Successful Lead Generation

Lead generation is more than just realizing leads. It’s a strategic process that needs constant optimization. The way leads come to your site is always changing. So stay focused when it comes to lead generation!

A good lead generation strategy not only ensures a constant flow of potential customers but also helps in building long-term customer relationships.

But what exactly is lead generation? And how can you truly be successful? We will discuss some insights that can help you generate genuinely good leads.

What is a Lead?

A lead is a potential customer who has shown interest in a company’s products or services. This interest can manifest in various forms, such as filling out a contact form on a website, requesting a quote, or making a phone call. It’s called a lead when the person has shown some form of interest.

Most companies only qualify an interested party as a lead if they actually fit within the target audience. A twelve-year-old who requests a form on the website of an online marketing agency will not become a customer. This is therefore not considered a lead.

What Does Lead Generation Entail?

Lead generation is the process where a company uses strategies and tactics to attract and identify potential customers/interested parties. This process often begins with understanding the target audience and their specific needs and interests. Then, various techniques are employed to attract the attention of potential customers. The ultimate goal of lead generation is to collect leads and subsequently convert them into paying customers.

Types of Leads

Two types of leads are often discussed:

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)

Marketing Qualified Leads are visitors who have shown interest in what a brand has to offer based on marketing activities or who are more likely to become customers. An MQL is often a lead that is consciously engaged with your brand through voluntary actions such as providing contact information, signing up for a program, adding e-commerce items to the shopping cart, downloading material, or repeatedly visiting a website.

Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)

SQLs are leads that are just a step further than MQLs: they show sufficient interest in your products or services and take actions that indicate they are ready for their purchase.

These are often people who take actions such as requesting a demo or pricing information. Or they are leads that have already been qualified as SQLs by a marketing department and are passed on to the sales team to close the deal.

The MQL to SQL conversion is a metric that allows you to measure the effectiveness of your lead qualification process. This conversion shows the number of MQLs that successfully become SQLs.

For comparison: the average conversion from MQL to SQL is 13%.

How do you calculate MQL to SQL conversion?

MQL to SQL conversion = (Number of SQLs / Number of MQLs) x 100

Warm and Cold Leads

Cold leads are leads that are at the beginning of their buying process. These are leads for which you only have contact details. You can obtain these contact details, for example, by purchasing them from a Chamber of Commerce or because the leads fill out an online form on your website. For a cold lead, you have the contact details, but you haven’t spoken to the lead yet.

A warm lead is a lead that meets the minimum criteria of your ideal customer profile. This type of lead shows interest in your product or service because they have been referred by a relation of theirs (introduction) or because they have met you at an event or trade show.

B2b and B2c

Every company deals with lead generation in one way or another. However, it doesn’t work exactly the same for every company. B2B companies, for example, often use slightly different methods and channels than B2C companies. We list the main differences for B2B and B2C:

B2b Lead Generation

1. Long Sales Cycle: Decisions often have significant consequences, requiring thorough research.
2. Multiple Contact Points: On average, seven online contact points before initial conversations.
3. Targeted Tools: Use of tools such as Leadinfo and LinkedIn Sales Generator.
4. Content and Automation: In-depth content and CRM systems for lead monitoring and nurturing.

B2c Lead Generation

1. Short Sales Cycle: Faster decisions, less need for extensive documentation.
2. Brand Building: Focus on brand awareness through social media and influencers.
3. Direct Actions: Use of forms for direct data collection and discounts.
4. Broad Audience: Social media ads and Google Ads for a wider audience.

Tips for Successful Lead Generation

Now we’ve come to the fun part: how do you ensure an optimally effective lead generation strategy? We’ve listed the most important tips for you!

Customer Journey

Understanding and continuously researching your specific customer journey is crucial for successful lead generation. There are always shifts in search behavior taking place.

Focus on creating personalized content that aligns with the different phases of the customer journey. This means mapping out the journey of your potential customers – from awareness to purchase and beyond – and offering specific, valuable content for each phase.

Quality content that solves problems and adds value at every stage can be the key to effectively engaging and converting users.

Quality Content

Generating quality leads requires quality content, research, testing, and budget.

Regularly testing and optimizing different types of content such as blogs, videos, and emails ensure that you can reach potential leads in the way that appeals to them.

Creating valuable content also means being consistent in your efforts. A content calendar can help you plan and organize your content creation and publication. Make sure you regularly publish new content and update old content to stay relevant and continue to have a chance at new leads.

Always ensure a budget for both content creation and promotion. Quality content is indeed an investment.

Content and Execution

A common problem is that marketers only focus on the bottom of the funnel. Some leads will convert from a single piece of content. But you need to be well-prepared for those who need more nurturing before they convert. Most of the content you create should be top- and mid-funnel, so spend time aligning the channel with the intent.

Optimizing for Conversion

A well-optimized website is actually step 1 of effective lead generation. When visitors land on your website, it’s crucial that they have a seamless and user-friendly experience.

Sounds all quite logical, but really make sure to have:

• A clear design that is easy to use.
• A logical navigation menu that ensures visitors can quickly take the step towards the desired conversion.
• A clear call-to-action. It should be immediately clear what you expect from the visitor.

Presence on LinkedIn

LinkedIn remains a very important place for lead generation, especially in the B2B field. Your LinkedIn company page is (besides your website of course) your most important (online) business card.

But your team also plays a crucial role on this platform; after all, people do business with people. By combining the power of owned and paid messages from your company page with social selling from your team members, you can effectively collect strong leads via LinkedIn.

Be Recognizable

With the help of a clear corporate identity, you are recognizable to potential customers. The more often they see you, the more trust will grow, the warmer the lead becomes. They will start to see you as an important player in the field and thus an expert.

You Pay more for High-Quality Leads

Investing in extra quality tools for lead generation can incur higher costs. But it also leads to higher quality leads and lower total customer acquisition costs (CAC).

Consider all costs, including advertising and personnel resources, and realize that you pay a higher price for higher quality leads.

Moreover, it’s good to realize that low-quality leads take up valuable time and effort that could have been spent on legitimate leads.

No Follow-Up = No Leads

Finally, don’t forget what needs to happen once a lead enters your system. Make sure your customer relationship management (CRM)/customer data platform (CDP)/marketing technology is fully prepared for this. Set up lead scoring, automation, and dashboards if necessary.

And then the most important thing: make sure you have the capacity to handle new leads smoothly as quickly as possible so that you can always get the most out of them.

Lead Generation by Online Presence

Need help setting up your personal lead generation strategy? Online Presence has 20+ years of online marketing experience and has helped many companies achieve great results. Contact us now without obligation and we’ll be happy to help you!