Proven Lead Generation Strategies for Your Marketing Campaigns

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Lead generation has practically evolved from gathering contact details of potential customers and bombarding them with promotional emails to using advanced technologies and offering personalized experiences to each lead generated through strategic means.

Some lead generation marketing strategies that any business can practice today to increase chances of success are:

• Using chatbots for instant communication and learning about customer preferences
• Analyzing real-time data through AI tools to identify potential high-quality leads
• Developing AI-powered automated email campaigns
• Using dynamic content to personalize the casual browsing experience
• Creating customized landing pages to meet the audience’s needs
• Sending tailored video messages to each lead to enhance engagement,
• Cross-platform marketing to increase brand reach

There are more, of course. But before we get down to today’s advanced lead generation methods, let’s learn more about leads and how they affect your business.

High-Potential Leads – What They Can Do For Your Business

High-value (or High-Potential) leads are prospects that align with your business goals and target demographics. They are keener to convert than other random leads, who may casually visit your website for some information or otherwise.

• Identifying high-potential leads is crucial to every marketing campaign, as it:
• Streamlines lead generation strategies
• Ensures effective time-management
• Reduces waste of resources
• Increases the chances of conversion for your products/services
• Helps expand your market by identifying trends
• Improves brand visibility, generates awareness, and creates “buzz”

Most traditional lead generation plans fail to identify high-value leads, resulting in a waste of resources. For example, if a lead isn’t interested in buying your products, there is no point in sending him/her newsletters and promotional emails regularly. These are also known as “cold leads” that are exceptionally difficult to convert.

Cold calling is one such lead generation practice of the old days that often fails. Sponsoring events spontaneously (without prior research and planning) is another.

Lead generation marketing strategies have evolved big time due to the development of predictive analysis. Using various predictive analytics, marketers can now identify high-value leads with higher chances of conversion.

Predictive analytics is all about considering real-time data like customer behavior, latest trends, audience preferences, etc., and aligning those statistically to feed into AI-powered tools to generate high-value leads.

It can be achieved through the following steps:

• Collecting and integrating real-time data from interviews, surveys, and other effective marketing practices
• Develop predictive models that utilize algorithms and organize those statistically to align with latest trends and customer behavior patterns
• Creating lead scores to help you understand the chances of conversion for each lead gathered
• Creating segments (or lead groups) to personalize your lead gen tactics and send tailored marketing messages to each group.
• Finding cross-platform marketing opportunities to optimize your lead generation methods
• Tracking and monitoring your lead generation campaigns and making changes as and when required

The 4Ls of lead generation

You may come across several lead gen tactics that are relevant to the competitive market of today. The 4Ls of lead generation help encompass effective lead generation goals that every marketer should target. These are lead capturing, lead magnets, lead generation landing page development, and lead scoring. If you achieve all the 4Ls of lead generation, you can expect better results from your lead gen strategy. Check out the following infographic:

Lead Generation Approaches That Help Increase Business Bottom Line

If your “Page Views” aren’t converting into substantial leads, there’s no point. All your marketing strategies should have one common goal – Generate high-quality leads that convert. Even if your search engine visibility is higher than your competitors, it doesn’t equate to enough convertible leads for your business.

So how to do it right? What lead generation strategies/approaches will work? Scroll on!

Generating Leads through SEO 

Leveraging strategic SEO for lead generation can make it a tad difficult to rank your website, but if done efficiently, it can go a long way to generating quality leads. The latest SEO techniques emphasize the E-E-A-T (Effectiveness, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) principle. That means SEO now is all about what kind of information you are putting out there. Generating leads through such SEO practices is not only convertible but also turns into loyal spokespersons of your brand.

Here are a few hacks to make it happen:

Optimizing Local Listings 

Most of your customers seek businesses near their location. If you optimize search based on geographical locations, you can excel in the lead generation campaign for your business. Make sure you have an updated and optimized local listing on search engines with proper NAP (Name, Address, and Phone Number), authentic business timings, customer ratings, and reviews, mapping, and images.

That way, your potential customers, who are ready to buy your products/services, can locate your business easily through a mere search and contact you for further details.

Creating Buyer Personas 

Conduct research on buyer personas, for example – customer behavior, preferences, needs, attitudes, demographics, intent, and values. Create detailed buyer personas based on real-time data to streamline your marketing efforts. You can also personalize your lead generation strategies based on such data. According to a report by Forbes, 80% of people prefer buying from businesses that offer tailored experiences.

Emphasizing On-Page Optimization 

One of the best SEO practices for quality lead generation is on-page optimization. Adding well-researched, relevant keywords throughout your website organically is just the beginning. You also need to check if your Meta tags are in order. Your titles, URLs, Meta descriptions, and content formatting should all be aligned to the most relevant customer queries.

Also, there should be proper use of both long-tail and short-tail key phrases to generate an effective mix. Not to forget, adding compelling CTAs will help create a chunk of high-quality leads from your web pages.

Generating Leads through Social Media

Social Media is an active tool to generate high-value leads for your business. Billions of people are engaged in social media content across the globe. Targeting such a large pool of potential customers is highly beneficial for your brand exposure and business generation. Further, every popular social media platform offers advanced analytics tools to monitor lead generation campaigns. You can also minimize your expenditure by using social media lead generating, tracking, and data-analyzing tools.

The only question is how?

Leveraging Lead Magnets 

If you offer the right incentives, people will be ready to share their details with you. Discount codes, whitepapers, free webinars, etc., can function as effective lead magnets for your lead generation campaigns. You can also incentivize your audience by offering certification courses (if your brand belongs to the training & education industry). Depending on the business type, you can create personalized lead magnets to generate high-value leads.

Developing Targeted Ads 

Pain campaigns on social media offer impressive targeting options to generate high-potential leads. Free trials are the best example of such lead generation strategies on social media. Many brands create targeted, clickable ads that take customers to specific landing pages when clicked. Once they sign up for the free trial (or any other incentive that you offer), you get their information to proceed with your marketing efforts.

Using Lead Generation Forms 

Instead of taking the customers to your landing page to sign up for the incentives that you offer, social media lead gen forms get that information on the platform itself. The potential leads need not waste too much time entering their details into the pre-populated forms. Hence, the entire process becomes hassle-free.

Optimizing retargeting ads 

Retargeting ads are for those potential customers, who left the landing pages without signing up. You can personalize these ads based on common pain points and validate them with social proofs, like reviews or customer testimonials. Remember, the reasons for not signing up vary from one customer to another. The key is to create relevant messages based on their respective past behavior.

Hosting virtual events 

Virtual conferences, webinars, or other events are great ways to generate leads for your marketing campaigns. Create events based on intriguing topics that your target audience would love to attend. You can also invite influential speakers to create further buzz around the event you’re hosting. Promote the upcoming event on every social media platform, enabling interested people to sign up for the same. You’ll get a massive bunch of leads from those sign-ups, besides generating awareness of your brand.

Lead Generation through Informative Content

Though content is used everywhere, be it SEO or social media lead generation, let’s underline the ways you can generate leads directly through content, like blogs, vlogs, case studies, whitepapers, infographics, newsletters, etc.

Most people look for actionable content online. It means they look for content that satisfies their intent and also offers actionable insights into the problems they seek answers for. If your content fulfills their intent, they will definitely apply for more.

So how to create such impactful content that generates leads automatically?

Research and research before composing 

Firstly, your content should be well-researched, to say the least. It should be fresh, packed with unique concepts, preferably first-hand, and believable experiences. Hence, research a topic well before starting to create. Also, conduct similar research on your competitor’s content marketing efforts to get some idea.

Conduct Keyword Analysis 

Shortlist keywords or user queries and distribute the same uniformly throughout the piece of content. It will make the content more search-friendly. Try using effective tools, like Semrush, Google Ads Keywords Planner, Google Console, etc. to search for relevant user queries around the chosen topic. You should create content that addresses frequently occurring issues and pain points of your potential leads. Only then they will consider signing up for further content, thus converting into quality leads.

Prioritize Storytelling 

If you are focusing on length content, like blogs or research articles, you should make it compelling enough for the readers, i.e. your potential leads. Who doesn’t like a good, memorable story? Compose the content in the form of a compelling story to intrigue your audience. Reduce jargon, and keep it crisp and simple to prevent monotony. Also, every good story has a beginning, a climax, and a conclusion.

Design the content in the same way to keep the readers hooked till the end. You can start by addressing their primary pain points and move over to discussing possible solutions, only to conclude with the most effective solution to their problems. Create an experience that your audience would love to come back to.

Don’t forget CTAs (Call-to-Action) 

How will you generate leads without a specific Call-to-Action? You should include CTAs in every component of the content without cluttering it. Ask them to sign up for more information on a particular element, or get a free case study on any sub-topic. If you are pre-developed tutorials, this is the best way to get your readers to sign up for the same. You’ll get your leads, and the latter will get to fulfill their intent with authentic information.

It’s a myth that you should only include CTAs at the end of every blog or any other form of long content. You can include these wherever relevant throughout the length of the content.

Pick the right publishing platforms 

Choosing the best channel to publish your content for effective lead generation is yet another brainwork. While different platforms have different types of audiences, you should choose the one that resonates with yours. For example, if your content is educational, LinkedIn, Medium, etc., can be the best publishing option. If the content is strictly research-based with authentic data and stats that your readers can find immensely helpful, try publishing it on high-authority guest blogging sites to generate maximum leads. However, check if the website allows adding internal links to the content, otherwise you may lose the leads.

Create Visually-Appealing Content

Long paragraphs of text can create monotony, causing the readers to leave the page after a while. Hence, make the piece of content visually appealing by adding infographics, attractive images, funny GIFs, and videos. Also, create the content in a readable format by optimizing white spaces, bullets, charts (if required), FAQs, etc. Lastly, optimize each segment of your content with proper headers.

Lead generation through email marketing

Email marketing is one of those traditional modes of lead gen tactics that is still equally significant today. Through email opt-in forms, you can collect details about potential high-value leads. Besides, email marketing is the best way to nurture business-customer relationships by sending occasional newsletters, promotion offers, brand information, etc. However, you should do it in careful steps to prevent cold-mailing and increase your list of disinterested customers.

Step 1: Set your targets precisely

Identify the right people for your email lead generation campaign. How to do that?

• Consider your target demographics.
• Try to get as much information as possible about their geographic locations.
• Know which industry they are currently working in, and how much they earn (if possible)
• What are their pain points, or problems that you can help solve?
• What are their hobbies or browsing interests?

Ideally, create a buyer’s persona before you start sending the emails.

Step 2: Develop a compelling offer that’s difficult to ignore

Once you have an idea about the buyer’s persona, you can send emails about offers that they simply cannot resist. If you have an idea about the pain points of your target audience, it becomes easier to customize each offer that you’re planning to send. Also known as the lead magnet, these offers should be personalized to the T to help make faster decisions.

Step 3: Design comprehensive and concise emails

The design of your email is vital to getting traction on your opt-in forms. Don’t just bombard them with offers. It’ll appear as a cold-calling then. Try to create a draft that attracts potential leads into filling in their details in the form to get more information about the offer. Excessive text or graphics may distract the audience, thus reducing the chances of a successful closure. Here are some tips:

• Use simple fonts to enhance readability
• Leverage white spaces to appeal to the eye
• Use short sentences that give out the intended message clearly
• Place the CTA (Call-to-Action) button properly so that it doesn’t get ignored

Step 4: Write a prominent and engaging subject line

The subject line is the first thing that your potential customers will notice in their inbox. In other words, it’ll decide the fate of your email. Thus the email subject line must be catchy enough to grab the attention of the receiver. Subject lines that are short phrases summarizing the entire point of the email with a tinge of curiosity have the highest open rates. To personalize it more, you can use an intriguing emoji. People always love a bit of humor, you know!

Step 5: Create the perfect CTA (Call-to-Action)

Make the CTA click-worthy, to say the least. The key is to encourage the receiver to act on it. Creating a sense of urgency that targets the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) factor is an impressive way. You should also leave some mystery to the copy so that the receiver clicks on it even if just out of curiosity.

Go for action-oriented messages, like “Get the discount today”, or “Grab it while it’s here”, are some of the best examples of action-oriented compelling CTA. You can also add some gimmicks like “Only 3 Left”, or “30% off only for Today”, to make them act faster.

Creating such CTAs is a work of art. Take the time to brainstorm copies that have the maximum impact on the receiver. Once your potential customers fill in their details in the form, you get your lead, and they get their rewards.

Generating leads through paid ads

If your business goal is to generate a big chunk of leads FAST, paid ads are a good way to go.

Generally, new brands or small businesses use paid advertisements to reach more people in a shorter duration. Setting up a paid ad on social media comes with several advantages. These platforms have strategic, algorithmic tools to identify the right audience in the right time. Once clicked, the ad can take them to a landing page on your website, where you can collect their details through a sign-up form or other CTA elements.

Now let’s give you an idea about what types of paid ads you can use to generate high-value leads.

Search Engine Advertising

Paid ads on search engines, like Google and Bing, can help you find the right audience through keywords that they use. For example, if your ad is about professional design services, the audience using the specific search terms is most likely to find it. Generating leads through search engines is easier, as the ads are viewed by people, who are actively looking for the services/products you offer. They have already made their mind up to buy. All you have to do is compel them to buy from YOU, or at least give their information for future marketing efforts.

Social Media Advertising

As mentioned earlier, social media ad tools are quite advanced, making the ads visible to the right audience. While creating the ad, choose your target demographics, like location, interests, browsing history, etc. Once published, the built-in algorithms of the social media platform will make the ads visible to the right people based on your input.

Video advertising

Although more cost-intensive and not very effective for lead generation, video advertising is a great way to showcase your products/services in a crafty and creative manner. You can develop short video ads for video-streaming platforms, like YouTube, and OTT apps. However, some of these ads may appear as “annoying”, making the users “skip” instead of following through.

Display advertising

These are banner ads displayed on websites to grab the attention of the right audience. These are shown based on the past browsing behavior of your target audience, location, and common interests. Although the chances of generating leads with display advertising are lower than with search engines and social media, you can give it a try in addition to other forms of lead generation marketing efforts.

Connecting with influencers to generate leads

When talking about modern lead generation marketing strategies, influencer marketing definitely tops the chart. The power of influencers is growing with each passing day, just like their lists of followers. If you want to generate a bulk of high-quality leads, you may consider connecting with an influential influencer.

Now, the power of an influencer doesn’t only reside in the number of followers s/he has. It’s also determined by the types of responses (likes, comments, shares) on their content. You should also consider the type of content they create and if it caters to your brand goals and lead generation plan.

To explain in tech language, select an influencer based on his/her:

• Authenticity – How real and informative their content is, and if it sparks discussions among the followers.
• Scope of going viral – If their content has the ability to “go viral” on social media.
• Costs of collaboration – Now this is an important element to consider before collaborating with influencers. Not all are highly cost-intensive, but some may charge way beyond your marketing budget. It’s best to find an influencer not only within your budget but also guaranteeing a high return on your investment.

Ways to collaborate with an influencer for lead generation

1. Shared values through podcasts 

More than 60% of US consumers listen to podcasts every day. You can collaborate with the host to discuss shared values, give authentic insights, and catch the attention of the listeners. You can then ask the host to share a clickable offer (after the podcast) on their channel so that interested people can act on it.

2. Short videos on social media 

Short-form videos are dominating the video streaming industry right now. Videos with a duration of 90 seconds or less retain half of the viewers, according to statistics. Besides, 75% of people nowadays prefer videos to text to learn about a brand, product, or service. No wonder it’s one of the lead generation best practices, especially with influencers.

3. Brand Advocacy 

Create a network of influencers and turn them into advocates of your brand. As people trust their opinions, they will click on the offers that they advertise on their channels. Also, they will create reliability among their followers regarding your brand, making lead generation an easy game. Now how to create that influencer network? Offer discounts, gifts, or other incentives to new influencers, who will gladly promote your brand in return to help generate leads.  

4. Affiliate marketing with influencers 

It’s a cost-effective influencer-induced lead gen tactic apt for small businesses. You can connect with influencers and ask them to add a purchase link to their relevant posts. If there’s a purchase, you’ll pay a commission. Otherwise, you won’t have to pay anything.

Every business should pick its most effective lead generation strategies based on the type of products/services, target audience, industry, and specific brand objectives. There’s no “let’s try it all” way. Identifying what will work, and what will go to waste is the primary responsibility of every business before launching its lead generation campaigns. You can check out some trends before making that decision.

Lead generation trends you need to look out for

The market is growing, and so are the preferences of your potential customers to consume and respond to content. Learning about the latest trends is vital to increase the chances of generating leads in a competitive landscape. Let’s talk about the trends that are “HOT” right now:

Power of Generative AI

Artificial Intelligence is already grabbing eyeballs. Using generative AI in your marketing content will boost the chances of conversion to a great degree. You can get your hands on several generative AI tools to create catchy emails, attractive copy, and CTAs that promote some “action”. With these tools at work, you can offload your team to stress more on generating high-value leads.

Intent-focused lead nurturing

The searcher’s intent is now at the top of the list of ranking factors. A lead generation campaign that focuses on the searchers’ intent will get prominence on the ranking list, as well as maximum visibility. Hence, put all your resources to work to identify the intent of your target audience and develop content accordingly. It will help nurture potential customers through the sales pipeline, thus boosting your chances of generating high-value leads.

Straightforward and upfront messaging

All your customers are getting several messages regularly. It can be a tad bit confusing for them to make a decision. Don’t add to that confusion by beating around the bush. Be straightforward and upfront about your intentions. Trust us, your target audience will appreciate and even prefer it over ambiguous, incomprehensive sales messages.

Target Google SGE (Search Generative Experience)

The Google SGE is a generative AI-powered search feature that’s still in the experimental stage. However, many people are already finding it useful to their search intent, as it precisely fulfills the same. If you set your target to be featured in the Google SGE, there are chances that your marketing message will have a high visibility rate.

Know more about Google SGE and how to get featured to bolster your lead generation practices.

Going Cookie-Less

Not all cookies are safe, to say the least. However, marketers use it to generate bulk leads indirectly. This practice will cease to exist, as experts predict. As more and more people are appreciating transparency, it’s your job to opt for cookie-less lead generation methods that appear more genuine, like sign-up forms, live chats, opt-in forms, surveys, blog subscriptions, etc.

The future is personalized, or so the experts say. The more personalization you’ll offer, the better your chances to get those leads faster.

Over To You

Generating leads is imperative for any business. It’s the first step in the sales funnel and should be done the right way. An effective lead acquisition strategy is not about the numbers, but the value of each lead in bringing business. You may generate hundreds of leads every day (just saying), but if none of those contribute to increasing your revenue, well, it’s a waste.

Hence, you should always focus on generating high-potential leads for your business to grow. Following advanced lead generation strategies and keeping track of current and emerging trends is the way to go ahead. Whatever lead generation best practice you choose, make sure you get leads that have a high potential to convert. More conversions lead to a higher ROI (Return on Investment). After all, that’s your primary goal, right?

Got questions about the Best Lead Generation Strategies