What Lead Generation looks like in 2019!

This article is more like an updated guide to lead generation and what it really looks like in the year 2019. Lately, there has been a lot of buzz around B2B lead generation given that a lot more people are now using LinkedIn ads and are finding pretty good results when it comes to generating B2B leads from LinkedIn. 

But lead generation as such is not just about running LinkedIn lead ads and has a lot more going to it. 

When you look at lead generation from a more holistic approach, it is divided into two main categories - Inbound and Outbound.

Inbound Lead Generation - when we see the process where you do not have to work again and again to generate leads for your business and what you do is you create these channels that work for you in the sense that these keep pumping in qualified leads month after month. 

Your work in this scenario is to first capture the leads, score them and manage them.

The first leg of this inbound process is to create these lead generation channels and then make sure to not lose the lead once it lands on what is called as a lead generation landing page.

Creating a lead generation channel: This process involves creating content around topics and keywords indicating the top of the funnel buyer behavior. The idea is to get in front of your targeted audience by talking about the solution to the problem that they are facing in general. 

Here you won't be selling your product or service, you would be just talking about their problem and the idea is to make your target audience know about your brand and you in general.

For a lot of your customers, this might be their first interaction with your brand and you do not want to be selling them in the first go.

Now, this content can be created on a number of platforms based on where your audience hangs out. Major platforms include Youtube, Quora, Linkedin, Guest blog posts, etc.

While you are creating this problem-solving content for your audience you make sure that you are including a link to your website or to a specific landing page that gives them a customized experience.

Now once the lead has landed on the landing page, you make sure to minimize the chances of it leaving from this page. This can be done by implementing landing page conversion best practices along with setting up a number of elements that overall help the conversion. These include a live chatbot (a plethora of choices - intercom, drift, tawk.to, chatfuel, etc.), exit-intent popups with a lead magnet and a basic but working lead gen form.

While you are making this lead magnet material/content, make sure that you are providing value in that content. It then gives the user enough reason to give his or her email address in return for the ebook or pdf that you are giving out as a lead magnet. If there isn’t any value in the pdf/ebook, do not expect the prospect would be warmed up enough to buy from you.  

This could also be done in somewhere more down the funnel where you would take the person to a landing page where you are not providing lead magnet but are straight forward asking for the person to submit his or her contact details. 

This is done where the customer has had more than one instance of interaction with your brand and now has a good amount of idea of your product or service and is way down in the buyers' funnel. The other elements of a high converting landing page such as live chatbot, the exit-intent popup still help here.

This is what inbound lead generation looks like in a nutshell. Driving different audiences to relevant landing pages based on where they are in the customers' journey and providing the value in exchange for their contact details. 

Once you have their contact details you are now closer to selling to them than ever. The leads generated through such channels are highly qualified, given they have had multiple interactions with your brand and are more susceptible to buying from you. 

Here is when your sales team jumps into the action and do their magic. 

Now let's talk about the Outbound process of lead generation 

Outbound lead generation is essentially the process of you going out and pitching to your customers using multiple channels. The Outbound process has been around for a very long time and has been used by the sales team of companies of all sizes. Given the sales and marketing roles have been overlapping, the outbound process has come a long way than just cold calling.

Popular methods of the outbound lead generation include running Facebook lead ads, Linkedin lead generation campaigns, PPC Campaigns, Cold Email drip campaigns and cold calling.

When you are running Facebook lead ads or LinkedIn lead generation campaigns for that matter, there is a lot of stuff that you should be good at for these campaigns to work since you are essentially selling to the customers either during their first interaction with brand or even if they know about you they must be willing to buy from you at the moment they see your ad in their feeds.

This requires you to be extremely good at writing persuasive copy that pushes your customers towards impulsively putting in there credentials in return for the lead magnet that you are giving in the ad. Also, you should be good with graphics, your ad graphic should stand out in the feed and really catch the users' attention. 

When it comes to cold email this is one channel that works wonders when done properly. If you are sending out cold emails in bulk and are not personalizing them, please do not expect you have any amount of results from your cold email campaigns.

There are a number of great cold email tools in the market. I would personally suggest you go with either Mailshake or Yesware.

Create a strategy of a 3 or 4 drip campaign and make sure they are personalized. Send fewer emails but more personalized ones. The results you will get will make you fall in love with cold email.

Have a clear goal as to what do you want the person to do after reading your email. Pitch them to get on the call and once they say yes have your sales team ready to be in sync with the whole lead generation process.

This essentially is what everybody has been doing in 2019 in terms of lead generation and this is what has been working for a lot of us in this space. 

I hope this article adds value to your work.

Hit me up in the comment section and let's discuss.