Proven Methods to Generating Leads for Small Business

Your leads play a huge, pivotal role in the success of your business, especially if it’s a small business. Generating leads for small business, however, may not be as clear cut as some would think. Let us guide you through some of the common and uncommon practices.

Social Media

Social Media has taken our world by storm. It’s pretty tough to go anywhere without seeing anyone on Twitter, Facebook, or SnapChat. While not everyone is thrilled about being glued to a smartphone, marketers are loving it.

About 70% of small businesses are on Twitter. As a small business, chances are likely your competitor is on Twitter and if your company isn’t, you’re missing out. Twitter for business helps you gain relevant followers and increase website traffic. So you can imagine how incredibly helpful this free platform is.

LinkedIn is another social media platform that’s mainly used for business. Although not as well known as Twitter or Facebook, users can participate in discussions, search for connections and ask questions.

In the case of Facebook, you can use this platform specifically for marketing your business. These pages can help you increase sales (both online and local) and raise your brand’s awareness. With the millions of users on Facebook, connections become much easier to establish and maintain.

Regardless of which social media platform(s) you choose to use, it’s absolutely important that you stay active. This is how you gain and maintain followers of whom can be converted into leads. After all, nobody is interested in an inactive business.

The best part about social media, aside from the fact that almost everyone uses it, is that it’s mostly free. We say ‘mostly’ because you have the option of paying for advertisement. In Facebook’s case, you can pay for advertisement and tweak with your target options.

But when it comes to the key features, such as sharing, posting, and responding, it’s all free.

Searchengine people has this great infographic as to how Twitter benefits small businesses.

Reputation Management

Now this method is a little on the more unknown side. A Reputation Management system is a software system that helps companies manage their reputation and credibility. So what does that mean for generating leads?

Reputation Management promotes positive reviews. Be it on Yelp or Google, the very nature of this software is intended to create a trustworthy company because of this one fact:

Customers are far more likely to come to you if they feel they can trust your company.

That doesn’t just stop at online reviews either. This can be spread through word-of-mouth as well.

Take a look at these statistics to see how much reputation and credibility actually play a role:

• 72% say reading a positive customer reviews increase their trust in a business; it takes, on average, 2-6 reviews to get 56% of them to this point.
  [BrightLocal]

• On social media, 58% of consumers share their positive experiences with a company, and ask family, colleagues, and friends for their opinions about brands. [SDL]

• 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision. [Ogilvy/Google/TNS]

• 68% trust online opinions from other consumers, which is up 7% from 2007 and places online opinions as the third most trusted source of product information. [Nielsen]

• 88% of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts. [BrightLocal]

Credit: Ambassador

As you can see, a Reputation Management system can result in so much more when it comes to generating leads for small business.

Launching a Website

Now this one may be a no-brainer for some as having an online presence has the potential to generate numerous leads. And one of the prerequisites for that is having a website.

You might be surprised to learn, however, that about 59% of small businesses don’t have a website.

That’s a little over half, which is alarming.

Not having a website means you are missing out on so many potential leads. The chance of growing your customer base via online presence is huge.

Here are some common reasons small business don’t have a website:

• The company doesn’t need it right now

• Too expensive

• Lack of time

• Business will never need one

Buying a website domain and maintaining a website isn’t nearly as costly as one would think. Although outsourcing a website developer may be a bit heavy on the wallet and designing it yourself may take a little time, the benefits are truly worth it. After all, you can’t expect to succeed without a little investment from your end.

Saying that your company doesn’t need a website right now is subjective. Perhaps you’ve just opened and are still working on getting things together. But to say your business will never need a website might be a little excessive.

If you, as an entrepreneur, are interested in bringing in more customers and expanding your business, a website is a must. You will reach a point where online interactions become far more convenient for both you and the client and not having a website will just slow your workflow down considerably.

While now may not necessarily be the best time, entrepreneurs should consider looking into a website for further developing and generating leads for small business.

Attending Networking Events

Networking events are held almost all the time. Attending an event that focuses on your particular field of business can help you in a lot more ways than just making a few new friends.

Yes, networking usually involves creating relationships, so how does this generate leads?

Well, for starters, you increase your visibility, your brand awareness. Many small businesses lack clients because they are not known; rather, their brand is unknown. Networking events help remedy that by giving you the chance to get your company and your message out in front of the right people.

These events also show you what’s current or trending in your industry as well as your target market.

Pay attention to these as it’ll help you greatly when you decide on a marketing campaign to generate leads. This is information from influencers and experts who work in the same field as you, so rake in all the dough that you can.

The social aspect of these events gives you a great opportunity to pick at the brains of someone who is doing better than you in your respective field. By learning how a competitor operates, you can develop strategies or even steal them in order to generate leads and ultimately, conversions.

Networking events are far more than just socializing. Given the right attitude and mindset, these events can provide groundbreaking tactics for generating leads for small business.

So now that we’ve shared with you some of our tactics for generating leads for small business, why not put it into action right away?

Setup your social media pages, launch a website, manage your reputation and start scheduling networking events!