Lead generation marketing is the process of finding prospects and capturing their details, with the aim of converting them into customers. The process relies on an effective sales pipeline – lead generation is at the top of the sales funnel and is usually the initial step of the customer journey.
For this reason, lead generation is a very important part of the marketing process as it’s generally the first time a customer will have the opportunity to express an interest in your company. It’s important to make a good impression and represent your products or services accurately to ensure you attract the right people. From there, leads can then be qualified and progressed through the sales funnel, which will hopefully gain new paying customers for your business.
How does the process work in practice? Here, you can learn more about lead generation marketing, what it is, how it works, why it’s important for businesses, and most importantly, how to do it.
How Does Lead Generation Marketing Work?
Lead generation is an important part of marketing for any organisation looking to attract new customers. It shows who is interested in your products or services, as well as giving you a means to connect with them and test out that interest.
There are many ways of generating leads through inbound and outbound marketing. Inbound lead generation means drawing customers in – it involves the creation of targeted content to attract people to a brand or service. Examples include:
- Downloads such as eBooks
- Surveys
- Landing pages
- Blogs
- Articles
- LinkedIn and Social Media posts
Outbound lead generation means putting out calls and communications to engage with customers directly. Methods might include:
- Phone calls from a sales representative
- Direct emails
- Social selling
- Direct mail
Leads then need to be qualified. When marketing-qualified leads (MQL) become sales-qualified leads (SQL), this means they have been picked up by a member of the sales team and are progressing through the sales funnel. At this stage, you are closer to gaining a paying customer.
The Best Ways to Carry Out Lead Generation Marketing
While lead generation marketing is important, businesses often struggle to find time for it, especially when it comes to qualifying leads. This can be time consuming and unproductive for your internal sales team, who should be having conversations with prospects who are closer to conversion.
Many businesses choose to outsource lead generation marketing. If you’re considering outsourcing lead generation and lead qualification, we can help. We have an experienced team who can deliver fully qualified leads to your salespeople, providing everything they need to do what they do best – make sales and gain new customers.
When you outsource lead generation, you can:
- Save time and money
- Get more leads
- Get warm leads and increase your conversion rate
- Save your sales team’s time
- Motivate your sales team by delivering better prospects
- Increase brand awareness and revenue
Please get in touch to discuss outsourcing your lead generation marketing processes to a reputable, experienced company. Call us on 0800 085 5574 or fill in our online form.
