How to generate leads for your small business

Blogs, review websites, and social media give customers access to an abundance of information that help them make buying decisions far in advance of pressing the purchase button. Capturing the interest of your target audience, before they’ve made up their minds, allows your business to remain competitive and develops an invaluable sales pipeline. Small business lead generation attracts people and gathers information used to convert them into customers.

Unlike purchasing leads through third-party sources, organically generating leads lets your small business reach the people most likely to become paying customers. Digital advertising and other marketing solutions begin the process of lead generation and naturally transition website visitors into customers. Using cost-effective online advertising solutions from Microsoft Advertising helps attract potential customers to your website and enables you to start generating leads.

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What is a lead?

If your small business is up and running online, you’ve likely already generated leads. A lead is any potential customer who indicates interest in your business’s product or service. Rather than purchasing contact information, small businesses can communicate with people who have already submitted personal information through email sign-ups, free trials, or other offers. Leads are more open to receiving emails or other communication about a product or service they’ve expressed interest in. Use information from the potential customer’s initial interest to personalize communication for a more significant impact.

Lead generation exists within the larger process of transitioning website visitors into customers, and different types of leads exist based on the stage of the purchase funnel they’re in.

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Marketing qualified lead (MQL). People who have engaged with your small businesses’ marketing but haven’t expressed direct interest in becoming a customer become marketing qualified leads. When someone fills out a website form for a free offer, they’ve expressed interest but are still evaluating other options.

Sales qualified lead (SQL). Sales qualified leads represent leads who have explicitly indicated their interest in your products or services. People who contact your small business with specific questions are more likely to become paying customers.

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Product Qualified Lead (PQL). Similar to sales qualified leads, product qualified leads have directly indicated an interest in becoming a customer. Product qualified leads consist of any leads who have already used your product. This type of lead typically exists for businesses offering free trials or product samples.

Service Qualified Lead. For businesses with dedicated sales teams, service qualified leads directly tell customer service representatives they’d like to purchase a product or upgrade from a free trial.

What is lead generation?

Lead generation describes the process of attracting potential customers to your small business and increasing their interest to convert into a customer. Online content, digital advertising, and live events can begin the process of lead generation by guiding people to your business’s website. From there, website visitors transition into leads by submitting their information in exchange for offers, trials, or exclusive content.

Benefits of generating leads

Increasing small business sales requires reaching the right people and converting them into customers. By establishing existing interest, lead generation as a marketing strategy includes unique benefits.

Target The Right Customers

Lead generation allows your business to target specific audiences and tailor your marketing message based on their demographics. Once a potential customer turns into a lead by expressing interest, you’ll have a good sense of what additional messaging or offers they need to become a paying customer. You’ll save time and resources by focusing on people within your target audience.

Accelerate The Sales Process

While leads fall within different stages of the purchasing funnel, lead generation overall speeds up the process because your audience has already expressed interest. Often, leads include information about their interests that can help your business direct them to the right product or service.

Forecast Sales Accurately

Based on the level of interest expressed by leads, your small business will be able to predict sales more accurately, especially in the short term. An accurate sales forecast helps small businesses better manage their budget.

Lead generation ideas for small businesses

The first step of the lead generation process requires attracting visitors to your website. For small businesses, catching the interest of potential customers through online advertising generates leads without requiring existing brand recognition. With many options for targeting your audience, even small businesses with limited advertising budgets benefit from lead generation ideas. With any option you choose, digital advertising created with lead generation in mind should include strong call-to-actions and relevant landing pages.

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Native Advertising

By using native advertising, small businesses target potential customers without detracting from their online experience with disruptive ads. These information-rich, sponsored ads integrate into the platform they appear on, making them less distracting to the viewer. Using native advertising within an advertising network, like the Microsoft Audience Network, allows businesses to build their target audience from a range of criteria including demographics and customer intent.

Social Media

Both organic social media and paid social media advertising create website traffic and help generate leads for small businesses. Sharing content regularly on social media creates more opportunities to reach relevant audiences. Interacting with your target audience directly on social media increases the likelihood they will seek out more information about your business. Social media advertising networks typically have a low cost of entry, making them especially useful for small businesses.

Search Ads

Search ads appear on the search engine results pages and drive potential customers to your website. By targeting keywords related to your business or product, search ads guide users already interested in what you’re selling directly to your website. Search ads operate by pay-per-click, also known as PPC, so rather than paying a set price upfront, your business pays each time someone clicks on the ad. This process is made easier with responsive search ads, as they allow Microsoft Advertising to optimize the ad copy to create the most effective ad based upon the headlines and descriptions that you provide.

Blog Posts

Creating blog posts for your small business’s website drives website traffic and helps generate leads. Blog posts feature written content, videos, and more that provide answers to questions customers look for. Not only do blog posts bring visitors to your website, but they can also be tailored to promote specific offers on your site. Apply SEO techniques to improve your search rankings and bring the most relevant visitors to your site.

Email Marketing

Email marketing, including newsletters and announcements, generates traffic and brings visitors to targeted pages within your small business’s website. However, your email subscribers may already be customers, as they’ve already opted in to receive your emails. Use email marketing to give potential or current customers strong reasons to revisit your site.

How to transform visitors into leads

Website traffic alone doesn’t generate leads—once visitors arrive on your website, you’ll need strategies to turn them into leads by fostering conversion. You’ll also want to utilize conversion tracking tools to help optimize your campaigns.

Exclusive Offers

Promoting discount codes or exclusive offers on your small business’s landing page makes first-time visitors more likely to make a purchase. By requiring visitors to enter their email before accessing the offer, you’ll also be able to effectively build your business’s email list, which can be used to reach out in the future with additional offers or announcements.

Free Trials Or Samples

Depending on what your small business sells, free trials or samples can convert site visitors into customers by generating leads. When people visit your website, they’re likely already interested in your business. Trying out your product or service for free creates a low barrier of entry and makes them more likely to eventually make a purchase.

Educational Content

Relevant educational content, like newsletters or video series, helps small businesses build their email lists by providing value at no cost to the potential customer. Not only can the educational content be used to direct people back to your business’s products or services, but it’s also another effective way to build email lists.

How to generate leads with Microsoft Advertising

Lead generation provides you with an opportunity to attract potential customers to your website and accelerate the sales process. By reaching over half a billion people worldwide each month, Microsoft Advertising for small businesses helps you target and connect with new customers to grow your small business.

Develop your small business advertising strategy by learning more about advertising on the Microsoft Search Network.