Lead generation is the live wire of online businesses. A lot of people do not purchase products and services as soon as they see it. They want to read about it, find out about its efficiency, read testimonials of people who have used it, read reviews and most of all, read educative, informative contents about it directly from the producer. One great strategy of acquiring leads is Content Marketing. It will take your prospects from the first level of the buying process to the stage where they become highly interested in your product/service (leads). Demand Metrics opined that content marketing generates 3 times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing, but costs 62% less. This shows that it generates more leads and is cheaper.

1. 5 Quick and easy ways to Generate High quality Leads for your Business
Lead generation is the live wire of online businesses. A lot of people do not
purchase products and services as soon as they see it. They want to read about
it, find out about its efficiency, read testimonials of people who have used it, read
reviews and most of all, read educative, informative contents about it directly
from the producer. In my article on “Content Strategy Checklist”. I discussed about
the buying stages a visitor will go through before finally purchasing your
product/service (as seen in the image above).
The first stage is suspects – This is the stage where visitors read your contents
and interact with it. The second stage is the prospects – This is when visitors
decide to sign up to your email list. The third stage is the lead stage – where
prospects showed some interest in your business.
One great strategy of acquiring leads is Content Marketing. It will take your
prospects from the first level of the buying process to the stage where they
become highly interested in your product/service (leads). Demand Metrics opined
that content marketing generates 3 times as many leads as traditional outbound
marketing, but costs 62% less. This shows that it generates more leads and is
cheaper.

2. Content marketing institute carried out a survey recently on B2b marketers. In this
survey, it was revealed that 83% of B2B content marketers surveyed are using
content marketing for lead generation.
Now you know that using content marketing to generate leads is an effective and
money-saving strategy, what type of content do you need for this purpose?
Below are 5 ways you can generate high quality leads for your business.
1. Webinar
A lot of people perceived webinars to be of high value presented by
knowledgeable resource persons. Webinar is interactive, thus, enabling
participants to ask questions and learn from the presentation. Brands have the
opportunity to answer questions and recommend their websites to participants.
Content marketing Institute and MarketingProfs report that 62% of marketers use
this strategy and 63% find it very effective.
Below are what you need for a successful webinar
Topic
Here, you need a topic that resonates with your target audience. It can be a topic
that specifically targets your audience problems or challenges and provides
solutions to it. The title should be catchy, so it can attract your audience. A good
example of this is from the “eLearning Guild webinar“. The title was “The Secrets

3. to Rapid eLearning Success” The webinar dealt with keeping up with the latest
technological demands and producing effective e-learning.
Speaker
This is a very important aspect of a successful webinar. Participants wants to
interact with subject experts, niche authority personnel who knows the rudiment
of the topic under consideration. Presenting someone less than this will amount
to failure. This is the scenario where you see attendees multi- tasking during the
session because the speaker is not good at the topic or it is boring.
Survey
During and at the end of the webinar, introduce participant surveys . A portion of
the survey can be for participant contact details. The second Part of the survey
can be questions on what they like about the webinar, the speaker, the content
etc. When the webinar is over, you can contact all the participants through their
contact information provided on the survey forms. You can also use their
answers to prepare for other Webinars in the future.
Recording
You need to record the webinar using video recording software or other
programs. You can place it on your website so that people who are not
opportune to attend can still participate in it. This way, you get more leads for
your business.
2. Whitepapers and Free Guides
Whitepapers and free guides are the most established content marketing tactics.
They create interests in potential clients who will be willing to exchange their
email address for a free download. Just like the webinar, whitepapers and free
guides need to target a specific audience in order to generate tangible results.
This is why it is very important to know your audience.
3. Linkedin Groups
Linkedin groups are discussion forums you can use without stress or expertise.
You don’t have to worry about privacy or hosting. It doesn’t require time to set it

4. up, all you need is the group detail and a logo. When you are setting up the
group, make sure you choose whether to make it an open group or a closed one.
Now, to use this to generate leads, you need to brand it very well to reflect your
business. Then, start by joining discussions, posting valuable content (videos,
white papers, etc), encourage users to share contents to build the group. As the
administrator of the group, you have an opportunity to send out announcement to
your group members. Make use of this opportunity to send promotions and
campaigns to your group members to attract lead
4. In-person events
According to Content marketing institute and MarketingProfs, in-person events
have been rated the most effective content marketing strategy for b2b marketers
with 76% of marketers using it. It is a great strategy because you are able to
connect with your prospects and shake their hands. They see you and are able
to relate with you. This is very important in creating relationship that will help you
to nurture your leads.
During the event, you can share contents on social media, blogs and video
platforms, thereby giving you an opportunity to generate leads and increase your
brand awareness.
5. Slideshare presentation
This is a great way to attract leads to your business. it is a great marketing tool
unknown by many business owners. Slideshare has more than 60 million unique
visitors per month and 215 million page views. It is among the top 120 most
visited websites in the world. Wow! what an amazing content marketing resource!
All you need to start is to create a topic that is relevant to your target market and
create a presentation which shares valuable information. You will need a catchy
title with relevant search keywords because slideshare ranks well on search
engines. Upload the presentation on slideshare and on your blog. Include a
strong call to action with a link to a lead form at the end of the presentation.

5. The above platforms will not work if you don’t follow the rules of content creation
below:
Rules of content creation:
Know your audience:
The first thing that will help you to attract quality leads is to first define your
audience. Know who your customers are? Are they children? Adults? Sport
lovers? Business owners? If you know who your target audience is, you are in a
better position to create content that will be valuable to them and nurture them
through the sales funnel until they become your lead and then customers.
Experiment with different types of contents:
Don’t limit yourself to producing only one content type for your lead generation.
Experiment with many of them, you can create Linkedin group, convert your
valuable contents on your blogs to presentation and upload on Slideshare,
convert your content to video presentation and upload to Youtube, create a
whitepaper and design a landing page to captures leads etc. The more the
merrier.
Avoid promotional contents
Don’t use your sales page as a content to attract leads, it will not work. Don’t
sound salesy in your content. Your content should provide valuable information
that will be useful for your audience. This way, people can relate with your
information, get to trust you enough to do business with you.
Problem solving contents
A lot of people browse the internet looking for solutions to their problems. Use
your content to address these problems and provide solutions to them (by using
your product/service as solutions) and you will get a lot of high quality leads. To
do this effectively, you need a strategic content marketing plan to meet these needs.
Well-written content
Gone are the days when you can throw 500 words article on your website and
get visitors from search engines and all other places. Nowadays, search engines
and readers are looking for authority contents that can address their problem and

6. tell them how to solve it. You need to take your time to write high quality,
thoroughly researched, well written content to attract leads to your business.
There are lots of methods you can use to get more leads for your business,
above are some of them. Others include, case studies, videos, blogs,
eNewsletters, etc. The important thing here is to make use of what you have now
and use it to your advantage.
For you content marketing needs, contact us at hephzysocial@gmail.com or check out
our website for our lists of services - http://www.hephzysocial.com/hire-me/
.