Written by There are tonnes of ways to generate leads for your business – seriously. The challenge is knowing which ones will be best for your business, and where you should invest your money.
We’ve rounded up a variety of different channels and methods – along with the features of each that you should consider. Obviously, we’re going to cover telemarketing services, but don’t worry, we’re not biased (much!)
SEO/Content
SEO is all about getting people to find your website when they use a search engine – you know they’re looking for what you do, so they’re already interested – it’s effectively reactive.
Best for:
- Businesses with plenty of time. SEO can take upwards of 6 months to start showing results, so it’s not ideal if you need a quick influx of leads.
- Businesses with a product or service that’s easy to explain
- Businesses with the time or resource to create plenty of content, as you’ll need that in order to attract keywords
- Businesses with very limited budget – if you’ve got time to wait, SEO is the lower-cost way to get leads (that is, if you have resource in house to create all the content you’ll need).
Not recommended for:
SEO is something that every business should do some level of. Even if you explore other channels, SEO will help build a stream of traffic to your website.
Pay-per-click (PPC)
This is one of the quicker ways to get leads through your (digital) doors. You pay based on how many people click on your ads. Google Ads can be pretty complicated, and it can be challenging to get everything set up for the most optimal results.
Best for:
- Businesses that need leads faster than SEO can manage
- Businesses that have the budget to pay for leads
- Businesses with a product that has an audience – if no one is searching for your keywords, you won’t get many impressions or clicks
- Businesses that either have the know-how in house, or can outsource their PPC activities, to avoid wasting money
Not recommended for:
- Businesses that don’t have an audience
- Businesses in competitive industries that don’t have much budget – some industries (particularly finance and insurance) have an extremely high cost per click, and if your budget can’t keep up, you’ll have very limited results
Telemarketing
Telemarketing is an excellent way to generate leads quickly, particularly if PPC is too expensive or not right for your business – for example, if you have a complex product or you need to educate your audience about what you offer.
Best for:
- Businesses that need a quick influx of leads
- Businesses with a sales team that need more meetings
- Businesses that want a consistent delivery of qualified leads
- Businesses with a complex product that needs more explanation
- Businesses with a sales cycle that involves multiple touchpoints and lead nurturing
Not recommended for:
- Businesses selling online / looking for telesales
Word of mouth
Word of mouth is a great way to get leads, but for many businesses, it’s not something that can be relied upon as a consistent way to get leads. On the plus side, people who come through recommendations are more likely to understand what you do and what value you can offer.
Best for:
- Businesses with a large, loyal, and vocal customer base
- Businesses with a referral scheme
Not recommended for:
- Businesses with high customer churn
- Businesses needing a consistent pipeline of leads
Social media (paid)
Social media advertising can be a really effective lead generation tool. Depending on your audience, different channels will be more or less effective for you – LinkedIn is a great way to generate B2B leads, with detailed targeting based on job roles, Facebook is better for B2C, and Twitter is generally better for well-known brands.
Best for:
- Businesses that have a very defined demographic
- Businesses that want brand awareness as well as lead generation
- Businesses with a great visual presence
Not recommended for:
- Businesses with limited budget (LinkedIn can be expensive)
- Businesses without a clear vision of what they want to achieve through it
Finding the answer
There’s no single right answer, and many businesses will use a variety of different channels to meet different needs at different times.
If telemarketing is something you might be interested in learning more about, why not give us a whistle.