7 Tips To Increase the Number of Customer Leads You Generate

Posted March 31, 2016 in 24/7 answering service, after hours answering service by admin

Your community is full of thousands, or even millions, of potential customers for your business. How can you harness those people? First, you need to get them interested in your company. When a potential customer discovers your brand and reaches out to you, either by phone or digitally, for more information, they become a Lead. Those Leads are then pulled in by your quality service and products, and make the big jump to being a customer.

So the real question becomes, how can you increase the number of leads your sales people hear from? Begin by trying a few of these:

#1 Answer All Incoming Calls

If you’re looking to truly maximize your potential of capturing Leads and turning them into customers, you can’t miss phone calls. If you don’t answer your phone, chances are too high that the caller simply moves on to the next company- your competitor. Small business owners are among the busiest people. That means it can be really hard to catch a break to answer calls. If you’re risking losing a customer because they are more likely to call after hours or you’re not able to answer the phone all the time, an answering service could be a very viable option. For many busy professionals trying to run their own company, signing up with an answering service company can be a huge relief.

#2 Word-of-Mouth Marketing

For many businesses, the best Lead generation strategy is to focus on getting referrals from the customers you’ve already delighted. Don’t hesitate to ask clients to refer you to their friends, family and colleagues, you won’t get what you don’t ask for. It may also be helpful to offer a financial incentive, like a coupon for their next purchase if they refer someone else.

#3 Free eBooks

In today’s competitive marketplace, your website is going to make or break a lot of deals. If you want your website to help you generate Leads, you need to offer your website visitors something they want in return for their contact information. An offer like a free How-to eBook will not only get you organic traffic from those who may not have previously heard of your brand, but it will give them a reason to fill out a form on your website and give you their phone number or email address. Many people go online for reasearch before looking for a company to actually help them, so if you can gain their attention during that time, you’re ahead of your competition.

#4 Social Media

Marketing on social media websites involves publishing content to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more. It is an efficient and cost-effective marketing method to promote your small businesses. Make sure your social pages look professional, contain your logo, have a link to your website, and are active.

#5 PPC Campaigns

Pay-Per-Click Advertising, or PPC, can be a very effective way to bring new visitors to your website, especially if you’re having trouble ranking organically for all of your desired keyword phrases with other free methods. Signing up for Google AdWords is free. You determine, and can adjust, your budget. With a PPC campaign, you’ll be paying to be visible on Google search engine results pages where you wouldn’t typically show up.

#6 Local Networking Events

When you regularly attend business and social events in your area, especially those related to your industry, people will begin to notice you. That’s great news for both you and your business. Being more visible in your community and getting noticed by other business owners, community leaders and peers can be beneficial to your career and your bottom line, a major perk of networking. When someone asks them for someone with your expertise, or they need it themselves, they’ll naturally think of you.

#7 Partner with Other Local Businesses

Networking with other business owners will naturally lead to a partnership between the two brands. For example, if you own a plumbing company, you could partner with a contractor you know and recommend them for clients who have additional needs outside of the services you offer. Vice versa, they would also recommend you when they’re remodeling bathrooms and need someone to pipe it. Having relationships with a small stable of trusted, local service providers that are complimentary to your own services is a great way to ensure your pipeline is always full of quality opportunties.

With Main Line TeleCommunications, not only can you feel confident that your answering service is catching the calls when you’re in the middle of other key priorities, our trained personnel can also act like a virtual receptionist answering on nights and weekends as well. To learn more about whether an answering service is right for your business, download our free guide to choosing a telephone service.