Have you ever wondered why some small businesses seem to get more leads than others?
The answer is simple: they use both promotional and prospecting activities to generate leads.
But what are these activities, and how can they be leveraged by small businesses? In this blog post, we'll take a look at the different ways that small businesses can go about generating leads online and offline.
Different Approaches to Lead Generation - Promotions vs Prospecting
Promotional Activities
Promotional activities involve marketing-driven tactics to attract prospective customers. These activities typically fall under the umbrella of advertising, public relations, or direct marketing. Examples of promotional activities include email campaigns, referral programs, content marketing (blogs, infographics, videos), and social media campaigns.
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Abstract blurred event exhibition with people background, business convention show concept.
Prospecting Activities
Prospecting activities are those performed by salespeople in an effort to acquire new customers. Examples of prospecting activities include cold calling prospects, attending networking events, speaking at conferences or seminars, and generating referrals from existing customers. Though there’s often a crossover between promotions and prospecting activities, it’s important to differentiate between them in order to maximize your lead generation efforts.
Grouping Promotional and Prospecting Activities
A successful marketing strategy requires an array of promotional and prospecting activities. As with any plan, it’s important to organize these activities into categories to maximize your efficiency. There are six primary groups of promotional and prospecting activities that are used by savvy marketers. Let’s take a look at what each group entails.
Referrals
One of the most powerful marketing tools is word-of-mouth advertising. When someone speaks positively about your brand oproduct, it can do wonders for your reputation—and your bottom line. Encouraging customers to share their positive experiences is a great way to generate referrals. This type of marketing also carries a certain degree of trust among potential customers because it comes from a person they know (or at least think they know).
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Direct Responses
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Direct responses are one of the oldest forms of promotion, dating back hundreds of years. In modern times, these efforts generally involve direct mail campaigns or email blasts that target existing or prospective customers with coupons, special offers, new product information, etc. The goal is usually to drive sales and build relationships with customers over time, but it can be difficult to measure the success rate for this type of activity.
Networking
Networking events allow you to meet people in person who may have an interest in your products or services and start building relationships with them right away. You can also use networking opportunities as a platform for giving presentations on topics related to your industry/products/services and make sure that you’re seen as an expert in your field.
Mail Communication Connection message to mailing contacts phone Global Letters Concept
There are SO many networking groups and events every year (and every month for that matter), as well exhibitions where you’ve got the advantage of being able to plan ahead and attend trade shows, exhibitions, and events where you’re more likely to find your ideal customer.
Think about it like this – if you’re selling jewellery, then a wedding fayre might be a fair shout to find potential leads.
Whereas the same jeweller might not find valuable leads at an event focused on interior design…
Basically, there’s a bit of research and work to do – but the leads are out there at trade shows, exhibitions, and all sorts of events.
Advertising And Content
Content Blog Create Analyze Optimize Concept
Advertising encompasses all forms of paid advertisement—print ads in newspapers or magazines; radio or television spots; online advertising such as pay-per-click ads; etc.—that you use to reach out to potential customers and spread the word about your business.
There is one common place that it always falls down, though – getting things done.
I’ve dealt personally with THOUSANDS of business owners in the past decade, and I’ve seen the same mistakes occur. It’s not because they’re lacking in business acumen or because they don’t know their market. It’s because as a business owner, you’re doing something you’re passionate about but the reality of running a business is that it’s incredibly time-consuming…
Which means when it comes to creating adverts and other content, you sometimes have to find a way to create by delegating.
For all of the planning, good intentions, and setting of goals, there comes a time when you’ve got to pull up your sleeves, block off some time, and get the content done.
For me, that’s the part of the job that I love. I’ve always loved content – I create a lot of it, I consume a lot of it, and I’m constantly looking at new and improved ways to do it to help achieve my goals.
But that’s not true for everyone, and that’s fine. It’s a bit different reading a book for your pleasure or to expand your knowledge compared to creating regular blog content, placing adverts in magazines, and creating a paid ad campaign.
But advertising has a CRUCIAL role to play in your marketing strategy, if you know precisely how you’re going to use it, why and what impact it’ll have.
Directories
Directories such as the printed yellow pages as well as online directories such as Yelp where businesses can be listed – it’s worth checking whether they’re free or require a fee as each individual directory is different.
How Lead Generation Can Be Undertaken Online and Offline
If we overlay online and offline activities onto the categories above, we get the following table:
Routes to Market
Areas | Offline | Online |
|---|---|---|
Referrals | Partners Community Involvement Ambassadors Loyalty Programmes | Affiliates Refer-a-friend |
Direct Response | Post Card Letters Lumpy Mail Telemarketing Tradeshows | Cold Email Voice Broadcast Promo Coupons |
Networking | Breakfast Meetings (BNI, 4N, Uno) Clubs Societies Seminars Conferences | Forums |
Advertising | Radio TV Billboard Journals Magazines Leaflet drops Newspapers Vehicle Wrap Merchandise | PPC Google Quora TikTok Website GBP |
Directories | Yellow Pages White Local Directories Journals Catalogues | Yell GBP SEO Reviews |
Content | PR Feature Writer | Blog YouTube TikTok |
From marketing gurus to marketing newbies, it is no secret that marketing tactics can be the difference between success and failure. In our upcoming article, we will dive deep into the intricate details of each marketing category to provide comprehensive insight into how they can be utilized to optimize results.
Whether that means utilizing online or offline analyses or striking a balance between both tactics, our goal is to equip you with strategies designed to help you excel. By doing so, we believe that everyone should have access to the resources necessary to make well-informed marketing decisions and achieve greater success overall.
There’s a clear difference between promotional and prospecting activities, but it all forms a part of the lead generation strategy that your business should be employing.
The finer details are where you’ll make your mark, but the overarching strategy should make best use of the assets at your disposal – that’s advertising, direct marketing, email campaigns, content marketing, and the things your people do.
Value can be gleaned in a variety of places and finding a prospect that’s ready to go isn’t an exact science – there’s a lot of long-term nurture involved in business. But your salespeople should be armed with the tools to get the job done, including access to networking events, calling prospects, generating referrals, and attacking lead generation from all angles.
The question is, how will you employ promotional and prospecting activity in your lead generation and marketing?