It isn’t a surprise that traditional lead gen strategies to get more IT security leads taking a back seat. And more new age methods are being used to generate leads through online methods instead of the the old school flyers and word of mouth campaigns.
Now, this doesn’t mean every strategy and lead generation process will go smoothly just because you decide to implement every online tactic out there.
Cyber-security companies must evaluate the stats of their lead generation strategy in today’s digital world and adjust their efforts based on the results. This will allow them to evaluate their progress and plan for improved options based on statistics overall.
We know there’s a lot of information you need to learn about lead generation. Still, it is only natural for companies and even one in your niche, so it is impossible to ignore or omit even when you don’t want to have a hard time.
Besides, don’t worry; we are here to lend you a hand with all the processes and ensure you are aware of the strategies you can rely on.
With this in mind, the big question comes: How can you generate IT security leads for your business?
Here are the tactics for it.
Identify Your Target Audience
Before you can generate leads, it is crucial to identify your target audience. This is a common problem for every type of company since most of them believe everyone who, in this case, needs cybersecurity professionals is a target.
It isn’t entirely wrong, but not all of those leads are qualified, and instead, you will lose time trying to convert them.
What you must keep in mind is that your marketing strategies will vary depending on the target audience. It is important to do market research to find out who is most likely to buy your products and services so you can adjust your strategies to them.
These are the questions you should ask when determining your target market:
- Who are they?
- How much do they earn?
- Where are they located?
- What are their priorities?
- How about their lifestyle?
- What are their personalities?
Based on your research, you may find that there are multiple target audiences. This is very common.
On-Page Optimization for Your Site
This strategy starts with the on-page generation before you can even think about optimizing the site.
This optimization is mostly about making sure that your website’s pages are properly optimized to the point of generating leads instead of relying on landing pages only (which are where leads convert naturally).
On-page land is often used by news websites, eCommerce websites, and consumer blogs to attract prospects.
Cyber-security companies aren’t the only ones who do this, but they are interested in the part the most.
Now, software such as sumoMe (list-builder, welcome mat, and triggered popups), Optinmonster, exit intent, sidebar form, Wistia (video integration), and Optin Forms will all do a great job of lead generation for your pages.
But before jumping to action, your first step should be to set up your website for on-page lead generation.
Sign-in is not enough. Most clients won’t give their email addresses due to security or personal reasons. There are many steps you can take to win their trust, and this is when we start our main part:
- Give them a reason to sign up or convert.
You need to answer a very common yet crucial question: Why should they give their email addresses or convert them into leads (indirectly)?
Their email address is necessary for your business, so it is only natural to focus your attention on giving them a reason to provide the address.
Now, what part of your service will justify your need to access their personal information? Your pitch should be a reflection of your potential clients and the value you can offer them.
- Trigger emotions.
Creativity and simplicity are key. To get their emotions going, you can use images, videos, or words. You can get them excited, so they want to see, hear and view more from you.
This will naturally lead to conversions and prospects for your services or products.
- Keep it simple.
Make sure that all information is clear and concise. Prospects will be less likely to respond to a lead request for personal information if they have read too much.
It’s important that you are clear and concise, so they don’t get tired or overwhelmed with the information.
- Use visuals.
When it is striking, visuals can grab attention.
Visuals are more effective at capturing the emotions of your clients than words. You can trigger those by using complementary images and videos.
- Test run everything to ensure success.
To determine how consistent your strategy is, you can test it. You can try different techniques and take risks to find the best technique.
Although it may seem small, sometimes a slight change in font size can significantly impact your results, for example.
Knowing your target audience is important as well. This will help you generate more leads and accelerate your results. Clarity is the key to success! It is important to understand your clients’ needs, continuously measure results, and run tests to change based on your target audience.
You Must Use Social Media
A cybersecurity company’s lead generation team can also use social media. In fact, it MUST use it.
Although it allows for personal branding and is usually focused on other niches, it can be very useful as long as you set a well-designed marketing strategy around it. Still, it can also be difficult to establish a consistent voice and brand.
The medium is what differentiates you and builds long-term trust with potential clients.
There are many online tools that can help you work on better strategies for your social media platforms or profiles and automate the process of utilizing them to save time.
Now, more than tools and automation, you need to focus on the essentials and understand what you must do to make your profiles generate IT security leads:
- Ask questions smartly.
If you can get prospective clients thinking, it creates a space in their hearts where your business can thrive.
The right question will allow you to get the right answer and encourage your prospect into a conversation with you and others.
- Naturally, be social.
Prospects are more likely to follow your brand if they know that you are open to having a conversation, no matter how sensitive the topic.
Your interaction with people, answering questions, and commenting when needed can make a difference. You can focus on topics related to your company and continuously evolve the conversation you follow with them.
- Direct them to your site.
Social media is a great tool for generating leads on-page. Start a conversation with your clients that will grab their attention and get them hooked up to the platform.
From there, you can create an on-page strategy to direct them to your funnel.
Social media, when used correctly, can be a powerful tool for creating the right personality and image for a cyber security business. It can also be used to attract and locate the right clients.
- Optimize and personalize your profile.
Before you begin planning your next social media lead campaign, make sure that you have everything you need.
Customers should be able to reach you through your profile, subscribe to your newsletter, shop, or any other means without difficulty.
- Contact information.
Your profile should contain your contact information. Before you create anything related to it, make sure you can respond to customer queries by phone, email, or DMs.
- Create call-to-action buttons.
Depending on your goal, different platforms offer unique profile features. You can also add a “Register Add” button to your Facebook page if you wish to increase your newsletter subscribers.
- Include a link to your bio.
You can add a link to your bio if you don’t have all the necessary tools. This area is most often used on Instagram, but it can also be used on Twitter or LinkedIn.
You don’t need to direct them directly to your website. If they are leads, however, you need one to send them.
- Create clickable material.
If you don’t create compelling content, leads won’t come to you. It’s that simple.
Everybody on social media wants to grab your attention. With so many people, it can be difficult to be there reaching and convincing people.
Sharp images and sharper copies are crucial. You want to generate leads. To achieve this, you need to tailor your creativity.
People should click on Click-worthy content. Each post should include a link and a call to action.
- Design user-friendly landing pages.
You should be strongly related to your website, and you shouldn’t let anyone down by creating a poor landing page after they click your link from their profiles.
The landing page must be relevant to all visitors. This will make it easy for them to see what they are looking for by clicking on your link.
A landing page that is visually appealing and easy to read will be a good one. It should be easy to use and understand for users.
If your landing page has one form, keep it simple. Every question you ask reduces the chances of someone completing it.
This applies to your profile in terms of feeds and how they look.
Be a Machine for Customer Review
For people looking for services similar to yours, other opinions are important. This applies to all businesses and companies, and especially a security company like yours.
When they research so much and try to find others’ opinions, this means that they are trying to decide if you’re worth it based on what other people have to say. But how will they know if there isn’t a single review?
It is important to ensure that clients don’t leave you if they don’t like your company.
You can become a machine for review, but if you are having trouble getting them, these are some tips to help you get there:
- Customers should be able to leave reviews easily,
- Send an email asking for their opinions. Ask for their feedback whenever a service is completed.
- If you push them a bit, many will give a review.
- Use social media to get your message out: Ask for reviews, especially from loyal followers. You can also make tweets and social posts based on your top reviews.
- Maximize review profiles: Please fill out the following fields. Upload photos, provide pricing information, and complete your office address.
- If you have more information and are credible, you will rank higher in search engines.
Turning Visitors Into Hot Leads
Although it is impossible to identify each visitor and start a conversation with them individually, it is possible to obtain their information.
By capturing names, email addresses, and addresses of prospects, you can increase your reach.
It is important to ask users for this information. However, it is unlikely that they will share it with companies or services they don’t trust or in return for nothing.
It may seem difficult to convince people to sign up for your marketing content. However, there are many ways to get their information.
You might be wondering why you would be so interested in this. It is because visitors who aren’t sure what to do next want to know that you care about them.
These hot leads can be key for everything, and if you need some help to get your visitors and convert them, this is what you can do:
- To receive information on new IT services and offers, let them opt in when they make a purchase or hire you.
- Incentivize them to share their information through a form on the website that offers a discount code for signing.
- If they contact you for information on a particular service or any related matter, send them an email. You can remind them about discounts or other incentives or send them the news. If you have information about the subspecialty of their position, you can personalize the content that you send.
- If they come to you for more information, offer a set of goods. You could send them a PDF with all details, a single-page resource, and anything that comes to mind. Giving physical gifts can help increase word-of-mouth reach, and in the case, f your type of business, digital ones work well.
- You can offer a one-time, high-impact, downloadable product in exchange for their contact information. The item must be beneficial to your audience. They won’t be interested in visiting you again, and they will not become leads by looking into your home security services.
Avoid Buying IT Security Leads
You might be wondering if it is easier to just purchase leads than to go over the strategies we are discussing to generate more sales-qualified leads. Well, the short answer is no.
Marketers and salespeople both want to fill their sales funnels quickly. This is why you might be considering this alternative, and we get it; lead generation can be exhausting.
Buying leads is much easier and takes less effort, but we don’t recommend doing it either way.
First, the leads that you purchased are not yours. They come from another site that captured them and is not necessarily interested in your services.
They won’t be pleased with the messages or information you share because they aren’t your target audience in most cases, so it isn’t worth compared to how many you can get from organic methods.
If the prospect has never visited your website and expressed interest in your products or services, then you interrupt them.
If they do not opt-in to receive email from you, it could put them at risk. This train filters your email and tells your email provider which messages it should filter out.
If enough people mark your emails as spam, they will be added to a “blacklist” that can be shared with other email providers. Once you’re on the blacklist, it is very difficult to get removed. Your email delivery ability and IP reputation may be affected.
Finally, it is also expensive to buy leads.
Every IT security lead that you receive will require you to pay commissions. You don’t even know whether it is qualified or if it is going to convert.
Instead, you will most likely receive any user, and your provider will be more than happy charging for it regardless of whether you are getting anything from the lead.
Who would spend more money on something that will not generate any additional income?
Get to Know Your Audience (Not the Same as the First)
Businesses often fail to pay enough attention and don’t know much about their customers. This is one of the most common mistakes.
Their experience on your site is the first thing that will determine whether they stay or go elsewhere. To adapt the site to their needs, you need to know their preferences and basic information such as their age and whereabouts.
Your messaging should be clear and concise. Your audience will trust you and be more likely to convert into new business.
In your messaging and on your website, you should mention the use cases you support. IT security leads will visit your website and learn more about you if they feel that you are listening.
It’s not about knowing your audience only. This step is directly related to being able to “sell” yourself and staying up to date with all news.
These are the factors we always recommend so this process isn’t a difficult or impossible task:
- Keep an eye out for trends in your industry.
- Your business cycles and target audience should guide your website strategy and SEO.
- Your message should be relevant to the IT security leads.
Create Valuable Content for Your Visitors and Leads
Google has always maintained that valuable content is the best method to increase website traffic, so you need to pay attention to it.
Visitors should be able to learn from your website and then leave with questions or a desire to return.
You should make it so valuable that people will want to come back again and again. As a top resource, you’ll also be able to generate leads.
Potential customers who click on your site but don’t interact with the content or elements mean you are doing something wrong, or maybe they aren’t the qualified leads you want.
However, if you notice they are indeed part of your target audience, encourage them by remarketing your content to make them want to return to the site later for more information.
If you have difficulty writing content on your own or feel that copywriting skills are required, hire a professional writer.
Your website will be more appealing to your target audience if you use professional content. So, think carefully about how you will go about this.
Many small businesses depend heavily on paid channels like Facebook Ads and Google Ads to generate leads.
We highly recommend them, and we consider each one to be a great tool. However, you don’t have to pay for ads just to skip the content process since each other complement the other.
Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
We have already discussed how to convert visitors to your website and generate your IT security leads. This could be signing up for your newsletter or providing value. It could also include any other activity that will lead them to hire you.
Now, conversion rate optimization (or CRO) is a continuous process of testing various elements on your website to determine which ones are most effective. What does this have to do we what we were mentioning? The fact that you can determine what efforts are paying off and which ones aren’t.
This helps you get your visitors to convert more effectively to improve or replace the strategies or elements you are using.
Throughout this process, you can test everything, including the layout of product pages, call-to-action buttons, and forms, as well as your call-to-action videos.
This information can be used for improving your website to increase traffic and improve conversions.
For IT security companies, this process can be difficult. Talk to a web agency to discuss your needs and concerns, although we are confident you must know enough about technology to watch a quick tutorial to do it yourself.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your IT Security Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My IT Security Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic IT Security Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.