Hop Off the New Lead Treadmill
We get it – every business needs new leads. But getting leads and figuring out what to do with them once you have them are two of the most important nuts to crack when you want to keep the squirrels over in accounting happy.
If you want to find out how a simple change in thinking about leads can help resolve income fluctuations, keep reading!
Face it, youâre addicted to leads
Thereâs a misconception that the only way to grow your company or generate more revenue is by getting more and more new leads. Itâs quite true that every business needs leads, but what happens to those leads at each stage of the customer journey youâve designed is much more important.
Thatâs because the real money is not in âgetting leads,â but in the relationship you build with them over time.
A long-term solution to lead treadmill problems
Ideally, you have systems and content marketing assets in place to handle each stage along the customer journey, but especially after leads have converted to customers. There are four overall stages along this journey:
1. Attracting interested people. Initially, new leads are about future income. You need to do everything in your power to show them the value and benefit of what you can offer and show how you address their specific problem.
Of course, you canât take prospects to the bank, so youâve got to get them to the next step, which is âŠ
2. Engaging interested prospects and turning them into customers.
This gets you some revenue, which is great, but once you fulfill the service, youâve got some work to do to keep that customer coming back or referring new business to you over the long term.
At this stage, many businesses run right back to the Attracting stage, thinking they better find new leads or the revenue will run out. Itâs easy to understand why companies get stuck in an Attract/Engage cycle here.
But the smart money is focused on âŠ
3. Optimizing existing customer relationships by making them richer and deeper, delivering a great experience and communicating with them often through different channels.
This can be achieved with regular client check-ins, marketing touch-points and scheduled service rep follow-ups. After that, you will want to focus on âŠ
4. Retaining these relationships, so ultimately they become your fans and help promote your business. This increases the lifetime value of every customer you convert, creating a cycle that feeds and grows organically and is only augmented by new inbound leads.
One of the best ways to do this is with content marketing delivered in newsletters that share insightful topics, new product offers, upsells, joint-venture marketing, and more.
Long-game for lead generation
When you start to think of lead generation in the context of a big picture, relationship-based marketing model, then your end game transforms to one of letting your relationships, instead of just paid ads, bring more new business and new referrals.
This is very different (also more fun and more lucrative) than building a lead machine that pumps suspicious, lukewarm prospects into your pipeline.
The good news is that relationship-building tasks are easier than ever to accomplish with systems and technology, so you donât need to hire a whole bunch of staff to make this happen.
Reach out to the Vested team for any questions on lead generation and growth marketing – we’re here to help!
