What is Lead Generation?

Let’s say that you finally got home from a busy schedule and turned on your Tv to watch your favourite show. That’s when you get a call and someone asks you if you would be interested in buying the respective company’s products and you get excited to hear about the newly launched electric oven for your baking business and agree to purchase. Relatable, no? Well, that’s the case with lead generation. Lead generation refers to when a person is interested in the product or service offerings of a company. That person is known as the lead. It is a process by which you can attract prospects and convert them into leads by making them interested in your products or services. Lead generation is becoming immensely popular among businesses and many companies are investing in generating leads via various strategies to enhance growth and increase sales. 

Types of lead generation

Leads can be generated in different ways. Some of the types of lead generation are discussed below:

Outbound: This type of lead generation is done via contacting you through phone or email. Consider the role of telemarketers who call customers and persuade them to check out the latest offerings of a brand. Yes, that’s how you generate leads via contact via email or phone by describing the products to make customers interested in them. 

Online: The world is transforming digitally and is shifting customers’ buying patterns by using online platforms. Lead generation can be done via online platforms which drive customer traffic to your websites and generate leads. Think of it as searching about buying a new shampoo and you end up visiting a website that offers exciting skincare products. This is how companies build their websites and persuade customers to visit them. 

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Third-party:

This refers to generating leads via companies paying third parties via distributing the content such as product description to different lead brokers, networks, lead generation agencies, etc.

Events:

Conducting events in the form of business dinners, invitations, meetings, or trade shows interests prospects into the company’s offerings.

Advertising and branding:

This is the most famous way of capturing the attention of customers by creating appealing advertisements or sponsorships to enhance brand visibility and recognition.

PR:

Press releases, meetings, and editorials are one of the best ways to generate leads. 

Examples of Lead Generation

Some best ways to generate leads is by using the online media and platform to increase customer awareness and attract prospects via writing SEO-based blog posts, conducting live events such as Apple’s event before launching every new iPhone to excite customers into buying one. Moreover, it can also be done via online content to attract potential customers through which you can guide them about the product offerings and make them buy the products

Search Engine Advertising 

Paying for advertisement is the smartest way to attract potential clients and generate leads by capturing their attention. This is done by search engine advertising which applies the Pay-per-Click (PPC) model via Google where companies earn revenue by PPC tactics. Hence, you can run search engine ads for your company and buy customers to visit your website. This is done by bidding for placements on the search engine result page (SERPS) once a person searches for something. For example, buying makeup for your friend’s birthday. 

Best ways to generate leads

Advertising and retargeting:

Believe it or not, advertising is the most popular way to generate leads. Once you use the PPC strategy, a customer clicks on your ad and visits the website. You can influence customers by showing them visual presentations of your products and writing informative content about the product’s features to attract leads. Digital advertisement is a growing platform to capture an engaging audience. Even though for starters, it may not generate high revenue but it can become the most effective platform to generate leads once you start using it. 

Search Engine Optimisation for leads:

If you are a marketer or a salesperson, you must have heard the wondrous effects of SEO-based posts for your website. It works once your defined target audience searches for your products on Google or any other search engine, it’s your job to make sure that your products are easily available on the platform so people can find you easily. It starts once you develop and plan out keywords that your customers might use to search for a specific product before they purchase your product. For example, if your company offers furniture and home decor items, you think about how your customers search for it. For example, the best affordable furniture for the house. For this, you may use Google Ads or Keyword planner to find relevant data. The right keyword helps you identify your product and makes it visible on the screens of your customers.

Facebook for Lead Generation:

Facebook is an excellent platform for generating leads. It helps to reach the right target audience through optimization. It integrates with your customer relationship management (CRM) and gives people what they exactly want as lead advertisement is in the form of newsletters, subscriptions, etc. It also helps you drive your business objectives such as enhancing brand awareness and boosting reach by adding custom features and follow-ups to build customer relationships. It also adds a click-to-call option so that people who are interested in your products can call you right away. 

Instagram for Lead Generation:

Instagram lead generation is done by using Facebook’s Ads Manager. You can select your marketing objective and Facebook will recommend you to select automatic placements which ensures that cost-per-lead is optimized and kept low. You can also add a call-to-action option and use hashtags in your posts to reach a higher audience. The customer information which is collected is used for Instagram ads that target customers of similar profiles and boost exposure by reaching more prospects.

LinkedIn in Lead Generation:

LinkedIn is vastly used for B2B lead Generation. 62% of customers agree that LinkedIn generates two times more leads than any other social media platform. It connects you with the relevant audience and shows you accurate results with its robust professional targeting filters and in-depth analytics.

Top Platforms for Lead Generation

1. Go high level:

It is an amazing platform that grabs leads using survey forms, phone calls, etc. It automatically messages your prospects via voicemails, emails, FB messenger, etc. Moreover, its built-in tools collect payments, make appointments, and track analytics easily. Moreover, it also creates follow-up and multi-channel campaigns which helps to boost two-way communication with customers.

2. Manychat: 

With Manychat, you can set your lead Generation process smoothly which adds a messenger bot to your Facebook page and website to convert potential leads in customers.

3. Clickfunnels: 

Clickfunnels allows you to connect to your audience with its multi-dimensional marketing strategies. You can send targeted messages to your audience via text, emails, or notifications. It enhances Facebook and Email marketing automation and organizes everything for you in its dashboard. 

This is how you can grow your business and engage customers via using various social media platforms that help you to generate leads. Building customer relationships is an important part of the lead generation technique. Hence, you can use these platforms to increase and strengthen your bonds with existing and new customers who would be interested in your business.