Re-evaluate Your Keywords: Search engine optimization is an essential aspect of Sales 2.0 lead generation – but are you doing it wrong? Using industry-specific jargon as keywords for your website’s content, tags, and anchor text makes sense to you, but not necessarily to your prospective clients. Put yourself in your buyer’s shoes: think of what words someone unfamiliar with your industry might input into their Google search. Listen in on vendor call-ins to support staff, conduct customer surveys, and use Google analytics to track current consumers and gain an understanding of the word-choices they use. Then, adapt your vendors’ perspective in your keyword searches.

Rethink Your Call-to-Action: Creating a concise, engaging call-to-action(CTA) should be an obvious first step for a business’ website. Unfortunately, many companies make the mistake of having no CTA or a poorly-worded, overly-complex CTA. Why make it difficult for prospective clients to request a quote or contact your business directly? According to Phil Parancias, marketers should walk six feet away from their monitors and assess their CTA. Make it large and prominent enough that someone could see the CTA from across the room. The importance of having your contact buttons large, concise, and engaging cannot be overstated.

Don’t Rush Into It: You wouldn’t get married on your first date – so why would you approach lead generation any differently? Not every (in fact, very few) leads will be ready to purchase the very first time they come across your company. Pressuring prospects too early may scare them away from you and into the arms of a competitor. Instead, focus on nurturing the more hesitant leads through your marketing department. For example, sending leads a monthly newsletter, providing them with a link to a free white paper, or offering them discounts on your products will help push them through the funnel and make them sales-ready in the future.