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What is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is the process of generating interest in a product or service with the goal of converting that interest into a sale. In online marketing, this typically involves collecting contact information from a visitor (called a "lead") via a web form.
Lead generation is a critical part of the sales funnel for many B2B (business to business) companies because their products can cost thousands of dollars and web visitors are less likely to purchase their product or service directly from the website. Collecting new leads allows companies to educate and nurture potential customers through email marketing, before reaching out to qualified leads directly through sales reps.
Lead generation is also important for e-commerce and other businesses, as email marketing remains one of the most effective channels for online marketing, and collecting a potential customer's contact information allows the business to market to them later, even if they don't make a purchase immediately.
How does lead generation work?
There are two main components to the lead generation process:
- Attract traffic to your site
- Convince them of share their contact information with you.
The first step in the process is to find an effective way to attract leads to your website. Depending on your business goals and budget constraints, there are many ways to attract leads to your website.
Here are some of the main methods businesses use to generate traffic:
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – SEM is a form of online advertising that involves paying search engines (like Google or Bing) to display ads in their search results. Since search is the primary way people browse the web, it can be a great source of traffic.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Search engine optimization is similar to SEM, in that it involves getting traffic from search engines, but rather than paying for ads, SEO involves optimizing your website for search engine algorithms so that it appears higher in organic search results.
- Social Media – Social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn have become some of the most popular sites on the web, and are starting to compete with search as major sources of traffic. You can generate traffic from social media by posting content on social media platforms or by paying for ads that run on the networks.
- Display Ads – This type of advertising takes different forms such as video, image, audio or text. These ads can be purchased on relevant websites in order to direct this traffic to your own site, usually through templates Pay Per Click (PPC).
- Offline Events – Online marketing can often start offline. Events like industry conferences and meetups can be great ways to network with potential new customers, educate them about your brand, and drive them to your website. These can be events you attend as a guest, events you sponsor, or events you organize yourself.
Once visitors start arriving on your site, the next step is to convert them into leads via an online form. This can be achieved using many different lead generation tactics but involves getting users interested in your product or service and getting them to submit their contact information, often using an incentive (known as a “lead magnet”).
Common marketing strategies that companies use for lead generation:
- Contents – Providing high-quality content in exchange for contact information is a common practice in lead generation. This content can be anything from a white paper, case study, or infographic to an ebook or exclusive video. The idea is to entice potential customers in your target audience with content that is relevant to your business and entice them to provide their contact information before they can access the content.
- webinars – A webinar is a live video session that your visitors can view and participate in. Webinars typically last between half an hour and an hour and provide information and educational material on a specific topic. Because webinars are interactive and require a large investment of time, they can be a great way to not only create a lead, but also educate and convert them.
- Landing pages (landing pages) – The best lead generation tool of all is your product. If you have a compelling product that solves a major pain point, visitors will want to provide their contact information even without incentives. Presenting your product in the most attractive way is often done through landing pages or sales pages, which help educate and convert potential customers. Landing page optimization is the key to ensuring you get the most out of these pages.
Once a lead is created, if the customer is in the target market, the lead becomes a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) and the digital marketing team will begin nurturing the lead through marketing campaigns. This nurturing process typically involves marketing automation campaigns targeted to specific email lists to follow up with content that helps educate and persuade prospects to mature into sales leads.
After a lead has been nurtured, a prospect can be convinced to make an inbound purchase on the website or by contacting a salesperson, turning them into a sales qualified lead. In enterprise sales, it is often the sales team that contacts the prospect to close the deal.
How to Improve Your Lead Generation
Besides increasing traffic to your site, there are many ways to optimize your website to generate more leads.
Since content is often a key incentive for generating leads, experiment with different pieces of content, call-to-action placements, and lead magnets to determine what type of content performs best. This typically involves identifying your key buyer personas and creating content that would be compelling and useful for generating quality leads.
Beyond incentives, a key part of the conversion funnel that can be optimized is the lead form. While it makes sense from a business perspective to collect as much information about a lead as possible, the more fields in the form, the lower the number of form submissions. Experiment with different form lengths to see what’s optimal in terms of lead capture and lead information.
There are many other aspects of a site that can be optimized as well, from having a clear call to action to making the site distraction-free and easy to navigate so users can easily access the content you want them to see. Mining data in an analytics platform can be helpful in visualizing how potential leads navigate your site.
A concrete example of Lead Generation
At Votre Site Pro, we have set up a “lead magnet” which is used for lead generation.
A lead magnet is content created specifically to solve a target customer's problems.
Ours is called: “The Complete Guide to Facebook Advertising”.
You can find it here: https://votresitepro.be/guide-publicite-facebook
We created ads on Meta with a budget of a few dozen euros per day and redirected traffic to this sales page created with Leadpages.
This allows us to establish a relationship of trust from the start by providing a valuable document to our potential customers (leads).
This 26-page guide contains all the information you need to create campaigns Meta via the Ads Manager.
Once someone downloads this guide, they will automatically receive a series of automated emails (email marketing) containing more tips and educational content.
A salesperson is also responsible for calling each lead to understand the motivations behind this download and, why not, set up a discovery call.
How to Use A/B Testing to Improve Lead Generation
While there are many elements of your site that can be improved, you don’t want to just implement them all at once and hope for the best. That’s where A/B testing comes in.
A/B testing allows you to test different changes to your site with segments of your traffic to determine whether or not they have a positive impact on your conversion rate, and how much of an impact they will have. Testing allows you to make data-driven decisions about changes to your site, rather than just following your gut feeling.
Whether you're making changes to your lead forms or testing different lead magnets, A/B testing software makes it easy to show different versions of your site to your visitors, so you can determine which version performs best.
A/B testing can help you refine every aspect of your lead generation strategy, from your site design to the copy and offers you present. By systematically adjusting and testing different approaches, you can significantly increase the number of visitors who convert into qualified leads, optimizing your sales funnel and increasing your ROI.
Ultimately, lead generation is a dynamic process that requires constant attention and adaptation to market trends, consumer behaviors, and new technologies.
Therefore, by being at the forefront of these developments and continually optimizing your approach, you can not only generate more leads, but also improve the quality of those leads, leading to sustained growth for your business.
Remember, the key to successful lead generation is to deeply understand your prospects: their needs, challenges, and preferences. By aligning your content, marketing, and sales strategies with these insights, you can create more targeted and effective lead generation campaigns that will truly resonate with your audience and lead to higher conversions.
Conclusion
Good luck with your lead generation efforts, and remember: with the right strategy and tools, every visitor to your site represents an opportunity for growth for your business.
