How To Gain New Leads & Customers (Without Being Annoying!)

Every business needs marketing to generate leads and build their brand, whether it be simple word of mouth or a more focused marketing strategy. Yet sometimes it’s difficult to recognise the line between encouraging and annoying when it comes to consumer marketing. Because of the fear of being perceived as hassling, many businesses end up not conducting sales or follow-ups, potentially missing out on opportunities to grow their business. As such, it is vital to know the best way to attract new leads and customers without the risk of being seen as pushy or intrusive. How? It’s simple – don’t chase after new customers at all, get them to come to you.

The purpose of inbound marketing is to attract potential customers to your business without the need for old outbound marketing techniques like cold calling.

To reach an audience, you need to have the right content that will appeal to them, and results may not be instantaneous. How quickly you’ll see ROI on your content depends on factors such as how your content appears in search results, your chosen industry, the products or services you offer, and the overall size of the market, not to mention how involved you are with the process. While the desired results might not happen overnight, over time you’ll see an increase in sales, customers, and brand awareness compared to before.

6 Tips For Attracting Customers Through Inbound Marketing

Using inbound marketing will help you build the right audience and attract qualified sales leads. However, each lead will eventually need following up by a sales person to close the deal.

There are a few ways you can follow-up with potential customers, to get them ready for conversion without driving them away:

1. Determine how best to reach out to your client: are emails or phone calls preferable? Emails are visual and allow the customer to respond in their own time but are also impersonal and easy to miss or ignore. Phone calls are more instant and personal, but not everyone responds to them, particularly if they go straight to voicemail. Using a combination of both can prove beneficial when trying to maintain contact.

2. There are other less formal channels with which you can follow-up with prospects without being too persistent. Social media can be a good informal channel for building a relationship with your prospects, and content shared on social media can provide useful leads to turn into potential customers.

3. Make your initial message personal, brief, and attention-grabbing. Let the prospect know why you are contacting them, what you can offer them, and issue an invitation for further contact to discuss in more detail.

4. Time your follow-up responses, so you don’t bombard your customers. Waiting a couple of days before sending out a reminder is ideal, outlining the value in what you are offering them. If no response is received after the third reminder, send an email letting them know that you have tried to contact them and that if now is not a good time, then you won’t try again.

5. Reach out to all potential decision-makers in a business to increase the chance of a successful follow-up. The more contacts you can find, e.g. through LinkedIn, the more likely you will be to foster a relationship with their business.

6. Do not be afraid of rejection: by knowing when to persist and when to quit, the likelihood of generating customers increases.

Finding The Right Balance

While no business wants to be seen as annoying to prospective clients, it is essential to find a balance that allows you to keep in touch without feeling like you are intruding on them. Inbound marketing will help you form strategies that will increase your range of buyers, and knowing how best to contact your leads and how frequently will allow you to formulate an accurate and appropriate contact plan.

To find out more about a marketing and sales strategy that works for your business and its customers, please get in touch today.

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