8 Lead generation mistakes you must avoid

Strengthening business and growing it by leaps and bounds can happen with lead generation. As per a survey by Prospex, 58% of marketers are revamping this evergreen challenge of business. 

Lead generation is vital to draw enormous traffic and striking conversion rates. It results in finding the tribe and meeting the requirements of the target audience.

Are you nailing the art of lead generation? 

If not, and you have just started with lead generation, then check out these eight mistakes that you must avoid while carrying out Lead Generation:

1. Not using CTA in your blog and top-performing pages

Every strategy is eventually power packed into CTA (call to action). CTA reduces the bounce rate and creates a raving business.

According to the website building experts, call to action helps the audience to understand what to do next. It is a piece of text often combined with an image. Having the right CTAs can do more than just getting potential leads. 

Impactful ways to optimize your CTA:

  • Include your CTA in a contrast color from the background where it is placed.
  • CTA design and size should be responsive to encourage mobile usage.
  • A persuasive CTA is asking the customers to subscribe or purchase with compelling content
    For example, if you implement a direct call widget on your website, you’ll make it easy for your customers to get in touch.
  • Include “Trigger words” in your CTA for higher conversions. 
  • A free trial CTA increases the conversion rates by 328%. Give this a try too.
  • Bring in the sense of urgency in your CTA for people to act fast.
  • Add extra information in the form of CTA, which is hard to miss.

Here are some examples of CTA you can’t help but click.

2. Neglecting social media

People are spending more than an hour on every social media channel; it is high time to leverage this opportunity.


The following platforms are apt to connect with the right audience and businesses to maximize your reach:

LinkedIn

Pros:

  • It is a thriving platform with organic reach for professionals.
  • Thought leadership brings extraordinary opportunities here.
  • It is a steady channel to get leads as per analytics.

Cons:

  • While LinkedIn works, only consistent efforts ensure results. Spare extra time to create and engage with content created by your network.
  • The number of active users on LinkedIn is less compared to other social media platforms. 
  • Engaging conversations is a must. Create but engage more. 

Connecting and attracting leads on LinkedIn is not an easy task, but doable with the right approach and automation tools like Linked Helper. These strategies may help boost your lead generation results on the platform.

LinkedIn Premium offers additional features such as advanced search capabilities, more in-depth insights, and the ability to directly message non-connections, all aimed at enhancing your lead generation and networking strategy. Assessing the LinkedIn Premium cost becomes crucial in deciding if these enhanced features align with your business objectives and budget.

Instagram

Pros:

  • Engaging with big brands and reaching your tribe is easier here.
  • It is the best time to invest in video and image content for brand recognition to grab more eyeballs on what you are doing.
  • Instagram is a widely used social media app. Reach to a wider audience through creating content here. 

Cons:

  • Organic reach has reduced, and post-promotions has increased due to more number of people joining the platform. 
  • There are many features for marketers and advertisers. To avoid confusion use the tools that get you maximum conversions. 
  • Most of the Millenials and Gen-Z are using it, so the purchasing power has also reduced due to increased competition. 
Facebook

Pros:

  • The active users of Facebook per month are 2.45 billion – an undisputed platform to reach your audience.
  • Micro-targeting helps you to experiment and get the best leads.
  • You can evolve as a business leader and bring legitimacy to your startup business.

Cons:

  • It is difficult to cut the noise and engage users amidst an avalanche of posts.
  • Organic reach on FB is quite low. Only sponsored ads will get you desired traction.
  • Conversion rates are less even after using Facebook Advertisements. So make sure that you implement smart content creation strategies. 

3. Inconsistent posting

Staying active and engaging with the audience puts you ahead in the competition. Every famous brand believes in this golden rule irrespective of the market and channel. 

Mercedes Benz, one of the most widely loved, reputed, and responsible brands, allures its audience with ingenious social media marketing campaigns.

In 2013, it started an Instagram marketing campaign with five popular photographers (Influencers) taking stunning photos for the new Mercedes CLA. Those pictures garnered;

  • 87,000,000 organic traffic
  • 2,000,000 Instagram likes
  • 150 new splendid photos

Collaborate with influencers, bloggers, and video content creators to introduce new products and reach your target audience. Getting enticing engagement creates brand impressions that last.

4. Not knowing your target audience

Demystifying the target audience is not a big deal if you follow a simple set of questions and reports.

 
  • What is the desired action of your audience?
  • What are the age and general demographics of your audience?
  • What are the job roles or the payscale they are getting?
  • What drives your audience to take a specific action?
  • On which social media platform are they active or hanging out?
  • How does your product or service help the audience?
  • What are the challenges of your audience, and how is your product meeting them?
  • What triggers them to make a purchasing decision?
  • What is their mindset?

Once you get these answers, you can create your lead generation campaigns to tailor to your user segments. 

5. You are purchasing leads

You might think that purchasing leads will help you connect with prospects quickly. But this is a wrong notion due to more than one reason;

  • Purchasing leads always comes with a significant burden. You pay for the leads irrespective of the closure. Sometimes, the profit is not even worth the price you paid.
  • The third-party providing you leads might increase the cost per lead, which you may not afford in the long run.
  • You are clueless about the quality of the leads. Chances are, this might be older lists, or they don’t fall into the subset of your target audience.
  • See if your leads from the purchased list are willing to listen to your deals. If not, your efforts are a lost cause. 

Buying leads might, therefore, increase risks for your business and its brand value.

Without leads, your business doesn’t survive. Always have an ongoing plan to generate leads. It is possible by getting constant attention, thereby traffic and then conversions.

But, the strategy isn’t a cakewalk. Consistent efforts, knowing and reaching the audience deal with innovative and interactive content that can engage effectively.

6. Too lengthy buying process

There is always a long process to close a deal. Every salesperson takes weeks and yet sometimes months to make a sale. 


This process includes

  • Reaching the prospective customer
  • Knowing and understanding their requirements
  • Answering their queries
  • Providing information about the services or products that solve their problems
  • Leaving time for decisions 
  • Following-up with them

This lengthy process continues further, depending on the sales funnel.

The simple ways to shorten the buying process includes a few steps etched in human connection. Know in detail about them;

  • According to GetVoIP, you should shorten your sales process by focusing on live chat instead of sounding like bots.
  • Disclose the price of your service or product. Doing this shortens your buying process much further. Customers with a precise budget and who love your services will surely stay in contact with you.
  • Include social proof with all the details of the services that you provided. Get permission before incorporating your client’s circumstances. Ensure the review is related to your niche.
  • Stay in touch with the right people and target audience. The bounce rates must not hinder your efforts in customer acquisition, followed by retention.

7. Struggling to find the right audience

Your struggle to create inspiring content or viral posts is just in your hands. 

Follow these conscious tricks to reach your target audience to register your services and products.

  • Follow your consumer’s social media profiles.
  • Check their interests and relate them to your services.
  • Clear their confusion and provide them useful information.
  • Analyze your competitors and their followers’ profiles. Have an eagle eye on how people are engaging and what strikes the most. Implement your strategies on similar notes.
  • Figure out the keywords used by your audience. Trace them using the demographics option like location, profession, gender, age, etc. Create and optimize content using the same keywords. People who engage with those insights are likely to turn into your customers. They are the right tribe.
  • Be open to both positive and negative feedback from the customers. Learn from their insights, and don’t cut corners. Analyze the behavior of your clients when it comes to their customers. Get into their shoes and test your services, ensuring you bring a brighter impact to their lives or workplace.
  • Create a customized avatar for your customers. Imagine yourself as a customer to see what customers might like, and why would they make a buying decision. When you specify an ideal customer, keep in mind to consider the information like demographics, their interests, emotions, pain points, and psychographics too.

Create an identity for yourself as the experts in your specified niche. Customers would love to collaborate when you are passionate about their interests.

8. Not using surveys to get the pulse of the audience

Figuring out the target market is quite simple and effective by using the power of surveys. To use time and money effectively, create a survey or target market strategy.


These surveys help to segment your audience and figure out where they are often engaging along with their interests.

Focus on narrowing the audience and their interests based on your service or product.

Give priority to primary value propositions.

It is possible to draw proper conclusions from the surveys. Use the plethora of information and analytics available to understand the needs of the audience.

The eight vital aspects mentioned above can help you execute effective lead generation strategies. Keep them in mind to create an everlasting business drawing more leads and driving your ROI. 

Strengthening business and growing it by leaps and bounds can happen with lead generation. As per a survey by Prospex, 58% of marketers are revamping this evergreen challenge of business. 

Lead generation is vital to draw enormous traffic and striking conversion rates. It results in finding the tribe and meeting the requirements of the target audience.

Are you nailing the art of lead generation? 

If not, and you have just started with lead generation, then check out these eight mistakes that you must avoid while carrying out Lead Generation:

1. Not using CTA in your blog and top-performing pages

Every strategy is eventually power packed into CTA (call to action). CTA reduces the bounce rate and creates a raving business.

According to the website building experts, call to action helps the audience to understand what to do next. It is a piece of text often combined with an image. Having the right CTAs can do more than just getting potential leads. 

Impactful ways to optimize your CTA:

  • Include your CTA in a contrast color from the background where it is placed.
  • CTA design and size should be responsive to encourage mobile usage.
  • A persuasive CTA is asking the customers to subscribe or purchase with compelling content
    For example, if you implement a direct call widget on your website, you’ll make it easy for your customers to get in touch.
  • Include “Trigger words” in your CTA for higher conversions. 
  • A free trial CTA increases the conversion rates by 328%. Give this a try too.
  • Bring in the sense of urgency in your CTA for people to act fast.
  • Add extra information in the form of CTA, which is hard to miss.

Here are some examples of CTA you can’t help but click.

2. Neglecting social media

People are spending more than an hour on every social media channel; it is high time to leverage this opportunity.


The following platforms are apt to connect with the right audience and businesses to maximize your reach:

LinkedIn

Pros:

  • It is a thriving platform with organic reach for professionals.
  • Thought leadership brings extraordinary opportunities here.
  • It is a steady channel to get leads as per analytics.

Cons:

  • While LinkedIn works, only consistent efforts ensure results. Spare extra time to create and engage with content created by your network.
  • The number of active users on LinkedIn is less compared to other social media platforms. 
  • Engaging conversations is a must. Create but engage more. 

Connecting and attracting leads on LinkedIn is not an easy task, but doable with the right approach and automation tools like Linked Helper. These strategies may help boost your lead generation results on the platform.

LinkedIn Premium offers additional features such as advanced search capabilities, more in-depth insights, and the ability to directly message non-connections, all aimed at enhancing your lead generation and networking strategy. Assessing the LinkedIn Premium cost becomes crucial in deciding if these enhanced features align with your business objectives and budget.

Instagram

Pros:

  • Engaging with big brands and reaching your tribe is easier here.
  • It is the best time to invest in video and image content for brand recognition to grab more eyeballs on what you are doing.
  • Instagram is a widely used social media app. Reach to a wider audience through creating content here. 

Cons:

  • Organic reach has reduced, and post-promotions has increased due to more number of people joining the platform. 
  • There are many features for marketers and advertisers. To avoid confusion use the tools that get you maximum conversions. 
  • Most of the Millenials and Gen-Z are using it, so the purchasing power has also reduced due to increased competition. 
Facebook

Pros:

  • The active users of Facebook per month are 2.45 billion – an undisputed platform to reach your audience.
  • Micro-targeting helps you to experiment and get the best leads.
  • You can evolve as a business leader and bring legitimacy to your startup business.

Cons:

  • It is difficult to cut the noise and engage users amidst an avalanche of posts.
  • Organic reach on FB is quite low. Only sponsored ads will get you desired traction.
  • Conversion rates are less even after using Facebook Advertisements. So make sure that you implement smart content creation strategies. 

3. Inconsistent posting

Staying active and engaging with the audience puts you ahead in the competition. Every famous brand believes in this golden rule irrespective of the market and channel. 

Mercedes Benz, one of the most widely loved, reputed, and responsible brands, allures its audience with ingenious social media marketing campaigns.

In 2013, it started an Instagram marketing campaign with five popular photographers (Influencers) taking stunning photos for the new Mercedes CLA. Those pictures garnered;

  • 87,000,000 organic traffic
  • 2,000,000 Instagram likes
  • 150 new splendid photos

Collaborate with influencers, bloggers, and video content creators to introduce new products and reach your target audience. Getting enticing engagement creates brand impressions that last.

4. Not knowing your target audience

Demystifying the target audience is not a big deal if you follow a simple set of questions and reports.

 
  • What is the desired action of your audience?
  • What are the age and general demographics of your audience?
  • What are the job roles or the payscale they are getting?
  • What drives your audience to take a specific action?
  • On which social media platform are they active or hanging out?
  • How does your product or service help the audience?
  • What are the challenges of your audience, and how is your product meeting them?
  • What triggers them to make a purchasing decision?
  • What is their mindset?

Once you get these answers, you can create your lead generation campaigns to tailor to your user segments. 

5. You are purchasing leads

You might think that purchasing leads will help you connect with prospects quickly. But this is a wrong notion due to more than one reason;

  • Purchasing leads always comes with a significant burden. You pay for the leads irrespective of the closure. Sometimes, the profit is not even worth the price you paid.
  • The third-party providing you leads might increase the cost per lead, which you may not afford in the long run.
  • You are clueless about the quality of the leads. Chances are, this might be older lists, or they don’t fall into the subset of your target audience.
  • See if your leads from the purchased list are willing to listen to your deals. If not, your efforts are a lost cause. 

Buying leads might, therefore, increase risks for your business and its brand value.

Without leads, your business doesn’t survive. Always have an ongoing plan to generate leads. It is possible by getting constant attention, thereby traffic and then conversions.

But, the strategy isn’t a cakewalk. Consistent efforts, knowing and reaching the audience deal with innovative and interactive content that can engage effectively.

6. Too lengthy buying process

There is always a long process to close a deal. Every salesperson takes weeks and yet sometimes months to make a sale. 


This process includes

  • Reaching the prospective customer
  • Knowing and understanding their requirements
  • Answering their queries
  • Providing information about the services or products that solve their problems
  • Leaving time for decisions 
  • Following-up with them

This lengthy process continues further, depending on the sales funnel.

The simple ways to shorten the buying process includes a few steps etched in human connection. Know in detail about them;

  • According to GetVoIP, you should shorten your sales process by focusing on live chat instead of sounding like bots.
  • Disclose the price of your service or product. Doing this shortens your buying process much further. Customers with a precise budget and who love your services will surely stay in contact with you.
  • Include social proof with all the details of the services that you provided. Get permission before incorporating your client’s circumstances. Ensure the review is related to your niche.
  • Stay in touch with the right people and target audience. The bounce rates must not hinder your efforts in customer acquisition, followed by retention.

7. Struggling to find the right audience

Your struggle to create inspiring content or viral posts is just in your hands. 

Follow these conscious tricks to reach your target audience to register your services and products.

  • Follow your consumer’s social media profiles.
  • Check their interests and relate them to your services.
  • Clear their confusion and provide them useful information.
  • Analyze your competitors and their followers’ profiles. Have an eagle eye on how people are engaging and what strikes the most. Implement your strategies on similar notes.
  • Figure out the keywords used by your audience. Trace them using the demographics option like location, profession, gender, age, etc. Create and optimize content using the same keywords. People who engage with those insights are likely to turn into your customers. They are the right tribe.
  • Be open to both positive and negative feedback from the customers. Learn from their insights, and don’t cut corners. Analyze the behavior of your clients when it comes to their customers. Get into their shoes and test your services, ensuring you bring a brighter impact to their lives or workplace.
  • Create a customized avatar for your customers. Imagine yourself as a customer to see what customers might like, and why would they make a buying decision. When you specify an ideal customer, keep in mind to consider the information like demographics, their interests, emotions, pain points, and psychographics too.

Create an identity for yourself as the experts in your specified niche. Customers would love to collaborate when you are passionate about their interests.

8. Not using surveys to get the pulse of the audience

Figuring out the target market is quite simple and effective by using the power of surveys. To use time and money effectively, create a survey or target market strategy.


These surveys help to segment your audience and figure out where they are often engaging along with their interests.

Focus on narrowing the audience and their interests based on your service or product.

Give priority to primary value propositions.

It is possible to draw proper conclusions from the surveys. Use the plethora of information and analytics available to understand the needs of the audience.

The eight vital aspects mentioned above can help you execute effective lead generation strategies. Keep them in mind to create an everlasting business drawing more leads and driving your ROI. 

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About the author:
Dhruv Maheshwari

Dhruv Maheshwari

Dhruv is a Social Media Marketer, SEO specialist and SaaS Content Writer with experience working for Wordstream, Wishpond, Venngage, ReferralCandy, Chanty, and SocialPilot.

2 Responses

  1. Now those are some really helpful tips. You’re right! Beginners make such common mistakes. I avoided LinkedIn in the beginning but now I am using LinkedCamp for LinkedIn and it’s been working really great for us.

  2. Over the last few years, Digital Marketing completely changed the way products and services are marketed with its impeccable reach of targeted customers. Native marketing needs huge investment, time and resources while Digital Marketing needs a few skilled man power to reach customers or consumers. Digital devices that are used by almost everyone these days are served as main means to target the audience. To understand the digital marketing better we should have a clear understanding of these terms: Branding, Marketing, Promotion, Advertisement, and Sales.

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