Originally Posted on Niche Pursuits by Jennifer Leach
If you’re a business owner struggling to generate new leads, you’ll want to read my guide to inbound lead generation.
You can take this cost-effective approach to attract potential customers to your business, build your SEO, increase brand awareness and sales, and enjoy other benefits.
In this article, you’ll learn how inbound lead generation works and how to use it for your business.
You will discover:
- 7+ ways to grow your inbound leads,
- The benefits of inbound lead generation and,
- Inbound lead generation examples.
Let’s get into it!
What Is Inbound Lead Generation?
Inbound lead generation is a marketing strategy where you attract a potential customer to your business through a mix of different tactics, like content marketing and social media, for example.
Inbound lead generation can be incredibly effective, and you don’t even need to invest in paid marketing like Google Ads or Facebook ads.
According to this source, inbound marketing increases website conversion rates from 6% to 12%.
It’s also preferred by business decision-makers who like to learn more about a company through content like articles before being served an ad.
Unlike outbound lead generation strategies, inbound lead generation draws customers to you. It’s a more natural marketing approach, and consumers seem more receptive to it.
Outbound Marketing vs Inbound Marketing
Outbound lead gen includes marketing strategies such as cold calling, direct mail, television/radio advertising, and trade shows.
Outbound marketing is seller-centric. The goal is to sell the most products, often without considering customers’ specific needs or interests.
It’s interruption-based. You reach out to customers, interrupting their daily schedule and routine to pitch them on the sale of a product or service.
It’s also permissionless, meaning you don’t ask permission before engaging with your audience. You approach them directly, like with cold calling, for example. Prospects receive unsolicited phone calls, regardless of their interest level.
Inbound lead gen examples include content marketing, SEO, and social media.
This is attraction-based, customer-centric, permission-based marketing designed to consider the needs and interests of the audience.
Customers willingly reach out to companies to learn more because the content is valuable and they are interested.
Inbound Lead Gen Example
I recently tried a brand new snack food I had never had before. It was loaded with peanut butter, and I learned about it on TikTok.
I kept seeing TikTok videos about this loaded peanut butter over and over. Eventually, I bought it and tried it for myself.
The peanut butter company used inbound lead generation through social media to attract me, a consumer, to their business, and I ended up buying it!
But imagine if I was cold-called about the loaded peanut butter instead. So, unsolicited, I got a phone call from a marketer trying to pitch me on this snack food.
Would I buy it?
Likely no, but some people might.
Still, looking at the two approaches, inbound lead generation attracted me to the company and led to a sale!
In my opinion, this winning marketing strategy is a great way to attract leads and an easier way to make sales.
How Does An Inbound Lead Generation Strategy Work?
Inbound lead generation works by attracting potential customers to the business.
This is achieved through one or a mix of different inbound sales tactics, like content marketing or email marketing.
7+ Ways to Grow Inbound Leads
Here are 7+ different ways to grow inbound leads to attract potential clients:
Written content
Create high-quality content, and your target audience will have a better chance of finding you!
Written content can include blog posts, ebooks, whitepapers, or case studies.
When you create valuable written content for your audience to consume, it helps search engines like Google get context into what you do. It also helps establish you as an authority in the industry and brand yourself as a market expert.
Pair this with search engine optimization and you can craft a super powerful content marketing campaign that organically attracts inbound leads without investing in ads.
Product videos
Filming a product video is a great way to showcase a product in action or talk face-to-face into a camera so potential clients can tie a company with a face.
Examples of product videos:
- How-tos
- Tutorials
- Product launches
- Customer testimonials
- User-generated videos
Product videos can live on your business website. They can also be created and published on video platforms like YouTube.
SEO
Through search engine optimization, you can optimize your website to rank higher in search engines, driving traffic to your business through this inbound marketing strategy.
Using SEO can help you move the needle a lot, leading to ranking for an important keyword in your industry on page one of Google.
SEO can be quite complex, extending to website architecture, keyword research and ranking, and other elements.
If you’re new to SEO, our SEO guide for startups is a great place to begin, to hold your hand through the process.
Social media
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are good ways to generate inbound leads. Use the power behind these channels to funnel your target customers straight to your business website.
Share your content on social platforms, engage with your followers and audience, and attract leads for your business.
Imagine if you had a social media post go viral!
Do you remember this viral bathing suit social post from a few years ago from Sunny Co?
Their Instagram post amassed over 300,000 likes and more than 111,000 comments, selling out the bathing suit from the store website.
The mega viral post grew their Instagram account from 7K to over 780K followers and drove tons of sales, temporarily shutting down the retailer because of volume.
This is one of many stories where a social media post goes viral and essentially “shuts down” the retailer because of huge influx volume of orders from the virality of the post.
While a viral post doesn’t happen for every company, this highlights the power of social media for generating leads and getting customers.
Email marketing
Email marketing is another effective inbound lead generation strategy to use.
Use inbound marketing with emails to attract your audience, then nurture the relationship over time, provide them with valuable content, and naturally convert those leads to buyers.
Some examples of email marketing campaigns include:
- Email newsletters
- Promotional emails, and
- Drip email campaigns
Create high-quality, engaging emails, build a relationship with your email subscribers, and grow your business.
I use email marketing to attract customers to my digital product business. It has helped me make over $15K in sales this year!
Webinars
Webinars are virtual presentations. They can be live or pre-recorded and are a great way to give an online presentation.
Publish engaging webinars that your audience can interact with and allow you to build trust with potential customers.
Workshops
Workshops are educational experiences where customers can sign up to learn something valuable, like using or developing a skill.
And it’s an excellent way to grow your email list!
Referrals
Referrals or referral marketing is one of the most powerful forms of marketing.
It contributes to 3-5X higher conversion rates than any other channel.
Here are 7 of the best referral program ideas nobody is talking about!
Benefits of Inbound Lead Generation
Investing your time and effort into inbound lead gen can benefit your business.
Not only can you get a steady flow of leads, but inbound lead gen can also build trust and credibility, help you improve brand awareness, and more.
Take a look…
Attract Qualified Leads
Inbound lead generation is perfect for attracting high-quality leads who are already interested in your products or services. By creating valuable content, you can attract potential customers without exploring an outbound lead gen strategy, which tends to be less of a performer in comparison.
Build Trust and Credibility
Inbound lead generation allows you to identify your target audience’s pain points, address them, and share how your product solves them.
By providing helpful information and solutions, you can build trust and credibility with your audience. This will also help establish your company as an industry expert.
Improve Customer Relationships
Inbound lead generation places a lot of attention on the needs of your target audience, leading to a better customer experience, and improved customer relationships, increased customer loyalty, and repeat business.
Cost-Effective
Inbound lead generation is cheaper than other marketing strategies like outbound lead generation. It’s a customer-driven approach that funnels customers to you rather than you going out and getting customers.
Inbound lead generation has a higher conversion rate than outbound leads, too, so with less cost and better results, you can’t lose!
Inbound Lead Generation Examples
Now, let’s look at some examples.
There are plenty of examples of inbound lead generation all over the web. Think about the last time you landed on a website selling a service and were offered a free ebook download in exchange for your email address.
Or, you might have been researching a DIY home repair fix, and after reading an article on a local plumber’s blog, you call the sales team to schedule an appointment with them.
These are a few examples of online inbound lead generation.
Check out these additional examples:
This Twitter post is a great example of inbound lead generation at play. The creator published a social media post to attract his target audience and is giving away something free in exchange for a social media follow (and possibly joining his email list, too).
Another example is this free ebook giveaway by Systeme when you join their mailing list.
These are simple yet effective ways to attract your audience and generate leads through inbound lead-generation digital marketing.
Final Word on Inbound Lead Generation
Inbound lead generation is a powerful way to grow your leads and get more sales.
As you see, you can use many different ways and channels to attract high-quality leads to your business.
A clear strategy can help you make the most of your inbound lead generation efforts.
Tracking your results is also important for evaluating what’s working and what’s not and continually refining your strategy.
If you’re a business owner, inbound lead generation should be part of your marketing strategy.
How will you start using inbound lead generation for your business?
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