Blogs – In the Loop

Creative Lead Generation Ideas

intheloopadmin — Sun, 19 Jun 2022 17:40:00 +0000

Top 15 Creative Lead Generation Ideas for Your Business

Since the rise of the digital era, enterprises no longer depend on the age-old techniques of cold calling or face-to-face interactions. Almost 75% of currently active organisations are expected to completely forgo the traditional marketing model and jump on the digital marketing bandwagon by the end of 2021!

Despite this sudden change, the measure of a marketing campaign’s success is still defined by innovative and dynamic strategies, powered by a set of qualified leads. If you intend to turn prospective customers into leads, here are a few creative ideas that you can employ.

1. Create Useful Videos

Videos are considered as one of the most useful tools for attracting customers on a regular basis. Under its video section, Zaius offers detailed explanations about how marketers can centre their brand around the customer. Lead generation forms turn up on the sidebars, drawing customer attention without being very distracting.

2. Share Customer Reviews

If your customers leave good reviews on your site or on a third-party platform, your brand will automatically pop up whenever someone searches for your niche. As a result, your site will turn into a valid form of social proof that others can rely on.

For instance, when you search for the ‘best antivirus software’ on Google, Norton shows up at the top. This is because the social capital created by its users enables it to rank higher while delivering unprecedented ROI.

3. Create Interactive Quizzes

Interactive quizzes are a fun way of capturing consumer information by finding out more about their needs and requirements. At Educations.com, for example, users take the following quiz. Based on the results, the website suggests academic courses which match the users’ interests. In the process, the site is able to collect their information, thereby generating a credible lead.

4. Make Practical Checklists

Comprehensive checklists help you keep track of every single activity that needs to be done, much ahead of time. Neil Patel’s blog contains a variety of practical checklists on topics such as SEO, webinars, brand building and marketing analytics. To download these checklists, users simply submit their information, allowing the website to generate a qualified lead!

5. Offer Thought Leadership

Irrespective of your market niche, you can add value to your web content by having in-house or third-party experts go online and interact with your prospective customers.

Groove, a leading customer conversion enterprise, frequently conducts face-time interactions with numerous industry experts, including its own CEO. These interviews are then shared with the public as a medium for delivering professional insights, thereby generating multiple leads.

6. Provide Free Trials

Free trials of premium products allow customers to gain access to your exclusive service club as well as give out their informational statistics. BuzzSumo gives its users a payment-free mode to test their content research tool. However, to avail this benefit, users must submit their basic information and sign up. This simple tweak increases the chances of users returning to their website as full-time customers.

7. Share Personal/Professional Experiences

By sharing your personal and professional experiences via your web platforms, you can gain the trust of your customers. GoFloaters, an on-demand workspace provider, talks about how the option of remote offices worked well for them. Reading their story of fortitude instils a sense of confidence in visitors, pushing them to come back, over and over again.

8. Try Cross-Promotion

Most marketers tend to avoid using cross-promotion because they either don’t find the right brand to partner with or are afraid of bearing the brunt of overlapped audience interest. Nonetheless, these converging interests might actually work in your favour.

When Live Chat partnered with The Chat Shop, they created a mutually beneficial e-book which carried detailed information about both their areas of expertise. This led to better customer engagement and greater lead generation.

9. List Down Important Resources

Every person who visits a specific website is generally there to look for something. You could work wonders if you realise this urgent need and list the requisite resources within your niche on a single page. In the following post, HubSpot doesn’t just promote the page’s own tools but also carries the names of some of its credible competitors. The audience is instantly attracted to this list and subscribes to the page.

10. Provide Gated Content

Gated content, in simple words, is premium content that includes e-books, software tools, whitepapers, etc. Users can access this content for free if they agree to provide their name, address and contact information in return. Appboy, a cloud-based software company, offers gated content in the form of a mobile marketing e-book, which can only be accessed when customers fill out a comprehensive five-field form.

11. Create Simplified Worksheets

Simplified worksheets ensure that no task is ever missed out on and can forge a mutually positive relationship with prospective customers. A small enterprise based out of Australia, Love Communications offers worksheets as a tool of consumer assistance. In return, an opt-in is initiated, resulting in effective lead generation.

12. Compile Real-Life Examples

Offering concrete examples, especially if they relate to your niche, serve as a guiding force for users to gain a bit of both, knowledge and value. Kapost, a content operations platform, compiled ‘The Kapost 50’ – which carried a detailed list of all the top content marketing examples. This list revitalised their entire marketing strategy and inspired site visitors to log in and learn.

13. Create E-Mail Courses

Although almost 78% of lead generation strategies use e-mail marketing, this doesn’t imply that you spam the inboxes of your potential customers. Instead, you can offer them a well-crafted e-mail based course, for free! Buffer provides a 25-day e-mail course to all its prospects in exchange for a simple opt-in. This enables its prospects to learn, grow and associate with the social media engagement platform for a long time.

14. Send Direct Mails

Direct mailing has the kind of impact that is pretty hard for prospective customers to ignore. It focuses on a smaller customer segment and devises interactive packages for them. In order to attract the best PPC minds, Hero Conf organisers sent out video packages to all prospects. These videos, when watched till the end, offered a free ticket entry, thus immediately turning users into leads!

15. Form Community Connections

Connecting to users via communities can give you a decisive edge over your competitors with respect to customer recognition, even in the presence of well-designed websites. For example, marketers can join an active community like Growth Hackers and discuss topics such as marketing channels and user acquisition. By participating in these conversations, you can spread the word about your efficiency and generate organic leads!

In Closing

Finding the right lead generation strategy can increase your sales to profit ratio and enhance your overall brand value. So it’s no surprise that generating quality leads is the topmost priority of about 68% of B2B professionals.

However, lead generation goes beyond spending a ton of money on attracting customers. It entails knowing your audience well and being attentive to their specific needs. The brand that accomplishes these objectives while sticking to its core values always emerges as the biggest winner of any lead generation activity.

So, what are you waiting for? If you want to retain audience interest, try these creative ideas and jumpstart your lead generation campaign today!

References:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/lead-generation-ideashttps://unbounce.com/lead-generation/10-creative-lead-gen-examples-sourced-from-marketing-legends/https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/9-awesome-lead-generation-ideas-for-service-based-businesseshttps://www.duboseweb.com/blog/9-creative-lead-generation-ideas

Creative Lead Generation Ideas first posted at In the Loop - Connect Create Convert

Revenge Spending: Are You Prepared?

intheloopadmin — Mon, 09 May 2022 17:22:00 +0000

Leveraging Digital Tools to Capitalise on Revenge Spending

As the COVID-19 cases peak around the world, the glimmer of hope is starting to appear again… in life and business! The Wuhan city in China recently lifted its lockdown, and the world witnessed a new phenomenon in the business sector known as ‘Revenge Spending’. This term was coined to describe high-end shoppers splurging on luxury goods and items. For instance, the French luxury brand Hermes recorded a whopping 2.7 million dollars in sales on its first day of reopening.

This phenomenon is deemed as the start of a new dawn. But revenge spending goes beyond unbridled spending sprees—businesses stand to earn huge profits from this trend! The real question is, are you prepared for it?

Decoding the Mindset Behind Revenge Spending: Choosing Products Over Experiences!

If you’re interested in leveraging this mammoth of a business opportunity, you need to understand the real mindset behind this phenomenon. For one thing, the spending spree is due to the pent-up buying hunger of consumers that is being unleashed now.

But more importantly, you need to observe the buying pattern that will soon be taking shape. Online shopping has skyrocketed in Singapore! This has reflected in the rising stock price of NYSE-listed Sea Group that owns the Singapore based e-commerce site Shopee, which reached an all-time high of USD 62.91.

However, when it comes to automobiles, houses or travel, people aren’t going to show the same attitude towards such experiences. The recession has made every buyer extremely wary of making any big moves. On the other hand, retail goods can give people instant gratification. So, it’s an excellent way for people to satisfy their spending cravings without emptying their pockets! The future weather cast – Products > Experiences.

How Can SMEs Take Advantage of Revenge Spending?

As luxury retail sales take off post-COVID-19, it is imminent that low-budget brands will also come into the picture, as high-scale spendthrifts are only a tiny stratum of the consumer market. As a business owner, you need to identify your e-commerce opportunities in this revenge spending trend and cater to them accordingly.

So, how can you cash in on revenge spending? The answer is digital marketing.

Although digital platforms have always been our biggest ally, COVID-19 has helped businesses realise the true power of digital tools! People are searching for a variety of products online. This is where SMEs need to start looking for opportunities to secure future revenue streams.

Using Digital Platforms to Identify Consumer Demands

To predict the most in-demand products, you should know how often your consumers are searching for the same item and whether the product will be just as popular in the future. The best place to figure this information out is Google.

SEO analytics tell you about future buying trends and changing customer mindsets with precise data mapping and consumer behaviour. This data can be leveraged to build effective marketing campaigns and increase ROI. Any SEO agency can help you procure this data.

Using e-Commerce to Grow the Customer Base

Apart from providing instant gratification, it’s also imperative to keep convenience in the mix. A luxury brand can easily attract its target audience, as they aren’t looking for bargains or shopping convenience. But for SMEs, a cost-effective model can do wonders in capitalising on the revenge spending phenomenon.

E-commerce is going to be a new reality for businesses and consumers, as it’s affordable, convenient, and most importantly, safer for shoppers. In the USA and Canada, e-commerce sales grew by 129% during the pandemic.

Moreover, an e-commerce business model can help you expand your brand presence across regions. Plus, marketing your e-commerce website becomes much easier with SEO, social media apps, and email.

If you’re looking for a success story out of China, here’s one for you. The fresh food e-commerce platform Meicai has jumped to the number 4 slot in app downloads on App Store. The brand will also be recruiting an additional 6,000 drivers and 4,000 food sorters to keep up with the increasing demand.

The Future Is Bright for SMEs

We are witnessing a never-before-seen trend in the digital world. Even with limited sales, the revenge spending mindset is creating tons of data to be analysed! SMEs have the opportunity to develop highly effective marketing campaigns and generate maximum ROI.

References:
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/13/revenge-spending-by-the-rich-could-drive-luxury-recovery.html
https://fortune.com/2020/03/12/chinese-luxury-industry-rebounds-coronavirus-revenge-spending/
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2020/05/19/ecommerce-and-seo-past-present-and-post-covid-19/

Revenge Spending: Are You Prepared? first posted at In the Loop - Connect Create Convert

10 Singaporean companies that have pivoted successfully

intheloopadmin — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 16:19:00 +0000

10 Successful Business Pivots in Singapore

Flexibility is a hallmark of a true entrepreneur, and businesses must strive for continuous improvements to attract new leads in their sales pipeline. That said, these improvements can only be brought about with significant changes in the way the company operates. In light of a major economic change, businesses need to pivot.

Pivoting Businesses to Dodge Business Cannibalism: Why, When and How?

Why?
A company pivot entails making substantial changes in your business plans and operations. For many small business owners, pivoting is necessary to improve their product or service or grow their client base. Other enterprises realise that their vision isn’t viable for the long term and are forced to adapt to current consumer behaviours.

Whatever the reason, a creative pivot could be a great way to get your business where it needs to be.

When?
SMEs should consider the strain on their resources before making any major alterations to their business model. It’s also important to determine whether you’re pivoting to get over a temporary issue or will permanently stick to these changes.

The pivoting process involves trial and error to see which business models will work best for your company. However, you need a robust plan in place before you go ahead—about 10% of startups fail because of a bad pivot.

How?
The first step to pivot your business is to recognise your client needs and align your goals to them. For instance, New Balance noticed the lack of protective equipment during the pandemic and now manufactures sturdy face masks.

Develop the plan of action of transforming your operations and take note of your existing resources to optimise them. Once all of this is decided, you can start delivering results.

Let’s see how Singaporean businesses have pivoted successfully in this time.

10 Businesses Which Have Successfully Pivoted in Singapore

1. Alchemy Foods – The Food Tech Industry
Alchemy Foods made door-to-door meal deliveries from different restaurants to their customers. After COVID-19, they collaborated with different grocery stores to deliver essentials and water. By teaming up with departmental stores that are barely breaking even, they found an effective way to support the community.

2.SingLife – The Insurance Industry
SingLife curates life insurance policies for their clients. Post the outbreak, they recognised their customers’ insurance needs and pivoted their business to an online platform. They now consult people using channels like Zoom Video.

3. Peatix – The Ticketing PlatformDue to social distancing norms, Peatix saw a decline in the booking of events and shows. Therefore, they reached out to their artists and pivoted to doing live shows online. This way, the company not only kept their business going, but was also able to provide jobs for a vast majority of performers.

4. PropertyGuru- The Real Estate Sector
PropertyGuru mainly focused on scheduling visits and showing around properties to interested clients. With social distancing norms in place, the company now collaborates with homeowners to give a virtual tour of their properties using a video platform.

5. Good School – The Education Industry
Good School delivered quality education facilities and enrichment classes to students in physical classrooms. The company has now leveraged the coronavirus pandemic by providing digital online guides and learning resources.

6. Bar Cicheti – The Food and Beverage Industry
The creative folks at Bar Cicheti have pivoted their business online to provide their dining services to customers during the pandemic. Their delivery boys now bring ready-to-eat food deliveries and do-it-yourself wine and food kits right at your doorstep.

7. Evolve MMA – The Fitness Industry
Evolve MMA used to conduct fitness and mixed martial arts classes in their different students. They now use live streaming systems on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram so that they can deliver workout sessions to people stuck indoors.

8. Tombalek – The Recreation Industry
Tombalek organised wood carving and woodworking sessions all across the city. The company soon pivoted to an online business model to keep its operations running. Making this switch was a huge success, as their woodworking sessions have given people an exciting new hobby to take up during the pandemic.

9. Castlery- The Furniture Space
Castlery has a long history of providing bespoke furniture to clients via a traditional retail model. After COVID-19, they have made use of artificial intelligence to give consumers a virtual tour of their studio and pick up the furniture of their choice.

10. FairPrice – The Retail Industry
FairPrice pivoted from being a store shopping experience to a delivery service called FairPrice on wheels. They invested in vehicles to help customers access essential goods without leaving their houses.

Final Take

Despite COVID-19, these companies have pivoted successfully in recent times. If you’re planning to pivot your existing business, use these real-world examples for some inspiration.

References:
https://www.alvinpoh.com/how-to-pivot-your-business-during-a-recession/?fbclid=IwAR2-74JRrVPJbtFuRiP7CX-n6CCqqsMLglJ7i6_i_S1xWfFVFUI3cNPg1fU
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonnazar/2013/10/08/14-famous-business-pivots/#46ed6af35797

10 Singaporean companies that have pivoted successfully first posted at In the Loop - Connect Create Convert