If you're a seasoned entrepreneur who has been around the block a few times in the digital sphere, you know the trade-offs, and the nature of the online game, you also know that generating leads is the bread and butter of strengthening your online presence.
You should also know that lead generation is the key to your online and offline growth and gaining new leads is an ongoing effort.
Why? First of all, you need to leverage the number of people who are visiting your site. You need to boost traffic in order to see a dramatic increase in sales, as only 4% of visitors are ready to make a purchase from your site, according to Marketo research results.
However, being consistent eats up a lot of time and effort. Most entrepreneurs simply don’t have the time to think out, implement, and oversee every part of an effective lead generation strategy, let alone conduct it by themselves.
Generating leads is a delicate process that often requires the use of different channels and following and engaging with different online trends, along with other considerations.
This is especially true for the digital marketer, who’s may already be overwhelmed with demands from their clients and simply can’t allocate enough time to find new ones and look for ways to scale the business even further.
It’s times like these when it’s more than beneficial to turn to someone else for help.
Enter Lead Generating Platforms
Platforms like DesignRush can give marketers the competitive edge they are looking for to generate leads and increase brand visibility.
Digital professionals from all walks of the industry should consider these platforms if they wish to promote their services and business and to increase their revenue. No matter if they offer advertising, recruiting, customer support, social media management, web design, software development, content marketing, SEO, or any other digital service, you can rest assured that you will manage to turn a few heads and to improve your business’ overall online presence.
There are quite a few benefits right off the bat you can reap by listing your agency on such a platform. You are putting your brand in front of a large user base. By ranking high on these sites, you can potentially make your business and services visible for thousands (even millions) of potential clients who are already looking to team up with a reliable, expert digital agency just like yours.
To put this in better context, DesignRush, for example, gets thousands of visits each day from clients looking for different service providers. On the platform, users can scan agencies and service providers by different categories, and by checking out the rankings, they can get a better idea of factors such as pricing, reviews, and portfolio.
So, what do you need to get started?
Getting started is pretty simple. On DesignRush, you just need to create an account and submit your agency for listing. To get a better start, you can also ask your previous or current clients to leave reviews regarding your services.
It probably goes without saying, the more professional and detailed your profile is, the better your chances are of receiving a good ranking and becoming one of the go-to businesses in your respective category.
A higher ranking means a greater possibility of luring in more prospects and turning leads into closed deals and new clients.
You can also opt for listing your business in more than one applicable category to gain more visibility. Also, make sure that all your contact details are valid. The worst thing you can do is post an email address or a phone number that’s out of order, causing potential clients to search elsewhere for services.
The Benefits
Using the DesignRush platform for generating leads offers many benefits, including:
Increased Brand Visibility
Submitting your business allows you to improve your visibility and get in front of thousands of potential clients. As already mentioned above, having a detailed and professional profile will help you attract the right clients. Keep it in mind that the vast majority of users on these platforms are entrepreneurs just like you, or managers and decision-makers who are looking to hire an agency just like yours. You want to show off your business in the best possible light and you should provide every key detail that might interest your target audience.
Better Reputation Within Your Respective Industry
Better rankings can help you build a better overall reputation among the competition and the more time you spend exposed to qualified audiences, the better brand awareness you generate.
DesignRush issues press releases regularly, covering different trends, ranking updates, and the latest insights. When your brand gets mentioned in these releases, you know that thousands will hear about your brand, not just on a local level but on a global level as well.
Better Online Traffic
The more detailed your profile is, the better your chances are of seeing slight boosts in traffic in the beginning, as potential clients will get intrigued to know more about your brand and services.
As you gain more ground on the platform, you can track the improved and larger traffic coming toward your site, and you can rest assured that a substantial amount will come from these lead generation sites.
The platform enables you to contact your potential clients directly.
More Qualified Leads
Not every lead will turn into a potential customer or client, but the more qualified the lead is, the greater the chance they’ll become a client.
When you’re looking for people to partner with, you are looking for decision-makers and managers. In most cases, these are the exact people who browse the rankings on these platforms and if your profile is professional-looking enough, you may be a strong contender on the website.
To attract quality leads, make sure to:
- Have a high-quality brand logo.
- Write a standout company description that grabs attention.
- List all important project details clients need to know (minimal project size, hourly rate, and so on).
- Include a detailed list of your services and categories that you offer.
- Prepare a cohesive portfolio with case studies, videos, and even photographs.
- Again, always make sure that people can actually reach you using the contact info you provide on the platform.
- Showcase your references and reviews from previous clients.
To kick it up a notch, you can explore even more options to get ahead of the rest through advertising and partnering options with the platform.
Improved Social Proof As The Driving Force Of Your Business
You know that there’s no better marketing than a good reputation. What’s also great on platforms like DesignRush is the fact that, apart from the quality services you provide, the social proof and trust you can gain on the platform can truly have tremendous effects on how prospects look at you.
Transparent Client reviews
Client reviews can help you greatly with ranking, especially when the reviews are quality and detailed. Reviews are one of the most crucial elements of building brand credibility. 92% of B2B decision-makers are likely to opt for a product or service after reading a couple of trusted reviews, however, only 20% of companies use reviews to gain some advantage in their marketing strategy.
The ranking badges you can get on the platform can signalize the fact that your potential prospects are dealing with a high-ranking business on the dedicated platform you are using.
Star-ratings are quite self-explanatory but can help a great deal, especially with those clients who filter their next potential partner by looking at only the best-rated companies.
PR Coverage
To get even more quality leads, you can also opt to use the PR services these platforms provide. For example, in the case of DesignRush, you can get your brand in front of a huge industry-targeted audience through well-elaborated and executed PR activities.
The platform regularly reports the newest rankings in different categories, industries, and locations, DesignRush issues regular press releases that get covered by an array of both local and global industry-specific websites, media outlets, news portals, and so on.
Getting featured in a press release can give you a huge boost in terms of visibility and later on in generating leads.
Also, you can experiment with the different linking opportunities the platform provides to drive even more traffic to your website and to increase the odds of closing a deal and converting a lead into a paying client.
Leveraging the Platform’s Content
These platforms aren’t just simple “digital playgrounds” for businesses to come together and partner with. They can also serve as an important insight source with great info that you can use to shape your strategies or to adjust to the latest trends.
For example, DesignRush has detailed quarterly reports from different industries, including categories like web design, development, social media marketing, and more.
DesignRush also gives out some awesome business growth tips in the form of blog posts that can also help you with a better understanding of how branding, different business moves, and strategies can help you strengthen your presence both online and offline.
The platform will help you regarding research most of the time as well. Industry statistics, user habits, online behavior, conversion trends, conversion rate optimization, and other tips that can help you improve your chances on the platform are present on the websites, only waiting for you to apply them.
When you know what your prospects are looking for, it becomes a lot easier to cater to their needs, come up with the content they want, and ultimately, increase your chances of closing new deals.
Using insights can help you both on and off the platform to promote your services in a way that resonates more with your audiences.
Other platforms can also allow you to express yourself by posting blogs on them. Submitting your expert advice, articles, tutorials, and guides on the platform can be a great way to boost your visibility even more and a great chance to showcase your expertise to potential clients.
Adjust To The Ever-changing Digital Landscape
The digital sphere is changing constantly. Marketers and web developers who’ve been in the game for a while now, know that the competition is getting stiffer and it’s getting more and more difficult to reach your target audience and get the coverage and visibility you need to thrive.
Apart from that, B2B buying cycles are also getting more complex. For instance, in 2017, more than half (58%) of the decision-makers asked said that the process of making a decision was longer than the year before. Also, before opting, a lot of them are making detailed analysis and check more info sources for evaluation and research purposes.
That being said, listing your agency on a B2B ranking platform can speed up the sluggish decision-making process and can give you the visibility you deserve at the same time.
As you get in front of thousands of quality leads, you can drive more traffic to your website and convert them into clients.
Ranking platforms also offer you a great opportunity to learn new things about your competition and the industry you’re in, along with client behavior You can implement the newly acquired knowledge to improve your presence and lead generation strategies.
The Takeaway
All in all, platforms like DesignRush offer a tremendous opportunity to increase your conversion rates by improving your online presence.
Submitting your agency to a ranking platform also gives you the chance to build recognition and social trust and to establish yourself as a serious business.
Lastly, it can also provide a great place to learn more about your target audience and your competition.
And in an ever-changing landscape such as the digital realm, being one step ahead of your competitors is what matters the most if you want your business to grow and to get the recognition it deserves.
