Lead Generation: 7 Most Effective Strategies for Success

Lead generation is a must-know skill for people of all kinds of industries, whether it’s real estate, B2B, healthcare, or tech. Still, it can be difficult to know how to attract quality prospects to your organization. 

In our how-to guide, we’ll give you all the information you need for lead generation, including what it is, how it works, why it matters, and seven simple strategies you can adapt to attract potential customers to your business.

What Is Lead Generation?

Lead generation is the process by which sales reps attract prospective clients to their business and the consequent nurturing of that relationship to convert them to clients. There are tons of ways to generate leads, from networking events to job applications and social media posts, among others.

Every sales rep should be armed with effective lead generation strategies to boost revenue growth and client satisfaction. 

Lead generation vs. lead qualification

Two terms that are commonly confused are lead generation and lead qualification. While the former focuses on generating new prospects, lead qualification hones in on identifying the most promising leads so teams can better allocate resources to prioritize those leads. Specific methodologies like BANT can help you qualify prospects.

How does the lead generation process work?

The lead generation process can look a little different depending on the industry, but there are usually a few steps you’ll find in common no matter what industry. For example, the process can be simplified into just a few steps.

First, the prospect comes across your brand’s goods or services in some way or another, such as via your website or social media channels.

Then, they’ll then be prompted by your company’s call-to-action (CTA). So, for a website, that could be a button visitors click that prompts them to take whatever action you’ve suggested, like signing up for a newsletter or purchasing a product. 

Once the prospect is this far in the process, chances are, you’ve got a new lead to follow up with. 

Why is lead generation important? 

Lead generation is important because it’s a crucial part of the conversion process (in other words, converting prospects to actual clients). Without lead generation, businesses can plateau or even fail. This process helps companies grow, both in terms of overall revenue and in terms of client base. 

Lead generation vs. lead conversion

Both lead generation and lead conversion are closely tied and have overlap, so there’s often confusion between the two terms. Whereas lead generation hones in on the actual process behind attracting prospects, lead conversion focuses on nurturing leads and turning them into customers. 

7 Most Effective Strategies for Lead Generation

As mentioned above, there are tons of ways sales teams can generate leads, be it through social media, email marketing, or in-person networking events (among others). Here are the top seven most effective strategies when it comes to generating leads.

1. Social media marketing

Although it wasn’t as much of a factor 20 years ago, today, social media marketing is essential for lead generation. It starts with teams pinpointing who their target audience is — AKA, who they want to market their services or products to. That way, companies can find out which social media platforms their target audience is most active on. For example, if your target audience skews older, then you’ll want to make sure your content is shared on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. However, if you have a younger, Gen Z audience, you might want to focus on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. 

When it comes to social media marketing, ensuring your content is engaging is a must. 

It needs to be engaging to your particular audience, too. Make sure the social media posts you create will resonate with your brand’s demographic. You can also use paid ads to advertise to your ideal customers better. 

One thing some brands forget about when it comes to social media marketing is engaging with their audience. Contrary to popular belief, it’s OK to engage with followers by responding to direct messages and comments. Just like with in-person networking situations, engaging helps build rapport and relationships, on top of general customer discovery.

2. Email marketing

Email marketing is another good lead generation strategy that focuses on generating prospects through email. Brands new to email marketing should first create an email list of available email addresses from their site visitors or from their social media accounts. 

From there, you can further break down the email list based on factors like common interests, demographics, or user behavior. Once you have these segments, companies can streamline and optimize their marketing by making personalized email campaigns. These might target different subgroups within your audience to best reach your ideal customer. Just don’t forget to track the performance of these email campaigns by assessing the click-through rates, open rates, and most importantly, conversion rates. 

3. Content marketing

One of the most powerful ways companies can attract leads is through content marketing. In a nutshell, this involves making high-quality content for your target audience. Brands that have already identified their ideal customer profile (ICP) can tailor their content directly to that group for best results. 

This also includes optimizing that content for search engines (more on that below) to best improve visibility for potential customers. 

However, content marketing doesn’t just stop with content creation that’s search engine optimized. Teams also need to know exactly how to share their content so it reaches their target audience. For many brands, that means promoting their in-house content on their social media channels. 

4. Networking and events

An “old-fashioned” method of lead generation involves attending in-person events and networking with relevant people. Brands can better connect with prospects and potential partners in environments like trade shows or conferences. 

If your team is having trouble finding worthy industry events to attend, try joining associations within the industry. This can help your reps network with folks who work in or are otherwise involved in your industry. 

Don’t be afraid to host your own networking events, either. Companies should explore options like workshops, seminars, or webinars to generate leads.  

5. Search engine optimization (SEO)

Similarly to social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) was a huge consideration a few decades ago, but today, it’s a necessary part of lead generation. The field of SEO encompasses many factors that help your target audience find your content. There are tons of apps and tools that can help brands do this, but one of the easiest ways to start digging into SEO is through keyword research. 

Start by pinpointing keywords that are relevant to your target audience. For example, if you’re a company that sells toothpaste, you might find that keywords and keyword phrases like “whitening toothpaste,” “fluoride-free toothpaste,” “natural toothpaste,” and “toothpaste for sensitive teeth” are areas in which you’d want targeted content for. 

There’s also on-page and off-page optimization. With the former, companies should focus on optimizing the content on their website, including its overall structure and readability, and its metadata for search engines. Off-page SEO focuses mainly on building backlinks to your website that are high-quality. Both on-page and off-page SEO can help brands improve their lead generation. 

6. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising

As alluded to above, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is an aspect of social media marketing that’s often overlooked. PPC advertising involves using targeted ads to attract your ideal customer on relevant social media platforms. For example, Facebook ads and Google ads are both commonly leveraged for PPC advertising. 

Just like with email marketing, make sure to track the performance of your PPC campaigns. This can help you find out what works and what doesn’t, making it easier to adjust the campaign to be more successful for lead generation. 

7. Public relations (PR) strategy

Having a good public relations (PR) team on your side can make a significant difference when it comes to lead generation success. PR teams are experts in knowing how to leverage your goods or services when it comes to your audience. 

Some of the PR strategies that can help companies generate more leads include building relationships with media sources, like news orgs, bloggers, or social media influencers. Your PR team can then pitch your product or service to various media outlets to attract potential prospects to your brand. 

How Yoodli Can Prep Teams for Lead Generation

No matter the industry, lead generation is dependent on solid communication skills. If your sales reps need a little extra support, there’s no better option than Yoodli. Yoodli is an AI sales coach featuring realistic roleplays on an intuitive platform that sales teams can leverage for safe, risk-free practice. Well-known companies — names like Korn Ferry, Dale Carnegie, and Google — have all leveraged Yoodli to increase seller attainment and decrease ramp.

But Yoodli goes way beyond sales roleplays. It uses powerful sales coaching driven by AI to highlight specific areas in which reps need to improve. Reps will practice in common sales environments, such as cold calls or customer discovery calls, and Yoodli will assess their performance and provide relevant, actionable feedback. That way, any sales rep can practice whatever skills or methodologies they’d like to work on for lead generation without the risk of losing a deal or a prospect. 

Reps will engage in human-like conversation during these sales simulations. Yoodli assumes customer persona roles to provide lifelike back-and-forth conversation to closely resemble what reps will face during lead generation. 

Yoodli also provides customization capabilities for admin. Brands can adjust Yoodli to make it their own based on their company’s specific methodology. In doing so, businesses can use Yoodli for their specific needs, be it pitch coaching or manager training and beyond. Plus, with SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and more, Yoodli provides enterprise-grade privacy.

With Google Cloud’s recent case study, Yoodli helped the brand train and certify more than 15,000 sales reps. As a result, Google expanded its use of Yoodli to other enablement programs as well.

Find out how you can get started with Yoodli for free at https://yoodli.ai/.

Lead Generation Tips by Industry

Although the above lead generation strategies are generally applicable to any industry, there are also some industry-specific tips that could put you ahead of the competition in terms of attracting prospects. Here are a few best practices by industry that can elevate your strategy. 

Real estate lead generation

In terms of real estate lead generation, there are plenty of ways real estate agents go about successfully attracting leads. In addition to strategies like social media marketing and content marketing, agents will often use online listings for lead generation. This can help them maximize visibility on real estate platforms that are most popular, like Realtor.com, Zillow, or Trulia, for example. 

Other methods for real estate lead generation include networking via industry events and, of course, leveraging open houses to highlight properties and build rapport with potential customers. 

B2B lead generation

With B2B lead generation, the top strategies are usually content marketing, social media marketing, and traditional networking. Those are all significant ways folks working in B2B companies attract new prospects and leads. 

Go-to-market teams work together to leverage different means of generating new potential customers to boost business success and revenue growth.

Lead generation in healthcare

Although many people don’t think about it, healthcare systems also rely on lead generation to attract potential clients. For example, health organizations use content marketing and social media marketing to create informational content on relevant health subjects to target specific demographics or patients. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, many organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) used infographics on social media to spread awareness about COVID and its symptoms. This helps their relevant audience — people sick with COVID — recognize their symptoms and know when to get help.

Healthcare systems also use strategies like SEO, PR teams, and partnerships with other healthcare providers to boost their services. 

Ways to Measure Lead Generation Success

It’s important for companies of all shapes and sizes to know how to measure lead generation success. That’s because teams can tweak and adjust their methods to better attract leads going forward. 

Here are just a few ways teams can start measuring their lead generation success. 

Using return on investment (ROI)

One of the best ways to measure this success is by calculating the return on investment (ROI). Brands can start by figuring out what costs are associated with their specific lead generation methods. For example, this could include things like paid advertisement costs, sales team salaries, and other marketing expenses. Then, once they’ve calculated the amount of revenue made thanks to the leads that converted to clients, brands can use the ROI formula to determine how fruitful their lead generation efforts were. 

Leveraging key performance indicators (KPIs)

There are plenty of key performance indicators (KPIs) that can help companies figure out how successful their lead generation strategies are. Some of the most helpful KPIs worth exploring include indicators like: 

• Lead quality
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
• Lead volume
• Conversion rate
• Customer lifetime value (CLTV)

The Bottom Line 

No matter what industry you work in, lead generation is an essential part of business success. Knowing how to generate quality leads is a valuable skill, and Yoodli can help you and your team perfect that skill through intelligent, AI-driven roleplay and feedback. 

Sources

• HubSpot: “Lead Generation: A Beginner’s Guide to Generating Business Leads the Inbound Way,” “How to Generate and Close More Leads With Email Marketing.”
• Leadfeeder: “Lead Generation: The 2024 Beginner’s Guide + Tips.”
• SproutSocial: “Social media demographics to inform your 2024 strategy.”
• National Association of REALTORS®: “8 Invaluable Lead Generation Ideas for Agents and Brokers.”
• Cognism: “What is B2B Lead Generation?”