Not all leads are created equal. You want to generate qualified leads, which are more likely to convert and have a lower churn rate than unqualified leads that tie up your resources.
To learn where to look and how to attract qualified leads, keep reading.
What exactly is a qualified lead?
A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a prospect that meets criteria you have set to justify them being sent to the sales team. These criteria can be anything you want, but typically it’s when a prospect has indicated an interest in your brand. For example, if a prospect fills out a form submission for a demo request or to get a piece of content, then they become an MQL.
How to increase your qualified leads
1. Contextual targeting
Contextual targeting places ads in and around content that is relevant to the ad itself, which improves purchase intent by up to 63%. For example, a trucking ad placed on a trucking news site will be more memorable than a trucking ad placed on a generic news website.
You can use data collected from market research to understand the keywords and topics that are most important to your target audience. With that information, you can align your ads with content that features those keywords and topics.
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2. Search engine marketing
The same keywords that you identified through your contextual targeting research can also be used for search engine marketing. Services like SEMrush can also help you target keywords and phrases that are highly searchable and relate to your business.
Because you are directly targeting your audience with keywords they are already searching, and because the top three paid ad spots get 41% of the clicks on a search engine results page, this tactic is a great way to increase your visibility and get more qualified leads.
3. Chatbots
Almost 70% of B2B customers prefer to conduct online research on their own, meaning that if you’re not there to answer their questions, they may move on to the next option.
Chatbots supported by marketing automation can quickly answer your prospect’s questions in an engaging, conversational manner so they don’t have to navigate through pages of website text. Chatbots can also ask qualifying questions of the user and save that data for later use by your sales team.
4. Referral marketing
Sometimes the best way to get more qualified leads is to leverage your current customers. This works because a referral or any other word-of-mouth recommendation is considered to be the most trustworthy type of recommendation.
You can encourage referrals from your customers as well as increase your chances of a contact converting by offering a discount or free upgrade trial. If your budget doesn’t allow for a reward upon each referral, then it can be milestone based, such as when the contact makes a purchase or after three contacts have been referred.
Conclusion
To generate qualified leads, you need to align your message to the right environment, like industry websites, and market using keywords to increase your visibility. Chatbots supported by marketing automation ensure that anytime a prospect has a question, they won’t have to wait for the answer, and referrals use highly trusted word-of-mouth recommendations to bring leads in.
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