Want to generate more leads? Five tips you can apply today

Want to generate more leads and attract better clients? Clients who are easy to manage, who bring in more, and who you genuinely enjoy working for? What would it mean to double your sales over the coming months while investing the same amount, or less, in your marketing?

Below we share what actually works. These strategies have been applied and tested successfully across more than thirty different sectors.

How we know we can generate more leads for you

These methods have the strongest impact on the growth of SMBs. The hundreds of thousands of euros we have invested in advertising for our clients have produced millions in revenue. Here you will learn:

• the expansion formula, and how to use it to pull in the part of the market your competitors ignore entirely
• the value-first method, a marketing system for doubling your sales with techniques your competitor has never heard of
• what offering value means for your audience, and how to find out
• how to write copy that convinces potential clients to work with you
• how to create an offer that persuades the people still hesitating

1. The expansion formula: reach more of your market

The first key to doubling your sales is addressing a far bigger share of the market. Raise the number of prospects you speak to dramatically, position your company well above your competition, and double your sales.

This is how the market is divided

• 3% of your ideal clients are interested enough to buy right now
• 17% want to gather more information first
• 20% are aware of their problem and need help, but are not actively looking for a solution
• 60% of your ideal clients are not aware of their problem at all

The formula has two steps.

Step 1: get more visitors into your funnel

If you want to double your sales you cannot rely on a single source of visitors. When all of your traffic comes from search advertising, you are leaving behind every lead you could have collected from organic search, from social platforms, from professional networks.

By bringing in visitors from several sources you guarantee a constant stream into your funnel.

To make that work you have to start small. Begin with one channel and get it performing well enough that you can run advertising profitably. Then work out your cost per lead and your cost per acquisition, meaning what it costs to actually turn a lead into a client through that specific channel. Once you know which platforms perform best, pick the three strongest and divide your budget in line with your sales ambitions.

Step 2: address a bigger share of the market

You do not double your sales by focusing on the three percent who are already convinced. The other ninety-seven percent are looking for more information. They have doubts, questions, dreams and desires that are not yet met.

Should you not invest time, energy and resources in the three percent who are burning to buy? Of course you should. But spend at least as much time, energy and resources reaching and serving the other ninety-seven percent. The key is positioning your company as one they can trust.

Be the authority in your market

Focus on the ninety-seven percent who are not yet ready by providing valuable information. Publish guides, run webinars, write articles, answer questions on forums, make videos that answer real questions.

The point is that you have to:

• be visible
• offer value
• build relationships of trust

By building authority in your sector you attract prospects from every stage of the pyramid.

• you speak to the 3% already convinced, because you are the authority in your niche
• you catch the attention of the 17% gathering information
• you are on the radar of the 20% who are aware of their problem
• and for the 60% who are not yet aware, you are already present the moment they become aware. It is only a matter of time.

2. Lead your client to the promised land

Show your client the way with value-driven marketing. Every time you offer value to your ideal clients their skepticism drops and their confidence in your company rises.

An example from advertising history

In 1946 a copywriter named Louis Engel wrote a one-page educational advertisement for the investment firm he worked for. His bosses were hesitant but decided to give it a chance. The ad ran in the New York Times, brought in three million leads, and helped make the firm one of the biggest names on Wall Street. In the years that followed, companies and agencies embraced this new form of advertising.

How do you make marketing valuable? Lead magnets

Value-driven marketing leads to profit, but for some reason it has slipped out of view at a lot of SMBs in recent years. The key is give, then take. The best way to do that is with lead magnets, and they come in many forms: free reports, videos, worksheets, checklists. The only thing you ask in return is an email address or a phone number.

Whether they buy or not, you are preparing them to become a client. People are far more willing to buy when they feel they are learning something than when they feel they are being sold to.

Eighty percent value, twenty percent asking

A lead magnet may be free, but the information in it has to be worth the time investment, has to offer a solution, and has to move the potential client forward. We can hear you thinking: surely I cannot give everything away for free?

No, of course not. You have a business to run, so you want to be sure that what you do has an impact on your sales. As Gary Vaynerchuk has argued, you want to offer value around eighty percent of the time and make requests the other twenty percent, to get people to take the next step.

So in the creation of your valuable content you also make requests. By working those in as strong calls to action you raise the chance of collecting better-qualified prospects, and better clients as a result.

3. Find out what is actually valuable

To work out what is valuable to your audience you obviously need to know who your audience is. After that you can research.

• find out which questions people ask around your services
• use keyword tools to find out what your audience is searching for
• look at competitors’ advertising across the world to see what they do well and badly
• visit forums and see what people say
• read reviews of books or of products similar to yours
• look at which articles get the most traction and the most shares on your subject
• look at which videos get watched most inside your audience

The better you understand that, the better you can help people with it, and the faster they start seeing your company as the authority.

4. Catch attention and hold it

Your headline is, without doubt, the most important part of what you write. Whether it is a landing page, a lead magnet or an email, it decides whether your potential client reads on. Without the right headline you never break through the wall around your prospect.

A great headline has to jump off the page and catch your reader immediately. It should be:

• informative, telling the reader straight away what kind of content they are about to read
• engaging, catching attention and encouraging them to read on
• relevant, giving a clear description of what to expect

An illustration

In the 1980s an author published a book that sold around five thousand copies. A copywriter read it, was completely won over by the content, and could not understand why nobody was talking about it. He called the author and asked to buy the rights. Based on her sales figures, it was a fair reward for her hard work.

What did he then do? He changed the title to something that caught attention, focused on the biggest benefit readers experienced after reading it. The result was a bestseller with millions of copies sold.

Through a lack of knowledge of marketing psychology, the author missed out on an enormous amount. The same thing happens today on websites, in ads, in ebooks and in webinars.

5. The offer they cannot refuse

However convincing your copy is, without an attractive offer you sell nothing. Your offer is the bridge between interest and action, and therefore essential to generating more leads.

Keep it simple and focused

Do not ask too much of your reader. One clear message, one goal, one strong call to action. The less noise, the higher the chance somebody acts. Avoid confusion by chasing several goals at once, like asking people to sign up for your newsletter, make a purchase and leave a review all at the same time. Focus works.

Think about your entry offer

Not every client is ready to make a large investment straight away. But that does not mean they are not ready for a smaller step.

This part of your market can double your sales. You attract them with an entry offer. Those sales do not bring in a large amount each, but they raise your number of clients enormously. Offers in the range of seven to ten euros perform best.

For a fitness chain, that could mean:

• a free yoga mat with your first class
• a trial month with no commitment
• a mini training course for €7.99

These entry products are low-threshold, they take away doubt, and they let your client experience your quality immediately. And importantly, they have to radiate far more value than they cost.

Could you use help generating more leads?

Doubling your sales is not a coincidence. It follows from the right strategies, smart marketing, and a willingness to genuinely put the work in.

Apply the insights. And if you find you could use help, book a no-obligation conversation.