13 Lead Generation Strategies That Actually Work

Generally speaking, every business needs leads. Leads turn into customers, and customers bring profit. So, we could say that leads are essential to building a profitable business.

But how do you get these leads? Is there any secret to getting sales qualified leads (leads that are ready to buy) flowing consistently?

In this article, we’ll share a few tips and ideas that can make a positive difference in your lead generation game. You’ll find generating leads is not as difficult as it sounds.

What Is Lead Generation?

First of all, we must define what lead generation is.

This practice involves collecting names and contact information from consumers that are interested in your product or service. However, you can not just approach anyone and ask for their details. What’s in it for them? Which features does your product offer that will solve their problem?

So, you need to create content that explains how your product will help them, and make an irresistible offer. This is where lead generation comes in.

You don’t just need to have this content, you need to make sure the content is interesting enough to entice readers to  leave their contact information so you can reach out to them afterwards.

This, in a very basic way, is lead generation. But there are many ways to do it. We’ll explore a few strategies in the next section.

Lead Generation Strategies

Ask For Referrals

A great way to get new customers is to reach out to your power users and ask if they know anyone who would benefit from your product or service. Of course, make it clear that you love working with them.en

You can also offer an incentive for customers who refer your product to others, such as a discount, a free upgrade, or anything else that your target customers might be interested in. This will help you increase your user base without requiring a big investment.

Request Testimonials

Other than providing you with referrals, your customers can also write testimonials that explain how you helped them and why they recommend your product or service. Case studies are also a good idea but they take a bit more time and effort, not only on your side but the customer’s as well.

So, a testimonial is especially effective when placed in the home page, and, also, on the check out process. This will increase trust in your brand and avoid uncertainty.

Once again, you can offer an incentive to get a testimonial from a customer.

Offer Samples (Or Free Trials)

A great way to get people to talk about your product is by giving people a way to try it out with no strings attached. Users love to share a good experience with their friends, colleagues, and even family.

Plus, we all love good deals. Giving users a reason to talk about your product will increase word of mouth. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to create buzz around your brand and generate leads. If your value aligns well with the features you offer, users will urge you to take their money.

Offer A Gift With Each Purchase

Another way to create a great experience for customers is to offer something with every purchase. Primor, a beauty eCommerce store, always sends a small bag of gummy bears with each parcel. Do gummy bears have anything to do with beauty? Not really, but who doesn’t like something sweet?

This is the kind of gift we mean. It doesn’t have to be expensive, it just has to be a surprise. Gifts create an engaging experience for users and customers, that will for sure help spread the word about your brand.

Create A Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs are another great way to generate buzz and get you new leads.

A great example of a program like this is the mileage programs from many airlines. The fact that the more you travel, the better your perks are or the more you can travel for free. This introduces an aspect of gamification, which is great to share with those around us.

Your loyal customers will promote you more effectively than any advertising campaign would. After all, we trust our friends and family to give us good advice. This gets you new customers that want to be part of the program too, and that in turn gets even more people to buy from you.

Convertful has gamification widgets you can use in your website. Make sure you give them a try!

Contests & Giveaways

Creating a contest or a giveaway is a great way to introduce your products and services to new leads that have never heard of you before. It also creates an incentive for leads to become customers so they can participate in the contest.

When it comes to what to offer, we recommend offering one of your products, a lifetime deal (when you buy a subscription but only pay once for access) or maybe a large discount in the subscription plan.

There are giveaways that offer products that are highly desired, like a high-end phone. This will attract a lot of participants, including those that are not interested in your product or service. That defeats the purpose of a contest or giveaway, which is obviously to get more leads for your sales team. By offering your own product, you make sure the participants are interested in what you have to offer.

Create A Great Customer Support Experience

For a customer, calling or messaging customer support is not a good experience. To begin with, you have an issue that you can’t solve by yourself – and, on the other hand, this issue might be costing you money (especially if it’s a B2B product).

Now that you’ve put yourself in the shoes of the customer that reaches out for support, you surely understand you need to make this experience as positive as possible.

Great customer care involves responding quickly, taking ownership of the issue, and doing the best to make sure the customer is happy. Have a personalized approach, and make an actual human reach out for their opinion. Automated surveys are not bad, but they don’t exactly show you care. Treat your customers as people, and not just another number.

Host A Webinar

Another way of getting leads is to host webinars. It doesn’t have to necessarily be something very complicated: as an example, show participants how to solve a common issue using your product or service.

People are interested in learning. A webinar will give them that opportunity to learn and give you the contacts of people who are interested in your product or service. A webinar can also be shared between colleagues from the same industry, which increases its potential for word of mouth.

You’ll find sharing your knowledge is a very effective tactic to find leads. Even if they don’t convert with the first webinar, you can share some interesting content on your mailing list that will make them more likely to buy from you.

Make A Donation

If done sincerely, a donation for a cause you stand for is a great way to get the ball rolling for some leads.

More and more people are aware of social issues and causes. If you share a bit of your profit with a relevant cause, you’re showing interest in something else than just making money.

Of course, the cause you decide to back up should be related to your target audience, or resonate with them.

An example is donating to UNESCO, a promoter for world peace. It is in the best interests of everyone, and it shows commitment.

Offer Migration & Onboarding Assistance For Free

If your service requires data migration from another platform into yours, offering a migration for free might be a good idea.

Ideally, this is something your customer support team will be able to do easily. It’s something that doesn’t require a lot of investment, but is extremely invaluable for your new users.

After all, we’ve all been frustrated when trying to migrate to a new platform, or when the onboarding process is not clear, and sometimes both. If you offer an easier way in for customers, they’ll spread the word.

Offer Upgrades

A free upgrade is great to get you on top of mind. Imagine if you thought you were going to pay $50 a month for a service. However, the company upgraded you to a higher package, for the same price.

That is quite nice, isn’t it? Our previous example of the airline also works here. If you were traveling on economy and got bumped up to business class for free, you’d obviously be happy. This is the kind of experience you can offer to your customers.

Create Helpful Content

This is one of the foundations of lead generation as a whole. Your product solves a problem, but maybe your users aren’t aware of this.

So, your users have a problem and you have a solution. But your readers don’t know about your solution yet – maybe they don’t even know they have a problem. You need to develop a content strategy that not only explains your solution, but that also goes through the benefits of your services rather than features.

Your readers don’t care about your product features. They want to know how you can help them. Writing about that will increase awareness and show users that you are trustworthy and experienced. Therefore, it is expected your product will reflect that.

Use Customer Review Websites

Sites like Capterra and G2 offer readers unbiased information about products and services through customer reviews.

The great advantage of being on these websites is that users are much more likely to trust these reviews than paid advertising. There is no reason for a reviewing customer to say either bad things or good things about your product or service.

A great way to do this is offering an incentive for customers to leave a review, like a coupon or a gift card. This will not only get you more reviews (improving your score on the website), but it will also incite the reviewer to show your product in a positive light.

Wrapping Up

Now, you’ll find some of these strategies work for your business, but others don’t quite fit. That’s okay. Each business has its own rules, and you know your business better than anyone else. However, don’t feel tempted to discard everything that you wouldn’t do at a first glance. Maybe trying different things could help your lead generation process and your overall results.

What do you think? Is there any strategy you think we missed? Hit the comment box or find us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn!