What is lead capture, and why is it important?
The importance of lead capture comes down to a discussion of consent. When you capture a lead from your webpage or social media, they give you their email, phone number, or other information and permission to send them emails. This permission matters for a variety of reasons.
- It gives people a chance to get to know you and your business. Trust makes a sale more likely.
- Someone who gives you permission to contact them is already interested in what you sell and, as such, is a warmer lead than someone who just sees your offer on their social media feed.
- Having many touch points with a new lead can help you cut through the noise of the thousands of marketing messages they receive.
- You own your email list (social media followers, etc.) so it’s an asset that indicates your business has enough traction to sustain revenue. This matters to investors and buyers.
Basically, someone who enters your business community in this way is a warm or hot lead, as opposed to a cold lead. They are more likely to continue engaging and more likely to become paying clients.
What is the difference between lead generation and lead capture?
Lead generation is the entire process from getting someone’s attention (on social media, your website, or a stage you’re speaking on) to converting them to a paying client. The steps vary depending on what you sell and to whom, but the basic steps are as follows:
- Get their attention. This could be through organic traffic on your website or social channels or paid ads on a number of different platforms.
- Capture the lead: convince them to give you their information by offering something of value (we call this an ethical bribe, and it’s one of our favorite things to create for clients.)
- Spend time giving bits of value over a prolonged period. The length of time varies, but the trick is to slowly drip value out, answering their questions, and proving your authority while not reaching out so often that you annoy them and cause them to unsubscribe.
- Give them an offer they can’t refuse and convert them to paying clients.
What strategies can improve lead capture conversion rates?
The simple, unhelpful answer here is that the best strategies depend on your business and who your clients are. That said, here are some strategies for lead capture our clients find helpful. If you work in the mental health, wellness, or social justice spheres, these will likely work well for you. If you don’t, these might be great options, but there are probably others as well (and agencies more equipped to help you choose). We specialize on purpose because it makes us better at delivering what our clients want and need.
Content Marketing
Obviously, this is our favorite. We get to spend our time writing amazing content for people doing good things in the world. It’s a dream job for every writer on our team. Content marketing involves using long, medium, and short-form content across a variety of mediums to attract attention and convert visitors into leads, and leads into customers. We included a call to action (CTA) in every piece of content to move prospects through your world. Here are our favorite content marketing strategies.
Long-form content can be shared via blogs on your website or Linkedin across social channels. These should be search engine optimized (SEO) to ensure you’re reaching the right people.
Long-form video content that matches the subject matter in your written content.
Medium-form content pulled from your long-form content and repurposed.
Books that showcase your expertise and dive deep to give leads who are on the fence enough information to trust and hire you. To learn more about how to write a book, click here.
Lead magnets (like a free download, which we like to call an ethical bribe) that showcases enough of your sparkle to get folks interested but not so much that they don’t crave more.
Social Media Engagement
Leveraging social media platforms can help capture leads by increasing brand visibility and engagement. The best practice is to shoot for about 80% value-drive posts (entertainment, inspiration, or information) and 20% harvest posts, where you ask followers to convert in some way. We actually recommend a split more like 90/10 for many clients, depending on their industry and ideal customer.
Don’t keep reinventing the wheel for social media—save time and energy by finding ways to repurpose your long-form content to create engaging social media marketing campaigns that will help you get and keep attention. We also have a division of our agency that will create and manage that for you, should you be interested.
Email Marketing
Effective email marketing provides entertainment, inspiration, and valuable information without being annoying. Your email marketing campaigns begin trading a lead magnet (that ethical bribe we talked about) for contact information and permission to market to each person. This is valuable because when someone gives you permission to contact them, they’re more likely to buy your books or programs. Publishers, investors, and people interested in buying your business in the future will love that you own permission to contact these people. A lead capture form on your website, and an evergreen email series that starts with your lead magnet is a simple, easy way to capture and nurture these leads.
Networking and Partnerships
Many of our clients have good luck securing qualified leads at networking events in their industry or by offering affiliate or referral fees. This is particularly true for our business coaching and public speaking clients.
Speaking opportunities with landing pages and lead magnets can help you warm up cold leads and turn them into customers. When you’re speaking, having a QR code, or other easy way for the audience to download your offer can help ensure you get their contact information. Then, you can nurture them through email marketing, blogs, and more.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Lead Generation
Ignoring Lead Quality
Not all leads are created equal. Getting a lead who has already interacted with your content is more valuable (because they’re more likely to convert to sales).
Neglecting Follow-Up
You have to follow up with leads in order to convert them to sales. The good news is you can automate much of this. Using a CRM such as Funnel Gorgeous, Go High Level, or Keap to capture your leads will aid in consistent follow-up. You can also use chat-bots in social media, DM’s to ensure you follow up immediately with potential customers.
Overlooking Analytics
As a thought leadership content agency, we recommend against using AI for writing content for many reasons; however, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the way businesses approach lead generation and capture, and ignoring the tools that can benefit business owners and thought leaders in this blog would be an oversite.
AI and Lead Generation
As a thought leadership content agency, we recommend against using AI for writing content for many reasons; however, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the way businesses approach lead generation and capture, and ignoring the tools that can benefit business owners and thought leaders in this blog would be an oversite.
Predictive Analytics
AI leverages predictive analytics to analyze large volumes of data and identify potential leads who are most likely to convert into customers. By assessing past customer interactions and behaviors, AI algorithms can predict future buying patterns and help businesses target their marketing efforts more accurately. Effectively leveraging AI for analytics can help you make sound business decisions even when you can’t afford a sales team.
Enhanced Personalization
No, we’re not saying a chatbot offers more personalization than speaking directly with a human. However, AI can help you gather and catalog data about your prospects so you send them the information they want and not the extra stuff they don’t need. Based on data gathered from user activities across different digital platforms, AI can tailor messages, offers, and content to individual prospects. This personalized approach increases the likelihood of engagement, as content is directly relevant to each lead’s interests and needs.
Chatbots
Chatbots powered by AI are becoming essential tools for lead capture. They can engage with visitors on websites or social media platforms 24/7, answering questions, providing information, and guiding users through the lead capture process. This immediate interaction helps maintain user interest and increases the chances of converting casual visitors into leads.
Email Marketing Optimization
AI tools can optimize email marketing campaigns by determining the best times to send emails, predicting which email subjects and content lead to higher engagement, and segmenting email lists based on user behavior and preferences. This targeted approach ensures that leads receive relevant content at times when they are most likely to open and engage with emails.
Content Generation
AI can assist in generating content that attracts and captures leads. By analyzing keywords, trending topics, and the performance of past content, AI can suggest content that resonates with your target audience and even help outline long-form content. We don’t recommend using AI to actually write the sentences on your website or in your books because you can’t copyright something written by AI, and in the thought leadership world, being able to copyright or trademark your ideas matters.
Get help Capturing Leads
Much of the content we write for thought leaders and entrepreneurs is dedicated to lead generation and capture. We want to create dynamic content that catches people’s attention much like a billboard, but that also holds their attention like a binge-worthy netflix show.
As an entrepreneur, you can’t always manage a full marketing team right away, so getting some direction on content marketing can be helpful. If you want help figuring out a lead capture strategy that will work best for your brand, reach out today for a free consultation.
