The Lead Generation Advice You’re Not Taking (But Should)

What is your ideal audience interested in? 

Do you fit the mold?

With 1 in 10 marketers feeling unhappy with their current lead generation strategies, it's clear that we're missing something.

While you've been told to blog and employ compelling calls-to-action a million times, we're afraid some truly valuable advice might have fallen through the cracks.

Don't worry. You'll find it below.

Listen more than you speak

Would you rather read 5 articles that skirt around a solution to your problem or one article so applicable to your needs that it feels like it was tailor-made just for you?

While we often feel compelled to blast out content just to remain "in the mix", taking the time to gather insights before we put the proverbial pen to the paper is well worth the wait. 

"When we talk first, the silence is filled with information we already know. When a prospect talks first, they fill the silence with information that could be very valuable to us," explains Saleforlife's David Howe.

Talk about an eye-opening concept, right?

Without a commitment to active listening, marketing messages lack substance. Not to mention, if you're looking to stand out against your competitors, it's important that your communications are personalized. 

Partner up

We've all heard the saying, "two is better than one."

While this isn't always true, teaming up with another brand to carry out a marketing campaign serves as a powerful way to increase your own credibility and visibility. 

Let's take webinars for example. While webinars are valuable in themselves, partnering with another company for a webinar serves as an even better lead generation strategy. 

Rather than rely solely on your own resources, a partnered webinar will allow you access to an entire list of untapped contacts. This means double the insights, double the promotion, and often times double the leads. 

Just be sure that you're strategic in your collaboration to avoid competing for business. Essentially you want a partner who will compliment your efforts, not rival them. 

Ask for less

Hick's law suggests that the time it takes for someone to come about a decision is directly related to the number of choices they are faced with. In other words, the more choices at hand, the longer it will take to choose. 

With that said, often times the best way to ease a visitor's decision to take action is to simplify your approach. 

To test this theory, MySiteAuditor conducted an A/B test to determine if decreasing the number of decisions to be made on their free trial landing page would, in turn, increase submissions. 

In doing so, they removed the logo, main menu, and all other additional content on the page, leaving them with nothing but a form. 

The result? Decreasing the number of options from 12 to one lead to a 25% increase in conversions. 

Point being, asking less will often result in receiving more.

Don't set it and forget it

Not to be dramatic, but over-automating your social media efforts is considerably worse than not showing up at all. 

Sure, it saves time, but at what expense?

"Setting it and forgetting it" is best comparable to showing up to a cocktail party, tapping your glass to make an announcement, and then showing yourself out. 

As a result, you miss out on an opportunity to gauge the reaction, further the conversation, and clarify your point. 

If you want to harness the lead generating power of social media, you need to stick around long enough to participate, answer questions, and strengthen relationships.