Marketers have been using lead generation tools for decades. They make creating landing pages, contest collecting entries and social selling easier. You can find thousands of types of lead generation tools for sale online. Before spending your hard earned money, you might want to check out the best free lead generation tools currently available.
If you have ever considered using email marketing and lead generation to promote your business then there are a lot of different tools that the market has to offer. There are many lead generation companies that provide the same services with little differences between them. The Best Lead Gen Tools is a list where we will present to you the most competitive tools for lead generation and compare their features so that you can make a choice that is right for your business.
There are many resources to generate leads online. There are a few different types of opportunities if you need leads for your business. The most important information is the best lead generation strategy for your company and products. So, you have to decide what type of lead generation you need for your business and based on this, we can mention some tips as well as recommendations on how to select the right tools.
If you’ve ever had any interest in free lead generation software, you’ve no doubt ran across a handful of listings for such tools with similar sounding names. Many of these simply take you to a sales page with some free lead generation software, but there are plenty of others that will help if you know how to use them. Here I’ll be talking about some of the top free lead generation tools that can help your online business out tremendously.
What Is a Lead Generation Software/Tool?
Lead generation tools and software help you easily capture contact information from people interested in your company’s product or service. These are called “leads” and usually come from your website or other online sources.
The key to lead generation software is that leads are collected without any ongoing manual work from you. Essentially, these tools automate the process so you can focus on other areas of your business. Usually, this is done by offering a freebie (like a coupon, downloadable, or other enticing items) in exchange for an email address.
Lead generation tools will then collect the email address so you can follow up with your leads and begin the process to convert them into paying customers.
If you are struggling to collect leads, it’s time to bring in a new lead generation software… or past time to upgrade what you currently have. We’ve worked with loads of companies just like yours, and we’ve identified the key drivers of successful lead generation campaigns.
Why is this important? Well, you can focus on the things that really matter instead of wasting time trying to fix all of your lead generation problems yourself.
What Types of Lead Generation Software/Tools Are There?
Lead generation isn’t a “one size fits all” process. In fact, there are many different ways (and tools) to generate leads. They include:
- On-page Lead Generation: Drives leads directly from your website through optin forms and campaigns
- Email Marketing: Nurture those leads with campaigns to keep them engaged with your brand
- Email Address Finders: Connect with people who aren’t on your email list
- Prospecting and Outreach: Collect contact on anonymous visitors and reach out to potential leads
- Customer Relationship Management Tools: Connect and track leads throughout the sales funnel
- Sales Tools: Turn leads into paying customers while also staying in touch with existing customers
- Communication Tools: People love to chat and communicate. Use this to your business’ benefits to help generate leads
- Advertising Tools: Drive traffic to your site from places like social media and through paid ads
We know, it’s a lot. But you don’t have to use all of them to have a successful lead generation campaign.
It all comes down to the type of tools that make sense for you and the type of campaigns you want to run.
So, are you ready to get started? Let’s dive straight into our list.
On-Page Lead Generation and Email Marketing
You can’t beat on-page lead generation and email marketing for online lead generation.
If visitors are already looking at your website, they are already interested in your services or products. So, strike while they are on your site and collect that lead!
The stats show that most people welcome emails (even cold emails if they’re done right and follow the rules) from the companies they want to connect with.
That makes the combination of on-page lead generation and email marketing software the best lead generation duo. Here are some tools we recommend.
1. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is the best lead generation tool that makes it easy to convert your visitors into leads and customers.
It doesn’t matter what kind of website you run and what kind of leads you’re looking for. OptinMonster comes with the right solution for building campaigns to collect quality leads for your unique needs.
OptinMonster gives you the creative control to create eye-catching on-site lead generation campaigns like popups, slide-in windows, and gamified spin-to-win wheels. Even better? You can do it with a beginner-friendly and easy-to-use builder.
Plus, OptinMonster’s powerful personalization and targeting display rules put your campaigns in front of the right people at the right time.
In fact, OptinMonster is how AtHoc increased sales qualified leads by 141% and how SnackNation adds 1200 segmented leads every week.
Key Features:
- Reduce cart abandonment: Offer abandoning visitors a custom-tailored offer before they leave your site with Exit-Intent® Technology.
- Increase conversions and sales: Create upsell, downsell, and cross-sell offers to boost your customers’ average order value (AOV).
- Show targeted promotions: Show free shipping bars, share discount codes, promote flash sales, and more based on referral source, geo-location, previous on-site behavior, user’s device, etc.
- Targeted offers: Use what you already know about your visitors to run OnSite Retargeting® campaigns and improve conversions.
- Grow your email list: Integrate with your favorite email marketing, content management, and CRM platforms to automate your business.
Pricing: OptinMonster pricing starts at $9/month for our Basic plan, $19/month for Plus, $29/month for Pro (our most popular plan), and $49/month for Growth.Get Started With OptinMonster Today!
BONUS: Done-For-You Campaign Setup ($297 value)
Our conversion experts will design 1 free campaign for you to get maximum results – absolutely FREE! Click here to get started →
2. TrustPulse
TrustPulse is the market’s best social proof notification plugin.
Wait, social proof? Weren’t we talking about lead generation? Yes. But without trust, you will never collect leads. Social proof builds that trust.
In fact, adding social proof notifications is one of the most effective lead generation marketing tactics requiring the least amount of effort. TrustPulse will show notifications of activities taken by real people on your site, like viewing or buying products, signing up for newsletters, and more.
By displaying actual activity from real people, you will build trust with visitors.
Key Features:
- Real-time event tracking
- Smart targeting to boost conversions using advanced targeting rules and timing control
- Flexible design options to match your site’s branding
- Actionable analytics to get the stats you need to boost conversions
- Easy setup on any website with no coding needed
Pricing: The pricing plans start at $5/month for up to 2,500 sessions!
3. SeedProd
SeedProd is the best landing page builder on the market. Create beautiful landing pages using only a drag and drop builder (and no coding) in only a few minutes.
With a beginner-friendly drag and drop builder, you can create various pages for your site. Whether it’s for sales, maintenance, webinar, or optin campaigns, SeedProd has your back. But, with 150+ landing page templates, you don’t even need to worry about designing responsive and mobile-ready pages. All the hard work is already done for you.
SeedProd strong arms the conversion game by integrating with many email service providers and protecting your pages from spam, bots, and other fraudulent entries.
Key Features:
- Edit content in real-time and preview your website exactly as your visitors would with its live preview
- Put your website into coming soon, 404, or maintenance mode and go live whenever you’re ready, all with one click
- Compatible with any WordPress theme and helps you ensure your website matches your branding
Pricing: SeedProd’s yearly pricing starts at $39.50 for their Basic package, $89.55 for their Plus package, and $159.60 for their Pro package.
4. WPForms
WPForms is an easy-to-use form builder that adds simple lead generation forms to your website.
With 300+ pre-built templates, you can get the proper form on your site in just a few clicks.
While forms are limited in targeting rules as opposed to tools like OptinMonster’s popups, they are still an excellent and reliable way to generate leads.
Key Features:
- Drag and drop builder to make customization easy
- Mobile-friendly forms let you collect leads from any type of visitor
- Instant notifications allow you quickly respond to leads
- Smart conditional logic guides you through creating high-performing forms
Pricing: WPForm’s yearly pricing starts at $39.50 for their Basic package, $99.50 for their Plus package, $199.50 for their Pro package, and $299.50 for their Elite package.
5. Constant Contact
If you have a more extensive contact list or simply prefer a MailChimp alternative, try Constant Contact. It’s a fantastic email marketing platform that will help you stay connected with your leads.
Constant Contact has an incredibly easy-to-use and lightweight interface. And, as one of the largest email marketing services globally, Constant Contact can offer great deliverability rates.
Their drag and drop editor and email newsletter templates give your emails a polished and professional look, impressing your leads.
Key Features:
- Integrates with other lead generating tools, so you start emailing leads right away
- Marketing automation sends pre-designed emails to increase engagement and drive sales
- Easy-to-read reports track email success in real-time
- Simple contact management tools give you the power to sort, add, and manage your email contacts
Pricing: Constant Contact’s email marketing pricing ranges from $20/month for Email to $45/month for Email Plus. They do offer a free trial.
6. Sendinblue
Sendinblue is a complete marketing automation platform that combines both email marketing services and SMS messages. In addition, they offer a drag & drop builder that you can use to create highly-engaging emails, build automated workflows, and segment users.
Sendinblue can be your home for almost anything email marketing. From automation, segmentation, and email design tools, Sendinblue has it all.
It also offers builders for Facebook ads, landing pages, and signup forms.
Key Features:
- Customizable dashboard based on your business
- All-in-one marketing suite
- Email heat maps so you can visualize how your contacts engage with your email
- A/B testing so you can test different emails to see which resonates best with your contacts
Pricing: Sendinblue does offer a free plan for unlimited contacts and up to 300 emails a day. Their paid plans range from $25/month for their Lite package to $65/month for the Premium package.
Once you’ve chosen your email marketing tool, make sure to check out our email marketing guide to get started with email lead generation.
Email Address Finders
Sometimes you’re going to need to connect with people who aren’t on your email list. That means finding their email address and contact details. This next batch of tools will help with that.
7. Hunter
If you want to do a quick email search, Hunter is a valuable tool. Just type in the domain, and it’ll find the email address pattern.
Hunter also includes a confidence rating, so you know if the email is likely to be correct.
That makes Hunter one of the best email finder tools on the market.
Key Features:
- Email verifier checks the validity of any professional email address in bulk
- Browser and Google Sheets extensions
- Gmail integration to send cold email campaigns
Pricing: Hunter’s pricing depends on the number of requests you make. It’s free for up to 25 searches and 50 verifications per month. Paid plans start at $49/month and range to $399/month for the Enterprise plan.
8. AeroLeads
AeroLeads provides a Google Chrome extension to help you search various professional websites like LinkedIn for sales leads.
All you have to do is add a name and company to your AeroLeads account. The tool will then find their business email addresses and other contact details.
AeroLeads will add these leads to your email marketing lists, so you can start working on those leads right away.
Key Features:
- Chrome extension makes searching simple
- Export data to a CSV file or transfer to email marketing tools
- Verified business emails also come with job titles, company, website, location, and LinkedIn URL
Pricing: AeroLeads offers a limited free plan to help you get going. Their lowest tier is Take Off, which is $49/month for 1,200 records. After that, plans go up to Enterprise, priced by special quote.
9. Voila Norbert
Voila Norbert promises to help you find and verify email addresses to help you do everything from collecting leads to building business relationships.
You can search in bulk for prospects with a CSV file. The tool also integrates with a wide range of CRM software to make storing and sorting email lists effortless.
All things considered, it’s a solid lead generation tool.
Key Features:
- Collect verified emails to lower the amount of bounced emails
- Removes duplicate email addresses, invalid formats, and bad domains
- Provides additional details about each contact like job roles and social media profiles
Pricing: Voila Norbert’s pricing ranges from their Valet package at $49/month for 1,000 leads up to their Counselor package at $499/month for 50,000 leads with a few options in between.
Prospecting and Outreach Tools
Want to turn more of those contacts into leads and sales? These (mostly) automated lead generation tools will help with that process.
10. D&B Hoovers
D&B Hoovers claims to have the world’s most comprehensive business database. You can use it to build targeted lists of new prospects.
Hoovers’ database includes company information to help you have more relevant conversations with those prospects. That aids you in turning more prospects into leads and sales.
This information can help guide your marketing decisions to deliver more relevant communication with your leads.
Key Features:
- Filter prospects to engage the most promising leads
- Send leads directly to your CRM tools
- Real-time trigger alerts
- Dynamic lists constantly update your contacts, so you always have valid contact information
Pricing: You can try Hoovers for free though you’ll need to contact their sales team for more pricing information.
11. Datanyze
Datanyze focuses exclusively on B2B contacts. With their Google Chrome extension, you can get a plethora of contact information, including email, direct dial, and mobile numbers, all without leaving your browser.
Then, you can export those to your CRM software for management and follow-up.
You can use Datanyze stress-free as they promise refunds for any inaccuracies within their database.
Key Features:
- CCPA and GDPR compliant
- Target specific industries for B2B leads
- Capture contact information while you browse business websites and LinkedIn
- Icebreakers help you start meaningful conversations
Pricing: You can start with a free demo of their software. After that, you’ll need to contact their sales team for a pricing plan.
12. Lead Forensics
Sometimes you can miss out on good sales leads because you don’t know everyone who visits your site.
Lead Forensics aims to solve that problem by getting contact details for anonymous website visitors. You can also use lead scoring, so you spend your time on those most likely to convert.
You’ll also receive contact data of key contacts that match your target profile to help continue to grow your leads list.
Key Features:
- Uncovers the identity of anonymous website visitors and turns them into leads
- Provides full contact information, including business names, identities of key decision-makers, and more
- Integrates with many of the top CRMs
Pricing: You can begin with a free trial of Lead Forensics. After that, you’ll need to work with their sales team to get a package and pricing plan that’s right for your business.
13. Growbots
Know the market you want to target? Just tell Growbots, and it will choose your best prospects from a database of more than 200 million contacts separated by industry.
With Growbots, you can quickly contact the right decision-makers and follow up automatically.
Growbots also includes testing so you can check which approaches are most effective.
Key Features:
- Access to over 100 million contacts
- Only pay for the leads that fit your business
- Self-updating database
- Email marketing capabilities, including automation
Pricing: Growbots’ pricing starts at $49/month for their Outreach plan and goes up to $199/month for the All-in-One package.
CRM Tools
You can’t do a roundup of lead generation software without including tools for customer relationship management (CRM). These tools help you connect and keep track of prospects and sales leads throughout the sales pipeline. Here are our picks.
14. Overloop
Overloop is a CRM with a special focus on email address prospecting, conversations, pipelines, and workflows.
A drag and drop dashboard helps you see all of your pipelines at a glance, giving you an excellent business overview.
Overloop’s automation is also built on a visual dashboard, so you can put your sales prospecting on autopilot. Best of all, it integrates with a range of services to get contact information automatically.
Key Features:
- Find email addresses either individually or in bulk
- Turn these emails into cold emails, all in the same tool
- Track email campaigns with in-depth data
- Automated workflows reduce repetitive tasks
Pricing: Overloop is free to start as a CRM. Starting with email automation and tracking is $70/month. Email finder credits start at $39/month for 250 credits, ranging to $299/month for 10,000 credits.
15. HubSpot
HubSpot is one of the world’s top CRMs available. While they offer a wide variety of tools, one of the top uses of HubSpot is its email marketing services.
With HubSpot, you can create stunning conversion-ready emails while also learning from valuable insights and reports into how your emails perform with your customers.
HubSpot can be one of your best assets when it comes to sales and marketing.
Key Features:
- Easy-to-use platform
- Separate hubs let your focus on the areas your business needs, all in one tool
- Live chat functionality
- Email template, scheduling, tracking, and engagement tools
Pricing: HubSpot offers a free CRM with valuable tools. Their paid plans are for their marketing, sales, customer service, CMS, and operations hubs, which start at $45/month.
16. Outreach.io
Not all lead generation has to stem from inbound marketing efforts. Outreach tactics should definitely be a part of your strategy. You can do this by adding account-based sales to your nurturing campaigns. For example, you can identify target companies based on highly-defined buyer personas.
Outreach.io is a valuable tool you can use to manage the entire account-based sales process. Especially if you integrate it with data-enrichment tools like Hull.io, which provides further insights about your prospects.
This platform comes with a sales dialer, real-time enablement, email sequences, sales engagement, task management, tracking, and AI-driven reports.
To get your hands on it, you’ll need to request a demo and special pricing.
17. Mailchimp
Email marketing should be a part of every lead generation campaign. But you need a tool to automate it so you can maximize results. Mailchimp is a popular email marketing tool, which you can connect with your landing page tools.
And it does more than send out automated emails. It also comes with its own lead capture forms, which you can design with exit-intent technology. Plus, you can include shareable URL links for your newsletters, so leads can share them with others. It’s also useful for transactional emails for those who’ve already converted into customers.
Mailchimp comes with multiple plans, including a free version with a 2,000 contact limit. The premium plans start at $9.99 for 500 contacts and go up to $299 for 10,000 contacts.
18. Intercom
Conversational marketing helps generate interest and gather feedback from your core audience. You can take this information and build a knowledge base for prospects. With Intercom, you’re able to chat with leads visiting your site.
You can set up rules of engagement where the message won’t pop up until a visitor is on a pricing page for at least X seconds/minutes. Or if someone visits your site a second time. With this in your toolkit, you can segment messages based on visitor behaviors.
It’s also helpful for collecting information about customers. And uses custom bots to provide quick response times to customer questions. There’s also an email follow-up feature to promote continued engagement.
Intercom has a demo you can request. You’ll have to speak with a sales rep to get special pricing for your business.
19. Zapier
Doing repetitive tasks is time-consuming and inefficient. This is especially true when you’re running dozens or even hundreds of SaaS tools on any given day. With Zapier, you can gain control over your time and tech stack. It works by connecting all of your apps, creating a seamless experience. The platform is compatible with over 1,500 apps and can integrate them without technical knowledge needed.
From here, automation is simplified so you can focus on innovating your processes. You can get started with Zapier for free. Then once you’re ready to upgrade, you’ll pay $29.99/mo for Starter plans or $19.99/mo when billed annually.
20. HotJar
What if you were able to see exactly what your visitors viewed on your website. With this “superpower,” you could understand what attracts visitors and what doesn’t. Well, this is somewhat possible using a heatmap tool like HotJar.
Then you can use the tool to give surveys and polls to learn why people bounce away so you can better optimize your site. The platform is user-friendly and comes with pricing plans for all business sizes.
Conclusion:
Lead generation is the most important part of any successful marketing strategy. Think about why you’re in marketing and I can guarantee you creating leads and converting them into sales is part of your long-term goals.
SEO hasn’t yet invaded the lead generation market. Lead generation has always been a standalone activity and didn’t rely on SEO, but it is starting to change now. More companies are looking for ways to convert visitors into leads with different techniques. Plenty of best free lead generation tools are offered online, but not all of them can actually help you achieve your goals.