What are the Best Ways to Generate Leads, Fast?

Generating leads for your business can be confusing and when you need them, you need them fast. You’ve tried printing flyers, trade shows, networking and maybe even social media. With a tight marketing budget, you may be wondering if there are any free, worthwhile strategies and tools that can not only help you manage your lead generation efforts, but also help you drive revenue. Good news, there is!

Here are seven of my favorite lead generation options along with the free tools that will help you accomplish your goals.

1. Blog

Having a blog is one of the best ways to generate leads. In fact, small businesses that blog get 126% more lead growth than small businesses that do not blog . A blog allows you to write about subjects that you are passionate about and you get the undivided attention of the reader. This is a perfect place to capture leads in exchange for emails addresses for offerings such as a newsletter or a tip sheet (both discussed below). One thing to keep in mind with a blog is that your readers are most likely there to educate themselves on your industry and other non-branded articles that will be useful to them during their purchasing process. One way to optimize your blog is with keywords that your ideal customer would use when they are looking for information online so that your posts are easy to find. Try keyword.io to find hundreds of keywords to add to your posts.

Related Post: 6 Ways to Make Your Blog Work Harder 

2. Instagram, Houzz, and Twitter

Social media platforms such as Instagram, Houzz, and Twitter are great lead generation tools as they allow you to post photos of your most recent home remodeling or home building projects and show what your style is. Houzz will let you showcase your work and connect with people in the market while answering their questions on your work. On Instagram and Twitter, you can reach a large audience by applying the right hashtags. It’s always good to be as descriptive as possible with your hashtags. A free way to find relevant and popular hashtags is All Hashtag. Try it and you might just start finding your social media legs.

Quick tip: make sure to provide a link to a landing page, blog article or simply your website to encourage continuing the conversation.

Related Post: How Home Buyers are Using Social Media 

3. How-To Video

Considering that the average person watches 182 online videos a month, video is a great way to engage your audience. Home builders and remodelers have a ton of useful knowledge and, with a few 5 minute how-to videos to relay this knowledge, you can begin building trust (pun unintended) with your website visitors.

Once your video is published, a cheap and speedy way to make your video go viral is by using services like StumbleUpon which will help drive traffic to your video for pennies per viewer. Try putting a link to your website or even a landing page within or below the video so they know where to turn when they may need a helping hand. 

4. Infographic

Infographics are a great way to relay information and value to your ideal customer. Home building trends or remodeling processes are the perfect things to translate into an infographic. Useful data points are great pieces to add to an infographic and can be found externally, especially through builder associations. A free resource you can use to create and publish beautiful visualizations of your data is infogr.am.

Quick tip: Be sure to add your logo and website URL to the bottom of your infographic to make sure the viewer can circle back to your site.

Example: 7 Must-Have Marketing Tools for Builders 

5. Newsletter

Do you have a newsletter yet? If not, you’re missing out on a great way to generate more leads for your business. To capture leads, make sure to provide opt-in opportunities for your newsletter throughout your site, including your blog pages. Newsletters are great for sharing insights, trends, industry news or recently completed home building or remodeling projects. One of the pitfall of sending a newsletter is that you need the recipient to open the email. People are busy. So, make sure the subject line is intriguing, engaging and hard not to open. Touchstone is free and you can test your subject lines, instantly, before you send the newsletter. 

6. Tip Sheet

I love a good one-page tip sheet! They are very easy to make and people love something they can consume quickly. People are always curious about tools that experts use or tips homebuyers should keep in mind when looking for a home builder. To an expert, these tips may seem obvious but the tip sheets are all about providing value to the consumer. A great, free resource you can use to create your own beautiful tip sheet is Canva. It is quick and easy to use and you’ll have your tip sheet ready to share in no time at all.

Quick tip: I would suggest providing the tip sheet as an opt-in opportunity within your blog pages, this way you get their email address in exchange for the tip sheet. 

7. Media Coverage

Do you know how to get your business in front of the media? Journalists like having industry experts that can be used as sources. Have a concise, authentic pitch that you can send to reporters and tell them your story. Help A Reporter Out (HARO) is a free site that connects you with journalists looking for sources. Keep your eyes peeled and when you see a topic you can speak to... reach out! 

Now go take action and get your leads, fast! The key is providing value to your ideal consumer so they know where to turn when it's time to spend the big bucks. Just remember, when it comes to creating this kind of content, it is not about your brand or business. It is about educating your customers and building trust. Once you have the leads you'll want to nurture them towards a sale through marketing automation tools (HubSpot is one great option. Check out their free CRM here). Marketing automation tools will help you follow up with your leads and continue to provide valuable information while helping them towards a sale.