Every business aspires to drive traffic to its website. In the midst of heavy competition, they need to break through the noise to have a shot at generating a sale. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Lead generation has proven to be a challenge. According to Hubspot, 61% of marketers rank driving traffic and lead generation as their biggest challenge. Lead generation is crucial to business growth and if you can’t generate leads, it can be hard to stay competitive.
Lead generation can be daunting because of some common mistakes that can hurt business strategy results in a waste of resources. The good news is that you can easily fix these mistakes and convert your leads into sales. Wondering what you are doing wrong with your lead generation strategy? In this article, you will identify the common lead generation mistakes and fix them.
Common Mistakes In Lead Generation
- Not Identifying Your Target Audience
- Adopting A One-Size Fits All Approach
- Not Optimizing Website
- Failing To Nurture Leads
- Not Leveraging The Right Social Media Platform
- Neglecting Lead Generation Tools
- Buying Leads
- Ignoring The Buyer Journey
- Ignoring Customer Pain Points
- Failing To Test Strategies
Common Mistakes In Lead Generation
Lead generation is one of the most important business processes. Without it, you will not be able to get potential new customers. But generating leads will not mean anything if you are not able to get sales. In this article, we check out the biggest mistakes you can make in lead generation.
1. Not Identifying Your Target Audience
While you would want to tap as many potential customers as possible, targeting everyone is not the right thing to do. Not knowing your target market and what they need is one of the biggest lead generation mistakes you can make. Defining your target audience will make your lead generation strategy more refined and accurate.
By identifying your target audience, you will be able to maximize your efforts because you are trying to reach customers who will most likely be interested in your product. In addition, it will help give your campaign a more personalized approach. Studies show that 80% of customers are more likely to buy from a brand that offers a personalized experience. But then again you cannot personalize the experience if you do not know their interests in the first place.
How do you identify the right audience? Look at your current customers and find any common traits they share. Also, research your competition. If they are tapping the same target market, you can create a unique angle that can set your brand apart. Determine the demographics your competitor targets and check the methods and tools they use to target their desired audience.
2. Adopting A One-Size Fits All Approach
This is another common lead generation mistake that you need to avoid to become successful. There is no one-size-fits-all approach if you want to be effective with lead generation. If you are offering different products, there has to be a customized approach for each one. Aside from that, each product has a different product roadmap and growth.
Each product may be targeting a different audience with different pain points. Each requires a growth trajectory. You may need one lead generation strategy for each of them. For instance, you can create blog articles to provide informative content and then send emails for product updates, announcements, and promotions.
In addition, you have different goals for each lead generation strategy. Also, just because a strategy worked for another company does not mean it will work for your business as well. Your business is unique from the competition and your solutions should be tailored to suit your specific needs.
3. Not Optimizing Website
Your website is the front desk of your business and serves as your main lead generation tool. Not optimizing it is a big no-no and can hurt your chances of converting leads into potential customers. You need to audit your website and make sure that it is customer-friendly. People who visit your website may already be at different stages in their journey so your website should be optimized to address their needs whatever stage they are in.
Some of the common website mistakes you should address include slow loading speed, poor navigation, lack of trust signals, and weak call-to-action. It is important for your website to be aligned with your brand and message. In addition, you should make sure that you have a clear and compelling call-to-action.
Although you can send your leads to your main website, you may also opt to create a dedicated landing page for your products or services. Make sure that you optimize each page of your website and not just the top-ranking ones. One of your pages may not have 50,000 views but has the potential for conversion so focus on them.
4. Failing To Nurture Leads
Lead generation does not end when the customer converts. They can easily slip through the cracks in your sales funnel if you do not follow up on them. When a customer reaches out to you, respond to them right away. If you don’t, they may lose interest or look elsewhere. Always keep in mind that lead generation is not a one-time event.
Many businesses have the tendency to neglect or abandon their leads after capturing them. You should keep on providing them with more value and information that will move them along the buyer’s journey. Reach out to them through different channels such as email, social media, phone, or other modes of communication.
Nurturing leads can have a positive impact on your business. It allows you to stay connected with customers at every touchpoint. Statistics show that nurtured leads tend to make 47% more purchases compared to ignored or neglected leads. So stay consistent and nurture your leads. If you do, the customer will always have your brand name in their minds.
5. Not Leveraging The Right Social Media Platform
When done right, social media can work wonders on lead generation. In today’s digital age, social media has become interwoven with our daily lives. According to Pew Research Center, 7 in 10 Americans use social media. For this reason, you can use social media to leverage your lead generation campaign. Effective use of social media in lead generation can help increase brand awareness, foster engagement, and drive website traffic.
Unfortunately, for some businesses, social media is not generating as many leads for them. This is because they might not be using it strategically enough or they might be leveraging the wrong platform. The key here is to find the right social media channel that will cater to your target market. For example, if you are targeting B2B businesses, you are better off with Facebook and LinkedIn. On the other hand, if you cater to younger markets, Instagram and Tiktok are the best channels.
Be on the channel that your customers frequently use. This will help ensure that you are reaching the right audience. This way, you will know that the right leads will convert into potential customers should they like what you are offering.
6. Neglecting Lead Generation Tools
Technology has evolved over the years and now there are tons of lead generation tools at your disposal to give your lead generation efforts the leverage it needs. With these tools, you will be able to track where your leads are coming from. They will also help you identify the keywords they used to search before landing on your page.
Never make the mistake of underestimating the power of lead generation tools. You can use more than one of these tools and take your lead generation to the next level. Consider the following lead generation tools:
- Call Tracking. With this tool, you can receive insights about phone calls from customers, the reason for the call, and the result of the call.
- Click-to-Call. This tool gives customers an easy way to connect with your business with just one tap. Click-to-call allows customers to speak directly with a real agent. By analyzing the related data, you can immediately see its impact.
- Online Forms. Online forms is a tool that lets customers provide their name, email address, and phone number so you can receive more information on your business.
Lead generation is associated with so many questions regarding your potential customers and you will be able to answer them only if you have the correct lead generation tool. Without these tools, it will be hard for you to connect with website visitors or learn what resonates with them or what does not.
7. Buying Leads
Lead generation can be a real challenge and if you are struggling to find leads, it can be tempting to buy leads. However, this should not be encouraged because it can have long-term damage to your company. Although it can generate leads for you quickly, such practice is illegal and could put you in hot water with the customer and law enforcement agencies.
First of all, buying leads violates the General Data Protection Regulation of the EU and the California Consumer Privacy Act and CAN-SPAM. These are laws that provide that customers should give their consent when using their email information. Second, there is no assurance that the email addresses on the list are of high quality and accurate.
Instead of buying leads, why not generate them yourself? The customers on a paid email list may not even be fit for your business which means your agents may just waste their time making cold calls. Aside from that, you may be flagged as a scammer. It is best to generate them organically because these leads would most likely be interested in what you have to offer.
8. Ignoring The Buyer Journey
Different types of customers will be visiting your website. Some of them are first-timers looking for a demo of your product or download content. Others may already be ready to buy but may be having second thoughts so you need to convince them to purchase. Thus, you need to keep in mind that your leads may be at different stages of the customer journey so don’t treat them as if they are the same.
As mentioned in this article, there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all to lead generation. You need to address the needs of visitors at different stages of the buyer’s journey. Use different call-to-actions that are appropriate to the customer depending on which stage they are in. Make sure that you cover every stage in the sales funnel. Use personalized CTAs to ensure a better customer experience. Personalized CTAs convert 42% more visitors than basic calls to action.
Taking into consideration the buyer journey is essential for creating effective and targeted campaigns that can deliver results. A customer who already knows what they want may be looking for an online contact form so they can get more information about your company.
9. Ignoring Customer Pain Points
Effective lead generation is about properly addressing customer pain points. Sometimes you may get caught up with promoting your product or service. Although it is the ultimate goal, chances are you might miss out on the small but important concern you should be addressing – their pain points.
The main reason customers come to you is because they have a pain point that needs to be addressed. Your product may have the best features or benefits but if you are ignoring customer pain points, they will not convert. You need to remove any roadblocks that will keep customers from moving to the next stage of the sales funnel.
Successful lead generation involves acknowledging, understanding, and addressing what troubles your audience. Address the customer’s pain points first and your product will do the rest. Always keep this in mind throughout the customer journey and rest assured your leads will convert.
10. Failing To Test Your Strategies
If you are already using lead generation tools, good for you. But then again, are they converting leads? Lead generation is constantly changing so you need to keep in step with these changes or you could end up eating the dust of the competition. Testing is crucial to a successful lead generation campaign.
Consistent testing is a vital tool in optimizing your lead generation efforts. You need to effectively identify what works and what isn’t. You need to have a Plan A and Plan B and then determine which is more effective. While it may be working, you need to keep on improving your strategy to stay competitive.
Testing lead generation strategies gives you access to available data to make important business decisions. By constantly testing and improving, you can optimize your lead generation efforts resulting in a better user experience.
There are many other lead generation mistakes that can be added to the list. Knowing these mistakes is vital to making your lead generation efforts more effective.
Get Lead Generation Solutions with airisX
When you have a great product or service, one of the hardest things to do is to find buyers interested in what you’re selling. To fill this gap, airisX offers lead generation – our staff research your business and target end user and create email/contact lists for you to reach out to and pitch. We offer lead generation for any business model – B2B, B2C, SaaS, consultancies, outsourcing companies (like ourselves!), ecommerce, etc. We build your email list totally from scratch, or if you already have a list, help you find contact information for pre-targeted companies. Get in touch with us at contact@airisx.com for help with your lead generation efforts.