Posted by: Christy Roth, Project Manager

Most marketers are in the same spot: do more with less money. As you’re facing this challenge, here are three things that you can do to improve the efficiency and results of your lead generation program:

#1 – Stay Visible Even in a Tough Economy
Through these tough times it is more important than ever to stay visible to prospects whether or not your competitors are doing the same. There are many cost-effective and even free opportunities to help us accomplish this. Use social media and social networking sites to your advantage. Even though it may be out of your comfort zone, consider being present on tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, and more. In addition, if you are planning online media buys for 2009, work to negotiate tactics that include freebies such as e-newsletters and ad units. All of these things help keep you in front of potential leads.

#2 – Keep Educational/Solution Oriented
When pursuing your target audience, be sure to present your brand/company as the top educational and solutions provider in your industry. During a time like this prospects are sure to be doing a lot of “shopping around” for information and solutions. If you can set your company up as the solution provider for their problems, you’ll be in good shape come purchasing time. A great way to do this in your media pushes, such as email broadcasts and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, is to provide informational help rather than being “salesy.” Building up these relationships builds a strong foundation for the future.

#3 – Follow up on Leads Quickly
This is the time to make sure the sales team is geared up and ready to go. Any hot leads that come through the door need to be acted upon more quickly then ever. That being said, it is important that through lead nurturing and any other tactics your company uses to be aware of where prospects are in the buying cycle and only react with sales when they are ready for that conversation. You don’t want to scare the potential lead away by being overly aggressive.