3 Lead Generation Tips to Boost Reach and Sales

This post was originally posted on August 15th, 2017 and has been updated.
A few years ago I immersed myself in lead generation strategies in a live training session with Paul Toby of Training Business Pros.

Ever since I’ve been sharing his tips with coaching clients. Now you can have it as well (watch my video if you want to skip ahead.)

Here they are...3 lead generation tips to boost reach and sales:

1. Your website
Google likes it when people stay on your site longer.
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Time on site equals engaging content—valuable content., In fact, Google wants to see people staying on a page for at least 2 minutes - this plays into your page’s ranking on Google. Remember, Google ranks pages, not sites, so keep people on your homepage longer by inserting anchor links that take people further down the page, not to a different page.

2. Your blog
If you don’t blog already - start. Start now!

Blogging is important for bringing people to your website, keeping them on your site and generating new leads. Google likes new content, and the easiest way to continually put out new content is to blog at least once a week. New content leads to higher page ranking, and therefore more website traffic and leads. However, you need to write content people are searching for. Sure, your existing customers might regularly read your posts, but that won’t get you new leads.

Make sure your blog posts include the keywords and key phrases that people would use to find your site online.

Tip: Post on Google My Business. Your business should have a Google My Business listing (and if not, you can claim yours here). Once verified, you can post articles. If you think about it, Google controls how your pages rank in a search, and Google has the option for you to post articles via Google My Business, so it clearly makes sense for you to add your blog posts on Google My Business.

You can probably tell from the video above I like to vlog (video-blog) too, and that’s OK. Some people don’t like to write, orsimply don’t have time, so my tip is, don’t!  
Instead, talk, and use a service like Rev.com which will transcribe anything you say at $1 a minute and they will do it within 24 hours. If you do use a service, note that it won’t be 100% perfect, so do a quick edit before publishing.

Alternatively, write a quick outline of what you want to say, making note of key points, arguments or opinions, and what you want the reader to walk away with and then get a ghost-writer. Of course you must read over other people’s writing to ensure it is written in the same way as you would write, and that the concepts they are writing about are accurate.

If writing is not your core competency, don’t do it. Small business owners and entrepreneurs can’t do everything, so stick with what you know best, and let someone else do what they do best - writing.

3. Have people sharing your work
I am a great believer of tools that save you time so I love this suggestion of using a simple WordPress plug-in called Shareaholic which makes sharing your content to social much easier.

If people can share your content easily to their own social networks, they are much more likely to do so, and a share is a mini-endorsement. If people see others in their online network sharing interesting topics, they are more likely to visit the page, and become a new lead.

So, there you have it - my tips, learned from Paul Toby, to increase your business reach and online leads! If you enjoyed this article, please share it with your network, and check out these additional articles that you might also find interesting:

1. What does your social media say about you?
2. ​Work when you can: 6 tactics to get more done
3. Tools that save you time (and money)