Online Lead Generation
Online lead generation is the process of building consumer interest in your products and services on the internet. Before making a purchase, customers go online to research products and services, compare competitor offerings and learn more about their interests. Learning how to capture that online traffic and convert it into actionable leads is essential to grow your business.
In this guide, we will discuss what lead generation is, why it’s important, and how you can start generating leads online for your business today.
What Is Lead Generation?
A person or a company showing interest in your product or service is a “lead.” The process of proactively attracting the leads, with the aim of converting them into paying customers, is called “lead generation.”
Lead generation primarily consists of two types—inbound and outbound.
Inbound Lead Generation
Any prospect or lead who is attracted by your marketing and comes to you is an inbound lead. The exhibition of interest could be through:
Filling out the inquiry form after reading content on your website
Downloading an e-book
Requesting a demo after watching a webinar
Filling out a survey
Inbound lead generation strategy is called “inbound marketing.”
Outbound Lead Generation
Sending messages to the target audience, whether they have expressed interest or not, is called “outbound lead generation.” This can take the form of:
Cold calling
Cold emailing
Mass emailing
Direct advertising
Social media advertising
Outbound lead generation strategy is also called “outbound marketing.”
Inbound vs. Outbound: Which Strategy Is Right for You?
Each of these two strategies has its own advantages and limitations. Outbound marketing gives you better control over how and when the prospects engage with your brand. With inbound strategies, you allow the prospects to choose how they wish to engage.
Outbound lead generation works best in the short term but inbound lead generation works over a long period of time. These campaigns have higher costs because advertising or cold calling is typically expensive. Inbound campaigns have lower costs and, since they work for a long time, the cost per lead reduces significantly as time progresses. It is also cheaper to start with and has lower risks.
It is up to you to choose the right strategy that fits your business needs. If you have the budget, you can start with outbound strategies for quicker impact and keep building on inbound assets in parallel. Once inbound lead generation gains momentum, you can start cutting on outbound strategies.
In this article, we will focus on inbound lead generation strategies because they have a low barrier to entry and all businesses—whatever their size or maturity level—should give them a try.
Types of Leads
There are multiple types of leads, depending upon the source. Here are four of the most common:
Marketing qualified leads: These are leads that have interacted with your marketing team and shown interest. However, they are not yet ready for sales and need to be nurtured further.
Sales qualified leads: These are contacts who want to buy a product or service. The interest could have been expressed by sending an inquiry, filling out a form to ask more about your product or services or calling up your sales help desk. They are often the easiest leads to convert.
Product qualified leads: Customers who have already tried out your product and shown interest in upgrading to a paid version are called product qualified leads. They are typically people who signed up for your free or trial product version and now want to upgrade to a paid tier.
Service qualified leads: These are customers who are interested in your product or service. For instance, say you offer five products to your customers. During a service request, one of your customers tells your service representative that they are interested in two of your other products.
How Online Lead Generation Works: 4 Simple Steps
- Prospects discover your business through one of your marketing channels (social media, blog, website, webinar, etc.)
- They read your posts or blogs and then follow through with your call to action (CTA)
- This CTA takes the visitor to a landing page on your website
- On the landing page, you collect their information in exchange for an offer. This offer may be an e-book, case study, research, white paper, cheat sheet, newsletter subscription, etc.
- Collecting contact information is the first step toward converting the lead into a paying customer because it takes multiple contact points before they are ready to purchase. You need to cultivate a relationship with them over a period of time. Engaging with the leads, supporting them and maintaining continuous communication to prime them for making a purchase is called “lead nurturing.”
- Build brand awareness and visibility. Online lead generation activities help you in building brand awareness and generating customer interest in your products and services. Once the prospects start trusting your brand, they will be more willing to share their contact information in exchange for an offer and eventually make a purchase.
- Generate business opportunities. Besides providing you with a list of qualified prospects, lead generation activities can generate other business opportunities such as collaboration and building partnerships.
- Improve the quality of leads. The quality of leads is often higher when you facilitate inbound lead generation activities rather than buying leads. Needless to say, higher-quality leads mean more value per customer and lead to business growth.
- Reduce outbound lead generation efforts. As discussed earlier, outbound lead generation efforts are more expensive. As inbound lead generation efforts take hold, you can cut back on outbound marketing and reduce your cost per lead.
- Targeting desired customers. If you have multiple demographic sets to target, you can create lead generation campaigns targeted specifically for each segment.
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