If you’re a small business, then you realize that you need leads for your business to survive.
That’s why, in this blog post, we shall brainstorm 10 of the most powerful lead generation strategies for just about any niche. Forget all the tremendously expensive, complex, and complicated training that teaches how to generate website traffic. I’m going to reveal a decade’s worth of experience in this blog post, for free.
If you’re thirsty for new leads in your business, then this guide was written for you. Because everyone knows how sad it is when you have a fantastic company, but you have zero traffic. We also know how dreadful it is when you want to generate leads, but you have no clue how to start.
That’s why I’ve been brainstorming lead generation ideas for years. This following post reveals my humble two cents as to the ten best lead generation strategies that rock for just about any business.
# 1 – Course Funnels For Lead Generation
There’s a fundamental reason why I’m putting course funnels as the top lead generation method. The first reason is that the online learning and teaching industry is now massive.
New course marketplaces are opening all the time, and even huge companies like LinkedIn are getting in on the distance education phenomenon. The point is that it’s elementary to launch an online course in several different marketplaces at the same time. That’s because most course marketplaces that I have seen do not require exclusivity. So you can launch your courses widely if you wish.
I also propose to you that any business can launch an online course. You can use that course as a mechanism to promote your lead magnet, to generate leads, and to promote your business or service. You can even use classes as a product which you can sell.
If you are a small business owner, start brainstorming stuff that you can teach your ideal buyer, customer, or dream client. Turn these ideas into a script, then record the text, and turn that script into a video course. This teaching process requires work. However, it can be an excellent way to share your experience while also being a massive branding asset.
Why Course Funnels Rock For Lead Generation
I love online teaching, and I have launched many dozens of online courses. Over 14,000 unique students have enrolled in my classes. I never say this to brag or to toot my own horn; I’m saying this because I’m confident that if I can launch online courses, you probably can too.
I’m the shyest human on the planet. I’m a social recluse for crying out loud. If I can muster the courage to teach, launch, and publish online courses, then I’m so confident that you can as well.
Just be sure to brand yourself during the course. Talk about your website, your lead magnet, your email newsletter, your products, your services, or even your social media profiles.
If you play your cards right, then course launching can be a massive lead generation machine. Please bear in mind that all different course marketplaces have different rules. Some course marketplaces are much more relaxed about you promoting yourself.
Eventually, it would probably be a sound business strategy to launch courses on your platform. That way, you remain in full control of your course content, what you say in your class, and what you promote in your course.
# 2 – Book Funnels For Lead Generation
Book funnels are another tremendously impressive way to generate leads. The strategy of launching a book is very similar to starting a course.
Most of the courses that I publish are books that I had already previously written.
What’s the difference between a book, a blog post, an epic Podcast episode, a webinar, or an online course?
I propose to you that there’s very little difference. All those mediums could easily contain the same content. The point is that if you have a book, you may as well turn that book into a course. If you have a class, then you may as well turn that course into a book.
Just like a course funnel, a book funnel can be an excellent way to generate leads. There are many different types of book funnels.
You could have a lead magnet funnel that offers a free book. Your lead must give you an email address to get a copy of the book.
Another excellent option is to sell a digital copy of your book. You could use a platform such as ClickBank or PayPal to sell copies of your digital book. After your lead buys the book, they then land in your membership area or on your download page.
You can also have a free plus shipping book funnel. Your lead must cover the cost of shipping to get the physical copy of the book.
Why Book Funnels Rock For Lead Generation
Your book and your book funnel are both ridiculously powerful branding and lead generation assets.
For example, you could promote your business on the book download page. So maybe when your customer buys or registers to get their digital book, you could promote something on the thank you page. Perhaps you could promote a webinar, a sales letter, or you could even offer to give consultation if that’s what your business does.
The point is that your book download page is a ridiculously powerful piece of digital real estate. Use your download page to promote just about anything that you want.
You could also pitch your lead capture page in the footer of the book. That way, if your readers are enjoying your content, they will see the invitation to join your email newsletter.
# 3 – Social Media Marketing For Lead Generation
Social media marketing can be one of the most powerful lead generation strategies in your arsenal. The best part is that there’s a tremendous wealth of different ways that you can generate leads using social media.
One of the primary questions to ask yourself is if you want to use paid advertising or not. That’s because most social media networks are themselves robust advertising marketplaces where you can buy ads.
You can easily buy ads on the following social media networks:
When advertising your lead capture page on social media, remember that your favorite social media channel may have a ton of data on your ideal customer.
The fact that social media networks offer paid ads is fantastic news! This way, you can target only those who would be an ideal match for your business. You never have to waste your hard-earned marketing budget by showing your ads to those who will probably not want your stuff.
Why Social Media Marketing Rocks For Lead Generation
Another key reason why social media marketing rocks is because you don’t even have to buy ads if you don’t want to. You can reach countless people on social media for free. It doesn’t matter what niche or industry your business is in.
For example, sharing content that your brand or business creates on social media can be a great way to deliver massive value to your niche. If you publish tons of high-quality material, then you have a chance to get eyeballs on your business.
There are so many ways to publish on social media. You can post Facebook lives. You can start a Facebook group. You can start a Pinterest group. You can publish updates on YouTube or Instagram. There are endless amounts of ways to post on social media.
When you deliver mass quantities of value to your industry, you’re probably going to develop some amounts of respect and authority, and good karma as a result. Good karma is very important in the world of social media, marketing, and small business.
The idea is to help people. If you visit Quora, you can tap into just about any niche. You can type in any keyword, and then you will see a big list of questions that people ask. Answer questions that people have. Try your best to deliver tremendous amounts of valuable content.
That’s the power of social media; it’s when you go out of your way to change the lives of other people. Hopefully, as a result, they click on your profile. Your profile should, of course, be optimized to promote your business in a cool, and non-pushy way.
Maybe you can promote your lead capture page on your profile. Or you can promote a book or a course funnel. You could promote a social media group that you run. The possibilities are endless; I think the main idea is to create massive goodwill in your niche so that people want to learn more about you.
Helping others on social media, and striving to create compelling content, combined with strategic positioning of your lead capture page, webinar registration page, or any marketing funnel can be a smart lead generation strategy to deploy.
# 4 – Podcasting For Lead Generation
Podcasting is one of the best marketing strategies for those who create a ton of content.
In my opinion, if you have any blog, or if you write content frequently, then you may as well launch a Podcast.
Because you already have written content. You already have stuff that you can immediately turn into Podcast content.
I think in today’s world of constant connectivity, people love Podcasts. People on the go love Podcasts. Truckers love Podcasts. People who hit the gym love Podcasts. I love Podcasts, and there’s a good chance that you do as well.
The point of me saying this is because I think that Podcasts are hugely popular. I also believe that your ideal prospect, and your perfect buyer, might love your Podcast.
Even if your Podcast fails epically, then you didn’t lose much. That’s because starting a Podcast is dirt cheap. The low cost of publishing a Podcast is something that I’ve experimented with before, and a good Podcast host will run you about $5-$15 a month to start, max.
Now, I think that Podcasting requires a lot of work. Please never let anyone tell you that any content marketing is easy. But, for $5 a month, or even for just $20 a month if you get a mega Podcasting host, Podcasting might be worth testing.
Why Podcasting Rocks For Lead Generation
Podcasting, in my opinion, is perfect for any blogger, writer, social media influencer, or anyone who publishes written content already.
Starting a Podcast is as simple as getting a $30 microphone on Amazon, getting a dirty cheap Podcast host of $5 – $10 a month, and then plugging your Podcast RSS feed into iTunes and other Podcast directories.
You can then start every single episode with a short plug of your business. Plug your website, your webinar, your marketing funnel, your book funnel, or anything that you want.
And then, you can take that Podcast link, and you can share it across all of your social media channels. A Podcast can make for significant updates on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Tumblr, or any other platform you like.
This way, you can try your best to deliver massive value to your audience. You can work in an honest attempt to share rich content, that hopefully, your audience will love.
And, if you love to share content, then you might even have a ton of fun as a result.
# 5 – Webinar Marketing Funnels For Lead Generation
Webinar marketing must be the number one underrated lead generation strategy for small business owners. I love webinars. There are so many reasons why webinar marketing is unfathomably underrated.
For your ideal client to register for your webinar, they must insert their email address. You can then automate a webinar marketing followup campaign. The campaign can introduce yourself, share compelling content, and of course, invite your lead to the webinar as the event starts.
The first thing to know about webinars is that webinars can help you to generate leads, but they also have a ton of other benefits. Let’s take a quick second to talk about 7 of the biggest and best advantages of webinar marketing.
Seven reasons why webinar marketing is ridiculously awesome:
• Webinar marketing can be a powerful lead generation asset.
• Webinar marketing can make for compelling content for your existing leads.
• Webinar marketing can be the single best way to promote your products or services.
• Webinar marketing can easily be automated.
• Webinar marketing can help you to establish massive authority and rapport with new leads.
• Webinar marketing is amusing and exciting if you love teaching and helping people.
• There are tons of webinar platforms that make everything very easy.
In other words, webinar marketing is arguably my favorite lead generation strategy because webinars are so ridiculously dynamic.
Why Webinar Marketing Rocks For Lead Generation
Just about any business on the planet, in my opinion, can think of at least one powerful webinar marketing idea that they could use for their business.
Choosing the perfect webinar topic is as simple as figuring out what your ideal prospects want to learn. What’s something that you could teach to your audience that they would love? What do your ideal customers and dream clients want to learn?
You can turn that presentation into an ideal tool for rapport building, for lead warming, and sales. You can try your best to deliver tons of useful content on the webinar, and then use that webinar to pitch your products and services.
The idea that you can automate your webinar takes things up a notch and makes everything much more comfortable. Imagine if you could record the ideal webinar presentation one time, and then use that presentation repeatedly as the perfect lead onboarding sequence.
Even better, you can continuously create new webinars for your existing leads. Your new stream of webinars can help to promote your products, services, and even affiliate offers should you wish.
# 6 – Content Marketing For Lead Generation
In our world of expanding social media channels and a vibrant world of constant connectivity, the small business owner can never forget content marketing.
The amazing thing about content marketing is that there are limitless possibilities. One of the hottest content marketing channels these days is YouTube.
If you love to create tutorials for your niche, then content marketing by way of video creation can be a genius idea. You could easily insert a call to action at the beginning or end of your videos. Your call to action can promote your lead magnets, lead capture page, webinar registration page, or any marketing funnel that you wish.
The cool thing about content marketing with YouTube is that there are so many fresh ways you can share your videos these days. Let’s brainstorm for a minute to see all the new ideas that you could share your YouTube videos.
How can you share your YouTube videos?
• You could post your videos on your WordPress blog.
• You can share your videos on Facebook.
• You can share your videos on Twitter.
• You can share your videos on LinkedIn.
• You can share your videos on Tumblr.
• You can share your videos on Blogger.
• You can share your videos on Instagram.
• You can share your videos on any social media platform that you want!
The beauty of creating a video is that you can turn that one video into many different pieces of content for various social channels. That way, you’re helping to get much more bang for your marketing buck, while hopefully getting more eyeballs on your content at the same time.
Why Content Marketing Rocks For Lead Generation
Content marketing is an excellent lead generation strategy for those small business owners who have more time than money. Face it, we all know how tough the economy is if you’re a small business owner. You don’t have the massive 6 or 7 figure budgets to hire employees to churn out compelling ads around the clock.
That’s why I’m personally a huge fan of content marketing. It gives the small business owners of the world just like us an opportunity to share our message the world, even if our budgets aren’t that big.
So you can share your message with your clients, your prospects, and your dream customers. As always, ask yourself, what words should you be sharing with the world? What questions do your ideal prospects have? Finally, ask yourself, how can you help your prospects? What type of content would they find to be valuable?
If you can answer those questions, then I believe that you’ll have a ton of fun with content marketing. It often just starts with a simple video that you share all over on your different social channels.
# 7 – Blogging For Lead Generation
I honestly think that just about any business should have a blog. One of the main reasons why blogging is fantastic is because blogging dirt cheap.
You can buy a domain, a web host for one year, and also a premium WordPress theme for less than $100. For $100, you can get a cool looking website setup, and you don’t have to be a technical genius to get started.
Most web hosts these days allow you to install WordPress easily. If you’re not familiar with WordPress, WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems on the planet.
WordPress is straightforward to use. You can get a beautiful WordPress site setup, and you can publish new content on your blog without knowing how to write a single line of code.
If you use any of the popular web hosts like GoDaddy, NameCheap, Bluehost or HostGator, you can get WordPress set up very quickly. If you ask politely, they will probably help you with it.
Once you have WordPress set up on your website, you’re going to feel so empowered as a result. Suddenly, you have your platform where you can publish content.
You can promote your lead capture, your webinar registration page, your book funnels, your course funnels, or any other branding asset right on your blog.
The real estate is your own, which means that you have the ultimate freedom. You own the content that you publish on your blog, and that’s why I love blogging.
Why Blogging Rocks For Lead Generation
Blogging gives you the ultimate freedom to publish whatever you want.
If you love to write, and if you like to brainstorm exciting topics in your niche, then blogging might become your favorite marketing strategy.
The best part about blogging is that there’s no limit to how much content you can publish.
If you want to spend an hour every day creating a new blog post, you can do that. If you’re going to spend 5 hours every day writing a mega blog post, you can do that.
Or, if you want to take your time and publish one quality piece of content every week, you can do that as well.
The main thing that blogging offers to you as the small business owner is flexibility.
Your blog can also be the perfect “central hub” of your business. You can announce your products on your blog. You can publish your new webinar, or your new book, or your new course on your blog.
You can also answer the questions that your marketplace has right on your blog. Blogging is ridiculously powerful, and if you love to write, I think you’ll have a ton of fun.
# 8 – Pay Per Click Advertising For Lead Generation
Pay Per Click advertising is, of course, one of the most powerful ways that you can generate leads for your business. You can target your ideal client and show your ad in front of them wherever they live on the planet. Most major ad platforms like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook will have plenty of options so you can target your specific audience.
Of course, the major downside with Pay Per Click advertising is that it can be very ridiculously expensive. That’s why knowing your numbers is essential. When you consider PPC advertising, the main thing you need to ask yourself is how much your leads are worth to you.
That’s because the cost of clicks these days can be tremendously expensive. If you’re selling something very cheap, then it might be challenging to make the numbers work.
I don’t want to say Pay Per Click ads are always wrong. PPC ads can be a powerful marketing tool as long as you have a great business idea and are willing to test.
Why Pay Per Click Advertising Rocks For Lead Generation
The main reason why PPC advertising rocks is because you can theoretically tap into your audience. No matter where you live, and regardless of where they live, and regardless of if you have a reputation or not.
You have to pay to play. If you decide to experiment with Pay Per Click ads or any paid advertising for that matter, it’s critically essential that you test small.
Never jump into a massive campaign only to find out that your ads aren’t performing. Instead, start ridiculously small, so you can see if your ads have any chance of succeeding. Find out how much it costs per click.
You might be horrified to discover that clicks in your industry cost $25 each. Or, you might be delightfully surprised to learn that clicks are dirt cheap.
You only know until you test. Just remember that PPC ads can be expensive. PPC comes with some level of risk, which is why testing, and paying very close attention to your numbers is of the utmost importance.
# 9 – Co-Registration For Lead Generation
Co-Registration is a unique lead generation method that is worth knowing about. Co-Registration is when lead generation agencies sell you leads that they have generated for their own business.
Co-registration might seem a little confusing, so I’m going to explain a bit more in-depth about how it works.
Let’s pretend that you own a marketing agency, and you generate 10,000 leads per day. You want to increase the amount of money that you earn per lead, so you decide to start selling those leads to other business owners.
That’s kind of how Co-Registration works, with one major caveat. That caveat, is how does the lead get introduced to you? After all, if you start emailing them out of the blue, they might get annoyed. So, here’s what happens. After the lead registers, that lead sees a promotion to join your email list as well.
In other words, after the lead generation agency generates a lead for their purposes, that same lead is presented an offer to join your email list as well.
There will usually be a checkbox that says something like this: “Do You Want To Join The MrComputerScience.com Marketing Newsletter As Well? If So Check This Box!”.
I hope that makes sense because Co-Registration is an unusual and old school lead generation strategy that’s worth knowing about.
Why Co-Registration Rocks For Lead Generation
The main reason why Co-Registration is cool is that it’s very dirt cheap. The last time I looked, a popular co-registration agency was selling leads for about $.50 per lead. For that $.50, you get the leads email address and their IP address. You can also request additional on the leads if you wish. For example, you can ask their name, their address, and their phone number as well if you want to.
So that’s an email marketing lead that agrees to join your email list, and you got them for only fifty cents. The cost of these leads will vary depending upon where you get them, what information you have them, and where they live.
So, there are different niches whereby you can order leads from. You can also geotarget leads with Co-Registration. So, if you own a gym in New York City, you can order leads from New York only.
One final note about Co-Registration is to make sure that the company you are dealing with is legit. Make sure that they have a professional website, make sure that they are popular, and make sure that they have an outstanding reputation.
Please do your homework diligently to make sure that any co-registration agency or any marketing agency you work with has excellent credentials and reviews.
# 10 – Email Courses For Lead Generation
I couldn’t justify publishing this content without talking about and fully covering email course funnels.
An email course is one of the most natural lead generation assets that you can create as a small business owner. The beauty of an email course is that these types of courses are excellent in virtually any niche.
So it doesn’t matter if you’re a dentist, a chiropractor, a coach, a consultant, an affiliate marketer, a teacher, a pastry chef, or any other type of entrepreneur.
I challenge you to think of a powerful course idea that is designed to help your ideal prospect.
Maybe you’re asking yourself what an email course is exactly? An email course is quite simply, a series of course lessons sent automatically via email.
So let’s pretend that you are in the weight loss niche. You are targeting moms over 40 who want to lose weight. You could create a simple email course called “How To Lose Weight From Home Even If You Hate Diets And Are Over 40!”.
You could then carefully and artfully write 7 (or even more) lessons that help your audience achieve what they want.
At the end of the email, you could easily promote anything you want. You can plug your webinar, book funnel, course funnel, sales letter, video sales letter, or any other marketing asset that you wish.
The beauty of an email course is that they are straightforward to publish. There are many different email automation tools out there these days that can make automating your email course very easy.
Why Email Course Funnels Rock For Lead Generation
I honestly think that email marketing rocks. Publishing and promoting a course funnel happens to be one of the easiest ways that you can build your email list!
Email courses can help you to share your message. They can also provide value to your marketplace, and they can also be a compelling way to generate email leads.
That way, you can followup with your leads, share compelling content with them, and of course, you can promote your products to them.
As long as you have a strong desire to create excellent content for your prospects, then email courses are awesome.
Email courses are light and quick to produce, and they’re also enjoyable to write if you love helping your ideal prospect.
Just remember to spend quality time brainstorming all about your ideal subscriber so you can craft the perfect email course designed to help them.
Finally, ask yourself what type of offers can you promote in your email course. Do you have any products that you can pitch? Or maybe you want to get your leads on a consultation call?
The idea is to make sure that your course delivers value, and of course, ensure that your classes sell something!!!
Summary To Lead Generation Strategy
I hope that you found tons of value in this guide.
One final tip going forward is to remember that all of these methods are hard, and they take a ton of work to pull off!
Remember that delivering value, caring about your audience, serving them, and creating desirable content is a ton of work.
The reason I mention any of this is that I have fallen victim to gurus who say that lead generation is super easy.
It’s not.
Delivering value and creating excellent content requires a ton of work.
But, if you want to serve your audience, and if you believe in the message that you share, then hopefully, you’ll have a ton of fun during these lead generation activities.
Either way, thank you for reading, and I hope that this blog post finds you well!
Cordially yours.
Mike “Lead Generation Strategy” DeVincent
MrComputerScience.com