Want to do some lead generation marketing? We have good news and bad news for you.
The bad news is that lead generation is hard. In a survey by Hubspot, 63% of marketers said that generating traffic and leads is the top challenge for their company. And being a lead generation marketing professional means overcoming this challenge again and again.
The good news is that every victory in this field, even a small one, makes you better at attracting potential customers to your business.
Outline:
How to get into lead generation marketing like a pro
If you want to become a lead generation marketing professional, you need to follow a few main principles.
Learn the fundamentals
Always start at the basics. Can you define what a lead is? Can you distinguish the most common types of leads? Do you know the main stages in the lead generation process? If you are yet to learn about lead generation, you can check this Beginner’s Guide To Lead Generation.
Avoid common mistakes
Let’s be honest. You are probably going to make a lot of lead generation mistakes throughout your career. We’ve all been there. Here are a few recommendations that will help you avoid them:
- Use multiple digital marketing channels for the biggest possible reach.
- Check the quality of every lead you generate.
Some contacts in your lists will be invalid. - Get as much data about your leads as you can.
More data allows you to create more personalized lead generation content. - Learn how to segment your leads based on your marketing objectives.
That way you can better meet your leads’ needs. - Don’t stop at generating leads, nurture them.
Nurturing leads is the most effective method for your business to create a strong community of impressed leads and happy customers.
And remember that, from now on, you shouldn’t focus on avoiding mistakes. Making mistakes is okay. Practice makes perfect. Instead, focus on why you made those mistakes and what you can learn from them.
Gain experience in other areas of digital marketing
Having experience in other (or all) areas of marketing is a tremendous advantage for a lead generation beginner who wants to turn pro.
Only a small number of marketers start their careers in lead generation. In fact, it doesn’t matter what you do in marketing – ads, emails, social media, content, etc. If you are already involved in one of these areas, you’re halfway to becoming a lead generation expert.
As we’ve mentioned earlier, lead generation professionals work with a variety of different marketing channels. Naturally, they know unique aspects of lead generation for each of these channels.
Keep your eyes on statistics
Professional lead gen marketers monitor the results of their work every day. They do it not only because it’s their responsibility, but out of natural curiosity. Real-time reports and campaign statistics shed light on everything lead generation marketers need to grow their companies and become better at what they do.
The best way to analyze the performance of a lead gen campaign is to keep your analytics simple. Don’t analyze everything. Check only the data that’s relevant at the moment. There are a few types of metrics you can monitor depending on your goal:
- Marketing metrics: return on investment (ROI), marketing qualified leads (MQL)
- Performance metrics: conversion rate (CR), click-through rate (CTR)
- Cost metrics: cost per lead (CPL), cost per acquisition (CPA), cost per click (CPC), cost per impression (CPM)
- Sales metrics: sales qualified leads (SQL), win rate (WR)
These are only a few examples of the most important metrics for lead generation. And which ones are important for your business? The total number of metrics is huge, so it depends on the channels and platforms you’re planning to use. After you start to come up with your lead generation strategy, you’ll also get an understanding of how to measure your analytics.
Best practices for lead generation professionals
Every lead generation strategy is unique. However, all strategies are based on the same methods. Let’s check out some of these methods with an eye to the hottest trends in digital marketing. Here are a few useful recommendations to boost your own lead generation strategy.
Automate your marketing
Here’s a question for you: do you feel that automation is coming to your industry?
In a survey by Social Media Today, 72% of marketers answered “yes” to this question, 24% said “no,” and 4% replied “too early to tell.”
The same survey reports that 75% of marketers already take advantage of automation tools for their businesses. And you should do the same for your lead generation.
Automation is awesome. It optimizes your workflow, saves your time, and, most importantly, reduces the time for lead conversion. For example, when it comes to generating leads via email, you can automate the email sending process and automate emails themselves by adding dynamic product recommendations to them.
The same goes for social media lead generation. Obviously, you’re going to search for leads on a few social media platforms. To make your search more effective, you should use software that allows you to publish content on multiple social media networks at the same time.
Experiment with Facebook lead generation
Facebook is a must-use platform for lead generation professionals.
And not only because it’s the world’s most popular social media network and gives you access to more than 2.8 billion monthly active leads. Facebook has a family of apps and services that includes Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network. Marketers call them placements. You can target different types of audiences on different placements automatically or manually.
Speaking of audiences, Facebook offers detailed targeting options that allow you to find the leads of your dreams based on their interests, hobbies, and preferences.
Additionally, you can use Facebook Lead Ads to get contacts of Facebook and Instagram users without driving them to your website or landing page.
Lead Ads are premade forms that can contain prefilled fields (first name, last name, email, phone number, etc.), as well as up to 15 custom questions.
Join the video content boom
Video content is everywhere, from the screens of mobile devices to the minds of marketers who consider video marketing as one more opportunity to promote their businesses.
The average online user consumes at least one type of video content every day: vlogs, video games, streaming videos, social media videos, video ads, etc.
In fact, according to Statista, 15% of all(!) internet traffic is attributed to Netflix and over 11% is attributed to YouTube. When it comes to video marketing for lead generation, Wyzowl claims that video has helped 84% of marketers generate leads. If used wisely, video can not only help you find leads but also boost sales, conversions, and traffic.
Not to mention that video is much easier to produce now than it was in the past. Just as you can automate your email and social media marketing, you can use artificial intelligence to create high-quality video content.
Nurture your skills to nurture your leads
Now you know everything you need to become a lead generation marketing professional. After you discover the lead gen marketing fundamentals, avoid the most common mistakes made by lead generation beginners when creating your own strategy.
And keep in mind that experience in other areas of marketing will help you create your strategy much faster and with fewer mistakes. Don’t forget to keep an eye on your results in order to optimize your strategy whenever needed.
To make your lead gen strategy more effective, take advantage of marketing automation, Facebook lead generation, and video marketing.
Happy hunting!
