60 Ways To Generate Leads from A-Z: The Letter C

How many ways can you generate demand with the letter C?

1. Customers. We often concentrate so much on new logo acquisition, that we forget about our most cherished asset - our customes. Studies like Reicheld’s Net Promoter concept clearly show a direct correlation between loyal customers and long term profitable growth. Most companies I talk to do not have any formal ongoing marketing programs that deal specifically with their customers. Instead, they are concentrating all of their money and attention on getting new customers. It is so much easier to focus on your existing customer base as a channel. Turning your customers into advocates will do a lot more for your net growth than any lead generation campaign.

2. Content, Content, Content - as long as you continue to produce timely, relevant content that helps your prospects and customers stay informed and make better business decisions, you will continue to generate new leads. Where do you get good content? It is all around you. For starters, you can set up an aggregation of all of the industry feeds right on your site. Everything that the analysts, industry pundits and third parties write can be showcased on your site for convenient access. Instead of always writing your content, consider a podcast series where you interview your customers, executives, industry luminaries. A 10 minute interview that can be streamed via your website will have lasting value. What about hiring college interns or developing a program with your local university’s business or journalism department? They get real-world experience and you get a slew of writers for no cost.

3. Community - Some communities you may be very familiar with - eBay, LinkedIn, Facebook. Once just limited to B2C and personal relationships, many B2B marketers are now creating vertical communities that directly target their market and serve their customer base. Companies like Neighborhood America have software and services that help you establish communities pretty quickly. This strategy is rapidly gaining ground with many marketers who are trying to deliver relevant content to the right people at the right time.

4. Co-Registration. Easy and cost-effective, co-registration is the process of having people sign subscribe to your list when they sign up forl another list. You may have seen these checkboxes from time to time when you have signed up on a particular form. They ask you if you would also like to register for another newsletter or list. By developing 10-12 good co-registration partners, you can build your list through the efforts of others that are going after the same market. Ideally, find partners that complement your products or services. Of course, if you are really daring, you could partner with your competitors and help each other share the burden in acquiring leads. This lowers the cost of lead acquisition while helping to build a highly targeted and relevant list. I’m not sure of how many people would go for this, but it is a thought.

5. Conferences. Conferences can be a great way to network and develop new sources of leads. Instead of sponsoring, see if you can get one of the speaker slots. If that is not an option, come up with a highly impactful and relevant giveaway, like a wheel chart that you can distribute along with your business cards. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

6. Chat. Many B2B marketers are starting to warm up to the idea of using chat or Instant Messaging on their website. Not all people respond to email or phone. A chat window is another way to interact with your visitors in real time while they are on your website and showing interest. You can staff the function with your inside sales team, who in many cases would be qualifying the leads anyway.

Stay tuned for the letter D…