3 Tips for creating amazing digital lead generation campaigns

1.3 billion websites later

When Tim Berners-Lee invented the www protocol, he probably did not expect it would spawn 1.3 billion websites, 50 billion web pages, connecting to 59% of the world population or 4.5 billion people (source siteefy). For any business, it can be a little overwhelming, especially when it comes time to create digital lead generation campaigns that target the right audience who then convert into paying customers.

With so many channels and acronyms like SEM, SEO, PPC, Social, programmatic, display, email, and many more, anyone can get lost on when picking the tactics that will meet goals and target market.

Tip #1 - What is the purpose of your online presence

What is the PURPOSE on your website? Does it help build brand awareness, though leadership, education, lead generation, e-commerce, more and all of the above? Pick 2 maybe 3, but the more focused or specific you are, the better.

Then, what is your TARGET AUDIENCE? Is it Millennials or Baby Boomers? Is it Fathers or Mothers? Do you need to reintroduce your product or services to a new generation?

You must know who you're trying to reach for each different marketing campaign to successfully drive leads and conversions. If you don't segment out your audience, you won't be able to target individuals with specific content, offers, and messaging.

Know the "WHY" behind your business. The more you understand what motivates your audience & customers, the better you'll be able to market to those motivations, i.e., create a marketing plan that really works well for your business.

Tip #2- Testing the right mix of tactics for success

When your strategies are set, then time to select what tactic will drive results. In my experience, one of the most effective tactics is...

SEM (search engine marketing) - Can help precisely target the right audience to generate and convert leads into customers successfully. Google Adwords Tool is the platform that allows advertisers, ad agencies & publishers to plan, buy and optimize SEM campaigns across Google, and can incorporate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to increase natural rankings.

Paid Social Media - Facebook and Linkedin can have common goals reaching different audiences. Facebook is the best place for a business to create an ad with social context. Linkedin is ideal for B2B lead generation campaigns which is great if you have a company page with enough followers. To launch a successful campaign in social media, one needs to identify their target and value proposition and make sure the ad creative resonates with its product and service.

Email campaigns are useful because they can be automated and personalized to each specific contact, so you can send highly targeted messages with the right content at the right time. Email allows you to target your prospects by company size, role, industry vertical, and location. It is also the easiest digital marketing tool. In addition, lead nurturing can be done through email campaigns, which allows you to cost-efficiently keep building relationships with your prospects.

Tip #3 - Collect, assemble and make sense of your data

Building actionable plans requires data, and deploying a CRM software to collect customers' data to understand the best way to communicate with them. But a CRM software is only as good as the data you put into it. It's crucial to understand your customers and their behaviours, otherwise, it won't be useful. Fortunately, companies are generating more data than ever before because of today's widespread use of various digital channels. CRMs can pull in data from all over the web and create a full picture of the customer's history and interactions with products, brands, and services.

This data can be combined with company information to build a complete profile of each lead or customer. CRM analyses can even go deeper by correlating data sets for predictive analysis -- enabling to target and acquire new customers and predict behaviours and trends. It can also create better experiences for online visitors, or even automate processes within the organization. Data analytics tools allow companies to unify CRMs with web analytics and other systems, making it easier to understand customer behavior and track conversions -- such as lead generations.

This allows companies to measure CRM initiatives more accurately. CRMs can also be used to deliver relevant messages and personalized experiences using multi-channel marketing campaigns. CRM systems are scalable -- they can grow as the business grows.

Final thoughts...

It is a wild wide web world, and your company and many many million others compete daily to stand out. You need to make sure your efforts are focused on drawing the attention of potential consumers, and produce leads that can turn into paying customers. Digital marketing proves to be quite the hero when it comes to grabbing this much sought-after attention.