Top 4 Inbound Lead Generation Tips for Small Business

Inbound lead generation is set to be the way small businesses grow, and progress from one scale to another. One might say that the number of rotations of the earth on its axis is directly proportional to the different tools and schemes available for digital marketing today. The ability to be able to capture inbound leads is a task that requires patience and dedication to master. 

Data is the most valuable asset in the world right now. 😳

With its value of $1 million per data point, it exceeds anything and everything. One might believe oil is leading the industry; this claim is not even close to being true with technology taking over the world. Cambridge Analytica came under fire recently for using digital data points as securities to trade on. They sold it off to big companies in an attempt to know their audience before they advertised the product. Essentially, they were able to know their customers beforehand and used that to market their product accordingly.

Tip#1: Understand your inbound leads before selling 😬

The movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” made $400M in the first year of its release. If you’re somehow living under a rock, the movie was based on Jordan Belfort, an Australian securities and trading fraud who has done official time for his actions. The same guy who also only got $1M for the movie rights of the film. However, this guy isn’t all bad.

Jordan Belfort’s Straight-Line theory emphasized the need for building rapport to gather valuable information of the leads which would ultimately help you get a better grip on your sales in the future. You can’t sell a pen to a person who can’t write, right? 

The same theory in the discussion was talked about almost 20 years ago when the internet wasn’t a thing. Market manipulation is dodgy but can still be implemented on the right track by using simple tools to improve your customer or lead base. The core idea is to understand the need of every inbound lead no matter where they come from, as you move down the sales funnel.

Track your leads’ footprints across every channel 😳✈️ 

It is impossible to generate inbound leads and convert customers if you are not aware of their needs. However, tracking their online movement using legal methods by their clicks on various ads is monotonous and not possible on a larger scale with the large data sample unless automated using bots.

The ability to maintain and hold on to your customers is key. Knowing their needs, and building up an audience to talk to them is needed for the world we live in. A low-scale e-commerce website has anonymous inbound users they are not able to look after. Is this something you are struggling with? 

If so, investing in chatbot or tracking tools that collect customer data from multiple channels at the same time could be a brilliant idea. You will start seeing a greater picture of your leads’ bases over time, on where they come from and what they are usually interested in. A cohesive experience across all your customers' preferred channels, no matter if it’s Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat, or Website, is also very essential.

Tip#2: Get every inbound website visitor to chat with you 🤝

Maintaining traction on your lead base is necessary to ensure that you can reach them at the right time with the right context. Building an audience is crucial to scale up your business. There is stringent to have conversations. Networking is key and knowing the needs of your leads is always right. It is pivotal to be interactive with your inbound lead to be able to know what they expect from you, and how you can offer more varied things if it’s catering to a wider audience.

Using various instant messaging and social media platforms would help you connect with a lot more inbound leads and gather logistical data which can then obviously be marketed.

👀👀Remember to grab the following:

 Demographics – age, gender, ethnicity

• Location – countries and regions of residence or business operations

• Contact – for further communications and campaigns.

• Background & Footprints – where the person comes from e.g. IP address, company name

• Interests & Intents – the kind of products and services the leads are looking for

Unlike physical retail stores, it is very difficult to get to know the identity of the anonymous. However, most of the above information can be revealed automatically with bots and integration with social media profiles. One needs to keep their customers’ values. If the customer has to get back to you for a previous inquiry or has to double text you just to receive a reply from you – the relationship isn’t on a steady track at all.

Handle it this way – don’t have the leads come out to you unless it is an inquiry – let it be the other way around and reach out to them. Using social media or instant messaging as a tool to answer the most generic and common questions you can think of is a step in the right direction to help build and maintain traction. Social media or instant messaging acts as a perfect way to talk to current customers, but also prospects in the future. Automating certain engagement or reactivation messaging campaigns could be helpful. Don’t act too clingy with your efforts though.

Tip#3: Leverage Call-to-action to hold on to your inbound leads 🤯

Call to action (CTA) is a marketing tool extensively used for the purpose of advertising a product, and boosting sales. Moreover, CTA is essentially a device allowing you to show prompts on your platform – thereby encouraging sales. This is easy to implement efficient inbound lead generation tip.

CTA is necessary for inbound lead generation in an effort to hold on to the visitor. The go-to way to attract leads today lies in the power of advertisements. Enticing your lead base by pitching ad offers such as Buy 1 Get 2, and another % off on various products through website banners, or wallpapers are not effective anymore. 

The most common way people try to market their product would be through a form asking you for your name, email, location, budget, website, payment details, maiden name of your mother, etc. The conversion rate on such platforms is a laughing stock, and not worth the hassle.

No customer wants to fill in a form just to hold on for a few days to get a reply back. That is too much valuable time drained away – not the right way to go about it.

Conversational marketing is the way to go. It allows lead generations, convert the same lead base into customers at a conversion rate much higher than traditional Contact Us pages. 

1. Interaction 🤝

Interaction is key. It is vital to be able to hold on to your inbound lead while he/she is on the site even if it is for a few minutes. It is necessary for you to hold on to the lead for the time you have. This is the key to holding in the lead through inbound lead generation. 

Therefore, the type of generation displayed below is the future to increase retention and the conversation rate of visitors on your website. Using schematic words strategically placed to ensure that the customer thinks in the flow you want him/ her to think is the key practice here,

2. Strategic prompting 😳

For example, an opening prompt “Are you having trouble maintaining a unified chat base for all of your socials for user interaction?: Having pre-fixed answers like “Yes, I need help!” placed on the reply button – ready to send after a click is an efficient way to take this on.

This is a great way for you to have visitors stay there on the website – and focus on the conversation you wanted them to have. 

3. Steer away from questionnaires ✈️ 

Try to stay away from traditional pages asking for a basic questionnaire to be filled like the first name, last name, etc. Try to focus on smooth and sleek conversations to land your lead base, and increase traction, and have the bot do your dirty work.

4. Big data call to action

Dirty work? Using bots and conventional tools of commerce allows you to be able to schedule meetings by analyzing calendars on both ends, subscribing to newsletters, letting you know about pricing quotations on custom projects. The ability to be able to do these things also is an underrated part of CTA allowing you to maintain a conversation with your inbound lead.

Tip#4: Invest in an all-in-one conversational platform to deal with messaging workflow 🧠

Data is tough to manage. A survey claims that there are 5 billion data points for each active user. The ability to be able to store this in a unified central location is difficult. There are various channels today – Facebook, WhatsApp, Line, Twitter & Telegram, etc. and it is obviously close to impossible for one to be able to remember the needs of each and every query or interaction with the customer looking out for your product.

The problem lies in the ability to be able to maintain a conversation with multiple users. A unified platform allowing you to do the same is key. This accelerates collaboration by having a space to reach various leads. It is also hard for you to be able to reach your leads on a larger scale.  Being able to remember key points about say 5-10 users are still plausible, but doing this at a larger scale where you’re dealing with leads who are still in the process of conversion is the real deal. 

For example, if you don’t have automation for the most basic things such as wishing your customers happy birthday on their special day to nurture the relationship, having to manually keep track of individual customers is not a realistic approach. 

We’re excited to see the progress of companies over the years. Getting people to talk, and build up contacts to further their prospects is ideal and the key focus of SleekFlow. 

We are buzzed to be providing a messaging suite tailor-made for low-scale businesses with a high chance of growth. The key focus is to generate these solid inbound leads with conversations and instant messaging irrespective of which platform. Our suite allows you to talk to your leads everywhere on social media and not have to worry about losing track of who is who.