Online Marketing: The Ultimate Guide To Scoring Leads

The world of online marketing is not standing still. Every day, marketers discover new techniques and strategies. This, in turn, is accompanied by the emergence of new terms. Lead generation is one of them. You hear it everywhere.

The role of lead generation

Back in the day, when the animals were still talking, lead generation was mainly a matter of cold marketing. However, thanks to technological progress and the growth of the internet, consumer purchasing behavior has changed dramatically.

With the advent of the internet, consumers now have a considerable source of information at their disposal. This gigantic amount of information available has meant that customers are no longer interested in a haphazard sales pitch.

On the contrary, as a brand, you have to distinguish yourself from the rest in 2020. Empty promises are quickly punished by online reviews, and hot air selling is no longer an issue. Consumers now have a valuable wealth of knowledge and information.

In fact, lead generation originated from this vision. Lead generation is the result of a modified marketing approach, which is crucial to be able to meet the changed, more complex purchasing behavior.

In summary, lead generation is the process of attracting potential customers through relevant content or information. The purpose of this is to arouse the interest of visitors.

This interest can manifest itself in, among other things, leaving contact details, subscribing to a newsletter, or downloading an e-book. In short, lead generation concerns all activities aimed at coming into contact with potential customers.

As a company, it is all about looking for ways to attract potential customers, without imposing your product or service on them.

Read Also: What is Lead Generation and How to Do It

The added value of lead generation for your company

The effectiveness of traditional outbound or cold marketing is often questioned. This marketing strategy aims to get its brand and product messages as broad as possible among a large mass.

The effect of outbound marketing may be great, but it is certainly not effective. You basically approach people who are not yet related to your brand and immediately ask them to buy something from you.

Moreover, there is a good chance that the majority of them are not interested in your message. Say for yourself, how often have you talked to an obtrusive telehandler who wanted to sell you something you didn’t need?

As a young adult who still lives with his or her parents, you do not need a new energy supplier. As a resident of an apartment without a terrace, you do not need a vegetable garden package.

The point we want to make clear? The transition from lead to a customer is more likely if a potential customer is genuinely interested in what you offer. So, through lead generation, you reach qualified leads and not cold prospects.

Generating organic leads is also a fundamental link in the inbound marketing methodology, which is based on the genuine interest of the potential customer. This methodology is in stark contrast to outbound or cold marketing.

The building blocks of lead generation

#1 Inbound marketing

As you may have read earlier, organic lead generation is a fundamental link in the inbound marketing methodology. This makes inbound marketing one of the most important building blocks of lead generation.

Lead generation can of course be implemented and applied in various ways within a company. Just think of the importance of online advertising, for example.

However, what exactly does inbound marketing entail? Well, inbound marketing is a marketing philosophy that is based on the so-called pull principle and starts from the genuine interest of the customer. It is a long-term strategy based on organic growth

Specifically, draw (= pull) your potential customers towards you by creating valuable & relevant content. That way you put the decision in the customer’s camp. This is central and thus gets to know the added value of the brand itself.

This marketing strategy is in stark contrast to outbound marketing, where you force your brand on the customer. Think of cold calling or mandatory commercials that interrupt your video on YouTube at every turn.

Honestly, are you a fan of this approach? Probably not, as the figures prove. The conversion rate is significantly lower with traditional outbound techniques compared to inbound methods.

This is logical because in the latter case, the customer actually consciously chooses to interact with your brand. That is precisely the philosophy on which the principle of inbound marketing is based.

Does this mean that you should just delete outbound marketing from the menu? No, not that either. Just as a varied diet ensures that you are not deficient in certain nutrients, a varied marketing approach ensures that your business grows.

#2 Content marketing

The terms ‘inbound marketing’ and ‘content marketing’ are often used interchangeably, and that is easy to understand. Yet both concepts have a different meaning. Inbound marketing is rather a concept, while content marketing is a translation of that concept into practice.

Before we can go further to the essence of content marketing, it is important to clarify what exactly is meant by content.

Content stands for the content or information of your website. Whether you want to inform visitors or want to teach them something: everything you do in communication is part of the content. Content used to be an extra, with which you could distinguish yourself as a company from competitors.

Content has now become an important factor for the findability of websites in Google, making it a basic need for modern companies today. Today, behind every major brand is a range of relevant content that provides a connection between the company and the target group.

Content marketing is in fact a collective name for all types of activities in which content is created and distributed. Blogging, for example, is a popular example of this.

Unlike traditional marketing, content marketing does not attempt to sell products or services. The essence of content marketing is to teach potential customers certain things. In this way, you build a relationship of trust with visitors.

A win-win situation. You build trust in the minds of visitors by offering them valuable content. In return, Google will reward you with a higher position in the search network. Ka-ching!

The basics of inbound marketing

What are the benefits of inbound marketing?

# 1 It’s good for your wallet

Invest in Google Ads? With a sufficiently large budget, you can claim the first position in the search results. Broadcast a radio spot? You will certainly reach a large audience.

Such systems work, and as an online marketing agency we are convinced of the success of online advertising, but admittedly, it is a bite out of your budget. What if you turn off the money tap?

content marketing
Such techniques simply require a larger investment. Inbound activities, on the other hand, cost next to nothing. Creating content does not cost your company a penny. Blogging is an investment of time, not a money investment. You pay in the form of effort.

Make no mistake though. Initially, your ROI will be pretty low, as inbound marketing relies on organic growth. Patience is a virtue. Over time, you will notice that your efforts have paid for themselves more than once.

# 2 Inbound marketing is timeless

You have undoubtedly heard of so-called hook-up campaigns. These literally link up with certain themes and thus respond to current events. Hook-up campaigns have proven their worth several times. Just think of Black Friday.

The downside of this coin, however, is that it takes a lot of time and money. During Black Friday this campaign will boom extraordinarily, but what about the weeks after that?

Exactly. You put a lot of time and money into a short-lived campaign. Your sales peak temporarily, but then reverts to their old habit.

Inbound marketing, on the other hand, does not focus on rapid variability. It focuses on themes that remain relevant for longer. Inbound marketing takes longer to build and lead generation is gradual. The process may take longer, but it is a lot more sustainable.

# 3 You benefit from high conversion rates

The formula for success is clear: organizations that focus on inbound marketing will see their ROI double in the long run, regardless of the marketing budget. This is evident from the Hubspot report (2018).

The same report also shows that Inbound Marketing is by far the number 1 marketing strategy for smaller to medium-sized companies (0-25, and 25-200 employees) .

It is therefore clear from various data that customers who choose to interact with your brand in the first instance convert more afterward. The result? A higher conversion rate.

Inbound marketing in vier faces

The inbound marketing methodology works according to four phases: attract, convert, close & delight. We will go through each of these four steps.

#1 Attract

The goal is to entice your prospects with relevant content. What are your potential customers looking for? What problems do they face?

Make sure prospects find your company by creating strong & relevant content tailored to their interests.

Focus on prospects who have a greater chance of converting afterward. After all, you cannot appeal to every target group. It is therefore important to define your target group as precisely as possible.

This is based on a content plan, in which the buyer persona & journey serve as a guideline. These are discussed in detail later in the blog article.

#2 Convert

Time to turn your visitors into leads. A potential customer is now a visitor who has come into contact with your brand. At this stage, it is important not to let visitors just slip through your fingers.

Use techniques such as calls-to-actions or a contact form. In exchange for more relevant content – such as white papers or e-books – you can, for example, request an e-mail address. Visitors like to leave their data in exchange for content. Once you have an email address, the ball will start rolling.

In addition, you can re-approach visitors who have not taken any action with a specific message via Google Ads or Facebook Ads. In order to be able to achieve this, it is important to integrate the Facebook Pixel on your website.

#3 Close

Literally: close the deal. Get paying customers from your leads. In this phase, you move your leads further through the so-called marketing funnel. The further your lead has progressed in this process, the closer he/she gets to a purchase.

Does your prospect not immediately bite? Do not panic. Not everyone feels immediately ready to make a purchase decision. Maybe your lead still needs some time.

Do not turn on the virtual content tap immediately. After all, inbound marketing is based on building trust and becoming the go-to person in your industry.

Therefore, keep creating different touchpoints until your lead eventually converts and develops into a brand new customer.

#4 Delight

Your lead has now become a customer. Hoera! Did you think it would stop here? Then you are very wrong.

Keep seducing. Keep stimulating. Keep investing in your relationship. Even after someone has become a customer. Turn existing customers into reliable customers. After all, retaining a current customer is 5 times cheaper than looking for a new customer.

If you continue to offer existing customers helpful content, they can purchase additional products or services. We speak of upselling here. Also important: a reliable customer will recommend your company to colleagues or friends more quickly.

We think it’s a win-win situation!

How do you apply inbound marketing?

Step 1: Create a buyer persona

The first phase of inbound marketing spoke of a buyer persona. The goal is to entice your prospects with relevant content, but what is relevant content?

Not everything is equally relevant for everyone. Just there the shoe pinches. Before you can publish relevant content, it is necessary to be able to describe your target group as specifically as possible.

A buyer persona can help with this: it is a detailed profile of your most important customer. By putting yourself in the shoes of this customer, you can map out your target audience perfectly. Consequently, you can create relevant content tailored to their interests.

A buyer persona is often described in terms of demographics, needs, biography & preferences, among other things.

However, a lot of marketers are blind to defining demographics. However, this is not the main issue. What difficulties does your buyer persona experience? Can you detect pain points? What questions do they have?

Interesting questions. Even more interesting are the answers to this, but where do you find them?

You often know more than you think. Dig deep into your databases, but also talk to the different departments within your company. The three most important departments, in this case, are sales, marketing & customer support.

Combine these three forces to learn more about your current customers and thus translate this to your new target group.

Step 2: map out the buyer journey

After you have mapped out the profile of your customers, it is important to map their trajectory. The buyer journey is the active process that a potential buyer goes through before the actual purchase.

A potential customer usually goes through three phases during their purchasing process. The potential buyer has different needs at each stage of the buyer journey. It is therefore important to ensure at every stage that you offer content that meets this specific need.

The rule is simple: offer customers the right content at the right time!

Awareness-phase

Your prospect is aware that he is experiencing a problem, but is not yet able to specifically name this problem. In this phase of the buyer journey, he conducts research to clearly frame and defines the problem.

As a company, you should respond to this: think about what your potential customer looks for when this undefined problem occurs, and create content that is directly related to this problem.

Concrete example: the website of a consultancy company does not attract much traffic via Google. Business manager Oliver realizes this is important and looks for more information about the cause of his problem. In the Google search bar, he types: better found in Google, and then comes across a blog article from Kreatix entitled The ultimate guide to getting found better in Google.

Consideration-fase

The problem has now been clearly defined. The prospect is now further investigating possible solutions to solve the defined problem. Important: he or she no longer thinks in terms of a problem but in terms of a solution.

The goal at this stage is to be found based on queries directly related to a potential solution. In this case, it is best to write a blog article, in which you can demonstrate your expertise in this field.

Concrete example: based on what business manager Oliver has read last time, he has learned that there are various ways to be better found in Google, including blogging and search engine optimization. He is considering giving the concept of blogging a chance but would like some more information on the topic first. He continues his online search and formulates his question in Google: how do I start blogging?

Decision-phase

Your prospect compiles a list of concrete products or parties that offer the chosen solution and compares them with each other. Visitors in this phase show interest and will therefore be more inclined to view your portfolio or download a content piece.

Concrete example: business manager Oliver is convinced of the usefulness of blogging, but realizes that there is a lot of work involved. He considers several marketing agencies but eventually enrolls in a free email course at Kreatix that was offered to him while he was reading a blog article. The course was very educational, and Oliver decided to contact Kreatix for a concrete project.

Step 3: Create valuable custom content

Based on the previous two steps, you have been able to sketch a clear picture of which content is relevant and valuable for your target audience. Then all that remains is its effect.

In what different ways can you do content creation? Content creation is more than just writing blogs. While blogging is a big part of content creation, a host of other options exist.

Consider, for example, infographics, case studies, e-books, newsletters, or whitepapers. Podcasts or video blogs are also extremely popular. A “how-to” video is a perfect example of this. These videos are greatly appreciated on YouTube.

Step 4: distribute valuable content

You now have valuable content, but what do you do with it? How do you ensure that your content is distributed and consequently noticed?

When you write a blog, you have the advantage that when you write it with SEO in mind, your content can rank organically in Google search results.

Keyword research at the start of writing a blog is therefore of crucial importance. The disadvantage? Organic ranking in Google is gradual and takes a while.

You can also make sure to see a result faster. You can then distribute and promote your content via social media.

For example, do you do personal branding on LinkedIn? Great, then you will undoubtedly have many connections within your target group.

Does your company have a popular Facebook page? Great, then this is the suitable platform with which you can put your blog in the spotlight.

You could also choose to post your blog article in a carousel ad on Facebook. Using a carousel, you can display up to ten images in a single ad, each with its own link. Ideal when you want to highlight different blog articles.

The basics of content marketing

What are the benefits of content marketing?

# 1 Better findability in Google

The power of a targeted SEO strategy lies in scoring on different keywords. Content marketing is inextricably linked to this. I will be happy to explain how that works.

The concrete goal of SEO is to be at the top of the search results when keywords are entered via Google that is related to your product or service. Right?

Well, before you can achieve this goal, it is necessary to write relevant content about these search terms. Blog articles are a perfect example of this.

Publishing new content on your website regularly encourages Google to come back regularly.

Moreover, at best, a blog article triggers different search terms related to your business, and in that way, you attract more traffic to your site via these articles.

Companies that consistently write blog articles, therefore, have on average 434% more pages that are indexed by search engines compared to companies that do not blog.

In any case, betting on content marketing gives your website a greater chance of being found for certain keywords.

# 2 Reference in the sector (brand loyalty)

You want to convince visitors to do business with you. After all, that is the design of your website. Of course, you are completely convinced that you would be the ideal partner, but are your visitors too?

Do not forget that there are many other providers on the market. If you want to distinguish yourself, it is important to position yourself as an expert in the sector. The fact that you write about your knowledge shows that you have it too.

You also build up a reputation. You are a giver. By sharing your knowledge for free, so that visitors can make smarter decisions, you build a relationship of trust. Share tips that work, share your success and give away valuable information.

Are you afraid of only giving and not getting anything in return? Then be sure to look up the concept of reciprocity. This marketing philosophy is based on giving and take.

As humans, we experience a psychological obligation to give back when we receive something. It is in our nature. When you consistently give away free content, sooner or later readers will connect with your brand.

# 3 Cost-efficient and sustainable

Content marketing (or blogging) is an investment of time, not an investment of money. It is the ideal strategy for start-ups or SMEs who cannot simply put significant amounts on the table.

Yes, thanks to Google Ads you can score quickly in Google, but also know that you have to pay per click. If you turn the money tap, you will lose your place at the top of the search engine.

How do you apply content marketing?

Step 1: keyword research

The basis of a strong blog article is invariably keyword research. After all, measuring is knowing. By betting on the right keywords, it is more likely that your website will rank high in the search results.

It may seem time-consuming, but the best way to get ideas is brainstorming. Write down everything (absolutely everything) that comes to mind that you think is relevant to your company.

Have you made a rough selection? Then you can rely on a number of valuable keyword tools. These tools give you insight into some interesting statistics and give you an idea of search volumes and competition strength.

Some tools also recommend suggestions. The search terms your potential customers use may not always be the same as the ones you had in mind. Keyword suggestions are therefore of indispensable value.

Finally, it is also important to take a look at what the competition is doing. Google keywords for which you would like to rank. The names at the top of the list dominate the market.

If these are major players such as Zalando or Amazon, it is better to choose other keywords. Are the names less familiar to you? Then you have found a good keyword! This method is useful to learn a lot with few tools.

Step 2: write, delete, write

We know our search term, now is the time to get into our pen. In the first place, focus on writing long-form content. Extensive articles initially demonstrate that you as a brand have taken the time to write about a topic that concerns your target audience. Moreover, long-form content simply improves your ranking in Google.

It is true that a few years ago you could satisfy Google’s search engines by writing a blog article between 500 and 750 words. It was a breeze to appear on the first page with your blog article, and that was never missed.

The consequence of this? Search engines over time became filled with short, and often incomplete blog posts. Google then decided to include content quality as a ranking factor. This quality is partly determined by the dwell time.

The longer the dwell time of an article, the higher it’s quality rating. It goes without saying that long-form content keeps visitors on your page for longer, as it takes longer to read such articles.

The logical consequence of this is that the dwell time for long-form content is on average higher than for short-form content so that long-form content is often rewarded with a higher position in Google. So do you want to score well in search engines? Then the rule of quality over quantity applies.

Step 3: Optimize for Google

In addition, it is also important to take into account some SEO techniques. After all, your goal is to rank in Google with this blog article, right? While the importance of keywords remains constant in Google’s ranking algorithm, it takes a lot more than just keyword optimization.

Heading tags (H1, H2)

When you enter a specific search query in Google, the Google search engine indexes all web pages that match your query.

This indexation is done by means of spiders or web crawlers. These so-called crawlers analyze and check the code of your website.

To make it clear to Google that you have used titles and subtitles, it is necessary to add heading tags to your text.

In this way, you show to the loyal Google crawlers that you have indeed taken the readability of your text into account.

Heading tags rank from H1 (largest) to H6 (smallest). You don’t have to use every tag, of course. An H1 and H2 tag is sufficient.

Finally, it is beneficial for SEO purposes to include the most important keyword you want to rank on in your heading tags.

Court URL

The URL of a page is always displayed below the title of a search result in Google.

Internet surfers can be intimidated by extremely long and cryptic URLs that contain few recognizable words, leading them to decide not to click through.

Crawlers also prefer a short, descriptive URL. Google, therefore, recommends making your URL as simple as possible. Also in this case you try to implement the most important keywords in the URL of your blog article.

Finally, avoid underscores in your URL. Underscores make your URL difficult to read for Google. Instead, opt for hyphens.

Meta title

The meta title or page title is what internet surfers immediately see in the search results and gives the first impression of your blog article.

Make sure to include the most important keywords in your blog article. The best length for the title is between 35 and 65 characters.

Meta description

The meta description, like the meta title, gives more shape to the webpage in Google search results and tells us in one catchphrase what the webpage is about.

By making the meta description of your blog article as attractive as possible, you increase the click-through percentage. The click-through percentage is in turn an important ranking factor for Google so that your website will score better in the search results.

We therefore always provide a concise, but the intriguing description that ensures that surfers actually click through. The best length for the description is between 70 and 320 characters.

Keyword optimization

During our keyword research, we already found out which keywords are favorable to bet on.

However, using the right keywords is not a direct guarantee of ranking in Google. It is important to strategically position your keywords in the blog article.

Make sure your main keyword is reflected in your intro; preferably in the first paragraph. Titles and sub-titles also play an important role in keyword optimization.

Internal linking

Links contribute enormously to the value that Google assigns to your website. They ensure that your site is labeled as reliable, which is reflected in a higher place in the ranking.

A well-known SEO strategy that contributes to this is link building. This is all about generating links from external web pages to your website.

By internal linking, on the other hand, we mean referring hyperlinks to another page, but on the same website. It’s a highly underrated SEO strategy.

By internally linking to other pages on your website that deal with a similar topic, you help Google better understand the structure of your website.

Internal linking also applies in both directions. For example, in our blog article, we link to certain wiki terms that provide more information about the subject.

Conversely, in our various wikis, we also link to a specific blog article, if it covers the full subject matter of the relevant topic.

Step 4: measure and analyze

Keep a close eye on the indexation of your website for certain search terms, and learn from this data. To measure the performance of a blog article, use SEO tools such as the Google Search Console or Ahrefs Site Explorer.

Using the Google Search Console tool, for example, you will gain insight into the search traffic to your website, the position of your web pages, and which search term contributes to it.

For example, do you notice that you score on the second page for a particular search term? Then you can see if you can make additional optimizations on this page so that you can rise in the ranking to the first page.

Outsource online marketing activities

As you may have read earlier, generating leads through content and inbound marketing is not an investment of money, but an investment of time. Outsourcing such activities is therefore a smart move in 2020.

You can’t be good at everything. That is why it is best to outsource the things in which you are not an expert and capitalize on the things you are good at namely running your business.

Of course, you can always choose to take control of this entire process yourself, but then you will have to accept that not everything will go smoothly straight away and that this takes time.

Online marketing is a continuous process, as algorithms, codes, and the interests of your customers change daily. It is therefore essential to work on this on a daily basis.

However, as a business manager, you are busy day in and day out. You undoubtedly do not have time to work full-time with online marketing on top of that. Many business managers, therefore, make the decision to outsource their activities, but to whom?

You usually have two choices: either you hire a full-time online marketer, or you work with an external marketing agency. Both sides have their pros and cons. It is up to you to weigh up the various advantages and disadvantages.

Online marketer

Benefits

If you choose to work with an online marketing agency, it is important to realize that not every marketing agency is equally transparent in its communication. Therefore, always make a well-considered choice.

When you have a question or comment about a particular campaign, you can quickly walk to the desk of your online marketer. If you work with a marketing agency, this is of course not possible just like that.

You will therefore have to send an email or contact us by telephone. However, this does not directly mean that communication therefore always has to be difficult. However, good agreements make good friends.

If you know exactly how and when you can reach the marketing agency, there will usually be few problems.

Cons

Collaborating with an online marketing agency is usually cheaper than if you were to hire a full-time employee for this. Belgium has been struggling with high wage costs for several years. In 2017, the average labor cost in our country was still 39.6 euros per hour.

In the best-case scenario, you get off with about 40,000 euros/year. Of course, the more experience or diplomas you expect, the sum of money will be added.

When you choose to outsource online marketing to a specialized agency, you are on average cheaper. The annual price you pay for this is of course strongly dependent on the project and the company, but this is usually a cheaper alternative.

Marketing agency

Benefits

Online marketing agencies usually have several employees. Different employees mean different visions and expertise. Online marketing is not an unambiguous science.

So you do benefit from different strategies and/or visions. In addition, online marketing occupies a wide spectrum. The different facets of online marketing require a variety of knowledge.

An employee who has slightly less knowledge of newsletters, for example, will therefore be on his own. When you work with an online marketing agency, this is handled by a team of experts who can complement each other where necessary.

Cons

Working with an external party means mutual trust. You may need to provide sensitive information to the online marketing agency you work with.

Consider, for example, sales figures or customer data. If you prefer to keep this information within internal circles, a full-time employee can take away these concerns.

Decision

See there. This was a short but powerful breakdown of what lead generation is and how it works. What you should especially remember is that content marketing is an extremely important lead generator.

Blog articles are no longer a nice-to-have on your website, but rather a must-have. Have you not yet implemented content marketing in your online marketing strategy?

Then we are happy to help you devise a tailor-made strategy. Contact us without obligation for more information. We are happy to help you!