Every business needs customers to thrive, but long before a person off the street becomes a customer - they are a lead. Generating leads is a key part of growing a business and falls under the responsibilities of the marketing team. There are different approaches about how to best do lead generation and each business should decide on one that best fits their overall marketing strategy.

What is a lead?

According to HubSpot’s guide to lead generation:

“A lead is any person who indicates interest in a company's product or service in some way, shape, or form.”

This definition doesn’t limit leads to the scope of digital marketing and can include any form of expressed interest.

Inbound vs. Outbound Lead Generation

The are two primary forms of lead generation - Outbound and Inbound.

Outbound

Outbound is the more traditional form of lead generation where a company will approach prospects out of the blue in the hopes that they will become viable leads by expressing interest in the company after being reached out to. Typical outbound marketing tools include: cold calling, purchasing email lists, mass emailing, personalized ads such as LinkedIn message ads.

The advantages of outbound are that it is “easier and quicker”. You can purchase an email list and get thousands of emails out in a day which is bound to generate some leads. On the other hand, the benefits are usually short lived because your communications are seen as an intrusion. You risk the chance of putting people off and there is little long term return on your investment.

Inbound

Inbound is a more modern form of lead generation that is made possible in part by the internet and digital marketing. Using the Inbound method (which HubSpot advocates), prospects are approached only after they express interest in the company or its products. Typical inbound marketing will involve content creation, use of social media and PPC advertising.

The advantages of inbound is that you are only engaging with “warm” leads and are less likely to be viewed as intrusive as it is the lead themselves that initiated the relationship. Moreover, the content created for the purpose of inbound marketing is a long term investment that can still generate leads ling after the initial creation. The downsides of inbound marketing are the time invested in the lengthy process, and that it might not be a good fit for every kind of service or product.

Many of the recourses ion the topic claim that inbound marketing it is more suitable for B2B due to the nature of the customers. Business tend to do more research into solutions for their problems while many consumers are just looking for a quick fix. That said, almost no one claims that inbound is strictly for B2B and it is defiantly recommended for any business to incorporate some inbound in their marketing strategy.

How does lead generation work using the inbound method?

Lead generation work using the inbound method can be broken down into 5 steps:

Channel

The first step is attracting a stranger through various forms of content. The channel could be a blog, social media post, targeted ad etc. The goal of this channel is to provide useful information that will encourage viable prospects to take action and show interest.

Even if the content the stranger is viewing is on your website it still does not qualify them as a “visitor” since they are not familiar with the website, only if they further express interest by following a CTA do the being the lead process.

2. CTA (Call to action)

The CTA is a button or image placed within the channel which a stranger can click to make an indented visit to your website. A CTA will usually read something like “learn more”, “get started” etc. When a stranger clicks the ETA they are expressing interest in your business or company as presented in the channel stage.

3. Landing Page + Offer

After a stranger clicks the CTA they become a visitor. A CTA will typically take them to a landing page with a very specific offer. This offer is not a final sale but rather a next stage in the marketing process. For this stage to be successful you will need to have an optimized landing page and a lucrative offer with real value for the visitor. This guide by HubSpot lists 20 different kinds of offers you can place on your landing pages.

Although this is stage 3, this is the most crucial part of the entire process. Every inbound lead generation strategy should start with a working, optimized landing page. If your landing page doesn’t convert, all the efforts spent on money and ads will be for naught.

4. Engagement / Form Fill

During this stage the visitor will fill out some kind of form or take further action on the landing page, providing personal information in exchange for the offer. If you got to this point, Congratulations! you now have a lead. Not only is it a lead, but a “warm” one who has shown explicit interest in what you have to offer.

5. Lead Qualification

The last stage will be to categorize the lead based on the information you have gathered on them and decide on the next stage. Just because someone is a lead, it doesn’t mean they are ready to be sold to. For example, if a lead filled out a form to download a free guide they are a much less qualified lead than someone who filled out a form to get a estimated insurance quote. The former (a MQL) will need further coaxing and relationship building before getting a call from the sales team.

Consistency and transparency is key for inbound marketing

Inbound is all about building a relationship with the lead and letting them make the first move. If the content they engaged with, the CTA, or the offer on the landing page are not all aligned, and consistent with the company’s service or product, it is highly unlikely to work.

What does this mean for our 2022 lead generation strategy?

Divide lead generation efforts between outbound and inbound and try and make outbound tactics as nonintrusive as possible.
Build an inbound strategy from the bottom up starting with a qualified landing page that converts.
Brainstorm how to implement non digital inbound lead generation. For example an event:
- Channel - paper ad.
- CTA - book a ticket!
- “Landing page” - event
- Form - leave your info for an invite to the next event
Remember - the customer journey is a long process that begins with awareness. Just because a website visitor didn’t convert or buy today, the first impression is still valuable and may have them coming back for more later on.

Game Plan for 2022 - Applying HubSpot Lead Generation