Lead generation: definition and techniques

How do you generate high-quality leads? Lead generation is the first step in the customer-acquisition process. This step is among the most important, and it is how you take a share of the market. So which techniques should you adopt to generate more leads? This complete guide gives you the advice you need to run your strategy well.

What does lead generation consist of?

Lead is an English term used to designate a commercial contact. On the one hand, it is a direct interaction with a salesperson at the point of sale. On the other, it is an indirect contact through a site, a call, and so on.

The term is generally used in B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing during a buying cycle. Some marketing people also confuse the lead and the prospect. A lead implies a commercial contact upstream. A prospect is a lead that is likely to be converted into a customer.

While a disqualified lead is excluded from marketing targets, an informational lead designates someone looking for information before buying. Finally, a sales lead designates someone who has expressed a willingness to acquire the product.

Lead generation: a complete definition

Prospect lead generation, also called “lead generation” or “lead gen,” is an expression used in B2B marketing. Lead generation refers to a set of marketing strategies designed to capture the contact details of people who have expressed an interest in the company’s services or products.

These techniques involve digital technologies. Lead selection, however, is done with a technique called lead scoring. Digital technology now makes lead generation easier through ebooks, web conferences, emailing scenarios, and more.

From that data, you can evaluate a contact against different criteria and assign a score that can improve as marketing follow-up continues. In the end, lead generation aims to maximize a company’s sales function.

Reasons to set up lead generation

Generating leads has many advantages. Whether you want to set your company apart from the competition, increase the number of customers, or convert prospects into customers, the reasons to set up lead generation are numerous.

To win new customers

Lead generation brings advantages for marketing strategy. It is clearly affordable: the system does not require a large investment to target new prospects. As a result, lead generation is among the least expensive marketing strategies while remaining among the most relevant. It is cheaper than other traditional techniques. That hypothesis is confirmed by a HubSpot survey, which notes that lead generation generates 62% lower costs than more classic techniques. Comparing an investment in a television campaign with an investment in an advertising campaign on social networks, or in an emailing campaign, confirms the same idea.

This method converts a considerable number of prospects into customers. It is essential to know the future customer well from the start of the buying process, before any other marketing strategy, so you can better convince them to buy the product. That accompaniment lets you understand the prospect more clearly. It then becomes easier to do commercial follow-up, to influence them, and finally to get them to commit to a purchase.

To stand out from the competition

On the web, competition is fierce. Choosing a lead-generation campaign is an effective way to establish your reputation. It is also the best technique for developing sales opportunities. A good lead-generation campaign delivers better visibility in search engines. That visibility implies higher traffic and better targeting (including new prospects who are unfamiliar with your product). As a result, your company will be able to dominate new markets and confirm its position in the current one.

Lead generation also implies the creation of unique, high-quality content. Offering content that is relevant and useful for the visitor lets you beat your competitors, and even take a share of their market.

The inbound strategy in lead generation

The inbound marketing strategy delivers better traffic acquisition. SEO is one channel of inbound marketing. Thanks to this strategy, your site’s visibility is optimized on search engines and social media.

The strategy therefore guarantees better qualified traffic, all the more so because attracting an audience is essential if you want to stand out from the competition. This strategy aims to maximize conversion rate, with the ultimate interest of growing your revenue.

The inbound strategy automates your marketing actions so you can identify and select the right leads. This technique creates an effective conversion funnel that favors better targeting.

To generate more leads, the inbound marketing strategy should unfold in 4 successive steps.

Step 1: attracting visitors

This first step aims to attract attention and captivate leads on your site. It is essential to offer a quality content offer that stays relevant to what visitors expect. Content formats can vary (white papers, ebooks, coupons, articles, and so on). Adapt your approach to your budget and the offers you propose.

Step 2: converting visitors into leads

The second step consists of converting visitors into leads. The goal of this move is to push visitors to take an action that matches your objective (fill in a form, share their contact details, and so on). At this stage, it can be useful to include a video or articles to spark the visitor’s curiosity and push them to complete a form.

Several methods exist:

• First, use a call-to-action button that is visible and easy to notice

• Next, structure the content so the most relevant information sits in the foreground

• Finally, use a form that asks for a maximum of information about visitors

Step 3: turning leads into customers

This step lets you qualify your leads. To get there, offer content that matches the questions raised by the 3 stages of engagement (discovery, consideration, decision) before the purchase. This method encourages leads to acquire your product. Also think about lead nurturing. The term designates a technique centered on prospects who have not yet decided to buy your product or service. The goal is to send them educational, quality content so you can guide them toward a decision.

Step 4: converting customers into ambassadors

This last step consists of getting the customer to work for your product or your brand. The move requires identifying customers who have a particular attachment to your product. Encourage those customers to speak up about your brand or your product. This step requires proximity with your customers.

How do you generate leads?

There are several different ways to generate leads.

Using demographic data

Generating leads will, among other things, improve the ratio of sales won to sales lost and increase the company’s revenue.

Demographic data is generally collected from a form (demo request, white-paper download, newsletter signup, and so on). This information tells you about the status and identity of prospects who are likely to convert into customers. The form includes: email, first and last name, company, industry, and the job or title of your contact. This data lets you understand the profile of your targets for a genuinely effective approach. For example, it is more useful and productive to speak to a decision-maker such as a sales director than to an intern, even if both reacted the same way on your site.

The score assigned to a prospect also depends on how well the information matches your target audience. Avoid multiplying the fields to fill in, so you do not wear the prospect out. Several tools can help you recover the data provided. For example, after the form is filled in, you can offer a free ebook while also asking about the size of the prospect’s company. That way, you recover even more information without wearing the prospect out.

Using behavioral data

Lead qualification also takes into account the prospect’s behavioral data on your website. This data measures where the visitor sits in the buying cycle. Spending time on your product pages and pricing pages, or downloading your ebook, are all signals of the visitor’s interest. Contact that prospect without delay so you can close a purchase. During the visit, inspect the topics that interest the visitor most.

Also check the number of pages visited, time spent on each page, and the number of pieces of content downloaded. This analysis requires knowledge of the sales cycle. Then assign a score to each behavior. For example, downloading your ebook while providing demographic data is worth a maximum of points. By contrast, signing up for newsletters while providing only an email address generates only a minimum of points.