6 Low Budget Marketing Ideas to Generate Sales Leads
Trade fairs are designed to deliver sales leads and increase customer numbers for companies, but what is your business growth approach when you’re not at an event. A marketing strategy doesn’t need to be costly to lead to sales, but you need to be consistent with it around the year. Once you build momentum, you’ll see a bigger payoff. It’s why we’ve compiled a list with ideas that will make sales generation affordable – perfectly suited for smaller businesses, which don’t have bigger budgets to pay for online tools and big advertisement in traditional media channels.
Always Ask for Referrals
Smart businesses capitalize on their existing client list. Customer retention should already be of a higher priority as a one-time customer have a higher chance to make continued purchases provided they’re treated right. Pair the right customer support with asking for referrals and you’ll have a list with qualified leads that are closer to conversion already. Before you ask an existing client for a referral, you should be absolutely sure they’re satisfied with your company! Then they’ll be all the more helpful to give you a referral and even do the introduction themselves.
Seek out Where Potential Clients Go
Having already been in the industry, you should have a good idea of where your target audience goes and what its behaviour is. If you’ve noticed that most of your clients are members of business associations and have ties with business organisations, that’s where you should direct your efforts. Become a member yourself and frequent member events to fall into the path of prospect buyers. It is a simple strategy with a big payoff later down the road as you become established in professional circles. There are countless networking events that happen in every industry, cocktail hours and mixers that are created with this explicit purpose.
Host Free Workshops & Open Door Events
Sometimes it’s easier to have sales leads come to you. Identify how you can position yourself as an expert in your industry and create an event around that particular skill. The trick is to create value for visitors to come by offering solutions – that’s usually how you can get qualified leads to a free workshop. The tip we gave about attending networking events? Why not host one yourself? As host and organiser, you not only bring people to you, but you also retain their contact details. After the event ends, it’s good manners to get in touch and touch base on their experience, which is a stepping stone towards delivering your sales pitch.
Don’t Be Afraid of Social Media
No matter what industry you’re in, there’s always a way to incorporate social media in an organic way to not only build presence but also identify potential customers. If you have an online store, Facebook is a great way to seek out clients particularly now that chatbot technology makes it easy to sell directly on the platforms. For the B2B sector, LinkedIn is a good way to enter professional networks and locate prospects, which you can target through direct messaging.
Cold Call Your Dream Customers
This advice is more directed towards B2B companies. No matter how long you’ve been in the game, you already know how big you want to become and which are the companies you want on your client list. Maybe they’re with a competitor. Maybe they’re not using the type of service you offer. Rather than have them discover you through advertising and other channels, cold call. You risk nothing with a simple phone call. Prepare your sales pitch in advance and keep it short, because you have a small window of opportunity. The worst thing that could happen is you’ll get rejected. That places you right where you started, but you have far more to gain, if your pitch is successful.
Design Eye-Catching Brochures
Brochures are still effective even in the digital age. Old school is old school for a reason – it works. For B2C business models, brochures distributed to places frequented by your target audience have an introductory function. Potential customers discover your brand and the older segment of buyers are far more likely to use brochures as a means to make purchases. In the context of B2B, you have a great tool to assist you in your sales pitch during meetings and at events. Hand out your brochures at even you host to spark interest in your company
