We’re not going to lie to you, the whole lead generation process is rough – especially if you’re relying solely on traditional methods. Sending cold emails and scraping together a list can be incredibly demoralising – not least because you don’t know if those people actually want to talk to you!
What if you could still reach your goals but using methods that actually add value for your prospects? We know, it sounds like the Holy Grail. But it is a possibility. Below are 5 ways to provide valuable information to prospects that helps them instead of pushing them to buy from your brand.
1. Share success secrets from thought leaders.
Want to provide unique value in your content? Start by reaching out to a thought leader in your industry. By interviewing an expert to uncover their secrets, you prove to potential customers that you’re dedicated to delivering the best advice out there.
Below you’ll see Groove’s take on this approach through its interview with the CEO of Proposify. Groove frequently interview successful founders and ask really specific questions that everyone can learn from. They then share those interviews on its blog.
Not only is the interview with Kyle Racki chock-full of quotes, lessons, and actionable takeaways, it also features an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) with the interview subject in the comments section. This helps further Groove’s reputation as a source of expert information among its audience.
2. Make awesome Help videos to solve an issue for prospects.
Help videos can solve a real problem for potential customers in a format that’s both entertaining and easily digestible. Video Production company, Shootsta, put together a series #AtTheBar – where they invite special guests from the marketing industry to come share knowledge and expertise.
Because Shootsta is a video production company, publishing content strictly about how to use its product would only apply to people who were already customers. Videos like the one above, relevant to anyone in marketing, help the brand create value for people who may not even be familiar with Shootsta. If they learn something useful from them once, they’re more likely do it again, and may eventually come to the site ready to purchase a subscription.
3. Show what’s working for you.
Writing a transparent post that pulls back the curtain on something you’ve seen success (or failure) with can prove interesting to potential leads. Other companies going through a similar stage of growth — or approaching your size — can gain a lot of inspiration from posts like this, and avoid making the same mistakes.
This post from Classy, the world’s fastest growing fundraising platform, is the perfect example. In an effort to provide an insightful resource, it created this analysis of how its blogging strategy had evolved, and what the brand had learned, over the course of 1,000 posts.
4. Create a list of useful tools.
It’s easy to brag about the tools your company offers, but when you take the initiative and explore other helpful tools your audience could be using, it proves that you prioritise their success over your own self-promotion.
In return, you are also attracting the kind of audience that is looking for solutions like yours, which could drive leads. A great example of this in action comes from the Content Marketing Institute.
The Content Marketing Institute is dedicated to providing advice for content marketers, and this checklist is chock-full of guidelines and other tools the reader can use. Because the guide is so comprehensive, if the reader gets what they need, they’re likely to return to the blog, and even subscribe, to get more helpful information in the future.
5. Host a giveaway.
Giveaways are one of the most successful forms of lead generation. However, a giveaway can also lead to a bunch of junk leads and waste your time if not done in a logical way.
The trick? Make sure what you’re giving away is something people actually want. Stationery brand, Emily Ley, hosted this giveaway during their recent product launch that is perfect for their target demographic.
The giveaway generates leads via email subscriptions and social media engagement, and it’s a win-win for Emily Ley. Whether a user wins or loses the giveaway, they will continue to engage with the brand in hopes of winning future giveaways. Meanwhile, Emily Ley can grow its email list to continue outreach to subscribers with more targeted content.
Whichever lead generation strategy you experiment with next, make sure the content is useful to your audience so they’ll return to your website again in the future. And if you need a hand creating content, drop us a note.
