Getting more eyeballs and leads to convert prospects into bona fide customers is always a challenge, particularly for small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs).
Today with technology moving at break-neck speed, it’s difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff in determining which new digital tool will work the best for your business. So while it may take some time to take each one out for a test run, here are a few with easy learning curves and worthy of some tire-kicking.
Leadfeeder
This software tool is simplistic, efficient and only takes a few minutes to set up. For any small business that’s already using Google Analytics for some of its SEO work, Leadleader integrates with Google Analytics to identify web searchers and companies that visit your website.
Leadfeeder saves all the data and scores each identified company visit based on how much they have interacted with your site (e.g. repeat visits, how many pages they have viewed before leaving, etc.) Lead scoring is most likely something you are already doing, as it’s a logical method of ranking prospects.
Basically, Leadfeeder converts your site visitors into well vetted prospects providing you with a good number of follow-up opportunities to turn them into new customers. With this lead generator you can:
- Review which companies visited your site, which page they landed on, where they came from and how long they stayed
- Add the company contact info to your contact file folders, as well as your LinkedIn account.
- Create filters to see company visits based on the source (for example, see company visits which were referred to your site from Twitter, Facebook or other social networks) to better customize your pitch.
- Receive regular email alerts with the most recent company visits prompting your immediate action (the quicker your response time, the greater the chances they will remember you and be impressed with your speedy follow-up.)
DrumUp
Turning your staff into brand advocates is something that is often overlooked. Small business operators either feel their team of employees are too small and as such would be ineffective in changing the minds of potential customers. In actuality, the opposite is true. Small teams are usually more connected to their teams than large companies. They’re usually on the same page regarding your company’s mission statements and goals because many of them were there from the start, and are enthusiastic about the success of your company whether or not they work in sales or marketing.
DrumUp is a super-cool social media management platform giving SMBs all the necessary tools to organize your employees’ social media activity, while transitioning them into brand advocates. This software accomplishes this:
- By connecting your blog, press releases or other content to DrumUp — as soon as a new article is added to the feed — where it is then automatically broadcast to your employees (in all departments) for them to easily share across multiple social media channels.
- Be creative. Create innovative monthly contests to reward your most active and eager employee advocates.
- With the able assist of DrumUp, this tool offers easy and transparent leaderboard tracking as well.
GetResponse
If you’re looking for email marketing automation to generate your leads, GetResponse is a very robust software that can accomplish a number of tasks. Bundled in an all-in-one marketing tool, this tool addresses email marketing tactics by including a webinar platform, A/B testing functionality, mobile-ready landing pages and a repository of 500+ form designs that will really make your email pitches stand out from the competition.
Followerwonk
After arriving on the scene 10 years ago, Twitter as a social media tool is now well entrenched in today’s culture — so much so, some say if it wasn’t for Twitter, Donald Trump would never have been elected president. While big brands have dedicated sizable portions of their marketing budgets to convert followers into brand advocates, SMBs have had a tougher go figuring out what works best on Twitter for their companies.
That may change with a tool specially built for small teams. Followerwonk helps marketers take deeper dives into understanding the Twittersphere and how SMB operators can connect with new thought leaders and industry influencers.
With this tool, you can analyze when you lose and gain followers, by determining what’s working and what isn’t. To give it a test run, you can try it free for 50 days, or sign up immediately with up to 3 profiles for just $29/month or 20 profiles for $79/month.
Narrow
Taking Twitter one step further, you can build a legitimate and pertinent following from the microblogging network using Narrow. By simply entering keywords, hashtags and locations, this tool will identify your target audience and attract relevant and symbiotic users to your profile. Its analytics also help to improve audience retention and track your existing and new followers’ engagements and performance.
Account-based pricing equates to $19/month for one account and $49/month for three accounts. Not bad for someone trying to build an engaged social media following.
Lead Generation Effectiveness is Looking Up
So, while SMBs have been a little late to the game, and while there are a number of significant barriers in achieving lead generation success, the status of its effectiveness is looking up.
Salesfusion, one of the leading marketing automation platforms for small and mid-sized businesses, reported new survey results on November, 2016, that detail the value of B2B Lead Generation. The study commissioned in partnership with Ascend2 surveyed B2B marketing influencers from small to medium-size businesses (SMB) and found that more than half of marketers feel their organization’s lead generation strategy is currently above average. The company also published an eBook, The State of B2B Lead Generation: What B2B Marketers are Achieving with Lead Gen Now and What’s to Come detailing these findings, available here.