Marketing has changed its forms from time to time, depending upon the market and its demands. Marketing in this 21st century has to be easy, smart and trendy. Unlike past, marketers today have lots of tools, tricks and tips that empower them to get high leads. Additionally, to sustain in the long run, marketers have to be smart workers instead of mere hard workers. Job approach of the marketers also has got changed significantly. Today, the job of a marketer is to understand the pulse of customers first and then help them till the buying point. For today’s trendy marketers, following is a list of some excellent lead generation tools to be incorporated in a site.
MUST-HAVE Lead Generation Tools For Marketers:
Keyword Research
Psychology behind keyword research:
1.Four metrics for a perfect keyword
A high-value keyword consists of four basic metrics, which are described in short below:
Conversion value: A keyword ultimately has to achieve the goal – conversion. Conversion may be of various types like monetary, driving engagement, downloading a whitepaper, creating brand awareness or guiding users to the next level.
Brand value: Keeping the brand message and brand voice on the same page.
Target value: Guiding the users to the relevant piece of content. Content, that has the ability to directly communicate with the target audience, is more likely to get a positive response and target accomplishment.
Traffic value: It varies depending upon the target of the keyword. A less-value, less competitive keyword often converts more while a high-value, more competitive keyword generally converts less.
2.What words are your customers targeting?
For keyword research, it’s important to understand the target words of yourpotential customers. It may be less-knowledgeable users or those who are using industry jargon or general industry terms – these are the things that need to be kept in mind while searching for the appropriate keywords.
3.Search query preference
Keyword research mainly depends upon human behavior. According to statistics, queries are made by users in this hierarchical order – How, why, where, which and finally, what.
Handpicked Compact Tool: SEMRush
Video tutorial:
Features:
Dashboard screen
Organic research: Contains – positions view, position changes section, competitors tab, positions top 200, URL tab, traffic buyers and potential ads.
Keyword research: The Overview tab contains data available in other sections, apart from some minor statistics and a trend graph. Upon entering a keyword, the report shows – a trend graph, a phrase match report, a keyword phrase related to the original keyword search, a top 20 list of websites for the phrase along with specific URL, a list of websites that are emphasizing on that keyword phrase along with available ad history.
Tools: Contains – position tracking, Domain vs. Domain, charts section.
Pricing: SEMRush comes with two plans, along with three pricing options as given below:
Pro plan – $79.95 for 1 month and $69.95 for recurring billing
Guru plan – $149/month and recurring billing
Quick review: SEMRush is much more than just “another keyword research tool”. It’s one of the best tools available for SEO agencies and individual bloggers.
Landing page optimization
Psychology behind landing page optimization:
1. Is the landing page inline?
Unique selling proposition or USP is one of the most important things to attract potential customers. It helps people to choose you over your competitors. You landing page should be in line with your target message.
2. Astonished heading
Following are some basic guidelines to be followed in a headline:
Be specific
Be concise
Focus on a thing that is highly desirable by your prospects
Quickly reflect the visitor’s expectations
3. Use perfect USPs and CTA
The “thank you” page should contain a CTA that’ll guide the users to the next course of action. The CTA may navigate users towards downloading a whitepaper that’ll allow them to learn more about your brand.
4. Follow the style of best landing pages
The landing page of “Unbounce” is a perfect example of a high-converting landing page. Two of the most attractive things about the page are:
The directional signal from the headline and the browser’s fold.
The absolutely detailed information beneath the form.
Handpicked Compact Tool: Unbounce
Video tutorial:
Features:
Drag & Drop
Advanced design features
Mobile responsive
Lead generation tools
WordPress integration
Dynamic text replacement
Script manager
Automatic SSL encryption
A/B testing
Real time stats
Integrations
Client & multi-user management
Custom domains
Lead notification email
Pricing: Unbounce is made available in three plans as given below:
Pro 199 plan – $199/month, ideal for marketing teams and agencies
Pro 99 plan – $99/month, ideal for small businesses and consultants
Starter plan – $49/month, ideal for entrepreneurs and new businesses
Quick review: Unbounce is a marketer-friendly tool that has powerful features, along with scope of add-on features. Apart from being quite an easy builder, it also empowers you to create complex pages. It may seem expensive though, if you can’t have desired results.
Content Strategy
1.Identify the need of your persona
Today, we can easily point out what’s trendy and what’s not by the help of a number of tools. The word NEED can be used to define trend. True trend is the proper understanding of your persona. For example, in 2015, an article written about SEO future predictions 2016 talked about the need of users who have to decide their course of action for the next year and thus ended up becoming a trend. You too have to find that persona and blend it with your content strategy to attract the desired target clientele.
2.Use interactive content titles
In content titles, keywords should contain powerful and actionable words. Also, it’s important that the chosen keywords have a high query volume. A heading should echo an in-depth reflection of the topic. The content may be of valuable or interactive nature, but it’s the title that grabs the attention of the users at first. According to statistics, 864 thousand hours of video, 294 billion emails and 2 million blog posts along with 400 million tweets are generatedevery day. 80% of the readers only view the headline and only 20% read the rest. According to studies, headlines are responsible for a traffic variation of a whopping 500%.
3.Valuable context of content
B2B companies have to think of placing contextual content to attract traffic. Well-researched and validated human readable content has to be in the first place.
Handpicked Compact Tool: Buzzsumo
Video tutorial:
Features:
Content research
Most shared
Trending now
Content analysis
Domain comparison
Top authors
Facebook analyzer
Amplification
Outreach lists (beta)
Twitter influences
Audience builder (beta)
Monitoring: It allows you to keep a track of your brand mentions, impact of content of your competitors, monitor your progress and who is linking to you.
Pricing: Buzzsumo comes in three plans as given below:
Pro plan – $99/month, ideal for small teams and bloggers
Agency plan – $299/month, ideal for agencies
Enterprise plan – $999/month, ideal for publishers and brands
Quick review: Buzzsumo is a great tool that empowers search marketers to have a greater insight into the performance of their content. You’ll have lots of data to analyze and get a clear picture of how your content is faring online, at a low price.
Opt-in Builder
1.All optimized but less conversions
Your business should be the hub of generating leads that your sales team can close. However, traditional avenues are no longer giving business such leads. That’s why businesses should focus on online marketing and entice visitors to opt in. The conversion should be designed in such a way that drives hot leads down till the last point of sales. The Less is more technique will be the best fit here. Remember – a 10% lift in conversion means a whopping 800% jump in sales!
2.Know your user behavior
Every marketer should know the basics of human behavior and common browsing patterns. Following are 7 crucial techniques of eye-tracking technology that every marketer should try:
An effective landing page should include the elements that “pop” instead of giving extra weight to the visuals that don’t compel customers to take any action.
An embedded video helps you to stand out among your competitors, in search results.
Though visuals hold a crucial part of the overall design of a site, visual signals guide visitors to the next place to look for.
Users are likely to browse depending upon their reading habits. The left to right pattern or the “F” pattern browsing is highly favored.
You may place important objects under the fold and conduct testing. It gives visitors time to read the copy before taking any action.
Keep the newsletters clear and concise.
Take help of “purposeless” prices like pre-sale prices that helps customers to assess the value of a purchase.
3.Use opt-in builder/email list builder
Now that you are aware of the behavior of users, it’s time to build your email list. Email list is the best asset any business can have, most preferred & effective communication method to engage with your prospect & customer base. Get new customers & built build strong relationship with you exiting customers.
According to statistics, only 10-30% visitors come back to a website and 67.89% of all shopping carts are finally left empty.
Handpicked Compact Tool: ConvertPlug
ConvertPlug is all-in-one conversion tool to build quality email list, using popups, slideups, notification bar, sidebar box, and inline forms. Best alternative to optinmonster & sumome, no more monthly recurring cost.
Video tutorial:
Features:
Multiple display positions
Inbuilt lead collector
One click integration with all major email marketing providers.
Ready-made templates & styles
Real-time live editor
Exit intent technology
2-step opt-in technology
Capture & sync leads
A/B test and analyze
Mobile Responsive
100% Customizable Design
List of form types:
Pop-up Lightbox
Inline Forms
2 step Opt-in Form
Slide-In
Opt-In Widget
Info bar
Here are different types of Triggers which you can update as per your visitors intentions:
Time Delay Pop-up
Exit Intent Pop-Up
Scroll Pop-Up
Click Based Pop-up
ShortCode/CSS
Embedded Pop-up
Top of the page
Start of the Post/Page
End of the Post/Page
Bottom of the Page
Thank You Page Configuration
Page Specific Triggers
Non intrusive settings
Pricing: Price – $21 (onetime), 6 months support & lifetime update for free.
Quick review:
You can easily increase conversion with the help of ConvertPlug. This all-in-one plugin allows you to share updates, build email lists, promote videos, drive and redirect traffic, get social followers, offer coupons and many more.
Matthew Woodward ran many case studies and assured the following results. Here are a few examples:
1. Implementing Opt-in pop up for blogs increases the Subscription rate by 10X times.
2. Exit pop-up for any website drives 28% of visitors for subscribers.
3. Using light box pop up, we can increase the conversion list by 568%.
Interactive Marketing Techniques
The term interactive stands for two characteristics of communication: The ability to address a person and the ability to collect and recall the response of that person. Successful completion of these two features result in the third, which is the ability of taking into account the person’s unique response by addressing him or her once again. So, in marketing, interactivity can be used as a tool that transforms good marketing into good conversation. Putting a human face more on the marketplace is the basis of the interactive paradigm.
Email marketing for lead generation
A report, sponsored by BrightTalk, revealed that email marketing is the 4th most useful and the 2nd most commonly used lead-generation tool for B2B businesses. According to a study by Allegra Networks and Ascend2, email marketing is the number 1 most useful lead-generation tool for medium and small-sized businesses. According to the BrightTalk report, top 10 most useful email tactics are:
Driving content for every stage of the purchasing process (56%)
Offering downloadable content (49%)
Segmentation of email depending upon behavior (45%)
Trigger-based email sent automatically (33%)
Dynamically personalize email content (32%)
Segmentation email campaigns depending upon demographics (30%)
Empowering subscribers to mention email preferences (19%)
Including surveys, games or trivia (12%)
Using video or animated images in design (11%)
Using rewards/loyalty programs (10%)
The cost-effectiveness and ease of use of email marketing is ideal for smaller companies.
Handpicked Compact Tool: MailChimp
Video tutorial:
Features:
Flexible design irrespective of brand size
Powerful marketing automation for online sellers
Advanced analytics to develop your business
Comprehensive mobile options
Integration with widely used apps and services
Flexible, complex API documentation
Useful data
Pricing:
Starting up plan: Free forever – limited up to 12,000 emails/month and 2,000 subscribers
Growing business plan: $20/month (1,001-1,500 subscribers, unlimited emails), $25/month (1,501-2,000 subscribers, unlimited emails), $30/month (2,001-2,500 subscribers, unlimited emails), $35/month (2,501-2,600 subscribers, unlimited emails)
Pro Marketer plan: $25/month + $199 Pro subscription
Quick review:
MailChimp is a brilliant email service provider with a vast user base. It has various designing options for emails and the facility of reporting once the emails have been sent out successfully. The free service and low price compared to other providers is a plus for MailChimp. Lack of support can be considered by some as a big disadvantage though.
Live chat for lead generation
Live chat is a great way for lead generation. If properly implemented, you can efficiently work with the analytics to target users, depending upon their behavior. It encourages prospective users, if merged with good messaging. Following are some useful techniques for lead generation utilizing proactive invites:
Using related keywords with respect to your services/products
Page behavior
Triggers are a brilliant way of pointing out high value customers, without chatting to everyone. Following are examples of some useful triggers:
Automated greeting
Engage customers when they’re making the decision
Flag customers for whom you’ve paid for
Pre-empt questions
Handpicked Compact Tool: Olark
Video tutorial:
Features:
Chat ratings
Targeted chat
Olark live chat + a CRM
Customizable design
Easy setup
Shortcuts
Olark groups
Olark cobrowsing
Integration with Google Analytics
Olark cartsaver
Useful API
Pricing:
Ultimate plan: $219/month (15 operators + core features + groups)
Platinum plan: $116/month (8 operators + core features + groups)
Gold plan: $44/month (4 operators + core features)
Bronze plan: $15/month (1 operator + core features)
Quick review:
With the beautiful chat client, user interface and browser-based console, Olark looks promising and smart. Apart from being fairly priced, they’ve the best design among all live chat tools. Instead of commands that need to be keyed in, buttons for fast access to the main features should be implemented though, feel some marketing experts.
Survey for lead generation
Surveys are not only a useful way to collect information about the needs of present and potential customers, but are equally useful tools that help you to engage with consumers and collect customer data that can be used in the future. A checklist, that can be used to transform conversations into conversions, is given below:
Set marketing and sales objectives
Select a trade show subject
Introduce your business prior to the show
Survey your customers
Follow up with the survey results
Handpicked Compact Tool: SurveyMonkey
Video tutorial :
Features:
Survey creation
Analyze data
Survey a target market
Enterprise
Customer support
Safe & secure
Pricing:
Basic plan: Free
Select plan: Rs. 699/month
Gold plan: Rs. 1,599/month
Platinum plan: Rs. 3,999/month/user
Quick review:SurveyMonkey is a familiar name in the field of survey software and deserves its extensive reputation, thanks to offering quality services for small-sized business owners and their customers. It’s a top performer and great choice in the domain of survey software.
Social Media
Incorporation of certain conversion strategies can make a huge difference in your social media posts. Following are such 5 ideas:
Share your value
Be clear
Understand your market
Speak the language of your audience
Ask consistently
Handpicked Compact Tool: Twitter cards
Video Tutorial:
Addition of Twitter cards to the tweets makes them convenient for people to show interest in your business without leaving Twitter or filling out a form. Users can easily share their contact information with you, which would help you to follow these leads up and convert them into sales.
Quick review:
With Twitter cards, you can represent your content in tweets, to be displayed on mobile devices and across the web. They can help attract more traffic to the site and empower businesses to effectively market their services and site.
Handpicked Compact Tool:Buffer
Video Tutorial:
Features
Share images on Twitter
Share content multiple times
Reframe content to suit the audience
Buffer Native Retweets and Re-Buffer Posts
Mention & Buffer
Followerwonk
Pricing:
For individuals
Individual: Free
Awesome: $10/month
For agencies and teams
Small: $50/month
Medium: $100/month
Large: $250/month
Quick review:
You can keep your social media accounts up-to-date with the help of the skillfully organized service of Buffer. This tool automates the timing of the social media posts. Its free service is good for personal feed, and the Awesome level service adds features that a business requires.
Conclusion
If you aren’t using these tools, make sure to leverage them in 2016 to take your business to the next level.