The Ultimate Guide to Lead Generation for Small Businesses

Getting discovered online is harder than ever, especially for small businesses. In this competitive environment, what is the answer? A strategic approach to lead generation.

Lead generation experts recommend creating a strategic lead generation funnel that consistently produces new opportunities.

What is a Lead?

How do I find leads for my business? Before answering this important question, it’s crucial to understand what a lead is – and isn’t.

To put it simply, a lead is someone with the potential to become a customer. It’s not a user who has visited your website or liked a Facebook post. It’s someone who has taken a step toward a purchase, for instance, by sharing their email with you, filling out a contact form, or actively researching product features.

Lead generation experts go further by assessing lead quality based on:

How likely is the lead to make a purchase?
How much the lead is likely to spend?

Your first step to building a strong lead generation funnel is to define what a high-quality lead looks like for you.

From Awareness to Purchase: Building a Strong Lead Generation Process

How do lead generation experts attract quality leads? They use a process known as a funnel. Their goal is to connect with prospects at the top of the funnel and help them progress through the different stages of the funnel as naturally as possible. In the process, the goal is to weed out low-quality leads and prospects who won’t convert.

Step 1: Awareness

At the top of the funnel, we find users who are aware of a need they have. For instance, as a small business owner, you might look up something like ‘digital marketing near me.’

You’re aware of a pain point – you need help with digital marketing. However, you don’t know much about the solutions available to you or how to go about solving your marketing challenges.

Step 2: Engagement

After typing ‘digital marketing near me’ in Google, chances are you’ll find:

Some paid ads touting the expertise of a few marketing companies.
A mix of paid and organic Google Maps results with contact information and reviews.
Directories listing the best marketing services in your area.
Web results for marketing services that optimize their content with local keywords for your area.

All these results can lead to engagement and help you, the prospect, progress to the next step. The results provide you with helpful information for making a buying decision.

Step 3: Convert

As you get closer to choosing a marketing service, you’ll have to take action to get the information you need to make your decision. This action can be sharing your email address or scheduling a call to speak with a representative.

Performing one of these actions indicates that a user is actively looking into making a purchase. They become a qualified lead and have a high probability of buying something.

A Lead Generation Funnel – Crucial for Business Success

You need a strategic and structured approach to lead generation for the following reasons:

Your competitors are probably already using a funnel. You need one, too, to stay in the race.
Online, consumers are overwhelmed with content and options. Don’t leave things to chance; guide them through the process of finding the information they need to make the best decision possible.
Marketing can get expensive. Once you have an effective lead generation funnel in place, you’ll have a steady stream of leads come in without having to constantly roll out new marketing programs and spend more money.

Four Steps for a Successful Lead Generation Funnel

Building a lead generation funnel is easier than it sounds.

Start With a Buyer Persona

Good leads look like the customers you already have. Find out about your customers’ goals, pain points, and how they like to look for information online. This information will help you create a buyer persona.

Create High-Quality Content

Once you have a buyer persona, you can address their needs with high-quality content:

Create content that answers important questions users have before a purchase.
Make content easy to consume with engaging writing and visual formats.
Use SEO to make your content easy to find, keeping in mind that 51% of content consumption comes from organic search.

Engage and Convert

Your content should lead users to touchpoints:

Use strong calls to action to provide a clear next step.
Ask for users’ contact information so you can deliver more content.
Make human touchpoints like phone calls easy to access for a great user experience.

Qualify Your Leads

Review the users who convert based on your criteria for readiness and value. To qualify a lead, you can ask these questions:

Is my offering a good match for them?
Do they have the right budget for what I’m offering?
Are they the primary decision maker?
How soon do they plan on making a purchase?

Small Business Lead Generation Done for You

Building a lead generation funnel should be a priority for your small business. If you’re not sure where to start, the lead generation experts at Tempesta Media can help.

Tempesta Media Rank is a done-for-you lead generation solution specially designed for small businesses like yours. From connecting with local users to qualifying high-quality leads, Rank fuels growth with a steady stream of leads, leaving you plenty of free time to do what you do best.

Interested? Contact us and learn more about how Tempesta Media Rank can help your small business.

Anastasiia Lavrinenko

Anastasia is the director of Paid and Organic Marketing at Tempesta Media. Her non-stop devouring of research and analytics content focused on PR, SEO, content marketing, SMM, SEM, and email marketing continues to inspire her to master new fields of marketing and develop unique views on digital marketing tactics. She is enthusiastic, loves to travel, and is interested in experiencing new languages and cultures.