Questions

Besides driving traffic to a lead magnet, what are some ways to generate leads for creative agencies?

I would like to speak to an expert in creative/digital agency lead generation and see how he/she could help me on this area.

9answers

Hi... :) There are many ways in which you can generate leads, from Passive Marketing Tactics such as: Direct Mail, Advertisements, Industry Directories, Yellow Pages (in some places they are still working), TV, Newspaper, or you can try one on one with the prospect (Active Marketing Tactics) such as Cold Calls, Sales Visits, Client Interviews, Demos, Seminars, etc... 80% of the effectiveness will be determined on who is your perfect client for each one of the services you provide, that way you can define exactly were to find them and then how to market your services...

There's no easy answer to your question, anyone who helps you needs to go deeper into your agency. If you need anything else I'll be glad to help.


Answered 8 years ago

Hi there,

I've been in the digital space for nearly 15 years and have helped hundreds of brands around the world answer this same question.

Based on the wording of your question alone, it seems that you may have placed a "lead magnet" into a very narrow, niche box.

You may think of traditional lead magnets like ebooks or digital downloads and want something different. But, in reality, I think you are asking about *non-traditional* lead magnets.

I've seen great success with quizzes and "value calculators" - where the visitor either challenges their preconceived notion about a topic (a quiz) or learns about opportunity cost (value calculator).

Both of these lead magnets actually position the brand (you) in a consultative light in the mind of the visitor. You are educating them, and also selling to them -- but not in a way they expect.

This is highly effective because you are leading with value -- giving them something for nothing; then offering to help them solve the "problem" they just realized they had.

I would be happy to help more or help you draft a plan that works for your goals.

All the best,
-Shaun


Answered 8 years ago

What's your target CPL? This is going to be the key piece of data in determining where and how you can generate and pay for leads.

If you know your target CPL and marketing budget, then it's a pretty straightforward effort to drive traffic and generate leads.

I also recommend building out a lead form using a platform such as Unbounce or Leadpages.

Once you have a solid lead form for generating leads for your service, then you can market the page across all channels.


Answered 8 years ago

Hey there,

I am an owner of a 30 person creative agency with Content, Design, Development and Strategy departements.

My agency is certified partner with some of the largest technology vendors in the market and we have been announced also as one of the Top 5 content marketing teams in the World!

Here are some valid tips for you to generate leads:

1. Participate in conferences as speaker and gain more network

2. Partner with other agencies that don't have creative departments so they can outsource you some work

3. Ask for referrals, don't just sit and wait for them

Publish the referrals in your website and agency review websites

4. Create some free creative bundles and give away for free

5. Utilizing networking websites

If you design, make sure you have a profile on Dribbble, Behance, Coroflot and/or Krop. Also join the discussion on Designer News.

6. Make an advanced SEO strategy to rank for local and decision stage keywords.

E.g. design agency in Huston, Website design company in Los Angeles, etc

Hope this helps.

Call me, if you want more in detailed plans that me and my marketing and sales teams use to grow our own creative agency from 1 to 30 people within 2 years


Answered 8 years ago

Don't forget old-fashioned networking. Attend a business networking group, preferable one that charges a considerable fee as a guest of a member, and get introduced to other business leaders. I have a contact who freelances, and she obtains leads via this method.


Answered 7 years ago

I have about a dozen digital marketing agency clients if that's what you mean.

Leads are easy, keep clients happy is what my clients struggle with but getting them clients is the easier part.

Best thing we've done is host webinars or local events and rock them with great content and offer up a great deal at the end.

Another thing is I have a deep rolodex in this industry so I can help you get setup with partners who would allow you to speak to their audience and their audience is mostly all your clients.

Ping me if you'd like any help getting started quickly...


Answered 7 years ago

Great question!

Here is a 32-step tutorial on how to generate warm leads using a lead scrape, a couple free extensions, a CRM and a salesperson to not only generate, but properly nurture your new leads from cold to closed.

I have been asked often about my approach to LinkedIn lead generation and how it works in conjunction with digital ads and telemarketing. Here is a very quick/dirty guide that will help clarify the process, timeline and stack needed:

What you will need:
* Google Chrome Browser
* A Linkedin profile
* LinkedHelper
* LinkedHub
* A verified email list
* Cold email templates
* Tool setup for [cold] email sequences

Week 1: Start Gathering Data

You can either write a scraper (Upwork, the world's largest online workplace search for “scraper”) or use a tool (recommend https://data-miner.io/). If your list requires some serious digging let me know your criteria and I'll see if the team I use can help. If you are in need of a fast and effective You can start this step 1 week before you have an SDR trained and ready.

1. Set scraping criteria - industry, title, location, company size, Linkedin profile (Y/N?), phone number (Y/N?)

2. Create a google sheet with correct headings for your CRM - search your CRM + “bulk import .csv template”

3. Load one example of a good lead to the sheet

4. Share sheet with your scraper

5. Order

6. Verify these yourself if you did not order a pre-verified list - Use a tool like Verify Email Address Online

Week 2: Start Connecting

This is a very powerful step that requires LinkedHelper to automate the connection requests. You can upload your scraped list, as well as run the bot on any network search.

1. In your Google sheet with the scraped contacts, create a new tab for “Linkedin Profiles” - find/copy/paste the LI profile URLs to one column there.

2. Download this Chrome extension: Linked Helper - automate work with LinkedIn

3. Login to whatever Linkedin account you want to use to prospect this list.

4. Follow these instructions to load the LI profiles list to LinkedHelper: https://medium.com/linked-helper...

5. Select the options to invite/connect and view profile - This will give them two notifications (viewed your profile and requested connection)

Week 2: Auto-Messaging Sequence

Like cold emailing, you will be able to cold message connections gained in the previous step with a timed sequence using LinkedHub. This allows you to serve more messages and more impressions without much downside (like spam complaints).

1. Create a LinkedHub account - linkedhub | LinkedIn Lead Generation

2. Setup your connection sequence - use a simple one-line connect message like “It’d be great to have you in my network.”

3. Time your second and third messages appropriately - The second message should not be a sales message. You want your second message to go out 1 min after they approve the connection, and be a simple one sentence "thank you for connecting" message. Use the contact fields to personalize it.

4. The third message can be your “ask” - make it a great offer, or something unique for your LinkedIn connections otherwise it won’t get much of a response.

5. Add the URLs you used in your scrape to as the target for this sequence - Make sure to add the exact search terms which will include everyone on your list of contacts. Use title and industry search terms, and multiple URLs if you have to. Contacts not in your email list may get these messages, but this is ok, so long as the search criteria is for potential customers.

6. Start sequence

Week 3: CRM Retargeting

The main purpose of CRM retargeting is to serve brand impressions and educate your list on what exactly it is you do. The last thing you want to do is cold email or cold call prospects who have zero idea who you are and what your company does.

1. Load your lists to each platform for ad retargeting - Depending on your list size, you have Adwords (1000 minimum) Facebook (relative, but no min), Adroll (500 minimum), Linkedin (3000 minimum).

2. Facebook - Use FB to serve video ads explaining your product/service to the audience to educate using a medium they’ll engage with.

3. Adroll - Adroll you will use to serve impressions of your brand. You do not even care about the clicks.

4. Linkedin - You want to serve valuable content that shows thought leadership on Linkedin - ebooks, white papers, and webinars - collaborations with other brands is preferred.

5. Adwords - Load your videos to YouTube and serve “TrueView” ads to your retargeted list.

Week 4: Cold Emailing

Now that they have [hopefully] been served one or two impressions of your brand, it’s time to send them a cold email sequence. It’s very important you do not do this too early. You want it to be as warm as possible, which is why we serve LinkedIn profile impressions and ads to these people first. It’s also important you use a correctly timed sequence with if/then rules so that you make sure not to bother those uninterested, and you keep inboxing.

1. Load contacts to your CRM - If you used the formated bulk sheet provided by your CRM, you should be able to simply upload the contacts. If your CRM allows for tagging, tag every 200 contacts with a unique letter (A, B, C….). This allows you to easily decide who to send what/when by segmenting them by tag in your CRM.

2. Run a spam and record test - Before you send a single cold email, make sure you have the correct any record issues - verify DKIM/SPF settings with your host. Make sure email clients can verify you are permitted to send from that address by following the corrections this site gives you: Newsletters spam test by mail-tester.com

3. Use a drip sequence - Make sure unopened emails get the same email two days later with an alternative headline. And those who do open, but do not click get another option later. And if you are using a CRM, make sure sales is notified while someone is browsing the site so they can contact/close them right then. I recommend CRM Software - Customer Relationship Management - Agile CRM

4. Limit sending to 200/day - The last thing you want to do is show up on any blacklists. Too many complaints in a day will get you listed. This is why we want to throttle sends. Make adjustments to messages that are getting no clicks/replies and complaints before sending the next batch.

Week 5: Cold Calling

The process is created to make these calls much 'warmer', but you will want to make sure your SDR's or AE's understand the brand impressions each contact has been served prior to these calls - i.e. "We are connected on Linkedin..." or "I sent the details to your ___@___ email...".

1. If your CRM is giving you notifications when contacts are browsing, make sure to call those prospects immediately - CRM's like CRM Software - Customer Relationship Management - Agile CRM will allow you to install their tracking pixel on your site and setup desktop notifications for if/when contacts are on your site. Make sure your team has these on and are calling during the browse.

2. Next, call those who have opened, but not clicked - Then call those who have not opened.

3. Finally, call your Linkedin connections.

4. For these cold campaigns, one your SDR or AE's tasks should be getting them to open/reply to the email. This keeps your IP health up so you can continue cold emailing.

Week 5: Triggering Follow Up Sequences

Follow Up sequences should be ready for each type of call - no answer, not interested/ready... So you can keep these contacts in your funnel and at least offer them relative content they may be interested in. Have a few sequences ready to be deployed when the call is done.

1. As soon as the call is done, trigger the appropriate sequence.

2. At the end of every sequence should be a transfer into some sort of evergreen content drip - This last step ensures no contacts are ever left floating as they continue to get your content regardless if they are in an approaching/nurturing sequence, or not interested in the product, but have not opted out of emails.

From here you can get into content marketing and true lead nurturing techniques using whatever you have of value to display thought leadership and trust - case studies, white papers, collaborative content with known brands...
Reach out to me here if you need help.

-Alex


Answered 6 years ago

Reach out to your target customers directly ;)

Try salezgen.com - we will solve all your pre-sales online outbound marketing needs.


Answered 5 years ago

If you have been actively promoting your site, your homepage will be getting visitors from referring sites, social media sites, search engines and other sources. Davidson shared how he reached 140,753-page views within twelve months, since re-launching his blog. Although the sidebar usually shows up on every page on most WordPress themes by default, you can permanently set it for your homepage only. The two should synch, so that visitors will not be confused when they get to your homepage. One of the best lead generation tips you should take away from this post is how a webinar can work brilliantly in your favour. A webinar is a relatively low-cost way to get your useful message in front of a targeted audience who asked for it when they registered. A small consulting firm used webinars to generate over 100 new, qualified leads and resulted in six opportunity-based meetings. If you can host a webinar and link to it directly in your content, your leads will take you more seriously, because you have provided value before asking them to register.

This is quite different from a webinar landing page that does not offer much value to the user. For example, the screenshot below shows how Quality Matters links to its webinar registration page from within its success stories. The challenge that most people face, when they host webinars, is getting enough people to register. But you can drive webinar registration by linking directly to it.

Uberflip knows how to invite blog readers to register for upcoming webinars right from a post. Engagement is the sole purpose of hosting a webinar. Stay time is influenced by the ease of entering the webinar, the topic and whether attendees stick around during the Q&A. If you want to take your lead generation to the next level, you should consider hosting a webinar.

Successful internet marketers know the power behind a well-planned webinar. You can generate leads, nurture them, and build a thriving business, solely with webinars. According to a survey conducted by Ready Talk, 30%–40% of webinar attendees are turned into leads. There is no doubt that bringing the right people together in a virtual platform increases trust, leads, and sales.

In fact, 38% of attendees will stick around if your topic is hot and what you are sharing with them will yield significant results in their business and life. The role of webinars in the sales process cannot be ignored because most companies have experienced higher sales when they hosted a webinar. The more useful and interesting your blog posts are, the better. Consequently, when you link to your webinar from within your content, it’s a sign that you want to offer more value to your readers without giving them the idea that you’re out to make some quick bucks.
If you want to convert the visitors that come to your landing pages and take your lead gen to the next level, you’ve got to continually test out your landing page elements, including the headline, subtitles, bullet points, call-to-actions and more. Consider this a prime piece of real estate in your marketing strategy. It is about who’s in charge of generating leads and who manages the sales process.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath


Answered 3 years ago

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