How digital leads help your business grow without breaking the budget

Acquiring new, financially strong customers is one of the biggest challenges for small and medium-sized businesses. Many invest a lot of time and money in so-called cold calls or networking meetings—but still don't secure enough new deals. Meanwhile, the customer journey has changed in most industries. Today, the majority of all buying journeys start with a Google search. 97% of customers ignore sales calls, and over 70% find new suppliers through digital channels. In this article, we want to give you tips on what to consider to improve both visibility and relevance.

Common Challenges for SME Companies

Many smaller companies can relate to one or more of these points:

• Limited marketing budget – it's tough to compete with bigger players and understand where efforts will be most effective.

• Hard to reach the right people at the right time – the message is either irrelevant or doesn't get through at all.

• Unclear digital touchpoints – websites, social media, and ads are not optimized to generate leads, and the messages are inconsistent.

• Long sales cycles – customers need several interactions before they are ready to purchase, and often multiple stakeholders are involved from the customer's side.

How Digital Lead Solves Many of Your Challenges

Digital lead is about using digital channels to:

1. Attract the right visitors to your digital touchpoints.

2. Engage them with relevant content, forms, or offers.

3. Nurture and qualify them until they are ready to buy.

A structured approach makes it possible to tackle many of these challenges.
If you have a limited budget, targeted advertising and search engine optimization can provide a higher return than broad campaigns. Advertise narrowly and spend time optimizing your target audiences.

Having difficulty reaching your target audience? With segmentation and marketing automation, your message can land at precisely the right moment. Timing and relevance are crucial to breaking through.
If your digital touchpoints are not converting, optimizing with clear call-to-actions can make a big difference. And with long sales cycles, lead nurturing through email, social media, and retargeting can keep the dialogue warm until the customer is ready to buy.

Proven Results – In Numbers

• Marketing automation can deliver up to 80% more leads and a 77% higher conversion rate (Oracle).

• Content marketing is used by 85% of B2B marketers to generate leads, costing on average 300 SEK per lead compared to 850 SEK for physical events (HubSpot).

• LinkedIn is used by 89% of B2B marketers for lead generation, and 40% consider it the most effective channel for high-quality leads (HubSpot).

What Should Be Included in Your Digital Leads Strategy?

• Optimize your website for conversion – focus on the customer and how they navigate during their buying journey.

• Use marketing automation to follow up with leads with relevant dispatches – again, focus on the customer and their questions or challenges, responding with, for example, answers or proactive service.

• Combine SEO and targeted advertising to reach the right audience – and tailor the message so it resonates with customers, using the language your buyers use.

• Measure and analyze the results weekly to quickly adjust efforts.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

A common mistake is trying to be visible everywhere at once. Many companies spread their resources thin by going broad in all channels instead of focusing on those that actually deliver the best results. Another issue is that marketing often lacks clear goals and metrics, making it difficult to know what works and what needs adjustment. Additionally, digital touchpoints—like websites and social media—may not align with the company's actual offerings, creating confusion and reducing the chances of turning interest into business.

Is it Time for You to Invest in Digital Lead?

Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you know where your best customers actually find you?

• Are you aware of which channels generate the most high-quality leads?

• Do you follow up with leads until they are ready to buy?

• Do you collect data from all interaction points to optimize your strategy?

If you answered “no” to any of them, it's high time to take control of your digital customer journey.

Want to Know How Digital Lead Can Help Your Business Grow?

Contact us for a free meeting where we go through how you can get more customers—without increasing your marketing budget.