The ultimate goal of lead generation is to generate high-quality leads that eventually convert to customers. Simple, right?

Ok - maybe not, but that is why it’s the marketer’s job to figure out the right mix of channels and tactics that produce engaged leads that will eventually turn into $$$.

To make things even harder, marketers don’t always have the luxury of a million dollar per quarter budget like the big guys do but still need to make sure they have a healthy funnel despite the budget they are given.

When this happens, we see marketers try the “easy” way and buy cold lists to run campaigns against. Like our last post suggested, this produces nominal results at best, and it can cause more detrimental effects that outweigh those positives. But don’t worry! With some creative thinking and a little more coordination, there are some budget-friendly tactics that could help you produce greater results.

Here are five budget-friendly tactics you should consider to optimize your strategy!

1. Leverage Your Customers

Your best advocates are the ones who already believe in your product or service. Enable your customers to evangelize for you. Ask them to speak on webinars, feature them on a podcast episode, or utilize them for your next blog. Your customers telling the story of how they benefit from you will always be the best way to present your value.

Keep things simple, you don’t always need a full-blown case study. Short blogs or even quotes in nurtures can work. If you can get your current customers to contribute to a piece of content, they will share it within their network, and that audience likely falls within your target too.

Pro tip: Keep track of which customers change companies, and there are some tools to alert you of these changes. This info can be a great opener for reaching out about a new deal at their new gig either by an SDR or through your own marketing touch points like an email or direct mail.

2. Capitalize On The Wave Of Influencers

It is no secret that the popularity of influencers is grabbing marketers attention, and the numbers prove why. Influencer marketing “delivers 11x higher ROI than traditional forms of digital marketing,” (Invesp).

Who are the top influencers in your industry? Speak to them, work on cross-promotion and shared content so you can tap their audience. Top level influencers might require payment, but there are many people a level down from them who want more exposure and still have an engaged audience you can communicate with.

3. Use Your Community Or Trial (If You Have One)

If you have a community or trial, it’s often an untapped pipeline into new leads and can open the door to some major decision-makers who are already familiar with your product.

Provide incentives to current members to get the decision makers at their companies, including their superiors, to join as well! Host giveaways, promote content to share with their team or provide ways your current members can unlock certain features or content if they get others to engage as well.

Also, make sure you provide engaging content within the trial period to help keep you top of mind, and maybe offer the incentive of an extended period if they share your content within their team or socially with their broader network.

4. Find And Join Third-Party Groups And Forums

Where does your target persona hangout? Have you done research into the groups or forums your audience is active within? Meet your customers where they already are to open up the gateways of communication. Get your team members on board to join in these groups and strategize content to share and ways they can contribute. Position your employees as thought leaders and an engaging resource to provide benefit to your audience, and ultimately, attract them to learn more about your product.

5. Embrace The Power Of The Podcast

The rise of audio content consumption is hard to ignore. In a 2017 Nielsen survey, 69% of those surveyed agreed that podcasts ads made them more aware of new products or services.

Are you asking yourself the question, where can I find time to start a podcast? This channel can seem like a large endeavor, but it doesn’t have to be. About 73 million Americans listen to a podcast at least once a month, and it isn’t always new content. Creating short, evergreen content using your own in-house subject matter experts will help you tap into another channel your audience is very likely already engaging with.

Also if you are experiencing low attendance rates to your webinars why not convert the file to audio and distribute it as a podcast? It’s an easier form of media for someone to digest as they don’t have to watch anything and if you start to see engagement you can skip the webinar slides altogether and just run podcasts. They are much more conversational and quicker to create than a highly choreographed webinar, so you’ll save time as well as boost engagement!

Tying It All Together

Whether you are looking to optimize your lead generation strategy or are in need of some budget-friendly lead generation, implementing just one of these strategies today can bring you closer to generating new leads or engaging your existing audience, even more, to push them further down the funnel to become a customer.

Marketing is all about testing new ideas, evaluating their success and optimizing your mix of channels and programs. So if budget is low, and your funnel is drying up, try something new or revisit something you tried in the past with a new perspective and break out of “the same old” marketing campaigns you’ve always run.