Lead generation tools give small businesses access to information that makes it easier for them to sell their products or services. Small businesses, by definition, operate on a lean budget and are rarely able to afford expensive tools. There is no excuse not to boost your b2b lead generation capability with the right tool though.
Lead generation is the process by which businesses can find potential buyers for their products and services. These leads can come in various formats such as phone calls, meetings, presentations, and others. These leads will become clients only when small business owners engage them in a meaningful way to help increase understanding about their products and services. Lead generation tools can be very powerful tools in this regard. This article will tell you more about the different lead generation tools and how they work together to drive sales while retaining clients.
There are a number of free lead generation tools that you can use to help build your B2B marketing strategy. Some of these B2B marketing tools will help you find leads, others will allow you to follow up with your prospects. In this guide, I share with you some of the best free B2B lead generation tools that I have come across in 2016 and even earlier.
If you are trying to increase your customers and improve your sales, there’s no better way than lead generation. Lead generation can be scary, though. There’s a lot of terminology surrounding it and most of it is overly technical. This is why I’ve compiled the ultimate list of essential tools and resources that will help you generate leads for your business, free.
What is Lead Generation?
A lead is anyone who has expressed interest in your company’s products or services. With the right nurturing, these individuals will eventually become paying customers.
Lead generation is the process of attracting prospects through various marketing channels. The goal is to generate interest in your products or services. It’s a vital practice because it supports business growth. It allows you to maintain a healthy pipeline that you can nurture to bring in sales and increase revenues.
An effective lead generation process is also an important part of the overall value chain’s (activities that organizations perform to increase efficiency) success. If one channel continues to deliver mediocre results, it doesn’t make sense to keep pouring money into it, does it?
Many businesses make the mistake of marketing to anyone they can. What ends up happening is they collect leads that aren’t a good fit for their products or services. Their sales team wastes time trying to convert people that have no interest when they could have used that time to find and engage with more qualified leads. An ineffective lead generation approach is a waste of time, money, and can totally disrupt your sales process.
However, once you identify the channels that deliver the best results for your business, you can continue reinvesting in them and eventually see more return over time.
Buzzstream
Best For: Lead prospecting, email outreach
Suited For: Small to big businesses
Integrations: Yes
Buzzstream brings a complete set of lead generation, prospecting, email outreach, and digital PR tools to the table. You can generate quality leads and qualify them instantly with the outreach campaign. The tool also helps increase website traffic by finding relevant domains for link building. And with the inbuilt reporting and analysis, you can track the performance of your campaigns in real-time.
Here’s Why Buzzstream Sits Among the Best Lead Generation Tools:
- Capture the email address from any URL and web page using the Chrome extension with one click.
- You can bulk add the prospects to your list from multiple domains.
- Shows other relevant details like social channels, stats, domain, and more.
- Design cold email campaigns to reach out to your prospects.
- Segment the mailing list to send personalized emails to the right prospects.
- Automate follow-ups to auto-send mails at the desired time.
- Set reminders about the follow-ups.
- Provides a detailed dashboard to track both campaign and team performance.
- Assign tasks, set priorities, add notes, track goal completion rate, and more to streamline the entire process.
Pros
- You can manage link-building and outreach campaigns in one place.
- Provides in-depth filter options to narrow down your search for relevant new leads.
Cons
- Comes with a learning curve and complex interface. It may take some time to get used to it.
Price: starts at $24/month
Extole
Best For: Referral and affiliate marketing for lead generation
Suited For: Small to big businesses
Extole is an all-in-one referral and lead management software that lets you bring in new business through word of mouth.
How to Utilize Extole as a Lead Generation Platform?
- It offers different referral and loyalty program types to entice customers into joining them.
- These include drop-a-hint, nominating a friend, refer a friend, and more.
- Turn customers into advocates so they can refer your business to others and bring new leads.
- Customize the rewards via open-loop cards, gift cards, coupon codes, and even services like Apple iTunes and Uber.
- Build your referral network by encouraging people to join the program through social platforms and email marketing.
Pros
- Easy to implement and use to start your referral program.
- One of the best tools to increase brand awareness.
Cons
- Reporting section needs a user-friendly interface to filter and fetch reports.
- Lacks a detailed affiliate tracking system.
Price: Contact for price
ReferralCandy
Best For: Referral marketing, affiliate marketing
Suited For: Small to big businesses
Integrations: Yes
ReferralCandy is another referral marketing tool that is also great for generating new leads. The referral incentives make the program very useful to bring new leads through affiliates. You can easily grow, track and manage your affiliate network with ReferralCandy to uplift lead generation and conversions.
How to Use ReferralCandy to Build Your Affiliate Network and Bring in New Business:
- Send the referral program invitation mail to your current customers’ list.
- Add the affiliate program signup links on your website pages.
- Customize rewards to prompt affiliates to bring in more leads. You have complete control over the rewards payout and can easily automate it.
- Provides in-depth information about the referral program so you can see your star affiliates, compare industry benchmarks, track new sales from referrals, and see top traffic sources.
- Use new sales and traffic sources to increase signups.
Pros
- Best tool for startups trying to expand their customer base without extensive spending.
- Unparalleled referral tracking, making it easier to manage and target your campaigns.
Cons
- Lacks the ability to create individual rewards.
- Requires technical knowledge to set up the tool.
Price: Contact for price
Vyper
Pricing: Paid plans start at $149/month for up to 30K leads
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars via Capterra
Vyper is a tool for creating viral contests. While getting a contest to go viral is easier said than done, Vyper enables your contest participants to earn additional entries by completing further actions such as completing a form on your website, following your social profiles, or referring a friend. You can set the number of extra entries a participant will earn and increase the likelihood your contest will be shared.
Gleam
Pricing: Free, paid plans start at $10/month
Rating: N/A
Gleam functions similar to Vyper, allowing you to create a viral contest. While not as polished as Vyper, Gleam enables you to create contests for a host of different purposes, such as contests to increase engagement on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Eventbrite, etc. It also integrates with a range of platforms, including CRMs, social media, and email marketing tools.
Rafflecopter
Pricing: Free, paid plans start at $13/month
Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars via Rafflecopter
Rafflecopter is one of the easiest platforms for creating a well-designed contest quickly. Features include unlimited giveaways, unlimited entries, embedded forms, data export, and more. You can try the tool for free, but you will need to purchase a paid plan starting at $13/month before launching your contest. Rafflecopter offers options for contest entry via email, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
RafflePress
Pricing: Plans start at $39 annually; they also offer a $359 one-time payment option
Rating: n/a
RafflePress is a WordPress plugin designed to make giveaway and contest management a breeze. Features include a drag-and-drop builder, templates, landing page builder, fraud protection, and integrations with CRM, email, and other marketing tools.
Hello Bar
Ever see a bar show up at the top of a website page with a message? Maybe it’s to promote a sale or new product in the lineup. Hello Bar is a powerful widget because it grabs attention and converts targeted leads. Hellobar makes this process seamless by making A/B testing quick.
You can customize the message, CTA, and position. So if you don’t want the bar at the top, you can opt for a full-page takeover, sliders, modals, and alert bells.
There’s a free version of HelloBar, then you can upgrade to a paid version starting at $29/mo. The free version allows up to 5,000 sessions per month. Then goes up to 500K sessions and unlimited popups for $99/mo. Annual plans are also available, saving you a few dollars monthly.
Qualaroo
Learning about your audience is possible when you conduct thorough research. And what better way to gather intel than to get it directly from the horse’s mouth? With Qualaroo, you can create unobtrusive mini customer surveys to collect information from leads and accounts.
It works by popping up on visitors’ screens when they come to your website. For instance, it may pop up with a small window on the side asking questions. You may see these on websites all the time — they’re like chatbots, asking what you’d like to do next (schedule a demo, call a sales agent, or begin a free trial).
Of course, you can use it in various other ways, such as asking questions to learn more about their needs. It’s an excellent way to get insights to personalize their experience.
There’s a free 15-day trial and demo to test how it works. Monthly and annual plans are available starting at $100/mo or $960/yr.
Everwebinar
Creating webinars is big business today, especially when it comes to driving new leads to your business. With Everwebinar, you can schedule and automate webinar footage and lead capturing. It even enables you to play content in intervals to recreate the live experience.
The idea is to boost engagement and attendance numbers by using countdown timers. Of course, this is triggered by the user, so no one misses out.
It works across all devices and has high definition quality. You get to choose whether the webinar is only available on specific dates or on recurring days of the week.
There’s the option to pay $199 x 3 annually or $499/yearly. Or you can save money by paying $799 every two years.
What to consider when choosing a lead generation software
Most lead generation platforms are part of a larger customer relationship management (CRM) application. The best CRM software has features that facilitate marketing, sales, and customer service. And your CRM database, filled with lead, prospect, and customer information, drives your revenue streams.
1. Automation
Prospecting for sales means casting the largest net possible, which requires your sales strategy use automated processes when possible.
Whether it’s generating business leads or applying a lead scoring model, CRM tools perform repetitive tasks related to lead management such as finding, researching, assigning, and nurturing leads. This frees up your sales team to focus on your most viable leads.
2. Integrations
The best lead generation tools don’t exist in isolation. Instead, they must access information in your existing software — accounting, customer support, marketing, omnichannel communication applications — to generate leads.
They must also seamlessly communicate with other software; otherwise, target leads can languish unseen and inaccessible.
3. Analytics
Tracking multiple performance metrics, everything from prospecting productivity to lead nurturing success, is essential to refine your sales efforts.
Sales-related key performance indicators (KPIs) such as lead conversion rate, quote-to-close ratio, and average deal size tell you where you are now and help form actionable insights to achieve future objectives.
Conclusion
Lead generation tools for small businesses can help to boost the number of qualified leads flowing through your business pipeline. They accomplish this in a variety of ways, from helping you gather information from prospective customers, to allowing you to build relationships that might otherwise have been impossible.
If you are a small business owner and are using in-house sales people or outside sales reps, this is the time to start thinking about lead generation tools. Lead generation is the foundation of B2B lead generation tools and its role could not be over-emphasized.