Have you ever found yourself scrolling through endless pages of generic leads, desperately trying to find a needle in a haystack?
Searching for quality leads in large quantities can feel like a constant. Not a surprise you may have even considered resorting to lead generation agencies to do the job for you. But the cost can be astronomical.
There is hope!
In this post, we’ll discuss 28 places WHERE you can find leads on your own, both online and offline, through inbound and outbound approaches, and in single or bulk quantities.
Outline:
While some companies might work with lead agencies to find leads, others resort to buying ready-made lead lists.
Want to know what sales and marketing pros think about this idea?
They’ll tell you that getting leads in such a way often leads to failure.
These leads have nothing to do with quality.
You don’t know whether all of the leads in the list match your ideal customer profile, whether the provided email addresses are valid, or whether you’ll face the problem of bounces and damaged sender reputation after a while.
So the first rule you need to stick to if you want to get qualified leads is: Never buy lists of leads!
Instead, focus on your ideal customer profile and seek out people who fit that mold.
And when looking for contact information, make sure it’s valid. Each email address you add to your list must be verified, i.e., checked for validity. And to ensure your lead data is up-to-date, investing in email verification tools is a must.
Now that we’ve covered the basics let’s dive into 28 ways of finding leads for your company on your own.
Without any doubt, LinkedIn is now one of the best channels for finding business leads – this social network has more than 875 million users in over 200 countries.
You can start with LinkedIn Advanced Search, which allows finding your target leads through a variety of filters, including industry, location, job title, and more:
You can also find potential customers in your industry and product-related LinkedIn groups, where you can actively participate in discussions to position yourself as an expert and attract potential customers to your solution.
To find contacts outside your network and broaden your lead generation capacity, you can use the advanced version of LinkedIn, beloved by sales reps all over the world – LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Although it’s not free, it offers valuable perks for businesses looking for leads by providing detailed user information, advanced search capabilities, and extensive filters.
But if you want to generate and reach out to LinkedIn leads in bulk, you should be careful:
| In 2021, LinkedIn set invite limits, according to which you’ll be restricted to sending no more than 100 connection invitations a week. By violating LinkedIn limits, you risk being banned by this social network. |
The good news is that you can bypass these restrictions with automation software like Snov.io LI Prospect Finder, which collects email addresses from LinkedIn or LinkedIn Sales Navigator without sending connection requests or InMails.
All you need to do is go to the search or company page on LinkedIn, enable the extension, and watch as the leads roll in.
Once you save the prospects with their email contacts, you can build your personalized cold email outreach campaign outside of LinkedIn.
| Check out our detailed guide to choose a LinkedIn automation tool that fits your business goals! |
Although Facebook looks more informal and less business-oriented than LinkedIn, it’s still a great place to find potential leads.
If you need a free way of finding leads on Facebook, join Facebook groups where users talk about topics related to your business. Just like with LinkedIn groups, by actively participating in discussions, you can position yourself as an expert and smoothly shift the focus to your offering.
Just take a look at one of the Facebook groups I’ve joined to get fresh insights into what our company’s potential customers need and want:
And if you are ready to invest a bit of money into your lead generation strategy, try Facebook Ads. They’ll help target a specific audience with your offering and draw the attention of potential leads to your product.
You can play with content by making it more interactive with videos, quizzes, infographics, quick product tests, and more. Try to check FB ad library and leverage the resources available to gain insights and inspiration for creating effective ad campaigns.
What I like about Facebook Ads is that you can get campaign analytics you can use to refine your forthcoming Facebook lead generation strategy.
| Get inspired by the cloud-based camera subscription service NTT East, which has grown its customer base and lowered the cost-per-lead by 88% with Facebook lead ads. |
Interested in how to get lead email contacts from Facebook? Read our recent post.
Twitter has become a go-to platform for people to learn about the latest news and trends, but did you know it can also be a valuable tool for businesses to find potential customers?
Let’s check out the numbers: about 16% of people use Twitter for brand research, while 54% of Twitter’s audience is more likely to purchase new products. This means that by utilizing Twitter effectively, you can find a treasure trove of leads for your business.
Follow companies in the same industry as yours to stay up-to-date on any new information about your potential leads.
Another great way to make an impact on Twitter is by retweeting or quote-tweeting influencers and experts in your niche. This allows you to add your valuable opinion on the topic at hand and attract users to your page and your product.
Besides, take advantage of Twitter’s Advanced search feature to help you narrow down your search to your target audience. You can find this feature underneath the search filters on the upper right of your results page:
You’ll be redirected to the “Advanced Search” form, where you need to simply insert relevant keywords and other information, and voila!
Like with LinkedIn, automation services allow you to gather leads’ data from Twitter into your personal workspace. For instance, with the Snov.io Email Finder extension, you can instantly collect dozens of leads from Twitter search results pages within one click.
And if your budget allows, don’t shy away from using Twitter ads for your business. They have an enormous lead generation potential.
| Read how Abdul Latif Jameel Finance company has managed to generate 400 leads in the course of 3 months using Twitter ads. |
Yes, I know, Instagram is not the most popular channel for B2B companies to grow their business. But what if you use this fact as an advantage? 45% of modern B2B buyers are in the 25-34 age group, making them more likely to be active on Instagram.
Start by connecting your Instagram with your landing page. Include a link to your webpage in your bio to make it easy for potential leads to learn more about your product.
Another effective strategy is to use hashtags to find Instagram accounts that align with your target audience. Follow these accounts and engage with their content to build relationships and expand your reach.
By utilizing relevant hashtags strategically, you can effectively connect with and grow your presence within your desired niche or community.
To capture attention and showcase your expertise, create Instagram Reels relevant to your industry and use trending hashtags to attract more users to your account.
| Learn about how Webull, the financial technology company, increased app downloads at a 17% lower cost per conversion with the help of Instagram Reels. |
Finally, if you’re looking for a more direct approach, consider using Instagram lead-generation ads. They allow you to take leads directly to your product page, where they can provide their contact information and express interest in your offerings.
When it comes to social media platforms for businesses, TikTok is often overlooked. However, it has a lot of potential for advertising your company to a broad audience and attracting leads to your solution.
Create a company account and include a link to your website in the bio. Then, brainstorm short videos that have the potential to go viral. One of the best strategies I would recommend is to participate in TikTok challenges.
Next, follow people in your industry and engage with their content. TikTok is all about interaction, so liking and commenting on relevant videos here and there can really help improve your brand image and attract leads to your account.
And don’t forget about TikTok Ads, of course! These ads are specifically designed for business objectives, allowing you to set your target audience and choose what you want to achieve.
| Read about how Linx helped their client generate leads at a 40% conversion rate with TikTok Ads. |
Generating leads on TikTok for email outreach? Check out our recent post about TikTok email finder tools and methods.
In today’s digital age, businesses can no longer afford to underestimate the power of YouTube as a lead generation tool. I mean, did you know that 80% of people would rather watch live videos from a brand than read a blog? And when it comes to demonstrating how your product works, YouTube videos can do the job better than any other platform.
Create your own channel and start making short, informative videos with search traffic potential. Link the channel to your product landing page, blog, social media accounts, and don’t hesitate to accompany each video with a call to action, encouraging viewers to subscribe to your channel and learn more about your products or services.
Need a bit of inspiration? Take a look at the Snov.io YouTube channel, which (let me tell you a secret) helps us grow our leads with every passing month:)
Google is a trusted friend of everyone nowadays. This guy seems to know and tell you everything in the world, and it’s a crime not to admit its enormous lead generation power.
To attract leads to your brand and product, you can use Google Adwords, which will help your company become automatically discoverable by your target audience.
To stay on top of your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy and ensure that your website ranks high on search engine results pages, you can also use Google’s Keyword Planner tool.
What is more, you can get sales leads from Google in an outbound way – just forearm yourself with a good automation service.
For instance, with the Snov.io Email Finder extension, you can get email leads from Google search pages. Just type in what type of companies you need (e.g., apparel manufacturers in the USA), click the extension, and choose where you want to save prospects together with their contact information or companies to access the employees’ list later:
Google products may be really great sources of leads for you. Need proof?
| Read a story of one of our customers, Okisam company, which generated leads from Google Maps with Snov.io and increased the lead conversion rate by 35%. |
Are you struggling to rank high with your advertising campaign on Google? What about trying Bing?
You can use two powerful tools as an alternative to Google: Bing Ads and Bing Keyword Planner.
While Bing has a smaller search base than Google (21% search base share against Google’s 64%), this can actually work to your advantage. Bing Ads (now called Microsoft Ads) are less competitive than Google’s. This means it will be easier for your ads to get impressions or views on Bing, let alone the fact they have a cheaper cost per click and cost per acquisition.
What does it all mean for you? You can get leads from Bing at a much better rate than from Google. And with lower costs and less competition, you can stretch your advertising budget further and get more leads for your money.
| Learn from the experience of JXT Group, the agency which uses Bing Ads as a reliable and affordable source of leads. |
One of the most significant digital marketing trends in 2024 is social media decentralization, and it’s evident in the rise of Mastodon, an open-source social network that consists of smaller networks, or instances, based around niche interests.
Regarded by many as an alternative to Twitter, Mastodon has been growing with a jet speed since October 2022 and can now boast more than 1.5 million active monthly users. It’s no surprise that many companies have already started to think over the lead generation capacity of this platform.
While it may be too early to tell if Mastodon is a suitable platform for growing businesses since it’s more aimed at personal communication, many companies have already shifted their focus from Twitter to this smaller yet very promising network.
My advice is to join Mastodon as a marketing or sales professional rather than a company. Create a profile where you’ll share your company website and links to your other social media accounts. Then, start searching for people using hashtags, follow individuals related to your product or industry, and comment on their posts.
In the meantime, write expert posts and share them in the comments on other people’s posts. This way, you’ll expand your network and build relationships with the target audience. Before you know it, you’ll be drawing potential leads to your company and products.
Want to try this new social network? Here you can find a business owner’s guide to Mastodon.
About 450 million people use Pinterest yearly, where 63% of users come to discover new brands and products.
Sign up for a business account, optimize your SEO, and create boards with valuable and engaging content related to your niche. Fill the boards with eye-catching pins with clear CTAs leading to your lead generation form or product landing page.
To speak less, just take a look at the Pinterest board relevant to our blog:
And when your budget allows, consider using Pinterest Ads to draw even more leads to your content.
| Want to learn more about how to drive 3x traffic to your blog with Pinterest? Read the story of Leanne Wong. |
If your team is already using Slack as a marketing tool for communication, you have an excellent opportunity to generate leads right in front of you! All you need is to think strategically.
To make the most of this platform, invite your current customers to join and share your content with them. Focus on topics that are most relevant to them and encourage discussions. Networking is key here, so give them the green light to share your content with their audience to help spread the word even further.
Webinars, training sessions, and courses are great ways to demonstrate your industry knowledge and attract leads hoping to solve their pain points with your expertise. Not a surprise 73% of B2B webinar attendees become qualified leads.
Prepare a highly valuable topic for your audience and create an interactive and engaging landing page. Remember to focus on building relationships with your audience and avoid pitching your product during the webinar or training course.
And don’t forget to follow up with participants afterward.
One of the best ways of inbound lead generation is blogging. Companies that run their own blog get 67% more leads than those that don’t have one. Like with webinars and training courses, a blog allows you to position your company as one that is not just selling but providing remedies to users’ pain points.
To get more leads from your blog, keep in mind the following tips:
Don’t limit yourself to your company’s blog only. Lead generation is a tricky game, which calls for more strategic solutions. One of them is sparkling the attention of potential leads through guest posting.
Make guest posting one of your top strategies. May it become a routine for your link-building team to search for new opportunities to write for another blog.
Always link guest posts with posts on your blog. Once your guest post is published, stick around and respond to comments, if any.
SlideShare is one of the biggest content-sharing communities in the world. If you’re running your own blog, it won’t be difficult to adapt the content to the neat presentation format and share your knowledge with users who crave solutions.
Pick your best posts and repurpose them for presentation slides by summarizing the main points. Use simple, clear language and appealing design. To connect your presentations with your brand and make it more recognizable, use corporate colors, font, and logo.
As soon as you establish your authority on SlideShare, you’ll see an influx of new leads.
Source: SlideShare
You’ve probably heard rumors about the death of email marketing. Don’t trust them. Email marketing is still a go-to solution for many companies when it comes to finding leads.
To make the most out of your newsletters, make sure to:
Quora is a global online platform where people ask and answer questions. By interacting with your niche audience, you can get lots of leads for your company.
| Read about how CodingNinjas startup has turned Quora into the number one lead generation source. |
If you need a more lighthearted way of generating leads through easy-going discussions, you can try Reddit, which is a good alternative to Quora. It has a slightly different algorithm (the content you share should get many votes to rank top; the discussions are organized via subreddits), but the lead generation principle will be similar.
I know you might be skeptical about discussion forums… You are not alone. Many people consider them a quaint anachronism. I would dispute. If you offer a specific product to a specific audience, you might gain a lot from them.
No matter what business forums you choose, actively participate in discussions by posting comments and sharing experiences. The more active you are, the sooner you’ll build rapport with other active participants.
Professional forums often include a brief bio as a signature in each post. Include a link to your company website or LinkedIn page so that forum participants can associate the expertise they’ll get from you with your brand.
Industry-related business events are the perfect place to connect with leads and offer your solution in the best way possible. It all depends on how you’ll participate in them.
Industry-related business events are perfect for connecting with leads and showcasing your solution.
If you’re participating in the event, prepare a booth with a stand, booklets, and all other materials that will help you position your brand in front of a business audience. If you have a chance to perform and deliver a speech, take it!
If you’re attending as a visitor, don’t be shy to communicate with people and tell them what you do. Prepare business cards so you can give them to potential leads.
At online events, listen actively, ask questions, and comment. When given the opportunity, introduce yourself and your company to draw attention to your product or service.
Interested in participating in one of the most important tech events in the world – Web Summit Conference? Read 20+ tips and hacks to help you shine there like a star:)
Looking to network in your industry but feeling overwhelmed by the thought of attending large business gatherings? Don’t fret, my friend! There’s another option that may be right up your alley – local industry meetings. These events offer a more intimate setting to connect with like-minded professionals and potentially generate leads.
The beauty of these meetings is that the attendees are already interested in your industry. So, don’t be shy – take advantage of the opportunity to introduce yourself and your company. Make sure you come prepared with a clear, concise elevator pitch that shows your product’s unique value. And, of course, don’t forget to bring business cards and a tablet or phone to showcase your work.
And remember: you need to focus on value. No straightforward pitching.
But here’s the catch – don’t be too pushy or salesy. Instead, focus on building relationships and establishing yourself as a trustworthy and knowledgeable resource in the industry.
And hey, who knows? You might even make some new friends or learn something new yourself! So, next time you hear about a local industry meeting, don’t hesitate to RSVP. Your future self (and potential prospects) will thank you.
One of the best ways to generate more leads is to ask your existing customers, colleagues, or friends to spread the word about your company. Not convinced? Well, consider this: about 84% of B2B decision-makers start their buying process with a referral!
But the benefits of referrals don’t stop there; they also bring in high–quality leads! Referred customers are easier to convert and have a 16% higher lifetime value upon conversion.
Identify your most loyal customers, also known as brand advocates. These customers are the ones who love your company and would happily refer others to you. Don’t be afraid to ask them for referrals, and as a gesture of gratitude, offer them incentives such as discounts, coupons, or freebies.
| Learn how online learning & education company Testbook has generated 57,873 new email leads using a referral contest. |
Feel like you need more tips on how to ask for referrals from your customers? Find them in our post.
Apart from asking customers for referrals, you can (and I highly recommend you do it) encourage them to leave reviews about your product. Luckily, the web has gifted humanity with dozens of online platforms for customer reviews.
I’ve already mentioned Google My Business service – for those of you who have a local business. If you are a software company, you can gain value from platforms like G2 or Capterra.
Ask your most loyal and satisfied customers to leave a review on a business review platform and try to supply reviews with certain regularity. Such platforms as G2, for example, provide users with quarterly reports ranking products based on reviews gathered. It’s your chance to become a top ranker and get a stream of potential leads.
Alternatively, you can use business review platforms to look for leads yourself. Identify businesses that fit your ideal customer profile and learn more about their solutions and challenges. Who knows? Maybe your product can help them improve their solution!
Product Hunt is the holy grail of SaaS startups, and for a good reason! This platform features the latest technology on a daily basis, providing small businesses all over the world with the opportunity to share their newly launched software with the public. And it’s also a hub for businesses in search of a product that could solve all their problems.
So why not make your product stand out on this platform?
If you haven’t launched your product yet, use the ProductHunt ‘Upcoming’ section. Whenever a user subscribes to your product’s ‘Upcoming,’ Product Hunt provides you with their email credentials. You can increase the number of subscribers on your ‘Upcoming’ product landing page by importing your existing email list – the platform allows it.
To draw more attention to your product upon launch, you can hunt products by other ‘Makers’ and build relationships. I recommend finding the top ‘Hunters’ and ‘Makers’ on the platform and trying to get them to subscribe to your upcoming product. For this, comment, upvote, or ask questions on their threads.
| Read how Marketing Examples got 2K new email leads from Product Hunt. |
A good old saying goes: ‘All roads lead to Rome.’ And when it comes to lead generation, all roads lead to your product landing page.
Your landing page is the first thing potential leads will see, so it goes without saying that it should be well-designed, well-structured, and well-written. But there’s one feature that’s an absolute must-have for generating leads – a lead form, or a subscription form.
Now, here’s a pro tip: the more fields you have in your lead form, the less likely you are to catch a lead. So, keep it simple and only ask for the essentials – the name and the email address. Anything else can be filled out later by your new subscribers on their preferences page or in their personal accounts (a trick not many companies use).
But if you really want to sweeten the deal and capture more leads, then you need a lead magnet. This is an incentive you offer to someone in exchange for becoming your lead. It’s an age-old marketing tactic that has been proven to work time and time again.
For example, at Snov.io, we offer potential leads forever access to effective email templates. This entices people interested in joining our list of leads and gives them a valuable resource they can use over and over again.
There are endless variations of lead magnets you can use, so get creative and find something that works for your business. Remember, the goal is to make your landing page as irresistible as possible, so that leads can’t help but sign up.
If you need more lead magnet ideas, welcome to this post.
About 75% of users prefer live chat to any other communication channel with the brand. So, it’s safe to say that live chat is the perfect place for potential leads to come knocking at your door. And you wouldn’t want to let them go, would you?
You need to follow two basic rules: provide an immediate response and be super helpful. If you don’t have the resources for 24/7 support in chat, a chatbot can be a lifesaver. The key is to ensure that your response is as quick as possible.
It’s not just enough to answer the query; you need to go above and beyond to win the attention of your potential lead. You can do this by adding details, screenshots, links to your product videos or blog posts – anything that would make a person understand that they are dealing with professionals.
If you already know which company you’d like to see as a lead in your list and want to reach out to them, you’ll evidently need their contact information, which you can grab on their landing page or website.
Typically, you’ll find an email address or phone number on the “About” page or section. Once you have this information, you can add it to your database for further outreach.
But what if the company doesn’t provide contact information on its website? There’s still hope. You can turn to lead generation software like Snov.io Email Finder to get email contacts from any company website.
And since lead generation tools already serve businesses all over the world as the best and quickest way to grab the lead to your list, I’ve dedicated a separate paragraph to them.
Lead generation software is a marketing or sales tool that lets you automatically generate and distribute more leads by collecting their contact information from websites and social media and importing it right into your app, making it easier to prepare your leads for further outreach.
In fact, lead agencies use these tools themselves to find more leads. So, if your business relies on email marketing or sales outreach, you might want to consider using an email finder to help you locate and connect with potential leads.
You can easily get leads from LinkedIn with the help of the Snov.io LinkedIn prospecting tool.
You can find similar email lookup services on the market today such as FindThatLead, Hunter, ViolaNorbert, Lusha, Leedfeeder, etc. To learn more about these tools, check out my post where I compare the most popular email finders, outlining their main features and pricing.
As you see, there are dozens of places and ways you can find leads for your business. No need to tell you that the better you combine the sources, the more leads you’ll generate. And even if you are striving to find leads in bulk, be confident you can do it without giving your last penny to other agencies.
Sometimes all you need is a plan and reliable software such as Snov.io. Yes, it might take time (not as much really), but you’ll control all the process and know for sure that each lead coming to your list is qualified and cost-effective.
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