MARKETING
Customer Acquisition : Low Cost High Impact Lead Generation
By Geoffrey Sirumba
Not so long ago , I was engaging a proprietor of a medical center who poignantly complained that the number of people seeking healthcare services at their establishment had plummeted . While they were experiencing a series of bad days in business , competing hospitals were teeming with more patients than they could handle . In view of the falling patient footfall , they were worried about keeping the medical center open . The director thought that something was amiss in their sales and marketing efforts .
Certainly , there are hundreds , perhaps thousands of other businesses in similar circumstances . During my interactions with prospects and clients at my new venture Green Mobility , one of the most pressing issue has been customer acquisition . The big question that ’ s always asked is , how can we get more customers ? The concern is legitimate . Because for your business to survive , you need to have a steady stream of profitable customers . But how should you go about the lead generation process ?
Define Your Buyer Persona
The first thing you need to do is to understand your customers . And doing this requires you to define your buyer persona which entails describing the ideal customer for your business by identifying their key characteristics in terms of demographic ( age , gender , income , education , etc .), psychographic ( social class , lifestyle , personality etc .), behavioral ( purchase occasion , benefits sought , user status , usage rate , loyalty status etc .) and geographic factors ( region , size , population density , climate etc .). Don ’ t forget to include barriers that they are likely to encounter when making purchases . Your goal will be to overcome those objections and make the sales process as seamless as possible .
Attract Potential Customers
Having identified and understood your customers , you will be in a much better position to map out marketing tactics for targeting and attracting them to your business . Depending on the nature of your business , you can deploy one or combine several tactics to lure prospects . The goal of your marketing should be to get potential customers interested in your company and its products or services . Some ways include customer trials through product sampling , content marketing ( e . g ., e-books ), events ( e . g ., webinars ), sales offers ( e . g ., discount promotion ), and Pay-Per-Click ( PPC ) advertising ( e . g ., Google AdWords ).
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Don ’ t waste time pursuing unqualified leads who may not have a need , doesn ’ t have a budget , are not ready to buy just yet or don ’ t have authority to make the purchase .
Capture Key Details of the Potential Customer
When the prospects respond to the call to action or ‘ bait ’ embedded in your marketing messages , you need to capture their details for subsequent follow up by the sales team . These include their name , phone number , email address , and service / product of interest . For a long time , most organizations have been capturing sales information through lead capture forms . However , of late , many prospects are being turned off by the ‘ gates and walls ’ installed by the businesses around valuable content . Maybe they are not yet ready to buy but are nonetheless interested in a particular resource that you ’ ve shared . Thus , demanding contact information in exchange for resources seems more like coercion and leaves a bad taste in one ’ s mouth . Even though you might have succeeded in getting the contacts , the prospect ’ s negative experience means that the sales efforts that will follow thereafter are likely to be futile .
So , lead forms should be used with a lot of caution . There are circumstances that they ’ ll be relevant in capturing customer data , e . g ., registration for a webinar and others not so much , e . g ., download of an e-book . Instead of coercing prospects to enter their contact information , you can have a live chat and engage in real-time conversation . Of course , for offline lead generation , you can put up your phone number / email , be present on site or have a registration form .
When using lead forms , e . g ., in landing pages during a digital campaign , ensure that you don ’ t have so many fields that will make prospects feel as though you are digging out too much information . It will be repulsive . Remember , the key is to keep
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