Lead Generation In Simple Terms
9 out of 10 site owners have the same question — where are my customers?
They are out there on the internet, you just didn’t fount them yet. But before those people become your customers, they are leads.
So how can one get or generate leads?
Lead generation — is about collecting a database of potential customers with specific contacts details.
And what are leads?
A lead is a potential client or a person who you can contact and turn into the client.
A person can be considered a lead if he:
- registered on your site;
- entered an email in the pop-up;
- subscribed to the newsletter;
- began a trial period;
- or performed other targeted actions.
Leads differ based on how they are interested in your proposal. There are users who just visited your site and left an email in exchange for interesting material or service. They know you exist, they know a little about what you offer and they are ready to learn about you more – but they are not ready to make a purchase right now. While potential customers are closer to making an order.
It is necessary to work with each lead category in its own way to reach maximum effectiveness and help solve the client’s problem.
Lead classification
So, what leads categories exist:
Cold leads
These people know about you and have left their contact details, but won’t buy anything right now. They may not be ready to accept your offer or they have no money.
Warm leads
They know more about what you offer and ready to buy, but they want to get more information so they either contact the site admins or google the info.
Hot leads
Almost your clients — they have chosen you and are ready to pay.
How to get cold leads
Please do not buy ready-made lead bases: the leads that you’d collect yourself will be much better and profitable.
To get started, get some traffic to your site.
1. Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines
Think how and what your customers google: those are keywords that will help you in generating leads. Make sure your dating site is as high as possible in the search for specific key queries.
Additionally. configure contextual ads — a link to your site will be shown above all others. Much more people will learn about you, and then some of them will become leads.
2. Social networks
Set up targeted advertising in social networks that your customers use – this will also attract new leads, and start your SMM.
Regular and high-quality content will improve the company’s image in the eyes of the client, increase brand awareness and help lead generation. Check about social networks ads here
3. Exchange guest posts
Consider what companies have a target audience similar to yours, and work together with them: place guest blog posts, affiliate e-mail letters, mutual reposts and so on.
So your partner’s audience will learn about you. Interested readers will go to your site and become new leads.
4. Referral programs
Use your customers for lead generation – they know how cool it is to work with you, and they can tell their friends about it. Encourage them with bonuses for each new user.
How to warm up leads
Just attracting people to your dating site is not enough: you’d also need to work on converting traffic into leads.
Content marketing is indispensable in lead generation: you can fuel people’s interest, create an expert image and help the user understand how to solve their problems with your site’s help. Choose the most convenient formats for your customers:
1. Email subscription
Remind them about yourself with the help of letters, share useful information, send a selection of interesting products and encourage leads to buy through special offers and discounts.
2. Podcasts
Take care of customers who do not have the time or desire to read the texts. Use audio recordings: the leads will be able to find out all important news while driving or during household chores.
3. Online Chat
Remove doubts of your user in online chat. The user will be satisfied and more likely to be decided to order. Data obtained from online chat systems can be used to further personalize the communication.
How to evaluate the results and the cost of lead generation
Of course, no one wants to spend millions on lead generation for nothing. To understand the result of your work and to plan advertising campaigns, use the following key indicators:
Conversion Rate (CR) — Conversion shows how many visitors to your site perform the target action.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) — This is the amount that was required to attract each new user through an advertising campaign.
Average Order Value (AOV) — Average check. The higher is this figure, the greater will be the revenue.
There are two most common payment models for lead generation:
PPC (Pay Per Click)
The advertiser pays per click on the ad and redirects to the site.
PPA (Pay Per Action)
A great way to attract leads of good quality: the advertiser pays for the user’s actions he deems necessary. The target action can be: placing an order (Pay Per Order), installing an application (Pay Per Install), subscribing to a newsletter or registering with a service (Pay Per Lead), downloading a file (Pay Per Download) and etc.
More about KPIs here
The specificity of lead generation
The main metric in lead generation analysis for your online dating site is the purchase conversion. The higher this figure, the better the lead generation channels and site work. If the conversion is lower than you want, pay attention to the UX, the difficulty of searching and ordering. Perhaps your users cannot find what they need, or order placement takes too much time and it’s worth fixing.
Your other key metric is registration conversion. For a consistently high conversion rate to registration, make sure that the client feels the benefit of your service and quickly learn how to use it: an interesting onboarding and a thoughtful first interaction will assist you in this.
Also, pay attention to the cost of attracting leads (CPL) and optimize advertising campaigns if necessary.