Perth is a unique and rewarding place to do business due to the fantastic quality of life this city provides and the alternative market characteristics its businesses share. With Perth’s smaller population, local companies are discovering new and exciting lead generation strategies.

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What makes Perth Lead Generation Strategies Unique?

As the capital of Western Australia, Perth offers a variety of different services and markets to suit many different industries’ needs.

Learning how to understand Perth’s unique market and how to generate leads in a local environment is key to your business’ success.

Perth encompasses all the charms of a small local town without jeopardising the value of operating a business inside a major city market.

Cottesloe beach is a destination for many Perth families as the lifestyle this city provides offers a unique balance of work and play. lead generation strategies in Perth are very different to other major cities.

Perth residents feel as if they know half the population personally but get to experience this small town effect without having to compromise on the premium level of access to services and people which living in a capital city provides.

On the one hand, familiar faces or names and recognisable contacts within any local industry are a definite asset to those looking to develop more effective relationships with other businesses and customers.

But business in Perth is not all positives.

Perth’s small population means businesses often struggle to figure out how to make marketing campaigns effective and have difficulty locating a sustainable supply of new leads.

“Business in Perth is like watching a pack of hungry dogs fighting over a lean bone”

Mark Werrett
Director Retail Investment Services,

Perth’s  low population means any business’ lead generation strategies differ from more common approaches due to significantly smaller market opportunities than other major cities around Australia such as Melbourne and Sydney.

Australian Cities’ Population(2015):

Sydney: 4.8 million

Melbourne: 4.4 million

Perth: 2.2 million

Although this will means fewer leads, it is an opportunity for businesses to concentrate over the quality of the leads they do identify.

Operating a business in Perth gives companies a real chance to spend the needed time cultivating a lead, developing a personal relationship with them and nurturing the future conversion of a customer.

Below are 10 effective lead generation strategies for your business in Perth:

We have gone into detail with each section so if you would prefer to skip to a particular tip, here is a table of contents:

1. Face to Face Advertising
2. Networking Events
3. Support your Local Community
4. Volunteering
5. Join a Co-working Space
6. Establish Yourself As a Local Expert
7. Small Scale Advertising & Guerrilla Marketing
8. SEO For a Low Population
9. How to be more visible than non local competitors
10. Online Web Directories

1. Face to Face marketing:

As with any smaller city or town, reputations good or bad, are often easy to develop and difficult to lose.

People like to do business with those who they know, trust and like.

Word also travels fast in Perth especially within a specific community and industry channels.

Make a local name for yourself as a trustworthy, knowledgeable or positive company to do business with and watch your leads begin to steadily rise through referrals.

Cross the wrong customer or business, however, and watch these leads begin to dry up.

It is critical for the success of your business to get out and about in your community and take part in as much as possible to create a positive impression for you and your business amongst other locals.

This is one of the most effective local lead generation strategies.

Residents of a smaller population city like Perth will have a far higher chance of not only remembering your business but thinking to use your services over competitors, provided you have left a positive taste in their mouth.

To achieve this you must identify many points of physical contact between your business and potential customers as possible across your local community.

2. Networking Events:

Another example of local lead generation strategies is to become active and take part in as many networking events as your schedule will allow.

Attend things like business networking groups and industry meet ups whenever you can.

BNI morning meetups around Perth are a fantastic place to start as the group has multiple chapters across the Perth metro area.

Each chapter provides a supportive, structured environment for the nurturing and exchange of quality business referrals.

District 32‘s business cooperative is also an excellent starting point in terms of how to expand your networking in Perth.

The group offers a fantastic level of shared skills and offers businesses, connecting you to a base of over 80 local businesses and providing access and exposure for your business on community radio and local podcasts.

For Perth’s rapidly growing demographic of female entrepreneurs, groups such as the Perth chapter of Business Chicks connects like minded women and men to a network of over 35,000 individuals across Australia and provides a wide variety of events and activities to take part in locally.

These kinds of networking groups can be a fantastic way of learning how to generate leads and cross referrals with other businesses who attend.

Visiting co-working spaces around Perth and using local event platforms such as EventBrite and Meetup are the best ways to get started in locating new meet up networking groups.

Make your attendance regular and allow other attendees to familiarise themselves with you and your company over time as you develop new B2B relationships.

3. Support Your Local Community:

Few people recognise choosing to shop local and supporting nearby local businesses as part of an effective lead generation strategies campaign.

This is a fantastic way to involve yourself in your local community and to be viewed more positively by those within it.

Introduce yourself around to other local businesses nearby and try to always do business locally when you are able.

Even if this is as simple as getting a sandwich and a coffee next door instead of getting in your car to get to your favourite lunch destination.

You might even be able to arrange a partnership with another local business where  an exchange of value for both parties can be organised.

Consider ideas for their own lead generation strategies and how you could get more customers for other local companies and businesses around you.

These businesses will be sure to return the favour and keep your company in their minds too, even if all they can do is provide you with a few useful referrals.

Check out this awesome infographic by OpenView on the value of referrals.

Attend and participate in local events which your target market might also be involved in.

This might include conventions and community based events such as fun runs and kids days out.

ExperiencePerth, WeekendNotes and AroundYou are all fantastic local resources for people looking to participate in any community event or simply look for something interesting to do on a weekend with the family.

Don’t forget to consider company branding to display in some way during these kinds of events so people can recognise your business and your involvement.

This type of community work will position your business’ brand in a positive local light as a company invested in the local community.

4. Volunteering:

It never hurts to volunteer or provide some community support towards a good cause.

Being proactive in your company’s community participation is one of the most effective ways to create local lead generation strategies and some positivity around your brand.

A fantastic way to do this is for business’ to create their own idea and campaign regarding how to contribute or give back to a particular section of society or the local community.

Some great resource to check for ideas which people are already involved in around Perth is via GoVolunteer and VolunteeringWA.

These websites pair volunteers with charity groups and nearby events to your area and are a great way of demonstrating the ethics and community empathy of any local business.

Stick with what you know best and your team’s expertise when coming up with a campaign.

Karma might even reward your efforts with some positive PR or exposure for your business but if it doesn’t, seek it out yourself by creating press releases and contacting local journalists.

Exposure is certainly easier to achieve in a smaller population city such as Perth.

As one of your  lead generation strategies, this exposure will also have a much higher chance of converting audience members into paying customers.

PRO TIP:

Journalism students and new journalist graduates from local universities are always desperate for any experience and such a story will be perfect for what they are looking for.

The Western Independent is Curtin University’s student based newspaper.

This is still a fantastic approach for tackling lead generation strategies in Perth and a great way to boost your PR as many larger Perth media companies and newspapers keep tabs on what student journalists are writing in these locations to steal their story ideas.

5. Join a Co-work Space:

Co-working is the latest work trend currently booming across Australia with dozens of new spaces opening up in Perth alone over the past couple of years.

Co-work spaces are a fantastic and hip alternative solution to working at home or from a company office but can also work hand in hand when it comes to developing your business’ local lead generation strategies.

Filled with many start-up entrepreneurs and freelancer creatives, these contemporary  workspaces encourage collaboration and referral between local communities of like minded individuals and businesses.

Operating your business out of a local co-work space will be a far more affordable option than renting out any private office space.

With no huge overhead costs, businesses are able to share an often prominent mailing address, meeting rooms and members’ unique skill sets in a positive and productive work environment.

Co-working is an effective way for businesses to improve a business’ profile with other companies and professionals.

They are Business 2 Business hives of opportunity and fresh ideas and a great starting point when brainstorming on how to generate leads in Perth.

SpacedCubed offers Perth professionals and entrepreneurs a centre stage work hub in the heart of the CBD on St Georges Tce.

This Coworking space is home to endless industry meetup events and a wide cross section of Perth businesses and freelancers.

For the more creative and alternative individual, Perth’s trendy port-side town of Fremantle offers a variety of different Co-working spaces such as fSpace.

This shared office is located at the bottom of Market St close to the train station and is home to some very cool freelancers and small start up businesses.

As the co-working boom continues to grow in Perth, new specialised work spaces are popping up to cater for the different needs of Perth businesses and workers.

BubDesk is an exciting new space taking off in Northbridge aimed at helping stay at home parents return to the workforce.

Mums and Dads stuck looking after the baby are able to drop them off at BubDesk’s onsite creche facility  while they work away in a productive, trendy and cooperative environment downstairs.

Other great local co-working spaces:

• TechHub – Northbridge
• Collabor8 -Fremantle
• Sync Labs – Leederville
• Hive – CBD
• Sixty27 -Joondalup

6. Establish Yourself As a Local Expert:

With fewer numbers of people in Perth comes with it fewer numbers of experts in any given field.

This creates a unique situation for Perth businesses to capitalise off when working on their local lead generation strategies.

By positioning yourself or your business as a trusted and knowledgeable source of information can be one of the most effective ways of standing out to a local market.

You need to be able to clearly prove you know what you are talking about and what services you might be offering.

You also need to appear more knowledgeable than any other local experts.

Give away as much info as you can even if this is knowledge you would normally not think of sharing or making public.

Transparency here is key even though this may seem counterintuitive.

Holding back any trade secrets when attempting to establish yourself as an expert is a big no no.

If a potential client realises you are holding back information you will have lost their trust which is even more difficult to recover from in a smaller city like Perth.

You can give out this information through a number of different methods.

Engage in content marketing including creating blog posts and small videos where you answer questions which your users might be asking.

Ask other websites to if you can be published as a guest writer.

Many other sites will love the opportunity to have an expert or professional in any field sharing knowledge on their website.

If you do author any content that will be published away from your own website be sure to request they link back to your own site to make sure traffic can flow through to find your services.

You could create and host specific seminar or presentation discussing your area of expertise.

You will gain expert status giving informative, transparent and free seminars regularly to specific demographic groups or types of industry.

7. Small Scale Advertising & Guerrilla Marketing:

Coming up with cost effective and unique ways to market your business is a fantastic way of demonstrating your business’ creativity and resourcefulness to your local community.

Consider placing advertisements on local council benches, on taxi cabs and bus stops and even asking permission to place flyers in high traffic areas near either your business or where your target market might typically hang around.

Guerrilla marketing can provide a younger and more hip impression for your business than placing an add in the phone book for example.

The more unique and original the stunt, the more exposure you are likely to generate.

This will also generate leads for your company as community discussion is established around your campaign.

If you aren’t allowed to use any signage for your business in the building you occupy or in the street front, consider buying a cheap second hand bike and completely rebranding it as a mobile billboard for your business.

You can leave it chained up out the front of your location directing people towards the front door or encourage staff to use the bike on their lunch breaks as they cycle around the local area.

More can be done with business cards than simply handing them out.

Head to local bookstores and libraries nearby and find books with content related to the services you offer.

Why not try hiding business cards inside these books on the relevant pages.

Creative Guerrilla Marketing have put together a comprehensive online list with some great underground, cost effective marketing techniques which you can put into place today.

8. SEO For a Low Population:

Local businesses looking to target and attract more customers need to understand how to approach SEO when your market is lower than most other major cities.

When performing local keyword research in a city with a lower population such as Perth, it is crucial for local businesses to be able to recognise how to still capitalise off the lower volume of online searches.

It is important to remember that there is more to the picture than mere search volume.

When performing SEO, our goal is to try and identify and then attract those users with a higher probability of converting into paying customers.

Don’t be tempted to target shorter, more general searchable keyword queries which may provide higher numbers of search traffic but tend to attract lower quality users who don’t always convert into paying customers.

Instead, Perth businesses should aim to target longer and more specific keyword phrases which would be more likely to be searched by a legitimate customer interested in your business’ services.

Longer more specific keyword queries can also include geotags at the end of the phrase to localise any search results.

Although the amount of traffic you are targeting with these more accurate and localised keywords will be smaller than a more general phrase, the users it will target will be more likely to convert into paying customers.

9. How to be more visible than non-local competitors:

Despite larger more prominent competitors often dominating industry and being ranked higher in online search, there are a number of methods for local businesses in small cities like Perth to still improve their own visibility with.

Visibility online is crucial for your business’ efforts in lead generation strategies.

We want users to find our website over similarly named businesses or companies offering similar services to your own who might be located in other cities around Australia.

All business’ websites should come equipped with a clearly listed  address,  phone number and any other relevant contact information.

This is important to not only allow clients to find and contact you but it also allows Google and other search engines to determine your business’ location and place it accordingly inside its directory.

Another great way to provide this information to search engines is to attach a Google Maps section somewhere on your website with a pin dropped in your business’ location.

This will tell Google that you are a local business and allow engines to rank you above similar named businesses or those which offer similar services but are further away geographically or in another city.

This is also crucial even if customers don’t need to find where you business is located or you wish to remain more private.

If this is the case, place a GPS pin somewhere such as St George’s Tce in the CBD to still let Google know and confirm your company is based in Perth.

When both your customers and Google can now easily locate your business you will begin to see an increase in lead generation from your website.

10. Online Web Directories:

Web directories such as Yelp and YellowPages allow users to easily find what they are looking for online.

Before searching for any additional directories you should first create a Google Business page for your business.

This is free and will take around 15 minutes to set up and is a more effective visual reference for users to locate your business inside of Google’s search engine.

Google will display your business’ address, opening hours, contact info, map location, logos and other images all on the front page of the search results.

Your business will appear to those local users Google identifies as searching for your services even over much larger companies and competitors who may be located in another city.

Listing your business in extra online directories increases your website’s exposure and helps to create even more inbound links to your business’ website.

Using local web directories should be one of your first lead generation strategies attempted by your business.

Most directories are completely free to sign up and place your business inside of.

This also greatly improves your own SEO and website ranking in search engines as it allows them to more easily understand what your pages’ content is about by searching a trustworthy directory site.

Identifying a niche market for your business and finding those directories which advertise these types of businesses is going to be a highly effective way of reaching your target market, advertising your services and generating leads.

121 Creative has provided a fantastic resource of local Perth and Australian online web directories for you to place your business inside of.