By Every digital marketing agency needs a healthy pipeline of prospects to grow the business and replace clients that churn out. It doesn’t matter if you’re an agency startup, or you’ve been in the game for years: lead generation is a key component of success.
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Just as the digital revolution has transformed the solutions offered by marketers, it has also changed client discovery and lead gen for agencies. In this blog, we’ll get you up to speed with the best lead generation tips and tricks driving results for agencies today, so you’re not stuck in the 20th century when it comes to building your pipeline.
1. Define your ideal customer profile (ICP) for more tailored lead gen strategies
To effectively market to an audience, you have to understand who they are and what they care about. The process of crafting an ICP helps you do just that by providing a structured way of defining who, precisely, you want to sell your services to.
An ICP is a fictionalized version of your dream customer. As a marketing company startup, this is the owner or key decision maker at the small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) you’d like to work with. Include demographic characteristics, like age, gender, and geographic location, and psychographic characteristics, such as values, interests, and pain points.
The key to this lead generation trick is keeping your ICP front of mind throughout your marketing agency strategy and tailoring your lead generation efforts to appeal to them.
2. Use market research to know your audience inside and out
Market research is non-negotiable when it comes to understanding audience behavior. Research methods include focus groups, competitor analysis, website data, trend analysis, and surveys. The purpose of market research is to gain analytical insights into your marketing agency niche so you can better understand your audience's preferences, challenges, and the recent trends impacting their businesses.
3. Implement email marketing for lead nurturing
The time between when you first capture a lead and when they typically become a paying customer is the length of your sales cycle. During that window, you have to nurture the lead: share information about your marketing agency services and unique value proposition (UVP), encouraging them to choose you over the competition.
Email remains an undefeated champion of effective lead nurturing, so don’t overlook it. Strategies for better lead nurturing with email include:
- Segmenting audiences by niche, age of lead, or other relevant variable
- Creating compelling content based on ICP
- Maintaining consistency through automated email flows
4. Develop a lead scoring system for prioritization
A lead scoring system prioritizes prospects based on their likelihood to convert, ensuring the best possible resource allocation for your sales team. In simple terms, lead scoring uses inputs such as engagement with your marketing communications to assign numerical values to leads, drawing attention to high-potential clients. Marketing automation solutions do this for you, so there’s no need to manually score leads: just focus your sales efforts on the businesses that are most likely to convert.
5. Create quality content relevant to your audience
Identify the interests and pain points of your audience, and strategize your content creation in response. You can do this through surveys, questionnaires, social listening, and general market research. By creating high-value content that responds to real needs, it’s far more likely to be discovered by your ideal client even if you’re starting with no experience.
To make this lead generation trick go the extra mile, don’t limit yourself to one content format or platform. Use blog content, photos, infographics, short-form and long-form videos, and see which drives the most leads for your business.
6. Improve lead generation landing pages for conversion
Most of the lead generation tips and tricks in this list are focused on capturing your audience’s attention, but many agencies struggle with the critical lead gen moment of capturing an email address. This is where landing pages come into play.
Landing pages can be used throughout your sales cycle, from initially capturing a lead’s contact information to closing sales for your agency’s services. Try these tips for better landing pages, and always A/B test to optimize your design:
- Clearly state what you offer
- Grab attention with a compelling headline
- Ensure visible, clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons
- Optimize for mobile
- Use on-brand, high-quality images
- Ensure speedy loading
Here’s a winning example from Wise:
7. Leverage social media for audience connection
Social media is the perfect place to engage in two-way conversations with your audience, fostering meaningful engagement that builds strong client relationships.
Make sure your social media content is on-brand, visually attractive, and provides value to audiences. Treat it the social forum it is: that means responding to comments, engaging with others’ posts, and inviting engagement by asking questions and posting interactive content.
8. Craft attention-grabbing headlines for content
Headlines are often the first thing audiences see on a page, so getting them right is key to capturing attention. Use these tips for more impactful headlines:
- Use concise, impactful language. Avoid jargon.
- Tap into the power of emotion, urgency, or curiosity to entice clicks.
- Optimize content for search engines by incorporating relevant keywords in the headline.
9. Use content to directly address audience problems
Content marketing is different from, say, a traditional ad. The ultimate goal may still be to get more sales, but content marketing should be created with the audience’s needs in mind.
If you want your content to help you find more clients as a digital marketer, you have to demonstrate that you can solve their needs. You can do this in just about any format or channel, from your blog to Instagram and TikTok or YouTube.
For example, Kickresume creates website content around successful resumes made with their software:
Users don’t have to buy the software to see these case studies, which help them learn how to craft better resumes on their own. However, the quality of the content builds trust in Kickresume, which ultimately leads to more sales.
10. Use search engine optimization (SEO) for lead generation
SEO is all about optimizing your content so that it has the best chance of appearing at the top of search results. It’s a long game rather than a quick fix, but this lead generation tip can help drive lots of traffic to your site. Focus on keyword research, on-page optimization, and link building.
11. Use exclusivity to show care for customers
Personalized customer experiences help your leads feel more connected to your agency. Try these approaches:
- Offer exclusive discounts that aren’t publicly available
- Create promotions for hot leads to nudge them to convert
- Create exclusive service bundles based on specific client needs
Whatever option you choose, the idea is to move away from a one-size-fits-all model and respond to client needs while showing that they’re more than just a number.
12. Use native content on social media platforms
Native content is tailored for each platform, reflecting its format and tone. For example, TikTok’s snappy mobile-first video format favors a different type of content than YouTube’s longer desktop-first format.
Language learning app Duolingo aces their native content by creating fun comedic clips featuring their mascot on TikTok, saving more serious learning guidance videos for YouTube.
13. Target high-value B2B leads on Linkedin
Speaking of native content, there’s no better place to flex your B2B lead generation tips and tricks than on LinkedIn.
Speed up the lead gen process by using the platform’s advertising options and precise targeting features. This will let you quickly capitalize on LinkedIn's unique environment for effective B2B engagement.
14. Use lead generation tools for more B2B sales
The right lead-generation tools can help you find your dream clients faster. Here are some of the most useful ones that can be used by all types of agencies:
- Email marketing software for targeted, automated campaigns and lead nurturing
- SEO and keyword research tools for improved inbound marketing
- Website analytics platforms to track visitors and identify hot leads
- Sales intelligence tools to gain up-to-date insights on leads
Whatever you use in your lead gen tech stack, make sure you set up a client relationship management (CRM) system to stay on top of leads and automate communications.
15. Write attention-grabbing copy
Effective copywriting is key to capturing leads, by offering insights and expertise that resonate with your audience's needs. Your copywriting should speak directly to your target market in on-brand language coupled with persuasive storytelling. Copywriting may not get as much attention as more high-tech types of lead generation, but it's essential to establishing credibility and guiding prospects to take the next step.
16. Capture more leads with website content hubs
Make regular updates to your website for more opportunities to be discovered through SEO and give leads reasons to regularly visit your site.
To implement this tip, expand your content strategically by creating content pillars or topic clusters around different themes of interest to your audience. For example, your website content pillars could be:
- Marketing tool education
- Marketing trends
- Behind-the-scenes content
- Marketing insider tips
Check out this video for more lead generation tips and tricks:
17. Use chatbots for engagement and lead capture
Chatbots enable your support team to focus on complex customer needs without sacrificing lead capture and engagement. You can use different bots for different stages of the customer journey: employ initial engagement bots for awareness, use informative bots for consideration, and deploy sales bots for conversion.
For a chatbot lead gen success story, look no further than 1-800-flowers, which secures 70% of its orders from new customers who have never bought from the brand before (Digiday).
18. Leverage webinars for high-quality leads
Participating in webinars can help you establish yourself and your agency as a thought leader in your niche, and expand your recognition among prospective customers.
Just make sure you have a game plan for capturing those leads and converting them after the webinar. For example, you can create a custom email flow for webinar attendees with a personalized promotion.
19. Tap into the power of customer referrals
Customer referrals are one of the best lead generation strategies because they can deliver great results with minimal costs. To maximize the number of referrals your agency gets, offer incentives to happy customers. These could include:
- Discounts on future services
- Points in a reward system that can be exchanged for discounts and other perks
- Referral contests with major prizes for accounts with the most referrals
