14 Lead Generation Tips To Drive Growth

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Ahh, lead generation. It’s where it all starts. To grow your business, you need customers. To find customers, you first have to generate leads who have the potential to become them. So, what is lead generation? Simply put, the tactics that you engage in to find and bring new leads into your lead database

Over the years, lead generation methods have evolved considerably. Marketers now have lead generation software at their disposal, which opens up a plethora of new avenues to generate leads. From marketing automation to social listening and monitoring, the possibilities are now endless. 

But understanding how to generate leads is key. Here are some tips that will help you master lead generation marketing and fill your database with new names of sales: 

14 Top Lead Generation Tips To Grow Sales 

1. Use A Marketing Automation Solution 

It should go without saying, but at this point, you need a marketing automation (MA) solution to effectively generate leads. With lead generation software such as this, you can automate the sending of emails, monitor brand mentions, distribute high-value content, and a lot more. 

All of these tactics generate leads—in much less time and with less effort than traditional methods like snail mailers. There are so many lead generation tools available in an MA system that finding new leads is a breeze. If you are still on the fence as to whether or not you need an MA solution to automate and streamline lead generation, check out these stats

2. Blogging 

Blogging is a great way to generate interest in your brand. You do so by delivering educational information that helps to solve everyday problems for your readership. If you do that on a consistent basis, people will look to your blog for answers. That will establish you as an authority in your space and increase brand awareness through thought leadership. 

Make sure you include a “sign-up” radio button on your blog so that when new leads come to read an article, they are directed with a call-to-action. Once they sign up, they’ll be notified every time you publish a new article. Each new blog subscriber is a newly generated sales lead you can market to in the future. 

3. High-Value, Informative Content 

In addition to blogging, you also want to consider other types of high-value, informative content. This can include eBooks that educate your audience in more detail on specific topics. You can also deliver educational webinars that serve the same purpose. Other forms of content like infographics, video, podcasts, slide decks, and white papers are also very effective.  

The key to this type of outbound content is to inform, not to sell. If your content seems like a sales pitch in disguise, people will catch on quickly and lose interest. Keep the content fresh. Put yourself in the shoes of your readers and ask yourself, “what problems do I need to solve that would make my job or life easier?” The answers you come up with are your potential topics for blogs and other outbound content. 

4. Free & Ungated Content 

It may seem counter-intuitive, but providing your content for free (i.e., not gating it with a form) can be more effective at lead generation than gating your content. Many people will arrive at a landing page with a web form standing in front of the content and decide that providing their personal info in exchange is not worth it. According to David Meerman Scott, renowned marketing and sales strategist: 

“A lot of people will see the form and say, ‘Forget it. I don’t want to fill out the form.’ The vast majority of people are unwilling to share a piece of content that has a form in front of it. A lot fewer people will blog and tweet something that has a form on it.” 

So, if you do decide to gate your content, be sure it is exceptional and worth the exchange of a lead’s personal information. Ungated content that doesn't require personal data entry will have the same effect as blogging—it will increase brand awareness and consumers will look to you for answers. This will increase their engagement with your brand and make it more likely they will provide you with social data in the future. 

5. Personalized Email Marketing 

At this point, you probably know what personalized marketing is. If you’re not aware, now is the time to learn and add it to your lead generation strategies. If content is king, then context is queen and personalizing email marketing helps to provide that invaluable context. 

Personalized email marketing refers to the use of an individual’s contact and personal data to populate emails and tailor them to each recipient. You can pull in demographic information like location, age, and industry. You can also pull in behavioral data such as their displayed interests, the products they have viewed on your website, and more. 

The more personal an email is, the more engaging it will be to the recipient. This will increase your chances of them subscribing to your blog, requesting a free trial, etc. 

6. Influencer Marketing 

Influencers are those individuals in your industry that are considered thought leaders and experts on the topic at hand. If you can form relationships with them and collaborate in constructive ways, you can leverage their follower base to expand the reach of your marketing content and messaging. There is a lot to be aware of when engaging in influencer marketing. Not all influencers are created equal. You must be careful when choosing who to engage with, how you approach them, and how much you are willing to compensate them for their social influence. If the concept of social media influencer marketing is new to you, check out this blog to learn more

7. Social Media Listening And Monitoring 

With the right social CRM tools in place, you can keep tabs on who mentions your brand on social media. When someone does, you get a real-time notification, allowing you to step right into the conversation while it’s ripe. 

By engaging social media users in real-time, you build credibility as a company that is always available to its customers. You send the message that you are there to help when help is needed. This creates brand loyalty in existing clients and positive brand awareness in the minds of leads. 

Staying in the forefront of thought is critically important when engaging in lead generation. When your company is the first that comes to mind on a related topic, the consumer is likely to navigate to your site, complete a form, and become a new lead in your database. 

8. Facebook Ads 

You can run ads on most social media channels. These days, more companies are dipping their feet in Facebook or LinkedIn lead generation, and for good reason. It’s easy and greatly expands the reach of your content and message. 

The best thing about advertising on Facebook is that it’s incredibly affordable. You can boost a post for just a few dollars. Plus, you can target the post to specific profiles and buyers. You can leverage all social media for advertising, but I recommend starting with Facebook given the price point and the fact that everyone and their mother is on the site. 

9. Social Media Groups 

Another brilliant way to generate new leads is to participate in social media groups. LinkedIn and Facebook, in particular, have open and closed groups that revolve around specific topics, like marketing, philanthropy, or even baking. Find the groups that are most relevant to your industry and product/service and they’ll be full of potential leads ripe for nurturing. 

Get active in those groups. Share high-value content and do it often. Answer questions other members ask to paint yourself as an authority. Once you start to establish a recognizable presence in that group, you can covertly slip in links back to your site. If your reputation is reputable, other members will click through and you’ll generate new leads. 

10. Answer Questions On Quora 

Surprisingly, the platform Quora is great for lead generation. Thousands of questions are asked every day. Your job is to find the questions that are most relevant to your industry, product, or service. 

Provide insightful answers that educate others. Don’t just say that your product is great and include a link to your website. That’s very transparent and you won’t fool anyone. Just like Facebook and LinkedIn groups, you need to work on building a reputable reputation on Quora. Once you do that, you’ll be able to answer questions with actionable answers that include links to your site where you can turn interested Quora users into newly generated leads. 

11. Guest Blog For Backlinks 

Some blogs will be happy to form a mutually beneficial relationship with you. In that case, you can exchange guest blog posts that include backlinks to each of your respective sites. 

Other blogs will only post your articles if you pay them. This can be worth the return on your investment, depending on the quality of the blog. Before committing to pay someone to post your article, do a little research. Is their blog popular? Does it have a high domain authority (you can check domain authority (DA) here)? A DA of 60 or higher is considered good. When you get into the 80s and above, you’re talking about sites like Forbes. 

Also, check out their social media following. If they have a huge following but a low DA, it’s still worth doing a guest blog with them. That’s because you’ll have the chance to tap into their social following once it’s published. This will put your content in front of a larger audience and give them a chance to click back to your website or blog. 

12. Create Brand Advocates 

Brand advocates are different than influencers. Influencers are popular in their industries and are known for promoting other’s content—they often only do so for a fee. 

Brand advocates, on the other hand, are everyday people like your customers, employees, and others that have an affinity for your brand. Their value comes from the fact that they promote your brand to their friends and colleagues—because they believe in your product or service. 

According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from brand advocates. However, according to Forrester, only 18% of consumers trust recommendations from industry influencers. The numbers speak for themselves. 

Do your best to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction, and you’ll create brand advocates in your customer base. You can also create brand advocates by focusing on the workplace satisfaction of your own employees. You may be surprised, but if you have super happy workers, they might be your biggest advocates out there. 

13. Offer Free Trials 

Free trials are a terrific way to generate new leads. Who wouldn’t want to exchange their contact information for a free trial? As long as there is no commitment to buy something, consumers who are even slightly interested in your product or service are likely to give it a test drive. 

People love free stuff. If they are shopping around for something, and you let them try your version for free, you’ll not only generate new leads, but you’ll also have the chance to prove that your product is the best. Free trials help products stick, so consider including that tactic in your lead generation efforts. 

14. Social Selling 

Sales reps have become more involved in social selling over the last five years or so. The idea is to paint yourself as a thought leader by posting informative content to your social network. Or, you can take it a step further and write your own original content. 

LinkedIn Pulse allows you to self-publish an article on their platform and share it with your network. This will certainly illustrate that you know your stuff and will organically gain you new followers. Those new followers can and will eventually turn into newly generated leads as long as the content you share and publish is consistently top-notch. 

Lead Generation Conclusion 

You can’t grow your business without generating new leads. With the lead generation software available today, you can incorporate a vast array of lead generation tactics to find where consumers hang out and bring them into your lead database. This can help you to avoid marketing mistakes, supercharge sales, and boost branding.

It’s important to consider the needs of your audience and utilize lead generation strategies that address those needs. And while lead generation is critically important to business growth, you can’t forget to focus on keeping those leads you convert into satisfied customers. 

Research shows that it costs you five times more to generate and acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. In addition, when you increase customer retention by just 5%, your company's profits can increase anywhere from 25% to 95%, according to Bain & Company

So, put a heavy focus on lead generation, but find a balance between generating new leads and satisfying existing customers. Follow the tips above and you’ll have lead generation covered. Follow the tips in this blog, and you’ll increase customer satisfaction and retain more existing customers. It all adds up to increased revenue growth. Let's lead the way in long-lasting leads generation!


I hope you enjoyed this article about lead generation tips to drive business growth.

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