Lead Generation: A Beginner’s Guide to Generating Business Leads the Inbound Way

What is a lead?

A lead is someone who shows interest in your company or its products and services in any way.

Do you remember giving your personal information for a free trial or subscription? This is how a business communicates with a lead.

Instead of receiving a random call out of nowhere, the company or business already has the information they need for an opening communication. Let’s say you completed an online survey about a coffee maker. You receive an email from that coffee maker company giving suggestions on how to use their product more effectively.

This process is far less annoying and intrusive, agreed? A survey helped the company to collect responses from potential customers to understand what they want. Instead of wasting time on calls, they offered a solution.

A lead is a potential customer who has shown an interest in a company’s product or services.

You need to remember that not all leads are going to be the same and that you should try to understand the different types of leads that there are.

6 Types of leads

Leads based on interests

1. Hot sales leads

These are potential customers who have been contacted and are ready to purchase or negotiate.

This means that these people are currently searching for a service that meets a need or requirement that you have already identified. Leads must be followed to complete the sale.

2. Warm sales lead (Inbound)

A warm lead is someone who is interested in your product or service but doesn’t have a clear need or timeline for making a purchase.

Someone decides to visit your website or fill out a contact form to ask for details about your product or service.

3. Cold sales lead (Outbound)

Prospects who are not familiar with your brand are not interested in your product. You may have only recently obtained their phone number, collected their email from the internet, or received their email as part of an opt-in form on your website.

They don’t know who you are or why they need your products or services right now. They have not been interested in your products or services.

Leads based on qualification

4. IQL (Information qualified leads)

An Information Qualified Lead is someone who agrees to give you their contact information in exchange for some helpful information from you.

This prospect is in the beginning stages of their research and is not yet familiar with your company or the solutions you offer.

5. MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads)

MQLs are leads that are most likely to result in becoming potential clients for your company.

The number of leads generated is impacted by the number of engagement users and the number of content offers downloaded.

6. SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads)

A “sales qualified lead” is a lead that is ready to buy what you’re selling. It’s the next stage in the marketing sales process.

In the case of SQLs, the sales staff has qualified a potential customer as a lead, someone who expresses their interest in buying the product. The lead is then handed over to the marketing team, who will further qualify the lead and determine if they are ready to be passed on to the sales team.

What is lead generation?

The process of lead generation involves attracting potential customers to your business and then increasing their interest in what you have to offer. The ultimate goal is to convert them into paying customers. There are a few different ways that you can generate leads. Some examples include job applications, blog posts, coupons, live events, and online content.

There are many ways to generate leads, such as attracting potential customers and guiding them towards your offers. Some examples of lead generation strategies include using social media, creating informative blog content, and running ads. (We talk about more strategies later.)

I tell people that I help companies create content that drives leads and sales.

I try to target areas that haven’t been fully explored by my competitors, and I make sure my marketing is creative and engaging.” I find unique ways to attract people to my business. I target areas that haven’t been fully explored by my competitors, and make sure my marketing is creative and engaging. I want to give them enough freebies to make them naturally interested in my company so they eventually get used to the brand and want to hear from us!

When you explain your lead generation process in a way that potential customers can understand and relate to, they are more likely to be interested in what you have to say. This is what lead generation is all about: creating a relationship with potential customers and getting them to eventually make a purchase.

Why do you need lead generation?

A potential customer is someone who is interested in your product or service.

Lead generation is all about inbound marketing methodology. The individual is attracted to your business and is ready to convert into a lead by your sales team (SQL) happens once.

The diagram below explains how leads are generated and how the process results in a satisfied customer.

Furthermore, there are benefits of lead generation like:

• Customer Growth Opportunities

The main benefit of lead generation is customer expansion. You will likely gain more customers if your content is compelling and accessible to your audience.

• Increase Revenue

Using lead generation effectively will undoubtedly increase your revenue. You can get people interested in what you’re offering by giving them great deals, messages, and more.

Lead Generation Process

The lead generation process has a few steps. Let’s go through them one by one.

1. First, a visitor discovers your business through one of your marketing channels, such as your website, blog, or social media page.
2. 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.
3. 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.)
4. Once on the landing page, your visitor fills out a form in exchange for the offer. Voila! You have a new lead. That is, as long as you’re following lead-capture form best practices.

See how everything fits together?

In other words, a CTA on a website leads to a landing page where a form must be completed to receive an offer, thereby becoming a lead.

Components of the lead generation process

There are three key components to a successful lead-generating plan. They are: a defined target market, a lead-capturing system, and a lead nurturing process.

1. Content strategy

Content can be used to create successful lead generation campaigns, and to improve unsuccessful ones. It is the most effective trigger for generating leads.

Here’s a question that many B2B firms want to know: how can content improve lead quality? The first step is to review your content thoroughly.

Your content should be relevant to what your target audience wants and addresses their purchase stage. A content audit can help you to improve your content and increase your conversion rate by providing high-quality leads.

2. Form & landing page

The lead generation process begins with forms and landing pages. At this stage, random site visitors’ names, email addresses, and contact information become visible! To improve your conversion rates, simplify your landing pages and shorten your forms.

3. Attractive call-to-action

A call to action is used to encourage people to do something. A call-to-action is a prompt that encourages the audience to take a specific action, such as clicking a button or link. This directs them to a landing page where they can get more information or download what you’re offering.

However, it’s critical to have only one call to action so that the consumer understands what action they should take next in your connection.

Lead Generation – Is it important?

If you’re still wondering about the value of lead generation, it is critical for every business. There is a clear correlation between businesses that generate leads and those that get more traffic and engagement.

The main purpose of your business should be to keep your customers interested and make them regular paying customers. Therefore a successful ROI from the best lead generation tactics is essential because:

• 85% of B2B marketers agree that lead generation is the ultimate content marketing goal.
• Businesses can expect 72% higher conversion rates with personalized content relevant to the visitor.
• Companies can achieve 133% higher revenue than an average of 174%, ultimately growing the revenue despite the company size.

Just keep the following in mind:

• Make it simple for prospects to find you.
• Your business must earn their trust.
• Assist them in making purchasing decisions by providing valuable information.

Lead creation is essential for revenue growth in your store.

Lead Generation Marketing

After you have gathered all of the necessary components, you can use your multiple marketing channels to bring people to your landing page in order to generate potential customers. What are some of the channels you can use to promote your landing page?

Content

Content can be used as a tool to lead users to a landing page. Your goal is to provide visitors with useful, free information. You can place CTAs (calls-to-action) throughout your content, such as inline, at the bottom of the post, in the hero section, or even on the side panel. If your content is good, people will be more likely to click on your call-to-action and go to your landing page.

Email

Sending an email is a great way to stay in touch with people who are already familiar with your brand and product or service. It’s easier toask people who have already subscribed to your list to take an action. Your email subscribers’ attention can be grabbed using CTAs with great copy and design.

Ads and Retargeting

An ad’s only goal is to get people to take an action. Otherwise, why spend the money? If you want people to convert, make sure that what is promised in the ad matches your landing page and offer, and that the action you want users to take is very clear.

Blog

If you’re using your blog posts to promote an offer, you can tailor the entire piece to the end goal. So, if your offer is an instructional video on setting up Google Search Console, you can write a blog post about how to select your marketing metrics, which would make your CTA highly relevant and easy to click.

Social Media

You can use social media platforms to guide your followers to take action, such as using the swipe up option on Instagram stories, Facebook bio links, or bitly URLs on Twitter. In addition to promoting your offerings on your social posts, you can also include a call-to-action in your caption. This will help encourage your followers to take the next step and learn more about what you have to offer. This post will teach you more about creating successful social media campaigns.

Product Trials

You can increase the likelihood of a sale by offering trials of your product or service. Once a customer is using your product, you can encourage them to buy additional offers or resources. Another good practice is to include your branding in your free versions so you can reach a wider range of potential customers.

Referral Marketing

Referral marketing is a useful tool for generating leads in a different way. This means that your brand will be seen by more people, which will increase your chances of getting more leads.