One of the most powerful ways to keep costs low while increasing your company’s earnings potential is to generate leads. But isn’t it a challenging task?
So here’s an excellent idea: I’ll show you a few ways to start generating more free leads without spending a single penny! Let’s get started.
Getting your business to generate leads for free is a great way to set your business up for success because you can use the money you would have spent on lead generation to put back in other areas of your business. Here are a few tried-and-true methods for increasing your visibility and generating free leads.
MARKETING EXPENSES & LEAD GENERATION
For sales teams and marketers, lead generation, or the process of identifying and cultivating potential customers, is always a top priority. Paid lead generation techniques, such as pay-per-click advertising and paid media, can produce results, but it’s often the business with the highest budget that wins.
The good news is that you can generate leads for free while maintaining your market presence and generating high-quality leads using a variety of sales and marketing strategies and platforms.
We’ll go over a few free lead generation tactics and how to use them in this article. Let’s start by discussing the significance of free leads.
FREE LEAD GENERATION: WHAT’S ITS REAL WORTH?
Creating a consistent flow of leads is necessary for growth and profitability, but it can be costly. According to one study, B2B companies’ average Cost Per Lead (CPL) is $198. As a result, businesses may spend nearly $200 to acquire someone who isn’t yet a paying customer.
If we look at this dollar amount more closely, we can see the most common methods of lead generation costs:
- The cost of advertising
- Costs of media distribution and outreach
- Costs of in-house or third-party workforce
- Discounts, samples, and coupons are examples of incentive costs.
- Costs of purchasing or renting a contact list (not recommended if you want high-quality leads)
Is it possible to get a lead for free? A lead is a person or an individual who has expressed interest in your product or service. For example, they may have gone to your website, clicked a link in an email, or completed a form at an event.
Without draining the bank on the above costs, you can generate a cold, warm, or hot lead — I’ll show you how below.
The most effective strategies and tools for generating free leads
It’s difficult to go wrong with these free lead generation tips, whether you’re trying to cut marketing costs or test a new sales strategy.
1. Send out efficient emails
Email is, without a doubt, the most popular lead generation channel, and with good reason. Email generates a return on investment of $38 for every $1 spent, a staggering 3,800% (ROI). In addition, it’s the most popular way for customers to communicate with businesses, ideal for introductions and follow-ups.
Here are some tried-and-true methods for writing a better sales email:
- Start with the problem or opportunity to get the reader’s attention.
- Add details or insights about the prospect to your message to make it more personal.
- When possible, reach out to the decision-makers.
- Ensure that your call-to-action (link, button, phone number, etc.) is prominent.
- Include valuable materials, resources, and tips in every email to add value.
Check out free email marketing tools like HubSpot, Omnisend, and Mailchimp can help you get started quickly. Add an opt-in form as a pop-up on your most popular landing pages if you need to expand your email subscriber list.
2. Leverage B2B Ratings & Reviews and Market Research Platforms
Nowadays internet has transformed the way we buy products and services. If you’re considering buying a product, you may undertake your research and look at user reviews and product rankings before making a final decision.
In a survey of B2B buyers conducted by Forrester in 2012, the survey showed that 74% of business buyers perform more than half of their research online before making a purchase.
Most business buyers nowadays conduct online research before making a purchase. Because of the need for reliable sources of truth for such an analysis, online market research platforms such as Reputedfirms, Extract, Goodfirms and Clutch.Co has been founded. These platforms connect service providers with business buyers.
Expert advice is necessary.
Although review platforms such as Google or Facebook corporate sites are useful for leaving feedback on a company, there is one fundamental flaw. The views expressed here have not been thoroughly and carefully vetted. As a result, it has outcomes on both ends of the spectrum.
The excessively negative rating will affect us and future consumers who will miss out on getting what they need, especially if competitors fake the review.
On the other hand, a glowing recommendation might be deceptive and misleading to potential clients, causing them to waste time and money with a certain service.
It’s also possible that the fake page owner removes all the negative reviews to disguise its flaws, resulting in a misleading image of the company. Furthermore, all of the truthful competitors are in a losing situation.
Sites like Reputedfirms.co and goodfirms.co can help you get more confidence.
Reputedfirms’ purpose is to “Browse Business Buying Decisions With Confidence,” which says it all. They handle all of the hard work for validating the companies listed on their platform and collecting feedback from each service provider/company’s prior clients.
Now let’s see how businesses can benefit from it:
- Saves More Time & Money: You don’t have to rely on other platforms for online marketing and lead generation needs. Since the platform itself promotes your user stories and customer reviews, it verifies and ranks your profile among other competitors, and your business gets spotlighted and promoted without spending anything literally (the registration and membership and all other services are free)
- Builds an online reputation: In this post-covid era, when people conduct research online, it is unavoidable for businesses to develop an online reputation. Customer trust will increase if a company can publish as much goodwill as possible on the internet.
- A powerful platform for displaying client feedback: Previous clients of each organisation rate, review, and discuss their experiences with them. The more positive reviews you get, the more your business’s rating and ranking will be!
- Greater Search Visibility & SEO: Reputedfirms places businesses at the top of all major search engines, giving them more exposure. They also contribute to the company’s website’s SEO by generating more market presence and backlinks. In addition, Google will select a list of performing companies from their ranking list depending on the score.
- Get More Free Leads: Reputable businesses and items are recommended based on the company’s or product’s capabilities. There are no charges to pay, and there is no mediator to deal with. Clients and companies can work together on a direct basis. They highlight businesses and run promotions on their marketing platforms to generate more leads (for free!).
4. Make use of social media
Many businesses think of social media to enhance their brand, but social media can also generate leads. This is due to the volume of information that users on social media freely share and the number of people (users) who use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Here are some ideas for generating new leads:
- Host a live event with famous speakers, such as a Q&A, Ask Me Anything, or Twitter chat.
- Create polls or surveys that enquire about a specific issue or topic.
- Share password-protected content, such as an e-book or an infographic.
- To expand your profile’s reach, try a giveaway or contest with a contributed reward.
- Schedule posts and generate leads on autopilot with social media automation tools.
5. Make your blog’s content more optimised
Blogging, which is at the heart of inbound marketing, is a wonderful source of free leads. Leads who go through the inbound process are among the most qualified and engaged. It works as long as one keyword is kept in mind: value.
You must address your audience’s problems in every piece – article, webinar, podcast, etc. You may write a guide called “5 Proven Steps to Maximise Revenue” if they have razor-thin margins. For ideas, go to sites like Quora, Reddit, or AnswerThePublic, and make sure the next action after reading is clear.
Finally, make use of SEO best practices to ensure that your material appears in search engine results.
6. Utilise guest postings
For your lead generation efforts, guest posts offer a potent combination of impact, convenience, and affordability. In addition, companies will frequently agree to an article exchange in exchange for a mutual increase in readership.
Whether you request or publish content, they give your brand immediate exposure to a new audience. In addition, each piece helps you establish yourself as an industry expert by highlighting thought leaders or encouraging you to become one yourself. This is strikingly true in B2B marketing, where personal relationships can make or break a company’s ability to win and keep customers.
7. Lend a hand to those who need it.
It is our responsibility to locate clients who could benefit from our products or services. A universe of curious leads — folks asking the right questions – opens up when using Google search.
On question-answer websites, you might locate people looking for answers to questions about your product or service. Investigate sites such as:
- Quora
- Stack Overflow and Github (for Devs)
- LinkedIn Groups
- QApop
Remember that these sites aren’t intended for direct sales; however, they’re ideal for contacting potential prospects.
8. Make a creative content gift.
Make an extra effort to position yourself as a thought leader in your field. Provide your users with free material such as videos, webinars, and podcasts. Original photographs, printables, applications, eBooks, and audiobooks are all options.
Your material should include the following:
- Provide a lot of value to potential customers.
- Encourage people to use your products and services by encouraging them to watch, read, or listen to them.
- It’s essential to remember that your content should be 90% helpful and 10% compelling.
You may make a how-to video, a supporting webinar, or an educational podcast. People who use your free tools and believe in your authority are more likely to become clients in the future.
9. Make Your Landing Pages Better
When it comes to getting free leads, you rarely consider how to improve the quality of your website. But, in contrast, that might be exactly what you need to boost the rate at which visitors to your site are converted.
Enhancing the quality of your landing pages, in particular, can significantly impact whether a site visitor becomes a lead. The most remarkable to remember here is that your landing page should be relevant to the search phrase that a website user would find.
It’s also critical that your landing pages make it easy for website visitors to move on to the next step and enter your sales funnel. Make sure your landing pages include easy, clean forms for visitors to fill up.
Consider using an enticement to persuade them to finish the form. For example, you could provide that enticement in the situation above by delivering an in-depth booklet on website analytics tools or a weekly email covering related themes.
10. Use Google My Business to your advantage.
Google My Business is also a powerful tool for generating local leads. If you’re not familiar with Google My Business, it’s a means for local businesses to get discovered. When you look for the name of a local business, it appears on the right-hand side of your search results.
You can use My Business to do a variety of things to make your firm distinguish yourself from the competition and generate more leads, including:
A virtual tour is given.
- Using your Google+ page to share promotions and upcoming events
- Getting detailed data on how visitors interact with your page
- Using high-resolution photographs to promote your company
- Google My Business is ideal for businesses looking to get local leads. If this describes you, it should be a component of your free lead generation plan.
11. Develop a connection with backlinks
Backlinks are very significant when it comes to evaluating your website’s SEO rankings. They’re effectively a vote of confidence from another website, stating that your site is an authority worth referring to on a specific subject.
Getting additional backlinks from other websites will usually help you climb the Google search rankings. Partnering with organisations in adjacent areas and “trading backlinks” is one approach to do this.
This is something that will help your organisation as well as theirs. As long as you share the same target audience, you should have no trouble finding a partner who is open to the idea.
12. Add or update your website’s FAQ page.
Another unconventional technique to start receiving more free leads is to add a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page to your website. It’s easier to keep leads on your site for longer when you provide a collection of answers to frequently asked queries. In addition, this lowers your bounce rate, which could lead to you being ranked better in Google’s search results.
Plus, if you create a well-designed FAQ page, it can start ranking well for several common search queries. As a result, attempt to respond to important queries to your organisation and a wider audience.
13. Upsell to existing customers
Current clients are sometimes overlooked as a source of free leads. They’ve previously paid for your company’s services, indicating that they’re interested in what it has to offer.
Don’t forget to pitch your existing clients if you have an add-on service that you think they’ll find valuable. It is free for you to do so, and it may increase your clients’ lifetime value.
14. Extend the size of your sales funnel
Focusing on boosting the number of leads you catch in your sales funnel is another way to get free leads. You can do this by concentrating on extending the funnel’s mouth with existing methods.
Don’t only write blog posts. Instead, end your postings with specific calls to action, like a sign-up form for anyone interested in learning more about your product.
Similarly, rather than focusing on a few important SEO terms, try broadening the number of key phrases you’re targeting in your online content. You’ll naturally start catching more leads if you widen the mouth of your sales funnel.
Feed your sales funnel
We’ve covered some crucial methods for generating free leads in this article. However, converting these methods into an effective lead nurturing strategy will be tough. However, for your business’s success, you can use the easiest and most effective tips.
Best wishes for lead generation!