Do you feel lost when trying to think of ways to generate leads for your business?
One way to generate leads is to provide high-value content with a perception of exclusivity. When an offer is exclusive, scarce, or in high demand, it becomes more desirable. Typically high-value offers with a sense of urgency can help leads overcome their friction, doubt, or concern quickly.
In these cases, the appropriate offer should sweeten the purchase; it should super-charge your readers’ desire to buy or sign up now. In a perfect world, it creates a sense of urgency.
Ask Yourself These Questions:
Does my offer have a high perceived value?
“Perceived” is the key word here. The good news is that an effective offer doesn’t have to cost much. It just has to be something of value to your audience. Why do these elements work? Because they trigger a physiological reaction that makes an offer appear more valuable. People need to perceive the value of your offer to be greater than what you’re asking for in return. The higher the perception of value, the more irresistible the offer.
Is my offer relevant?
A great offer isn’t just good for the person who receives it; it’s good for your business or organization, too. Especially in the case of lead generation, you want your offer to tie into the product you’re selling, event you’re promoting, or service you’re providing. That way, it will help advance the sale, or — better yet — inspire your audience to take immediate action. A well-written e-book should offer something of real value to readers who can walk away with specific answers to questions that urged them to read the material.
What kind of content should I offer?
Your content offer should be designed to do two primary things: educate and persuade. A popular format to deliver these resources is in the form of an e-book. The e-book usually is the first contact point between you and the reader, so it’s absolutely critical that you deliver the information you promised in your landing page or email, otherwise you’ll end up killing your reputation and any relationship you might have had with your audience. Another format option you could test is a white paper, they are an excellent tool for driving leads and sales.
This brings us to the two-step lead generation approach. The two-step lead generation method is where you make what is known as a “soft offer,” with the goal of engaging your receivers, building their trust, and moving them closer to an eventual sale.
Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of having content offers is that it allows you to collect your readers’ email addresses, effectively putting them in your sales funnel. The success of this phase, however, ultimately depends on your landing page, which is where you let readers know what information is in your e-book, why it’s worth their time, and why it’s fair to ask for their email address in exchange.
How do I measure my success?
There are many ways to use content to generate leads. However, it is important to remember that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to content marketing and lead generation. Depending on the nature and industry of your business, one method may be more effective than the other.
In addition, you should consider how you’re going to measure your content marketing strategies. Conversion rates are the most commonly used metric for measuring content marketing performance, followed by lead quality, and website traffic.
Simply put, before you set out on any lead-generation campaign using content marketing, you need to determine what benchmarks to use to measure its success.
What matters most is that your content drives action and movement. Without it, your content isn’t doing any marketing on your behalf, defeating the purpose of the entire endeavor.
