8 Immediate Ideas to Generate More Business Leads

Having a long-term marketing strategy is undeniably important, but sometimes your business just needs a new injection of leads right here, right now.

Although there are very few ways to transform your lead generation overnight (with the possible exception of a more memorable number, but of course we're always partial to those!), there are some marketing methods that act faster than most. Today we'll pick up on eight of them to get your sales team on track and give them more to work with.

8 Ways to Generate More Leads for Your Business

These ideas are eight immediate areas where your small business can start to ramp up its lead generation. For all of these ideas, it's important that you put a processes in place to obtain the name and contact info of anyone who shows an interest in hearing more from your company.

1. Take more speaking engagements and events: Greater exposure at such events almost always means more opportunities to connect with engaged audiences who will want to contact you for more. Demonstrating your expertise on stage (or through interviews with podcasts, on radio or television) will also boost your word of mouth marketing, driving further speaking opportunities in future.

2. Use email sign up forms around prominent places on your site: Don't miss any opportunity to convert a site visitor into a subscriber. Email capture is an important way to turn passing interest into future leads without much more effort from your marketing team.

3. Offer something for free: White papers, educational ebooks, original research, or even free product trials are excellent examples of how content can perform for your potential customers. For your initial outlay of time creating that content, you'll receive the data that helps you to zero in on qualified leads and target future marketing communications to their interests.

4. Integrate referral incentives: Encourage customers who have already shown a passion for your profession to pass on your business information to others who could use your services. Building in a small reward is a smart way to help this idea along. Sometimes even just reminding happy clients that they can help you out will be enough, but either way you have to ask!

5. Participate in (engaged) Linkedin groups: Linkedin is a more business-oriented social site than most, meaning it can be quicker to connect on a professional level. You can help this process become even more effective by identifying groups that need your advice and join them to add value. These may be industry groups in order to develop relationships with your peers, or groups frequented by business users in other fields, with which you have the opportunity to find potential new customers.

6. Convey experience through content: Blogging and guest-blogging are valuable additions to get your name and voice out into the online world. Become known for your area of expertise and more people will come calling for it. If you already have connections to a popular content forum but have questioned the value

7. Answer commercial questions on Quora:  In a similar sense to Linkedin, Q&A site Quora seems to gather a better breed of business expertise. It provides another excellent outlet for your expert knowledge, where you can zero in on questions in your industry and others can upvote your answers to cement your position as a trusted resource.

8. Review your calls to action: Across your site and sales materials, it's always wise to perform regular checks to see if they're making potential customers act. A weak, passive or subtle call to action can contribute to lower sign up and conversion rates, making it all the more important to test, review and repeat.

Still not enough for your rampant need for leads? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more regular marketing ideas and inspiration!