What is lead generation?
Lead generation is the process of attracting potential customers to your business.
If you want a more in-depth understanding of this topic, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: What is a lead in lead generation?
Simply put, a lead in lead generation is a business’ prospective customer. Leads are typically acquired by companies by offering something of value (i.e., a lead magnet) in exchange for a prospect’s contact details.
Question #2: Why is lead generation important to my business?
Lead generation is important to your business because it gets you a steady stream of prospects to sell to instead of just waiting for them to come to you on their own. It does not matter how good your products or services are, if no one is there to listen to your pitch, you will not be able to sell anything.
For more benefits on having lead generation, check this article from Sendoso.
Question #3: What are the steps in doing so?
A typical lead generation campaign follows five simple steps:
- Prepare your lead magnet (or magnets). It can be anything that your target customers might find valuable, such as a discount, exclusive perk, ebook, or report.
- Prepare your form. In most cases, you will need a landing page where your prospects can claim your lead magnet in exchange for their contact information. But some social media platforms, such as Facebook, also have built-in lead generation forms if you do not want to invest in a landing page.
- Promote your lead magnet. The quickest, most efficient way to do so is by running targeted paid ads.
- Screen your new leads. Of course, not all new leads are qualified to be on your email list. Some just want the freebie and do not actually want to hear from you afterwards.
This is exactly why a lot of marketers require double opt-in from new leads. Doing so would allow you to filter out those who are using a fake, temporary, or invalid email address along with inaccurate personal information.
5. Add qualified leads to your email list. This step is pretty self-explanatory so there is no need to go into detail.
Once you have done all this. It is time to run an email marketing campaign to first build a relationship with each new lead and then eventually sell to them.
But do not worry. You can automate this entire process so you can generate as many leads as you want as quickly as you want without having to do additional work to nurture and sell to them.
Question #4: What is the difference between lead generation and cold calling?
The main difference between lead generation and cold calling is that the former is outbound while the latter is inbound.
Cold calling is essentially just you disturbing people who may or may not be interested in what you have to sell. The result is usually irritated prospects who are highly unlikely to do business with you.
In contrast, lead generation involves specifically targeting prospects who are likely to be interested in your products and/or services and offering them something of value if they choose to listen to what you have to say. This act of appeasing them right from the get-go and giving them the power to choose to listen to you when it is convenient for them makes them significantly more likely to hear you out.
Question #5: Can I just buy leads instead of generating my own?
Technically, yes, you can buy leads, but it is not a good idea. Sure, it will help you build a sizable email list quickly, but since you did not actually get permission from each lead to send them marketing emails, there is a big chance that they will do one of three things (or all of them):
- Unsubscribe immediately
- Flag you for spam
- Permanently block you
Not only will these not help you make a sale in any way, but they will also ruin your reputation with email servers and ISPs, making it much more challenging for you to do email marketing in the future.