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Small business lead generation can be tough, time-consuming, and expensive. But it doesn’t have to be. Once you identify who your top target audience is and what problems they have, you can get potential clients to contact you when they need help.

Every small business is the proverbial “Needle in the Haystack,” so small business lead generation is critical to an entrepreneur’s survival. And the better your sales team gets at lead generation, the faster your small business will grow into a big business. You need to create a strategy for finding new leads that become new customers.

Remember, it is a lot easier to turn a prospect or lead into a customer if the lead calls you versus when you call them. It cracks me up when I hear titles of articles, seminars, or books about how to “Make Effective Cold Calls” or how to “Warm Up Cold Calls.” Below are a few best practices that each is a great way of generating leads without an email list, a newsletter, or really, without ever having to make a cold call.

However, just like we covered in How to Network at Business Networking Events, business-to-consumer sales and business-to-business sales are totally different. So, developing qualified leads for consumers is totally different than generating qualified leads that are other businesses. So, as we go through the process, I’ll give examples of each type of lead generation strategy.

Here is an easy-to-follow, step-by-step process for Small Business Lead Generation:

1. Before You Spend Time or Money on Small Business Lead Generation, Identify Who Your Target Market Is and What Problems They Have.
2. Create Brand Awareness by Posting Your Solutions to These Problems in Blog Posts and on Social Media Platforms.
3. Catalog Your Small Business Success with Case Studies and Sharing Customer Successes.
4. The Generate New Customers for Small Businesses, Focus on Referrals and Repeat Business.
5. If You Have to Cold Call in the Digital Age, Call to a Targeted List Who Already Knows You.