The lead generation process is a crucial step towards attracting, converting, and retaining customers. In fact, 78% of marketers say that this year, they will keep or grow their marketing budget for demand or lead generation because they see it as a strong factor for good revenue.
But lead generation doesn’t always come easy. So, if you’re new to this method, here’s everything you need to know about leads, the process of generating them, and the best strategies that you can use to get the most returns for your investment:
What is lead generation?
Before we delve deeper, what exactly is a lead anyway? It’s essentially any consumer who has shown interest in your product or services but has not decided to buy yet.
Also known as a potential customer, you need to convince your leads to turn their interests into actions in what is called the lead generation process.
Why is lead generation important?
If done right, lead generation can bring a lot of benefits to your business:
- It boosts your revenue.
These days, you can’t just rely on word-of-mouth or hope that someone will find your business by accident. If you want to boost your revenue, you’ll need the help of a good sales lead generator to get you a list of prospects to reach out to and try to turn into clients.
The more clients you get, the higher your chances of earning more from your sales.
- It grows your followers.
Lead generation is more than just capturing the interest of potential customers. It’s also about building your name as a trusted brand and thought leader in your industry through sharing excellent content with people who are interested in what you offer.
- It expands your market.
You had a specific market in mind when you started your business, but that shouldn’t stop you from exploring other markets that could expand your portfolio and grow your business faster.
- It improves lead quality.
Instead of just throwing content to a general audience and hoping that they’ll somehow be interested in your business. Lead generation allows you to target a specific niche of customers that have a higher chance of buying your product.
What are the best lead generation strategies?
When it comes to effective lead generation, you can still get a lot of benefits from using sales lead generators that will speed up the process of finding, verifying, and curating a list of potential customers for your business. But if you’re going to make the most of your investment, here are five of the best lead generation strategies that you can use:
- Lead magnet
A lead magnet is a classic strategy in every lead generation playbook. Here, you’re essentially offering a freebie in exchange for gathering a customer’s contact details.
In most cases it could be a free sample of your product, a trial subscription or an exclusive peek at your collection. A lead magnet is effective in helping convert leads to customers because you’re not only attracting them to your business but you’re also giving them a peek at what you have to offer, which can easily lead you to a sale.
- Email outreach
Email is still one of the most powerful marketing tools in the world today and that’s because millions of people still rely on it as their primary form of communication.
Since most consumers these days are all about useful content, email outreach offers an opportunity to share relevant information to a list of potential customers so they can make an informed decision about your product and also learn more about your industry. You can even maximize the results of your outreach efforts by organizing drip campaigns that will allow you to continue the conversation based on the response that you’re getting from these potential customers.
- Content marketing
70% of marketers say they are investing in content marketing—and for good reason. Being one of the most efficient strategies in terms of ROI, content marketing focuses on delivering relevant, timely and useful information that will not only increase the traffic to your website but also help you build your brand as an authority in your niche.
- Referral
Referral marketing is essentially word-of-mouth redefined. This strategy utilizes conversations that help spread the word about your business, product and brand.
With more than 2.4 billion brand-related conversations around the world today, referral marketing is a smart strategy to use for not only generating strong leads but also building your credibility as a business.
- PPC
Of course, there’s traditional pay-per-click marketing that still does a lot of wonders in the lead generation process. Since millions of people rely on search engines to find products, services, and general information, having your advertisements placed cleverly on the top-fold of organic search results will give you leverage for clicks from potential customers.
What is a lead generation funnel?
Each customer has his own process in buying a product or service. But everyone goes through the same stages that lead up to a sale, which is your end goal as a business.
As a marketer, it’s very important to know how to motivate the customer throughout his journey in the sales cycle, and this is why the lead generation funnel was created, which is divided into three parts:
- Top of the funnel (TOFU)
This stage will be your first formal interaction with a potential customer, so you should focus on building that sense of trust and comfort while introducing your brand and expertise slowly.
Never push for any sales pitch here because you’re all about educating customers about you through relevant content at this point.
- Middle of the funnel (MOFU)
At this stage, the customer has already determined the problem that needs to be addressed. This offers you the opportunity to show solutions and add value to your brand without being too pushy for a sale.
- Bottom of the funnel (BOFU)
At this point, your leads are already called prospects since they’re already thinking about buying your product or service. This is when you can really focus on selling strategies like offering reviews, case studies, and price comparisons to help customers make that informed buying decision.
Effective lead generation is all about doing things at the right time, using the right tools, and finding strategies that really fit your business needs.