Lead generation: 5 effective measures
Anchor links/Table of contents
What is lead generation?
Lead generation refers to the process of obtaining contact details from potential customers. These leads are in the initial phase of the purchasing process. A successful lead is further qualified later in the funnel until it potentially becomes a paying customer. This is also referred to as an MQL (marketing qualified lead). Effective lead generation is particularly crucial for B2B companies and is often used to acquire new customers.
Are you facing the same challenge?
Here are 5 measures you can take to generate leads more effectively:
1. Building a funnel
The funnel, also known as the sales funnel, describes the process of how prospects become paying customers. There are various measures you can take to address the needs of potential customers:
- Create incentives: Offer white papers, webinars or a well-structured product or service configurator to pique the interest of your target group. This content must be valuable and relevant to prospects.
- Automation: By using marketing automation (e.g. chatbots or email marketing), you can carry out nurturing measures and maintain contact with your leads without having to constantly intervene manually.
- Increase visibility: Use SEO to make content such as blog articles more visible and discoverable on the web via search engines and your target audience. Backlinks are also important for increasing reach.
2. Create a landing page
The landing page is a key component for generating leads. It is a specially designed website that pursues a clear goal: the conversion of a visitor, e.g. through a registration, a purchase or a contact request. It is usually part of an advertising campaign, contains few distractions, a strong call to action (CTA) and relevant information to guide the target audience to the desired action. On the landing page, you give potential customers the opportunity to leave their contact details.
Tip for designing the landing page: Make sure that the page is easy to navigate and that the call to action is clear and compelling. Forms on the landing page should not be too long. Use a configurator to encourage interested parties to define their specific needs and get in touch with you.
3. Implement a configurator
A digital configurator is an extremely effective lead generation tool that is specifically tailored to the needs and requirements of your target group. By offering a configurator on your website, you give potential customers the opportunity to plan and specify your product or service according to their individual preferences before they request a consultation with you. This not only adds value, but also increases interest in your offering and creates direct interaction.
What else a digital configurator can do for you:
- Direct integration: The configurator can be integrated directly into your landing page to increase the conversion rate and obtain contact details at the same time.
- Targeted personalisation: The product is tailored specifically to the customer's needs.
- Optimisation of the purchasing process: By allowing the prospective customer to select various options such as size or colour, many decisions can be made in advance.
- Transparent price calculation: A calculation is determined in real time, prices are transparent and it is easier for the customer to understand which components are important in the planning process.
- Saves your human resources: Your sales staff only get personally involved in the process once the customer has already engaged intensively with your offer.
The configurator allows you to successfully generate marketing qualified leads (MQLs), i.e. particularly qualified contacts. If visitors engage with it particularly intensively and it reinforces their intentions, they can become sales qualified leads (SQLs). Such visitors are usually very interested in your product and there is a high probability that they will become paying customers.
Relevant case studies
4. GDPR-compliant lead generation
The GDPR is particularly important for companies. When collecting contact details from your MQLs, you must act transparently and in a legally compliant manner. Only collect necessary data and clearly inform your prospects about where their data will be stored and how it will be used.
5. Smart marketing
To maximise the success of your lead generation, it is important to continuously invest in your marketing.
The following measures could be part of your marketing mix:
- Especially in B2B, use social media platforms such as LinkedIn for your campaigns to connect directly with your target audience and generate leads.
- Publish regular blog posts that convey the added value of your products or services.
- Offer relevant content that solves the problems of your target group.
- Focus on outbound marketing by tracking who is interested in your configurator, for example.
Conclusion: Successful lead generation – here's how to do it!
Effective lead generation requires a good combination of inbound and outbound strategies tailored to your target audience. Use a variety of measures, whether it's optimising your website to drive traffic to a landing page, SEO strategy, social media, targeted advertising, or even the use of a qualified sales team. A digital configurator is an extremely valuable tool for generating and qualifying leads. Through targeted personalisation and interactivity, you can increase purchase intent, boost conversion rates and increase your sales.