Lead capture: 8 incredible techniques to convert more and better!
Lead generation is the goal of every marketing and sales team, with the ultimate aim of generating revenue and developing the company's business. The process of capturing qualified leads consists of detecting a sales lead, converting it into a potential customer and ultimately leading to the closing of the sale.
Let's take a look at the winning lead generation strategies for your business, from generation to qualification and conversion. Then discover tools dedicated to capturing leads, to improve the quality and follow-up of your business contacts, while optimizing the conversion rate.
What are leads and how are they used?
Leads are commercial contacts who are expected to become customers of the company. In order to qualify a lead and determine whether it would be interesting to develop it, you need to put in place actions that will lead to it converting (becoming a customer). In order to be used, leads go through a qualification process, which is a classification to determine their potential to become customers. In the end, the most qualified leads (with the greatest chance of becoming customers) will be dealt with by the sales team.
How do you treat a lead?
The lead must go through a qualification process. Processes and filters (sales funnel) are put in place to deal with the lead.
For example, a person who enters your site, visits several pages, contacts you for questions, is different from a person who enters your site, browses for a few seconds and leaves without interaction. You can assume that the first person is a more qualified lead than the second, because they have shown greater interest.
Before you start capturing leads
Before embarking on a lead acquisition campaign, it's important to consider a few prerequisites.
Set sales and marketing targets
The volume and quality of the contacts you want to find are linked to the objectives you have previously set. Before starting any acquisition campaign, you should establish the relationship between the investment to be made in lead generation and the expected results. After that, you define a budget and performance indicators to measure the return on investment (ROI).
Identify the persona
Working on the "persona" allows you to gather relevant information about the potential buyer and build their typical profile in order to better target marketing and sales actions. In practice, it involves gathering elements that will illustrate the target audience's buying habits, needs, expectations, etc.
Investigate search intentions
By analyzing Google searches, you can identify the motivations of your target audience. By studying the positioning of pages in a given search, you can identify an intention.
Competitive analysis
Examining the strategy of competitors will help you determine who your main targets are and where they are located. Look to the competition for inspiration and identify strategies that can be effective, saving you time and money.
Choosing the right channel
Finally, to ensure that you capture qualified leads, you'll need to look for the most appropriate channel or channels, the right message, the right offer and at the right time. Depending on your business, not all channels will be relevant.
How do you capture leads?
There are several techniques, and we'll present 8 for you to choose from and see which one best suits your business. They are:
- Improve your SEO;
- Implement a content strategy (create a blog, for example);
- Work on the user experience (UX);
- Develop your communities on: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, WhatsApp, Reddit and other sites and portals that your target audience is on.
- Make use of email campaigns;
- Implement SEM and online advertising actions;
- Develop relationships with your leads;
- Analyze and evaluate.
8 BtoB lead generation techniques
While techniques such as telephone prospecting, telemarketing and participation in fairs and exhibitions are still in use, digital is proving to be an increasingly relevant option. Let's go into a little more detail about the techniques mentioned above.
Technique n°1: improve your SEO
Working with SEO (or organic referencing) allows you to position your site on the first page of search engine results. Select carefully
- keywords;
- tags;
- titles;
- meta description etc.
Good SEO allows you to increase your visibility, attract more potential customers and new customers, while increasing traffic to your website.
Technique #2: Implement content marketing
Bring potential customers to your site organically and encourage them to discover your products or services. A good attraction for a lead is a free offer. Make it available in exchange for information (usually contact details) about the prospect. This could be
- a white paper to download
- an e-book
- participation in an event or online training etc.
A "call to action" (CTA) button, which asks visitors to click, redirects them to a landing page, where the fields to be filled in collect their data and e-mail address.
Technique n°3: Work on the user experience
Above all, work on the functional aspect of your site: its interface should be pleasant, easy and the navigation process should make it easy to find information.
The design of your site must have a specific objective, in this case: to capture and generate qualified leads. To do this, you need to know the profile of your target (identified by the persona), and in particular their preferences and tastes, which will influence your design choices.
Technique 4: Create a community
It is essential, even for BtoB companies, to create, animate and manage a community. By building a connection with your community, you create a space for exchange, especially by collecting opinions and feedback from customers. As well as increasing your knowledge of your target audience, managing and animating a community allows you to build customer loyalty.
Technique No. 5: Email campaigns
Send information or promotional offers from your brand by email to a list of potential customers in order to arouse their interest and possible contact.
There is a risk that the email will be filtered as spam or not considered at all. It is therefore important that the subject and content are relevant. Consider including a "call to action" to redirect the user to a site or landing page with more information.
Technique n°6: Consider advertising
Online ads tend to generate clicks, but turning clicks into leads has a direct influence on the other techniques already mentioned, especially in relation to content and user experience.
Try to have a related landing page for each campaign, increasing the cohesion of the information the user is looking for (when clicking on your ad) with what they will find on the landing page.
Technique n°7: Develop the relationship
The relationship with the lead refers to all the methods involved in bringing a new contact to the level of maturity needed to make a purchase. Knowing how to offer the right content (and offer) at the right time can be the difference in turning a lead into a customer.
Technique n°8: Analyze and evaluate
In order to assess the impact of any strategy and improve its performance, it is necessary to analyze it. As far as possible, run controlled tests that will give you an idea of the performance of certain actions.
Well-configured tracking tools will help you with your analysis, such as Google Analytics or HubSpot.
As a lead is not yet a customer, you will necessarily need to measure the cost per lead (CPL):
| CPL = | Total amount invested in actions to capture leads / Total number of leads generated |
One of the indicators to analyze and evaluate is the conversion rate. This is the ratio between the number of leads that become customers and the total number of leads generated.
Tools for managing lead capture
Leadlovers, because who doesn't love a lead?
Leadlovers is a platform that will allow you to manage your lead capture strategy. Through automation you can make your actions more productive and agile. For example, Leadlover allows you to create sales funnels and landing pages.
Strengths:
- Automation;
- Affordable price for small businesses and startups.
Limitations:
- The client is responsible for finding the leads.
leadlovers
Vendedoor, capture leads without having to knock on doors
Vendedoor is a platform for generating and capturing leads. Using social networks, search engines, affiliate networks and email blasts, Vendedoor generates targeted traffic to capture leads. With a cost model per registration generated or per lead generated, the client only pays for the result.
©️ Sales.
Strengths:
- Serves various segments;
- Cost per result model.
Limitations:
- Integrations.
DataLeads, generate leads in an automated way
DataLeads is a DataSeek solution that generates B2B leads. It even has an open source marketing platform, which is very interesting for companies starting out or with budget restrictions.
Strong points:
- Guarantee of valid corporate emails;
- Integration with CRMs.
Limitations:
- Potentially high cost.
DataLeads
Put it into practice!
By working on the techniques described and allocating an appropriate budget, you will not only get more qualified leads, but you will also have an impact on converting these leads into customers.
Ultimately, the lead capture process allows you to convey a positive image of your brand to your potential customers and guide them through a process which, in the best case scenario, will end with a purchase.
Article translated from Portuguese