Lead generation is one of the priorities of any company. When you buy a new appliance, the first thing you do is read the instruction manual to learn the basic terminology and its functionalities, right?
Something similar happens with lead generation: knowing how it works will allow you to apply it correctly, get the most out of it and, ultimately, open the doors of your company to the whole world.
In this article, you will learn what lead generation is and what channels and strategies you can use to capture the largest number of leads. In addition, you will see some practical examples of how other companies do it.
This type of information will give you the power to make your lead generation strategy effective and you can offer your customers a pleasant and enriching experience from the first interaction with your company.
Lead generation involves all the processes and tools aimed at attracting customers. This part of marketing tries to stimulate the interest of the prospects towards the products or services of a company, making use of different methods or channels of communication.
Each person who has voluntarily given their personal data to a company is called a lead, generally in order to obtain a benefit in return, such as receiving information or downloading free content.
Leads are potential customers for companies. With the right marketing automation strategy and tool, a company will greet the customer after their first interaction and educate them throughout the purchase process to encourage conversion.
We already defined what a lead is and what lead generation deals with, but are all leads the same? When you leave your personal information to a company, do you have the same need or urgency to acquire a service or product? Probably not.
Next, we will tell you what are the stages through which the lead passes within the lead generation.
First of all, strategies must be implemented to attract traffic (leads) to the landing page, such as, for example, that it be optimized at the SEO level.
Here you can offer the visitor valuable content, free download guides, access to a webinar, or coupons in exchange for their personal data. To do this, you must also include an attractive form and calls to action (CTAs) that guide the person and encourage them to complete the required fields.
Each interested person who offers their personal information will become part of your database. Later we will tell you what strategies you can use to generate quality leads.
Lead scoring, which is a tool that deals with assigning points to your contacts so you can identify how prepared or committed they are to your brand.
You decide what you want to evaluate and what the value of the score is.
Once the lead meets certain conditions and reaches a certain score, you can score them as a qualified lead and send an automatic notification to the sales team to take care of the next task.
This technique allows you to prioritize leads that are closest to conversion.
Leads that are not yet ready are an opportunity that companies must take care of and take advantage of very well. This is where the strategy known as lead nurturing comes into play.
At this stage, it will be necessary to send a series of messages with valuable content to educate and mature the lead in the purchase cycle.
With an automation platform, you can schedule an email marketing campaign so that the prospect gradually receives more information about the product or service you offer.
Finally, if you have already gone through the previous stages, it is time for the conversion.
Here, the lead can execute the expected action (according to the marketing strategy) by their own motivation or with the help of a sales assistant.
After the conversion, the lead becomes a customer and a new stage in the relationship and management of leads begins that of loyalty.
Luckily, when undertaking the search for new clients, there are several channels and methods that you can use. In this section, you will learn how to generate leads for your company using different resources.
The first means of communication with which you interact with the client is probably email. When completing a form, people usually receive a confirmation or welcome email.
Email is the favorite marketing tool for customers and businesses. Use email marketing to generate and nurture your leads. Also, do things like these:
Best of all, you don’t need to complete a graphic design course to send engaging emails. You can get expertly created templates, ready for you to use and send out in minutes.
The expansion of social networks seems to have no limits. In some countries, the penetration of social networks reaches almost 100% of the population. Yes, you read that right: almost the entire population!
This makes them a true source of opportunities when it comes to recruiting leads. Use these tools to attract new customers by sharing quality content that drives organic traffic to your website or through advertising.
Facebook Ads, for example, allows companies to pay a fee in exchange for advertising on its platform.
The advantage of these tools is that you can choose your target audience so that the advertising is shown to a certain group. In addition, you will know the results of your campaign, as they develop performance reports.
Think of it this way: a website is like a shop window. The more eye-catching and better designed it is, the more opportunities there are for passers-by (or people using search engines, in this case) to stop and buy the products.
A landing page is optimized when:
With a marketing automation tool, you can create your own landing page and discover how efficient it is by measuring some customer actions during their journey through the sales cycle.
Video is another of the star channels to attract leads. why? Because, unlike a blog, for example, this type of content requires much less effort to digest.
Many companies already use it in their digital marketing strategy to help generate leads.
Use videos to share audiovisual content that is entertaining and informative for your customers. You can also include advertising in the form of banners or pop-up messages.
However, you have to be careful with this last option, since many times the advertising interrupts the video violently and this irritates the user.
You have the attention of your customers for a few seconds, use them very well.
Paying ads to capture leads is another tool you can turn to. However, it is important to note that paying does not guarantee getting leads. Like other techniques, this one also requires strategy and planning.
Planning includes having certain segmentation to target advertising to a specific audience and having an optimal design, that is, using keywords for good SEO and including calls to action.
Advertising can be included in social networks such as LinkedIn, video platforms, blogs or SEM campaigns (search engine ads).
To attract leads (and not turn your blog into a collection of ideas that you publish from time to time), you must have a content marketing strategy.
What does this imply? Have a publication calendar and define what type of information you want to spread. In addition, you must define your audience (who you want to reach) and use an SEO tool so that your articles get good visibility in search engines.
In a blog entry, you have to deal with a problem or topic that interests the reader, whose solution lies in acquiring a product or service that you offer.
Blogs are a space to talk about your company. So, through advertising links, you can drive traffic to your landing page.
Take advantage of the fact that blogs allow two-way communication. Invite your readers to ask questions, leave comments and share their experience with other users. Ultimately, make your blog a place they want to come back to.
Although marketing events are not the easiest way to generate leads (they require a lot of time and organization), they are an alternative that you can turn to.
The events give good visibility to the brand and the products or services it offers. The ideal is to complement them with other channels or techniques to achieve greater diffusion. For example, broadcast live on social networks during the day of the event or invite those who attend to share their experience using a hashtag created especially for the occasion.
After the event, use the contact information collected to thank leads for their attendance and launch email marketing campaigns that continue to develop and nurture this budding relationship.
Finally, traditional communication channels, such as radio, television, or postal mail, can also be used to capture leads.
Christmas is the best time of the year to connect with the emotions of the audience and capture leads. The Suchard chocolate company, for example, knows this very well, which is why it has been successful for almost 200 years.
Every year, as part of their Christmas campaign, they personalize the chocolate wrappers to say, for example, “Grandfather”, “Friends”, “Family”, and “I love you”. In this way, they promote connection with loved ones during a very special time.
In addition, their television campaigns often include family and friends, and reunions under the slogan “Come home for Christmas.”
They have even been encouraged to use hashtags to interact with their consumers through social networks. All of them are excellent marketing strategies to attract leads offline.
It should be noted that different marketing strategies must be used in each channel. For example, on radio or television, announcements are usually short, repetitive and easy to remember. While in the brochures, a discount code or an offer is usually included to achieve capture of leads.
Redirect the leads you generate offline to an online medium such as social networks or your emails to continue communication.
