Lead generation is very different for startups than it is for established companies. First and most importantly, startups simply don’t have the name recognition and visibility of established companies, so they have to work so much harder just to get people to consider them. Secondly, they often lack a core marketing team to work on lead generation on a daily basis.
So what’s a startup to do when it comes to lead generation?
The first step is to optimize the landing page for the business. Don’t optimize it for search – optimize it for lead generation. Ever notice how many popular startups have a splash page with just an image or video, some basic text and then a brief form to fill out to receive more information? Some startups just have an image, some basic text and a place to submit your email for further updates. That’s the type of minimalist website that does best for lead generation. If it works for Silicon Valley startups, it can work for your startup.
Filling out a form should be hassle-free, convenient and even fun. Don’t ask for too many details. While it would be nice to have a full name, a title, a name of a company and an address, just go with the email. That’s all you need for lead generation. Getting the email address of every single person who lands on your website should be the overarching goal.
The second step is to create a simple explainer video for your startup. These explainer videos are easier to create than you might think – on a site like Fiverr, you can hire a video or animation pro to create one for you for just five bucks. Wow. Let me say that again – for just five bucks, you can have an effective explainer video that outlines exactly what your business does and how it can help other businesses.
There are a variety of ground rules for creating these explainer videos. But the basic rule is that it shouldn’t be more than two minutes, it should be easy to understand in languages other than English (some explainer videos just have music), and it should engage the viewer enough that he or she is willing to watch the full two minutes. Include a call to action at the end of the video, and you’re good to go.
Finally, get involved on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. By now, it’s almost a cliché to say that your business needs to be on Facebook, but that’s just a fact. Once you’ve established a presence on these social media platforms, it’s time to interact with potential customers and build up your sales funnel.
You’ll need to do more than just post boring status updates about your startup all day, though. You need to be creating compelling content that will have people coming back for more. You will need to answer their questions and address their pain points. If you can do that, you’ll start to develop the type of vibrant community that can be harvested later for high quality, B2B leads.
There’s no doubt that, as a startup, you might have to work harder than established competitors to win over leads. But think of it from a glass-half-full perspective – your company has a blank slate to define itself in the minds of potential customers however it wants to. By optimizing your landing page, creating an impactful explainer video and building out your startup’s presence on social media, you can guarantee that you’ll hit the ground running with a lot of sales momentum.
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.