Technology is a very diverse sector. There are so many potential industries or niches you can focus on. Take lead generation for example. Lead generation is vastly different from lead to sale opportunities and technologies in relation to it. You can use soft-selling techniques to generate leads which are later successfully managed and converted into sales. Or you can use hard-selling techniques and make the leads convert automatically. These are just some of the ways technology can be used to generate leads and get more business leads faster.
There are so many technologies these days that I’m sure it’s confusing for many of us to keep track of them. But if you’re in the business of lead generation, you need to at least be aware of how they work. Lead generation is simply generating leads which would eventually be converted into sales or profit. If you’re using technology as one of your lead generation tools, there are a lot of things that you need to take into account. Lead generation technologies can range from consumer information, political information, business information, etc. Knowing which one to use is a personal decision that depends on the business type and purpose.
The technologies that make for good lead generation for technology companies aren’t necessarily the same as those for small business or software companies. If you’re trying to sell smart phones, you have a fundamentally different opportunity than when you’re trying to sell cloud infrastructure. In this article, I’ll discuss the different types of lead generation available and why they can be effective if used properly.
Over the years, we’ve developed and experimented with countless lead generation strategies. We’ve tried, tested, and perfected lead generation processes that have enabled us to generate thousands of leads for our clients at a low cost. In this post, I want to shed light on some of the elements that make a lead generation process effective, and how you can create a process that works for you.
What are the top lead generation techniques?
There are numerous lead generation techniques that can be used to generate the right leads to meet your business goals. However, these top lead generation techniques are used by the majority of people who know how to use them effectively.
- SEO Optimization
- Lead Generating Website
- Blogging
- Creating eBooks
- Creating Lead Generation Videos
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Organic search is a process of entering one or more search terms into a search engine. Organic search results are the listings on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) that appear because of their relevance to the search terms that were input into the search engine. These do not include the advertisements appear at the top and bottom of the results page.
Why is organic search important? Because, Google gets over 100 billion searches a month worldwide. (Source: Mashable)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial for your website so that it is ranked higher on the SERP for keywords that are related to you business. When done correctly, this will allow your potential customers to discover your business when searching for the products or solutions you provide.
One of the exciting benefits of SEO, when it is executed properly as a lead generation technique, is that it can bring more targeted and qualified leads to your company website.
71% of B2B researchers (buyers) start their research with a generic search. (Source: Google)
This is good news for small businesses. SEO keyword research allows businesses to target keywords and phrases that potential customers are using to search for solutions to their problems.
The challenge is applying those keywords to your website and internet marketing strategy so that they actually bring you customers. Here are some SEO strategies to consider:
- Pick a primary keyword for each landing page and focus on optimizing that page for that word. Note: If you over saturate a page with too many keywords (or the same keyword several times), the page will lose its importance and authority. This is because search engines will conclude that you are keyword stuffing, or they won’t have a clear idea of what the page is about.
- Place your primary keywords in your headline and sub-headline. These areas of content have greater weight to search engines. The headline should also be an H1 tag, for those of you who have some code experience.
- Include the keywords in the body content, but don’t use them out of context. Make sure that they are relevant with the rest of your content.
- Include keywords in the file name of images. For example, use “lead-generation-ideas”, if your keyword is lead generation. You can also use this in the ALT tag.
- Include the keywords in the page URL.
2. Lead Generation Website
Most company websites are designed to be informative and not to generate leads. Does your website tell them how good you are ? And, is it designed to showcase your company like a bright shiny brochure? If so, then you are too focused on yourself and not on your customers. You are too “me centric” or “company-centric.”
When visitors go to a website, they are looking for something. They want to know if you have what they are looking for or if you can help them solve their problem.
When they get to your website, if they do not see what they are looking for, understand what you do or determine whether you can solve their problem, they will go elsewhere.
Contrast this with a lead generation website that is designed to make it easy for clients to understand what your value proposition is, download valuable information or request a proposal. This type of website incorporates tools like content offers, landing pages, calls to action, lead flows and forms. With these tools in place, you will create a website that is set up to generate targeted leads out of visitors who are interested in what you have to offer.
3. Business Blogging
Business blogging, when done consistently is a key source of traffic generation for your website. With each new entry on your blog, you provide an opportunity for your prospects to find you, find a solution to a problem and subsequently learn about the solutions that your company provides.
Here is why it works: Every time you create and publish a new blog post, a new URL is created and added to your website. Search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo periodically crawl your website looking for new information and updates. When new pages are found, these search engines organize this new information by indexing it in their database.
Once your new page is added to a search engine index, it has the opportunity to be found when a person enters a search query. With each successive blog entry, you have a new way to be found online. What’s even better, blogging allows you to attract “good traffic.” By writing about topics that your ideal customers are searching for, you have a greater chance of attracting the type of qualified visitors that will be candidates for your product offerings. Do you think blogging is too much work for the return?
Consider these recent stats:
- B2B marketers that use blogs receive 67% more leads than those that do not. (Source: HubSpot)
- By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationships without talking to a human. (Source: The Kapost Blog)
- Companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website. (Source: Business2Community)
As these statistics illustrate, blogging is no longer just an option for online lead generation. It is quickly becoming a necessity.
More people begin their buying journey by researching online before ever reaching out to a solution provider. By utilizing your blog, you can help influence customer behavior and favorably increase the odds of influencing visitors to your website with well-researched articles.
4. Creating eBooks
Through the use of content marketing, leads can be obtained a lot easier if your business is seen as a trusted resource of knowledge in its area of specialization. eBooks are a way for you to demonstrate expertise and thought leadership. They make it easy for the potential customer to learn more about your company, your products or services, and also about the area of business you operate in
Pick subjects that are relevant to the information your target customers are looking for. In other words, provide information regarding their common challenges or needs. This is one of the most common techniques for lead generation because it establishes credibility and attracts qualified leads. You can offer them an eBook on your website for free if they fill out a form. Once they fill in the form, you now have information with which to continue nurturing them.
An important point to remember here is that you don’t want to ask for so much information that it becomes too much trouble for them to get the eBook. If they feel like you are asking too much, they won’t download it. This is particularly true when it comes to their phone number. Most people are willing to give an email address, but won’t give a phone number and risk getting calls.
So, make it easy for them to get information from you.
5. Creating Lead Generation Videos
Video is everywhere today, and for good reason. It is an ideal marketing medium for businesses to attract visitors and prospects. You can use videos to explain how to use a product, solve a problem, explain a concept or tell a story of how you helped a customer solve a problem.
And, if you can be funny or entertaining in the process, that is even better.
Check out these statistics:
- 82% of Twitter users watch video content on Twitter.
- More than 500 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube each day.
- More video content is uploaded in 30 days than the major U.S. television networks have created in 30 years.
- 87% of online marketers use video content.
Video can play an important role in attracting traffic to your website, generating leads and nurturing leads
What Is Lead Generation Software?
Lead generation software is tool that automates lead generation. Such tools can be used to generate leads from multiple sources like landing pages, social media, etc. These leads can further be used for lead nurturing and converting them into customers.
Depending on the channels to generate leads, each software works differently and has its own unique set of features, as discussed in the following section.
What Should You Look for in a Lead Generation Tool?
Though all tools work differently, they share some common aspects that you must look for while selecting the best lead generator tool for your business.
- Learning Curve
Choose a lead generation tool that is easy to master for your marketing and sales team. It should also have an extensive support service and plenty of help material to facilitate your team’s smooth onboarding.
- Targeting and Tracking Options
Ensure that the lead generation platform you choose offers audience targeting options so you can collect leads from the right visitors without annoying others. Just collecting the leads is not sufficient. You should be able to accumulate and track their interactions with your business in one place.
For example, CRO tools such as Qualaroo can help you target desired website visitors using surveys and lead forms to gather contact information. Similarly, lead management tools such as Salesforce will help you track and qualify the new leads.
- Pricing Tiers
Different lead generation tools offer various pricing options. They might provide a free account and paid plan. Often, there are tiers within the paid plans as well, so you can choose the correct option depending on your budget. Some lead generation platforms also provide a free trial, so you can test the tool before purchasing it.
- Provide in-depth Sorting and Data analytics
Data analysis is an integral part of converting leads into customers. Not all visitors are your potential customers. So the tool should be able to help you sort out the potential prospects from the miscellaneous data. It should provide a lead categorization option so you can prioritize different lead types.
- Seamless Integrations
Ensure that the lead generation software tool you choose for your business should seamlessly integrate with your other tools, such as CRM, email marketing tools, etc. Interactions reduce manual work and promote data consistency across all the tools.
To make it easier for you, we have listed some of the best lead generation tools available out there, along with their salient features, to give a detailed overview of each of them.
What is lead generation?
Lead generation is the process of attracting prospects to your business and increasing their interest through nurturing, all with the end goal of converting them into a customer. Some ways to generate leads are through job applications, blog posts, coupons, live events, and online content.
These lead generators are just a few examples of lead generation strategies you can use to attract potential customers and guide them towards your offers. (We talk about more strategies later.)
Whenever someone outside the marketing world asks me what I do, I can’t simply say, “I create content for lead generation.” It’d be totally lost on them, and I’d get some really confused looks.
So instead, I say, “I work on finding unique ways to attract people to my business. I want to provide them with enough goodies to get them naturally interested in my company so they eventually warm up to the brand enough to want to hear from us!”
That usually resonates better, and that’s exactly what lead generation is: It’s a way of warming up potential customers to your business and getting them on the path to eventually making a purchase.
Why do you need lead generation?
When a stranger initiates a relationship with you by showing an organic interest in your business, the transition from stranger to customer is much more natural.
Lead generation falls within the second stage of the inbound marketing methodology. It occurs after you’ve attracted an audience and are ready to convert those visitors into leads for your sales team (namely sales-qualified leads).
As you can see in the diagram below, generating leads is a fundamental point in an individual’s journey to becoming a delighted customer.
Lead Generation Process
Now that we understand how lead generation fits into the inbound marketing methodology, let’s walk through the steps of the lead generation process.
- First, a visitor discovers your business through one of your marketing channels, such as your website, blog, or social media page.
- That visitor then clicks on your call-to-action (CTA) — an image, button, or message that encourages website visitors to take some sort of action.
- That CTA takes your visitor to a landing page, which is a web page that is designed to capture lead information in exchange for an offer.
Note: An offer is the content or something of value that’s being “offered” on the landing page, like an ebook, a course, or a template. The offer must have enough perceived value to a visitor for them to provide their personal information in exchange for access to it.) - Once on the landing page, your visitor fills out a form in exchange for the offer. (Forms are typically hosted on landing pages, although they can technically be embedded anywhere on your site.) Voila! You have a new lead. That is, as long as you’re following lead-capture form best practices.
See how everything fits together?
To sum it up: Visitor clicks a CTA that takes them to a landing page where they fill out a form to get an offer, at which point they become a lead.
By the way, you should check out our free lead generation tool. It helps you create lead capture forms directly on your website. Plus, it’s really easy to set up.
Lead Generation Marketing
Once you put all of these elements together, you can use your various promotional channels to drive traffic to your landing page to start generating leads.
Conclusion
A survey finds that lead generation programs are more effective than social media marketing. This is no surprise, as many have come to the same conclusion. The term ” b2b lead generation ” refers to the activities involved in converting data /information into qualified/prospects leads for sales personnel as well as other marketing departments.
Lead generation technologies and lead generation tools are increasingly common in business selling. As the internet becomes a more important marketplace and as companies continue to buy fewer products via telephone calls, businesses understand the importance of knowing how to generate leads online. Lead generation platforms and techniques are vital for any kind of strong marketing campaign.