Lead Generation

What is Lead Generation?

Lead generation is the marketing process of stimulating interest in a product or service for the purpose of developing sales pipelines.

Lead generation can be helpful for any kind of business, whether it's a small business or a large enterprise, and for both B2C and B2B markets.

A lead generation program is used to increase brand awareness, build relationships, earn trust and ultimately fill the sales pipeline with qualified leads that result in a sale.

60% of marketers state that lead generation is a key challenge for their business. It’s not enough to target people who downloaded your lead magnet (ethical bribe).  They may simply be researching for purposes other than with the intent to purchase from you or anyone else.  Therefore, you need to determine which leads are qualified.

Marketing strategies, especially lead generation strategies, have evolved with the shift in customers' buying habits.  Their customer journeys have changed and while each customer could have a slightly different journey, a common denominator is that potential customers are often quite far along in their journey before they reach out to speak to someone (and they may even make a purchase without speaking to anyone).

Therefore, while everyone is targeting the active buyer, lead generation should also include tactics that help mold problem unaware and problem aware but solution unaware towards your brand and solutions, which is the role of content marketing and other outreach campaigns.

When you use creative campaigns in conjunction with useful data, you'll generate higher qualified leads which result in less effort to close and more sales.  Your company will grow with desirable customers with higher customer lifetime value.

Why is Lead Generation Important for Brands?

People who show interest in your brand's product or service will be more likely to make a purchase with the appropriate amount of motivation to do so -- maybe immediately, maybe down the road.

Regardless, you have just succeeded in helping them to solve a problem, fill a need, or satisfy a desire.

Have you ever had a pushy salesperson trying to sell you something you have no desire to buy - either at all or from them?  How did you feel about the encounter?  If you are like many people, the encounter may be worse off for the brand than leaving you alone.  They misunderstood your needs and their efforts to make a sale ultimately hurt their reputation and the likelihood that you'll buy from them if/when you are looking to make a purchase.

Lead Generation can help companies focus their resources on targeting the right customers. This will increase ROI by saving money and increasing sales.

Lead generation can also create awareness and bolster your reputation.

When consumers and B2B purchasers learn about your brand, you'll have the opportunity to provide them more information about the benefits of your product and services versus others.

You'll also be able to start fostering a healthy relationship with them, leading to a potentially long-term and valuable relationship for both parties.

The process of generating leads delivers the opportunity to gather important marketing information from prospects through surveys and questions. This allows you to better understand what your audience wants and how you can best meet their needs.

What Are Some Ways Brands Can Use Lead Gen to Improve Their Marketing Strategy?

Brands can leverage this tactic to:

• Increase Brand Awareness
• Gain Insight into Customer Needs
• Generate New Customers
• Build Loyalty
• Drive Sales

What is the Difference Between Remarketing and Retargeting?

Remarketing and retargeting are often used interchangeably by PPC advertisers. However, these are different strategies and it's helpful to understand the differences if you want to use them both effectively

Remarketing and retargeting are similar but not identical. They use different channels and they each have different goals. 

• Retargeting uses paid ads to reengage audiences who have previously visited your website or social profile.
• Remarketing uses email to reengage past customers who have already purchased from your brand.

Retargeting is all about re-engaging people who've already visited your site. It's about bringing them back so they can convert.  The average conversion rate for paid search campaigns is 2.58%.

Whatever way you measure it, most of the traffic you pay for isn't going to convert on the initial visit. Retargeting lets you bring people back to your site, close the sale, and maximize your PPC ROI (return on investment).

Remarketing is about re-engaging your current customers to keep them interested in your brand, encourage them to buy more, and increase their customer lifetime value.

Some Examples of Lead Generation

Inbound Lead Generation

Inbound lead generation is where the potential customer finds your website, social media page, or other marketing channels and they voluntarily react to your call-to-action (CTA) thus providing you with their contact information in exchange for whatever you have used as a lead magnet.  Inbound is permission-based and it enables potential customers to find out more about your business, your products and services, and your offers, on their terms.

3 Ways to Use Inbound Lead Generation

1. SEO Optimization: SEO optimization helps search engines find your site. Search engine optimization involves using keywords in titles, descriptions, URLs, and other parts of your content. You should also use relevant images and videos for SEO purposes.
2. Content Creation: Content creation includes blog posts, ebooks, whitepapers, infographics, webinars, case studies, etc. These types of content help people learn more about your industry and products.
3. Social Media Engagement: Social media engagement can be done by posting blogs, commenting on others’ posts, sharing articles, liking pages, following others, etc. This type of activity helps increase brand awareness, traffic, and credibility.

Outbound Lead Generation

Outbound lead generation is where you send emails, cold calls, text messages, phone calls, etc. to prospects looking for a solution to their problem. Outbound is non-permission based and it's usually done via email, telephone, or text message.  It's more interruption-based, where your sales team identify individuals with the potential to be your customer, and they contact them directly with the aim of delivering a sales pitch.

3 Ways to Use Outbound Lead Generation

1. Cold Calling: Cold calling is when your sales team contacts prospective clients who haven't given you any indication that they're interested in what you have to offer. The purpose of cold calling is to get past gatekeepers such as secretaries, receptionists, and assistants. Your goal is to make a connection with someone at the top of the decision-making process.
2. Email Marketing:  Email marketing uses email as a tool to generate leads.
3. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, etc. are great tools for lead generation. They allow businesses to create custom audiences and target ads specifically to certain groups of users. For example, if you sell dog food, you might want to advertise on Dog Food-related websites and pages. If you sell housewares, you might want to target women living in households with children under 18 years old.

How To Generate Leads Using Blogs

Blogs are an excellent way to drive targeted traffic to your website and turn those visitors into leads. Here are some tips:

1. Create Great Headlines: Your headline is one of the first things readers see when they land on your blog post. Make sure it draws attention and encourages people to read further.
2. Write In A Language That Readers Will Understand: If you write in technical terms, your audience won't understand what you're saying. Instead, try writing in simple language that will appeal to your readership.
3. Include Calls-to-Action (CTAs): A CTA is a button that directs readers to click through to another page. People don't always know what to do once they've clicked on a CTA; therefore, it's important to include CTAs in all your blog posts.
4. Link to Other Pages On Your Website: When you link to other parts of your site, you show that your content relates to other areas of your business. This helps readers connect your brand with related products and services.
5. Add Images & Videos: Images and videos can increase engagement by making your blog posts more interesting. You should also add images and videos to help tell your story.
6. Interact With Your Audience: You may think that interacting with your audience is not necessary, but it really is. Responding to comments and questions shows your readers that you care about them and their feedback.
7. Promote Your Blog Posts: Promoting your blog posts takes time. But, it's worth it because it makes your content stand out from others. Share links to your latest blog posts via social media or send emails to relevant bloggers and journalists.
8. Use Analytics: Analytics let you track which posts work best so you can improve future efforts.
9. Track Conversions: Tracking conversions gives you insight into how well each piece of content converts.
10. Optimize Your Content: Optimal content is concise, engaging, and easy to share. It tells a story, answers questions, and provides value.
11.  Use our pixel, connected to an identity graph, to retarget and remarket to blog visitors.

Lead Generation Challenges

Without a steady stream of qualified leads entering your sales pipeline / sales funnel, your business will struggle to grow. The good news? Lead generation doesn’t have to be difficult!

There are many ways to generate leads. And there are even more challenges to overcome. Let’s take a look at three common challenges and how you can overcome them.

Challenge 1: Identifying the Right Prospects

Identifying the right prospects is key to generating quality leads. When you start looking for new leads, you need to identify who your ideal customer is. Are they potential customers, current customers, or both? If you’re unsure, ask yourself these questions to get started:

• Who are my ideal customers?
• What problems does my product solve?
• How much money could I make if I sold this product?
• How would they benefit from using my product?

Once you’ve identified your ideal customer, you need to find them. There are two main approaches:

1. Direct Marketing: This involves sending unsolicited messages to prospective buyers. For example, you might buy an email list of people who fit your ideal customer profile. Then, you use those lists as a source for lead generation.
2. Inbound Marketing: Inbound marketing focuses on attracting visitors to your website, where you then provide valuable information that solves their problem.

The goal of direct marketing is to sell directly to your target market. The goal of inbound marketing is to attract traffic to your website, where your content and offers convert visitors into paying customers.

Challenge 2: Generating Quality Leads

Generating quality leads requires a lot of research. Before you begin prospecting, define what kind of leads you want to create. This helps you focus your efforts and avoid wasting time chasing after low-value leads. Here are some examples of different types of leads:

1. Prospects: These are people who don’t know you yet. You’ll need to build trust before they become a lead.
2. Qualified leads: These are people who have shown interest in your company but haven’t made a purchase decision. They may not have the budget or resources to do so.
3. Sales ready leads: These are people with budgets and resources who are interested in buying your products.

You should also consider whether you want to go cold calling or use other methods. Cold calling works great when you already have a relationship with someone. However, it takes longer than other methods. As a result, it’s best used for B2B companies. Other methods include social media marketing, content marketing, and paid ads.

You can also try lead nurturing. Nurturing allows you to follow up with leads over time to keep them engaged until they’re ready to move forward with a sale.

You can leverage your Lead Generation by tapping into our website pixel, connected to the identity graph, and use the data to (a) retarget and remarket and (b) create like audiences, which are people who fit the profiles of your customers.

Challenge 3: Closing Sales

Closing sales is often easier said than done. It requires persistence, patience, and good follow through. To close deals, you must be able to answer three important questions:

1. What’s the next step?
2. When will they decide to buy?
3. How will you communicate with them?

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