The ever-elusive lead, chased by all web marketers with varying ranges of success. When the old methods get tired, here are a few more to try.
1. Quizzes: Have a 50% conversion rate and are fun for the visitor
2. Slideshare: Allows lead gen through paid plans
3. Industry Reports: Purchase from Forrester or IBIS and set up a paywall
4. Educational Email Series: Weekly emails that go in-depth on a tough subject to master
5. A Downloadable Kit: The physical lead-gen product
6. Free Consultation: Make yourself the product
7. Free Samples: Trader Joe’s does it, so can your website
8. Produce a Video Series: Like a TV show for your website
9. Host a Webinar: Obama’s doing it so why shouldn’t you?
10. Free Guide: Make a complicated task simple and get leads in return
11. Give away your time: Collect leads through meetings
12. Performance Guide/Website Analyzer: Run a scan in return for a lead
13. Contests: Give things away
14. Twitter Cards: Still somewhat unknown, twitter has a lead generation option
15. HelloBar: A neat plugin that interrupts in an ever-so-subtle way
16. Drip: A popup that’s not super annoying
17. Gated Video: Create premium video content
18. Free Tool: Something simple but effective will do
19. Custom Landing Pages: Set up multiple to test them against each other Time to implement: 30 minutes Effectiveness: 6/10 Recommended tool: Unbounce
20. Coupons: Yes they have been around forever, and yes they still work
21. Scarcity: There’s only one left, and you have to opt-in to get it!
22. Static Positioning: Make the signup form follow the user, not difficult, but it works.
23. Use Unbounce: Seriously, they just keep getting better and better at generating leads
24. Social Hub CTA’s: Honestly haven’t tried this one yet, but it looks pretty sweet! From uberflip
25. Make a target: Literally come up with a person who is an ideal customer
26. Use Triggers in Calls-To-Action
Here’s a guide on how that works.
27. Photo Testimonials are Still Very Effective
Old school is good sometimes. Faces with glowing reviews still work.
28. Ask for less things
Why do you need a button for every social network that has ever existed?
29. Talk directly to visitors
Not like those terrible walk-onto-the-screen cutouts that are super annoying, but videos speaking direct.
30. Use relevant trust seals
RELEVANT – flashing a techcrunch logo on a sales page for enterprise security software doesn’t do much more most people.