Best Practices in Digital Advertising to Generate Leads

When the world came to a screeching halt in March 2020, one of the only things that didn’t stop was online activity. Largely confined to our homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was inevitable that we would spend most of our time online interacting with people we couldn’t see in person or browsing the Internet to pass the time. This surge in online activity over the past year — an increase of 70 percent, according to some studies — has led to the phenomenon of too much digital noise. Digital advertisers are being drowned out by overwhelming online content making it hard to stand out and reach their target audiences. 

But thankfully, if you have an agency partner that has the expertise and a proven track record in digital advertising, you can cut through the clutter and take advantage of your target audience spending so much time online. 

If your company is using digital advertising to generate leads, we’ve put together some digital advertising best practices to help you get some quick wins.

  1. Have you refined your audience personas? Before embarking on any lead generation strategy, take some time to revisit your personas/buyers/customer profiles. Do they look like the people you’re serving? Most importantly, does the online content you’re offering them reflect their wants, needs, and pain points? First, make sure your personas are fine-tuned and optimized, and then focus on making your content so relevant to them they can’t pass it up. Otherwise, you will be overlooked. 

  1. When was the last time you did a tools check? If you’re an executive or key decision-maker in your company, when is the last time you checked out the tools your marketing department is using? Have you logged in to your marketing automation or CRM software lately and taken a look around? Sign up for your emails and go through the actual sales cycle your customers are experiencing. See what a day in the life of your customers is like and put yourself in their shoes when you visit your website. What is it like to be a customer of your business? By doing this, you can ensure your customer experience and sales cycle are seamless, and your online user experience (UX) is flawless. Don’t expect your team or agency partner to see things through the same lens as you. As the head of your company, take a stroll through the marketing tools yourself.  

  1. Are you maximizing the usage of said CRM or marketing automation tools? Whether you use in-house marketing teams or agency partners, make sure your team is up to speed on all the capabilities of your marketing tools. Is your agency partner a superuser of your CRM or marketing automation software? Recognized as a HubSpot Platinum Partner, The Old State is considered a high-level user of HubSpot’s suite of products meaning we have seen or experienced just about everything these tools can do. Similar to picking a surgeon, you want the expert — the person who has encountered it all and performed the operation hundreds of times. Not an entry-level newbie. Regardless of the size of your business, make sure your agency partner is in a high-level contractual relationship. In our experience, many companies that are using an in-house CRM or marketing automation software are only using around 25 percent or less of what they are paying for. In short, they aren’t realizing the software’s maximum capabilities and using it to their advantage. In an environment like we are in now — incredibly high online activity with lots of digital noise — make sure you are maximizing your tools. 

If you have questions about your CRM or marketing automation software or need help with lead generation best practices, you’ve come to the right place. That happens to be our specialty. Check out our portfolio of work and contact us to set up a time to chat.