Whether your business markets to consumers or to other businesses, your survival depends to a large extent on your ability to attract new customers. When you consider that the average business loses 10 to 30 percent of its customers every year, the need to replace that lost revenue becomes mission critical. Without a constant flow of new customers, your business momentum is going to slow down and eventually wither away.

Leads represent the lifeblood that keeps the heart of your business beating. It’s not a question of needing leads – you do – but of developing an organized approach for finding the best converting leads for your particular business on an affordable, cost-effective basis.

Five of the Best Lead Generating Techniques

• Word of mouth is one of the oldest and most effective lead generating methods used by
  businesses of every size and stripe.
• Online reviews, which are regularly read by 85 percent of all consumers prior to making a purchase, are the digital counterpart of word of mouth marketing.
• Search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, used in conjunction with an effective landing page, are an effective way to generate highly targeted leads that are actively searching for information about your product category.
• Local business directories are regaining their popularity in the wake of Google’s Pigeon update, and are particularly well-suited for businesses with a local market presence.
• Email marketing can be highly effective when personalized emails are directed to a targeted prospect list.

How to Create a Lead Generating Strategy for Your Business
The luster of some lead generation channels, social media for one, has faded while other more evergreen techniques continue to produce abundant targeted leads almost on autopilot. What you need is a system that is focused on long-term results over short-term gains, providing you with a dependable source of leads for the future.

Don’t overlook the human factor in prospect engagement. Even the best automated lead funnel software can never replace the reassuring human touch. Make sure that your lead generation system provides multiple points of human contact such as live chats, online forums, and help centers.

Maintain a consistent outbound marketing effort. Research has shown that outbound marketing (where you reach out to prospects) such as email, telemarketing, and trade show participation is generally more effective at attracting leads than many inbound methods (where you encourage prospects to reach out to you) such as social media.

Stay up-to-date with emerging new technology and trends, especially where they dovetail with traditional lead generating techniques. Email marketing, for instance, remains one of the most effective methods of generating leads; the widespread adoption of smart phones to access email means that your email messages need to be optimized to display well across all mobile devices.

Recognize the difference between trendy and trending. Trendy techniques may be here today but are just as likely to be gone tomorrow. Trending techniques represent a longer term strategy that will continue to produce year after year. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t experiment with promising lead generation trends; just don’t abandon tried and true trending tactics for the sake of what could be just another shiny bright object.