If you are here, most likely you asked the search engines how to lead generation. I have good news for you: you are in the right place. In this article I will tell you what lead generation means and I will explain how to implement an effective strategy to acquire new customers online. We will find out together why lead generation is fundamental for your marketing plan and we will understand why, after generating leads, it is very important to cultivate your contacts if you want to turn them into customers and in the best of cases into your brand ambassadors. Finally, we will talk about lead generation on Facebook, that is, the acquisition of new contacts on the most crowded social network in the world.
I’d like to wish you a good read. Find out how to do lead generation!
What does lead generation mean?
Before understanding how to do lead generation, let's focus on the meaning of the words: to generate means to produce, for Lead instead we mean a potentially interested contact. Lead generation therefore means acquiring potentially interested leads, that is, new users who are likely to turn into customers.
Well, so what is lead generation? It is the set of marketing actions that allow a company to acquire new contacts and attract people who are really interested in its products or services.
To acquire new customers through traditional marketing, word of mouth and advertising were relied on outside of corporate channels; today digital marketing allows companies to work in a completely different way, guiding users inside the funnel instead of interrupting their daily activities.
You are here to find out how to lead generation and you are wondering how to set up an effective lead generation campaign. Surely you have already left your personal data, for example your email address, to obtain information on a service or product offered by a company. Here, filling out the contact form on a website or on social networks is the most classic example of a lead collection action.
Why is lead generation essential for your marketing strategy?
You just answered the question "how to make lead generation?", Then you started a lead acquisition campaign with a Squeeze page, a page dedicated to the acquisition of new contacts where you give a resource to users or offer them a discount in return of their data. Only motivated users will stop to fill out the form and leave you email and phone number: these contacts are potential customers - or if you prefer very interested users. In addition to guaranteeing them a content or an offer of value that is worth their data, you will have to cultivate them so that they become customers of your brand. I will explain later why it is important to nourish your contacts well. Now I want to give you 4 good reasons for lead generation.
With lead generation you can:
1) build your target contacts database to make your product or service known;
2) study your typical client and work on his desires to communicate effectively with him;
3) set the budget according to the preferences and needs of potential customers;
4) convert much more easily.
Inbound marketing and lead generation
Today users are subjected to an information overload and do not like to be interrupted by invasive advertising therefore, if you are wondering how to do lead generation, do not forget about this factor. The era of traditional marketing has passed to make way for inbound marketing, that is, the set of strategies that allow companies to attract customers with valuable content.
Lead generation is the inbound marketing strategy that allows you to collect interested leads and gives you the privilege of accompanying these 'hot' contacts, or hot leads, within the sales funnel to lead them to conversion through valuable content that you will need to produce according to the needs of each person who came into contact with you.
Inbound marketing and lead generation meet the same needs: attracting traffic, converting traffic into leads, transforming leads into customers, retaining them but above all putting people at the center of their strategy.
How to make lead generation: create your lead magnet
If you are thinking about how to do lead generation effectively, choose the lead magnet well. I tell you something about the calamity that will attract your future customers!
- What is a lead magnet?
It is the magnet for lead generation, that is, a content or a benefit that attracts the attention of your target and pushes users to leave you the contact to receive it.
- What are its characteristics?
It is free, it is useful, it is original and, of course, it must request a contact.
- How is it created?
Your long-term goal is to acquire new customers, therefore, before choosing the lead magnet for lead collection, you should study the target audience and use something that meets your target's wishes. Don't forget to study the competition if you want to give your potential customers a truly special resource for them! You can decide to use multiple lead magnets for your lead collection but remember that they must always respond to requests from the public.
- Examples
E-books, infographics, webinars, podcasts, manuals, free consultations, discounts and special offers are just a few examples of lead magnets.
Lead nurturing: grow your prospects!
We have understood how to do lead generation, that is, how to collect leads in targets with the aim of transforming them into customers, and we know what it is and how to choose a lead magnet.
But lead generation is only the first step of the lead management process which, in summary, includes two other phases:
- Lead qualification: after the lead acquisition, the company classifies the contacts concerned - prospects, in English - to focus on them; each contact will have a score, score, and a level, grade, which determines its nature in reference to the profile of the typical customer of the company;
- 2) Lead nurturing: it is the phase in which the company can acquire new customers among its prospects. Lead nurturing is the moment, or rather the crucial period during which the company "feeds" the contacts most likely to buy. People who left their data in exchange for a resource or offer, expected to receive a quality 'gift'. In the same way, prospects, that is, your valuable contacts, will be all the more likely to become your customers the more you continue to treat them well. You can lead nurturing with direct marketing campaigns in which you offer personalized offers to the prospect to lead him to purchase or free resources that will make him better know your business so that he can trust you. To lead nurturing you can help yourself with marketing automation tools, for example SalesManago, the most widely used marketing automation software in Europe.
In short, if you want to find new customers online, you must not abandon them to their fate once they have left their data!
How to do lead generation on Facebook
Lead Ads are advertisements designed to collect leads directly on Facebook. Lead generation is increasingly important for business, for this reason the most generalist and crowded social network in the world offers big brands and small businesses the opportunity to search for potential customers directly on its platform.
Why should you launch a contact acquisition campaign on Facebook? Well, because many people surf the net and use Facebook exclusively from smartphones and fewer and fewer users would leave Facebook to fill out the form of a landing page. Thanks to Facebook Lead Ads, you can acquire contacts much more easily because you can have your references directly on Facebook with the forms that are automatically filled in by drawing on the personal info on the profiles of those who click on the advert. Once you have collected the contacts, you will focus on them for lead nurturing and gather more information on the tastes and needs of your audience.
Those who study how to do lead generation without considering social networks - lead ads also exist on LinkedIn, for example - preclude the opportunity to acquire new potential customers who would otherwise not be aware of their business.
Conclusions
I hope my article has been a good answer to the question "how to make lead generation?". We saw what lead generation means and why it is so important for your marketing strategy, I presented you with the lead magnet, that is, the magnet that attracts your potential customers, then we reflected on the usefulness of lead generation campaigns on Facebook. Remember: there is no lead generation without a long-term perspective so, after the lead collection, always pamper your contacts to make them become ambassadors of your brand.
Have you already launched campaigns for lead acquisition? Tell us about it in the comments!
