How to Grow Your Business with Lead Generation
Leads are the digital marketing wheels that guarantee you won't run out of clients. Some time ago, the potential customer age process was restricted to a couple of instruments and methods. Then the flood of the web and computerized media fundamentally changed the scenario. Now, when you type in "potential customer age" into any search engine, you will find a huge number of sources on what is lead generation and how to generate leads.
How do you determine the best article on what is lead generation? How do you know they have answered all the questions on lead generation strategies? This is where we have come to your rescue!
We have curated all the methods and strategies for lead generation that current digital marketers use and have put them in simple words for you. Read on for the 8 stages of lead generation and all its subtypes!
Also, did you know that today, 61% of advertisers point to lead generation as their top challenge in business?
First Things First, What is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is a process of attraction, nurturing, and conversion of possible clients into existing clients. Lead generation can be organic too: somebody is keen on your business, visits your site, fills up a form, and turns into an inbound lead.
Yet, for a business to thrive in the current rage of digital marketing, it isn't sufficient to depend on clients to track you down. You need to take part in both inbound and outbound to ensure you have a steady supply of leads and sales.
Lead generation in digital marketing takes digital strategies such as social media outreach, online phone calls, and email campaigns and focuses on clients that match the ideal target profile. The strategies you choose for your company’s lead generation rely upon the objectives you have for your deals and the organization generally.
2 Types of Lead Generation
There are two usual sorts of lead generation:
- Inbound: Inbound is an organic and less meddlesome method that uses indirect marketing strategies such as
- Outbound: Outbound is a direct strategy that involves
- Looking for leads
- Searching out possible clients
- Directing nitty gritty work to finalize a negotiation
8 Steps on How to Generate Leads
1. Make a Plan
Begin by creating a plan of your objectives, illustrating your finances, and researching your target audience. Here are 7 ways of making a successful lead generation plan:
- Create a team of at least 4 people who can handle the email copywriting, sales, research, and coordinate marketing and sales.
- Create a budget for your outbound lead generation team by analysing the current average salary which must also include any additional expenses.
- Create an ICP (ideal customer profile) with your sales pipeline and previous customers’ data. It may include technographic, firmographic and/or demographic details of your ideal customer.
- Now that you have an ICP, use the buyer persona data to target clients similar to your ICP characteristics. A buyer persona may include the buyer’s profession, shopping behaviour, social habits, psychological traits, etc. Of course, all these data are generalised and it's not as creepy as it sounds. These details help you reach out to them whenever they search for anything on the internet. The first thing we all do when we face a dilemma is to Google it. You can update this information based on the industry, the size of the business, and its products.
- Try to sort out the day-to-day tasks for your colleagues (sales, analysts, publicists, and so on). Settle a fixed schedule for your email campaign. Continuously take into account the time essential for your sales to increase.
- Invest in a CRM device, a device for social media outreach, data gathering, sales analysis, and creation of lead lists, and a text expander app to work in conjunction with the other two tools.
- Finally, set monthly or weekly goals for lead generation for your sales managers.
2. Research Your Target Audience
Giving state-of-the-art exact information will establish the ultimate goal for your lead generation. Here’s how you can conduct effective research on your target audience:
- Your researchers must know how to work around a datasheet, how to filter out unwanted data, where to look for leads, and how to build ICPs and buyer personas.
- A researcher’s job is to find out leads and their contact info with the help of data provider tools, upload them into the CRM and hand them off to the sales managers.
- Daily, weekly or monthly reports are necessary to monitor each of the lead generation stages.
You may use tools like BuiltWith, Yesware, and GO Data to create reports on target analytics.
3. Communication
Communication in a lead generation process involves messaging via emails, cold calling scripts, landing pages, social media posts, ads, and playbooks. But what kind of messages should you communicate? These outbound methods should tell
- Who you are as a brand
- Why they should choose you or your product
- Why should they choose you now
Personalise your communication as much as possible to make it stand out in this AI-driven world. Always include a CTA (call to action) in your messages.
4. Create Pre-target Ads
Pre-targeting advertisements help your brand to raise awareness about its services and/or products, give a heads up to potential clients who have never visited your website but are looking for solutions you provide, and boost your outbound KPIs.
5. Create Landing Pages (LPs)
A landing page is a webpage that helps you reach your potential clients (leads) with a discovery call and in turn gather their contact information. But aren’t links used for the same purpose? Then what makes LPs different?
A link could contain a ton of information and CTAs in a small space but an LP (or a webpage) gives out the exact info the searcher is looking for. This way you can segment your audience to send highly targeted and personalized messages.
Now, how to create the perfect landing page?
- Add a catchy headline
- Add a custom CTA
- Add forms and links
- Stick to the topic
- Mobile optimize the page
- Find a reliable and secure host
6. Phone and Email Outreach
These two are the easiest ways of lead generation. Here’s how to put them into action:
- First, verify the leads from the sales managers for unverified data.
- Create templates for calling and emailing.
- Upload the leads into the CRM.
- Group your contacts by time zones using the CRM.
- Prioritise your calls by checking the CRM for who has opened the emails, if the links have been opened, etc.
- When the responses arrive, your sales managers will move them into the sales funnel by setting up an appointment.
- You may use NOTE or BANT methods to help you qualify and choose a lead.
You may create a script for common questions to help this process and follow up within 72 hours if no replies are received. Once both the call and email outreach is done, sales managers must create a report for future reference. Remember that outreach doesn't strictly involve email AND calls. You may choose either one of them depending on the industry you work in.
7. Reports
A report for lead generation must include the number of
- Leads entered in the CRM
- Successful calls
- Discovery calls
At this point, you must include all the KPIs that were tracked and compiled in the report. This helps you in adjusting and improve leads. Compare this report with advertising, social media, and content to get a full picture of what’s working for your company and what's not.
8. Keep Creating a New Lead Generation
When you are at the end of an ongoing lead generation campaign, make sure you have another one in hand to start again. Learn, reorganize, and keep at it to keep your business thriving among the competitors.
A Final Word
A business needs lead-generation methods to grow in its industry. Leads guarantee you never run out of clients, keeps your pay stable, and opens new doors of opportunities. Guess the truth? Organizations with lead generation processes set up have 133% more income than most organizations. Lead generation is not just about increasing sales; it raises brand awareness too and helps you construct regular client connections with an organic interest in your organization's field.
