How does my business get noticed online?

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of getting noticed online, let’s discuss why digital marketing is important to your lead generation tactics.

Before someone searches for a product or solution, they try to understand their problem better. The first thing most people do is visit their trusty friend, Google. They type something like, “How do I generate more leads for my product webinars?” A world of possibilities opens up to them. They’re presented with articles, videos, and infographics, and they glimpse how other people are solving the same problem.

But, if you aren’t creating consistent content, getting ranked, and showing off your expertise, you won’t show up in that individual’s search results. You’re essentially opting out of their shortlist of solutions.

To get noticed online, you need to be there. And, by “there” we mean where your prospect lives online. The rule of seven explains that it takes someone seven times to see your business and brand before they will even remember your name. Today, many marketers say it takes double that to be recognized. 

There are a variety of ways to get seen online by your ideal clients:

• Content marketing (including blogs, videos, and podcasts)
• Consistent branding and messaging 
• Social media marketing
• Paid media and advertising
• Email marketing

But first, you need to understand how to incorporate all of these marketing tools into an integrated strategy.

Why businesses need to take an integrated approach to lead generation

Lead generation is not a one-size-fits-all affair. It takes an integrated marketing campaign to be successful. An integrated marketing campaign builds a unified experience for your audience. It pulls content marketing, advertising, sales, social media, email marketing, and media relations toward a single goal. 

Cohesion is the objective. 

No matter how many marketing strategies and tactics you use, you want your brand and your offer to be clear and consistent across all channels. Why? Because consistency builds trust. When people encounter your messaging across multiple channels, they move from knowing you to trusting you to liking you.   

Every impactful lead generation campaign should be multi-channel and integrated to be effective. Your buyer profile will give you a clear idea of who your customer is and how they spend their time online. This profile equips you with the insights to create a more targeted campaign that performs better. So it’s worth working with an expert to create one.

But a buyer profile is not foolproof. People are still people. Some prefer Twitter over LinkedIn or articles over videos. An integrated marketing campaign accounts for these differences by using multiple types of media (e.g. videos, articles, infographics, podcasts) and channels (e.g. social media, digital ads, email, blogs, traditional media.) 

When a customer or prospect sees consistent messaging through multiple content types and various channels, they know what to expect and begin to trust you. They go through a journey that builds the “Know, Trust, Like” factor for your brand.

Know

First, they get to know you. Maybe a follower liked your post, and it showed up in their feed. The person clicked and read your article. It was a great article, so they followed you on social media. That’s great news, but they don’t trust you yet. 

Trust

Now, that person has been reading your emails. They’ve started following your social accounts and listening to a few podcasts where your brand’s mentioned. They’ve identified you as a source of worthwhile information and they’ve shifted from encountering your brand to seeking out your brand for information. This happened organically because you placed yourself where they spend time, you delivered an on-brand message, and your offer and value proposition were always the same. You’ve demonstrated that you’re a reliable source. Now, they trust you. 

Like

The final factor is like. Does your brand resonate with this person? Does your offer appeal to them? Just because they have seen you, trust you, and know what you’re talking about, doesn’t mean that they like you. This is where strategic branding comes into play. 

From the beginning, your messaging, brand personality, visuals, and everything in between need to appeal to your ideal customer. You can learn more about this in the section on Branding & Messaging.

Inbound Marketing Tactics for Lead Generation

Robocalls and pop-up advertisements interrupt. They irritate. And that is the last thing you want your brand to be. These interruptive and irritating mediums are examples of outbound marketing. 

Inbound marketing is the opposite. It’s being there when the customer needs you.

They have a problem. They go to Google to find an answer. They find your content. Your content solves it. As a result, they come directly to you for future problems. 

Content marketing, email nurturing, social media, targeted advertising, and authority marketing are inbound and aim to educate and solve problems.

Inbound Lead Generation System

1. Attract: A visitor finds your website via an article, video, social media post, email, or other marketing channels.
2. Convert: A visitor clicks on your CTA, where you offer a content upgrade. This CTA button or link takes them to a landing page with a form to convert (expect 1% to 4% of visitors to convert).
3. Close: You add the newly converted lead to a nurture email marketing campaign and begin scoring them. With most marketing automation platforms, you can automate the process of increasing or decreasing a lead’s score based on their interactions with you. You can add points each time someone clicks a link in one of your emails, or deduct points if someone hasn’t visited your site in a while. This ensures you’re only forwarding qualified leads to the sales team.

Content Marketing

At the center of an effective inbound marketing strategy is content. Content marketing drives SEO, email marketing, social media, and brand messaging. Remember: Inbound marketing is about positioning your brand as helpful to your target audience, so they seek you out for answers and eventually become customers. 

You want your ideal customers to find you through a quick Google search. If they aren’t, it’s because of a lack of content. At Aimtal, we create educational and impactful content in the form of guides, eBooks, blog posts, videos and more for our clients.

Content Marketing Institute: “Content marketing is a strategic approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience – and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” 

Types of Content Marketing

There are different types of content. Video content, visual content, written content, social media content, and email content are just a few examples. But when you’re developing your content, the most important classification is whether it is traffic-generating content or lead-generating.

Traffic-generating content typically drives visitors to your site and helps your brand build awareness. 

Lead-generating content helps your brand convert views and visitors into potential customers. It is valuable enough that a visitor is willing to exchange their email or other contact information to access it. 

When creating and distributing lead-generating content, don’t think about it as a single asset. Think about it as part of the larger, integrated marketing campaign. Your lead-generating content needs to work in conjunction with content clusters and social media. It also needs a ready-to-go nurture campaign that follows visitors from their initial interaction with the content to their conversion.