5 Quick Ways To Do Lead Generation For Startups

5 Quick Ways To Do Lead Generation For Startups

Leads make the startup go round. Quite literally, without leads, there is no sales funnel, no potential purchases and, worst of all, no funding. So if the boss has already stormed into your office waving his arms, you’re probably asking yourself…

“What the heck can I do to improve lead generation at my startup?”

Or some version of that at least. Coming up with new ideas and meeting the bosses lead gen expectations is the source of many a marketing manager’s headache. In an attempt to resolve these headaches, we decided to outline 5 things you can do now to increase lead generation.

1. Add Calls-to-Action Everywhere

Don’t ever make the assumption that your website visitors know exactly what to do. Cover your website with opt-in opportunities so there is never a question of what you want them to do. You’ll notice on the right hand side of this blog, we’ve included a CTA to set up a consultation (just look for President Business). In addition to that, we’ve also included this:

Marketing Automation

Both of these are lead generation tools that (hopefully) you’re clicking on and giving us your valuable information. Go ahead. You know you want to. *Hint Hint*

Another option is to program a pop-up to appear as soon as someone moves his or her mouse over to close the window. That pop-up can offer a great piece of gated content or and option to sign up for a newsletter or blog feed, as an example. Testing has shown that such a pop-up window can increase conversions by as much as 32%!

2. A/B Test Everything

A/B testing is one of the most powerful tools in the marketer’s tool belt. It’s impossible to know which version of a landing page or button will work better and subtle differences can make all the difference.

Wordstream.com was playing with their CTA button and changed the text from “Create My Account” to “Create Your Account”. The change resulted in a 24% drop in conversions. This valuable statistic helped to inform future messaging.

Create Your Account

 

When you embark on A/B testing, just make sure that you’re only testing one variable at a time. Too many changes will make it impossible to draw any solid conclusions as an increase or decrease in conversions could be attributed to a number of factors. Always be testing to improve, but only test one thing at a time.

3. Make Landing Pages Clear and Actionable

The whole purpose behind a landing page is to get a lead’s attention and give them enough information that they want to leave their details. Design here is crucial, as you want to make a big impact with relatively little text. Shopify nailed this with their landing page.

Landing Pages

4. Give Better Offers

Whitepapers or webinars are great giveaways but could another giveaway perform better? Dig deep for this one as it’s more than just changing the color of your CTA button or using a different font.

Just as software or SaaS companies will offer free trials, think about what you can do to draw more leads. Here are a couple examples of companies that have done this exceptionally well.

Intigua, a Unified Management Platform, offers the ROI Calculator.

Intigua

WordStream offers a free AdWords Grader.

WordStream

If you find your conversions are 2% or lower, it’s time to mix things up. Consider offering something a bit more creative that doesn’t require a commitment or software download. You should be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Remarket the Heck out of Your Visitors

Remarketing is the creepy stalker of the digital world and it’s also your best friend. Whenever someone visits your website, you can place a cookie on their browser. You can then use this cookie to “follow” them around the web and remind them that you exist. Your brand stays front and center and they’ll think of you often…remarketing doesn’t really give them a choice. I guarantee that, as of this moment, someone is remarketing to you. Any easy way to find out is to visit whoisretargeting.me. When I just did this, I found ads from Optimove, Adobe, and IT Central Station – all websites that I’ve recently visited. And all websites that will continue to retarget me as I just hit their sites again to get the links for this blog!

retargeting example


What have you done to improve conversions? Let us know in the comments section below.

 

The Penguin Team

by The Penguin Team on February 10, 2015

As a leading B2B digital marketing agency, We help B2B Technology Companies, enterprise software, and hardware companies increase brand awareness, reach more qualified leads and close more customers. Penguin Strategies is a Diamond Partner of HubSpot.

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