leads
B2B Growth Marketing Checklist
A Step by Step Guide to Generate Leads Online
By Bernard Ablola
A Step by Step Guide to Generate Leads Online
By Bernard Ablola
As a business owner, it can be overwhelming thinking of how you can boost your sales and where to even start.
You might be wondering…
‘What should my website look like?’
‘How can I increase engagement?’
‘Should I try paid ads?’
Keep reading - this checklist will address those questions and more!
A good website is much more than just looking pretty.
Your website/landing page should effectively communicate the message you want your audience to know and should capture and hold their attention while visiting your site.
This can be done by auditing your visual brand, creating engaging copy on your pages, giving direct call-to-actions and showcasing glowing testimonials.
☑ Create website/landing page:
☑ Logo/color/font/images:
☑ Represent your brand
☑ Resonate your audience
☑ Create a niche specific website / landing pages by implementing these pages:
☑ Website welcome video
☑ (Zoom/Camtasia)
☑ Thank you page with video
☑ Case studies
☑ About us
☑ Services
☑ Testimonials
☑ Privacy policy
Data doesn’t lie.
Analytics are the key to discovering what’s working and how to get one step closer to seeing the results you want.
No more guessing how your business is performing online - setting up analytics lets you stay in the know and strategize your way to success.
Here are a few services tools you can install to track your online presence:
☑ Google search console
☑ Google analytics
☑ Google ads conversion pixel
☑ Facebook ads pixel
☑ Adroll pixel
When was the last time you signed up for newsletter and felt good about it? Not ‘eh’ about it - good about it.
Chances are, you may have received your promised lead magnet after signing up that made your opt-in feel worth it.
A lead magnet is a great way to offer a valuable incentive to those who have taken an interest in your business.
Plus, who doesn’t like free stuff?
Lead Magnet Ideas
☑ Develop at least one core lead magnet
☑ Niche specific white paper
☑ Hero image -
☑ Image must show:
☑ Downloading
☑ Form:
☑ Name
☑ Email
☑ Phone
☑ Website URL
☑ How many employees?
☑ What do you need help on?
☑ What are your growth goals?
☑ Craft white paper download sequence - read more on email marketing below
Here are more ideas you can use to maximize your targeted leads:
If someone’s going to take business advice, they want to make sure it’s from a reputable source.
This is your chance to show you’re no Joe Schmoe.
A webinar gives you the chance to inform your audience on a pain point they may be facing or a topic they just want to know more about.
While preparation can be more stressful, interacting with your audience establishes more trust and increases the chances of them becoming a high-quality lead likely to convert.
Here are the steps to hosting a killer webinar:
☑ Pick a topic to discuss and create slides using a template (link)
☑ Perform keyword research to include 2-3 additional high traffic keywords; add to presentation:
☑ Search for primary keyword
☑ Navigational keywords
☑ Run the Ubersuggest tool
☑ Optional:
☑ Run Google Keyword Tool
☑ Run SEMRush:
☑ For additional keywords
☑ Record webinar using Zoom (10-30 min videos):
☑ Trim excess footage found at:
☑ Beginning/end of video
☑ Add title bar with:
☑ Name
☑ Company name
☑ Add logo at end screen
☑ Add transitions
☑ Create a thumbnail
☑ Upload to Youtube;
☑ Select thumbnail created
☑ Get transcribed on Rev.com
☑ Make the CTA the download of the presentation in PDF format
☑ Post onto blog:
☑ Create a new blog page
☑ Add hero image
☑ Embed video
☑ Copy and paste
☑ Add (3) screenshots
☑ Publish blog post
☑ Share on social media;
☑ Snippets of description
☑ Use powerful headline
☑ Example here
Here’s how to plan and promote your webinar across channels:
☑ Win through quantity and quality; host two live 40 min webinars a month
☑ Create a list of topics and have covers created; schedule it out a year in advance & block in your calendar:
☑ 2020
☑ Promote to list, ads, eventbrite, social, etc.:
☑ Emails promoting webinar
☑ Facebook ads to promote
☑ Eventbrite
☑ Slice it up:
☑ Rev to transcribe
☑ Distribute on:
☑ Blog
☑ Slide share
☑ Social
☑ Guest post
Your approach to email marketing determines how many people will stick around to open (and read) your emails and how many will hit the dreaded “Unsubscribe” button.
You never want your readers to think, ‘What’s the point of this email?’
Your email sequence should offer something valuable in every single message and nurture your leads.
INBOUND LEADS:
☑ Set up email marketing system for drip campaigns (mailchimp/Hubspot):
☑ Email 1 -
☑ Thank you
☑ Downloadable checklist
☑ Email 2 - Video -
☑ CTA schedule a call
☑ Email 3 - Highlight a portion
☑ Email 4 -
☑ New training
☑ Invite to new webinar
☑ Email 5 - New info
☑ Email 6 - New info
☑ Email 7 - Follow social media
☑ OUTBOUND EMAILS:
☑ Send 500 per week -
☑ Every Wednesday
Having an active online presence on a platform millions use daily will surely increase the number of engagements you receive, as long as it’s done the right way.
Don’t know which platform(s) to use?
Test to see which social media channel your business has the best chance of generating leads.
WARNING: Although you may be tempted to cross-post to save yourself some time, don’t.
Each platform's demographics vary, which means the way you craft your message needs to as well to ensure you have the most engaged and targeted audience.
Discover which days and times your audience is the most active and use that as the foundation of scheduling your posts.
☑ Set up social media profiles:
☑ Youtube
☑ Linkedin
☑ Facebook/IG
☑ Slide Share
☑ Twitter
☑ Niche specific webinar presentation:
☑ Background template
☑ Record 30 min webinar
☑ Slice it up into 3 segments for bait videos on YouTube:
☑ Unique Ability
☑ Meetings
☑ Applying to team
☑ Record 30 min webinar
☑ Writer to:
☑ Edit
☑ Add compelling title
☑ Add keywords tools:
☑ Google Ads, SEMRush
☑ Add hero image
☑ Represent keywords
☑ Unsplash
☑ Pexels
☑ Raw pixels
☑ Add screenshots in article
☑ Schedule posts on blog 3x per week
☑ Post/schedule on social media:
☑ Add image
☑ Title
☑ Description
☑ CTA
☑ Youtube
☑ Slideshare
☑ Linkedin
☑ Facebook
☑ IG
Once you know your target customers and their attributes, you’ll want to build lead lists.
List building allows you to communicate and strengthen your relationships with your leads, as well as accumulate data on who they are in order to have more successful outbound campaigns.
Organize your prospects and leads into spreadsheets with every bit of contact information you have; from their full name and phone number, to their address and which stage they’re at in the buyer's journey.
Import that into your CRM and boom - you’ve got yourself high-quality leads who can help you increase your conversion rate via email.
☑ Here are a few ways you can build your list:
☑ Networking
☑ Associations
☑ Buy / scrape
☑ Ads
As much as we love chatbots, being greeted by a human when you stumble upon a website instantly makes the online experience much more personable.
Having a face tied with your business to welcome users via video practically guarantees they’ll spend more time on your site. And if someone spends more time on your site, they may just become a prospect.
☑ In your minute long video, include:
☑ Introduction/welcome:
☑ “Thanks for visiting…”
☑ Users’ pain points:
☑ “You may be looking for…”
☑ Call-to-action:
☑ “You can download...”
Similar to the website welcome video, thank you videos create a greater sense of trust and credibility since visitors can see a human associated with the company they’re researching.
Saying thank you and offering users something of value not only lets your prospects get to know you and your business before you have the chance to talk to one another, but it will also make them feel good about a decision they have made on your site.
☑ In your minute long video, consider:
☑ Saying thank you (duh):
☑ “Thanks for requesting...”
☑ Explain what they’re receiving:
☑ “This guide will teach you…”
☑ Reminding them your contact info:
☑ “Contact us at…”
☑ Including a call-to-action:
☑ “Call to get your free...”
☑ Calendar CTA
Need more business ASAP?
That’s what paid advertising is for.
It has other benefits such as laser-focused targeting, increased qualified leads and increased brand awareness.
If you have a product or service you want to show the world, paid ads are the way to go.
Paid advertising is offered in a few forms such as pay-per-click, pay-per-view, pay-per-download, display ads, video ads, etc.
☑ But before you even think about spending money on advertising, you’ll want to consider the following:
☑ What are you hoping to achieve?
☑ Is your sales funnel set up?
☑ Which platform are you going to advertise on? Why?
☑ What is your budget?
☑ What keywords do you want to bid on?
☑ How will you track your results?
Once you decide where you’re going to advertise, be sure to track your progress as well.
☑ Here are the steps to get started and what to measure:
☑ Set up a pay-per-click campaign:
☑ Google Ads
☑ Microsoft Advertising
☑ Facebook
☑ Important KPIs to measure:
☑ Impressions
☑ Clicks
☑ Cost per click
☑ Conversions (email and phone / sales)
☑ Cost per conversion
☑ Average lifetime value of a customer
Not every single user who visits your website is going to convert. And that’s okay.
But, you want to optimize your website to maximize your chances of generating leads.
If someone is on a mission to get answers so they can find what they need, it is in your best interest to make it easy for them to find what you have to offer.
Include the most information in various forms for a great user experience. This means more page visits, increased page average time, higher Google ranking, etc.
Your business will gain visibility if you take the time to keep not only visitors, but search engines in mind as well.
☑ Optimize your website:
☑ Include contact information
☑ Add forms to pages with the most traffic
☑ Write blog posts with 1,200+ words
☑ Include 3-4 keywords on each page
☑ Include meta descriptions
☑ Create user-friendly interface (on desktop & mobile)
☑ Add live chat service to website
☑ Promote ebook offer on topic related blog posts
☑ Customize CTAs
☑ Include photos & testimonials
☑ Add trust seals
☑ Test until you’re blue in the face
And there you have it -- what you need to know about generating leads.
Hopefully, this checklist gave you some insight on which direction to take. Try them out and let us know how they work out for you!
Jo Malone once said, “The ingredients I believe every entrepreneur needs to succeed are passion, resilience and creativity.”
Now, go get ‘em, tiger.
Bernard Ablola is the founder of Think Strategy, where he helps clients formulate their online strategy and framework to ensure projects are kept on track. He is a frequent speaker on B2B lead generation and marketing automation. Prior to Think Strategy, Bernard earned his MBA in Entrepreneurship/International Studies from Seattle University and worked at Microsoft Corporation, managing multi-million search and display advertising campaigns for top tier clients. When he’s not embedding himself in learning, you can find him hiking or skateboarding throughout Southern California, walking his Pomsky (Google it) or finding THE spiciest Asian food in the city.
