Improving lead generation to tackle today’s marketing challenges

Kirsty Sharman at the Referral Factory describes how to crack marketing’s core challenges with better lead generation 

 

Marketing is always challenging. But in 2024, SMEs have multiple hurdles to jump. Budgets are still extremely tight, and customers expect more, meaning the established marketing channels and approaches are often less effective. 

 

However, without an effective marketing strategy, a small business can quickly stagnate, particularly during periods of economic instability. Finding new ways to reach customers and build loyalty can be integral to success. 

 

The main marketing challenges for SMEs

 

Limited resources

The cost-of-living crisis continues to hit the UK hard. With decreased consumer spending impacting almost all areas of business, budgets are having to be retrenched, putting enhanced emphasis on ROI for every marketing initiative. 

 

Lead generation

With social media providing greater access to customer communication and market analysis, it’s counterintuitive that lead generation has become significantly more difficult in recent years. And that’s because it’s very easy for brands to waste significant amounts of money through poor digital channel targeting. Pay Per Click (PPC) ads seem inviting and ripe with potential, but algorithms can only do so much if your targeting parameters are skewed. 

 

Enhanced competition

The enhanced connectivity has opened up the global business space, but that brings as much competition as it does opportunity. The market has become markedly more competitive for all business sectors, raising challenges for visibility and differentiation, among other things. 

 

Customer experience and expectations

Customer behaviour is shifting, and marketing needs to be more sophisticated in response to that. People are becoming choosier about what they let into their inbox. They want evidence of a brand’s worthiness but are distrustful following the hype around fake reviews. And they expect to be wowed before even considering parting with their money.

 

This all means that SMEs need to work harder for their marketing efforts to generate the same results. 

 

What can SMEs do to address these challenges?

The primary focus for all SMEs right now shouldn’t be increasing their marketing budget but making it work harder. For most, that means adopting new lead generation practices. Too much money is wasted on poorly targeted marketing. Investing in lead generation ensures that every penny increases your ROI. 

 

There are several different tactics SMEs can adopt to improve lead generation. 

 

Offers – Targeted offers (discounts, promotions, freebies, ebooks, webinar access, free tools, and loyalty programmes) can help to attract new customers by offering tangible value. But the emphasis here is on value and for an offer to work it has to be worth the customer’s while. 

 

Personalisation – Personalisation is easier when you have an established customer base. But targeted advertising can be an effective tool, working with tailored content for each customer demographic. 

 

Referrals – 76% of customers are willing to refer a friend if they have had a good experience with a business, and referral programmes don’t have to be complicated. When you onboard strong referral software, any business can easily build, launch and manage a custom referral programme. And as customers are more likely to trust the advice of friends and family than reviews, referrals can generate a lot of success.

 

All you have to do is enhance your customer experience to build loyalty. Then, come up with some juicy incentives to encourage your customers to make a referral. When done well, this turns your existing customers into brand ambassadors, in the perfect position to refer a demographically-similar audience.

 

Content marketing – Content marketing has been one of the most popular means of lead generation in recent years. It helps to generate and maintain your brand image, to engage customers, and build customer relationships. But success relies upon accurate targeting.  

 

It’s a difficult climate for SMEs right now. They are facing pressures from all angles, with the drive for digital transformation, enhanced customer experience, improved sustainability, and the need to cut costs.

 

With the right marketing, brands can better manage their resources while achieving better results, improving market performance, and supporting business growth. But their first point of focus has to be sustainable lead generation. 

 

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Kirsty Sharman is the founder of Referral Factory, which provides easy-to-use, plug-and-play referral software to help businesses build, launch, and manage referral programs

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and Marco VDM