Lead generation is the practice of receiving requests from potential customers. Initially, lead creation took place on trade shows, when visitors filled the card with their contact information and left it to get information about upcoming sales. With the increasing influence of the Internet, lead creation has become an online procedure. It is used in the Adrenaline Studios agency as well.
The obtained contacts can be different. Further, you will read about their main types with Digital Agency London
To begin with, we will define what leads are in marketing. A lead is a potential client, that is, a person or company (ideally from your target audience) who have shown interest in your product/service or in general the area of your activity, and the contact of which you managed to get.
Accordingly, lead generation is the creation of a base of consumers interested in offering or matching the desired segment of the target audience through various marketing practices at the points of interaction with Central Asia.
Lead marketing traditionally divides leads into cold, warm, and hot
A “prospect lead” is a person/company whose contacts you have, but who have not yet formed a need for your goods or services; Moreover, he may not know about you at all and, accordingly, he has no desire to buy anything from you either.
The “warm” lead (marketing qualified lead) already knows something about you, your products/services (for example, through advertising or a personal meeting). He also more or less understands what exactly he needs, and chooses between suppliers.
The “hot” lead (sales qualified) is ready to buy and buy from you (for example, he signed an agreement of intent, made a deposit).
Lead qualification is done using the lead scoring method. In the process of generating and working with the lead, the specialist analyzes how the marketing influences the lead has undergone; For each manifestation, a certain point is set. Based on the total number of points scored by each lead, a conclusion is made regarding its “temperature”, that is, its readiness for purchase is estimated. If the pre-calculated threshold is exceeded, it means that the client is ready, and marketers pass it to the sales department. Otherwise, the lead management – “heating up” the potential client – continues until it reaches the required level.
The main task of any generated lead is selling. Leads are not always targeted and they directly depend on the quality of visitors that you attract to the site through promotion.
This is the easiest version of the sales funnel, which clearly shows the purpose of the lead. Since most markets have a constant demand, leads can be obtained from search engines. In recent years, many companies have begun to provide services not to promote the site but to pay for a specific action or pay for a lead.
Seeds
These are the applications that are generated as a result of the work of “word of mouth”. Their advantages are high profitability and a good level of conversion. However, seeds have a significant drawback — there are too few of them since they appear as a result of not fully controlled activities.
Nets
This type of contact includes applications that come through online marketing channels. The advantage of Nets is that there may be a lot of them due to the breadth of the channels used. Additionally, their generation is easily calculated and predictable. The disadvantage of the Nets is that many of them are not the target audience, which means their conversion is lower.
Spars
The generation of this type of leads is the result of the seller’s direct impact on them, which involves targeted efforts to personalize the commercial offer. Such contacts have a good conversion and great profitability if it is a large client. The latter advantage will result in a disadvantage if the buyer is small.
Lead generation cannot have poor quality. That is, the sales department should receive targeted traffic. Otherwise, no matter what professionals the sellers are, they will not do anything if they do not work with their own audience. That is why everyone entering the CRM lead must be qualified to match the portrait of the client.
5 ways of getting them
Applications can be received on more than 2 dozen channels. The whole trick is to find your 2-3 effective ways to get leads. Pay attention to 5 of them.
Inbound channel
It is your own blog or website filled with useful free content. If the buyer trusts it having at its disposal useful information, he should be able to:
- register for getting useful newsletters;
- download free e-Book;
- get a call for consultation, webinar;
- purchase the product.
E-book
The e-Book mentioned above is a factor and even a channel, which enhances the generation of leads. Its use is particularly effective in the B2B and B2P segments. It works in complex technology solutions, as professionals value innovation and knowledge.
Webinars
“Promotion through training” is the formula for this way to attract leads. The webinar itself is most often a free form of education. Use one of the available platforms. Make sure that the selected service allows you to post forms to fill out the participants, download an e-Book, and subscribe to the newsletters. Promote your webinar by calling your target audience, email, and SMM.
Networking on third-party events and event marketing
These are off-line lead generation methods that are also effective. Spears mostly come through these channels.
Chatbot
The chatbot can perform a lead generation and even selling function. In addition, it can be a key element of service after-sales support. The latter is also very important, as it increases customer loyalty, which will then return to you again and again.
In any case, a chatbot can perform the following actions for you:
- Sign you up for the newsletter, if his script is verified and optimal;
- Provide with additional materials — texts and video;
- Answer questions;
- Finally, even sell the product without your participation.
