No company’s budget is limitless. The challenge that marketers face is spending the money they have in an efficient way to produce optimal results.
Equipping staff with the relevant skills
Perhaps this seems obvious, but it is often overlooked. The industry is constantly changing, and it’s important that your business is equipped with the requisite knowledge and resources to deal with these changes. Staff training should be a priority for you – understanding and strategy are things that cannot be outsourced. You can outsource tasks, but you need someone in the company to be able to understand what can be achieved through online marketing, and also someone who is able to give correct briefings to media consultants who will have the technical knowledge to execute the campaign for you. This is a very worthwhile long-term investment.
Automated marketing
Automated marketing is a great investment because it really simplifies targeted marketing, and will also help ease a large part of the workload. Automatically nurture leads, remind customers of abandoned carts, and introduce them to the latest news at your company. Automated systems collect data and track user clicks so that businesses can use that information to build relationships with potential clients.
Your company website
Before you skim over this paragraph – remember that most businesses will already have a website. What you need to be spending your money on is a website that is optimised for lead capture. But how? First, make sure it’s accessible on all devices; that internet users can navigate your website with ease, whether they are on a desktop or mobile. How about your landing pages? Are they mobile optimised too? Do you have to scroll before you see the offer or call-to-action? Lastly, is your website content-focussed? You should be providing valuable content that keeps visitors interested and helps build their trust and confidence in your brand.
Pay-per-click (PPC)
Remember, no component of lead generation is really free. There has to be a person behind the blogs, the emails and the social media. What PPC offers is to put your brand in front of people who are searching for a solution to their problem that your business can provide. Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? The success of PPC, however, isn’t so straightforward, because undoubtedly your competitors will be doing the same. What’s important is to incorporate SEO principles to achieve the best possible ranking. Use a multi-pronged approach, and set up ads that appeal to groups of people who are at different stages of your sales funnel. For example, people towards the latter end will be the more qualified leads who are running more specific searches, and you can tailor your PPC strategy accordingly.
