7 Low-Cost Lead Generation Strategies for Businesses in Charlotte

There are a number of low-cost lead generation strategies to try in Charlotte, NC

Business owners in Charlotte always reach out to Charlotte Content Marketing, wanting to know: “What can you do to attract more customers when the economy is rough? I want to know how to get more customers for my business in Charlotte.”

It’s no secret that everyone feels the pinch in 2023, making it difficult to continue business as usual. Not all companies are affected equally by an uncertain economy and spastic consumer sentiment, but even if your Charlotte-area business isn’t directly affected, the indirect effects can trickle down in time.

To help business owners in the Charlotte Metro get more customers in the door, we’ve compiled a list of seven low-cost/no-cost lead generation strategies to keep customers engaged when the economy feels a bit iffy.

Check out our list below:

1. Re-Identify and Target Your Ideal Customer

If you’ve been in business for a while, you probably understand your customer base well. Still, it’s not a bad idea to re-evaluate your buyer personas occasionally, especially if you feel like leads aren’t what they used to be.

Over time, things change. That’s just a fact of life and a fact of doing business. Perhaps your customers or industry have changed. Maybe the old ways of doing things need a refresh. Unfortunately, being too close to the problem can sometimes cause us to be blind to subtle changes over time.

Look at the pain points of your current customer base to see what needs to be addressed that isn’t currently covered in your value proposition. You may find new opportunities to attract business that are missing from your current strategy.

Social media can be a powerful tool to get to know how leads & customers

2. Lean Into Social Media

Social media remains an integral part of lead generation, even as some socials are seeing a decline. The key to using social media for lead generation in Charlotte is to be realistic. At Charlotte Content Marketing, we often note that likes and shares are not leads. They signal engagement, but they do not signal a qualified lead.

Instead of worrying about getting likes on social media, use these platforms as research tools. As mentioned above, buyer personas can change over time, so use social media to research what your ideal customer is concerned with. Learn to listen to what’s important to them by reading through their interactions across social media.

Another important point here: Your goal with social media is not to promote your products and services directly but to promote your brand in front of likely buyer pools. Sure, you can generate sales through social media interactions, but the real power behind these platforms is the power to provide an experience with your brand.

Also, consider using personal pages instead of your business page to talk with people in local social media groups. Once people see that they’re interacting with a brand page, they brace themselves for a pitch. Instead, these are opportunities to slowly get to know buyers and discover whether they are worth pursuing as leads. This approach takes time, but it often results in a closer relationship when you do convert buyers.

3. Optimize Your Website for Conversions

Your company’s website is the heart of your online presence and should be optimized to attract and convert visitors. As with other parts of your digital strategy, now is an excellent time to take another look at your website to see if things can be optimized. At Charlotte Content Marketing, we use a variety of tools to monitor our clients’ web pages to pinpoint areas of engagement and gather important metrics that help our team create content that converts.

Questions to consider in your evaluation include: Do all pages offer value? Do you have enough content on each page to guide someone along the buyer journey? Are your pages optimized for the right keywords? Do you have strong calls to action that clearly direct traffic to your sales pages? Now is an excellent time to conduct a content audit to see what can be improved to attract more visitors and qualify leads to convert them.

When managed properly, email marketing can be a huge lead generation tool for Charlotte-area business owners

4. Leverage Email Marketing

Email marketing, newsletters, eBook giveaways, and other forms of content keep buyers engaged. If you have an email list, how are you measuring things like open rates? How much effort are you putting into your newsletters? Do you have a timeline for how your email marketing content guides readers to your landing pages and ultimately leads to conversions?

It would help if you also looked at how targeted your email marketing campaigns are and whether you’re correctly segmenting recipients. Specific names on your list may be better suited for certain offers, but if you don’t have segmented lists, you may end up wasting opportunities.

5. Host Webinars and Events

You can also give people a reason to want to get to know your brand better in Charlotte by hosting webinars and live events. You can do this simply by using a smartphone and social media platforms, but the sky is the limit regarding how technical you want to get with your streams.

Another solution is to host live events with business partners in the Charlotte region. Many restaurants will happily host events because it’s a win-win arrangement. You bring in potential diners, and the restaurant offers a space to host an event.

During your live event, you want things structured in such a way so as to guide buyers toward an action. You are not selling products and services during your events – you are selling the experience of working with your company in Charlotte. The content of your presentation should be centered around selling the experience of your brand, not what your brand sells.

Have your customers introduce you to leads via referral programs

6. Implement Referral Programs

Referral rewards and incentives are a time-tested way to generate leads. You don’t have to go over the top with rewards and incentives, but you can offer something of value to your existing customers to refer people they think will be a good fit for your brand. This is impactful because people who buy from your company will tend to associate with people like them. These people are more likely to be leads who can benefit from your products and services as well, making the task of converting these leads that much easier.

7. Offer Free Trials or Demos

Free trials and demos can dovetail nicely with live events and webinars. The largest benefit to providing free demos or trials is that they build proof and trust, but they can also be demand-generation tools. Once you “wow” a prospect with a free trial or demo, you’ve started building demand. Now you can capitalize on this by taking further actions to acquire and convert leads.

Demos are also a way to build authority in the area. You can brand your demos in many ways, but the key is making your assets recognizable and available. When people in the Charlotte area come across your brand assets online, in stores, or anywhere else around the city, your company is already known and can attract more attention. This leads right back to demand generation opportunities and easy conversions.

Bonus Tip

If you haven’t already done so, utilize a Google Local Business Profile to make sure your company gets found in local searches. This is a free resource from the big G, and while it takes some time to set up and manage properly, an optimized Local Business Profile can play a big part in getting found in local search results. Managing your Local Business Profile also helps your site ranking in search results, so if you have the extra time, you can do this on your own. If not, the experts at Charlotte Content Marketing are here to help.

Want to Learn More?

To learn more about these tips and other content marketing strategies in Charlotte and the surrounding Metro region, contact Charlotte Content Marketing for a free consultation. We’d love to learn more about your business and help you find creative ways to use content marketing to attract more customers.

Call us today at (704) 323-6762, or use our convenient contact form to get in touch online.