Introduction
In 2024, lead generation remains a fundamental pillar for any company seeking to thrive in a dynamic and highly competitive business environment. With the constant evolution of technology and consumer behavior, it is essential to adopt innovative and effective marketing and sales strategies!
This article explores the five best practices for lead generation in 2024, taking into account current trends and foreseeable market developments. From content optimization to targeted advertising, we detail the techniques used for these strategies. They aim to equip companies to stay ahead in the race for customer acquisition.
Practice 1: Optimizing Content Marketing
Content marketing in 2024 requires a strategic and innovative approach. It is one of the most powerful tools if it is well mastered: 93 % companies believe that content marketing generates more leads than traditional marketing strategies.
Here's how to enrich and expand this content to offer more value to readers:
1/ The importance of quality content
Understanding and meeting customer needs
Quality content is content that speaks directly to the needs and interests of your target audience. In 2024, this means a deep understanding of your customers' preferences, challenges and aspirations.
Understanding your customers' wants, needs, pain points and sense of belonging will help you create quality content. Creating buyer personas can help you target your content more precisely.
Commitment and personalization
Content should be designed to actively engage the reader. This can include interactive elements such as quizzes, polls or dynamic infographics. Personalization, where content adapts to the user's specific interests, plays a crucial role in increasing engagement and loyalty.
Multimedia content and diversified formats
In 2024, content is no longer limited to text. The integration of videos, podcasts and live content can enrich the user experience. Diversifying content formats enables you to reach a wider audience and offer more immersive experiences. This not only improves retention of your target audience, but also creates brand affection.
2/ SEO strategies for 2024
Optimization for voice and mobile search
In 2024, SEO for search engines requires multiple factors to be taken into account. It's no longer just about optimizing search on the computer.
That's right, Mobile search accounts for 64% of global searches.
Voice search is also becoming increasingly important, with 36% of French people use voice search at least once a day.
It has therefore become essential to optimize your content for these platforms. This means using natural language, optimizing long-tail keywords, but also favoring short sentences and concise answers in your content, adapted to voice search.
Featured snippets and zero position
To gain visibility, aim for position zero in search results. Position zero is the content snippet that Google highlights in search results, in the form of a drop-down menu.
This means structuring your content in such a way as to be easily selected for featured snippets, often by directly answering frequently asked questions in your field.
Creating value-rich content
Beyond keywords, search algorithms value content that offers real value. This means creating in-depth articles, case studies, how-to guides and detailed analyses that go beyond basic information. Include images and don't forget meta descriptions to help Google understand where you want to take the reader.
Beware of content created via artificial intelligence, too, as Google has been penalizing content that hasn't been reworked by human hands since September 2023!
Performance analysis and continuous planning
Use data and analytics to understand what content works best. Here, the two platforms that will help you the most are Google Analytics (which will return often in this guide, as it's very versatile) and Google Search Console.
You can also integrate Search Console, Google's dedicated SEO tool, with Google Analytics.
In addition to analyzing the performance of your current articles, you'll also need to think about your future articles!
While you'll always need to create high-quality, user-oriented content, you'll also need to master two key points to appear in Google's top results: the difficulty of ranking for the keywords of your choice, and the authority of your site vis-à-vis competing sites.
These two points are crucial to your SEO optimization, and will be the subject of a dedicated article on Wellsy.
Tools such as SemRush, Uber Suggest and aHrefs are essential for choosing the right keywords. They will enable you to adjust your content strategy and SEO techniques to maximize their impact!
Practice 2: Using social networks
The strategic use of social networks in 2024 is essential for any company seeking to strengthen its online presence. More 4.74 billion people use social networks worldwide. So it's a huge source of leads!
If your type of business allows it, it's essential to use these platforms as a lever for your growth by creating unique and original content. Here's how to enrich and detail this content.
1/ Choosing the right platforms
Identify Your Target Audience
Before choosing a platform, it's crucial to understand who your target audience is. This includes not only demographic data, but also behaviors, interests and online habits.
Using analytics tools such as Google Analytics to collect this data can help you make an informed decision. You can also combine this data with personas you've created beforehand to refine your targeting.
Exploring Emerging Platforms
Although the choice of platform is largely determined by your target audience, don't limit yourself to traditional platforms such as Facebook or Twitter if the opportunity arises!
Explore emerging platforms that may offer new opportunities to reach your audience in a unique way. For example, if your target audience is young, platforms like TikTok, Threads, BeReal or even Twitch might be more effective.
Integrating social networking into your overall marketing strategy
Make sure your choice of platforms fits in harmoniously with your overall marketing strategy. This includes communication tone, visual style, and key messages. Your branding must be harmonious and consistent.
2/ Engagement and Interactive Content
Use of UGC (User-Generated Content)
Encourage user-generated content. Contests, challenges or hashtag campaigns can encourage users to create and share content related to your brand, increasing your reach and engagement.
Measuring and Analyzing Engagement
Engagement isn't just measured in likes and comments! Use analytics tools to get a deeper understanding of engagement: how long users spend on your posts, the click rate on links, etc. This will help you fine-tune your content to maximize its impact.
While social networking platforms generally offer native tools to perform certain measurements, other tools such as Sprout or HubSpot allow you to go even further.
Custom Content Strategies
Offer personalized content based on user interests and interactions. Test several formats and see what works best for you, what generates the most engagement. Then reproduce that format to make it recurring content!
Most social media platforms offer advanced targeting and personalization tools that can help you fine-tune your content to better resonate with your audience.
Practice 3: Marketing and canvassing via Personalized Email
Email marketing and canvassing in 2024 requires a refined, targeted approach. A good layer of personalization is also necessary to prevent your e-mails ending up in the trash!
If well executed, e-mailing can generate a good ROI: 81% of SMEs consider e-mailing to be their primary customer acquisition channel.
Here's how to enrich and detail the content of your emails for better targeting and effective personalization.
1/Customization, Segmentation and Automation
Personalization through advanced data and dynamic content
Personalization goes beyond inserting the recipient's name in the email.
If you're addressing a customer in the case of e-mail marketing, use advanced data such as browsing behavior, purchase history, and previous interactions to create messages that truly resonate with each individual.
Upsell, remarketing or e-mail retargeting techniques will only be effective if you take these elements into account! Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager are your best tools for gathering this data.
With advanced data, you'll be able to incorporate dynamic content into your upsell or remarketing strategy that changes according to the customer. This could include product recommendations based on previous purchases, relevant blog posts, or updates on topics of interest to the recipient.
You can also use triggers based on user behavior, such as cart abandonment, visits to certain pages, or interaction with a previous email. This allows you to create timely, relevant communications.
In the case of an e-mail campaign for commercial canvassing purposes, personalization is more likely to take the form of manual research, or automated data scrapping. Rely on the prospect's professional background, the actions they've taken within their company, or the latest news from the company you're targeting.
Insert this information in the e-mail to show your prospect that you're interested in them and what they do, and don't hesitate to use emotional levers based on the data collected.
Sophisticated Segmentation Techniques
The segmentation of your e-mails can be based on a variety of criteria: demographic, behavioral, psychographic or even on the basis of the prospect's customer history or socio-professional category.
In the case of e-mail marketing, the GA4 properties of Google Analytics and its settings, as well as the use of tags on your website via Google Tag Manager will be essential to create precise market segments, enabling you to address specific needs and interests.
Email sequence automation
Once you've understood how to properly personalize and segment your e-mails, you'll be able to automate a large part of your e-mail marketing campaigns. Tools such as Brevo, Mailchimp or HubSpot can be very effective for this kind of automation.
With this software, you can also create e-mail sequences that adapt according to the user's reaction to your first e-mail. For example, if a user doesn't open an e-mail, the next sequence could adjust the subject or content to increase engagement.
In the case of a commercial canvassing campaign, you can also use data scrapping and e-mail automation software to automate your campaigns.
However, bear in mind that your e-mails here will be less personalized than in the case of an e-mail marketing campaign. In fact, you'll find it more difficult to collect advanced data on each prospect on your list (such as the latest company news for prospect A, B, C...) and insert it into your e-mails automatically.
Practice 4: Partnerships and Collaborations
There's nothing new about setting up strategic partnerships and collaborations, but this practice is even more effective today. It allows you to extend your company's reach thanks to the network effect, which is enhanced by the power of social networks.
Here, we'll look at both the advantages (and disadvantages) of partnering with companies, but also with influencers. According to a Socialpubli study, 33% of participants consider influencer marketing to be their best return on investment.
Here's how to develop and deepen this concept:
1/ Benefits of Strategic Partnerships
Expanding market reach
Strategic partnerships give you access to new market segments and audiences that you wouldn't be able to reach on your own. Indeed, partnerships will be posted by companies on their respective social networks and websites.
This can lead to a significant increase in lead generation, as two different audiences are reached.
Sharing resources and expertise
Effective partnerships often involve sharing resources, expertise and knowledge. This can translate into cost savings, improved innovation and increased competitiveness in the marketplace. So you have everything to gain from partnerships!
Enhancing Credibility and Trust
Partnering with well-established brands or respected influencers can boost your company's credibility. This can be particularly beneficial for startups or companies looking to enter a new market, and is a technique much used in 2024.
Be careful, however, that your partnerships are well-targeted and consistent, otherwise you risk losing credibility and the trust of your customers. When you enter into a partnership, always have your customer base in mind and your personas well defined!
Some failed partnerships have led to disaster and a significant loss of customers, as was the case for the Bud Light brand in 2023. Its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney provoked controversy among Bud Light consumers. They in turn boycotted the brand with a loss on sales, estimated at 18% over 2023.
Practice 5: Targeted advertising
Targeted online advertising remains a key strategy for effectively reaching leads in 2024. For example, Google Ads return on investment (ROI) averages 200%. And Google Ads is just one of the many ways to implement targeted advertising!
Here's how to develop and improve this practice to maximize its effectiveness.
1/ Online advertising and its effectiveness
Leveraging Data for Precise Targeting
Leveraging customer and market data is fundamental to accurate targeting. Use the data you've collected with Google Analytics (demographic, behavioral and psychographic data) and your typical personas to create ads that resonate with the specific needs and interests of each segment of your audience.
And don't hesitate to build on what's already working to create impactful ads! While it's essential to innovate, it's also a good idea to use an existing format to improve or even hijack it (without plagiarizing it) and do better than the competition.
Create ads that stand out not only for their targeting, but also for their creativity. Use eye-catching visuals, captivating messages and clear calls to action to generate interest and encourage interaction.
As with commercial canvassing, if your brand image lends itself to it, don't hesitate to use emotional levers to provoke a strong reaction in your prospects!
Multichannel integration
Depending on your objectives, but also on which communications media are relevant for reaching your audience, it may make sense to integrate your advertising campaigns across multiple channels: social networks, search engines, e-mail and even offline advertising.
This creates a consistent brand experience and increases the points of contact with potential leads. However, this strategy also drastically increases your marketing campaign budget. If you're just starting out as a start-up, the two media to focus on are Google Ads and social network advertising!
2/ Advanced targeting techniques
Retargeting and Behavioral Targeting
As we saw in Practice 3 on personalized e-mails, retargeting enables you to target users who have already interacted with your website or advertisements, thus increasing the chances of conversion.
Behavioral targeting, on the other hand, is based on the actions and behaviors of online users, to deliver highly relevant advertising.
For example, it can be used to target Internet users who visited your cooking blog last month, and offer them this type of content without them having to be browsing cooking-related content at the time they are hit by the targeted ad.
Contextual and Predictive Targeting
Use contextual targeting to place ads in relevant online environments. Contextual targeting dynamically displays an advertising message based on the content of the page a visitor is viewing.
For example, if you're a company specializing in gardening, you could target the online inserts of a well-known blog dedicated to this activity.
Also consider predictive targeting, which uses artificial intelligence to anticipate users' needs and interests, offering even more personalized advertising.
This technique can also be applied to your own website, by dynamically modifying content according to the segment to which the surfer visiting your page belongs. Very practical for intelligent A/B testing!
Continuous Measurement and Optimization
It's crucial to constantly measure the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns and optimize them according to the results. It's all about spending your Ads budget efficiently to get the best possible results!
Set up key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor the impact of your campaign. Here's an example of some key KPIs: click-through rate, cost per click, cost per acquisition and return on investment (ROI). Adjust your strategies based on this data to continually improve the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Conclusion
Lead generation in 2024 relies on a combination of strategic analysis, adaptability and innovation. By integrating advanced analytics practices, you'll be able to fine-tune your strategies for maximum effectiveness. At the same time, adaptability, innovation and originality will continue to be key assets in an ever-changing market.
It's essential to bear in mind that lead generation is not a fixed formula, but a dynamic process that requires constant monitoring and an ability to evolve with the market. Companies that embrace these practices will be better equipped not only to generate quality leads, but also to build lasting relationships with their customers.
By adopting these approaches, companies can secure a strong market position and a competitive edge in their sector.
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