Harrisburg

A feature of every lead generation strategy, search engine optimization (SEO) improves the quality and number of your leads. This is done with an umbrella of strategies that increase your ranking in organic search results.

A few examples of those techniques include:

• Keyword research
• Content creation
• Backlinks
• Page speed optimization

If you want to learn more about SEO, check out our beginners guide to SEO.

In some cases, companies won’t prioritize SEO in their lead generation strategies because it takes time to see the results. While search engine optimization requires a long-term investment, it does offer a return on that investment (ROI) when you consider user behavior.

For example, 33 percent of all search traffic goes to the first search result listing on Google. Not to mention, almost 15 percent of users that click on an organic search result will convert — for traditional marketing, that number’s less than two percent.

For Harrisburg businesses, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is one of the most cost-effective advertising options. It offers a $2 return for every $1 spent, plus users who click on your PPC ads are 50 percent more likely to convert than an organic visitor since they’re near the bottom of the buying funnel.

PPC ads also appear above organic search results, as shown below. You can tell them apart from organic listings because they feature a small green icon that says, “Ad,” which appears beside the advertising website’s URL.

Since 50 percent of users can’t tell the difference between advertisements and organic search results, you don’t have to worry about ads pushing users away. In fact, more than 45 percent of page clicks go to ads.

If you’re creating a PPC ad campaign, it’s critical that you invest some time in keyword research. By understanding what your ideal lead wants and searches for, you can optimize your ads for search results and earn more qualified leads.

While more than 65 percent of marketers view social media as a successful tool for lead generation, only 26 percent of companies use social media in their digital marketing plans. That usage gap is an area of opportunity for your Harrisburg business.

By incorporating social media marketing into your lead generation plan, you can connect with valuable leads and nurture them through your buying funnel. Whether that’s through sharing content from your website to engaging followers with social media polls, you can make your company their top choice.

A few of the most common platforms for lead generation and lead nurturing include:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Depending on your audience, you may utilize another platform, such as Instagram or Pinterest.

Content marketing is another effective strategy for lead generation. That’s why more than 80 percent of business-to-business (B2B) marketers use it to generate qualified leads. It includes several different strategies and techniques though, which is why many companies partner with the WebFX team.

With this lead generation strategy, you’ll create unique and helpful content for your audience, such as:

• Guides
• Infographics
• Webinars
• Videos

In most cases, you’ll publish this content to several different platforms, including your:

• Blog
• Website
• Social media
• Email

While time-intensive, content marketing is worth the investment. In fact, compared to traditional marketing, it generates three times as many leads. Plus, it’s an excellent strategy for engaging target audiences, improving client retention rates, and establishing industry leadership.

Email marketing is a powerful tool for lead nurturing, and more than 40 percent of businesses cite it as their most effective channel for lead nurturing.

It also offers an impressive ROI of 4400 percent — that’s $44 for every $1 invested!

To optimize lead nurturing, segment your audiences. That way, you’re sending relevant content to your audiences, versus one-size-fits-all emails that lack value. It’s a step that can lead to substantial revenue gains too — up to 760 percent in some cases.

If you’d like to maximize the power of your email marketing strategy more, consider personalizing your emails. That can boost conversion rates by 10 percent, plus improve consumer perceptions of your brand.

While users are more likely to convert through a PPC ad, not all of them will. That’s where ad retargeting comes in to use.

With this method, you can show ads to users who visited your website but didn’t convert. Ad retargeting works whether users visited through an organic search result or PPC ad.

These ads appear across Google’s affiliate network, which includes websites that allow display ads. A website that publishes content on your industry, for example, may feature display ads next to articles.

As audiences are 70 percent more likely to convert, ad retargeting plays a critical part in lead generation.