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3 Must-Do Professional Services Lead Generation Strategies

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Posted by John Beveridge on Nov 12, 2015 1:58:53 PM

3 Must-Do Lead Generation Strategies For Professional Services FirmsEver get a free food sample while walking through a city? It's a beautiful thing. You're trudging along, stomach growling, thinking about whether you can fit in a quick lunch, and you pass an employee from a newly opened burger shop handing out hot sliders on the sidewalk. In the world of lead generation strategies, is there a better form of advertising than putting fresh food in the hands of a hungry person?

Inbound marketing for your professional services firm is a bit more complex, but the basic concept holds. By creating valuable content and promoting it in the right places, you effectively give prospects a preview of what to expect when working with your business. We'll cover content marketing, and more, with 3 professional services lead generation strategies you can put to work right now.


Offer a Deeper Dive

Your blog is the perfect place to start with content marketing. While blogging consistently requires commitment, your industry knowledge should provide you with a steady flow of valuable post topics. It's important to remember, though, that blogging is just the first step in a series of connected lead generation strategies. If you want strong, qualified leads, you'll need to dig a little deeper.

  • Create long-form content, like whitepapers and eBooks, to give prospects a more detailed perspective on key topics.

  • Promote your long-form content on your blog, and present it as a service to readers. The simplest strategy is to create landing pages, so that you can link customers directly from your blog to your lead generation offers.

  • Tying your deep-dive content into your lead generation offers is a crucial step. While charging a fee defeats the purpose, most people will be happy to provide some basic contact information in exchange for valuable content.


Use LinkedIn Sponsored Updates for an Early Boost

Inbound generation strategies are not necessarily quick-fix solutions, but the payoff is more than worth it. If you're building an audience from scratch, the first challenge is simply getting your content in front of the right people. LinkedIn sponsored updates require a minimal investment, and allow you to target prospects based on very focused parameters.

  • When you target large organizations, reaching the right level of management can make all the difference. Sponsored updates allow you to target based on job title, company size, location, industry, and more.

  • Remember that the quality of your content ultimately makes the difference. Sponsored updates are an opportunity to show off the best of your business, and your content.


Offer Free Consultations to Seal the Deal

The inbound marketing funnel starts with awareness, and ends with a purchase. Your “bottom of funnel” prospects have already demonstrated interest in your services by visiting your website, consuming your content, and, ideally, by accepting a lead generation offer. Offering a free consultation is an effective way to make the final push, and turn those prospects into customers.

  • A free consultation isn't just a chance for the prospect to learn more about your business. It's also your best opportunity to learn about the prospect's needs.

  • By the time a prospect has reached this stage, you've already built up considerable trust and goodwill through your inbound marketing.

  • That trust should make the conversation easier, and give you an advantage in earning the prospect's business. It should also help you prepare an effective, personalized consultation.


Inbound lead generation strategies often require short-term effort in the service of a long-term payoff. You can't build a blog, social media presence, and inbound advertising overnight, but every small step makes a difference.

Your sponsored content leads prospects to your blog, your blog leads them to your long-form content, and you long-form content leads to a meeting. If you want to grow your professional services client list, there's no substitute for inbound lead generation.

Want to learn how you can step up your professional services lead generation? Schedule a free consultation with us.

Topics: Professional Services

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