If you run a blog, podcast, newsletter, or are promoting your brand’s social media presence, lead generation is just part and parcel of the process of growing your brand.
But many businesses soon encounter a stumbling block when they realize that they’re not pulling in as many leads as they would like.
Or that their lead generation efforts are not returning the intended results, whether due to inexperience, mismanagement, or a lack of best practices.
Time is money, so grow your brand faster and more efficiently by addressing the common problems many brands face in lead generation.
We’ll be looking at seven examples of lead generation obstacles to keep your eyes out for so you can attract more leads and grow your brand more effectively.
1. Lack of Precision
By itself, successful lead generation requires a coordinated strategy and process to gather quality leads.
However, if you do not give your readers precise steps to follow up on their actions, then all your efforts will be for naught.
For example, once your reader reaches the end of your content, have you given them a Call To Action (CTA)?
CTAs encourage audiences to do something and help brands convert readers or visitors into leads for sales to follow up with and convert into paying customers.
A CTA is a crucial link between the content your readers are consuming and the conversion opportunity you want them to act on.
Because if that’s not there, then it’s no wonder you’re not generating any leads. However, you also wouldn’t want to give your readers so many options that it ends up confusing them.
If it’s written content, should they read the related articles? Or should they subscribe to your newsletter?
In this situation, you’ll have to make things clear by deciding which action is necessary for them to take.
And what you can do is select a single action you want your readers to take at the end of your most trafficked content.
For example, if your goal is to attract more people to your website to see your offerings, you should add a CTA at the end of your blog posts asking readers to subscribe to your newsletter or blog.
This way, you can send them email notifications when you post a new blog. If your content is relevant and helpful, readers will come back to your site to read your next post.
2. Content Promotion
It doesn’t matter how good your product or service is; if no one sees it, then it’s good for nothing.
The ideal situation is to drive organic traffic to your content and get those who haven’t heard of your brand yet to notice.
But organic traffic takes time—months or even years—so not exploring other traffic sources could mean that you are hampering your brand’s ability to acquire leads.
Take the time and do some research on what your target audience’s online behaviours are like, which social media platform they use, and which publications or platforms they frequently visit.
Once you’ve figured out their online habits—whether they’re on social media or an industry journal or newsletter—you can then participate in the discussion threads or forums to uncover any relevant sponsored content options.
By actively identifying the optimal channels to promote your content, you acquire and direct traffic to your brand more quickly rather than having to wait for organic traffic to get more leads.
In essence, an active approach will increase your chances of acquiring more traffic and ultimately more leads to your brand.
Another way of acquiring more leads and retaining them is to utilize software for website optimization and marketing automation.
Start by optimizing your website for lead generation and ensure that your website provides an impeccable user experience—from loading times, accessibility, and aesthetics.
Then, let your content shine by developing a myriad of content formats such as webinars, ebooks, videos, infographics, and listicles.
Be sure to include a CTA to provide your target audience with a variety of conversion points, offering them additional opportunities for engagement and conversion.
There are many outcomes for you to experiment with, and it’s only a matter of time until you find out what clicks.
3. Referral Dependency
Another reason why lead generation efforts sometimes seem to fall short is an oversight favoring word-of-mouth and referral marketing strategies to generate leads.
While both are important for any brand’s marketing strategies, in the long term, those two strategies alone are not enough to deliver results.
Partly because referrals are not cost-effective, and that they do not guarantee any genuine leads.
So here are more reasons why being overly dependent on referrals can be detrimental to your brand.
Lack Of Control
While referrals are an easy source to acquire leads, the biggest issue is the lack of control on how and when you acquire a referral.
Even a successful run with referrals could be a fluke, and it may cause a misconception that this source of acquiring leads will work forever—causing you to overlook the other marketing initiatives.
And if things go wrong, everything might grind to a halt, and you’ll find yourself stranded in the middle of nowhere. But a lack of control isn’t the only problem you’ll encounter.
Inability To Cherry Pick Your Clients
Whenever you receive a referral, you likely know little about them or their business—and they might also have little knowledge of your expertise.
Since referrals are a form of relational marketing, the common connection you have at the start is all you have in trying to figure out what exactly your new client wants.
For example:
- What are their actual needs?
- What type of company are they?
- What are their expectations?
Each new client you receive through a referral means you’ll have to educate yourself and do plenty of due diligence to understand your client, which can be time-consuming and even inefficient.
Therefore having a solid lead generation strategy will provide you with an organized way of acquiring leads and the opportunity to move them down your purchase funnel.
4. Nurturing Your Leads
A common misconception is that lead generation stops once you’ve acquired your leads. This is an erroneous notion that could leave you in a vicious cycle of losing leads and trying to acquire new ones.
Once you acquire leads, you must continue the process to help move them down your sales funnel.
A key aspect of capitalizing on your leads is to nurture the new leads you have; keep consistently engaging your leads.
Doing so will prove that you care about them, that their voice is being heard, and that they can depend on you for any solutions towards their future concerns.
More importantly, nurturing your leads will also elevate your brand as a whole because you are constantly engaging with them and addressing their queries.
One of the most effective ways is to include interactive content at the end of your lead generation campaigns.
A good example would be Golf Avenue’s interactive quiz titled “Guess Your Handicap,” which they created to engage their customers.
They included various discounts and coupons within the quiz, which helped to significantly increase their overall customer satisfaction and loyalty.
5. Generating Qualified Leads
Assume you’ve generated your desired number of leads; how many of those leads are genuinely qualified leads?
To separate the wheat from the chaff, you need to start thinking about your targeting and narrowing your focus.
Find out what disqualifies your leads by examining the channels you are investing in, and then determine if they provide you with the return on investment you are looking for.
This means determining whether it’s a budgetary issue, a miscommunication of your brand offerings, or even the possibility that they are beyond your geographic service area.
Be sure to utilize data collection tools to organize your leads. Once you’ve grappled with the specifics, then you’ll be able to optimize your lead generation efforts and attract more qualified leads.
So, for example, if you’re looking to attract C-level leads but are attracting only managerial level leads, then it means that you might have to reevaluate your strategy and create content geared towards that job title or level you’re looking to attract. A good example could be—Best Practices Any CMO Must Have.
6. Linking To Your Best Content
Whenever you come across a website with beneficial information, chances are you’ve already opened several new tabs from the links provided on the current content you are consuming. But these links were placed there for a reason.
Because they understand that their target audience won’t necessarily be able to gather all the information they need solely through that piece of content alone, providing them with links to more beneficial resources will make them return and consume more content on your website.
The more content they consume, the stronger your relationship with them, and the higher the chances of converting them to a customer.
By linking to your best-performing content, it demonstrates that your brand cares about adding value by continuously educating your target audience until they are ready to talk to you.
And when they do, they will likely make a purchase. So, for example, if videos are your best performing content, every time you create a video, link content by creating a list of your most sought after topics and isolate the most relevant content.
The other content could be articles, blog posts, a demo offer or anything that is most helpful to your prospective leads.
As a best practice, anytime you publish content on a specific topic, always take note of other content you can link to and when it is most appropriate.
7. Tracking Leads
We’ve kept the best for last. One of the most subtle obstacles that up to 75% of marketers surveyed state is that their main problem is tracking their marketing ROI due to a lack of understanding of their programs’ revenue.
On top of that, many marketers often receive unqualified leads that are handed off to the sales team, with no mechanism to track their leads once they are delivered.
This lack of conversion information—the sales team knowing which leads to convert—is frequently not shared with the marketing team.
It forces marketers to rely on vanity metrics or even guesswork to determine their ROI. Because vanity metrics are not a legitimate measure of success, it makes the effectiveness of marketing programs more difficult to measure.
The key to solving this issue lies in ‘lead reciprocity.’ This is the exchange of information between the marketing and sales team via technology and strategic alignment.
Technological Alignment
The first step to technological alignment is integrating marketing automation and CRM solutions to give both teams end-to-end visibility into lead statuses and data.
With this added visibility, marketers can now have the specifics of where these leads were generated, how long they’ve been active, and how they were qualified.
They can now track which leads are converted into customers, giving them a complete picture of their efforts that contribute to overall sales and revenue.
Detracting away from the traditional method of using a lead pipeline that is separate from the sales pipeline, systems integration allows the sales and marketing team to establish a shared pipeline.
This allows them to understand each other better and achieve their goals with more synergy.
Aligning The Sales And Marketing Team
Aligning the sales and marketing team is every marketer’s biggest challenge. Synergy between individuals from each team is also crucial in establishing a standardized and transparent lead generation process.
Maintaining open communication allows the sales team to inform marketers on which sources bring the best opportunities and how to create content that converts, which allows them to invest resources into the most effective campaign tactics that will deliver results.
The strategic alignment will allow both teams to enhance their team dynamics and collaborate on mutual goals and responsibilities, unlike individuals working in silos.
Optimizing Your Lead Generation Efforts
Optimizing your resources for lead generation may take some time. From reevaluating your content, developing synergy with the sales and marketing team, to establishing a set of standardized procedures, every measure to optimize your lead generation efforts are always well worth the effort in the long term.
It’s always better to make some short-term sacrifices for long-term gain.
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