What is Lead Generation & How To Do It?
These are a few examples of lead generation strategies that you can use to attract potential customers and direct them to your offers.
When someone outside of the marketing industry asks what I do, I can't say, "I create content for lead generation." It'd be completely lost on them, and I'd get some perplexed looks.
Instead, I'll say, "I work hard to come up with novel ways to attract customers to my company. I want to give them enough goodies to pique their interest in my company so that they warm up to the brand and want to hear from us!"
That usually works better, and that's exactly what lead generation is: a way of introducing potential customers to your company and getting them on the path to making a buy.
Why Do You Need Lead Generation?
The transition from stranger to the customer is much more natural when a stranger initiates a relationship with you by showing an organic interest in your business.
The second stage of the inbound marketing method is lead generation. It happens after you've gathered an audience and are ready to turn those visitors into leads for your sales team (sales-qualified leads).
As shown in the diagram below, generating leads is a critical step in a person's journey to becoming a satisfied customer.
Lead Generation Process
Now that we've established how lead generation fits into the inbound marketing method, let's go over the steps involved in lead generation.
First, a visitor learns about your company via one of your marketing channels, such as your website, blog, or social media page.
That visitor then clicks on your call-to-action (CTA), which is an image, button, or message that encourages website visitors to take action.
This CTA directs your visitor to a landing page, which is a web page designed to collect lead information in exchange for an offer.
In exchange for the offer, your visitor fills out a form on the landing page. (Although forms can be embedded anywhere on your site, they are hosted on landing pages.) And there you have it! You've got a new lead. That is, as long as you adhere to best practices for lead-capture forms.
Isn't it amazing how everything fits together?
To summarise, a visitor clicks a CTA, which directs them to a landing page where they fill out a form to receive an offer, at which point they become a lead.
You should also check out our free lead generation tool. It enables you to create lead capture forms that can be displayed on your website. It's also very simple to set up.
