8 Lead Generation Strategies for 2020

by Christina Hooper.
Last Updated on May 8, 2022

A business that does not grow goes out of business. And exactly how does a business grow? It continues to make sales. Those sales do not come out of thin air. 

They are the result of carefully planned and executed strategies that garner potential customer interest. These might include branding, content marketing, social media, digital advertising, and more.

So, how will you spend your time and money on lead generation throughout the rest of 2020? Here is a list of eight strategies you can choose from. 

Are you in a hurry? Click here to skip down to the quick recap and snag your free marketing strategy guide before you go.

1. Use Video Marketing

This is, hands down, the most popular form of content marketing today. People are busy and in a hurry. 

They don’t want to read walls of text, especially on their mobile devices. And here’s a bit of research to motivate you:

90% of the information sent to the brain is visual. These visuals are processed 60,000X faster than text, and posts that contain videos attract 3X more inbound links than those with only text. 

Here are some ways you can use video as a lead generation strategy:

  • Use video on your landing pages. These can address the pain points your audience has and your valuable solutions.
  • You can collect email addresses within your videos, with tools provided by Wistia and YouTube.
  • You can also place CTA’s within or at the end of your videos.
  • If you create a popular video that is receiving lots of views, place that video elsewhere – on social media and in your paid advertising. 

2. Craft Interactive Content

This is always an attraction. When visitors can interact with your content, they tend to stay more engaged. It’s also a great way to capture user data, like an email address for further communication.

Here are a few types of interactivity you should consider:

  • Quizzes and surveys – can be gated for participation
  • Interactive calculators (if appropriate for your business). This is a frequent type of content used by realtors and mortgage lenders, for example.
  • Webinars in which viewers can participate in discussions or ask questions
  • Interactive e-books, also gated with an email address.

Here’s the thing about interactivity. Visitors do engage, and it promotes your brand and makes you memorable. 

A few key points here, as you consider your strategy in this area:

  • You need to identify your customer’s buyer journey and plot out interactivity at each stage of that journey. Generally, quizzes and contests should occur early on to capture initial interest. Such things as e-books and calculators are better further into that journey.
  • Create profiles of your ideal customers. These should drive the items in your quizzes and surveys.
  • Always have a CTA that will take that potential customer to the next stage in their journey
  • And always follow-up. Once you have an email or other contact information, keep the conversation moving along, perhaps through email that offers other ways to engage with your brand. This is the time to offer an e-book or a webinar.
  • All along the way, offer opt-in points, such as a subscription to your blog or newsletter. 

3. Use Pop-Ups, But with a Pre-Planned Purpose

Generally, people are irritated by pop-ups as they visit your website. But they can be good lead generation tools if you use them right. 

Pop-ups can provide access to valuable and informative content, to a free trial, a key blog post, or a webinar. 

Generally, signing up for a newsletter is not a big enough incentive. As you design your pop-ups, put them in place, and use several different ones. 

You can test these for effectiveness, discard those that are not working well and continue to use those that are resonating. Use a tool like OptinMonster to give you the detail you need.

4. Use Live Chat on Your Site

The key to live chat is a rapid response. No one is going to sit around and wait for an answer to their questions or issues. 

It’s fine to use a chatbot if you are aware of the most commonly asked questions. But, again, the key will be a rapid response.

You can also use your chat feature to announce a new product or service, to provide links to such things as webinars, and even to ask for an email address to access valuable content they want or need.

“We introduced a live chat feature three years ago. Our initial approach was to have operators on board 24 hours a day to respond in a personalized way. 

We expanded into the use of a chatbot, and as the technology got better, and we were able to anticipate the most common questions. 

But we have expanded its use even further. We announce special pricing, new services, and even provide links to our explainer videos. Visitors are really using it.” - Dorian Martin, Marketing Director for Wow Grade

5. Social Media Remains Critical

The most recent statistics show that there are about 3.2 billion people on social media. That’s getting close to 50% of the world’s population. 

While the majority of users are connecting with friends, family, and even strangers, business use of social media is exploding. You need to have a presence on the specific channels where your potential customers hang out. 

But, always, you should be using those channels to drive traffic to your website, to show the value of your products or services, and to spread your brand through sharing. 

The more creative and innovative you can be with your social media posts, the more you will engage readers and followers. And the more they are engaged (informed, entertained, and even inspired), the more they are apt to share with their communities. 

And when people with whom a post have been shared actually access your website, you have a lead that is becoming warm. It is all a matter of how you engage them once they arrive. 

Using social media for lead generation will require lots of monitoring. You need to know who is responding to your posts and what they are saying. And you need to know when anyone shares your posts. There are plenty of social monitoring tools you can use, and you must respond quickly.

6. Social Monitoring Tools

If you have done the right research, you know the review sites that your prospects go to get information about your business niche. They want to see what others have to say and to consider their feedback. 

If you have the right social mention tool, you will be alerted whenever your brand is mentioned on any of these review sites. 

This lets you both respond to feedback, and capture those who have accessed that feedback. Taking initiatives to communicate with them can provide good leads.

7. SEO is Not Going Away

The role of SEO in lead generation cannot be underestimated. 

When organic searches are conducted for products or services in your niche, you want your content to be right up there. 

You already know this takes research, an ear to the ground, and an understanding of the algorithms that Google continues to develop.

If you are not an SEO expert, understand this: unique and high-quality content is now more important than ever. 

And within that content, of course, are the long-tail keywords that match those of searchers. Any business marketer who is unsure about the best SEO practices should get some help. 

There are a number of writing services, such as Studicus and Supreme Dissertations, that have stellar SEO copywriting departments, and tools to help you craft the type of content Google loves and ranks well:

8. Paid Advertising is a Good Option

Before you spend money on paid advertising, be certain to know that you are placing it in the right places. Only your own research will tell you this. 

If you want a “big bang” for your buck, you can consider Google Ads. These appear at the top of search results pages. 

They are pricey, but certainly have a searcher’s eye, if your budget can withstand it. There are other ad spots, to be sure, so take a look at where you might place them best. 

Quick Recap

Now that you have learned 8 new lead generation strategies that have been proven to be the most successful in 2020, let’s do a quick recap of what you learned to reinforce the knowledge…

  1. Use Video Marketing: video marketing is a great way to establish trust and authenticity with your audience.
  2. Craft Interactive Content: use content that gets them to click around and fill out forms on your website.
  3. Use Pop-Ups, But with a Pre-Planned Purpose: pop-ups can be annoying when used willy nilly without a strategy in mind.
  4. Use Live Chat on Your Site: people want the answers to their questions now, not later. Use chat to make it easy for them to talk to you.
  5. Social Media Remains Critical: you need to maintain an active presence on the social media platforms that your target audience is on.
  6. Social Monitoring Tools: use these tools to monitor your brand’s reputation and what people are saying about your company.
  7. SEO is Not Going Away: social media will never replace organic traffic. As long as people are using search engines to find the answers to their problems, you need to invest in SEO.
  8. Paid Advertising is a Good Option: don’t be afraid to test a strategy or idea with a little ad spend to increase your reach. You can only collect good data and learn what works by reaching your target audience with the information.

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Guest Author Angela Baker is a content marketing writer and consultant for a number of writing services, including Trust My Paper, Grab My Essay, and Best Essay Education. In her spare time, she is heavily involved in animal rescue organizations and deep-sea diving.

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