Nick Dow's blog : What is lead generation
Lead generation is a marketing tactic for increasing sales, which literally leads the desired audience by the hand to the target action. Leads are both potential clients themselves and exclusively their contact information.
Today we will talk about lead generation methods and tools. We will focus on attracting clients online, because offline lead generation with various exhibitions and meetings, as it seems to us, is a separate topic for conversation. Thanks SocLeads.com for information for ะตัะต article.
Tasks of attracting leads online:
- generate interest in a product or service;
- collect a contact database;
- create loyalty programs and promotions that may interest the target audience;
- in the long term - to increase sales.
Lidgen then and now
The philosophy of lead generation has been booming since the 2000s, when the Internet became accessible to the majority. Leads were first sold under the counter, then legally.
๐ A sketch from the beginning of the century. From a conversation one evening in the front hall:
โ Are you interested in Lidgen?
โ How much?
- Come to my course and buy a book with advice.
โ Show me the leads first...
Seriously, then and now leadgen is interesting to any business and remains the cherished goal of many marketers. And all because it gives the opportunity to increase sales.
Nowadays, there are no problems with calculating the conversion of the cost of expenses into income (Cost-Per-Lead). Marketing analytics tools allow you to track conversions. For example, a CRM system that combines the efforts of sales and marketing departments and provides an adequate assessment based on data analysis.
Lead Categories
We have a separate article about leads, about who they are and what types there are.
But without going too far, we will briefly outline the main points here.
Leads are divided into categories depending on their readiness to make a purchase:
Cold leads are not interested in the company and its products, do not visit the website, do not want to buy anything. The most a cold lead can do is leave email contacts.
Warm leads are interested in the company, read reviews, learn about friends' opinions, study information on the website, send requests, can register for an event, write or call themselves. Warm leads have not yet made the final decision in favor of a purchase.
Hot leads are ready to make a purchase. The need for a product can be caused by personal reasons, or be the result of professional work of the marketing department. A hot lead also studies information about the company and the product before buying, is imbued with trust in the company, or, conversely, turns into a warm or cold lead - for example, a client who has already put the product in the basket on the site can roll back if the delivery is paid.
Leads convert from cold to warm, and from warm to hot. The task of marketing is to constantly generate demand: create new leads, collect their contacts and move them along the sales funnel.
Basic methods of lead generation
In the process of lead generation, marketers fight to reduce the cost of the lead in order to pay less and get more customers. For each level of lead warming, different lead generation methods are used.
Increasing traffic to the company's website
It is necessary to increase the flow of leads that visit the site or other Internet resources of the company. To increase site traffic, SEO optimization, contextual and banner advertising of Yandex and Google and targeted advertising in social networks are used.
Collecting contact information
The main task at this stage is to create comfortable conditions for the potential buyer to send their contacts:
- email,
- phone number,
- Name.
You can also simultaneously ask the lead to provide additional information about the product:
- what options are you interested in?
โ purchase purposes,
โ preferences.
To collect a more complete contact and information base, they create landing pages, implement registration on the site, quizzes, push notifications and lead magnets. We will talk about them later - in the section "lead generation tools".
Motivation to buy
Hot leads are ready to make a purchase. But for the purchase to take place, you need to finally warm them up and offer the product at the right moment.
An effective tool for warming up leads is a quiz. A potential buyer answers questions in a quiz and leaves contacts for feedback. When he is ready to buy, sales managers get to work, having all the necessary information on hand about what the client wants to get from cooperation with the company.
Professionals highlight another method โ lead generation ๐ฑ โ supporting potential clients at all stages of the sales funnel. The user is consistently offered relevant content that convinces of the value of the product or service and encourages them to buy.
In general, lead generation is not so much a sales tactic as a whole marketing strategy. To generate leads, a customer journey map is used. This is a table or infographic that shows the entire customer journey from the first acquaintance with the brand to the purchase. The map helps guide the customer through all stages of the purchase decision.
Lead generation tools
There are many lead generation tools, and the list is constantly growing. The reasons are technological progress, growing demands of potential customers, and high competition for attention on the Internet.
The most common tools are:
- The main website of the company.The website should respond to user actions and provide the opportunity to leave contacts. To do this, you can install an online consultant, pop-up windows, a registration form, buttons "subscribe" to news, "contact a consultant" and, of course, quizzes.
- Landing or landing web page. Landing is a one-page website for promoting a certain product. It is used in marketing and advertising campaigns. With the help of a landing page, we show the potential client the best: a unique offer, a description of the advantages of a product or service, high-quality photos and videos, reviews from other users. The purpose of the landing page is to show the product at its best and sell it to those who are potentially interested in buying, ideally, to sell it right away.
- Advertising.To generate leads, we use all possible types of advertising, based on the budget and goals of attracting clients. Advertising will allow you to find leads in the shortest and fastest way possible.
- SEO.Internal and external optimization of the site promotes it in search engines and increases traffic. Thanks to SEO, users find the information they are interested in on the company's website.
- Social networks.Allow you to convey the value of the product and relevant advertising offers in posts and stories. Lead traffic from social networks is directed to the site or landing page. In addition, in social networks, users can read reviews and immediately receive advice in Direct.
- Quizzes.Quizzes vacuum contacts, warm up even cold leads and segment warm ones. Can be used at the landing page stage or as an additional tool on the main site.
These tools work best when used in combination: driving traffic to a website or landing page through advertising and communicating the value of the product through SEO, social media, and quizzes.
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