Don't get me wrong—cold calling can and does work. However, there are dozens of other strategies out there that work better, and with less aversion. Before online marketing, cold calling did have the cost cutting edge in direct response. Now, however, that's no longer the case. Combine cold calling's fall as a low-cost leader with the public's increasing aversion to cold calling and other intrusive outbound marketing tactics and it's not hard to see why the power of proactive prospecting infographic reported that prospectors are 420% more likely to obtain an appointment, consultation or deeper engagement when there was a personal connection with the prospect.

As customers and subscribers demand more personalized, warm and inbound promotional campaigns, it's time for smart innovators and developers to learn how to increase leads without cold calling or resorting to other equally intrusive methods. Here are three strategies for success tailored for professionals in the SaaS sector.

Strategy #1: Become a power networker.

Networking is an incredible way to forge ahead and make new relationships with the same buyer personas that you target. One of the easiest ways to do this is to take advantage of all of the tools available to you inside of your social media circles. For instance, join or start groups on Facebook and LinkedIn. Ask and answer questions on digital spaces like Quora. Conduct polls and surveys that you distribute across various mediums. Promote your blog posts, white papers and expert status everywhere you can. Revenues will grow as your following does.

Strategy #2: Create compelling content with clear calls-to-action.

This one is pretty self-explanatory and requires that you tap into your own inner writer or into a database of digital freelance talent. Your content marketing and editorial calendar should focus on three important objectives: quality, quantity and consistency. Each piece needs to measure up when it comes to relevance, singular calls-to-action and compelling reasons to read and take the next steps. Sometimes it's easier to start big and then just narrow it down from there.

For instance, you might start out by recording a one hour video on a topic. Then, you use a software program to extract the audio and transform it into the text components. From there, you could make some minor edits and then produce an ebook or white paper. That could be broken down into a series of smaller blog posts or email messages. Those could be broken down into more bite sized social media updates or Tweets. But all of that content came from just one great idea!

Strategy #3: Revisit the ones that got away.

How many times have you turned down an offer, not because it was something you didn't want, but because it was just something you didn't want at that time? There's a huge likelihood that this is exactly the case with past prospects that didn't convert into subscribers or leads. While you shouldn't pester people too often, following up with quality content that is tailored to their goals or challenges isn't unreasonable. You can utilizing blogs or other content channels to interact with people who weren't quite ready to seal the deal.

In addition to nurturing prospects that didn't close, create campaigns to harvest referrals and recommendations from them in exchange for free weeks or months of access to your solution. Don't be afraid to incentivize in other creative ways, like cash, gift cards, discounts or exclusive branded swag.

Looking for even more solutions for effective lead generation for your SaaS business? Contact Milwaukee marketing agency, Accelity Marketing to connect with us and see what our inbound marketing agency can bring to the table.