How to Attract and Engage New Prospects

 

 

There is no shortage of expert advice on how to re-engage lukewarm prospects and existing customers.

But what about marketing strategies that cover how to attract and engage new prospects?

That’s what you’re about to discover below.

First, let’s establish what we mean when we say new prospects. As your products and services evolve, or if a technological or economic shift occurs, you will discover that new leads are about to come into your life.

Lucky for you, that’s a new sales opportunity.

However, these qualified prospects may not meet your traditional customer avatar.

This new prospect type will have different struggles, desires, demographics, and content preferences. (We’ll describe what this looks like below.)

To get these new peeps into your sales funnels, take the following steps.  

Review your customer avatar.

This is not to say that your old customer avatar is out of date or irrelevant. However, when you discover new leads, it’s time to go back to a character sketch that describes the person you market to.

Entrepreneur on Fire sums up this situation best:

Our team has had experience with shifting demographics. And we have learned to view these situations as opportunities.

When we worked on a strategic content marketing plan in the love and relationships market, we spotted an opportunity to expand the market.

The client had been marketing toward single men.

However, data showed many single women landed on the sales pages, and even though the product was a fine choice for them, the marketing didn’t speak to their needs.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know the struggles between single men and single women are completely different.

So, we worked our split-testing magic and used Facebook ads to draw new leads to a different sales page with a content that spoke to each demographic on an emotional level.

Case Study 1: The Single Man Avatar

Notice how our professional copywriters touched on the age, the frustrations, and the desired outcomes—all while we spliced in a little bit of storytelling.

Dating for me was a constant frustration. I couldn’t understand these weird creatures sitting across from me.

I turned 30 a couple of years ago, and I just wanted to start a life with a woman who I understood, and who understood me. I knew I was asking for a lot: I wanted a cute, smart girl, who thought what I had to say was important. But I couldn’t find that.

Not in the bars. Not on dating websites. This best friend and lover didn’t exist—I was convinced of it.

Get this: I found a girl who was hot and treated me right! Imagine that. And all I had to do was use the Love Potion Guide to lock in that loving, loyal girlfriend I thought I’d never find.

Case Study 2: Marketing for the Single Women Avatar

When we realized our client was missing out on a whole new market, we had to sketch out a new customer avatar. The product didn’t need to change, but the marketing approach did.

When you read this short, first-person blurb, you’ll notice how we set up not only the age and situational demographics, but we also future-casted the big picture results.

I was days away from my 35^th birthday when I met Tom. At that point, I never thought a loyal guy who adored me would ever come into my life.

And without the Love Potion Guide, I would have never found this guy who was successful and loyal, AND treated me like the only woman he had eyes for.

And now, two years later, we’re set for my dream wedding in a few months. When are we going to have kids? We’ll start working on that during our honeymoon.

Evaluate your current marketing content formats and make necessary adjustments.

To re-engineer your existing content, the most important rule is research, research, research.

Example: let’s say, for whatever reason, you’ve landed in a situation where you will market to Baby Boomers.

Common wisdom would tell you to shy away from digital formats and stick a fork in your plans to roll out a video series or host a monthly webinar.

When you look at the numbers, that’s not such a great idea.

According to a report published by Buzzstream and Fractl, Baby Boomers spend more time consuming online content than the Generation X and Millennial generations.

To sum up their findings:

• Baby boomers spend over 20 hours per week consuming online content.

• Gen Xers spend between 5 and 10 hours with digital content per week

• Millennials, who are stereotyped as having a love affair with smartphones, also spend roughly 5 to 10 hours engaging with online content.

Since you know that your audience (in this case, Baby Boomers) is engaging with digital marketing content, it’s paramount to find out what they’re looking at online.

In the graph below, you’ll find different scenarios—from looking for information to making direct purchases.

The different colors represent the online format your demographic is using: orange is social media, grey represents video consumption, and blue reflects organic search.

 

Source: DMN3

Bottom line: even though your format may or may not change, your content must engage the intended audience.

When you’ve done your research, only then can you create new content for new traffic.

Find new lead generation opportunities.

When you realize that you have the opportunity to market to a new audience, it’s not as if a magic fairy will descend and bring you the website traffic. (We’ve tried the magic fairy route before—doesn’t work.)

That means it’s up to you to generate traffic. The most effective practice for targeting a new audience is, as always, creating relevant marketing content.

We recommend offering a no-cost/all-value lead magnet for your new customer avatar.

To engineer this lead magnet, we recommend using Nicholas Lord’s 6 questions:

Source: www.workwithnicholas.com

To craft your lead magnet for the new audience, come up with very specific answers to each of these questions.

Here are a couple of examples:

What is your prospect’s greatest fear?

Let’s say you found an opportunity or you have a sudden need to shift your audience to startup entrepreneurs. For them, the greatest fear is likely to be failure.

Think about the situation: they’ve finally struck out on their own despite the naysayers, and yet, there is still a risk of crashing and burning.

To extinguish this anxiety, you could create an eBook that reveals how to set up financial safety nets if profits suddenly take a dip.

What is your prospect’s greatest obstacle?

In this scenario, we’ll pretend that you’ve found yourself in a position wherein you’re working with logistics companies. For them, the most difficult obstacle is to establish fluid communication between drivers and delivery ports.

To provide a solution, you could work up a downloadable paper that outlines the benefits of different third-party logistics software.

“So, what now?”

 Truth is, finding yourself in a situation where your market has shifted…

Well, it’s overwhelming. Especially if you have the ever-so-tiny responsibility of running a company.

If you want to target your new leads, develop lead magnets that generate profit, identify your customer avatar, and more…

Contact us for professional copywriting services.