How to Generate Leads Online for Your Business: A Quick Guide

Selling is easy when people show interest in your products or services. And those who show interest will be your leads. The more leads you have, the better it will serve your business. However, knowing how to generate leads online for your business is one thing and its successful implementation is another. It involves a complete understanding of your target audience, their needs, behavior, and preferences. 

Knowing the channel and marketing preferences of your customers is equally important for generating leads. When you know how to generate leads online, you understand the art of finding interested prospects and converting them into paying customers.

Similarly, you also need to understand how customers often research products or services online before purchasing. They also compare competitor’s offers and then make the decision. A knowledge of all this can help you capture online traffic and convert it into actionable leads. This is how you can grow your business. 

In this blog, we will explore online lead generation, understand different types of leads, and learn the techniques to generate leads for your business. 

Before moving further, let’s first get started with the definition of what is online lead generation.   

What is Online Lead Generation?

Online lead generation is the strategic approach or process of attracting potential customers to your business through different channels. Some of the popular digital channels to generate leads include search engines, online ads, websites, social media platforms, and email.  

The goal of lead generation is – 

• To identify prospects ( whether individuals or businesses) that show interest in your products or services 
• To gather their contact information in exchange for some value ( such as a discount, trial, or a free resource ) 

Once the leads are acquired, the next step is to nurture them by offering value. You can provide value in different ways, including through relevant content and personalized offers. When nurturing leads, make sure your offers are tailored to the specific needs and preferences of those who have shown interest. 

The purpose of nurturing leads is to – 

• Guide them through the sales funnel 
• Build relationships 
• Convert them into paying customers 

Once you have acquired leads, you can nurture them by providing relevant content, personalized communications, and offers tailored to their needs and preferences. The ultimate aim is to guide these leads through the sales funnel, building relationships with them and eventually converting them into paying customers.

Inbound Lead Generation Vs Outbound Lead Generation 

When it comes to acquiring leads, there are two distinct approaches – inbound and outbound. Both have their merits and uniqueness. Their effectiveness will depend on your business goals, your target audience, and your industry types.  

Let’s look at how inbound lead generation is different from outbound lead generation – 

Inbound Lead Generation

An inbound lead generation is an approach that relies on the concept of “pull marketing” where the focus is to draw customers naturally to the business. In this form of lead generation, potential customers are attracted by creating value-driven content and experiences specific to their needs and interests.  

Key Features

• Creating various forms and types of content to educate and inform your target audience 
• Optimizing your content for search engines to attract organic traffic
• Using social platforms to boost engagement and visibility of your brand and offers 
• Incentivizing people in exchange for contact information  

Outbound Lead Generation 

An outbound lead generation is an approach that is also referred to as “push marketing”. In this form of lead generation, the focus is to adopt proactive outreach efforts and reach out to potential customers directly. 

Key Features 

• Cold calling, cold emailing, and mass emailing to prospects ( whether or not they have shown interest in your product or services )
• Using direct advertising or social media advertising to reach a mass audience 

Why is Lead Generation Online Important?

Lead generation is important for businesses because it helps reach a wider audience. When efforts are made to generate leads, businesses get more opportunities to engage with potential customers.  

Following are the reasons that show why lead generation online is important – 

• Expanding Customer Base – The Internet makes it easy for businesses to attract leads from various locations. So, a business can expect to go beyond its local area and expand its customer base. 
• Growing Business in a Cost-Effective Manner – Online methods to generate leads don’t cost much and they are quite cheap compared to traditional methods. So, a business can use these methods to achieve growth without spending big.   
• A Tool for Targeted Marketing – Businesses can rely on the web to target audiences with specific demographics, behaviors, and interests. They can also leverage various tools in tailoring marketing messages to the audience’s specific needs. 
• Support of Data Analytics –  Platforms for lead generation provide useful data and analytics that can be used for tracking campaign performance in real time. It’s also possible to monitor key metrics and optimize lead generation strategies for improved results. 
• Competitive Advantage – Implementing lead generation strategies ensures a strong online presence for businesses. This is how a business can gain a competitive edge and grow its revenue. 

Types of Online Leads 

Online leads can come in different flavors. Each may require different strategies for conversion. Your business may also need more effort to acquire and nurture leads, depending on the behaviors of the target audience. 

Let’s look at different types of online leads – 

• Cold Leads – These leads belong to the top of the funnel category. They may have not engaged with your business yet but fit your customer profile. 
• Warm Leads – These leads belong to the middle of the funnel category. They may not have shown any interest in buying from you but they know your business and all that you offer. 
• Hot Leads –  These leads belong to the bottom of the funnel category. They are called hot leads because they have shown a strong interest in your offers. 
• Information Qualified Leads (IQLs) – These leads belong to the top of the funnel category. They are the leads that have a problem or a question and you can help them through informational content. 
• Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) – They belong to the middle of the funnel category as they engage with your marketing materials. This means such leads are aware of your brand. 
• Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) – These leads belong to the middle of the funnel category. With such leads, your business has already engaged and provided value through your product but has not monetized them yet. 
• Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) – They belong to the bottom of the funnel category and have actively shown interest in your offers.  

Online Lead Generation Process 

Generating leads online is a complex process involving many steps and various tactics. A business that adopts a strategic approach can effectively generate leads online. 

Let’s look at the entire online lead generation process – 

• Target Audience Identification – The first step is the identification of the target audience, their needs, interests, and pain points.  
• Value Creation – The next step is the creation of value or compelling offerings to incentivize potential customers to exchange their contact information.  
• Lead Magnet Development –  A lead magnet is a value-added piece of content provided to leads for their contact information. Ebooks are one of the top examples of a lead magnet. 
• Opt-In Forms Placement – These forms are placed on the website, blog posts, or landing pages to capture basic content information.  
• Traffic Generation – In the next step, the business needs to drive traffic to its website or landing pages through the channels of choice, be it paid ads, organic efforts, etc. 
• Engagement – The next step is to engage with the visitors who reach the website, blog posts, or landing page through persuasive content.  
• Conversion – Clear calls-to-action (CTAs) buttons are strategically placed on the website or landing pages so that visitors can take the desired action and get converted.  
• Lead Management – The next step is to manage and track leads throughout the sales funnel. 
• Lead Nurturing – Once leads are captured, it’s time to engage with them through personalized content or emails till their conversion. 

How Do I Get Leads For My Business Using The Website? 

For most customers, the website is often the first point of contact with a business. This makes websites great tools for generating quality leads for your business. If you know how to use your website strategically and use the right marketing tactics, you may see tons of leads for the business. 

Let’s look at how you can get leads for your business through the website –  

1. Optimize Your Website

When a website is properly optimized, it not only functions well but also attracts more visitors. Keeping the website user-friendly and visually appealing is important for optimization. Make sure the site is easy to navigate and it works well across mobile devices. 

2. Add Quality Content on Your Website  

When people visit a website, they may have a question or doubt and want a solution. Adding high-quality content to the website is essential for educating, informing, and sometimes entertaining the visitors. Some of the popular forms of content you can add to the website include blog posts, ebooks, videos, infographics, etc. 

3. Use SEO Tactics  

The more your website is visible to visitors, the more it will gain organic traffic. Higher search engine rankings are essential for lead generation. This is why you should use SEO tactics, and combine the best practices of on-page and off-page optimization for traffic.  

4. Design Landing Pages for Specific Products or Services  

Make sure you get landing pages created for specific products or services. You can also create such pages for special offers. The idea behind using landing pages is to provide clear information and use CTAs to get desired actions from visitors. 

5. Offer Free Downloads  

You should consider offering free downloads to visitors for their contact information, for subscribing to your mail, or for filing out a form. These free downloads could be anything such as ebooks, how-to guides, templates, etc. 

6. Place Pop-Ups, Slide-Ins, Social Proofs and CTAs 

If you want to capture visitors’ attention, you need to strategically use pop-ups, slide-ins, social proofs, and CTAs on your website. Make sure none of them feel intrusive or compromise the user experience.

How to Get More Leads for Your Business: 6 Proven Techniques 

Getting more leads for your business is easy when you know the right approaches and methods. There are various ways in which your business can get more leads online and achieve growth. 

Here are 6 proven techniques to get more online business leads – 

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Optimizing your website for search engines is one of the best ways to get more leads online. When the website is optimized, its visibility in SERPs remains higher, resulting in more eyeballs for the business. More so, SEO is an excellent method to drive organic traffic to your website and meet customer needs for information. 

Pro Tips 

• Add quality content and use relevant keywords and meta tags throughout the website 
• Regularly add blog posts and articles on your website to provide information to users and boost engagement
• Get backlinks from trusted sites to improve your website’s domain authority 

2. Content Marketing

Content is king when it comes to generating leads. You can use the content strategically to guide users through the different stages of the sales funnel. There are different content forms that you can use according to the funnel stage and user needs. You can market your business using the power of content. This will create impact and boost engagement through content marketing insights.  

Pro Tips 

• Create engaging content such as blog posts, articles, videos, and infographics to cater to your audience’s needs
• Share your content across channels and platforms, including social media to drive traffic and build leads
• Develop high-quality, well-researched, and in-depth content and use them as lead magnets for exchange with visitors 

3. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

Organic traffic takes time. It also involves consistent work over time. So, results often happen late. However, if you want immediate results, paid traffic should be your digital marketing lead generation method. You can use the pay-per-click ad model of search engines or social platforms and get quick traffic to your website. 

Pro Tips

• Create, test, and launch targeted PPC campaigns on the platform of your choice, either on Google, Facebook, or Twitter 
• Make the campaigns tailored based on the demographics, behavior, and interests of your target audience  
• Drive more clicks and conversions using compelling ad copies with clear CTAs  
• Regularly monitor and track your paid campaigns and optimize their performance based on the metrics relevant to your business   

4. Social Media Marketing 

The number of social media users is exploding like anything. Some platforms have long crossed the 1 billion user-base mark while others are also not far behind. This is why brands realize the value of being present across social platforms, leveraging social media marketing, and reaching the target audience. Some of the popular social networks where your business can find quality leads include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. 

Pro Tips 

• Devise a channel-specific strategy and share engaging content across channels 
• Regularly interact with your followers and boost engagement through regular discussions 
• Leverage social media ads to target specific audience  

5. Email Marketing

Emails are powerful and effective tools for lead generation and a lot of businesses employ them with great effect. You can use emails to deliver targeted and personalized messages. You can also reach your audiences directly and drive engagement. Using email marketing, you can drive conversions and make your business grow. 

Pro Tips 

• Grow an email list of interested customers 
• Segment your audiences or email list based on purchase history, demographics, and other parameters 
• Run targeted email campaigns and share updates, promotions, or content 

6. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Having a website or running marketing campaigns is not enough for lead generation if you don’t optimize your conversion rates. The key is to improve the effectiveness of your website or campaigns so that more visitors take the desired action.  

Pro Tips 

• Identify areas of improvement for your website or marketing campaigns 
• Analyze all the key aspects of your website, including its user experience and navigation flow 
• Focus on reducing friction in the lead-generation process of your business 
• Test your form fields, images, and headlines, and use tools like A/B testing 

Best Way to Generate Leads Offline  

What next when you have already used more ways to generate leads online? Well, online is not the only medium to generate leads. Businesses can also leverage various offline methods as well and build leads. 

Let’s look at some of the ways to generate leads offline – 

Attend Events and Trade Shows 

Meeting potential clients face-to-face is one of the best ways to generate leads offline. To do that, you can attend industry-specific events and trade shows. You can network there, interact with potential customers, and exchange your business cards. 

Host Seminars or Workshops 

Hosting workshops or seminars is another useful way to generate leads offline. In this way, you can share your industry expertise and knowledge with the target audience. More importantly, you can provide insights into the problems of those attending the workshops. You can also gather contact information and start direct mail campaigns over time. 

Run Referral Programs

Referral programs have always been a powerful method to generate leads offline. You can run a well-executed referral program to reward your existing customers. This reward can encourage them to bring new leads, or you can reward them for bringing new leads to your business.  

Use Local Ads 

Reaching potential clients in your area is key to building on your leads. To achieve that goal, you can consider investing in local ads. You can place such ads in newspapers, billboards, or magazines. If budget is not an issue, you can also use radio ads.  

Use Cold Calling 

Cold calling continues to be an effective technique to directly engage with your potential customers. This method is beneficial as you can introduce your products or services quickly and solve any customer issues. It will also help you reach out to people who may not have shown prior interest in your offer. 

Speak at Industry-Specific Events

Speaking engagements have been quite effective when it comes to building trust and credibility with your target audience. When you speak at industry events and conferences, it helps you share your expertise and insights with the audience.    

Interesting Lead Generation Statistics  

There are various ways to generate quality leads for your business. The key is to find the right one that matches your business goals and industry. You can also learn from some interesting stats on lead generation and get good ideas. 

Let’s look at some key stats about online lead generation – 

• 61% of marketers consider lead generation as the most challenging task. ( Source – StartupBonsai.com ) 
• 53% of marketers spend around half of their marketing budget on generating leads. ( Source – RulerAnalytics.Com ) 
• Around 7 out of ten marketers say social media marketing has helped them generate more leads (Social Media Examiner) 
• 60% of marketers believe inbound marketing is the best way to generate high-quality leads. ( Salesmate.io) 

Boost Engagement and Drive Leads With REVE Chat

Engagement is always at the core of generating leads online and offline. The more you engage, the better it will reflect in the number of leads you get. 

At REVE Chat, we understand the huge value that engagement can bring to your business and also offer a variety of tools for engagement. 

Your business can use our AI-powered chatbot to offer quick replies to customers, automate tasks, and streamline interactions. 

We also have visual engagement tools for help such as video chat software and co-browsing software.

Our live chat software can be added to the chatbot to offer hybrid support and boost the levels of engagement with your audience. 

Final Thoughts 

Generating leads is not easy and it requires continuous effort over time. The key is to explore and leverage both online and offline channels and boost engagement with your target audience. 

With REVE Chat, you find the support of high-quality tools and engage with your audience better. 

You can sign up and check how our tools can add great value to your business in various aspects of sales, support, and marketing.