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Most business leaders’ essential goals are increasing sales and keeping sales pipelines full. In the online world, increasing abundant online visibility and attracting new website visitors is an effective, proven strategy for generating new business-to-business (B2B) leads and sales. This article will outline strategies and tools for targeting and generating new leads using online sources. These strategies employ sophisticated combinations of useful, engaging content, informative websites, consistent email marketing, interesting social media, and effective digital advertising. What is online lead generation? Online lead generation (OLG) refers to the process of attracting and capturing potential customers or leads with engaging content and exclusive offers via online channels. It involves using digital marketing strategies and tactics to identify and engage with individuals who show an interest in a particular product, service, topic, issue, or brand. Online lead generation is essential for several reasons: Business growth: Generating a steady stream of leads is essential for the development and success of any business. Without a consistent influx of new leads, a company may struggle to expand its customer base and increase sales. Targeted audience: OLG allows businesses to target specific demographics, interests, or behaviors. By focusing on the right audience, companies can improve their chances of attracting qualified leads who are more likely to convert into customers. Cost-effective: OLG offers a more cost-effective approach than traditional marketing methods. Digital marketing, such as social media, search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, and email marketing, can provide a higher return on investment (ROI) by reaching a larger audience at a lower cost. Measurable results: OLG enables businesses to track and measure their marketing efforts more effectively. With the help of analytics tools, companies can monitor the performance of their campaigns, evaluate conversion rates, and make data-driven decisions to optimize lead-generation strategies. Relationship building: OLG allows businesses to engage with potential customers early in their buyer’s journey. By providing valuable content, personalized experiences, and effective communication, companies can build trust, nurture relationships, and increase the likelihood of converting leads into loyal customers. Competitive advantage: Many businesses actively utilize OLG strategies in today’s digital landscape. By adopting effective lead generation techniques, companies can gain a competitive edge by reaching targeted potential customers before their competitors do. Overall, online lead generation is essential because it helps businesses generate a consistent flow of potential customers, improve targeting and cost-effectiveness, measure and optimize marketing efforts, build relationships, and gain a competitive advantage in the digital marketplace. OLG uses inbound marketing Online lead generation is an element of what is referred to as “inbound marketing.” Inbound marketing is applicable to commercial and industrial cleaning sales due to several crucial factors of interest to property managers/owners, including: Health and safety, including such issues as Covid-19 viruses. Improved indoor air quality (IAQ) Enhanced productivity Preservation of property Compliance with health standards, requirements, and regulations, including OSHA. Due to these critical and evolving elements, property managers/owners frequently may face new and different challenges and thus search for new and various solutions. Where do people turn to get information about complex topics such as health and safety issues, indoor air quality, and new standards/regulations? The process of researching and seeking useful information often starts online at Google. This tells us that we should be online. But how does this benefit our business? Here is where we begin with a marketing strategy called inbound marketing. But what is inbound marketing? Gabriella Hunt explained it well in her recent article on Constant Contact entitled “From Strangers to Buyers: The Power of Inbound Marketing.” She wrote: “Inbound marketing aims to attract customers by providing valuable and relevant content or experiences. It’s a form of demand generation designed to draw prospects in, unlike traditional (or outbound marketing), which outwardly pushes a brand, product, or service.” This article focuses on understanding online lead generation using essential inbound marketing principles. Know your customers First, the business that knows its customers best will win more business over the longer term. With a keen understanding of clients’ exposures and needs, commercial and industrial cleaning professionals can educate and steer clients to the most appropriate strategies, practices, and products. While the environment in which our customers operate is constantly evolving, a significant need for cleaning assistance and guidance exists. This produces an ideal environment for inbound marketing and online lead generation. Target a specific audience with relevant, useful content Before we explain some specific elements of OLG, let’s quickly revisit the trusty sales funnel. The well-known sales funnel helps us envision the process our customers travel when going through the buying process. It includes the four steps of awareness, interest, decision, and action/sale. See image below: For this article, we’ll focus on brand new customers, those at the very beginning of the buying process (or top of the funnel), the “Awareness” stage. We often refer to this group as “People we don’t know.” An essential element of the “Awareness” stage is that customers are not yet looking for a specific brand, company, or even product. They have a question, issue, or problem and go online to see what they can find. This is precisely when we want to “get found.” For instance, let’s focus on a scenario in which we are seeking local property managers and owners as potential customers. Using this example, numerous strategies and different tools can successfully generate this type of lead for us. First, let’s briefly review some actual search data from Google, which shows search data from the last 12 months. See the image below: The above table shows that from Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024, there were: 50,000 searches per month for “commercial cleaning.” 50,000 searches per month for “commercial cleaning services.” 50,000 searches per month for “office cleaning services.” 50,000 searches per month for “commercial cleaning services near me.” 50,000 searches per month for “commercial cleaners near me.” If you look at the year over year (YoY) change column, you will see no change from last year to this year. However, a 900% increase occurred in monthly search volume for the previous two. This is a significant

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