Every marketer has listened to industry experts sing the praises of paid advertising. It’s a song we know well – filled with promises of visibility, traffic and leads. But these promises fall short for many marketers. In fact, according to HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2018 Report, marketers name paid advertising as the most overrated marketing tactic. This doesn’t bode well for social media giants who bank on advertising income as financial fuel. But we’re here for you, not for them, which is why we’ve put together five ways for you to generate leads without using paid advertising.

Go Organic

Organic traffic can be a powerful lead source if your website is optimized for lead gen. 51%of all website traffic comes from organic search, while only 10% derives from paid search. By boosting organic traffic, you’ll gain more opportunities to convert visitors on your website.

Producing high quality content on a regular basis is the first step to increasing organic traffic. The content needs to be highly relevant to your target audience - addressing the questions and concerns they may have during each stage of the buyers’ journey. 

The more unique and specific your content is, the better its search ranking will be. For instance, an article entitled “10 Best Restaurants of The Year,” has far less SEO potential than one entitled “10 Best Indian Restaurants of 2018: Greater Boston Area.” By producing unique pieces of content regularly, your website will slowly but surely climb to the top of search engines and engage more target users.

Optimize Your Goldmine

All that organic traffic won’t produce a single lead if your website isn’t properly optimized for lead generation. There are two main elements you must pay close attention to in order to capture more leads on your site: calls-to-action and forms.

When executed properly, calls-to-action entice visitors to take the actions that are most valuable to your company, whether it’s filling out a consultation form or downloading your latest eBook. In order to design effective CTAs, keep them bold, clear and above-the-fold. A study by Nielsen Group found that the average difference in how users treat info above- vs. below-the-fold is 84% - making it essential to keep your main calls-to-action top of page and top of mind.

Once visitors click the CTA, they’ll encounter a form where they must fill out their contact information in order to download your content or submit an inquiry. The key here is to only ask for the information that’s absolutely vital to your sales team. The fewer the number of form fields, the higher your conversion rates will be. 

When travel giant, Expedia, eliminated the phone number field on their forms, they experienced a near 100% increase in conversions. This illustrates just how critical form fields are when it comes to generating leads.

By keeping both your CTAs and your forms in good shape, you’ll be able to convert your website traffic without using paid advertising as a crutch.

Share the Wealth

Another way to reach broader audiences without paid ads is to syndicate your content. This gives credible websites the opportunity to publish your company’s content on their own site. Just make sure the websites you choose have established audiences composed of the people you’re targeting. It’ll do no good to get your content published on a university website if you’re targeting CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.

In order to generate leads from this tactic, you’ll want to be sure to weave calls-to-action throughout your content that drive users to related gated content. By providing value in your syndicated content, you’ll promote trust, making readers more willing to trade their contact information for additional thought leadership. 

Leverage Your Lists

Three-quarters of companies agree that email delivers anywhere from "good" to “excellent” ROI. Sending emails to the right people at the right time can be a powerful way to nurture leads and push them further down your funnel. Although this won’t necessarily generate new leads, it can help you to better segment existing leads.

For example, by sending out offers for a specific product or service, you can use engagement data to decipher which leads are interested in which of your services. By continuously testing different offers on existing leads, you’ll gain insight into your database and identify which leads have the most potential to buy.

Influence Your Audience

Leveraging influencer marketing can be an effective way to drive business if the influencer’s following aligns with your target audience. You can make sure an influencer is a good fit by monitoring the engagement they receive on their digital platform of choice. You should look for quantity and quality - thousands of comments mean nothing if they’re not from the right audience.

Once you’ve confirmed that the influencer is a credible source with an audience you’re aiming to reach, reach out to ask about sponsorship opportunities. Many marketers are hesitant to sponsor influencers for fear that it’s too expensive; however, most micro-influencers offer very reasonable pricing. What’s more is that non-celebrity bloggers are 10x more likely to influence an in-store purchase than celebrities. By identifying the micro-influencers in your industry, you can drive leads without spending an exorbitant amount on sponsorships.

Conclusion

If paid ads aren’t working for you, it may be time for a fresh perspective on lead gen. Whether you boost organic traffic, optimize your website, syndicate content, send emails or use influencer marketing, just make sure the tactic you choose aligns with your strategy as a whole. As long as you keep your eye on your target audience and continuously assess your results, you’ll hit a tactic that propels your brand forward without paid ads. 

Sorry, Facebook.

How have you been organically getting leads? Let us know on LinkedIn!