How-to: Lead generation explained simply
You hear them all the time in marketing: the terms "leads" and "lead generation". Find out what they mean and how you can use them for your company and to acquire customers here! Simply explained and without technical jargon, we promise.
Note: To get the most out of our blog post, it is helpful if you are already familiar with the following terms. If not, simply click on the relevant links to find out more in our glossary. We wish you much success and enjoyment with your training!
Lead generation - what is it anyway?
In marketing, you want to draw attention to yourself, attract interested parties and ultimately turn them into customers. And the word lead generation describes precisely this Process of acquiring interested parties. Lead generation also includes all measures that arouse the interest of potential customers.
A prospective customer who provides a company with their data (due to their interest in the product or service) is therefore also referred to as a "lead". A lead and lead generation are therefore about showing interest and the Providing your own contact details. These leads signal a willingness to do business with the company in question.
When - and whether - this lead (prospective customer) is finally contacted is decided by the company.
All in all, lead generation in the B2B and B2C sector and includes many different strategies and measures.
Past & present - lead generation has changed
Two ways of generating leads that have now been discarded and are old hat are classic cold calling and buying lists of names. It is now much easier to generate new leads - cheers to technological progress!
Today, leads are mostly acquired digitally or online - and this is one way of doing it:
- Registration on website: z. For example, to view certain premium content or to leave comments under blog articles.
- Download content: z. e.g. white papers, checklists etc.
- Newsletter registration
- Participation in the competition
- etc.
With all these methods of lead generation, the interested person must enter their data in order to access the desired content.
What are the benefits of lead generation?
The digital channel through which a lead is generated is as talkative as an open book. What do we mean by that? That the chosen channel already gives sales employees lots of information about the customer can deliver: Does he want to comment? Do they want informative content? Which content on which topic have they shown interest in?
The sales department can use all of this to tailor its sales talks to the respective prospective customer. The Success rate for customer acquisition can therefore be increased, and companies can also make their sales cycle more efficient.
How to get leads
If you are now also interested in lead generation, you can find out how to do this here:
Step 1: Think about it
When it comes to lead generation, you should never run off headlong and just do anything. Instead, it is better to ask yourself the following questions at the beginning:
- Mass vs. sales/marketing qualified leads: Do I want a lot of leads or just certain ones?
- Medium: Which channels work for my company (social media, website, blog, email, trade fairs, promotional letters, etc.)?
- Push or pull: Active advertising for the product vs. customers searching for the product on their own initiative
- B2C or B2B: B2C is aimed directly at individual people, while B2B is more complex, as several decision-makers are involved.
Of course, you have to invest time in these considerations, but in the end you will still save time and resources, as this strategic approach means you can directly tackle the measure that is really effective.
These considerations also include the question of strategy: Do you want to focus on permission, outbound or inbound marketing? Here is some information on this:
- Inbound Marketing: This is where good content is created to attract the attention of potential customers (blog, video, infographic, etc.). Content that is easy to find on the internet (on your own website or social media channels) with real added value plays a primary role in inbound marketing. A good content strategy and SEO are therefore important for inbound.
- Permission Marketing: The idea here is to first obtain the permission of interested parties before advertising to them. This avoids a negative attitude towards advertising and makes interested parties more open to your message.
- Outbound Marketing: This form is suitable for keeping in touch with customers via e-mail, inviting them to events or disseminating information, for example.
- Combination: Most companies use more than one strategy to generate leads. This allows customers to be addressed at different stages of the buying process.
Step 2: Choose a concrete method
Depending on your answers in step one, you can take different measures for lead generation. Here are a few examples.
Online
- Website
- Newsletter
- Webinar
- Emails
- Whitepaper
- Blog
- Landing Page
- Online Magazine
- Online marketing (SEO, SEA, paid ads, social media, SEM)
- Contents for download
- Discount coupons in magazines or by letter
- Advertisements in printed magazines
- Advertising letters
- Flyer
Outdoor
- Stand at trade fairs
- Raffles at events
- Live lectures
- Networking events
Additional incentives are often created with all these methods. These are usually sales promotions or product samples.
Important: Whichever method you choose, always pay attention to legal requirements (e.g. GDPR, opt-out/opt-in options to obtain the customer's consent, specifications for cold calling, etc.)!
Step 3: Strong through teamwork
Nowadays, the best way to acquire and qualify leads is for sales and marketing to work together. This new form of lead management is also due to digital progress and the resulting change in purchasing behavior.
Goals - why companies want to generate leads
Lead generation is part of sales - and its major, overriding goal is, of course, the Increase in sales - and therefore turnover. You want to acquire sales-ready new customers who are genuinely interested in your product or service. Collecting contact data is the small intermediate goal that ultimately works towards the main goal.
Further interim goals or co-goals in the generation of leads are ...
- Increasing attention for a company and a brand (brand awareness)
- Generating interest among the target group
- Gain insights to produce better content, which in turn attracts more people
use customer feedback to improve your own products, service, sales and conversion rate
5 Advantages & limitations of (online) lead generation
Lead generation is a powerful tool in marketing. And like everything, it also has advantages and disadvantages, which you can find more information on here.
1. contact details "fixed & ready"
Generating leads online has the advantage that all the data is completely simply saved can be used. This means you no longer have to manually enter the contact details etc. into a tool, but have them automatically ready and waiting.
2. easy assignment
The segmentation of leads is also becoming easier. Nowadays, if a lead was generated digitally, you can see exactly where it came from and which sales method is therefore most suitable. You can now make such assignments also automated (all leads from newsletters go into one database, all leads from content downloads go into another database, etc.).
Leads that companies generate offline have to be assigned manually, which can lead to wastage.
3. purchased leads
As a company, you can also buy contacts, i.e. leads, in the B2B sector. It is important to note that this is only permitted if the interested parties have agreed that their data may also be used by third-party providers.
Your advantage is that you can quickly and easily to new contacts come. The downside is that your company's image can suffer if, for example, people receive a newsletter that they didn't actually sign up for.
4. known like a sore thumb
Leads are generated using various marketing methods. With lead generation, you can therefore Awareness of your company with your target group. And this awareness is the first step towards new customers, more sales and increased turnover.
However, you should also Campaign rhythm depending on the measures you choose. Your content should always offer your target group added value and keep them regularly updated. But there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Too frequent mailings, postings, etc. can also put customers off because they feel annoyed.
But if you do it right, your company can soon be known like a colorful dog.
5. good vs. bad contact
In both online and offline lead generation, leads are divided into good and less good (= lead scoring). Whether a lead is really useful or qualified for a sale and thus an increase in sales is usually only revealed in contact with the sales department.
For example:
Companies usually generate a lot of leads through a competition. But these are not necessarily all qualified (qualified lead). This is because many people also take part in competitions who simply want to win the main prize without having any further interest in the company.
This is where lead generation reaches its limits. However, you can rule out such an unqualified lead in advance by choosing a main prize that has something to do with your product or service.
Our conclusion on lead generation
Lead generation is a process with which Attracting prospective customers can. These interested parties provide their contact details based on their interest and thus generate a lead. Companies can use various methods, measures and strategies to arouse interest.
These include inbound and outbound marketing, registration on the website, the creation of content with added value, participation in trade fairs, advertising letters and much more.
Lead generation is part of sales and has naturally changed over time. There is lead generation in both the B2B and B2C sectors. Nowadays, it mainly takes place digitally. and via the Internet. It has many advantages, but sometimes also reaches its limits.
Ultimately, the main goal is to Increase in turnoverHowever, lead generation is also used to pursue many smaller intermediate goals (including brand awareness and internal optimization).
