Leads

Here you'll learn what leads are, a term that has everything to do with sales in your company. Curious? Just keep reading! 😉

Leads in digital marketing

You've probably heard the term lead around. It's becoming increasingly popular in digital marketing industry, the lead has become a crucial concept in online sales strategies. After all, all actions stem from the initial goal of generating leads, have you noticed?

Think about it…

Have you ever come across a digital marketing strategy that doesn't mention the word "lead"? Certainly not. In fact, since digital marketing gained traction, no term stands out more than it.

To understand a little more about the context of the internet, it is worth looking at some data from the Digital Report 2023 HootSuite:

• At the beginning of 2023, the world reached 8,01 billion inhabitants.
• 66,9% of the world's population is over 20 years old.
• 5,44 billion people use cell phones, which is equivalent to 68% of the world's population.
• The world has 5,16 billion internet users, which represents 64,4% of the world's online population.
• Social media users represent 60% of the world's population, or 4,76 billion people.
• The world's working-age population spends an average of 6 hours and 37 minutes per day on the internet.

But now let's get down to business...

What are leads?

To be successful, a business needs to acquire customers, don't you agree? And when it comes to digital marketing and online sales strategies, leads can become customers. After all, the goal is to attract people interested in the product or service. These potential customers, in the marketing world, are called leads.

They represent a business opportunity and typically provide their contact information, such as name, email, phone number, and city. This allows the company to begin building this relationship, and if managed effectively, it will convert into sales.

As you can see, initially, the lead is someone interested in the product or simply curious. They share their information in exchange for some benefit, such as an eBook, discount coupon, or newsletter subscription. However, to convert a merely curious person into a customer, good communication is essential.

In other words, it's not enough to simply have access to user information; the sales team needs to communicate clearly with them. One tip is to view lead generation as a friendship or a romantic relationship. After all, leads want to be treated well; they want to feel like the most important person in the world to the company. With these practices, lead generation directly contributes to increased sales. Of course, as long as the company does its part.

Want to understand everything about lead generation? Check out this exclusive content!

Leads vs. Subscribers vs. Visitors

In the digital world, different concepts can be confusing for those unfamiliar with the terms. One question that arises is the differences between leads, subscribers, and website visitors. Understanding what each represents makes all the difference when contacting users; after all, lead qualification is crucial.

In the sales funnel, it's possible to segment people according to their current stages in the process. This classification occurs from the moment the user encounters an ad on Google, for example. Under the funnel's optimal approach, the sequence is as follows: users are impacted by the ad, then visit the website and become subscribers, whether of a newsletter or an eBook, for example. They then become leads, which need to be qualified by the CRM or the sales team. After this qualification (MQL, SAL, SQL, OPP), based on an opportunity detected by the salesperson, the conversion can occur—in other words, the sale.

Why does your company need to generate leads?

There's no mystery or secret to this answer. After all, a company needs to generate leads to sell. Simple. For a business to survive, it needs success, and to be successful, it needs customers. And more and more customers...

Even when we're talking about a context outside of digital marketing, this holds true. After all, before the internet boom, how did a clothing store survive? By thinking of ways to attract customers to its physical location. With promotions, word of mouth, attractive window displays, and distribution of printed materials… These were the methods used to increase sales in the offline world. After all, a store without customers doesn't sell and, consequently, doesn't survive.

With the rise of the internet, strategies for attracting potential customers have changed. The digital landscape has allowed us to reach ever further and impact people thousands of miles away. Now, times have changed, and consumer habits have changed drastically. What we mean by this is that the old aggressive and massive advertising formulas no longer work as they once did—quite the opposite.

Customers are increasingly unique, and to reach the right audience, personalized communication is essential. However, this requires refined segmentation, which is difficult to achieve offline. Today, social media and the internet as a whole provide the necessary tools for the public to inform themselves. This has given rise to an increasingly selective sense of choice.

Summing up…

To stand out in the market and attract customers, it's not enough to simply reach them. It's crucial that a company wins them over. In the context of digital marketing, a company needs to be chosen. And responsiveness is key.

And that's precisely what digital marketing does through lead generation: it creates ways to attract those who are genuinely interested in the offer. This facilitates the company's relationship building with the potential customer. Consequently, it increases the chances of a sale.

Why is it important to generate leads?

Leads are one of the pillars of digital marketing. But they're also how a company can increase its profitability and profit. After all, they're consumers who can convert based on their relationship with the marketing and sales team.

By acquiring new leads and using the best tools for metrics analysis and monitoring, it's even possible to calculate engagement levels. This allows for continuous optimization of strategies. Furthermore, the sales team can identify the stages of the sales funnel each contact is in.

To get to know it better and classify it in the management tool, one tip is to apply lead scoring, have you heard of it?

What is lead scoring?

Lead scoring is a tool available in digital marketing. In this case, the system automatically qualifies leads. By applying lead scoring, the chances of conversion into sales increase even more. After all, it gives the company greater insight into its prospects.

As we know, each person is unique, and therefore, their preferences differ. In this sense, lead scoring allows us to understand each lead's profile. After all, each person has their own characteristics and specific needs. This uniqueness requires a unique approach to maximize conversion rates.

By classifying leads, you can gain in-depth knowledge of each potential customer and assess their problems and pain points. Additionally, you can learn about other characteristics, such as their financial situation, to help you better understand how to approach them during contact.

In practice, lead scoring works like this:

• When performing an action on the landing page, for example, the lead provides their details.
• With the data in hand, the sales team gets in touch.
• Based on the action taken by the lead, the lead scoring system automatically generates points for the registration.
• This helps to form a classification, with variables that can be determined by the company, considering the most important aspects for it.

7 channels for lead generation

The key to lead capture is segmentation. In other words, before choosing channels to generate leads, you need to define your target audience. But going further, you need to understand how they behave and what they consume online. This analysis allows you to direct your strategy, identifying the right channel for this.

Another relevant point is the product or service the company offers. After all, the added value and lifespan of the offering are proportional to the effort required to sell it. Therefore, this aspect should be considered by the team when creating a digital marketing strategy.

From these key elements, there are some channels and tools that play an important role in lead generation.

1. Website

Does your company have a websiteAn updated and optimized website is the starting point for lead generation. In other words, it's essential that the website uses the best SEO techniques and invest in paid media for advertising. Some tools include Google Ads, Meta Ads, and LinkedIn Ads, depending on your business profile.

By investing in them, you can generate traffic to your website and, therefore, increase conversion rates. To do this, remember to have custom fields for capturing leads, such as newsletter subscriptions or other forms.

2. blog

Does your website have a blog? Did you know this is one of the most important tabs for a website with good organic positioning? A blog is the perfect place to attract audiences interested in your industry. To achieve this, you need to produce relevant and in-depth content. In fact, quality posts help potential customers find your website, establishing your company as an authority on the subject.

For small businesses, nurturing a blog is an excellent alternative, as it's a low-cost tool. Furthermore, it can offer a good return from quality content. In this context, there are SEO techniques that help ensure the best positioning of blog posts in organic search. Among the most common are keyword use and text optimization. Pay attention!

3. Email marketing

When it comes to lead generation, the most well-known channel is email marketing. In fact, it's a particularly interesting method for small and medium-sized enterprisesHowever, for it to work, it's important that the website and blog are regularly updated with good content.

In practice, the idea is to use email to send news and tailored content to the list's audience. Therefore, the process becomes simpler and more efficient when using an automation tool like a CRM.

4. Landing page

Also known as conversion pages, landing pages (LPs) aim to generate leads. Therefore, they are typically implemented in two ways:

1. Linked to sponsored links on Google, this is the destination for users who click on the ad. The LP directs the contact to the form via a call-to-action button. Therefore, the product/service proposal must be clearly and objectively presented.

2. Through content marketing, LP encourages users to provide their information in exchange for valuable content. In this case, the user arrives at the landing page by clicking an eye-catching CTA button. This button can be on the company's website, blog, or even social media.

5. Paid media

Paid media is a great option for those who need a quick return on investment. With paid media, you can advertise through Google Ads, Bing Ads, Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram). All of these platforms offer the option to create ads for lead capture.

It's important to understand that one of the advantages of paid advertising is budget control and the ease of measuring metrics and results. However, this type of advertising also allows for excellent targeting. This allows companies to reach the exact audience profile, leveraging thousands of active users. Common across platforms, user data is used as filters for ad display. In sync with algorithms that analyze user behavior, the campaign reaches the right people at the right time.

6. Social networks

Social media is certainly part of most people's daily routines. Today, it's virtually impossible to find someone who doesn't use at least one of them daily. Whether text, photos, or videos, it's possible to produce diverse content and reach audiences from different angles.

With tools that also target business profiles, social media is more than just a showcase for brands. These days, it's the perfect platform for capturing leads and generating new business.

7 Whatsapp

These days, it's impossible to talk about lead generation without mentioning WhatsApp. After all, the messaging app has become a favorite among Brazilians in recent years. It's no surprise that it's also one of the most popular social networks worldwide, with 2 billion active users.

According to HootSuite's 2022 Global Digital Overview Report, 165 million Brazilians use WhatsApp. Experts say we've reached this level thanks to companies using WhatsApp Business as a communication channel. With the corporate messaging app, they communicate quickly and efficiently with customers and suppliers.

Lead qualification

However, not everything is rosy. If you know someone who's invested in lead generation, you've probably heard that the campaign didn't yield results. Furthermore, the common reason is that the leads were unqualified.

Do you know why this happens?

The main reason is that most people are under the false illusion that leads are ready-to-buy customers. And, as we've seen so far, this isn't always true. Of course, having a digital marketing agency is essential to generating quality leads. After all, an online campaign requires a careful and professional approach to reach the right audience. Much more than launching a campaign, it's necessary to segment the audience and define a series of specific strategies for each available platform.

However, it's important to remember that leads are potential customers, meaning they need to be nurtured. It's the sales team's job to separate those who can be immediately converted from those who aren't ready yet. In other words, it's the marketing and sales teams' job to lead qualification.

In practice, each company determines its lead qualification model based on its own criteria. This process is based on automated methods and contact impressions. Therefore, it's important to implement a filter to ensure the sales team's efforts are focused on qualified leads. This prevents wasted time on fruitless contacts on a daily basis.

Lead nutrition

At this point, you might be wondering: will unqualified leads be wasted? Of course not! That's where lead nurturing comes into play. This is a fundamental step for a campaign to truly increase your company's revenue. And, believe me, ignoring this step of the process is throwing money and many business opportunities away.

According to a survey by marketingsherpa, lead nurturing can increase sales volume by up to 50%, based on your database, at a cost 33% lower than that required to acquire new leads.

In other words, lead nurturing is nothing more than feeding potential customers personalized content. Generally, lead nurturing doesn't seek an immediate sale, but rather invests in the relationship. This strategy also helps strengthen the brand, demonstrating that the company has the solution the customer needs. Therefore, when the purchase decision is made, the company will be on the consumer's mind, ready to be their choice.

How to nurture leads?

A lead nutrition It may seem like a lot of work at first, but it's a strategy worth trying.

Unlike in the past, email marketing is no longer the only way to nurture leads. Without a doubt, it remains one of the most effective tools and shouldn't be discarded. However, digital marketing offers tools that allow you to diversify and work on nurturing across multiple channels. The most commonly used are blog posts, newsletters, and SEO, ensuring your website's content is easily discoverable. And social media, of course.

In fact, maintaining relevant content on social media is crucial for interacting with potential customers. They allow you to deliver credible information about products and services, establishing a closer relationship with leads. Furthermore, just like email marketing, social media allows you to insert links directing you to the purchase or contact page. This allows you to establish a direct connection to your website's sales page or WhatsApp.

What is cost per lead?

In this context, understanding the cost per lead is crucial to the success of a lead generation campaign. With this information, the company and the company itself digital marketing agency calculate how much was spent on generating leads. This allows you to understand the return on your investment.

Also known as CPL, Cost Per Lead indicates the investment required to generate leads in a campaign. In other words, based on traffic analysis, entrepreneurs can estimate how much they'll need to invest to attract a customer.

Is buying leads a good deal?

One of the most common practices in the market is buying leads, but is this a good deal? Buying leads may seem like a good strategy; after all, you're negotiating with a company for an amount of contacts. It seems like a good value, right? Wrong!

Lead lists are typically made up of so-called cold leads and warm leads. This means you're not purchasing leads who have actually shown interest in your product or service. In other words, although the leads you purchase have a profile based on your selection, not all of them will always show interest in closing a deal.

How to generate free leads?

Among so many ways to generate leads, you might be wondering if there's a way to generate free leads. Is there? The answer is simple: yes, it's possible to generate free leads. The technique for this stems from human socialization. In other words, you can capture new leads completely free of charge from your network of contacts. The famous networking.

Therefore, maintaining a good relationship with people in your social circle is an efficient and free way to generate prospects. However, it's a manual and somewhat laborious process. To generate leads manually, you need to create a spreadsheet on your computer, such as Google Sheets or Excel. This acquisition can occur either in person, through WhatsApp conversations, social media, or phone calls.

What are the types of leads?

We've already mentioned that leads are people interested in a product or service and that their qualification is essential. But did you know they can be classified according to their source? According to the book Predictable Revenue, by Aaron Ross, they are classified into three forms.

Lead spears

Spear leads arrive through outbound marketing strategies. In other words, they're leads that meet the company's ideal customer profile. To reach them, you need to create a strategy and target that audience exclusively.

One of the main outbound marketing tools that aids in this acquisition is active prospecting by the marketing and sales team. In practice, the salesperson contacts customers and/or companies that meet the ideal customer's characteristics. During this conversation, they should offer the product/service, guiding the customer toward conversion.

Leads nets

Net leads are arrived through advertising strategies or inbound marketing. Therefore, it is understood that the main objective is to obtain as many contacts as possible, without focusing exclusively on conversion.

For example, it's like a fisherman who casts a net into the sea. When he pulls it back in, it comes up full of good fish, but along with it, he might find other animals, seaweed, and even trash. So, it's the sales team's job to separate the good leads from the bad.

Lead seeds

In turn, seed leads are those we sow through good work. In other words, these are leads that arrive organically, without the need to invest in paid strategies. But, as the name suggests, although a seed lead demonstrates interest, it comes through seeding. This means it can take time for the company to convert it into sales.

In short, seed leads are those that come from word of mouth, from satisfied customers. Hence the importance of social proof for any business. Furthermore, they can come from SEO, content marketing, relationship building, and public relations strategies.

What is inbound marketing?

The famous attraction marketing. The inbound marketing aims to make the public reach the company using exclusive techniques.

For example, creating content specifically for your target audience and sharing it on specific channels. In this case, the goal is to attract the public's attention, generate impact, and, consequently, generate leads.

That said, inbound marketing has content marketing as one of its pillars. This includes content for blogs, websites, social media, and other channels.

Count on Kaizen to generate qualified leads for your business

Today, customers don't just come knocking. You need to find them and drive sales with a modern and efficient lead generation system. And do you know how we know all this? two decades of experience in lead generation and digital marketing for clients across different sectors.

Speak right now with one of our consultants and develop an efficient strategy to boost your business.