4 Inexpensive Ways to Generate Leads Without Paid Advertisement

Paid advertising is often touted as the go-to solution for generating visibility, driving traffic, and capturing leads. While it can be effective, it's important to recognize that paid ads may not be the best fit for every business. In fact, there are alternative, cost-effective methods that can yield impressive results in lead generation. By exploring these inexpensive strategies, businesses can expand their reach and attract valuable leads without relying solely on paid advertisements.

The market is now huge, with $139.8 billion spent on digital advertising in 2020. The problem is that the vast majority of this spend was largely concentrated with the major ad players, and even more so than in previous years. The IAB said the top 10 companies held a 78.1% share of the revenues in 2020, with overall revenues of that group alone exceeding $109 billion. In contrast, companies ranked 11th to 25th accounted for just 6.2% of revenues, while smaller companies made up 15.7%.

If you are a smaller business with limited marketing budget, it's crucial to allocate your resources wisely. In such cases, exploring alternative lead generation methods can be a game-changer. By focusing on cost-effective strategies, you can maximize your marketing efforts and generate valuable leads without relying solely on paid advertising. In this blog post, we will discuss four inexpensive ways to generate leads that can help smaller businesses make the most of their marketing dollars.

Generate traffic organically

Organic traffic is one of the most powerful sources of lead generation available to your website. In fact, according to Search Engine Land, organic search is responsible for 53% of all site traffic, while paid is just 15%.

But how do we generate traffic organically?

Enter: Content marketing.

Content marketing is about creating and distributing valuable, informative and entertaining content to potential customers interested in topics related to your business. The content can take whatever form you please, whether that's articles, blogs, whitepapers, videos or social media posts. The list goes on.

But the key to making your content relevant and compelling to your audience is ensuring that it is addressing their pain points and needs. For example, if you are a company that sells scented candles, you may want to create an article that lists the top 10 ways of reducing bad odours. First on the list? Scented candles - and specifically yours.

Content marketing is a powerful tool for attracting traffic to your website and driving sales. However, to maximize its effectiveness, it's important to combine it with a well-executed SEO strategy. By optimizing your content for search engines, you can increase its visibility and reach a wider audience. This, in turn, can lead to higher organic rankings, increased website traffic, and ultimately, more conversions. In this blog post, we will explore how content marketing and SEO can work hand in hand to generate leads and boost your business's online presence.

SEO

SEO or ‘Search Engine Optimization’ is the process of increasing your website traffic through search engine results.

Learning how to optimise your website for SEO and conversions is crucial for your site’s success. If you have strong SEO, you can attract more traffic and get more opportunities to convert potential customers.

Techniques used for organic SEO include using keyword analysis, backlinking (featuring links to other websites), link building (adding links to sites with similar content, or reaching out to bloggers or list sites to link back to you) and  writing quality content that is relevant to human readers. As you can see, SEO has an almost symbiotic relationship with content marketing. The more specific the keywords in your content are, the higher up the search rankings it will appear.

When it comes to crafting compelling titles for your content, incorporating SEO-friendly elements can make a significant difference in driving traffic to your website. For instance, a title like "10 ways to reduce bad odours in your house" is good, but it can be further optimized by making it more specific and time-relevant, such as "10 ways to reduce bad odours using natural products in 2021". By including relevant keywords and current information, you can improve your chances of ranking higher in search engine results and attracting more organic traffic.

However, it's important to note that producing high-quality content consistently is key to long-term success. By regularly publishing valuable and informative content, you can gradually increase the traffic directed to your website. Over time, this can lead to a growing customer base and improved brand visibility. In this blog post, we will delve deeper into the importance of creating SEO-friendly content and maintaining a consistent content marketing strategy to drive sustainable growth for your business.

Optimise your landing pages for more conversions

When it comes to converting leads, the optimization of your landing pages plays a crucial role. To maximize your chances of success, it is imperative to ensure that your landing pages are well-optimized and designed to effectively engage and convert visitors. There are several key features that contribute to a well-optimized landing page. These include a clear and compelling headline, concise and persuasive copy, a visually appealing layout, a prominent call-to-action, and a user-friendly form. By implementing these important elements, you can create landing pages that not only attract leads but also guide them towards taking the desired action, ultimately increasing your conversion rates. In this blog post, we will explore these essential features in detail and provide practical tips on how to optimize your landing pages for maximum lead conversion.

• A clear call to action that grabs the user’s attention and makes them want to click

With well designed Call To Actions (CTAs), prospects will be feeding that all-too-valuable data right to you. It’s up to you to decide what will entice them into clicking: maybe a free whitepaper? The opportunity to get exclusive tips on a mailing list? Whatever it is, just make sure your CTAs stand out.

• A user-friendly landing page form that doesn’t scare users away

Once visitors click on the CTA, they’ll encounter a form where they must fill out their contact information in order to download your content or submit an inquiry. It is absolutely essential that the information that needs to be filled out is minimal. People are quick to get bored, so the fewer form fields, the more likely they are to complete it.

Other key things you should consider include:

• A strong headline that compels the visitor to stay with you
• A clean, attractive design that looks trustworthy and professional and is consistent with your brand
• Concise, convincing copy that communicates the value of what you’re offering

If you drop the ball on any of these elements, particularly CTAs and forms, all that work you have put into driving traffic to your landing pages could be wasted.

Email marketing

Email marketing remains one of the most important and effective ways for business, and small businesses in particular, to connect with customers and build lasting relationships with them.

Campaign Monitor conducted a study of 1,000 small business owners and found that email marketing was ranked as the second most effective medium for building brand awareness. This has only grown in recent times too; HubSpot found that 80% of marketers have reported an increase in email engagement over the past 12 months.

You can collect people’s emails by putting an opt-in form on your website or by sending regular newsletters to subscribers. This can become your backbone tactic for your lead generation strategy, as long as you know your target audiences’ needs and can offer awesome resources in exchange for their contact details.

Having a mailing list is an excellent resource for any business that can be used to generate leads for your website or help you build trust through content. What's more, email marketing is a very cost-efficient method and requires little expert training.

Moreover, email marketing is cheaper compared to other tactics and it's quite easy to set up.

Wrapping up

If you're a small business which can’t quite afford to compete with paid advertising, or even any sized business that wants to add a new dimension to lead generation, utilising organic marketing could be for you. Generating traffic organically through content marketing, integrating SEO, optimising your landing pages and leveraging email marketing...one of these methods is bound to stick. Just ensure that you are always focused on your target audience and assess your results as you go.

To discover the best lead generation tactic to supercharge your business’ growth, book a demo with Dolead today.