Lead generation is essential to business success. Without interesting potential customers in the products or services you offer, you have no way of encouraging them to buy. You need to build awareness and interest that will lead to action. While it’s essential, it’s also ongoing, and time-consuming – and that’s why supporting your lead generation with virtual assistant expertise can be a great choice.
What is lead generation?
Lead generation is all about getting people interested in your business, and encouraging them to become customers. There are several steps to take before you attack lead generation seriously, such as making sure you understand your target audience, and you know what types of approach are most likely to result in action. You’ll need to put together a strategy that includes how and when you’re going to reach out to your audience, how you will follow up, and how you will convince them to take the next steps.
Once you have established your strategy, you need to be able to implement it, follow it up, and maintain a consistent presence. This is the bit that’s time-consuming, particularly if you are choosing to use a number of lead generation methods, such as inbound telemarketing, social media content, follow-up telemarketing to sales leads or website content creation.
Lead generation may be fundamental to your success but, as a small business owner, you won’t have the time to manage it effectively on your own. And, unless you have a strong sales background, you may also need support to design the right approaches, conversations and messaging.
That’s where it starts to become useful to consider whether to outsource lead generation activities. By working with a specialist, on an agreed budget and with clear processes and targets, you can create consistent, productive lead generation activity, including:
Content management – blogs, newsletters and social media are all great ways of engaging potential customers. Use an experienced virtual assistant for content writing, uploading and monitoring. Producing good quality, reliable and relatable content keeps you in front of your audience on a regular basis.
Telemarketing – following up networking contacts, exhibition enquiries, or as part of an active campaign is a good way to maintain a connection with your leads. Rather than cold calling, this is about building a relationship with people you have already spoken to or interacted with, helping to keep your business at the front of their minds and remind them about what you have to offer.
Email marketing – a good email marketing campaign can bring great rewards. But it’s important to do it properly, using a system that can help you measure success and deliver emails that are branded, relevant and give a positive impression. A virtual assistant can help you to manage the email marketing process, working either with your own Customer Relationship Management system or with other approved contact lists, to ensure your campaign runs smoothly.
Measurement and reporting – you should always measure the results of your lead generation activities. That’s how you’ll know what’s working, what needs adjustment and what you can stop doing. Have access to regular reports helps you to plan and budget better – putting your energies into the areas where you are likely to get most success.
Choosing to work with a virtual assistant
Outsourcing tasks like lead generation to a virtual assistant is one of the best ways that small business owners can free up their time and make sure they have a consistent approach to generating interest and enquiries. It’s easy to budget, easy to organise, and gives you access to the expertise you need. If you need help with lead generation or would like to know more about our other virtual business assistant services feel free to call us on 0800 994 9016 or click here to request a free consultation.