Lead generation: methods, channels, and tips to generate more

Posted by Md Khann on December 6th, 2020

What is lead generation?

Lead generation is basically the process of attracting and converting people interested in the services or products of your brand or business to create a database. These data are delivered through a form on your website by the same people and that is when they become the so-called leads.

lead generation

A lead will be able to receive more information from your company because by completing the form they have opened the communication channel and thus you will not have to make those annoying cold calls or any other traditional form of contact that is made without prior authorization.

In an Inbound Marketing strategy, the generation of business loan leads is one of the main objectives since it is the first step to convert the visits of a web page into customers. Well, there is no use attracting visits to your website if sales are not being generated.

Why is lead generation important?

When a stranger finds your brand or visits your website for the first time it is very difficult for them to make a purchase or decide to contact you, therefore, it is important to create some type of interaction with that person that encourages them to share their email with you.

Lead generation in Inbound Marketing

It can be through a video, an ad on Facebook Ads, the download of an eBook or any other call to action where you offer something to the user in exchange for their data in a form and that is how they stop being a stranger and becomes lead.

inbound lead generation

The unforced or "organic" interest of that person with your business allows you to create a much more natural relationship and thus you will be able to accompany him throughout his purchase process until he becomes a customer.

Before starting to generate your first leads, it is important that you know the stages of the Inbound marketing methodology:

As you see in the image, lead generation occurs after you manage to attract a stranger to your website, blog, or social media page and through a call to action (CTA) or a form it becomes a lead and then be accompanied by their purchase process until they become a customer and ambassador of your brand.

Lead generation methods:

In an Inbound Marketing strategy, there may be different methods for capturing MCA leads. Here I am going to share the main and most effective methods:

1. Content offerings

A content offer is that "something" of value that you offer to the visitor in exchange for their data and that of course must contribute to the solution of their problems. The most common content offerings are:

Ebooks

Infographics

Guides

Whitepapers

Checklist

Success stories

Webinar

The integration of some tactics and tools is necessary to guarantee the effectiveness of this method of attracting leads.

Content offer creation:

To create a content offer you must be clear about the profile of your ideal client or Buyer Persona: what problems they have (related to your business), type of content they prefer, preferred social networks, etc. Doing a search for keywords related to your Buyer Persona's main problem can help you better define your content offering.

Here are some steps to consider when creating a content offering:

Define the topic of the offer

Indicates the problem it solves

Determine what the leader can do after consuming the material

Define the offer format

Create the content structure

Create the content

Check writing, grammar, etc.

Post the offer

Once you have created your content offer, it is necessary to create a landing page for its publication that will also include the contact form where the user will leave their data.

Landing page:

A landing page or landing page is a simplified web page dedicated to a single topic, service, or product and with a single marketing objective that can be the reproduction of a video, the download of content, the contact request, etc.

Landing page

The landing page is the most important tool in lead generation as it will allow you to measure the audience's trust in your business. There are some essential elements that you must include in the structure of your landing page:

The design must be aligned with your main website or your brand and include a corporate identification or your company logo.

A striking title or text that in a few words describes the main benefit of your content or service offering.

An image or video of the offer or service you are offering.

A form to be completed by the user.

A call to action (CTA) that reminds the user of what you want them to do on the landing.

Form:

The form is a key point in the lead generation since it includes the fields that the user can fill in with their information in exchange for your content offer.

The moment the user completes the form, they immediately enter your database and become a lead.

Webform

Once the form is submitted, the user expects to receive what was promised so it is time to deliver your content offer. This can be done through a thank you page, an automated email, or a direct download.

CTA:

The Call to Action or CTA is the call to action that tells your website visitors what you want them to do. The CTA is responsible for directing the user to the landing page of your content offer by means of a clear and direct message such as "Download for free", "Subscribe", "Reserve" or simply an invitation to the action that interests you the most, such as "Call now" or "See website".

call to action

A good CTA should be in a visible place and have a striking color compared to the rest of your web page, thus capturing the user's attention.

lead conversion

2. Subscription to the newsletter

Subscribing to your company's newsletter (newsletter) or blog is basically a way to keep your audience informed through emails that are sent periodically (weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly).

In the newsletter, you can send the content of interest in your market or business such as news, articles from your blog, events, etc.

To convert your website visitors into subscribers, it is necessary that you provide at least their email (which makes it a lead) and that is how you can create mailing campaigns to deliver your newsletter.

Main advantages of the newsletter

This is an excellent method of capturing leads that are not yet close to the purchase but maybe later.

A subscriber is really interested in your content.

It does not require you to make a large investment.

It is an excellent source of the traffic to your website.

It is a good channel to send your content offers.

For all this to work in the correct way it is important that you are very strict in the periodic shipment and that you do thorough monitoring and analysis of the results.

Include calls to action within your site that invite you to subscribe to your newsletter or you can create pop-ups.

A pop-up is a window in different formats that appears suddenly on your web page and seeks to attract the user's attention to a specific action.

Using a pop-up is the most effective way to convert your site visitors into subscribers, it ensures that the visitor does not leave your website without becoming a lead.

3. Contests or sweepstakes:

Contests, promotions, sweepstakes, etc. are very common on social media. In them you can offer some type of prize or gift related to your business such as services or products, you can also launch, increase brand recognition, etc. But you can also create them to generate leads.

Some tips for creating a social media contest:

Offer a very attractive prize to want to be shared.

Create participation rules very easy and fast to follow.

Create a landing page where you explain all the benefits.

Include a registration form on the landing page.

Promote it on the social networks used by your buyer persona.

With this method of attracting leads, you can not only attract leads but also allow you to increase your reach and start creating a community and interacting directly with potential customers. Surely you've seen and even participated in those contests on Instagram where you only have to tag two or three people to participate.

Lead generation channels:

There are many lead generation channels, this depends on the sector of your company and the profile of your ideal client or Buyer Persona, you can even generate leads in offline channels. However, I am going to show you the most common and effective ones.

When you have defined your content offer with its respective landing page and its form, it is time to start generating leads. For this, it is necessary that you promote your content offer on the channels used by your buyer persona and of course on your website.

Web page:

In order not to "waste" the visits that come to your website or blog and do not perform any action, you need to include:

CTA's of your content offers

A subscription pop-up to your newsletter

Contact forms

It is necessary to make it clear that your website must be optimized and offer valuable and relevant content for your audience, the more delighted visitors are with the content, the more likely they will click on a CTA.

Ads on social networks:

Social networks are today one of the main sources of lead capture for marketing teams as they allow for detailed segmentation.

Facebook Ads:

Facebook is the largest lead generation channel thanks to its large number of users. Facebook Ads was launched in 2007 and since then it has become a source of paid campaigns for companies to attract potential customers.

You can generate leads from Facebook by creating campaigns to promote the landing pages of your content offers or you can directly use the lead generation tool called Lead Ads, which integrates a form directly on the Facebook page.

LinkedIn Ads:

As with Facebook Leads Ads, Linkedin Lead Generation Forms are automatically populated with user data when the user clicks on a CTA.

On LinkedIn, the cost of ads is higher, however, being a professional network, the segmentation is much more specific, which allows you to attract much more qualified leads.

LinkedIn Generation Forms example

LinkedIn Generation Forms example

Remarketing or retargeting consists of showing ads to people who visited your website and who did not become leads.

The remarketing actions depend on the objective you have defined, whether it is to download a content offer, participate in a contest, subscribe to the blog, register for an event, etc. that ultimately translates into lead generation.

Lead generation tools

The key to the proper functioning of lead generation campaigns (and for marketing actions in general) is analytics, and for that, there are tools that can help you take advantage of your actions.

There are “all-in-one” tools where you can create landing pages, CTA's, and pop-ups to integrate into your website that also offers you complete data analysis reports to optimize your actions to the maximum.

Offers for each stage of the purchase process

It is important that you know the purchasing process carried out by your buyer persona from the moment they detect the problem or need (that your company can solve) and decide to solve it by going through a research stage until they find the best offers on the market and decide to do A purchase.

In Inbound Marketing, the creation of value for users is done in each and every one of the stages of the purchase process, so you can offer value to people both who are just detecting their problems and those who are looking for the best solutions in the process. market (these are the most valuable leads)

Content Marketing and SEO

I already gave you the best tips for generating leads, but do you know if you are driving the right traffic to your website? For this, it is important that you define the most valuable content for your audience and position that content in search engines.

Probably your buyer persona is currently doing a search on topics related to your business, but they still don't know that you exist. You have to show that you are an expert in your area and create content related to those searches and be visible.

Content Marketing and SEO are the best friends you can find to attract your buyer persona to your site and thus generate more and better leads.

Conclusion:

Lead generation is the first step to turn your website into a true sales machine, following these methods, channels and tips depends on the success of your strategy.

I recommend you integrate these actions with a tool, you will see the best performance of your time, budget, and of course, you will have the best results. These are the principles of marketing automation.

If you liked this content, do not hesitate to leave us your comments and if you are already generating your first leads, tell me what is working for you and what is not.

read also: 21 (Evergreen) Ways To Generate More B2B Sales Leads