How to generate solid leads through digital marketing

Generating leads is, for many businesses, the sole reason for their digital marketing efforts. The business needs to make sales, and for that it needs more people to whom it can sell. That means getting your product or service in front of fresh eyes, or enticing old, unfulfilled leads that once showed interest.

If your profits rely heavily on the work of salespeople bringing in new business, then lead generation in digital marketing is going to be at the top of your priorities when looking for ways to grow the business.

What is lead generation?

To generate a lead is to find a potential customer. In essence, it’s as simple as that: finding more people to sell to, whether it’s from a brief chat at an exhibition or a message showing keen interest that arrives in your agency inbox out of the blue.

Digital marketing seeks to generate leads at any point in a person’s journey through a business. It could be that your digital marketing introduces customers to the business at their earliest interactions, or it could be that persistent digital marketing finally convinces somebody to make a purchase after months of indecision.

How to generate leads for business

Lead generation in digital marketing is somewhat of an art. It happens through a mixture of good timing, well-chosen technique, and a planned, stratified approach that builds its way up to a lead conversion.

Generating leads starts by identifying potential business prospects. Exhibitions and shows are an easy starting point for many businesses, as they bring people of shared interests together and put your audience at your feet. If you’re a business working in metal fabrication, then attending a metalworking industry trade show is a no-brainer.

At these in-person events (though virtual shows have become more popular in recent years, thanks in no small part to COVID) your salespeople are in the prime position to act on visitor interest, hand out business cards, and hopefully capture names, phone numbers, and email addresses.

Digital marketing can help to convert these leads, but where does lead generation in digital marketing come into the business’s overall lead generation efforts?

Digital marketing is able to capture the interest of your invisible prospects. Not everybody who will come to be an eventual customer will make their presence known, and though AI tools can now reveal a lot about the digital footfall of your adverts, you can never be completely sure who has interacted with your marketing.

Digital marketing gets your business’s name out there in people’s emails, their phones, and on their social feeds, informed by data-driven approaches that target people in the right geographical locations and business areas.

For more technical sectors, it’s common to exchange whitepaper and e-book downloads for contact details and business names. This gives you a solid chance to impress a potential lead while imparting value to them through information and education.

This also cuts out some of the work of your salesforce, who don’t need to introduce your business and products or services from scratch. Thanks to your digital marketing efforts, your new customers will already come familiar with what you do and, hopefully, interested in more information, or even ready to make a purchase.

How do I generate more leads?

More people finding your business means more leads. In order to be found more easily online, you need to improve your SEO so that your name will place higher on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), where it enjoys a much higher chance to be seen and clicked.

It also cannot be overstated just how effective word-of-mouth and recommendations are to a business’s success, and delighting customers in the hopes of gaining glowing feedback is perfect for generating leads, particularly when worked into adverts, emails, and other digital marketing efforts.

Can I only generate leads with outbound marketing?

Not at all. Both outbound and inbound marketing can generate leads.

While outbound marketing is effective at capturing strangers to your business, inbound marketing has just as much chance of generating leads.

People coming to your website or social media pages are already taking enough of an interest to learn more about you, so it’s the prime opportunity to guide them to a well-written introduction or a piece of content that perfectly shows off the virtues of your business.

Generating leads through digital marketing

Our team of experts at Aqueous Digital can overhaul your lead generation in digital marketing and help you see renewed returns. We’re perfectly placed to refine your SEO in Liverpool, sales in Manchester, and help you take control of your marketing.

To find out more about our services, contact us today.