Editor’s Note: Here at Dispatches, we are always looking for ways to help our readers do things. For some of our readers, that means helping navigate the working world, for others, it means assisting in the ever challenging question, “what’s for dinner?” For still others, it means figuring out how to balance family life with everything else. In an effort to aid in all of these endeavors, we have collaborated on this article written specifically for our readers.
The point of business marketing is to generate leads and then convert those leads into sales. Conversion can be difficult with competition. Hard sells can alienate your customers and turn them away from your business. As a business owner, the best bet is to find a balance that serves your needs to stay in business and not annoy your customers.
Pique Interest
The first thing you need to do, and it sounds obvious, is pique interest. You have to get people excited about your business and what you are offering. If there is no interest, it‘s going to be impossible to convert sales. You need to understand that laying the groundwork is important for getting potential customers to show an interest in the company. It’s often just a question of choosing the right marketing strategies.
Start a Blog
If you’re not running a business blog these days, then you are selling yourself short. Your brand is only marketing itself at around 80 percent without a blog. On a blog, you get complete control over what you write and the topics you write about. A blog also allows you to engage with people on a more interesting and personal level. Don’t make the blog all about you and your business. Use the 1:10 ratio. For every one sales specific post, write nine non-sales posts.
Hire Lead Generation Strategists
Sometimes some things are best left to the experts to deal with. When you are trying to generate and execute leads, it’s a fine art. This isn’t something you want to put 50 percent of effort into. Don’t try using to deal with this yourself because you will find it more difficult to do things properly. Instead, you need to look into hiring lead generation specialists. These are people who make it their focus to help your company generate, secure and convert leads. They are an integral part of the process and one that you simply can’t do without if you are serious about this.
Marketing Videos
There’s no doubting that video marketing has developed a lot in the last decade. In fact, we’ve reached a stage now where it is one of the most common and effective forms of marketing. You can create your first marketing video reasonably easily online these days. It’s a fun modern way to represent your brand on a larger scale. Studies have shown that audiences engage on a deeper level when the video is involved. So this is certainly something you need to look out for.