Did you know that you are probably making sales too difficult? Selling does not have to be painful. It can be easy and natural.

The key to moving from selling pains to selling pleasure, though, is in generating the right leads and enough leads. If you use strong lead generating tactics, the leads will convert to sales without you having to pull any teeth.

The trick is to work smart with the right marketing efforts. Here are nine tactics that will generate the leads you need:

Public Relations:

1. Get Featured

A sure-fire way to generate leads that will convert to sales is through editorial outreach. A few decades ago, this meant getting your business, product, or service featured in a magazine, on the radio, in the newspaper, or in the news. Unfortunately, these outlets can be very challenging to get a spot on. It was and still is, highly competitive. And while this type of coverage is still great to aim for, there are other, easier editorial outlets.

You can send your product to an Instagram, SnapChat, or YouTube celebrity. They can feature the product on their social media channel and tell their followers about it. Alternatively, you could find blogs that your target market might follow and send it to them. These platforms have thousands, if not millions of people, who closely follow them. If the product or service resonates, you will start seeing a significant increase in website traffic and phone calls.

Social Media:

2. Post Gated Content

Maybe you have a lot of followers on Facebook and Instagram. Maybe your website traffic is growing. For some reason, though, this is not translating into sales. The reason for this is that you must get these followers and visitors into the sales funnel. At the moment, they are just peeking in through the window. It’s time to open the door for them. You do this by finding a new point-of-contact: Email. You need to get emails and grow your email list.

The most effective way to do this is to create valuable content. However, you do not just give it out freely. You should allow access to it only through a landing page where visitors have to provide details, like their name and email address. Now all you have to do is write a description of the content, add the link to the landing page, and post it on your social media platforms. All of a sudden you have a mailing list that is twice as long as it used to be.

3. Customize Facebook Contests

Social media is one of the best lead generating tools available. You just need to use it wisely and harness the power of vast networks of friends. One of the best ways to do this is by paying attention to what the latest research is saying: More than a third of millennials like brands on Facebook and follow them in order to get access to competitions that they hold. If this is what consumers want, provide them with it and make it easy for them to access the competitions.

Through your Facebook page, you can hold competitions for a free product or a discount coupon. The requirements for entry can simply be to follow your page and tag two of their friends in the comment section below the post. More often than not, those two friends will also follow your page and tag two of their friends. This has a snowball effect, allowing you to identify countless new leads who are all interested in your product.

To create this ease of access, use custom Facebook tabs. To do this without the help of a developer, all you need is a Facebook tab app. You can use Pagemodo, Tabfoundry, or TabSite. These apps are all very easy to use and enable you to create very professional looking tabs.

Content Marketing:

4. Create A Webinar To Get More Information From Leads

Webinars generate leads and they generate the type of leads that turn into sales. They do take time and effort to develop, but if your webinar offers training, helpful information, or expertise that can not be found anywhere else on the internet, you will bring in hoards of new leads. And because Google’s algorithm does consider the value of content in its ranking, the creation of a webinar may lead to your website’s ranking going up a few spots in Google queries.

To get started, identify the main questions and problems your target market faces. Create an outline for how to help them answer and solve these. Develop a presentation, record it, post it, and put it behind a landing page. This way you can ask for visitors’ information before they view the content. You might also consider asking them a few questions about other information they would like. Based on their answers, you may even consider creating a webinar series.

5. Make Sure Your Content Converts

Why would you spend the time creating content if it does not lead anywhere? You can produce all the white papers, consumer reports, and videos that you want, but if you do not have a strong conversion path, you will just have site visitors, not leads.

This is why every piece of content you post should include a three-step conversion path. The first step is a Call-to-Action. This can be a button or link that is posted at the bottom of a blog or it can be a link that pops up mid-way through your YouTube video. All this CTA does is point the consumer to the next step. You decide what the next step is—submitting their email address, buying a product, contacting you, etc.

The second step is a thank you page. This page can pop up as soon as a visitor has downloaded a content file from your website or it can be a slide at the end of a video. It is simply a nice way to tie things up and politely suggest another piece of content or to follow your brand on social media.

The third and final step is a follow-up email. Within 24 hours of providing their email address, visitors should get an email that engages them further. It might contain similar information to the thank you page (i.e. If you like that content, you might also be interested in this content). You could also use the email to offer them a limited-time promotion.

Email Marketing:

6. Segmentation Is Your Friend

Every email address is not the same. There is a different person behind each one. They are at different places in the sales funnel. Some are active users, who open every email you send. Some are inactive users, who have not opened a single email. These email addresses represent people who have bought from you and people who have not. Not all of them are interested in the same product or service that you offer. You need to understand this and identify who falls where. Most email campaign programs provide you with some analytics–use these to segment your audience.

Have one segment of emails that is for brand new leads. Have another that is to re-engage inactive customers. For each segment design a personalized campaign that addresses exactly where the people are in the decision-making process and leads them to the next step of the sales funnel.

Web Design:

7. Your Website Is Never Finished

You need to regularly update your website. These updates might be recent news, blog posts, or new pictures and videos. It is up to you. But it should be fresh and valuable. The first reason for this is that the more content you have, the more keywords you will have. This means that your website will become more visible to a wider audience. The second reason is that when you update your website, Google takes note. They have to index the website again. In other words, with each fresh update to the website you get another opportunity to move up in Google’s search rankings.

Search Engine Optimization:

8. Keywords Keywords Keywords

SEO is all about increasing your ranking in search engines so that when people search for something that is connected to what you do or what you make, you will come up as a top result. The first place you should start is with keywords. If phrases on your website match a person’s search query, you will rank higher.

Choose the keyword that you concentrate on based on a balance. On the one hand, you need the keyword to be searched for enough. If you have a very specific product with an unusual name, you should not use this as your keyword. No one will ever search for it, therefore your site would not be ranked highly. Instead, you should choose a phrase that describes the product or what it does as the keyword. On the other hand, the balance comes from not making the keyword something too broad. If it is a single word or extremely common phrase, your site will likely get lost below Wikipedia and other information providers. A good way to check on the popularity of the keyword is through the Google Keyword Planner.

9. External Links

Another massive aspect of Google’s algorithm is external links. External links are other sources pointing to your website. Basically, it just means that others trust you–Google likes that. This will take a little bit of work. You will need to pitch yourself to bloggers and online news sources. You could also consider partnering with others in your industry that provide complementary products and services. You could post links to their website and they could do the same for you.

Accumulating strong leads can seem like an uphill battle. As soon as you find one, the last one slips through the cracks. But it does not have to be this way. And by using the above lead generating tips, it won’t be.

Kenneth Hitchner is a communications strategist who protects and promotes brands. He is currently the director of public relations and social media at Creative Marketing Alliance and CMA Association Management. In prior assignments, he served as the spokesman for NJ Transit, the deputy press secretary for a Governor of New Jersey and the chief content officer for a nonprofit the put downsized, college-educated professionals back into the workplace during the Great Recession of 2008.