Content Funnel Planning Workbook helps agency owners like yourself plan out all the content you need to present topics your clients need to be known for.
