Lead Generation Techniques for Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are businesses with fewer than 500 employees, depending on the country and depending on the industry. SMEs comprise the majority of businesses in most countries.

On 2016, the U.S. Census Bureau Data released a report stating that of the 5.6 million employers in the country, 99.7% had fewer than 500 employees, 98.2% had fewer than 100 employees, and 89% had fewer than 20 employees. The last data only reveals how much small enterprises benefit economies and how much impact they can give to the direct community they are in, and to the larger economy. The way they operate and the way they market themselves can be different, too. Without a lot of funds to spare for advertising, or for other expensive promotional activities, small and medium enterprises are faced with the challenge of establishing greater customer reach even with financial constraints.

What is lead generation?

Lead generation is the process of identifying potential customers and cultivating them for your business’s products and services. It is the process that initiates customer interest in the products that you are selling or the services you are rendering.

Examples of lead generation techniques

• Establish social presence

Almost everyone in the age of technology is connected with each other with the use of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, or even Instagram. People can see what each other is doing, what they are eating, where they are traveling to, and other social activities. With everyone being aware of what their friends and relatives are doing, it only opens countless opportunities for businesses to engage the users of these sites.

Optimizing your social presence allows people to notice your business, your company’s history, what it does, and what good it can bring to their lives. It also allows them to refer or recommend you to their friends and to their own networks, especially when they are satisfied with the products you sell or the services you offer. This is a time-tested lead generation technique that is easy to do, and you can even do this for free. However, some companies use advertising tools offered by these social networking sites to expand their customer reach even further.

• Create how-to blog contents

The age of technology is also referred to as the age of information. With access to a greater pool of information allowed by technology, people are becoming more and more informed (or misinformed) about a lot of things- from the steps to do basic household chores to more complicated projects like building rockets.

With the need to be informed, DIY or how-to blogs have proliferated over the years. This popular way of engaging with readers (and potential customers) has been used as a technique by a lot of companies to do product placement (a marketing technique where references to brands are incorporated into another work, like a TV program or film, with the specific intent to promote). For example, in a video showing people how to construct a table, a specific brand of a hammer can be subtly shown to promote the brand to the viewers.

How-to blogs also promote a certain level of trust between the blogger and his (or her) readers. With the blog becoming a source of verified information on almost anything, the reader (or viewer) will almost always decide to buy a product or avail of a service depending on the review of the blogger. How-to blog contents can then make it easy to convert viewers (or potential customers) to actual customers.

• Industry Research Reports

Industry Research Reports are also one of the most effective ways to build credibility as a brand. Not only do they provide you data to serve the industry you are in (or industries your clients are in) but they also allow you to generate leads and strengthen your online brand. You can also use this technique to partner with non-competing firms and partner with trade associations, allowing you to establish a stronger foothold in the industry (or industries) you are serving.

• Online Marketing Videos

Videos for marketing purposes are especially useful when you are targeting the generation that no longer reads - the millennials. Most people of this generation spend more than 30 minutes a day on YouTube. This is why online marketing videos are becoming effective tools to advertise to this generation. These videos can explain, in less than four minutes, what you do as a company, what your products can do, how your services can change their lives, and why they need your products. This technique is one of the most effective ways to reach your target market.

These are only a few examples of the lead generation techniques that you can use to promote your business. To discover more about lead generation techniques, contact Loyica, the best digital marketing company in Dubai.