What do I think is the number one stressor for most service based business owners? No, it’s not actually running your business (though I know that is right up there). It’s getting a steady stream of new leads into your business.
When you work with clients one-on-one, you know that inevitably you’re always chasing that next sale. You need to keep that stream flowing so that you know that your business is going to keep growing.
A steady source of leads helps you to know that you’re going to have some predictability in your business. This helps you to make better financial and hiring decisions and better predict your growth.
Especially when you’re growing your service-based business online, you need to have something in your arsenal a bit more powerful and predictable than referrals.
It’s time to take some control over your business and fill your inbox with qualified leads so you can grow your business.
Let’s talk about how you can do just that.
How to Generate Sales Leads Online
When you don’t have a business front, it can be hard to let people know you’re there.
Back in the old days (I mean, older than your parents), you had a general store that you went to. You hung a sign and people knew you’d shown up in your town.
Unfortunately, you can’t just “show up” online and hang up a “Come buy it” sign to get leads into your business.
Competition is not only incredibly high, but your ideal customer has a lot of internet to look at.
How can you possibly attract them and get them to show up in your inbox?
While there are a ton of things you should be doing, you want to start with the right foundation to make it all work together seamlessly.
Use Their Language
Attracting your ideal customer requires you to understand your ideal customer. Marketing is really all about psychology and empathy. You need to ask yourself – what are your customers struggling with? What do they want to do better? What results do they wanna get for themselves and their business?
You can’t show them that you understand them if you don’t talk in a way they understand. If you want to bring more leads into your inbox, you need to speak their lingo.
How do you get out of your own technical jargon and put your focus on what your customers care about?
Join their conversations!
Dig into Facebook groups where your ideal customer is hanging out (that’s honestly a gold mine), look through the comments on big influencers in your space, do some LinkedIn research, and even go back through and see how your customers are talking about you and your services through reviews and feedback you’ve received.
One of the best ways to really understand how your ideal customer thinks is by joining in the live conversations in these online communities or even getting them on the phone. You have to really talk to them to understand them. Same goes for discovering how they talk about their issues.
Offer a Lead Magnet
Once you know how your customers talk, give them a reason to let you talk to them more!
The best way to do this is to offer some kind of freebie in exchange for their email address. Commonly called a lead magnet, this can be something that will help them get a quick win and showcase how you understand their needs.
A lead magnet doesn’t have to be complicated either. This could be a simple PDF, walkthrough guide, 5 minute video, or private podcast episode that you provide through your email service provider.
Not only will this get more people on your email list (which has the best potential ROI for all of your marketing efforts), but it allows you to capture those colder leads and give them the opportunity to get to know you better.
While someone might not be ready to book a discovery call with you yet, they might be ready to get on your email list and try out your expertise a bit.
Use an Automated Scheduling Tool
As a service-based business, your prices are probably a little higher ticket. When that’s the case, you often want to get a lead on the phone to explain your services and sell them.
While many call this a discovery call, the basic idea is that you want to get the right people on your calendar and convert them into a sale.
Trying to schedule calls, however, can be a bit rough. Get rid of the back and forth and put the control in your leads’ hands. by using a very simple calendar scheduling app.
Whether you use one in your CRM like Honeybook or you use Calendly, Acuity, or many other options, a scheduling app automatically syncs with your master calendar and makes scheduling with you a breeze.
Control Your Calendar Availability
Are you at all a control freak about your time like I am? The great thing about these apps is that they allow you to set your availability automatically.
If you only want to take calls on Wednesday afternoons and Thursday mornings, you can set it up so that you only are available to book for discovery call at those times. If you only want to take calls in the mornings, if you never want to take a call on a Friday, all of those things can be set up in your app.
Here’s the big kicker for me. I don’t like not having enough notice for when I’m going to have a call. As an introvert, I need to mentally prepare. So I have my system set up that you can’t book a call with me unless it’s at least 24 to 48 hours ahead. You can’t load up my calendar Wednesday morning and book a call with me for Wednesday afternoon.
That set up allows me to stay happy even when I’m taking more calls than I might naturally be OK with. You just have to take a few minutes and adjust your calendar availability settings to work for you and your workflow.
Make Sure You’re Accessible
No, I don’t mean ignoring boundaries. When you want to reach a larger audience and get more leads, you need to ensure that you’re not excluding anyone from your content.
This means following web accessibility best practices to be inclusive and reach your entire audience.
I talked about this in more depth recently in episode 39, so you’ll want to head back and listen to that if you haven’t already.
But the only way to be found by everyone in your potential target audience and to get the maximum leads in your inbox is to allow everyone the ability to interact with your website and your content.
Optimize Your Website to Get Leads
The best way that you can get more leads in your inbox?
You have to optimize your website to attract those leads.
Remember how I mentioned that you don’t just throw up a shingle and people will come anymore?
Your website is business’s home online. It’s your shingle that you’re throwing up.
It’s just that in today’s reality, you have to do a bit more to stand out amongst your competitors. After all, I can hang up my shingle anywhere in the world thanks to the internet; but so can thousands of others that do the exact same thing that I do.
In order to compete and get leads, you need to show up and set yourself apart.
The best way to do that is focus on your customer and their needs first and optimize your website accordingly.
