How to Improve Online Lead Generation

What We Discussed with Alex

On this episode, host Eric Dickmann interviews Alex Oliveira about improving online lead generation. Here are some highlights of our conversation:

• [00:01:39] Are people ramping up their lead regeneration investments?- Yes, they are! Lead generation is super important, and it goes hand in hand with brand awareness. Especially as we're coming out of COVID, businesses are starting to invest in lead generation tools and activities. According to Alex, he has seen also seen a shift to more calls rather than chatbot and automated tools that too often fail to deliver the responses customers are seeking.
• [00:02:33] Customers want to chat with real people- Alex emphasizes the need for companies to be able to answer real questions about your products and services. While having chatbots and AI is convenient for communicating with customers during off-hours, businesses shouldn't rely too much on those technologies. Oliveira deeply emphasizes the need for people to talk to people.
• [00:06:24] Meeting your customers where they are- Alex strongly recommends businesses to consult with their CFO before implementing significant changes in their buyer's journey. CFOs are the ones who care about the bottom line; they understand the need for data that has a dollar sign next to it. Businesses have to listen! What's so important is knowing where these prospects are in their buying journey and meeting them where they are.
• [00:12:57] Communicating effectively with your customers- When you're communicating to people the way they want to be communicated to, they're obviously going to be more receptive to hearing from you. Before you send that email or dial your customer's number, ask them what channels they are comfortable using. Alex tells us to tell customers - How do you want us to work with you? You tell us. Then do it that way both to your customers and leads.
• [00:15:53] Steps to consider before being overly aggressive about asking for contact- Businesses desire people's information and contact details. On the customer's side, it almost feels invasive to have so many offers, pop-up ads, and unnecessary requests for information during your first minutes of visiting a webpage. Not everyone wants to do business, so don't treat everyone as a sales target. Alex adds that most of the time, the response of customers depend on the type of content that you're displaying on your website. If your website is dynamic enough, then there's a high probability for viewers to engage with the business.
• [00:21:52] Conversing with website visitors- The dilemma that businesses often face is effectively communicating with their website visitors. Companies are eager to collect customer information, but they often don't how to gather it correctly from their prospects. Oliveira advises businesses to highlight the tools that are truly useful to customers, and by doing this, you can help customers immerse themselves in your brand and go- "Wow, that was a difference between Company A and Company B."
• [00:28:30] Do most companies need to have an element of paid advertisements?- Oliveira believes that having a paid element incorporated into the business' marketing strategy is extremely important. Certain verticals may be too costly to compete against the big companies, but people need to know that you are active and ready to serve the marketplace. Rather than going after expensive and highly competitive keywords, focusing on well-crafted, value add content might be a better focus in a highly competitive segment.
• [00:35:24] Alex's tips on digital marketing- The beauty of digital marketing is that you can track things pretty well. You can see the effectiveness of the campaigns that you run for the most part. Oliveira points out that despite the many great benefits of digital marketing to businesses, some do it completely wrong. What drives him crazy at most times is that a company will launch an ad campaign, but when visitors go to that next page, it's not an optimized landing page! If you're sending someone to your big website, make sure you bring them to the right page. Don't waste their time scrolling through your website! His advice to companies placing paid ads is- Make sure that your marketing agencies or your marketing team are creating landing pages really optimized for conversion. People click on your ad because they expect that you have the right solution to their problem. Don't take them to a part of your website that has nothing to do with their concern! Oliveira's 101 for lead generation is having landing pages for each of your products or services.