How to Generate Qualified Leads for a Small Business: 3 Easy Tips

Sharing simple advice on how to generate qualified leads for your small business, no matter what industry you’re operating in.

By Gaurav Sharma – You may find this article HERE in its entirety on Colorado Biz’s website.

According to a 2021 HubSpot State of Marketing survey, 50% of small business owners say generating qualified leads is their primary digital marketing goal. But generating leads is a top challenge for 41% of content marketers. So, For the growth of a small business, understanding how to generate qualified leads should be a top priority. 

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While large businesses can speed up the process using special software for generating leads, small businesses with limited budgets can only rely on lead-generation tactics. But learning how to generate qualified leads for a small business can be daunting. And with so many lead generation strategies, it’s easy to get confused about which one to use.

Here’s a guide on how to generate qualified leads, specifically for a small business.

READ: 8 Steps for Creating an Omnichannel E-commerce Strategy

1. Understand The Target Audience

There are over 2 billion digital buyers today. However, not all are ideal customers.

Research shows that about $37 billion is wasted every year in running ads that don’t engage the target audience.

It’s important for business owners to first determine who they want to reach with their marketing messages.

Start by answering these questions:

• Who are the ideal customers?
• What products or services do they want?
• What makes them buy from you and not the competitor?

Next, use these strategies to determine the target market:

• Analyze the customer base and conduct interviews with prospects.
• Scrutinize the existing social media followers.
• Perform competitor analysis.
• Create buyer personas.
• Use Google Analytics to look at industry trends.
• Conduct thorough target market research.

What’s the best way to conduct effective market research?

A recent HubSpot survey shows that 76% of small businesses use surveys whereas 56% use interviews.

READ: 8 Steps for Creating an Omnichannel E-commerce Strategy

By knowing the right audience, it becomes easier to leverage the best e-commerce tools and the most effective digital marketing campaigns to generate qualified leads from this lot.

2. Optimize Your Website For Search Engines

When looking to buy something most customers turn to search engines. But these searchers might not scroll beyond the first page.

Research shows that appearing in the first position can attract a click-through rate of 28.5% whereas appearing in positions 2 and 3 can attract a click-through rate of 15.7% and 11.0% respectively.

It means small business owners should apply the best ecommerce SEO strategies to optimize their websites for organic search.

Here are useful tips for SEO optimization:

• Conduct thorough keyword research to identify the search terms people are using.
• Optimize for on-page SEO.
• Optimize for off-page SEO.
• Add keywords throughout the pages.
• Optimize images.
• Speed up the website pages.

Writing new blog posts on your target keywords never really stops. To stay relevant and keep popping up in the search results, use keyword research tools (SEMrush, Long Tail Pro, Ahrefs…) to find new topics and publish regularly.

As a small business owner, consider helping yourself out by using SaaS tools. For example, use an AI blog writer to keep your blog in shape and an email outreach tool to reach more targets for brand mentions and other aspects of off-page SEO. You’ll reach more goals with less effort and time spent, just choose your fighter.

READ: 7 Reasons Local SEO is Excellent for Small Businesses 

3. Leverage Social Media Marketing

There are over 4 billion social network users worldwide and the number is projected to reach 5.85 billion by 2027.

About 61% of small businesses are currently using social media for lead generation, according to a recent Sprout Social’s ‘The State of Social Media Investment’ survey.

And according to the same survey, 63% of consumers expect brands to use social media as the main communication channel to reach out to their customers.

When used properly, social media can be a great tool to generate qualified leads for a small business. Try:

• Creating compelling lead magnet offers.
• Optimizing the business’s social media profiles for lead generation.
• Sharing clickable content.
• Offering the right incentive.
• Launching social lead ads.
• Personalizing offers.
• Launching a referral campaign.

You can partner with micro-influencers to generate qualified leads. A social media expert can also help you get started with social media marketing. 

READ: 12 Ways to Repurpose Social Media Content for Email Marketing

Get Started Now

Learning how to generate qualified leads for a small business is undoubtedly a tough task. However, with the right guidance, it’s easy for small business owners to fill their sales pipeline with the right leads.

Gaurav Sharma is the founder and CEO of Attrock, a results-driven digital marketing company. Grew an agency from 5-figure to 7-figure revenue in just two years | 10X leads | 2.8X conversions |  300K organic monthly traffic. He also contributes to top publications like HuffPost, Adweek, Business 2 Community, TechCrunch, and more.