Low-cost leads generation

Some of the smaller businesses I work with count their marketing budgets in hundreds of pounds not thousands. This article outlines three approaches my clients are using to generate sales leads with smaller budgets. Leads generation is always a high priority, especially at the moment during this difficult Covid period. Each client approaches leads generation in their own way, according to their market position and the resources available.  In the examples below, each client probably spent between £300 – £500.

1. Using a white paper as a content download

The client had a fairly challenging marketing situation. They had a new business proposition with a good business case, but to appreciate its value you needed to consider how people collaborate in teams and appreciate a number of facts. The CMO decided to commission a white paper to set out the opportunity and show exactly how their solution adds value. We created a white paper of about 2,000 words, which they mailed to their in-house database. It worked well, and the company received a number of useful new enquiries.

2. A PR story about a customer

Publishing a case study can bring sales leads, but it will only work in certain cases. Some of my clients have used this approach very successfully, even when they were not well known in their markets. Place a customer success story in a trade magazine and wait to see who contacts you! It is as easy as that. But it will only work for certain stories. The case study needs to be attractive to an editor. For example it needs to feature an interesting organisation or a project that is breaking new ground in some way. Or maybe something about the story makes it newsworthy.  The clients’ projects were also relatively high value, so a small number of sales leads would generate enough business for them to trade for several months. This approach can work well for vendors that are pioneering a completely new solution.

3. A simple email newsletter

This client is a specialist company that is well-established in its market but has limited resources to invest in marketing. They have a useful database of inhouse contacts, many of whom the owner knows personally, but he cannot possibly keep in touch with them all. Every few weeks the company sends an email newsletter with updates on their latest product developments. The newsletter has a personal touch, costs very little, and brings quick results. It is particularly interesting to look into the marketing automation system to see who is reading what, and how many times each reader has revisited the information.

I am involved with these clients at the planning stage, and then with the writing. I have written the white papers, the case studies, placed the case studies in publications, and prepared the HTML newsletters and contributed blog posts to feed the marketing automation systems and keep the leads generation going. Contact me at info@technologypr.co.uk.

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