Lead generation software has revolutionized B2B marketing. But this type of technology wasn’t always so prevalent. It used to be that marketers relied on inbound marketing tactics—like content creation, social media engagement and email marketing. Though inbound is still a valuable part of lead generation for small business owners and corporations alike, there are many other tools that can help accomplished entrepreneurs scale their sales processes at a faster rate.
I’m sure most of you have heard of lead generation. This is the process whereby marketers attempt to acquire new leads for their sales efforts. Nowadays, due to a sharp rise in competition, it’s essential for marketers who are marketing via the internet to ensure that they have an abundance of leads. Similarly, having access to an abundance of these leads is crucial if you wish to optimize your website and business goals.
What are the best free tools for lead generation? When you’re starting out, the difficulty lies in marketing automation. Effective marketing automation helps you generate leads for your business even when you’re sleeping. Lead generation is an essential part of running a business and we’ve handpicked some of the best free tools for lead generation to help make your job easier. Take a look at our list of free lead generation software below!
Lead generation is an important part of the sales funnel and a vital tool for any business with a digital presence. Let’s take a look at some of the best free lead generation software that will help you generate high quality leads for your business!
Why should you use B2B lead generation software?
B2B sales reps spend 21% of their time researching and qualifying leads. In a 40-hour week, that’s 8.4 hours, or 2.5 months per year. But B2B lead generation software helps automate the manual researching and lead qualification process, getting sales reps back on the phones and building pipeline for your business.
Another key benefit of B2B lead generation software is that it has the ability to refresh stale CRM records, fill in missing data gaps, and ensure your teams are always working with fresh, accurate and compliant B2B data. As a result, you can better qualify leads and save reps from relying on incomplete form data.
B2B lead generation software also typically includes a range of demographic, firmographic, technographic, and geographic filters.
Because of all these factors, you can home in on companies of the right size and in target industries and territories that are most likely to buy and sift out bad-fit prospects.
1. Zendesk Sell
Zendesk Sell offers built-in sales engagement tools including lead gen, prospecting, and enrichment solutions. These features let your sales people ditch the tedious tasks and bet back to crushing their quotas. Sell lets you create targeted prospect lists for multiple channels and build custom templates so you can create a surplus of leads and engage contacts with a personalized touch.
Features
- Lead qualification
- Sales pipeline
- Custom templates
- Lead capture
- Lead distribution
2. Unbounce
Unbounce is a lead landing page platform for ecommerce, SaaS, and agencies, with features for building landing pages, pop-ups, and sticky bars.
Features
- Customizable templates
- Form builder
- Real-time editing
- Reporting/analytics
- SEO management
3. Leadpages
Leadpages is a landing page builder program for small businesses that hosts features for creating landing pages, pop-ups, alert bars, and includes 40+ integrations.
Features
- Form builder
- Pre-built templates
- SEO management
- AB testing
- Data import/export
4. Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a lead management and CRM platform for sales teams that included pipeline management and code-free development.
Features
- Call recording
- Lead capture
- Content delivery
- Customer segmentation
- Calendar/reminder system
5. HubSpot
HubSpot is a CRM for growing teams. It offers lead management features as well as contact and campaign management functions.
Features
- Performance metrics
- Pipeline management
- Prospecting tools
- Lead qualification
- Lead nurturing
6. Agile CRM
AgileCRM is a customer relations and auto-dialer program for small to mid-sized sales and marketing teams.
Features
- A/B testing
- Automated routing
- Appointment management
- Blended call center
- Call logging
7. CallPage
Callpage is a sales call platform for B2B, B2C, and ecommerce companies with outbound lead management features including auto-dialer and live chat.
Features
- Lead distribution
- Dashboard
- Call list management
- Contact database
- Lead capture
8. AeroLeads
AeroLeads is a prospect generation program for finding individual and business contact information.
Features
- Pipeline management
- Prospecting tools
- Lead qualification
- Lead capture
- Lead database integration
9. Vainu
Vainu is a European-based lead generation platform with sales intelligence and prospecting tools for businesses across all industries.
Features
- Lead verification/validation
- Pipeline management
- Contact database
- Lead capture
- Data import/export
10. LeadFuze
LeadFuze is a contact-finder for salespeople, recruiters, and marketers, and includes features like lead verification and segmentation.
Features
- Prospecting tools
- Contact database
- Lead distribution
- Lead nurturing
- Lead qualification
11. LinkeLead
LinkeLead is a lead generation platform specifically built to search through LinkedIn Sales Navigator for clients, partners, and businesses.
Features
- Contact database
- Data import/export
- Lead nurturing
- Lead segmentation
- Prospecting tools
12. LeadsBridge
LeadsBridge is a lead generation program for advertising agencies, retailers, financial services, and real estate businesses. It includes social media marketing tools, and offers 350+ integrations.
Features
- Lead capture
- Lead nurturing
- Data import/export
- Lead management
- Lead segmentation
13. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is a lead generation tool for small businesses, bloggers, marketing agencies, and eCommerce websites.
Features
- Prospecting tools
- Lead capture
- Lead segmentation
- Email integration
14. MaxTraffic
MaxTraffic is a marketing platform that includes features for customer profiling, exit intent, promotional overlays, and analytics.
Features
- A/B testing
- Customizable CTAs
- Drip campaigns
- Lead capture
- Geotargeting
15. Mailgun
Free SMTP server with 24/7 support and advanced features.
Free Email Marketing Automation Tools
16. Mailchimp
Simple Email Marketing software to send newsletters to your subscribers.
17. HubSpot
Set up an SMTP server in minutes and achieve deep personalization with this tool.
18. Boomerang
Keep sending emails to your leads with automated reminders.
Free Spam Testing Tools
19. Mail Tester
Test if your email is spam worthy.
20. IsNotSpam
An alternative to the tool above.
Free Proposals and Invoicing Tools
21. And Co
Create simple proposals and invoice your customers with this handy tool for freelancers.
22. Hello Sign
Get your digital documents signed with this tool. The free version allows for 3 documents per month.
23. Invoicely
A free professional invoice making app.
24. Slimvoice
Create simple invoices easily and in minutes.
25. Wave
Free invoicing and accounting app.
26. Invoice Generator
Another great invoicing tool.
Free Personalized Video Messaging Tools
27. Loom
Use Loom to record your screen and webcam at the same time, and run your customers/leads through different processes.
28. Dubb
A tool similar to Loom.
29. Yieldify
If you want to turn website traffic into sales, while still providing the premium user experience your customers have come to expect, Yieldify can deliver. Our b2c lead generation campaigns heighten the quality of your leads with advanced targeting options and enriched user data, making sure you deliver the right message, to the right person, at the right time.
Whether your message is a discount code, promotion of your unique value proposition or value-added services, it will trigger at the perfect time for achieving the highest impact and resonance. Our highly optimized lead capture forms seamlessly blend creative and compliance – all while staying true to your brand identity.
Our forms also include the ability to capture enriched data as well as an email address and have built-in regex data validation so that you can be sure the data you capture is clean and easily indexed.
The big difference is that all of this comes with a secret sauce: an expert consultant. You’ll have seen that effective b2c lead generation is part art, and part science – an experienced hand to take you through the process means a much better end result from your lead generation efforts.
30. Leadformly
If you’re looking to create conversion-optimized lead capture forms, Leadformly can help. Their optimized forms take away the need for you to agonize over every detail. Should your CTA button be blue or red? Should you have 5 or 10 form fields?
Instead of spending hours researching the best practices, you can use one of Leadformly’s form templates that have already taken over 58 best practices into account. So if you’re actively spending money on paid campaigns, or email marketing these templates should help boost your conversion rates and drive more qualified leads.
31. OnePageCRM
OnePageCRM is an action-based CRM solution. Their software transforms static database contacts into a to-do list for sales representatives, allowing sales teams to close more deals, more often.
Contact profiles can be enriched with social data in one easy click to aid relationship management. Get a detailed view of all data related to a single customer, on one scrollable page – from contact info to every logged conversation.
32. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is rumoured to be one of the very best lead generation software. They have a lot of features that make it easy for any individual or business to convert first-time visitors into quality leads, customers, etc.
With OptinMonster it does not really matter what kind of website you have running up.
OptinMonster is equipped with all the right features that enhance your lead generation.
With OptinMonster you can be sure to create very attractive onsite marketing campaigns. With the addition of over 50 beautiful templates prebuilt to drive a more successful lead generation campaign.
Some of these templates would include the following:
- Pop Ups: Popups have proven to be very reliable conversion boosters, especially when used properly. With OptinMonster pop-ups, you can create lightbox popups that dim the background/content. This would drag a lot of attention to the popup and could lead to a very large boost in conversion rate.
- Slide-in forms: In an attempt to boost lead generation and conversion slide-in forms present themselves as a very professional style. With Optinmonster slide-in you can be sure to drive a lot of leads.
- Floating Bar: A floating bar is usually sticky and locked onto the bottom or top of a web page. In some cases, a floating bar sticks to the side of the web page/floating bars are also called “hello bars”. However, they are not always preferred to the popups, and this is because a lot of first time visitors refer to floating bars as annoying. But this is very untrue because the floating is first attractive and engaging if used properly. Experts advise the controlled use of floating bars for more effective lead generation.
33. Constant Contact
An easy to use lead generation software for companies of all sizes – be it a B2B or B2C. A lot of features and inbuilt support.
Constant Contact has been used by a majority of online marketers and promoters who seek the best lead generation software for marketing purposes.
The major reason why they choose constant contact regularly is:
- High Customer support system: These guys are ready to call and speak to you directly just to make sure there is an understanding that will enhance or boost your lead generation strategy. Having been in the business of email marketing since 1995 they have walked their way up the ladder. Constant Contact is worth the trial for lead generation.
- Unlimited Emails: Constant Contact offers unlimited emails for all their pricing plans. Their prices however start at $20/month and that’s for 0-500 contacts. However, they offer a free 60days trial period with access to more than 60% of all features. For the 60 days, you will have access to customizable templates, sign up tools and a lot of important features to boost your lead generation and drive sales conversions.
- Detailed Online Training/webinars: They also offer online training and webinars for their users. They help to answer any questions and also help the user master the lead generation tool.
What makes a B2C lead generation tool good?
Possibly one of the most subjective questions you can ask is what makes something “good”. For lead generation software, finding something that simplifies the process of capturing qualified leads without you needing to learn a whole new skill set is key.
It needs to help you achieve your marketing goals better than you could without it. Look for a tool that gets you leads faster, in greater volume, or more cost-effectively than you were in the past.
Conclusion
Generating leads is more than just filling a sign up form. You’re not only after their information, but also want to convert them into a sale. There are many ways on getting leads from your target market, and one of these methods is through free lead generation software.
The best lead generation software often comes at a high price. A lot of these platforms are extremely powerful but will take a significant investment of time, money, and resources to implement and fully utilize. And also, usually, you’ll need to have access to coding skills or the ability to work closely with someone who does. Sometimes it’s just easier, faster, and cheaper to reach out directly to your target audience through free platforms such as Facebook Groups, Reddit, Quora and others.