In the times where digital marketing has taken advertising to a whole new level, Lead Generation is a must have for an online business in its promotional strategies. Gone are the days when companies preferred direct call, SMS or e-mails to get potential customers into buying their products or services. Nowadays online business has extended its approach to using inbound lead generation which provides your company a means to be found by consumers rather than you approaching them. Dropping the traditional way, that is, Outbound lead generation, online marketers have realised that the new and less interruptive way to attain customers is implementing inbound lead generation as one of their advertising techniques.

Let’s get to the basics of Lead Generation.

We will get into what is a Lead, why is lead generation important, how is it done, tools used for this technique and the Dos and Don’ts of a lead generation campaign.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY A LEAD?

Anyone who shows interest in a website, product or service in one way or the other becomes a lead. For instance, you take an online survey on which gadget company you prefer to buy a laptop from. If you got an email or an SMS from the company that ran the survey on their website about your laptop preferences, it would be less invasive and abrupt that if you had gotten a sudden call about any random laptop.

The information a company collects about you from the survey would help them initiate a contact if and only if you have indicated any sort of interest in the products and services that are out there in the market under your company’s name. This is how a browsing user becomes a lead for that company.

WHAT IS LEAD GENERATION?

It is a process of converting intended customers and strangers into the leads a company’s business. In other words, it is a way of informing prospective clients about your products and services and laying a trail for a final purchase. As a second stage marketing technique, it occurs only after your website has attracted visitors who then can be approached as potential buyers.

HOW TO CHARACTERIZE A LEAD?

We know that a lead is usually generated by collecting information of a searcher who shows interest in your company in some way, but it is equally essential to qualify a lead for specific sale purposes. A generated lead can vary based on the amount of information needed to characterise the user as a lead and his or her degree of interest in your company. Let’s have a look at few examples out of many for the ways of typifying a lead:

• Coupons: Finding a valuable coupon on your website will make a visitor provide their name, email or both willingly. Getting an email address is enough for a company to approach anyone who got a coupon from your website.
• Job Application: A job seeker, who shows interest in a position by filling out an application form, qualifies him or her as a lead for the recruiting company.
• Content: To know a person’s interest in your business, the company should not just rely on the menial information obtained through a coupon or a survey. Therefore, an adequate amount of information is necessary to actually know if the user is relevant to your business or not.

LEAD GENERATION PROCESS

The key elements of the lead generation process include:

Visitors: Who find your business through your website, blog or social media page.

CTA (Call to Action): CTA is a message or image that invokes a visitor to take some action. For example, filling a form or taking a survey.

Landing Page: It is a web page that serves as an entry point to your website or a specific section of the website.

Forms: They are usually put up on landing pages but they also are embedded anywhere on a company’s website.

Offer: Only an attractive offer which seems valuable can engage a visitor in providing their personal details in exchange for it.

By putting all the above-mentioned elements together, you can use e-mails, social media, and your website’s blog to drive traffic to the intended landing page so that you can generate organic leads instead of buying them.

5 POINTS YOU SHOULD NEVER FORGET ABOUT LEAD GENERATION CAMPAIGNS

1. USE RIGHT GENERATION TOOLS

The right lead generation tools and software are necessary for a company to organise and store its lead. Acquiring relevant information about the prospective clients by knowing their names, email addresses, contact information, which pages they visit and follow can help a company maintain an overall record about its lead. There are various lead generation tools which if used properly can help you get enough information about the people visiting your website.

2. CREATE ATTRACTIVE OFFERS FOR ALL STAGES OF THE PURCHASING CYCLE

Different buyers seek information from your site in different ways. Where one visitor can be interested in a free demo or a trial, the other might prefer getting access to an eBook or guide.  Therefore, creating offers for each step of a buyer’s journey and providing CTA for those offers throughout your website can keep various clients interested simultaneously.

3. LINK YOUR CTA TO YOUR WEBSITE LANDING PAGE

CTAs are designed to direct traffic to a dedicated landing page where the potential customers can avail a specific offer. It is very important to link your CTA to a specific landing page which serves the visitor’s requirements rather than connecting it to your homepage.

4. SOCIAL MEDIA CAN ASSIST YOU TO GENERATE QUICK LEADS

Social media can serve as a low cost and low maintenance source to generate leads for your company. Your business can gain appropriate leads if you are regularly posting links to your social media posts. By running an online contest on social media platforms is one way to actively keep your audience engaged with your website.

5. TEST.TEST.TEST

The more you test your inbound lead generation process, the more improved quality of lead your company will get.

Now that we have gone through the basics of Lead Generation you can use these fundamental tips to create great offers, CTAs, landing page and forms, and get your company high-quality leads and improvised ROI.