Inside Sales Lead Management Featured Article

Leads are the lifeblood of sales, yet so many of us do not actively look for -- and cultivate -- new leads. As a self-employed writer, I admit that I’m among this group.

By not generating new leads, though, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.

One of the most important aspects of lead generation is having a good inbound marketing strategy.

The first step is figuring out a strategy; what will be the public face of your inbound marketing, and what kind of content will be relevant to your leads? What kind of publication schedule should be put in place, and will WordPress be the web site platform for this marketing effort or something else?

The next step is designing a website with clear ‘call to action’ buttons or links. The point of the inbound marketing is lead generation, so the content on the site should not get in the way of actually generating these leads; it needs to be obvious how readers can take the next step.

That next step is creating good inbound marketing content. An easy way to figure out what type of content to offer up is to see what questions your audience is asking and then answer those questions. This often is the difference between viral posts and those that are more or less ignored.

It also helps to connect with larger Web publications that can expand your reach. Reach out to editors at these publications and see what they need. You might just have ideas and content they would want to publish.

Just as important as having the right content is constantly adjusting the plan. Your inbound marketing strategy should include regular review to see what is working and what is not. You should keep daily, weekly and monthly tracking, and then adjust every month based on the data you have collected.

If you’re really on top of your game, you might even want to consider making weekly adjustments. Nothing is perfect, so there is always room to improve your efforts.

With this inbound marketing strategy in place, fresh leads should start to increase within a few months. Then, with any luck, so will new sales.