Strategic Models for Online Lead Generation
Strategic Models for Online Lead Generation
Predictably jumpstarting every lead generation project
Leads are the lifeblood of any business.
A steady, consistent flow of high-quality leads yields predictable revenue.
But how do you generate those leads?
This guide is a brief but complete guide to the models that I have used to quickly generate leads for hundreds of businesses in a variety of industries.
Patterns & Models
A couple of the most impactful revelations I made early in my career as a digital marketer were:
People are highly responsive to familiar patterns and for this reason
Models and templates that consistently create these patterns get predictable results
Therefore, everything I do in building a digital marketing strategy is designed around a proven pattern and made repeatable and scalable with a model and templates.
In this essay, I show you the fundamental models I use to build new lead generation strategies.
90-Day Plans
I love the 90-day plan.
A 90-day plan acknowledges and gives you the time to set up the infrastructure you need to run campaigns.
A 90-day plan also, quite frankly, gives you the time to sort through and untangle the spaghetti and mess the previous practitioners have probably made of the digital platform and channels.
Finally, a 90-day plan affords you the time to do the work and give that work just enough time to show some early positive trends and wins.
Never build a digital plan that sets expectations for any results in the first 30-45 days.
You will be in the middle of setting up platforms and channels, getting campaigns and content created, and immediately have leadership or sales directors breathing down your neck for leads.
Rapid Execution and Iteration Over Strategy
Don’t wait for everything to be set up and perfect before you start executing.
Get some offers in the marketplace and begin gathering an audience.
Here are some of my favorite early tactics:
Start posting daily on your preferred social media platform(s) – Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook wherever you have an audience, however small or large. Test messaging and content approaches.
Find some (most likely forgotten and neglected) aged leads or in-house email lists and start sending a weekly email. Again, begin testing the messaging and content you intend to use in more sustainable ways.
Set up a landing page and start publishing regular blog posts. Even if the design and stability of the website are still in disarray and not optimized for conversion, get people coming to the website, even if you’re dragging them there. You guessed it - test messaging and content approach.
Use all of these quick and probably unscalable and sustainable efforts to begin drawing in an audience and gathering data to feed into a more robust strategy.
Playbooks First, Then Innovation Through Iteration
Don’t reinvent the wheel every time you take on a new project.
Start building a playbook, always pull it out, and start with what you know.
(You’re reading mine.)
Your proven playbook provides the confidence that you can bring positive outcomes as soon as possible and in a predictable way.
The business and objectives might change, but rarely does that impact the effectiveness of proven patterns and models.
You can start driving any screw or bolt with a hammer or your fingers until you find the right screwdriver or wrench.
Start with your playbook, and then refine and innovate with the credibility and confidence you have gained from those predictable early successes.