The pandemic has changed the way everyone does business, and even lead generation isn’t exempt from these changes.
Arguably, the foundations and principles remain the same, but the playing field has been altered. For consistent lead generation to continue, things have to change.
In this article, we explore methods that you can employ today to ensure that your business has a steady stream of leads coming in.
Pay Attention to Your Website
As physical distancing measures are enforced, optimizing, and maintaining your website as your primary storefront is critical to driving organic leads.
It’s highly likely that most of your potential prospects will look you up online or run into your website – if you’re ranking well – when searching for services that your company offers.
If you haven’t placed a significant focus on your digital real estate for a while, now is the perfect time.
- Search Engine Optimization – if you want your company’s website to rank for certain keywords that your prospects will be searching for, you have to invest in proper SEO. This can range from getting better keywords with buyer intent, fixing up your headers, improving the UI and UX, getting the site speed in check, making sure you have a good link profile, and optimizing your content and pages for search.
- Site Maintenance – Do you have broken pages and URLs that lead to nowhere? Not only does it hurt your SEO, but it hurts the reputation that you have with your users.
- Conversion Rate Optimization – if the traffic is starting to pour in, but only a few people are being converted, then it’s best to look at the CRO that you have for your website. Are your calls-to-action catchy? Is the content text-heavy and boring? Do you make it easy for your prospects to navigate and opt-in?
- A/B Testing – This applies to your social media presence, but it’s also a great way to determine if elements in your website are working or not.
By paying attention to these four points, you can optimize your website to generate organic leads that will last even after the pandemic.
Virtual Events Are Becoming the Norm
We might not be hosting any physical marketing events until the end of the year, but that doesn’t mean that your prospects don’t require product presentations and marketing events.
Virtual marketing events can still be used to launch products and create platforms to promote and generate leads.
However, it’s not enough that you have a presenter and a camera set up; you still need to stand out from the competition since many companies have moved to virtual platforms.
It’s critical that the events that you hold have high production values. This means that you need a good camera setup, a great script, a dedicated graphics professional to put in overlays, and impeccable audio, to say the least. The playing field might have been leveled by the pandemic, but that also means everyone is getting competitive.
Change Your Message
The crisis has affected everyone to varying degrees; in fact, there is such a thing as collective grief that is gripping everyone today. Everyone is hurting, and this why your message is important.
Gone are the days where a quick marketing spiel on an email campaign will suffice, companies will have to adapt their messages to be more sensitive to the collective needs of their prospects.
Marketers don’t necessarily have to make everything about the pandemic, but they have to focus on crafting pitches to help their prospects during the crisis. If it doesn’t directly help them, it should at least be sensitive and honest.
If you do cover messages about COVID-19 and its effects on business, make sure it’s something helpful like an analysis on how the disease is affecting their industry, or whitepapers and research that could be beneficial to their needs.
A little humanity during this time doesn’t hurt.
Invest in Creating Media (And Social Media)
The crisis has led to a lot of your prospects being stuck in front of a computer screen daily. At this rate, they’re probably getting used to seeing ads and lead generation attempts by other companies.
This is why it is critical that you invest in creating unique media that resonates with them. Instead of sending out a blog post in your next email campaign, why don’t you send them an interactive video or an invite to a Q&A session in your next webinar?
A lot of your prospects might also be spending a lot of time on social media because of all the free time they have, so it also makes sense that you invest in your social media content.
Ensure that the content you’re posting is intriguing, thought-provoking, and creative enough to capture the attention of your audience.
Companies can also subscribe to or consult with specialized lead generation services that can help them make the most out of this predicament.
The most important thing to keep in mind during this difficult situation is that your prospects respond well to humanity. Be a little more sensitive and thoughtful with your message, and you’ll find that it can make all the difference.
