Using Digital Marketing To Drive Leads

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Since I started this blog I have gotten many private messages from subscribers asking me to talk some more about how they can use digital marketing to generate leads for their business. The truth is, there is no one set strategy. However, like everything else, there are foundations to digital marketing. That is what I will use this post to answer. The boring stuff is usually very important.

I believe understanding Digital Marketing is the first place to start.

What is Digital Marketing?


Digital Marketing is synonymous with ‘finding your business online. It is basically the marketing and promotion of various products and services through one or more forms of digital media. For Eg. Email, Social Media, etc. You can read this full article on digital marketing. 

Also, what about….Digital Marketing Strategies, oh my – this is a world in of itself. I have also been asked often, “what kind of strategies can I use online?” To fully answer this question will take a lifetime and more. There are so many digital marketing strategies and many more strategies within each strategy. Importantly, strategies are not one size fits all. Each business and or individual must first understand their product(s)/service(s), market, and customers before deciding on the strategy they will use.

I will look at five key strategies I believe should be at the top of any strategy list. However, the details that will be discussed here are barely the tip of the iceberg. As such, if you want to know more about any of the five you can send me a private message or leave a comment, and I will respond. Let’s scratch into it.

Before Getting Started with any marketing strategies you MUST! 

  1. Define your business goals & budget. Eg. What is it that you want to achieve? Increase Traffic, Generate more calls, increase walking visitors, etc.

The first step to digital marketing is defining your end-game and strategizing your budget. The first question I ask my clients is, “What do you want to achieve?” I used the answer to this question to decide what is important to them; do you want to extend your reach or maximize local exposure? Are you looking for brand awareness or conversions?

Your marketing goals will consist of:

  1. The Objective
  2. The motivation
  3. The Effort
  4. The key performance Indicators (KPI)

Eg. of setting up your marketing goal – Online shoe Retailer

Objective – This is what you wantOnline Sales
Motivation – This is your client’s mindsetI want to buy
Effort – This is what you want to afford your customersSell Shoes
KPI – This is what you want to
achieve by x time
50 pairs of shoes to be sold by
October 31, 2018

Now you have your goals and objectives let us look at the 5 core strategies.

Email Marketing – This is heavily under-minded and overlooked!

As a business, email marketing is a perfect opportunity to connect directly with your customers and establish loyalty. When your customers and prospects furnished you with their email addresses, it is a direct link to send out sale or event notifications to them or send a weekly or bi-weekly newsletter. Customers are usually loyal to a company that is sociable and has a natural personality. Engage with them through emails but do not spam them. They will unsubscribe and avoid your content. Quality content is key!

Here are some Email Marketing tips:

  • If you’re looking for a great platform you can use for free, sign up for MailChimp. They have a free email marketing service with great features. You get up to 2000 emails hosted for free.
  • Email optimization: Try different subject lines, note what time of day your clients interact well with your content, be creative, etc.
  • Also, ensure your emails are mobile-friendly. Where do you check your emails? On your phone right? thought so!
SEO concept
SEO concept

Website & Search Engine Optimization 

2a. Website Optimization – Your website is the hub for potential clients to find information about your products and or services. As such, you have to ensure your website is optimized and submitted to the major search engines if you want to keep up with the online lead generation approach. If your website cannot be found your business will not be among the options. A well-designed, responsive and optimized website generates leads through searches. Searching Google is what your customers do on a daily basis. Is your website showing up in those results? If not, how will you generate leads through your website?

Tips for Website Optimization:

  • A customer-focused website is a delight to customers. They will crave your content.
  • Use the right calls to action so that your website visitors can navigate your website seamlessly.
  • Provide relevant content that helps your customers in their decision-making process. Try to ensure your content is highly targeted.

2b. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – This is the primary lead generation strategy and is to be used by businesses that want to generate leads through digital marketing. SEO has the biggest impact on lead generation. That is, creating good content is the best way to generate great results for SEO. We will talk more about this later. However, a great ranking website in search results means higher brand visibility and more traffic; all while generating more leads in the process. This is very important!

SEO Tips:
The key is to rank for the correct keywords. As a business owner investing in finding what keywords your potential clients are searching for comes in handy, as you produce valuable content to reach out to the search engines. If you are a car dealership, are your customers searching for “Pre-own” or “Used Cars”? Think about it.

Google MyBusiness

Google Local Search 

This combines SEO along with geographical information of your business such as an address, mapping, contact information, and business hours. This enhances the effectiveness of SEO by giving sufficient information to clients so that they can visit your establishment. This is perfectly aided by having Google My Business page once you have a physical location.

By creating a Google My Business account, you can take control of the information about your business, such as hours of operation, address, phone number, website, etc. Now, with the new local search ads, your business can appear on the Google Maps app or websites.

Google Local Tips:

  • Get a Google My Business account.
  • Have you ever Google yourself or your business? You should see what information is showing up. You would be surprised to know that things can be there that you are not aware of.

Content Marketing

I know you have heard this before, “Content is King” sadly, this cliché could not be more correct. Without great content, you can kiss traffic or more so repeat traffic goodbye.

Content Marketing is the use of relevant information to attract potential clients. The key factor here is turning potential into actual consumers. To do this, you have to ensure that your content is; targeting a specific audience, engaging, useful, and informing readers about the industry and service/product(s) you are offering. In addition, the flow of the information will help to capture the reader’s attention and stir emotions that will leave them wanting more. Ultimately, content marketing leaves a lasting impression than other marketing methods. See, told you it was king…

Content Marketing Tips:

  • Quality over quantity but consistency is important. Do not spam your subscribers. You can publish a new blog post at least once per week.
  • Make sure you’re optimizing for search engines so customers can find and interact with your content.
  1. Social Media Marketing

    This is one of the most effective sources for lead generation, billion social media users can attest to that. It is no secret that social media is hard and irritating. Especially when you are trying to use many channels. It sometimes can be difficult to validate the effectiveness of your effort. But, having a presence across channels is great stuff. But I usually advise my clients to focus on 3, but zoom in on the one or two that their customers are most present on. For example, if your customers are constantly tagging your handle on Instagram posts, but rarely retweeting you on Twitter, invest more time in Instagram (which is conveniently easy to share on Facebook as well). Send me a private message or comment on this post if you would like to know how to organize your channels and curate content for all your channels.

Social Media Tips:

  • Audit your channels to ensure they are set up correctly.
  • Analyze your current social media presence. Where are you seeing the highest engagement?
  • Use social media tools like Hootsuite which, will connect your social accounts, allowing you to schedule posts, track engagements, etc. Importantly, you can use it for free for up to 3 accounts. Speaking from experience, using the right tools can alleviate a LOT of stress.

As was mentioned, the points above are just some ideas of how digital marketing can be used to lead clients to your business. Nonetheless, the 5 strategies mentioned are fundamental to any business that wants to win online. If you want to succeed in obtaining leads and continue to grow your business online, I hope these strategies and tips have given you some food for thought to focus on your goals. All the best and see you in the comments.

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Mohan Beckford

Mohan Beckford

Mohan Beckford is a serial digital entrepreneur with over 12 years of experience in helping businesses in Jamaica, the Caribbean, and North America to maximize their growth within the digital environment. With a deep understanding of the digital marketing landscape, Mohan provides expert consulting services to help businesses make the most of their online presence. Whether it's developing a social media strategy, improving website conversion rates, or growing an email list, Mohan can help you achieve your business goals.

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I would love to say that Mohan and his team were exceptional in providing me with my website. Working with the team throughout the process was awesome. They were extremely professional, quite patient, and tolerable of me going back and forth 🤦🏾‍♀️. Mohan also helped me to see things differently by encouraging me to get other add-ons (at a reduced cost) that can enhance my business growth. This company genuinely wants to help small businesses like mine, and that is enough for me. I'll be forever grateful for their help and definitely keeping them as my go to person.
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Five years ago when I met Mohan, I didn't realize that Next Step Digital Solutions would become and integral part of my business expansion and development. I was just looking for a tech guy who could fix the things I did not understand or want to learn! Next Step Digital Solutions is everything to my business and I would not be this successful building my brands and that of my clients' without their input. Thank you Mohan, you are my most powerful chess piece!
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