Digital Marketing: All About Lead Generation Campaigns
Lead generation is the process of generating interest and demand in a company’s brand, products, or services using inbound and outbound marketing strategies, such as online advertising and email marketing. Running a lead generation campaign is an essential process for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) companies for many reasons.
When you run a lead generation campaign you are trying to convince your audience to give you their personal information (usually in the form of their email or phone number) in exchange for something from you in return- either valuable content, information, research, a free trial, a product, or something else they might want or need.
From there, you will have the ability to reach out to that person again and continue to nurture them in the hopes that they will one day become a customer.
When creating a lead generation campaign, you’ll want a few things in place first, including a clear objective, a clearly defined audience, your content or offer, a budget, measurement, and a nurture plan.
Benefits of a Lead Generation Campaign
Lead Generation Supports Healthy Business Growth
Without obtaining qualified leads, your company will not be able to grow. While you may receive referrals, those often are not sustainable enough to grow your business the way you want. To be successful, you will want to attract and convert prospects and you will receive that with a lead generation marketing campaign.
Lead Generation Attracts Qualified Leads
Next, lead generation will offer you a solution to finding qualified leads, versus any other lead. You do have other strategies to help with leads like cold-calling potential leads, this type of strategy rarely results in a lead- only unhappy people with a bad image of your brand.
Lead Generation Offers a Natural Transition from Consumer to Customer
With a lead generation campaign, your business can provide a seamless journey for your customers. People can move at their own page from consumer to customer, for instance by first downloading an online guide or completing a contact form.
Types of Qualified Leads
Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)-
These are contacts who have engaged with your marketing teams’ content but aren’t quite ready for a sales call. This type of lead is a contact who fills out a landing page form for an offer, signs up for newsletters, interacts with your social accounts, etc.
Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)-
These are contacts who have taken actions that explicitly indicate interest in becoming a paying customer. An SQL could be a contact who fills out a from to ask a question regarding your service or products.
Product Qualified Lead (PQL)-
These leads are contacts who have used your products or services and taken additional action that indicates interest in becoming a paying customer. PQLs are present for companies who offer a product trial or a free/limited version of their product with options to upgrade down the road. This is where your sales team comes in to help convert them into longer-lasting paying customers.
Service Qualified Lead-
These are contacts who have indicated to your service team that they’re interested in moving forward to become a paying customer.
10-Step Lead Generation Plan for a Successful Campaign
- Establish a Clear Objective- How many leads are you looking for? What is your cost per lead goal? In what timeframe do you need to be successful?
- Research Your Audience- Who is the best customer for your business? Are you testing and researching to try and expand this pool?
- Plan Your Content- What type of content does your customer like? Free trial? A discount of offer of some type?
- Create an Offer- Get creative with your content.
- Promote Your Content- Be strategic with chosen avenues you promote on. Where are you utilizing your budget? And where does your campaign perform best?
- Optimize Your Lead Capture- It’s crucial that you measure performance as your go.
- Test- If something isn’t working, adapt and try something new
- Lead Score- Not all leads are created equal. Develop a strategy to understand the quality of leads and who is worth nurturing and following up with.
- Nurture- Keep the relationship warm with the leads you know are quality to your business.
- Close Deals
There is no need to be intimidated by a lead generation campaign. They aren’t as complicated to implement or to understand as you think. It’s all about defining your company effectively and your brand message, followed by creating intriguing content that showcases your knowledge and expertise in order to entice customers to provide their information.