Online Lead Generation By the Numbers: Not As Easy as 1-2-3

I spent a great chunk of my childhood thinking my father was an artist. We had a couple of beautiful paintings hanging in our living room and I loved them…I actually still remember them vividly as an adult. Well, it turns out his “works of art,” were actually from the paint-by-number kits which were originally popular in the early 1950′s! Learning this made me think no less of my dad though; I was (and still am) impressed by his patience and diligence for painting anything. Let’s just say I did not inherit any artistic genes from him and leave it at that. I will say, however, that online lead generation requires a certain level of patience and diligence which eludes many a marketer or business owner. Too many give up quickly when they don’t see immediate results.

The truth is that online lead generation is hard. Many people and organizations publish articles about ways to successfully generate online leads,  including me; I contribute two lead generation-related articles monthly for Social Solutions Collective, a multi-author site dedicated to “building better social business relationships.” Indeed, many of the online lead generation techniques in which the other authors and I write about are quite useful and effective. The fact remains that all lead generation techniques require time, effort, and persistence before showing any sort of positive results.

Business owners and marketers may consider utilizing these techniques for online lead generation. Learning about these techniques is as easy as 1-2-3.

Blogging By Numbers

Numbers 1-0 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To my knowledge, there are no blog-by-numbers kits… although I do come across a lot of blog posts that are in list form. Even though creating quality content is rarely as easy as 1-2-3, marketers and business owners who are serious about online lead generation should be blogging.

(1) A blog creates an easy, inexpensive and efficient way to share information about your business on the Internet. Blogging allows a person or organization with the chance to fully position themselves as thought leaders within their industries.

(2) Regular blogging helps businesses stay on top of the latest trends and to keep ahead of the curve. Publishing quality content provides a good opportunity for organizations to gain credibility within their industries and target markets.

(3) Survey results and analyses of relevant metrics show that businesses with regularly maintained blogs on their websites experience increased online exposure - and online lead generation - than those who do not blog. The current percentages I see on the Internet range from 57% to 60%, which is definitely significant.

Mobile By Numbers

Does anyone actually use their phone to talk anymore…or use the number pad for anything besides texting? Many people access, browse, and search the Internet from their mobile devices. In order to attract and retain these mobile users - and increase online lead generation - businesses must start, or continue, using high quality apps and website designs for this audience.

Mobile Lineage (Photo credit: barnoid)

(1) According to mobile marketer eMobileLeads, “Google reported a 400% increase in the number of searches being carried out on mobile devices this year, compared to the SAME time last year. One of five of all searches are now being done on smartphones.”

(2) eMobileLeads also reports that “68% of mobile searchers will visit a business, and 53% will actually purchase as a direct result.”

(3) From Social Solutions Collective: “74% of consumers will wait 5 seconds for a web page to load on their mobile device before abandoning the site.” In other words, businesses need to have mobile sites that load rapidly or they risk losing leads and potential clients to competitors with faster mobile sites.

Online Video By Numbers

(Photo credit: Digitas Photos)

Online video presents substantial online lead generation opportunities for businesses. Videos that are posted to and viewed on YouTube rank highly in Google searches. Benefits for businesses include heightened brand awareness and more traffic to their websites - activities which often result in increased online lead generation. Creating and sharing online video content has become even easier with applications such as Vine and Instagram. Your business can evidently say a lot in just a few seconds.

(1) From Social Solutions Collective: “In the US, 183 million people watched more than 37 billion online content videos during September 2012,” and,

(2) “eMarketer predicts there will be 73.3 million mobile video viewers during 2013, up 20% from 2012.”

(3) In a 2012 Content Marketing Institute survey, about 46% of people said they’d be more likely to seek out information about a product or service after seeing it in an online video.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, online lead generation requires time and patience. Success may not come as easy as 1-2-3 - but it’s certainly achievable. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment or send me a tweet…I am glad to hear your suggestions or recommendations. ~ Jennifer G. Hanford (@jennghanford)

Sources:

Sprout Content: http://www.sproutcontent.com/blog/bid/106416/19-Reasons-Why-Your-Business-Should-Be-Writing-a-Blog

eMobileLeads: http://emobileleads.com/

Social Solutions Collective: http://socialsolutionscollective.com/lead-generation-trends-and-truths/

Eloqua: http://blog.eloqua.com/online-video-marketing-statistics/

Image courtesy of sscreations / FreeDigitalPhotos.net