Generating sales leads online is one of the most important ways to keep your business growing. Check out these helpful tips.

A Guide to Online Lead Generation

Building your business is not just about working hard, it’s also about working smart. Today, 89 percent of consumers use a search engine to explore information on products or services so the smart thing to do is focus your energies online. But, where do you start? Here are a few ideas:

1. Fresh Content

It is important to keep your content fresh and up-to-date. You should continually be adding new content to your website, whether it’s blog posts, updated information or even design changes. Imagine walking into a store in a shopping mall and noticing that all of the displays were dusty, the corners of the room had cobwebs and the sales person looked less than approachable. You probably wouldn’t want to buy anything there. In fact, you’d be out of there before a sales person had the chance to ask if you needed help with anything. The same scenario is true of your website. Potential customers want to know that you care about what you’re offering.

2. E-mail Lists

Gathering email addresses can be one of the best ways to generate sales leads.The potential customer has offered their address in order to receive more information about your product or service. You now have the opportunity to turn a sales lead into a customer. E-mail is the most commonly used form of online lead generation, so it must be working.

3. Social Media

The viral nature of social media means it is a hotbed for connecting with new leads. By continually engaging your existing customers with quality content you will gain new leads more naturally.. If you can create engaging content that your customers will forward to friends, then you’re on your way to successfully generating new leads.

4. Online Advertising

The old standby model of putting a sign out in front of your store is still one way to generate leads. Online, the pay-per-click (PPC) model of advertising has become the standard way to target customers. With PPC ads, you are only charged if a lead clicks on your ad. You can then track where the person clicked and what particular ad was clicked, making PPC ads a great strategic tool.

5. Search Engine Optimization

Similar to having fresh content on your website, you want to make sure that your web presence is optimized for search engines to find you. This means that if you’re a dog walker in Nanaimo you will need to include the appropriate keywords (words used that people will use when searching for you) in your content, so when a someone searches, professional dog walker nanaimo, your name will be among the first on the list of searches.

While it may not seem as cool and flashy as other lead-generating tools, search engine optimization (SEO) will help direct targeted leads to your website—one keyword at a time.

For more information on strategic search engine marketing (SEM) and SEO register one of our free seminars at sbbc.co/SEOSEMseminar