So far in this lead generation guide, we’ve discussed what leads are, how to differentiate between leads and prospects, and how to filter leads for qualified prospects in your sales funnel.
According to marketing and sales data platform RingLead, data inaccuracies can trip up your lead generation. Inaccuracies are common and will occur maybe 30% of the time.
To master lead generation, you need to recognize that it’s an ever-changing and ever-evolving process. In this chapter, we’ll share some of the best lead generation tools to help you find and convert leads quickly.
Leads need to be segmented well. One of the ways you can do that is by creating buyer personas. Some marketers call them customer avatars, but it’s the same concept. You’re taking what you know about the lead, such as their occupation or pain points, and using these to segment them.
A freelancer may not want content or emails pertaining to starting a business. It doesn’t relate or appeal to them.
By segmenting your leads, you can ensure you don’t turn them away so early in the game by sending them unrelated content. You can also tailor your messages so they feel like you’re writing to them. That could increase the chances of them converting into your customers soon.
We talked about lead scoring several times in this guide already, so we’ll keep this section short. Once you’ve segmented your leads and begun sending them targeted content, they’re going to behave in certain ways. Some leads will gladly open and read your emails. They’ll also engage with the content you send them. Others might read the emails but not do anything further. Others still won’t even bother opening the emails.
TThen there’s the behavior the leads exhibit on your website, social media pages, pricing page, and landing pages. Do they look around and stay for a while or leave your website quickly? Do they make a purchase or just put something in their cart and don't check out?
Depending on what your leads do, you’d assign each one a score. For all the positive behavior they engage in, their score goes up. You’d likely tier the points so that buying a product rewards more points than opening an email, for instance.
For all the negative behavior a lead shows, their score would go down. This is a simple but effective means of organizing your leads. The leads with the highest score would be considered your most engaged and thus your most qualified. Those with the lowest score are the least engaged. You’d then have a decision to make about these leads. Are they worth re-engaging with or should you let them go? You can use a good lead generation and conversion software like EngageBay to score your leads and predict their next steps.
Most B2B marketers don't have their own lead scoring methods, says HubSpot. But you can’t afford not to.
Pay-per-click or PPC marketing is a means of paid advertising. You pay to put your ads up across the Internet and then bring in new leads that way. It’s especially effective if you target said ads to search engine result pages or SERPs. These include hugely popular platforms like Google. According to data from 2018, Google gets more than 3.5 billion search queries every day. In a year, that’s 1.2 trillion queries. That breaks down to 40,000 queries per second.
That affords you a ton of opportunities to reach new people. If you can get your ads on Google, you can guarantee that somebody, probably a lot of somebodies, are going to see your ad.
You’re all about getting those qualified leads, right? If a lead is interested enough to click your advertisement, they’re at least semi-qualified. They’re certainly more qualified than a lead that just stumbles upon your company.
Social media can be a marketer’s best friend. It is extraordinary how many social tools have evolved for companies. Perhaps you use LinkedIn, the professional network, to create Lead Gen Forms. Your lead would only have to click on your call-to-action button and then you get all their profile data. This happens automatically, which simplifies your life bigtime.
If you use Twitter, it too has its own lead generation methods. For instance, there’s Twitter Lead Gen Cards. The cards gather a lead’s data, such as their username on Twitter, their email address, and their full name. When a user agrees to submit this data, you get all the Lead Gen Card info so you can start engaging and nurturing.
Then there’s Facebook, which is the most popular social media network out there. You probably already know about Facebook Ads, which let you advertise on the platform with posts that mimic the appearance of a user’s wall.
There’s also Facebook Ad Leads, which are a suitable alternative if you’re not too fond of Facebook’s new advertising algorithms (and not all businesses today are). Facebook Ad Leads are purchasable ads that show your most valuable offers right on Facebook. There’s no need for a lead to click a landing page or even leave Facebook. That convenience could increase the lead’s chances of converting.
Using Facebook Ad Leads doesn’t mean you should stop making landing pages. These are one of your most important conversion tools. We’d again like to point you in the direction of our Ultimate Landing Page Guide, which is a very comprehensive resource on all things landing pages.
We also discussed landing pages in Chapter 3 of this guide, so we’ll keep this short and sweet. Here are a few pointers on improving your landing page:
We just talked about everything that should be on your landing page … except your product or service. If you’ve read our landing page guide, then we’re sure you know you need to create a separate landing page for each product or service you sell.
Next, take the data you have on your leads via your segmenting and lead scoring. Decide which product would appeal to that lead segment and then send them targeted offers that seem tailor-made just for them.
Your offer should of course include a call to action or CTA. This may be a text link, image, or button, but whatever it is, it too must be tailored. Don’t include generic copy like “read more” or “click here.” That won’t convert. Unique, action-based language is better.
Above all else, your offer must be high-value. If a lead doesn’t want what you’re selling because it’s useless or cheap, then it doesn’t matter how much segmenting and targeting you do. You won’t convert them.
Mastering lead generation is no easy feat. Fortunately for all of us, there are plenty of tools and software out there that make it easier to convert leads.
You’d ideally want an automation tool that can:
At EngageBay, we offer all these features and all the guidance you need to improve your lead gen campaigns with our all-in-one marketing suite.
If you are investing in lead gen software, you have to make sure that it includes analytics and reporting capabilities. This is the only way to track the short-term and long-term success of your lead gen campaigns.
How many leads have been converted into customers? This is one metric you want to track, but it’s not the most important one. After all, not every lead will convert, and other data can help you figure out why. Is it that you segmented leads into the wrong bucket? Did you not engage with them often enough?
Perhaps your landing pages weren’t product- or service-specific enough. When the leads arrived on your landing page, they got overwhelmed and left. Maybe you had too much navigation or distracting sharing buttons. Your landing page may have been lacking video, a sharp copy, or a catchy headline.
Mistakes happen in the beginning. Even seasoned marketers and salespeople sometimes fail to knock it out of the park. If your conversion rate is underperforming, it’s time to track your analytics. Read through your reports. Look at the data and see what you could be doing wrong.
Sometimes it’s not always something that you’re doing. Some leads are just less qualified than others. You can always try a re-engagement campaign with older leads, but we recommend automating this job. Otherwise, you might just waste too much valuable time and effort.
If you find that the leads that make their way to your sales funnel aren’t qualified enough, you can start lead scoring sooner. You can also change the qualifications that determine a prospect versus a lead with stricter lead scoring.
As we mentioned at the beginning of this guide, mastering lead gen is not a one-and-done process. You’re always going to have to stay on top of your lead gen tactics and be willing to evolve with the times.
There’s no one secret to mastering lead generation, but the tactics we outlined here can make for a solid backbone of your lead gen plan.
Having a qualified lead will always make the conversion process much simpler. By segmenting and scoring your leads early in the game, you can quickly differentiate between leads that are qualified and those that are not.
A strong landing page will also help you continue leads on their journey to becoming customers. Social media lead gen is another great option to have in your arsenal. You should have active accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms with lead gen tools and support.
Automation can also make your life easier as you work to capture more leads and convert them. Use the tool best suits your business, but make sure you can track your success with reports and analytics. Otherwise, you’ll never know the effectiveness of your campaigns.
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