March 31, 2021
Lead generation, perhaps the most difficult part of marketing. How exactly do you do it? And what are the do's-and-don'ts? We'd love to tell you!
Nothing more annoying than the cold calls you get from magazines, Internet providers, travel agencies, or any company. They always come at inconvenient times, and admit it, you're not really interested in what they're telling you or offering. So we can tell you that cold calling is not always a good lead generation strategy. But what is?
To find the appropriate lead generation strategy for your business or brand, you must start by defining what a lead is to you.
According to HubSpot, a lead is equivalent to a person who in some way or form indicates an interest in a company's product or service.
A lead is usually someone who has come into contact with your company or brand and has given you personal information in exchange for an offer, a trial period on a subscription, a download or something similar. And not through an intrusive cold call from someone who has bought your data.
Not all leads are created equal, nor are they all qualified in the same way. This is done based on what stage of the life cycle they are in, or what stage of the funnel they are in.
So the new leads that come in create an inflow into the funnel, which you can imagine as a funnel and split into 3 parts: top of funnel, middle of funnel and bottom of funnel.
The purpose of the funnel is to get as many inflowing leads as possible to the very bottom of the funnel, because then they are customers and effective conversions have taken place.
In each part of the funnel, you can qualify leads in different ways. In the top of the funnel they are prospects. In the middle of the funnel we speak of marketing qualified leads, or MQLs, and in the bottom of the funnel you can get sales qualified leads, or SQLs. Below that, leads are qualified as customer, or customer.
In addition to MQLs and SQLs, we also talk about PQLs, or Product Qualified Leads. They have already used your product or service through a free sample or free trial they received and are now eager to become paying customers. Extremely valuable leads, then, because they are already convinced of your brand!
MQLs are contacts who have interacted with your company or brand's marketing, but are not quite ready to make a sales call or purchase a product or service. For example, someone who fills out a form on a landing page for an offer.
SQLs are contacts who have explicitly indicated that they are ready to buy. For example, someone who fills out a form to ask a question about your product or service.
PQLs are contacts who have already used your product and indicate they want to become paying customers. For example, someone who has used a free version of your product or service and shows interest in features that are only available after payment.
Simply put, it's a way to get potential customers excited about your business and on their way to making a purchase.
So lead generation is the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects to people who have shown interest, and adding them to your database or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and funnel.
The two terms are often used interchangeably, but they do not mean the same thing! They occur at two different stages in the funnel. Lead generation is at the very top, ensuring that new leads enter the funnel. While lead nurturing occurs at the next stage, by "feeding" the leads in the funnel with relevant information until they are MQL or SQL.
Now that you know what a lead is and how lead generation works, it's time to look at the bigger picture of lead generation. After all, it's part of a much larger strategy: inbound marketing.
Inbound what? That marketing strategy is all about building a relationship with your potential customers. You do that by providing relevant information that encourages them to buy. Inbound is all about organic content. You provide potential customers with content that draws them to your website and converts them to leads, which you in turn convert into customers and subsequently brand promoters.
So the right content is key! With the right content, you will attract the target audience to your website at the right time and thus get them to the right stage of the funnel.
'At the right time' I hear you thinking? In addition to the different phases in the funnel, you also have different attention phases: awareness, consideration and decision. It is important to adjust your content to the phases to 'feed' your leads in the right way. That way you avoid lead bounces and don't miss out on sales.
Leads in the Top Of FUnnel (TOFU) are still in the awareness phase. You're going to feed those leads with blog posts that are practical and useful to your ideal buyer, or your buyer persona. For example, tips & tricks, answers to frequently asked questions or a solution to a problem they may be facing.
In the TOFU, you're not going to sell yet, but that doesn't mean you can't get the lead excited about this yet. With a lead magnet such as a downloadable white paper, for example, or a checklist or video.
In the phases Middle Of FUnnel (MOFU) and Bottom Of FUnnel (BOFU) you start offering content that is already more refined and more exclusive. You do that to push leads further down the funnel, lead nurturing. You share the solutions you have for their problems and use that to convince them to move further down the funnel. Think cases, white papers, checklists, webinars and free value such as a demo or trial. How you package it doesn't matter, as long as it remains relevant to your target audience.
At this stage, think about mailings too! Include the content you share with them in newsletters and give the leads an additional touchpoint with your brand.
For your lead generation strategy to succeed, it's important to get serious about this and incorporate it into your marketing or content plan. You start with the TOFU content, of course, but don't forget to already think about the next steps in the funnel. Create your own unique content mix!
The secret to lead generation is in finding the right balance for your brand. So that can always be different, but we're happy to share some of our tips for better lead generation!
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