Lead Generation for Small Businesses

I know that most people tend to believe that starting a business requires money and expertise. That can be true in many cases, after all every type of business has different requirements, but it is definitely not always a prerequisite. When I first started my own business about a decade ago, I had limited money and absolutely no idea on how to generate leads. I soon realised I had to start thinking outside the box in order to come up with the right techniques that would fit my business model and gain me some income.
After a period of trial and error, I managed to create what we now call ‘the cookbook’ here at BLAM. The cookbook is a document that combines both offline and online marketing techniques for B2B lead generation that are proven to deliver great results for most small businesses out there. Since lead generation is a topic that very often comes up whenever I speak with new business owners and BLAM partners, I decided to write this blog post to share some of my best tips on the matter.

• Business walk-ins. Visiting local companies that are part of your target audience may seem like a time-consuming activity, but is actually one of the most efficient techniques as long as you know who you are targeting. Taking the time to clearly define your target audience beforehand is essential to avoid wasting everyone’s time. During your visit make sure you introduce yourself, get to know the other business owner and understand their problems. It is not imperative to close a sale at this stage, but having a nice chat and scheduling a future appointment to follow up would be wise.
• Cold calling. As an extension to the previous point, calling businesses could speed up the process a little bit and is still a good way to get to know people. At the early stages of your business it is actually essential that you talk to as many prospects as possible to start building some useful insight that will help you redesign and better target your product in the future. Remember that the better you get to understand your audience the more likely you are to sell.
• Networking. As we’ve discussed before, networking events are regularly held in most areas and a great way to meet other business owners who would be willing to spread the word about you. Other than simply attending, I would definitely recommend securing a speaker slot to introduce your work to as many people as possible. Practicing your sales pitch in front of a large crowd can definitely win you extra confidence points.
  
• Business shows. Another great event to attend are business shows. What is great about them is that they allow you to meet people from different locations and expand to other areas. A great way to secure leads in business shows is to offer special offers on the day. Make sure to bring business cards and all the necessary marketing materials to ensure you look professional.
  
• Referral pipeline . All those people you can easily meet through networking and business shows, even if not directly part of your audience, they still might know someone who would be interested in buying from you. A good idea would be to offer them referral incentives. This way you can build a strong network of referral sources which can provide you with residual income.
  

• Social Media . We’ve talked about the benefits of creating remarkable content as part of your inbound marketing before, but social media can be leveraged for outbound marketing as well. LinkedIn is a great tool to reach out to people to simply introduce yourself and your business, see if they are interested and follow up with a new message a few days later. Facebook ads, on the other hand, can help you run successful targeted campaigns for your product without the need for a great investment. I encourage you to explore the different uses of social media as they are constantly expanding, new platforms arise and different kinds of audience go online as we speak.
  
• Email Marketing . After you make your initial contacts and secure a few prospects, email marketing is a great way to re-market to those people in order to keep them interested and remind them of your offering. Investing in a functional CRM system would be a clever choice during that phase. Remember that an email database is always a powerful thing to have and the sooner you start building yours, the better.
  
• PPC. Pay-per-click advertising is an easy way to gain brand awareness and new leads in a relatively risk-free way since it allows full control over your budget. Depending on your industry, however, it can be quite expensive at times so make sure you do a proper research before deciding to invest.
  

Based on all those online and offline lead generation methods, I recommend making at least ten meaningful connections with prospects every day. My experience suggests that unless you follow a clearly structured daily schedule, procrastination is inevitable for any new business owner. Start building your own cookbook and make it your goal to follow it every day – I can guarantee you will succeed. If you are interested in finding out more about my cookbook, click here to download it in the form on an eBook for free.