Sales-ready leads are big on marketing priority list. But with lead quality dwindling- there’s pressure. What are we missing?

The market remains resilient, even in the face of adversity and multiple roadblocks. But most often, the repercussions of a turbulent market impact the business landscape significantly.

This is true for marketing too.

While 53% of marketers allot their resources and budget to lead generation campaigns, almost 79% of MQLs never convert into sales. Hence, lead generation isn’t merely about converting prospects but nurturing them and establishing trust.

Why is instituting trust so significant in marketing?

First of all, marketing is all about building a long-term business relationship. Second, skepticism is rampant during such times, which could result in longer decision-making cycles. Brands continue to compete for buyer attention.

The current market-scape is a tricky one to handle, and competition is at an all-time high. Brands that wish to boost their profitability and ROI might attempt every strategy in their playbook.

What can alleviate their concerns?

Streamlined, data-driven, and adaptive strategies to counter the rapid market fluctuations. A blanket approach to lead generation, is no longer applicable. Highly personalized outreach and optimized ABM tactics are stealing the show.

Today, lead generation has become all about precision targeting and impact. A volume-driven approach no longer works for current-age buyers who are highly hesitant during their purchasing decisions.

Irrespective of market conditions, businesses require solutions conducive to expanding their loyal customer base and revenue generation. Therefore, the focus is on lead generation.

Why is lead generation crucial for marketers?

In marketing lingo, a lead shows potential interest in a company’s offering – going on to become a loyal client. They could be learning about a company or already showing interest in their services.

But leads are also of two types – warm and cold. Even if they fit a given ICP, prospects could either illustrate possibilities to convert into a customer (warm), or it would be questionable that they’ll ever require the company’s solutions (cold).

Understandably, no buyer is the same. They might be in the market for the same solution, but their purchasing intent might fall on different levels – from canvassing the services to ready-to-buy. At the end of the line, one’s business solutions should remain a tangible option for the prospect, one that could address and smoothen their worries.

Hence, lead generation is all about prioritizing warm leads and nurturing them to increase their likelihood of becoming a long-term client. And lead generation campaigns are construed to attract potential customers to the sales pipeline.

It warms up the prospects for the business, eventually leading them to a purchase.

This is why purchasing intent, even miniscule, is vital. Even if there’s a slight interest, these campaigns focus on building their interest in the brand’s solutions. Thus, lead generation is the nucleus of a business’s growth and success.

Several other factors, such as brand building, are significant, but lead generation is present at the steering wheel.

Offering sales a consistent stream of leads for closing remains a priority. It remains a highly relevant sales support functionality, even today. However, there’s a practical paradigm shift from merely being highlighted as a sales support function. Lead generation strategy has come to entail a more comprehensive approach.

Buyers, through information processing in this age of digitization, seek more control. They want to conduct their research before arriving at a decision. In modern marketing, marketers continue to outline lead-generation strategies to accommodate these client asks and market demands. From awareness to purchase, marketers align all the requisites with each other.

But lead generation campaigns don’t merely follow guidelines to the bone. It’s crucial to strategically approach lead generation – through a thorough market analysis. This is followed by mapping a clear line of action and market awareness.

With its vitality established, it should be already evident that lead generation is a long, complex, and comprehensive process.

Is it merely an analytical approach to attracting prospective buyers? Does it entail any creative facets that are ingrained in marketing?

What are the components of a successful lead generation campaign?

No defined techniques, when followed, would assure maximum profitability. While one lead generation campaign would be effective for a shorter run, say a year, another one could work for a longer period. Additionally, the latter could be cost-efficient and effective even with the same objectives.

So, the effectiveness of a lead generation campaign broadly depends on analyzing its performance and how it can improve the campaign.

But there are specific yardsticks that work as a framework for one’s lead generation campaigns – the basic parameters to ensure that the strategies aren’t going haywire. These factors will provide a structure to the campaign to achieve the best possible results, highlighting whether it’s successful or requires improvements.

What are these?

A clear goal or campaign vision

While developing a campaign, there has to be a proper end in sight. As a business, what are you hoping to achieve from the campaign? Is it increasing CTRs or downloads or collating a specific number of contacts from a form?

The primary step is to figure this out. It helps modify and frame the lead generation campaign accordingly.

Salesforce, while outlining what a successful lead generation campaign should be like, underscores George T. Doran’s SMART framework (1981) to establish said goals:

• S – Specific milestones to highlight whether the campaign has reached its goal. If not, what will it take, and how much time to meet the outlined objectives?
• M – Measurable goals are crucial. In the case of intangible metrics, it’s demanding to highlight the campaign’s effectiveness. And this could prove detrimental to business growth.
• A – Achievable or realistic objectives can actually prove more beneficial than unrealistic ones. The set targets should reflect the position of your business – the budget, capabilities, resources, and room for growth.
• R – Relevant targets should also reflect the type and quantity of leads – identifying the right audience that fits your ICP. Your campaign shouldn’t follow a shotgun approach – whatever sticks formula. It should have outlined the target audience and work to reach them.
• T – Timeline is significant for any marketing campaign. How else will you understand if a campaign is working? The same goes for a lead generation campaign – whether 3 to 5 years, successful or unsuccessful, a timeline is necessary to gauge its effectiveness.

This framework is vital in inciting improvements in your strategy.

Sometimes, it might illustrate potential but not in the long term. Then, you’re merely wasting your time and resources. Following the SMART framework helps avoid this overinvestment.

Do you know your audience?

Before finally executing a campaign, has your marketing team underscored who your ICP is? Who are your solutions targeting, and why them? – these are questions that your campaign should foresee.

The market is expansive, and buyers are complex. Your lead generation campaign has to narrow down the potentialities to identify the prospects with the most interest (warm leads). This will help marketing optimize the succeeding stages in lead generation and hand them over to sales accordingly.

While new customers flocking to your brand may be tempting, narrowing down the potential target audience will work wonders in the long term.

Here, a proper alignment between marketing and sales is requisite to boost the campaign’s effectiveness. All you require is a shared CRM where both teams can keep up-to-date on lead numbers and gauge real-time information. By coordinating the efforts put on leads, brands can increase the likelihood of a conversion.

This will also help create streamlined and personalized experiences, intrigue buyers, and elevate customer retention for the brand.

Is the prospect worth your time and resources?

Once a new lead has been acquired and you’re interacting with them, understand whether they are the right fit for your brand solutions. If not, you might just be wasting your time and resources in nurturing them.

You should gauge their intent – who is the most likely to buy? Modern lead generation is about quality over quantity. It’s come a long way from being volume-driven. Even if the pipeline has multiple leads, if they have little to no interest in your offerings, the conversion rates might take a huge dip.

The lead generation campaign will help you establish this – the topics that interest them, whether they are regularly interacting with your socials, how long they have been doing so, and demographics.

Some leads might have interest, but they are not ready to buy. Some products require more time spent in decision-making or at the consideration stage. These leads need a little push.  

Hence, by understanding who the high-scoring leads might be, the campaign can entail personalized high-value content. Serving their preferences and interests through the tailored content will help nurture these moderate leads and build interest.

Lead magnets that provide value.

How do you compel prospects or those browsing your website to download a whitepaper?

The contact information from the form is crucial to constructing a relevant contact list. To ensure that a prospect inputs their contact information and allows your team to contact them further, provide them with something valuable and free. They input their contact details only once, through which the marketing team can connect with them for further nurturing.

This could be whitepapers, eBooks, eGuides, case studies, or any valuable resource.

However, as the name suggests, lead magnets cannot merely be anything. You have to provide value, i.e., give the lead a resource that aligns with the content they consumed or are interested in.

For example, if they interacted with a blog on lead generation, you can offer them a how-to guide on implementing the most effective lead generation campaigns.

Once the lead magnet has been successfully created and published – place it behind a gate. It will remain free but transactional – a simple form fill-up for a detailed eGuide. Only make sure that these lead magnets are accessible easily.

Any delay or hiccup in accessing the resources could deter the prospects from filling in the forms and overwhelm them. The objective is to provide something of value, i.e., a quick and reliable solution, in exchange for essential information.

Optimized content across landing pages and brand website.

Relevant content attracts leads to your business – whether it’s Instagram, LinkedIn or the homepage. Use the right keywords and then develop content surrounding it. It shouldn’t just focus on text but consider minimalistic but engaging designs, in-depth insights, and a solution.

This remains applicable to the website layout as well. Why is there so much focus on it? An intuitive and mobile-friendly interface allows browsers to find solutions quickly and conduct research on who you are.

It’s not merely about creating content but improving brand recognition and awareness.

The content should be SEO-optimized to rank well, elevating your brand visibility and visitors. Most often, when prospects are browsing for a solution to their pain point, they require specific content. By keeping in mind the relevant keywords, your brand can also take this step.

Even external backlinks add significant authority and trust to your brand’s voice.

The crux of optimizing your content for a better lead generation campaign is enhancing the user experience. If they can access certain resources and sign up quickly, it’s a smooth process for them. This ultimately translates into a prospect who might recommend your brand or avail of the offerings themselves.

Is lead generation only about generating leads?

A generated lead who demonstrates high intent in making a purchase might seem like the perfect end to a lead generation campaign.

But that’s not enough.

The funnel is a long way down, and any hiccup might deter this lead from converting into a buyer. The campaign requires follow-ups and engagement tactics to keep them interested to ensure this isn’t the case.

Similarly, a one-time customer might not come back for a second purchase. The brand should also focus on customer retention as part of its campaigns.

Even if the lead has not yet converted into a full-blown buyer, lead generation should keep them connected through engaging messages and add value to their experience. This will comprise remarketing techniques, follow-up email sequences, surveys, or customized messages.

The focus should be on every stage of the buying journey and not merely the initial few. Each stage is connected and could hamper the lead’s progression.

It’s a continuous process in lead generation – create, measure, analyze, and improve. Without this loop, any marketing campaign wouldn’t be deemed successful or bring in any ROI. This is how a lead generation campaign should also function in its entirety.