Lead

Generation

Guide for Small

Businesses

Discover the secrets to winning

more leads and customers in

today’s digital paradigm

DISCLAIMER

www.netstripes.com

April 2019

The information, text, technical and research content contained in this document is for

general information purposes only and should not be mistaken for a business consultation.

We make no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied about the suitability of the

information contained to your business.

Introduction

What is Lead Generation and Why is It Important?

Understanding Your Ideal Customer

The Lead Generation Process

Best Practice and Techniques: Inbound and Outbound Strategies

Small Business’ Most Commonly Asked Questions - Answered

Conclusion

Take Action

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CONTENT

Rather than focusing on

sales upfront, we need

to understand our

customers and find

ways to deliver value to

them throughout each

stage of the Customer

Buying Cycle.

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Introduction

Winning new leads and new customers are increasingly difficult and

expensive as old tactics that has once worked well in the past, are no

longer effective anymore. This reason lies in the change in consumer

behaviour that has taken place with the advent of the smartphone and

the Internet. As businesses of today and tomorrow, how do we make

the necessary transitions to engage with the large population who are

incessantly consuming on their smartphones?

In today’s digital paradigm, rather than focusing on sales upfront, we

need to understand our customers and find ways to deliver value to

them throughout each stage of the Customer Buying Cycle. Thanks

to the Internet, it has allowed us to do this effectively and relatively

inexpensively if you know what needs to be done. Businesses today

must consider what value and benefit they can provide their leads - the

prospective customer who shows interest in purchasing your product

or service, throughout each stage of the Customer Buying Cycle.

The good news is, at each stage of the Customer Buying Cycle, it

gives the opportunity for you to generate a lead. However the question

is - how do you generate a lead? While the goals of generating leads

hasn’t changed, the strategy has undergone substantial changes

due to the rise of online and social techniques. The Lead Generation

Process may seem like a complex concept, so to help you gain a better

understanding, this e-book will delve into the finer details of the Lead

Generation Process, and with a focus on best practice and strategy,

you’ll also learn how your small business can generate more quality

leads and achieve faster results, each week, month and year in today’s

new paradigm of business.

Lead generation is the process of attracting

and converting a stranger into a lead – a

prospective customer who shows interest in

purchasing your product or service. Simply it

is a strategy that will allow you to stay with

your visitors, form a relationship with them

and then convert them into customers when

they are ready to buy. Only with time, you’ll

be able to gain your customer’s trust and

convince them about your offerings.

And so, why is it so important? Why is it

such a hot topic in the marketing world?

Lead generation is the lifeblood of all

businesses; without a steady stream of leads,

a business will certainly not survive. From

the research conducted at Netstripes, 80%

of all small business owners are dissatisfied

about their digital results. When it comes

to generating leads, customers & sales,

we are often questioned “why traffic isn’t

converting”, “why sales remain stagnant”.

What small business owners must realize, is

that not every customer is ready to make a

purchase, & winning a customer’s trust takes

time. So through understanding the Lead

Generation Process, & how to implement

a strategy accordingly to your business &

customer’s needs, you will then be able to

achieve faster & more quality results.

WHAT

IS LEAD

GENERATION

And Why is It Important?

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Our time and resources as small businesses

are limited, so here’s our top tip! Understanding

your customer could not get any easier. Take

your last 10-20 transactions and identify the

similarities shared among these customers (by

the way, these customers should be ones you

love working with, the ones who don’t haggle

with you and are willing to pay the price). So,

look at their age, location, needs, interests,

pains etc and you should be able to dene

them into 3-4 categories.

From understanding these categories, reach

out to them and get to know them a bit more.

Ask them questions! Become more familiar

with their interests and wants and learn how

your product or service can benet them more.

Before diving straight into the Lead Generation

Process, it is important to rst ask yourself this

question: Do I know who my ideal customer is?

For the majority of businesses, they think

they know who their customer is and to be

fair, most want everyone to be their customer.

However for successful businesses, not only

are they extremely specic with who their ideal

customer is, they also know them inside out;

their hobbies, interests, desires, fears, what

they watch, listen and read.

The most fundamental aspect of designing a

successful business strategy is understanding

your customers and their needs. It is not

effective if you hope just anyone would pay

for your bills. Don’t be general because your

solutions will then be vanilla. Be different.

Specically know and understand who

your consumers are so you can focus your

limited time and resources towards building

relationships with the right people.

Understanding your ideal consumer will

also assist your business in driving your

consumers through the customer’s buying

journey using appropriate marketing channels

and personalised messages (will touch on

this later). If your ideal consumer doesn’t use

Pinterest, what’s the need to digitally engage

them on that platform?

Practical Tip

Understanding your Ideal Customer

To succeed in

today’s digital paradigm,

businesses must follow

a defined process -

The Lead Generation Process.

The Lead

Generation Process

Today’s consumer chooses to navigate the

discovery process and prefers to research

and collect information on their own. This

is in stark contrast to the era that most

businesses once knew, where all advertising

and sales promotion was interruption based.

TV ads, Radio ads, Billboard ads, Cold Calling

are all examples of interruption-based

marketing that shares a common trait - it

was all about hard selling to win a lead

or customer.

To succeed in today’s digital paradigm,

businesses must follow a defined process

- The Lead Generation Process. A 5-step

process (also known as the Pirate Metrics

or AARRR Metrics) has been proven to be

successful for many fat growing startup

businesses. The Lead Generation Process is

completed in 5 ultimate steps: Acquisition

Stage, Activation Stage, Retention Stage,

Revenue Stage and Referral Stage.

5-Step Process

How do users find you?

Do they come back?

Do users have a great 1st experience?

How do you make money?

Do they tell others?

AQUISITION

ACTIVATION

RETENTION

REVENUE

REFERRAL

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In order to attract strangers and turn them

into your website’s visitors, it is important to

drive qualified traffic using multiple inbound

and outbound methods including Email

Marketing, Social Media, Retargeting, Pay per

click Ads, Content Marketing and Search

Engine Optimisation (SEO). Other than digital

methods, as a small business don’t forget

to do it in person too; whether it’s through

meetings, public relations, networking

events, etc.

Acquisition Stage

Attract by Driving Qualified Traffic

STEP 1

Activation Stage

Convert by Lead Capturing

Once you have driven qualified traffic to your

website, you must now convert your web

visitors into leads. The next stage is lead

capturing. Lead capturing is offering value

in exchange for your customer’s contact

details. By offering valuable content (sign-up

here to get your free e-book) or promotional

deals (sign up now and get 10% off your first

purchase), visitors will then provide you with

their contact information which will be easier

for you to bond with them as they’ll be more

responsive to the conversations you initiate

with them.

However considering this stage, the

most crucial part is your website. It’s very

important to leave a great first impression -

just like when you meet a new friend, so your

website is the make or break! By providing

your visitors with a great first experience, it

will help you capture their details so you can

maintain a relationship with them in the

long run.

So how do you make a great first impression

you may ask. Well your website must be top

class of course! Many lose their customers in

the first 2-4 seconds of visiting their website

because instant trust is not delivered. By

making sure your website design creates

immediate trust and credibility and delivers

your unique value proposition, you’ll be

able to save lots of time and money from

successfully converting your traffic

into leads.

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STEP 2

Retention Stage

Build Relationships by Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing is the retention stage where

you turn your leads into customers by

establishing trust, credibility, and relationship

with your leads. It is where you’ll learn

more about them and where they’ll learn

more about what you do. By using inbound

and outbound marketing methods such as

personalized emails and valuable content

to suit their needs, you will create a bond

that achieves a higher chance of sustaining

your lead’s interest and attention and most

importantly their trust.

STEP 3

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Revenue Stage

Finish Deals with Closing Strategies

The revenue stage is where you want to close

the deal. By analysing the stages of the leads

and understanding who requires immediate

attention and more nurturing, different

closing strategies should be performed to

engage differently to help you close the

deals faster. Closing strategies can include

promotional activities such as offering

discounts, vouchers and coupons, and

providing testimonials to build trust between

your business and your customers.

During this stage, a pricing strategy could

make all the difference. Analyse your current

pricing and evaluate whether your offering is

valuable and competitive to your competitors.

Pricing is all about buyer’s psychology and

it is an important tactic for closing. If you

can offer the right product, at the right time,

at the right place, at the right price, your

customer’s will convert. However setting the

right price requires a strategy. Speak to our

experts today and get your pricing strategy

implemented for your business. To book your

free advisory, click here.

Through nurturing and using closing

strategies to seal the deal, the relationship

with your leads will foster a deeper bond, and

when your lead is ready, they will purchase.

STEP 4

Referral Stage

Building a Community of Advocates

Just because your customers have moved

through the funnel and purchased from

you doesn’t mean they’ll stay there. It’s

important for you to pay attention to the post

purchase activities to ensure your customer’s

full satisfaction and retention. One of the

greatest indicators of success is when you

have high levels of customer loyalty. When

customers become so satisfied with your

product, not only will they re-purchase, they’ll

also refer your business to their friends and

families - becoming an advocate for your

business. To ensure your customer gets to

the referral stage and stays there, consider

taking post purchase actions such as

surveys, loyalty discounts and testimonials

or reviews.

STEP 5

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There is no one-size-fits-all

strategy as all businesses

are different. So analyse

which strategies are best

suited for your business.

How to

Generate Leads

Using Inbound and

Outbound Marketing

Strategies

As all customers are situated at different stages of the lead generation process, by segmenting

the funnel into 5 key stages of the customer buying cycle; Awareness, Education, Validation,

Purchase, and Retention, you will be able to implement specific inbound and outbound

marketing strategies to manage and engage with leads at different stages.

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There is no one-size-fits-all

strategy as all businesses are

different. So analyse which

strategies are best suited

for your business.

This is where you send messages out to your prospects/ leads/ customers such as email

blasts, Google and social media ads, telemarketing, & banner advertising.

But Firstly,

What is Inbound and

Outbound Marketing?

• Pushes messages to wide audience, despite having interest

• Interruption based & Inert, one way communication

• Business seeks customers & costly

• Quick but achieves short term leads

• Traditional methods: Billboards, TV, radio, magazines, newspapers,

trade shows, telemarketer, events

• Digital methods: Google Ads/Pay-Per-Click, Retargeting, Social media

advertising, email marketing

Outbound

Strategies

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Outbound Marketing

• Achieve wide reach, increase customers and revenue (only if

strategized correctly). This is not guaranteed to happen all the time.

• Controls what, who and when the audience sees the advertisement

• Retargeting is an effective tool to remind and bring back customers

who have left your website.

• Dicult to track ROI

• Paid advertising may not always achieve optimal results

• Pushy and invasive nature will repel customers always. Also an

ineffective way to build trust and credibility

• Email marketing can result in spam reporting and blacklisting of

brand’s email address

Advantages

Disadvantages

This is creating informative, valuable and engaging content to attract prospect/leads/

customers to your website, social media or email list on their own volition. This content

marketing includes blogs, social media, email newsletters, and ebooks.

• Pulls interested readers with relevant and interesting content

• Permission based & Interactive, two way communication

• Customers seek business & cost effective

• Takes time yet achieves long term leads: Builds relationships and trust

• Digital methods: Direct email, social media, search engine

optimization, blogs

Outbound

Strategies

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Inbound Marketing

• Cost effective & achieves high ROI

• Easy to track ROI

• Reach targeted customers more eciently

• Increases brand awareness

• Builds relationships; trust & credibility

• Requires skills, time and patience

• Needs a functional and quality website to effectively achieve results.

• This may be costly.

• Takes time to achieve results. However, sometimes conversions may

not always happen.

Advantages

Disadvantages

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In today’s digital evolution, the Customer’s

Buying Journey has changed and no longer are

customers purchasing in linear steps. Through

the Customer Buying Cycle (as illustrated

below), businesses need to acknowledge

additional Retention strategies that are

required to help maintain loyal and satised

customers as well to encourage advocacy of

the business.

Businesses need to analyse and evaluate

the suitable use of inbound and outbound

marketing tools to effectively engage with

customers throughout each of the 5 stages

of the Customer Buying Cycle; Awareness,

Education, Validation, Purchase, and Advocacy

The

Customer

Buying Cycle

AWARENESS

EDUCATION

VALIDATION

PURCHASE

ADVOCACY

Let me give you an example with Beginner Biker

Benji, who’s recently wanted to get back into shape.

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Awareness Stage

Benji has been told by his doctor that he must

get back into shape, otherwise, his health may

deteriorate. The problem is that he is unaware

of the methods that can help with his health.

He goes online and find blogs (inbound),

social media posts (inbound), news articles

(outbound) and advertisements (outbound)

that inform Benji of the multitude of ways that

will help him get back into shape.

TIP: What kind of content can you offer

to provide industry and product neutral

information and create awareness of their

problem and need?

Example: How to lose weight in 10 days?

Education Stage

With all the content that Benji reads, he learns

about biking and the great perks of the sport.

He continues his research and finds a really

informative biking blog written by a company

called Bikes World and subscribes to their

weekly newsletter (inbound). He also attends

a Sports Convention Event (outbound) where

he gains greater enlightenment from bike

athletes and celebrities.

TIP: What kind of content can you offer your

customer to provide industry and product

neutral info while educating them on solutions

to their problem?

Example: What are the 5 benets of

cycling everyday?

social media groups and communities to get

validation on the bike he wants to purchase.

TIP: What kind of content can you offer to

convince your customers that your solution

is the best of the best and has earned expert

and peer validation?

Example: Bike Model CX100 Review: Hit

or Miss?

By this stage, Benji is convinced that biking is

the sport for him. He is excited and motivated

to get started however he’s not sure which

bike is suitable for him. From the weekly

newsletters he subscribed to earlier, he reads

another blog by Bikes World (inbound) on their

best-recommended bikes for beginners, based

on durable quality and affordable price. He

does further research on each bike product

and watches testimonials (inbound) and video

reviews (inbound) for each. He also joins

Validation Stage

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Purchase Stage

Benji has decided on the bike he wants

however, he can’t decide which retailer to buy

from. Though word of mouth (inbound), his

friend suggested Bike World as they have

really good customer service and are always

catering to their customers’ needs. Also, Bikes

World has been advertising (outbound) their

promotions with vouchers and specials. This

results in Benji’s nal decision: to purchase his

bike from Bikes World.

TIP: What kind of content can you offer to

stand out from your competitors and create

vendor and product validation?

Example: Buy 2 bikes from Bikes World and

get your second bike 50% off!

Advocacy Stage

Since Benji’s bike purchase, Bikes World not

only subscribed Benji to their emailing system,

but have also emailed him regularly to follow

up with Benji’s satisfaction with his purchase.

They also send blogs, articles and exclusive

promotional offers (inbound) to keep Benji

in the loop and help him through his tness

journey. As a result, Benji always recommends

Bikes World (both in person and online) to his

friends and peers. This, as a result, becomes

great advocacy for Bikes World.

TIP: What kind of content can you offer

to maintain a close relationship with your

customers?

Example: Refer Your Friend and win a trip for 2

to Tour De France!

AWARENESS

EDUCATION

VALIDATION

PURCHASE

ADVOCACY

Content created at

the top the funnel

facilitates Awareness

Blogs, advertising,

retargeting, social

media, youtube, PR

Content created in the

middle of the funnel

facilitates the Validation

Testimonials, social media,

youtube, brochures, CRM

ase studies, FAQs, EDM`

Content created in the

middle of the funnel

facilitates the Education

Websites, newsletter,

how to blogs, articles,

ebook, events, webinars

Content created in the

middle of the funnel

facilitates the Purchase

Presentation, promotional

(strategies, coupons, vouchers),

customer stories

Content created at the bottom

of the funnel facilitates customer

retention, loyalty, and advocacy

Content delivered

after the purchase stage

has incredible impact

on customer retention

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Most Common

Questions

Although inbound marketing may be an

optimal strategy in today’s digital landscape,

inbound marketing may not be the right

solution for every business. It really depends

on who your audience is and your business’

needs. If your business can afford paid

advertising, we recommend utilizing both

inbound and digital outbound strategies

to support each other’s incompetency in

producing results. Inbound is a long-term

play that will achieve trust and credibility in

customers, while outbound can reach an

audience quickly when done correctly.

To achieve optimal results, small businesses

need to first understand its customers

and their personas, their needs and wants,

how your product and service can solve

their problem and differentiate from your

competitors, and of course, a functional

quality website to drive web traffic through

your inbound and outbound

marketing strategies.

At each stage of the Customer Buying Cycle,

there are different objectives you want

to achieve.

75%

23%

2%

UNAWARE

INTERESTED

I NEED THIS

BUYING

Which should I choose?

Inbound Strategies or Outbound Strategies?

How do I create content

for each stage of the

customer buying cycle?

Awareness Stage:

“100% of traffic here are unaware of their problems and their need”

You want to attract trac to your website

by targeting your ideal customers’ pain

points and problems. The content you create

(whether in your social media posts, blogs,

ebooks, research articles) must be of industry

Validation Stage:

“only 23% of your traffic becomes a lead because they realise they need

this solution”

This stage is arguably the most pivotal point

in the customer’s cycle. The leads at this

stage are generally evaluating your product or

service and will eliminate any solutions that

aren’t a good t. So it’s necessarily important

to engage and nurture a deep relationship

with your leads through content that

provides expert and peer validation such as

testimonials, reviews and press releases.

and product neutral information; highly

valuable content that creates awareness on a

topic that spikes your ideal customers’ pains

and problems.

Education Stage:

“only 75% of the traffic becomes interested in the topic”

As a consumer, when you google things like

“How to lose weight fast”, or “How to grow

my business”, a whole list of all sorts; articles,

blogs and youtube videos, will pop up. These

are all examples of industry and product

neutral content that provides solutions to

your ideal customers’ questions and further

educates them of their pain points/ problems.

After reading a couple of these articles, you’ll

realise that you’ll prefer the ones that offers

the most valuable, relevant and educational

information, and eventually you’ll subscribe

to their newsletter to receive weekly content.

Once a subscription is made and personal

details such as name and contact details are

provided, a consumer becomes a qualied

lead. So the key to the Education stage is:

creating valuable, relevant and educational

content consistently to successfully convert

trac into leads.

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Purchase Stage:

“only 2% of your traffic-turned-lead converts into becoming your customer”

Finally your leads are getting hot and you

want to close the deal. To hit the nail and lift

the conversion rates, the content you want to

create here will need to provide product and

vendor comparisons, or differentiation. By

offering promotional content like discounts,

vouchers and trial offers, you’ll be able tie the

knot and close the deal.

Advocacy Stage:

“approximately 60-70% of your customers will repurchase from you again

and become your brand’s advocate”

This stage is just as crucial as the previous 4

stages, however many businesses make the

mistake of disregarding this and neglecting

their customers after they’ve made their FIRST

purchase. According to Paul Farris’ book

Marketing Metrics, a repeat customer has

approximately 60-70% chance of repurchasing

from you again and is so much more easier to

convert compared to a new customer, while

5-20% chance of converting a new customer.

Hence, the advocacy step is important!

Content delivered after the purchase stage

has incredible impact on customer retention,

cross selling and brand advocacy, so denitely

consider using content such as newsletters,

blogs, feedback forms, surveys, promotions

and loyalties and customer stories to keep

engaging with your customers after the

rst win!

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It’s necessarily important to

engage and nurture a deep

relationship with your leads

through content

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CONCLUSION

Countless businesses today are losing

potential customers because they don’t

acknowledge how impactful the Lead

Generation process can be to help generate

customers and revenue. Through this article,

I hope you have understood the process of

lead generation and the different inbound and

outbound marketing strategies integrated

with content ideas that you can use to

achieve effective results at each stage of the

Customer Buying Cycle.

Having a website developed according to

strategy can become quite costly.

TAKE ACTION

If you are a small business owner or keen to start

your own business, and you’re ready to take your

business to new heights, click on the button below

to book a fully subsidised 1-on-1 Advisory. Our

digital experts at Netstripes can help you achieve

better business results.

29

Learn More

NetStripes has since been appointed as authorised digital

specialists for Small Businesses in NSW. The federal

government policy makers and other key influencers have

acknowledged the benefits of the programs NetStripes

have created to help small businesses in Australia to

innovate and grow as

“Transformational and Ground breaking”.

NetStripes’ trusted and verified digital and marketing system has

already helped hundreds of small businesses achieve transformational

business growth. A comprehensive system that includes skills training,

strategy, advisory and innovative web technology to guide entrepreneurs

in achieving their dreams and goals.

What this really means to your business is that you will be seen as a

trusted and credible brand in your industry, win more customers, make

more sales and create more success.

Personally, you will have less stress, more freedom and more time and

money to do what you love.

We know we can do this for your business just the way we have for so

many entrepreneurs, to achieve their goals.

www.netstripes.com

P. 1300 10 8880 | E. info@netstripes.com

55 Pyrmont Bridge Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009 Australia

LEAD

GENERATION

GUIDE FOR SMALL

BUSINESSES

www.netstripes.com