7 Powerful B2C Lead Generation Strategies That Actually Work
Question: What’s the biggest challenge facing B2C lead generation marketers right now?
Building a massive social media following? Delivering the best customer experience? Rocketing brand awareness, maybe?
Nope – none of the above. The answer is generating quality b2c leads.
But have you ever wondered why it’s so hard to capture high-quality leads?
Well, part of the problem is that many of us are going about it the wrong way.
See, the consumer landscape has shifted in recent years. Modern consumers don’t want to be blasted with pushy ads or cold emails anymore.
As a lead generation company, we regularly see brands using outdated strategies that fail to account for the changing nature of the B2C customer interactions.
To capture quality B2C leads, you need a different approach; a customer-focused approach that provides value upfront.
In this post, we’ll share seven strategies that’ll capture your audience’s interest and move them a step closer to becoming customers.
So, if you’re a B2C business owner that’s looking to stuff your pipeline and crush your sales goals – let’s jump in!
What is B2C Lead Generation?
In a nutshell, B2C lead generation is about transforming a new website visitor into someone who’s actively interested in purchasing your product or service. Generating leads is essentially like pressing the ‘go’ button that initiates the beginning of the sales conversation.
For example, suppose you want to learn the guitar. You punch ‘guitar for noobs’ into Google. The first result you see in this free course from Fender – pretty cool, right?
So, you sign up with your email for three months of free lessons. Notice what happened here? You’re now a lead in Fender’s database. They know you’re interested in the guitar (aka what they sell).
Over the next few weeks, you’ll get drip-fed emails packed with useful tips to help you become a better guitarist.
By the time you can play your first flawless rendition of ‘highway to hell,’ you’ll probably think Fender is an awesome brand, right? Maybe even a brand that you’d be happy to buy your next guitar from.
See, this is how modern lead generation and lead nurturing works in the B2C sphere. It’s about giving value before you ask for anything in return.
But more than that, the key to modern lead generation is that you must consider not only how to capture attention but also how to do it in a way that encourages further engagement.
Fender’s guitar course delivers the value prospects are looking for, but it also fosters brand loyalty at the same time. They’re teaching you the guitar for free.
With that in mind, let’s keep going to discover more examples of how you can apply the same principles to your B2C lead generation efforts.
7 Proven B2C Lead Generation Strategies to Try This Year
Coming up with B2C lead generation ideas isn’t always easy. So, get inspired by these examples and think about ways you could tailor them to your own business and audience.
1. Optimise Your Landing Pages
When it comes to lead generation, landing pages are your best friend.
Seriously, Hubspot reported that companies that increase their number of landing pages from 10 to 15 see a 55% increase in leads.
Why are landing pages effective? Well, it’s primarily because they provide a more relevant post-click experience.
For example, let’s suppose you own a coffee subscription business and you want to generate new leads. So, you decide to offer a free trial and promote it via Facebook ads.
You set up the campaign goals, define your audience, and hit launch. But after a few days, your CPM is through the roof, and you’re getting hardly any leads. What’s going on?
Well, the issue is that you’re driving traffic to your homepage where potential leads don’t immediately see your offer, get confused and click away. So, Facebook deems that your ad isn’t helping its users reach their goals.
But with a well-designed landing page like the one above, you can laser in on a specific audience segment and present a hyper-relevant offer. See, unlike other pages on your site, landing pages are built around a specific conversion goal.
Plus, landing pages allow you to run extensive optimization and testing. That means you can compare and tweak headlines, calls to action, images, copy, and anything else to refine your landing page until it’s a lead-producing machine.
Heck, we even have specific landing pages here at HelloClicks for each of the services we offer. These pages help us snap up clients who are searching for specific services on Google. Check them out for more inspiration!
2. Craft Helpful SEO-Optimised Content
Your audience has a bunch of problems they need help with. And for the most part, they’re turning to Google for help.
If you can provide the expert content potential leads want, then you stand a great chance of winning them over to your business.
Seriously, this type of marketing (known as content marketing) generates over 3x as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less.
For example, Beardbrand (a master of content marketing) sells beard-care products to consumers.
Using keyword research, Beardbrand figured out that many of their target customers don’t know the differences between beard balm vs. beard oil.
So, they created a blog post that covers the topic. Now, the article ranks in the #1 position on Google:
As you can see, this simple article (which probably took about 1-2 hours to write) is now pulling in over 5,000+ organic visitors per month. Within the blog post, Beardbrand features its own products front and center.
But that’s not all – Bearbrand makes their content go even further by creating simple videos where the founder Eric Bandholz basically reads the blog post into the camera. For this post, they’ve netted another 352,546 views!
The best part about content marketing is that it never feels like marketing. Just like the Fender’s guitar course above, you’re giving prospective leads value without asking for anything in return. You’re building the trust that will eventually lead them to become a customer down the line.
Ok, I know what you’re thinking. Traffic is cool. Well done Breardbrand. But how do you convert these website visitors into qualified leads?
Well, that leads us nicely to our next lead generation strategy…
3. Use Pop-Ups
As your website visitor reads your content, they’re thinking, “this company knows what they’re talking about.”
So, a well-timed pop-up can be just the ticket to snag their email address and convert them into a lead.
Pop-up software provider Sumo analyzed over two billion pop-ups and found that the highest-performing pop-ups averaged a 9.28% conversion rate.
So, using Beardbrand’s example above, that means their simple blog post could be pulling in 500 leads every single month on auto-pilot (at an ongoing cost per lead of $0).
The key with pop-ups is that they’re relevant to what your audience is looking for. For example, check out how digital cookbook brand CKBK offers customers a free e-book containing ten recipes.
Having a great lead magnet pop-up like CKBK will send you conversion rates through the roof.
Plus, lead magnets are also perfect to power up your paid campaigns too. Instead of simply blasting your audience with offers, why not promote your lead magnet to capture their interest, position yourself as an authority and snag their email address too?
4. Create an Interactive Quiz
Did you know that the most-read story on the New York Times website in 2013 was actually a quiz?
There’s something about quizzes that we just can’t resist. For example, a whopping 96% of Users who start BuzzFeed quizzes finish them!
That indicates that quiz marketing is an incredible way to entice visitors to engage with your site and subtly convert them into leads.
For example, D2C wine brand Winc has a fantastic interactive quiz that lets users discover their favorite wines based on their current tastes:
The beauty of this quiz is that it ends with an email capture form. In other words, to see your results, you need to hand over your email address (a.k.a, become a lead)
Given that you need to invest 60 seconds to fill out the quiz, the majority of people will pop in their email addresses (you don’t want that effort to go to waste!). Plus, visitors’ curiosity about their wine preference is probably peaking too.
Think about ways that you could include a free quiz to engage your customers. If a quiz isn’t a good fit for your business, another alternative is to build a free tool that helps customers reach their goals.
5. Launch a Referral Program
With a referral program, your existing customers can become a potent source of new leads.
Genuinely, the data shows that when referred by a friend, people are 4x more likely to make a purchase than if they found you themselves. What’s more, you can expect at least 16% more in profits from referred customers.
The best part about referral marketing is that you don’t have to outlay much capital. Unlike making content or running paid campaigns, a referral program is basically free to set up.
The key to launching a successful referral campaign is that you give both customers and referees something of value.
For example, check out how D2C mattress retailer Casper gives customers a $75 Amazon voucher for referring a friend, while referees get 20% off their purchase.
This win-win approach massively increases the chance that Casper’s customers will partake in their referral program. It’s been a key part of what’s allowed Casper to scale their brand to $750M in revenue in just 4 years.
6. Form Mutually Beneficial Partnerships
Partnering with other businesses can be a great way to get free exposure to new audiences, leads, and sales.
In fact, some data suggests that partnerships generate businesses more revenue than paid search. While the average business generates 18% of its revenue from paid search, high-maturity partnership programs can generate 28%.
For example, consider how meditation app Headspace partnered with Spotify to create this unique offer:
Spotify and Headspace realised that a shared segment of their target audiences might be interested in using both of their products. So, rather than have customers pay two separate subscriptions, they can combine them and save money.
I don’t have specific figures, but you can bet that this cross-promotion campaign netted both companies a huge amount of new customers.
Think about ways you can partner with businesses in your area to help each other grow your reach and sales.
7. Go Nuts With Remarketing
Paid lead generation ads are getting more expensive. However, there’s one form of paid advertising you shouldn’t overlook.
According to a comprehensive study from Spiralytics, remarketing beats all other ad placement strategies with a 1,046% efficiency rate.
Remarketing works so well because you’re spending your ad budget marketing to people who’ve already displayed an interest in your products or services.
For example, while researching this post, I visited Fender’s guitar course. When I hit ‘accept all,’ Fender dropped a cookie in my browser.
Later that day, as I was looking for results from the Euro’s, I see a hyper-relevant ad urging me to come back and sign up for the course:
If you’ve ever been followed around the internet like this, you’ll probably know how effective it can be.
Creepy or not, if your budget is tight, focusing on remarketing ads will net you the biggest ROI of any form of paid advertising.
A Quick-Stop Lead Generation Plan Template
Ok, we’ve covered a lot of tactics above. But if you’re starting with a blank canvas, where is the best place to start?
Well, the truth is, there’s no one perfect answer. The best lead generation strategy depends on who your customers are, what you’re selling, and how much budget you’ve got to work with.
But to give you an overview of what a B2C lead generation strategy might look like, here’s a simple overview:
1. Create blog posts or a free tool that ranks on Google for keywords your audience is searching for
2. Build a gated lead magnet (e-book, checklist, etc.) that helps your customers solve a problem
3. Use an email pop-up on your site to display the lead magnet to organic traffic on your site
4. Additionally, place the lead magnet in the middle and at the bottom of every blog post
5. Experiment with promoting your lead magnet via paid channels
6. Set up PPC retargeting ads to tempt prospective leads back to your site/email list
7. Build an automated email flow that nurtures new leads and converts them into customers
8. Create a referral program to encourage existing customers to refer their friends and family to your business
9. Explore partnership opportunities with businesses where both parties stand to gain something
Obviously, this is a very zoomed-out view of the work that goes into an effective B2C lead generation campaign. But hopefully, you can see how the different tactics come together.
If you want to discover what a specific lead generation strategy might look like for your business, why not book a free lead generation consultation with us? We’d love to chat and brainstorm the best ideas to get you more leads!
Go Forth & Generate More B2C Leads
The explosion of digital channels has created more opportunities for B2C businesses to drive leads, sales, and growth than at any time in history.
Hopefully, the ideas shared above give you the inspiration you need to take your B2C lead generation efforts to the next level.
Above all else, remember that old-school lead generation tactics won’t get you very far these days. The internet no longer belongs to marketers. Instead, it belongs to consumers.
Nowadays, your lead generation strategy needs to focus on not only capturing interest but also on providing value and establishing a customer relationship from the get-go. When you do that, you’ll find customers naturally gravitate towards your brand.
