Let's face it.
Traditional marketing efforts don't cut it anymore. Today, we're seeing less and less of the old tactics, while more digital marketing methods are taking priority. Inbound marketing, in particular, has become a hot-button issue. But you knew that, right?
You're here because you want to generate more inbound leads that convert more.
If you're a home builder, this means more home sales for you!
Inbound marketing is an innovative and strategic way to capture inbound leads and increase your bottom line.
It's also far more effective than outbound marketing.
Why? Because outbound marketing is more intrusive and relies on you seeking out your customers. Inbound marketing brings your customers to you.
Inbound marketing feels more personal and less sales-y than a cold call. Not to mention, outbound marketing feels highly impersonal.
So, what's the deal with inbound leads? And, how can you generate and convert a greater amount of them?
In this article, we're taking a deeper dive. Read on for the full scoop.
1. Get Traffic to Your Website for Inbound Leads
As a business owner, having a fully optimized website is a non-negotiable necessity. To generate more inbound leads, attracting traffic to your website should be your top priority.
What's the most effective way to gain a targeted audience on your website?
This proven marketing strategy has been around for a while, but taking it inbound is a game-changer.
Offering high quality, high-value information on your website is absolutely critical to your lead generation efforts. And, the majority of that content should come in the form of a blog.
But Wait! How Does Having a Blog Help with Inbound Leads?
Let us count the ways!
- It builds credibility and authority in your industry
- It drives traffic to your website
- It converts more inbound leads
- It helps you connect and engage with your customers
- You humanise your business and your brand
- It's free (well, unless you hire writers)
- You can repurpose high-quality content over and over, to save both time and money
There's a reason why 88% of marketers say they use content marketing in their business.
Content marketing is the real deal. It's time to jump in and write the content your audience is looking for.
So, how do you execute a powerful content marketing strategy to drive leads to your business?
Effective Content Marketing Comes Down to a Few Key Factors
1. You must establish your target audience
2. You should craft compelling content
3. You have got to address your target audience's pain points
4. You need to create (and stick to) a specific strategy
When you begin content marketing, it's all about attracting the right people. You're not in business to attract everybody, and frankly, you don't want too.
What do you want? Targeted traffic and inbound leads.
How Can You Attract that Audience?
Here are some ideas:
- Create buyer personas
- Craft actionable content that benefits your readers
- Engage with your target audience on social media
- Reply to all of the comments on your blog posts. Build trust with these people and have genuine conversations
- Conduct market research and pay attention to the needs and burning desires of your target audience
- Pay close attention to your analytics for your website traffic.
After you've established your target audience, it's vital to create valuable, high-quality content that will keep your audience coming back for more.
This is how you become an authority in your niche.
How to Create Content that Your Target Audience Loves
You want to try to limit how often you blog about your products or services. This comes across as too sales-y. A topic like a new show home opening or a home model feature is an exception to this because you're helping your audience stay connected
Make sure you provide real value in your content. We're talking about real answers that solve their problems. As a home builder, talk about mortgage tips, things to expect in the new home building process, new home types to consider, and so on.
Another thing? Make your content relatable and keep it conversational. You'll want a variety of shorter post and long-form content for the best results. While long-form content does boost your SEO, having a variety gives you a wider reach.
Compelling content drives inbound leads your way. It also allows you to reach your customers on a whole new level.
How Else Can You Drive Traffic to Your Website?
Content marketing is an exceptional way to accelerate your traffic, but it's not the only way.
It's critical to diversify your strategies to achieve the best results.
Other tactics include the following:
- SEO (search engine optimization), especially on-page SEO
- Optimize your website to prepare for traffic with an excellent website design
- Use social media to advertise your content and build relationships with your target customers
- Get backlinks to your website
- Use Email marketing to drive traffic
- Participate in online forums (like Quora) and link back to your website
2. Use Social Media to Generate and Convert Inbound Leads
With the right strategies, social media can be a lead generating machine. But, you can't just dip your toe into the social media waters every once in a while. You need a plan of action and a social media strategy.
Using social media to capture leads and make conversions doesn't need to be time-consuming. Social media can be a breeze if you utilize the right tools. The best part is you don't need fancy software to get the job done.
How to Get Started with Social Media
Once you have an initial plan and a solid strategy in place, using social media will be relatively seamless.
But first, there are some things to put in place:
- Come up with a strategy specific for your niche - are you a condo developer? Do you specialize in single family homes? Your strategy should take this into account.
- Decide what social media platforms you're going to conquer. Some platforms may work better than others in your industry.
- Decide how often you'll post on each platform each day.
- Choose tools to schedule your posts.
- Set specific goals for how many inbound leads you plan on making per week, month, etc. and how you plan to get there.
- Work on growing your social media presence and your following. If you want to build credibility, it's crucial to grow your followings.
Once you've taken care of all your bases, you'll want to ensure you or someone on your staff is taking care of your social media accounts. In today's social media driven world, it's critical to engage with your followers and appear to be on social media on a daily basis.
Other Ideas on How to Use Social Media to Generate Inbound Leads
- Use Facebook Ads to advertise your content. Lead Ads are a great way to generate leads because users don't need to leave the Facebook app to fill out a form.
- Promote your blog content on your Facebook Page. The CTAs on your blog posts will turn those visits into leads!
- Utilize remarketing on Facebook. Create "warm audiences" from your blog visitors and promote relevant downloadable content to them.
- Participate in Twitter Chats, making sure they're relevant to your business for best results! Send your followers links to landing pages where they can download content relevant to their questions.
Aside from using social media to drive inbound leads back to your website, it's a great place to do free market research and get inside the heads of your target customer.
You can conduct surveys, start a Facebook group, or simply pay attention to what kinds of questions you're being asked the most.
3. Email Marketing is Gold for Your Business
You've probably heard the phrase ''the money is in the list''. Well, nothing could be truer. Email marketing is an outstanding way to convert more inbound leads into customers.
Focusing on your email marketing strategy can prove even hugely profitable for your business.
Consider this...
What would you do if your social media platform like Facebook or Twitter disappeared tomorrow?
All of those 100,000 followers, suddenly gone.
And, perhaps worse than that.
They're gone and you have no way to connect with those people again.
This is why the money IS in the email list.
With email, you're able to connect with people on a deeper level. And, more importantly, you own your email list. Not Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin - just you.
Once you have a substantial amount of people (the right, targeted people) on your list, you can do a number of things to turn those warm leads into customers.
But let's back up a second.
How to Grow Your Email List to Generate More Inbound Leads
So now it's clear why you must have an email list, but you may still be pondering how you're actually going to grow your email list to generate leads.
Let's dive into the easiest and fastest ways to skyrocket your email list.
1. Create incentives, also known as opt-in freebies or lead magnets, in exchange for your customer's email address. You'll want to create valuable freebies for your subscribers, such as free eBooks and checklists.
2. Create mind-blowing content to keep your readers engaged, and entice them with eye-catching subject lines.
3. Place opt-in forms and relevant CTAs all over your website.
4. Use pop-ups or welcome mats to capture even more leads.
5. Use copywriting to your advantage in your emails. Do this by telling stories versus just the hard-sell.
The options are endless when you want to use your email list as a lead generating tool. All it takes is a little effort and the ability to utilize the right tools.
Once you begin to engage with the subscribers on your email list, the crucial part is to be consistent.
Nurture your email list.
That way, when the time comes to convert those followers from an inbound lead to a paying customer, you've already established a relationship and built their trust.
This will make the possibility of a purchase all the more likely.
4. Convert Your Traffic Into Leads
Now that the targeted traffic is pouring into your website, you're ready to begin converting your traffic into leads.
But, before you're going to see paying customers, there are a few things you must have covered first.
To Start Converting Traffic Into Leads You Should Have:
- A steady-growing email list that you engage with on a regular basis
- A well-maintained website with opt-in forms in every nook and cranny
- A free offer (a freebie) to offer your subscribers. Or several different ones including premium content offers in your most popular blog posts
- CTA's (Call to actions) These can lead to your landing pages
- Landing pages to convert your leads
An essential element to generating and converting more inbound leads is having well-designed, eye-catching landing pages.
How do you create awe-inspiring landing pages? There are some great software tools to help you. Our personal favourite is, of course, HubSpot!
3 Essential Components All Killer Landing Pages Have:
- An appealing design with beautiful images and visuals
- A CTA (a call to action). You might want several of these, spread across the landing page.
- Good copy. It's vitally important if you want to convince your reader to take action.
Another component to converting traffic into leads is having an effective sales funnel.
What you may not realize is you've already started your funnel.
Your sales funnel is a series of steps you take your customers through before they buy. This is where that email list you've been growing comes to fruition.
Once you have a strategy in place for your funnel, free opt-in offers, and outstanding landing pages - you're able to use your email list to capture leads, and eventually, customers.
Final Thoughts
Things have come a long way since traditional marketing was all the rage. Inbound marketing has totally revolutionized the way marketers operate today.
It used to be that unless you had large amounts of money, you couldn't afford marketing for your business. This left small businesses out in the cold.
Today, everyone competes on a level playing field. Digital marketing and inbound marketing have totally changed the game.
With inbound marketing, you're taking your customers through a system.
You take complete strangers and turn them into leads.
Then customers.
Then, die-hard fans!
But in order to generate and convert greater inbound leads, you have to start growing your website traffic. After all, without visitors to your website, you're not likely to convert anyone.
After you've accomplished growing your website traffic, working on a social media and email marketing strategy is a must.
Finally, once you've established a relationship, you can convert your traffic into leads.
If you have any questions about our internet marketing services, feel free to contact us. We're always happy to help.
What tactics have you found the most useful in generating and converting inbound leads? Please let us know in the comments below - we'd love to hear them!
Originally posted Dec 8, 2017, updated July 4, 2018
