Lead Generation

What Is Lead Generation

A lead is any person who indicates interest in a product or service. Lead generation is the process of growing the interest of potential customers in your services to increase further sales.  There are plenty of tools to push the number of leads. As long as you have a clear strategy for targeting prospects and monitor and execute your strategy correctly, your lead generation will be successful. Lead generation tools help simplify this process. 

World Options franchisee researching potential email addresses for clients

Email Address Finders 

While it is possible to find emails manually, having an email address finder tool helps you to generate high-value leads in seconds. An email Finder tool is a software, browser, or browser extension that finds and collects email addresses for you. The three most popular services are:  

Snov.io 

Snov.IO is the most popular email hunter tool. It is a good solution for cost-conscious lead hunters who are looking for a chrome extension with a robust search algorithm. 

Hunter 

Hunter is second in the popularity list with users like IBM and Adobe. Hunter allows you to find accurate, verified professional email addresses when you only have the name and the business they're working at. 

Aero Leads 

Aero Leads takes the email address data from LinkedIn and Xing. However, compared to Snov.io and Hunter, it can be expensive depending on your required service.  

CRM Tools 

CRM tools can help to convert the lead after you've captured them and convert them easier into loyal customers. Customer Relation Management tools are designed to track and improve customer relationships. Three of the leading CRMs are Hubspot, Pipedrive, and SendinBlue.

The most significant difference between Hubspot and the other two is that Hubspot offers a marketing and sales hub. While HubSpot is perfect as an all-in-one sales and marketing tool, Pipedrive allows more plan customization options. Here you only pay for what you use.  

Similar to HubSpot, SendInBlue includes marketing and sales solutions with CRM as well as Email Marketing and even SMS solutions. Other than Hubspot and Pipedrive, SendInBlue works with a horizontal rather than a vertical layout. All three are very similar in their CRM offers. It's mainly the additional features that make the difference.   

Franchisee selling his product to a potential customer

Sales Tools 

Sales tools is an umbrella term. It includes all software and websites that help streamline your data and make lead generation more efficient. When looking for leads on social media, the LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a great tool to optimize the process. It connects with CRMs, searches for targeted keywords, automates your lead generation, and offers powerful sales insights.  

Franchisee writing a blogpost to increase SEO

Lead Generation Digital Marketing 

When speaking about lead generation in the context of digital marketing, it refers to the process of transforming a stranger into a customer by finding, attracting, and closing the sale. The process includes social media campaigns, promotional emails, and landing pages.    

There are plenty of lead-generation tools for digital marketing out there. When you concentrate your marketing efforts on web searches, advertising on the most significant search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo are advised. 

When advertising on social media, consider the target group of your business and the target group of the social media channel. Advertising a product or service for other companies, LinkedIn Ads would have a more significant impact than Tiktok Ads, for example. Another Advertising possibility on social media is Facebook Ads. 

Lead Generation Examples 

There is no best practice way of generating leads, as it varies depending on your target group, preferences, and budget. To make it as easy as possible for you to find the best solution for your marketing efforts, we created a list of the most popular lead-generation processes.   

  • Lead Magnets are long-form resources that potential customers get in exchange for customer data. It can include ebooks, podcasts, whitepapers, resource libraries, checklists, webinars, and much more. Creating a lead magnet can take a lot of effort and time, but with a call to action, a landing page, a thank you page, and a kickback email, you can ensure to get the most out of it.

  • Influencers are online personalities that are trusted by their big following. Depending on their reach and niche, the price can vary from a couple of pounds to thousands. If you find the right Influencer for your services, your business will be seen by thousands of potential customers that haven't heard about your services before. Finding the right Influencer is critical for a successful Influencer marketing campaign.

  • Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to generate leads. It describes the process of targeting several potential customers simultaneously via email.

    To make your email campaign as successful as possible, consider adding graphic elements and personalization and keep the information short and easily digestible. One of the cons of email marketing is that you already need to have your client's information, like name and email address. Email address finder tools can help find the perfect leads.

  • Webinars require a lot of effort but are simultaneously a great free way of generating leads. But it will only be successful if you promote it to the right leads. Sending out invitations via mail or regularly reminding your social media followers can help grow the number of participants. If you additionally offer your webinar on demand, you can use it as a lead magnet and get people to sign up before being able to view it.

  • Newsletters are a regular email marketing form that informs customers about the latest updates. They subtly remind potential customers and even existing leads about your services. It helps raise the amount of business you are getting from existing customers and prove your knowledge and industry expertise to potential new customers.  

  • Quizzes are a great way to determine if the lead is a high-value lead while simultaneously informing them about your services. Quiz them about their shipping needs and frustrations and provide a solution with your service at the end. The more you know about your potential customer, the more you can tailor the sales process to their needs.

  • Podcasts are another great way to let potential customers find you instead of only targeting existing customers. When creating a Podcast, keep your target group in mind and discuss their specific pain points. Don't forget to end on a call to action to remind your listeners who is helping them with their shipping issues.

  • Infographics are another great lead magnet that has your lead sign up to view or download the document, but they are also great for social media engagement. In fact: infographics can triple your social media engagement and increase site traffic by 12%. 

  • Case Studies utilize the power of referral to gain new customers. It is free and provides more information to your lead about why they should use your services. It acts as proof of success and outlines your services service from the perspective of a customer.

  • Free Trials are most important for subscription services and high-tech utensils. The World Options portal is free for every customer; therefore, no free trial is necessary. However, making this clear to the customer is another excellent way of gaining new customers.  

Lead Generation Strategies

franchisee creating his own website for his lead generation

Make Your Page Or Website Easy To Navigate And Use 

Give your page a clean and structured look, the cleaner the website, the more professional and established your page will look. After all, 94% of people named easy website navigation as their number one priority when browsing online.   

Selection of different people who could be potential customers to logistic franchisees

Customer Personas 

Once you know your customers, you can build your marketing efforts around them. The more you go into detail, the easier it will be to create your niche on social media, a podcast, or a webinar. 

ss owner checking which of her pages work best on google

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) 

SEO is one of the most important elements for creating an effective marketing plan. According to a study conducted by keap, SEO has the most significant impact on lead generation. Some simple tricks to increase SEO are increasing your website speed, conducting keyword research, or staying active on social media.    

franchisee talking to franchise prospect to get them moving a stage up in the sales funnel

Sales Funnels  

The sales funnel describes the customer's journey from getting interested to becoming a customer. It gives you insights into how you should target different customers differently depending on what stage of the funnel they're in. 

TOFU (Top Of The Funnel) – This is the awareness stage where leads first recognise your business 

MOFU (Middle Of The Funnel) – The interest stage describes the lead becoming interested in the services and seeing potential benefits for their own business from it. 

BOFU (Bottom Of The Funnel) – The decision stage is the last stage before becoming a customer. They have decided they want to use your services and fill out the form. 

Lead Generation Campaign 

A lead generation campaign describes actively capturing and generating interest in your service to develop leads.  

1.Create Campaigns Objectives, Outcomes and KPI’s 

Before starting your campaign, ensure you have a set goal you're working towards. When do you consider your campaign to be successful? What short-term goals need to be achieved to have a successful campaign? All these questions help you structure the process and save time and frustration while running the campaign. 

Lead Generation process

2.Run Your Campaign And Collect Data 

Having KPIs don't have any use if you don't keep an eye on them. Collecting data is crucial to managing lead-generation campaigns. It allows you to keep an eye on your lead campaign's success rate and performance.  

3.Analyse And Measure Campaign Performance 

Once you have collected data and set KPIs, you can measure your campaign's success. See if you are on the right track to hitting your goal or if further amendments might be needed.  

4.Adjust Campaign If Changes Are Needed Or Continue Without Alternations 

If further amendments are needed in your lead generation campaign, your key performance indicators should help identify where the issues lay and how you can resolve them.

Even if your lead generation campaign is flourishing and you can continue without alterations, collecting and measuring the data will still help to create even more successful campaigns in the future.

Small business owner creating a plan regarding how they want to gain their leads

Summary 

Growing the interest of potential customers in your services to increase further sales is a complex process that requires a complete understanding of your customer base, your process, and your business as a whole. Email Campaigns, newsletters, and Infographics are just three ways to generate leads.

Email finder, Sales tools, and customer relationship management system help you to navigate every lead through the sales funnel from the first point of contact to becoming a loyal customer.

As a World Options franchisee, not only do you get several leads entirely for free, but you also get free access to Hubspot. 

Ready to Get Started?

It could not be easier to start your journey with World Options.