lead generation researcher

Lead Generation: How To Turn Interest Into a Sale

Illustration showing lead generation in action: a young woman shopping for a black dress online, looking excited when she receives it.

When you understand the basics of lead generation, you'll turn interest into conversions. Here's what you need to know.

What you’ll learn.

What is lead generation?
What are the most effective lead generation strategies?
How do lead qualification and nurturing work?
What are some methods for nurturing leads?
What are the current trends in lead generation?
How do you measure the success of your lead gen strategy?
What are the best practices for lead generation?

It’s no secret that people are inundated with countless messages and offers daily. Marketers have to find a way to capture attention and build genuine interest in their products and services. According to our research , chief marketing officers (CMOs) cite customer preferences and expectations as their number 1 influence on digital strategy. The goal is lead generation: building interest over time that eventually leads to a sale.

Let’s break down exactly what lead generation is, how artificial intelligence (AI) plays a role, and what steps to take to make sure you’re finding and nurturing leads the right way.

Think like a buyer and seal the deal

Use these four tactics to attract prospects, build lasting relationships, and deliver metrics that matter. Our latest B2B marketing guide will show you how.

What is lead generation?

Lead generation is the process of building interest in a product or service and then turning that interest into a sale. Lead gen makes the sales cycle more efficient because it focuses on the strongest and most valuable prospects. The result is greater success in new customer acquisition and conversion rates.

There are three types of leads:

A qualified lead is a prospect who has demonstrated a genuine interest in a product or service and is more likely to convert.
An unqualified lead lacks the necessary interest level to become a customer.
A warm lead falls between these two – they’ve expressed some interest, but it’s up to sales to follow up and determine if the lead can become qualified.

The lead generation process begins with creating awareness and interest. You can start by publishing blog posts that educate your audience and engaging users through social media. You capture potential leads through sign-ups in which a person voluntarily gives you contact info to stay in touch. This can be through an email newsletter or ”gated” content such as webinars, virtual events, live chats, whitepapers, or ebooks.

Once you have leads, you can use their contact info to engage with personalized communication and targeted promotions. ( Back to top )

What are the most effective lead generation strategies?

Now that you’ve got a better understanding of lead generation, how can you start to move people from prospect to buyer? Start with creating, sharing, and testing content that grabs your audience’s attention .

Make sure your content addresses pain points

It all starts with creating strong content. Focus on your target audience’s pain points and how your product or service can solve those.

For example, if my business offers project management software, it would be a good idea to create a series of videos about project planning tips or case studies showcasing some of my successful timeline implementations. I know that when I’m a customer, I like seeing proof that companies can actually do what they say, so I make it a point to show my customers exactly that.

Set up a lead scoring system

You also need a lead scoring system. This is when you assign points based on specific actions, such as webinar attendance, whitepaper downloads, or engagement with high-value pages on your website.

If my leads consistently engage with product features on my site, I’ll assign them a higher lead score than someone who only occasionally visits my homepage. By prioritizing efforts on leads with higher scores, my sales team can focus on prospects more likely to convert. We save time and money – who doesn’t like that?

Go where your audience is

Figuring out which social media channels your target audience uses matters. If you’re fishing for clients, you have to be in the right spot. You’re not going to use X if your business targets a visually-oriented demographic, right? Using platforms like Instagram or Pinterest to share visually appealing content, you’ll have better results.

Dial in a great call-to-action

Regardless of the channel, you’ll need a clear and compelling call-to-action and a user-friendly design. I can get better conversion rates for my subscription-based service by featuring a persuasive sign-up form on the site’s landing page, accompanied by customer testimonials.

Perform A/B testing for best results

I make sure to use A/B testing and analytics to refine things like headlines, visuals, or calls-to-action based on real-time performance data. (Remember, A/B testing is a way to compare multiple versions of a single variable to determine which of the variants is more effective.) When I use it on email subject lines , my team can analyze open rates to determine the most effective messaging, ultimately optimizing the email campaign for better engagement and lead conversion. ( Back to top )

Lead the way

Need a crash course in lead generation, or just want to brush up on basics? Check out this lesson on Trailhead, the free learning program from Salesforce.

Lead Generation for Marketers

How do lead qualification and nurturing work?

Talking about how to evaluate your leads involves some acronyms that can feel like a mouthful, but bear with me for a few and I’ll explain why they’re important.

The first thing I do is define my ideal customer profile (ICP). That just means assessing potential leads based on the information I have. Do I know their level of interest? What do I know about their budget or buying authority?

The BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing) framework is valuable because it establishes key criteria for assessing lead readiness, guiding marketers to prioritize efforts on prospects with a higher likelihood of conversion.

Let’s say I have a software company and I’m using BANT to qualify leads. Here are some questions I’d ask:

Budget : Does the lead have the financial resources to invest in my software? I want to make sure I’m targeting prospects who can afford my product.
Authority : Does the lead have decision-making authority? I want my sales team to engage with individuals who can make purchasing decisions.
Need : Do the lead’s specific needs align closely with what my software offers?
Timing : Does the lead have near-term timing to purchase my software?

These criteria are like a filter that help me prioritize leads who are ready to take action.

Lead scoring is a lot like what it sounds. By assigning numerical values to leads based on their behavior and interactions, you can prioritize follow-up efforts. For example, a lead downloading a product demo will receive a higher score than one who only visited the homepage.

Lead grading complements scoring by evaluating the overall fit of a lead within your target market. A lead from a large enterprise in your target industry would receive a higher grade than a lead from a smaller, unrelated business. Use them both and you’ll get a nuanced understanding of lead quality. ( Back to top )

What are some methods for nurturing leads?

Once you’ve established your scoring and grading, your next step is to strategize ways to nurture your leads. You can do this with:

Email drip campaigns: An automated email sequence like a welcome note to new subscribers helps nurture them toward a first purchase. The goal here is to keep leads engaged over time by delivering a sequence of targeted and relevant messages. The automated approach allows for consistent communication, which gradually builds trust and familiarity.
Webinars and virtual events: These allow you to get customer insights and interact directly. My software company, for example, might organize a webinar series showcasing advanced features with a Q&A at the end.
Personalized content : Tailoring content to individual preferences enhances engagement. An example of this is an online fashion retailer sending product recommendations based on a lead’s browsing history.
Social media: We talked before about understanding which social media channel your prospect uses, but active participation on platforms like X, LinkedIn, or Facebook is always a good idea. Anytime you can engage in industry-related discussions, share relevant content, and respond in the comments, you build awareness and credibility with leads.
Interactive content: Quizzes or assessments keep leads engaged while providing valuable data about their preferences. A fitness app could create a quiz that helps leads determine their ideal workout routine, simultaneously collecting first-party data to tailor future content and promotions. ( Back to top )

What are the current trends in lead generation?

It seems like AI is influencing every part of the marketing landscape — lead generation included. Here’s a look at some ways marketers are improving their lead gen skills.

Our job as marketers is to understand lead behaviors and preferences — and AI-driven lead generation tools have made it easier to do just that. Machine learning algorithms can even predict the content a lead is most likely to engage with based on their past interactions.

I’ve used AI to analyze a customer’s purchase history and recommend complementary products — a very cool process! The analysis gave me a nuanced understanding of the customers’ specific interests and helped me identify broader trends within the big-picture customer base. And it helped me improve my targeting and personalized marketing strategies.

Automation and personalization

AI can also help automate processes and deliver personalized content at scale. When I created my dynamic email campaigns, I adapted content based on lead behaviors, prompting the tool how to tailor communications. Customers feel special when they are “seen” by businesses. With personalization, I’ve been able to extend beyond the initial lead generation phase. Clients are more satisfied and I’ve gotten repeat business.

Video marketing

Video marketing is another way to offer a dynamic experience. People are naturally captivated by the visual and auditory appeal of videos, so you can draw more attention by promoting them across your social media, website, and email campaigns.

Make sure the content is compelling though – short product demonstrations, testimonials, or educational pieces can enhance the lead generation process. You’ll earn brand ambassadors when you make it memorable. Use a shareable format so leads respect your concise style and usability. ( Back to top )

3 Ways Generative AI Will Help Marketers Connect With Customers

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Learn AI Skills on Trailhead

How do you measure the success of your lead gen strategy .

Having metrics as part of your toolkit for evaluating lead generation efforts is crucial for several reasons. Number one, they offer a clear understanding of what is working and what needs work. Number two, these metrics contribute to accountability.

When you quantify the cost-effectiveness of acquiring leads and assessing their quality, you can better allocate your marketing budget. Last, having measurable metrics encourages you to set realistic benchmarks for the kind of progress you hope to make over time.

Key metrics for evaluating lead generation efforts include:

Conversion rate: Track the percentage of leads that take a desired action, such as filling out a form or making a purchase.

Cost per lead (CPL): Calculate the cost incurred for acquiring a single lead, dividing the total spend by the number of leads generated. If a marketing campaign costs $1,000 and generates 200 leads, the CPL is $5.

Lead quality: Assess the quality of leads based on their likelihood to convert into customers. For instance, if a business uses lead scoring and finds that leads with a score above 80 are more likely to convert, it indicates the effectiveness of the lead generation strategy.

Return on investment (ROI): Measure the overall effectiveness of lead generation efforts by comparing the revenue generated to the total investment.

At Salesforce, we survey a variety of marketers across the globe to understand current priorities and trends. We promote the resulting report across a variety of channels where the public can filter the data for a taste of the value in the report. We want them to be inspired to click on the ‘Full Report’ button where they’re asked to provide contact info (which generates a lead) in order to gain access to the full report, which is quite extensive.

It’s promoted across a variety of channels: social, email, digital display, and content syndication. We also retarget the audience to deliver further down-funnel content. ( Back to top )

What are the best practices for lead generation?

Best practices in lead generation are not just about increasing leads. We want to earn the respect of our customers and keep connections positive and ongoing. When you adhere to a quality work ethic, you signal a commitment to transparency. This is crucial in a landscape marked by privacy concerns. You’ll gain more leads and earn their respect if you consider the following tips:

Target the right audience. The better you understand your buyer personas, demographics, and behaviors, the better you can use data analytics to prioritize segments that align with your product or service.
Reliable lead qualification and scoring requires clearly defined criteria. Regularly review and adjust your scoring system based on data analysis and feedback.
Consistent brand messaging and delivering on promises builds trust and credibility. This might mean sharing customer testimonials and showcasing industry awards or certifications.
Use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that features lead scoring, activity tracking, and communication history to ensure a comprehensive view of each lead’s journey.
Keep lead capture forms concise. Focus on key details and use strategic placement on landing pages.
Use A/B testing to refine elements like form fields, layout, and CTA language. Track these metrics: conversion rates, CPL, lead quality, and ROI.
Use AI and machine learning algorithms to analyze data, predict lead behavior, and automate personalized interactions. AI-powered chatbots (copilots) help with real-time engagement and use predictive analytics to identify high-value leads.
A culture of iterating on strategies means regular assessments. Ask for feedback from your sales teams. Ask yourself: Is our workflow agile? How can we improve?

Lead generation is how you build trust with and bond with your audience. It takes some work to set up properly. But do it right and you’re more likely to earn more business – and create those lasting, meaningful relationships with customers. ( Back to top )

What’s next for generative AI and marketing?

Learn what’s ahead for this technology and see new ways you can use it to connect with your customers. Our latest research tells you all you need to know.

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Neha Shah is the Senior Director of Marketing Cloud Engagement at Salesforce. In her role, she drives product positioning and solution messaging for Salesforce's B2B marketing offerings. She brings a strong background in technology and business, and has a proven track record of bringing solutions to market that help SaaS companies accelerate growth. She’s passionate about leveraging data-driven techniques to drive superior customer engagement. Neha holds a BS in Computer Science and Finance from Rutgers University and an MBA from Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.

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How to Do Lead Research: Solid Tips for SDRs and Marketers

Ojesvi Singh

How to Do Lead Research: Solid Tips for SDRs and Marketers

Your marketing efforts do their magic when you can pinpoint the promising leads. But, to reach the right prospects, you must master your lead research efforts. It may involve better ideal customer profiling, social intelligence, and more.

Where 67% of B2B marketers already focus on quality lead gains, you can compete ahead by refining your research strategies. So, explore this guide on the best tips to improve your capabilities as a lead researcher. We'll also check out select best practices and possible challenges.

6 Tips for a Thorough Lead Research Process

Your competitors might be trying hard to get the best lead data. But the tips given below for your research practices will help you get the upper hand. These are as follows:

1. Find Your Exact Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

When researching leads, identifying your ICP is a significant step. It serves as a strategic compass, ensuring your outreach resonates with the right audience.

To craft a robust ICP, delve into its key components:

Demographics: Understand the characteristics of your ideal customers. It includes age, gender, location, and other relevant personal details.
Industry: Specify the industries that align with your product or service.
Company Size: Define the ideal size of the companies you want to target, whether small businesses, mid-sized enterprises, or large corporations.
Geographic Location: Pinpoint the geographic areas where your ideal customers reside.
Challenges: Identify your ideal customers' major and minor difficulties and pain points.
Buying Behavior: Analyze the typical buying behavior of your ideal customers. It involves understanding their decision-making process and preferences.
Budget Considerations: Determine the lead's budget range. Check if it aligns with your product or service.
Tech Stack: Explore the technologies and tools your ideal customers use. Check for integration possibilities and compatibility.
Decision-Making Authority: Define the roles and positions within the target organization that hold decision-making authority.
Cultural Fit: Consider the cultural values and preferences that resonate with your ideal customers.

An accurate ICP plays a pivotal role in finding high-value leads faster. Plus, you can allocate resources wisely once you know whom to target. To ensure the best outcome of your research efforts:

Employ reliable sales lead research platforms that help you build a lead list .
Cross-reference collected data with your existing client base to eliminate overlaps.
Maximize potential by A/B testing ideal client profiles.

2. Conduct Preliminary Research

The next tip is to run thorough and strategic lead research across various databases and resources. Here are a few great ways to do it:

Pick Prominent Sources for Research

Select reliable and authoritative sources for gathering lead information. Prominent sources may include:

Well-established websites
Academic journals
Reputable publications
Government databases

Explore Advanced Search Techniques

Go beyond basic search engine queries and use more effective search techniques. It involves using specific search operators or modifiers to refine your results.

For example:

"Artificial intelligence in healthcare"
"Best practices for project management"
Renewable energy -solar
Web development -JavaScript
site:nytimes.com "latest technology trends"
site:stackoverflow.com "Python programming tips"

These techniques help retrieve more targeted and relevant information. Besides it, you can also try:

Deep Web Search: It lets you access information not indexed by traditional search engines.
Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT): They allow you to search for more complex and precise search queries.
Niche Platforms: These refer to specialized websites or databases tailored to specific industries or topics.

Check Out Lesser-Known Search Databases

Access sources that may not be commonly used but can provide valuable insights. These could include:

Industry-specific databases
Research repositories
Platforms that cater to niche areas

Collect the information in a unified sales lead database for easy access.

Identify Where to Find Decision-Makers

You must understand where and how to find information about executives, managers, or prospects with decision-making authority. It includes exploring:

Company websites
Professional networking platforms
Industry directories

3. Harness Social Media Intelligence Insights

Social media platforms are valuable sources for filling up your lead generation database.

89% of marketers are already on platforms like LinkedIn to find and generate leads.

So, you only need to recognize and tap into the vast data on social media platforms. Here, you can find details about individuals, companies, and industries. You can also get insights into people's interests, activities, connections, and professional backgrounds.

NOTE: For B2B lead research, LinkedIn and Twitter are the best sites.

However, beyond basic social media browsing, you should use advanced techniques. These include:

Using social media analytics tools like Hootsuite Analytics , Google Analytics , etc.
Monitoring relevant hashtags or keywords
Employing advanced search functionalities on social platforms
Leveraging social listening tools to track decision-makers discussing issues, topics, and solutions your business relates to.
Participating in discussions, joining groups, or leveraging paid advertising features.

Remember : When you gather information about prospects through third-party or built-in social media analytics, address ethical considerations and respect privacy. Avoid intrusive methods to collect data, and be transparent about data usage.

4. Perform Competitive Analysis for Lead Insights

56% of executives actively monitor potential competitors and strategize to expand into new markets. So, why should you be left behind?

Study and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors in the market. It's a goldmine for lead research because competitors often target similar audiences. Thus, you must analyze your competing businesses:

Customer interactions
Market positioning

It gives insights into potential leads, market trends, and customer preferences. Here's how you can do competitor analysis:

Examine your competitors' existing customer base to identify potential leads and understand their characteristics.
Analyze customer reviews.
Monitor social media interactions.
Study public testimonials

You can tailor your approach to attract similar leads by identifying who is engaging with your competitors. Additionally, you can modify your targeting and messaging strategies.

5. Implement Collaborative Research Efforts

Your sales and marketing teams should collaborate well for a unified and practical approach to lead research. These two departments must align their goals, share insights, and create a cohesive strategy.

Discuss ways both teams can share data, tools, or expertise resources. Strategies may include:

Establishing a centralized database
Conducting regular team meetings to share findings
Utilizing collaborative tools that facilitate information exchange

By pooling resources and sharing research findings, teams can ensure everyone accesses valuable insights. Here's how you can make your collaborative lead research more effective:

Set clear communication channels between sales and marketing
Establish a shared understanding of the target audience
Create a feedback loop to improve research strategies continuously

6. Leverage Connection-building Psychology

B2B prospects mainly focus on tangible and rational considerations. But they also exhibit universal human characteristics. These include experiencing:

Frustrations

Thus, they prioritize consistent quality, safety, reliability, and excellent customer service while buying. It shows the impact of emotion-driven decision-making in business.

So, while building a prospecting list , focus on the sentiments of decision-makers and organizations that your solution can satisfy. Besides emotions, also recognizing their:

Distinctive viewpoints
Mutual interests
Shared experiences

It will help you search for leads likely to be loyal due to shared values.

Best Practices for Error-Free Lead Research

While finding leads, your lead database's quality, completeness, and correctness are essential. Here's how you can make it happen:

1. Fill in Missing Lead Data

Actively seek additional information about your leads to fill in gaps in your created database. Conduct interviews or surveys with your target audience to get exclusive insights that may not be readily available through other means.

2. Replace the Old Database with Up-to-Date Information

Over time, contact information and other details about your leads can change. It's essential to update your database with the most current information available by using various methods like data enrichment and email scrubbing . It may include recent contact numbers, email addresses, job titles, and other relevant details.

This way, you can verify lead data, removing errors while reaching out.

Here are some ways to do it:

Cross-reference available information with multiple sources
Use data validation tools like Webbula , Astera , etc.
Reach out directly to leads for confirmation.

Common Challenges and Solutions

Here are the top challenges while searching for the right business leads . You can also find their provided solutions:

1. Lengthy Manual Entry and Routine Tasks

Challenge: Conducting thorough lead research involves sifting through large volumes of data. When your team does it manually, it can be time-consuming and prone to errors.

Solution: Incorporate automation tools and technologies like:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems ( HubSpot , Salesforce , etc)
Data enrichment tools ( Clearbit , Enricher.io , etc.)
Lead generation platforms ( Zendesk Sell, Revnew , etc.)

These tools can automate data entry, update information in real-time, and handle routine tasks.

2. Unclear ROI Feasibility for ICP

Challenge: You need to invest significant resources in researching and pursuing leads. However, it's challenging to tell whether the leads align with your expected return on investment (ROI).

Solution: Regularly reassess and refine the ICP based on performance metrics. It ensures your resources reach leads with the highest ROI feasibility.

3. Scenarios Where No Leads Match Your ICP

Challenge- In some cases, no leads may precisely match your selected ICP. It causes a considerable loss of money and time.

Solution: Have contingency plans in place. It could involve:

Broadening the criteria of your ICP to capture a wider audience.
Exploring adjacent markets that may share similarities with the target audience.
Investing in market research to identify emerging trends and potential new segments that align with their offerings.

Advanced B2B lead research hinges on a data-driven, collaborative, and industry-specific methodology. You must emphasize these principles for a successful lead generation campaign.

Integrate these strategies into your existing practices for a holistic and practical approach that maximizes superior lead research results.

Make the process easier with expert-recommended specialized strategies at Revnew. We have proven expertise to help you reach high-value B2B leads. Contact us today to know more.

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The New Rules of B2B Lead Generation

James Piacentino,
Mathias Bombardi

Five ways sales teams can adapt to a new landscape.

Face-to-face meetings are back, but is that what clients are looking for? Companies need to update their lead generation strategies to make them more data-driven and more in line with what potential clients’ preferences. To adapt, companies should follow a new B2B sales playbook: 1) build the right team for the job, 2) create simplified content that articulates the firm’s industry offerings, 3) push the content to market, 4) have teams share relevant leads with sales, and 5) measure outcomes at multiple levels.

At the beginning of 2020, it was the norm for any respectable technology industry leader in business to business (B2B) sales to spend upwards of 80% of their time on the road and with clients. They would be on continuous lookout for new prospects and qualified leads through face-to-face interactions, taking potential clients to sporting events and chatting them up at annual conferences. Ironically, given the industry, not much science or tech was behind the development of pipelines or closing the deal.

IG Ian Gross is a go-to-market leader in the technology sector, having served in strategy and operations roles at LinkedIn, IBM and Boston Consulting Group. He has over a decade of experience conducting research, consulting for Fortune 500 clients and supporting enterprise sales teams in high-growth environments. Ian has an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business and a BA from the University of Maryland.
JP James Piacentino is a Global Vice President, Products and Industry Solutions at SAP, where he leads a team focused on customer success. Prior to SAP, James has helped build and scale two successful startups and continues to provide ongoing mentorship in Silicon Valley and Chicago for socially conscious, consumer and music industry startups. James has earned an MBA from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management in Evanston Illinois and is a published musician through ASCAP.
MB Mathias Bombardi is a Partner and leader in IBM’s Enterprise Strategy and Industry Transformation Unit spanning all client industries in key geographies. He has 15+ years of experience helping client executives at Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 telcos, media, financial service providers, high tech, natural resources, and the public sector. Prior to joining IBM, Mathias helped lead Booz Allen’s strategy and change capability area for the Financial Services market and supported the stand-up of Accenture’s corporate innovation program.

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Lead generation specialist: job description, requirements, and hiring template.

Tags: Getting Started , Hiring & Talent , Lead Generation
Published: October 4, 2022
Updated: January 27, 2023

Lead generation is a critical function in sales and marketing. If your company is experiencing a slow period with fewer customers than usual, or if you’re struggling to maintain your supply of prospects and grow, you may require the services of a lead generation specialist.

A lead generation specialist identifies and organizes leads as they move through the sales cycle. This expert captures new prospects, qualifies them, and manages them with CRM and other automation tools to generate hot leads. Companies hire lead generation specialists to reduce their sales workload and increase productivity .

Lead generation specialists can work as freelancers, on in-house teams, or for lead generation agencies. To choose the most suitable option, sales leaders must do an in-depth evaluation of their business needs.

Responsibilities of a Lead Generation Specialist

A lead generation specialist’s job is to find prospects, educate them, and nurture their interest in a company’s products or services.

The daily activities of a lead generation specialist include:

Prospect leads through relevant channels;
Qualify leads by levels of interest;
Coordinate lead gen campaigns with marketing and sales;
Research prospective customers to identify lead channels;
Create and curate content for inbound lead channels;
Initiate cold calls, emails, and other outbound communications;
Manage leads in the sales pipeline;
Organize lead data with CRM tools;
Collaborate with SDM to develop and implement sales strategies.

Skills for Lead Generation Specialists

To produce the best results for your lead generation process, your ideal candidate must have the proper knowledge and skills for the job. Successful lead generation specialists are skilled at:

lead generation specialist job description 2024

Communication

Lead generation specialists should be expert communicators as they contact prospects through cold calls, emails, and other means of communication. They must adeptly pass information to leads, encouraging them to develop an interest in your company.

Search engine optimization skills are essential for lead generation. SEO makes it easier for people to find your company and raises visibility among your target audience.

Lead generation specialists should be able to implement both on-page and off-page SEO strategies 1 on company websites.

Social selling

Lead generation experts must develop the ability to reach out and sell to leads on social media. Top lead gen specialists use social listening techniques on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to find queries, start conversations, and build brand credibility.

Customer targeting

Lead generators arrange potential clients in the pipeline 2 according to their interest in the business. This allows them to tailor content and personalize communication to their specific needs.

Lead nurturing

Lead nurturing is the process of building rapport with prospective customers at various stages of the sales process. It is essential for qualifying leads and finding the ones most likely to convert.

Data analysis

The best lead generation specialists extract useful insights from the data they get from prospects. Key metrics such as conversion and drop-off rate assist lead generation experts in focusing on the right prospects and driving sales.

Lead Generation Specialist Salary

The average compensation for a lead generation specialist is shown below.

Salary ranges for this position typically go from $41,900 to $53,000. Bonuses, healthcare, pensions, paid time off, social security, and paid training allowances are examples of additional compensation for the role.

Sample Job Description For Lead Generation Specialist

We are looking for an experienced lead generation specialist to join our team of sales professionals. We are expanding into new territories in the United States and need an expert lead generator to identify new customers for our service.

Our ideal candidate will manage outbound communication, oversee lead generation campaigns, and generate quality leads for our sales department.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or higher in business administration, marketing, or related fields
Minimum of 3 years experience in lead generation, sales, or marketing
Excellent communication skills
Ability to deliver results with minimal supervision
Goal-oriented, with an ability to meet deadlines
A positive approach to objection handling
Good organizational skills and attention to detail
Knowledge of CRM and database management tools
Good use of social media and content management systems, e.g., WordPress

Bottom Line

Lead generation specialists maintain a steady flow of customers for your sales pipeline. Many companies overlook their expertise, and their sales processes suffer as a result.

Top-performing businesses have lead generation specialists who skillfully identify prospects and accelerate sales. You can hire one using the job description above, or outsource the process to a reputable lead generation team.

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide
https://www.saleshacker.com/sales-pipeline-management-best-practices/
What is B2B Lead Generation – YouTube
https://www.spiceworks.com/marketing/marketing-careers-skills/articles/lead-generation-career-skills-job-description/

Oreoluwa Alabi

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Sales Leads Researcher

A lead researcher is a person who delivers curated, highly-targeted, and accurate lead lists for your company. The goal of a lead researcher is to enhance the work of your sales team and fill your pipeline with potential clients.

The quality of your contact lists defines the effectiveness of your outbound prospecting. Bought contact lists miss a lot of things a researcher doesn’t. At CIENCE, every lead researcher’s work is based on a client’s buyer persona and ICP . This is how our team knows what companies need your product, as well as which decision-maker will be the most suitable contact point.

Key Responsibilities

Research contact information for sales leads;
Work with various online tools and databases to enrich leads;
Record all lead details in a database.

Read about Data Researcher's daily activities at CIENCE.

How Do I Improve My Lead Researchers’ Performance?

Craft your buyer persona and ICP carefully You should compose these profiles for each sales and marketing campaign you conduct. One mistake in crafting your ICP can result in a failed campaign. At first sight, your leads may seem totally fine. But if one of the main requirements of your ICP is set wrong, it will lead your campaign in the wrong direction. Unsorted contact lists will waste your money because your SDRs will spend colossal amounts of time knocking on doors that will never open.
Set Key Performance Indicator (KPI) criteria clearly The accuracy of leads is the KPI for lead researchers. Each inaccurate lead allows you to pinpoint the mistakes your researchers make, why they make it, and how it can be fixed.
Reward your lead researchers for perfect contact lists Lead research is hard work that requires people to be attentive and tedium-resistant. To lift up the spirits and boost the productivity of your workers, implement a bonus system. This will reward lead researchers that composed lists free of inaccurate contacts.
Outsource Outsourcing is an efficient option to increase your team’s productivity. Adding another pair of hands to your team won’t hurt, plus it’s cheaper than the in-house option. For instance, the average salary of a lead researcher per year is almost twice as high as hiring CIENCE as an outsource option.

A lead researcher delivers accurate and highly-targeted lead lists for your company. This work is the starting point of the lead generation process. Your lead researchers’ work should be based on a buyer persona and an ICP.

Need help with lead research? CIENCE can help!

Lead Generation Articles

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Lead Generation Tools: How to Choose and Use the Right Tools

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Top Lead Researcher Skills and Tools You Should Have to Succeed

Who is a sales lead generation researcher ‍
The best lead sources ‍
The most powerful market research tools for generating high leads ‍
How to improve the performance of your lead generation researchers

researcher skills and tools to have as a lead researcher

Poor quality leads results from a lack of lead researcher skills in any organization, which lowers the close rate and frustrates the sales team . As a result, lead generation sounds like a vast, terrifying wolf.

A crucial component of a B2B lead creation process is data. It has the potential to make or break the success of your export efforts.

The correct data can help you fill your sales funnel with qualified leads and make your sales team's job easier. That is why you must have the personnel to collect and process your B2B data.

Your organization may have the best pitch and the most devoted SDRs, but if the data quality of your lead list is inadequate, you will waste your lead generation team's efforts.

Surprisingly, several businesses still feel that simply getting a data subscription or a pre-generated contact list will be enough. It's not the case.

Getting the necessary data necessitates a qualified sales lead researcher, but more importantly, tools that collect raw market data.

Here are some of the top sales lead generation research skills and tools to help you get started with customer research and lead generation. But first, let's begin by defining who a sales lead researcher is.

Who is a sales lead generation researcher?

They, to put it simply, are someone who provide your business with curated, highly targeted, and accurate lead lists. His job is to supplement your sales team's efforts and fill your pipeline with prospects.

The quality of your contact lists determines the efficiency of your outbound prospecting. Purchased contact lists leave out a lot of details that a researcher would notice. Every lead researcher at AI bees bases their work on a client's buyer persona and ICP.

It is how our team determines which companies require your product and which decision-maker will be the best point of contact.

Typically, their work responsibilities and skills include:

Lead Generation Researcher's Job Description:

They use accessible resources (such as the internet, social media, LinkedIn, and other resources) to gather further information on markets, business sectors and target opportunities to be first in line for future opportunities.

They find out about potential clients (via phone, web, social media, etc.), track down important decision-makers' names, and double-check and confirm addresses, contacts, email addresses, and phone numbers.
They maintain market and lead information in the CRM system and appointments made by the sales staff and feedback/subsequent actions after those appointments.

Lead Generation Researcher Skills

1. List Building

Get the contact information for leads that you can't find on pre-made lists. To receive the most accurate and up-to-date data, search every accessible free and paid database—the kind of data that takes SDRs hours, days, or even weeks to compile.

Create lookalike audiences for targeted ad campaigns using your new lists for cold email campaigns, appointment setup, and cold email campaigns.

2. Audience Expansion

Data on social media is immense. However, most teams find that trawling through every platform is a time-consuming rabbit hole. The researcher saves organizations time and effort when their sales reps create relationships and schedule appointments.

The researchers know how and where to look for information: increasing reach, brand awareness, and relevant site traffic.

3. Reverse IP Lookup

A researcher assists businesses in determining which companies are visiting their website. They can identify decision-maker details from these hot leads using complex filtering and segmentation. The company's team is free to do best: make contact, develop relationships, and close deals.

4. Behavior-based Intent Research

A researcher use data from behavior-based research to assist companies in better understanding their leads, such as which software they use, job changes, social media activity, and more.

They can build the correct message at the right time with information on each lead's level of intent, enhancing conversion rates and sales productivity.

5. Competitor Analysis

Researchers gathered competitive intelligence. This data can improve sales calls, target consumer profiles and assist businesses to narrow their competitive advantage.

Now that you know the critical skills of the researchers, let's look at the lead sources you should be using.

What are the best lead sources?

Yes, video has grown in popularity over the last few years. However, this does not exclude you from writing and publishing blog posts on your website. Contrary to popular belief, blog posts–particularly long-form blog posts–remain one of the most effective lead sources for your website.

Take a look at this stat:

A blog can be a fantastic and low-cost approach to generating leads for outbound sales. They're also excellent SEO tools that can help you broaden your reach and profile online.

Use data-driven decisions to ensure that your blog is successful. Begin by figuring out who your user is. Then, based on your website's most important keywords, create a content schedule.

Finally, make sure your material is SEO-friendly and promote it on social media to ensure it reaches the proper people.

2. Guest posts

Publishing as a guest on someone else's blog is a terrific way to start when expanding into new markets and reaching new audiences. It might increase visitors to your blog and earn backlinks for your website.

Only distribute high-quality websites relevant to your business to ensure you get the most out of guest posts. Spend enough time on your article's writing, editing, and polishing. Keep in mind that this is the first time someone has heard about you or your firm, so make sure you can meet their expectations.

3. Email Marketing

If you understand how to use email marketing, it can be one of your most cost-effective lead generation tools.

Send personalized emails to each user persona by segmenting your user base. Maintain consistency, and use email marketing tools to make your material more aesthetically appealing and to help you plan ahead of time.

4. Paid Per Click Ads

Paid ads are an excellent way for both large and small businesses to discover leads with a high conversion rate. Each content you create takes Google 90-180 days to index, rank, and show. Your company can't afford to wait that long for results in the online industry, growing increasingly competitive. As a result, many businesses combine their PPC and inbound marketing efforts.

When running a PPC campaign, Google prioritizes your content in their search results page above your competitors (SERP), increasing your material's visibility to your target market.

PPC advertising, in effect, kick-starts lead creation and customer acquisition. Keep the momentum continuing with your content marketing plan.

PPC advertising, on the other hand, necessitates a financial investment to get up and run.

5. Organic Search Traffic

Organic search traffic is one of the key performance indicators (KPIs) that marketers like you monitor in producing leads.

When you establish a marketing campaign, measuring organic search traffic as a lead source is similar to tracking and monitoring it.

That's because you look at how each of your targeted keywords is performing in both scenarios. To collect the data, you also check the same area in your Google Analytics dashboard. The distinction between the two is how you interpret the information you've gathered.

The more times your content appears for a specific keyword phrase, the more likely that keyword phrase is to generate leads. However, you'll need lead generation tools to capture your audience's attention and get their contact information. Finding the proper ones for your company can help it grow more quickly, create essential connections, and uncover new opportunities.

The Most Powerful Market Research Tools for Generating High Leads

AI bees provide some of the most unique lead generation tools available, which can help you not just generate leads but also convert them.

1. AI Nectar

CRM and new opportunities to get the best customers

We use proprietary, patented AI and machine learning algorithms to identify businesses that could potentially be your best clients. We then engage those clients with your content to generate quality leads for you.

2. AI Memory

Using top lookalike companies, we enhance your account and use it to target prospects that are similar to your best clients. Our AI solution would identify lookalike companies and find opportunities to promote your solution or services.

Harvesting the companies generated by our AI Engines allows us to pinpoint specific personas, who need your solutions and services. We target each specific persona’s pain points and consider what triggers them to avail of your solutions and services.

4. Behavioral Profile Analyzer

We analyze behavioral profiles to target a specific persona who would benefit the most from your solution or service. With that information, we can create a persona branding that focuses on pain points that would affect their task and can be addressed by your solution.

The objective of understanding each persona's behavior is to discover opportunities to optimize the messaging that quantifies the value of your solution to their business.

A personalized messaging that directly targets a persona's pain points will effectively resonate with them and trigger the need to pursue your solution.

5. Psychographic Profile Analyzer

We perform a qualitative analysis from the psychographic profiling of each potential prospect's interest, temperament, personality, quirks, habits, and other idiosyncrasies to understand what influences them in choosing your solution or services.

Targeting their profile allows us to focus on a strategy that scratches the prospect's itch when marketing. We create compelling messaging with which your prospects can resonate more while making it all more effective for your target market.‍

It is an effective tool in reaching out to prospects by diving deeper into their motivation to choose your solution or service. We produce qualitative analyses from extensive research, data analytics, and customer outreach.

6. Geo-Demographic Profile

As one of the most straightforward paths in market segmentation, understanding the market based on a prospect's Geo-Demographic profiles completely depends on how the data is analyzed. We took it to the next step by creating a data-based analysis that focuses on each demographic variation's similarities and differences. The focus is on targeting demographics with a market preference for your specific solution and how a campaign should start.

Being one of the most straightforward paths in market segmentation , understanding the market based on a prospect's Geo-Demographic profiles completely depends on how the data is being analyzed.

We focus on bringing your solution close to what a demographic would expect by using messaging that resonates across different regions.

What can you do to improve the performance of your lead generation researchers?

1. Carefully craft your buyer character and ICP.

It would help if you created these profiles for each sale and marketing campaign you run. A single blunder in creating your ICP can lead to a campaign failure.

Your leads may appear to be in perfect condition at first glance. However, if one of your ICP's immediate needs is incorrectly configured, your campaign will go in the wrong direction.

Your SDRs will waste a lot of time knocking on doors that will never open if they incorrectly organize contact lists.

2. Set precise criteria for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Lead accuracy is the key performance indicator for sales lead researchers. Each incorrect lead enables you to pinpoint your researchers' errors, why they make them, and how they might correct them.

3. Reward your sales lead researchers for creating the most accurate contact listings.

Lead research is arduous labor that necessitates a high concentration level and a high level of tedium tolerance. Implement a reward system to elevate your employees' spirits and increase their productivity. It will reward sales lead generation researchers who created contact lists that are free of errors.

4. Outsource

Outsourcing is a cost-effective way to boost your team's production. Adding another pair of hands to your team won't hurt, and it'll be less expensive than hiring someone in-house.

Research is the ignition that starts your sales engine, whether you do it internally or through outsourced services. A lead generation researcher provides your firm with reliable and highly targeted lead lists. This work is where the lead generation process begins. The operational side of data researchers' work isn't all that difficult.

What counts the most is how you do it. Your lead generation researchers should base their work on buyer personas and ICPs.

Need help with lead research? AI bees can help!

Brian Hadi Attarbashi

Brian is the CEO of AI bees. When he is not running the company with German precision, Brian writes expert articles about marketing and manufacturing. When not doing these, you will find him rescuing dogs or mowing competition down at a jiu jitsu studio.

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Lead generation

Last updated: 14 November, 2023

What is a lead?

Types of leads, what is lead generation, importance of lead generation.

Who should conduct lead generation in my company?

Types of the lead generation process

Lead generation strategies

Lead generation tools, lead generation techniques, b2b lead generation trends 2023, checkout our sales pipeline templates freebies.

You’ve probably heard about the “lead generation” term many times, but what is lead generation exactly, and what should you know before developing your lead generation strategy?

Let’s find out together, starting from what a lead is, how to generate leads, how the B2B lead generation process goes, what lead gen trends are there, and how to find your first leads.

A lead is a person or a company potentially interested in your product or service. Every lead consists of information that you have on them. For example, a basic lead would be a name, contact details, and company name/location/job title.

Now let’s have a look at how to categorize leads. We’ve defined three main ways you can do it:

Lead type 1: Based on interest

Interest is the first point that helps you define leads and split them into two subgroups:

Warm, or inbound leads , are the ones who showed their interest by themselves and found you on their own (for example, they came across your blog and subscribed to your newsletters).
Cold, or outbound leads , are a subgroup of leads generated by you thanks to your targeting strategy and lead generation tools.

Outbound lead generation is rightfully considered more difficult than inbound due to the complexity, time, and effort needed from the sales team side.

Lead type 2: Based on enrichment

The second type is based on the information you have on your leads. Depending on the amount of data you have, you can divide them into two subgroups:

Non-enriched leads are thin on information . Most often, they only have a name and an email address or a phone number (one contact method).
Enriched leads come with a set of additional information you can use for personalization and multi-channel marketing: secondary contact details, company name, location, job position, pain points, etc.

Lead type 3: Based on qualification

This type helps define leads based on their qualification and stage in the sales funnel:

Marketing qualified lead (MQL) has an interest in you but is still not ready to communicate. Let’s say, they’ve subscribed to your blog newsletters or signed up through your lead magnet, leaving their contact information in exchange.
Sales qualified lead (SQL) has expressed actual interest in your product and is one step closer to becoming a paying customer. For example, such business leads leave their contact information to get in touch with your sales team to learn more details about your product.
Product qualified lead (PQL) has taken action to become a paying customer. They are similar to SQLs but with a slight difference: PQLs are typical for companies that provide a free trial (like Snov.io ). These leads may be using your free trial but are asking you about some of the features available in paid plans only.

Now that we’re done with the lead definition, let’s dive deeper into lead generation meaning and what it entails.

Lead generation is a process of searching for people who may be potentially interested in your service and getting in contact with them to communicate further and convert. It coincides with the first step in the buyer’s journey – the awareness stage.

The lead-to-customer conversion rate is never 100%. This is why filling in the sales funnel with quality leads is the main lead generation purpose. The importance of getting quality leads is obvious. It helps you:

Target the right people. You focus your resources on specific customers who are more likely to buy your product or service. This results in saved time and money, streamlining your company’s processes and growing sales.
Build brand awareness. Lead generation always entails educating your leads on your company and its product — both when they get to know about you on their own or when you reach out to them with the information about your product’s features. Leads can then spread information about your brand by word of mouth, bringing you even more clients.
Get valuable data . As a rule, generating leads means collecting information about your prospective customers, their wants and needs, and your competitors. This helps you improve your product or service so that it has a competitive advantage in the market.
Grow revenue. With an effective lead generation strategy, your company can get 133% more revenue than you’ve planned.

Who should conduct lead generation in my company?

Lead generation is a step-by-step process conducted by two groups: sales reps and marketers:

The sales group usually focuses on generating cold leads and then using them for cold calling, cold emailing, and cold marketing campaigns. They go for quantity first, qualify leads, and then work closely with the most engaged ones.

The marketing group focuses on generating warm leads . First, they acquire business leads through different marketing channels, warm them up with relevant approaches, and then forward hot leads to the sales department or make the sale right away.

Sales and marketing have different methods and needs, but the goal is always the same — a client, a deal, a sale.

Types of the leads generation process

The leads generation process depends on the marketing methodology, i.e., how customers get to know you: whether they find you (inbound lead generation) or you find them (outbound lead generation).

Inbound lead generation

The inbound online lead generation process is permission-based, meaning that your potential customer finds and decides to interact with you on their own. It consists of the following steps:

A potential customer discovers your company by visiting one of your marketing channels (your website, blog, social media page).
They react to your call-to-action (CTA) by clicking on a button or a link that contains a message encouraging them to take some action.
They are sent to your landing page, where they fill out a form in exchange for a valuable offer (any lead magnet you create), this way becoming your leads.

Outbound lead generation

Outbound lead generation is interruption-based, meaning you find those people who are more likely to become your customers. You contact them directly with the aim of communicating your brand and delivering your sales pitch. It embraces the following stages:

You identify your leads (people who match your ideal customer profile), determine their needs, and think about how you can help them.
You do research: look for leads’ contact information, collect it, and keep it organized.
You reach out to your leads via cold emails, cold calls, or social networks.

Now that you understand the difference between inbound and outbound types of the lead generation process, let’s focus on the lead generation strategies you’ll be using for each case.

Inbound lead generation strategies

The inbound way of getting new leads rests on lead generation marketing. The latter consists in finding promotional channels that will attract your potential customers. The sources of inbound leads vary depending on the niche (most common being content marketing, social media, and search engines).

Content marketing

About 80% of B2B companies use content marketing for lead generation. Blog posts, freebies, and infographics are only the tip of the content marketing iceberg – your imagination is the limit.

Depending on your goals and buyer persona , different content types will work better than others. So, analyze and focus your efforts on content that attracts the best inbound leads. Here are some examples:

Articles and guides. Creating high-quality blog content is one of the best opportunities to generate business leads (especially B2B sales leads) because it brings people to your page and positions you as an expert. Do thorough research before you write any article, optimize texts, and share only relevant content.
Lead magnet. This can be any downloadable content you’re willing to give away for an email or relevant information. It can include e-books, cheat sheets, studies, examples, etc. Once verified , use collected emails to send highly personalized and targeted campaigns .
Videos. People perceive information better through videos. Create videos based on the same ideas as for any written content, as long as they solve the lead’s questions. Don’t forget to insert a link that will lead your viewers to an opt-in form, lead magnet, landing page, etc.
Podcasts. They are a great way to generate new leads, as they have become an integral part of our drives to work and professional self-development. 1/3 of adults aged 25-34 listen to podcasts monthly and 1/5 – weekly. So, if your business niche allows, try involving them in your inbound lead gen strategy.

Social media

About 66% of marketers generate leads from social media after spending only 6 hours per week on social marketing.

Using social media, you can combine blogging, targeted ads, and more onto one platform and spread the word of your business far and wide. Each platform has its style, positives, and negatives, but inbound leads will find you there, especially if you engage in targeted sponsored postings and ads.

Around 59% of B2B marketers think SEO has the biggest impact on lead generation. When people are looking for products, services, and solutions to their problems, you want to ensure your lead generation website is the first thing they see. For that, fill your content and pages with keywords and phrases that correspond to these search queries.

Dedicate particular attention to search inquiries. Sustaining off-page SEO is possible with Links Management , which helps you connections with other websites and get many backlinks. Such approaches will also take you to the desired lead generation goals.

Outbound lead generation strategies

Leads that are found can be harder to convert because they have not taken an interest in your offer voluntarily. However, using specific targeting and personalization , the so-called cold leads can be converted just as easily.

Among the widespread outbound lead generation strategies are pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, cold outreach, and content syndication. PPC is a paid option, while lead sourcing can be both paid and free, manual and automated.

PPC advertising

Even though PPC advertising is effectively used to enhance inbound marketing, paid lead generation can also be a key to massive sales. You can run paid ads through Facebook, Google Search, ad networks, and many other paid sources that can provide lots of targeted traffic.

Usually, such leads are captured on custom landing pages created specifically for every campaign. Paid lead generation marketing campaigns also have more detailed lead capturing forms. This is done for a simple reason – you pay money for traffic, and you want your business leads to be as targeted and enriched as possible from the beginning.

This is a great method if you know your perfect target audience and have sales resources to process many warm leads. However, when planning a campaign, you should always answer two vital questions: Do I have enough budget to spend? And how much do leads cost?

Cold outreach

Cold outreach presupposes that you first perform lead sourcing and then connect to potential leads via cold emails or cold calls .

You can conduct lead sourcing eye-to-eye while visiting any marketing or sales events or search for contacts from various sources with lead generation tools.

Many lead generation companies offer solutions that can suit any need and price. As a result, lead sourcing can cost you nothing when performed manually or with the help of free email finder tools . Here are some options how to diversify your lead generation:

Professional social networks (you can easily get contact details of your 2nd and 3rd LinkedIn connections using LinkedIn lead generation strategy — about 80% of leads come from this platform).
Social networks ( Twitter and Facebook lead generation).
Company websites.
B2B directories ( here’s our list of best directories for B2B lead generation ).
Search engine results (especially Google).

Define your target audience, find the right company , decide who you need to get in touch with, and use an email finder to hunt for leads.

As soon as you collect the contact information of your potential clients, reach out to them directly, either by a cold email or a cold call.

✔️ Cold email . Cold email is an effective outbound B2B lead generation strategy. It allows marketing to hundreds of potential leads, especially when you use an email marketing automation tool that lets you build highly personalized emails, adjust their timing, and track the performance of your cold email campaigns.

✔️ Cold calling . This is probably the most traditional lead generation strategy. And although it seems to have been overrun by more progressive approaches, cold calling isn’t dead. You just need to do solid research, prepare a script, think of a proper time to contact your lead, and never rest following up.

Content syndication

Although content distribution is considered an inbound strategy, you can use content syndication as an outbound tactic. For example, if you’ve published a valuable guide, use it to start a conversation with a potential lead.

If you work at scale, manual lead generation is a tough and ineffective job. You need to automate some of your processes, and that’s where lead generation tools come in handy.

Lead generation tools are software that helps you attract leads or find and contact them on your own. There are dozens or even hundreds of lead generation tools available, all categorized depending on your goals. We’ll discuss five of the most popular categories:

Email lookup tools

Email outreach tools

Marketing and sales automation tools/crms, communication tools, advertising tools, email lookup tools.

With this software, you can automate the lead scoring process, namely, finding the email addresses of your leads. Snov.io is just one of them. It allows you to get emails from any website and social media page, automatically verifies them, and lets you create a list of targeted leads.

Other examples of email finder tools : Hunter, FindThatLead, Lusha.

Email is still one of the best tools to help you generate leads. You can do this through targeted email campaigns or cold emails you can easily build and automate with this software.

For instance, with Snov.io Email Drip Campaigns , you can create an email sequence, schedule follow-ups, personalize your message with the help of variables, and even A/B test your campaigns to determine the most effective variant.

Other examples of email outreach tools: Sendinblue, Prospect.io, OutreachPlus.

There are all-in-one marketing and sales automation platforms or CRMs that combine several tools you’ll need for successful lead generation. Besides, many of them offer additional features like lead management or qualification.

For example, with Snov.io, you can not only find your perfect leads and contact them via email but segment and manage them effectively in your personal account. Meanwhile, its integration capabilities let you sync the tool with your favorite apps and CRMs for more profound functionality.

Other examples of marketing and sales automation tools/CRMs: Hubspot, Keap, Constant Contact.

You can generate leads by communicating with those who land on your website via special messengers. These tools are specifically designed to manage communication with your leads in one place.

Examples of communication tools: Intercom, Drift, CallPage.

If you are interested in generating leads by promoting your company, you can try advertising software (unless you are aimed at driving organic traffic). These tools help you attract more people to your website.

Examples of advertising tools: Google Ads, AdEspresso, AdRoll.

Sales lead generation is a sophisticated process that demands a lot of analysis and work. But it can be made easier (and more efficient!) with a few lead generation tips:

Use a tempting CTA

Your whole landing page should always look amazing, but your CTA must be extra alluring to motivate the lead to sign up. Use the potential buyer’s fears and desires when composing the CTA.

Optimize your website and landing pages for mobile

Almost 60% of users would never recommend a website that isn’t mobile-optimized. Make sure all elements are displayed correctly, and your lead can sign up from mobile.

Create evergreen content

Evergreen content is like a quality car – it may take more effort to create, but it will last much longer and pay off much quicker than content built of fleeting trends.

Don’t forget about email marketing

According to numerous research , email marketing is still the best choice for business in 2023. Take advantage of it to nurture leads, onboard, share updates, and, of course, sell.

Be regular and consistent

When people subscribe, they expect something more than just one email. Create an email drip campaign with valuable content and choose the optimal email frequency to always be on your leads’ minds.

Create a referral program

Word of mouth works great in any business. So, let your clients share a referral link to bring you new targeted leads for a small bonus or reward.

Combine lead generation strategies

Ensure leads don’t stop filling your sales funnel. If you see that inbound marketing isn’t bringing you as many leads as you need, take matters into your hands, try outbound lead generation strategies, and rely on lead generation tools.

Lastly, here’s a list of lead generation trends we recommend you to consider, as they’ve proven to perform well when it comes to attracting more leads:

Chatbots. Among a wide range of features, they now offer lead generation. You can insert any question into the chatbot, from “What are you searching for?” to “Leave your email address, and we will send you a freebie.” They are a great choice for small teams as they are fully automated with no human oversight.
Video guides. Use them to divert traffic to your website, for onboarding, or social updates.
Segmentation + personalization. When you segment leads, you can reach them easier and faster, and personalized content will help you convert even more.
Influencer marketing. Influencers are your shortcut to reaching a wide audience in your niche while boosting your brand awareness and image. A few years ago, only B2C companies used influencers. Not anymore – B2B micro-influencers can help you score your white whale !

Wrapping up

Generating leads can be a lot of work, but it pays off. There are many solutions on how to get leads; all you have to do is try to find lead gen channels that are best for you and your business.

We recommend you start with lead sourcing as you can run such lead generation marketing campaigns at no or low cost and get high-quality targeted leads. But don’t be afraid to use email finder tools too.

Go and launch your lead generation campaign today, and let Snov.io help you on your way to getting quality leads!

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With over 100,000 thriving companies on board, Snov.io continues helping businesses grow. Here's what our users say about their experience.

"Our sales revenue has grown by 18% since we started using Snov.io"

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"Snov.io helped us collect more than 80,000 leads in a month, accelerating our search for emails while reducing the cost per lead."

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"We needed something that would help us automate, send emails just in time, yet feel personalized and human. We started looking for a solution, and we found Snov.io."

Sofiia Shvets

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Ricard Colom

Level Up Your Inbound Lead Generation With These 4 Essential Strategies

Generating leads used to be like trying to chase down butterflies with a bug catcher net to add them to your collection—laborious, exhausting and, oh yeah, not so fun for the butterflies themselves. Traditional outbound lead generation methodologies required marketers to play this “bug catcher” role, by constantly cold-calling, mailing and emailing names from a list, in hopes of at least a few of them reciprocating the interest.

But the low close rate for outbound leads made this practice the equivalent of swinging that bug catcher net around in the dark, attempting to catch something in the vicinity, even if the spot wasn’t one that naturally attracts “butterflies” (i.e., qualified leads) And for the prospects who weren’t interested, the entire process was offputting—who wants to be interrupted with a “Telemarketing” or “Scam Likely” caller ID, or endure a poorly targeted video ad?

In contrast, inbound lead generation is like planting a garden that brings the butterflies to you—no net or collection required. Let’s dive into how it works and what counts as a good lead.

What is Inbound Lead Generation?

Inbound lead generation is the process of using content marketing, social media strategy and marketing automation to unobtrusively attract visitors and then convert them into leads. But what’s a lead?

A lead is anyone who has demonstrated interest in what your company offers. They might have done so by:

Providing their email address via a signup form.
Following your official social media account(s).
Commenting on a blog post.

Leads can be qualified in different ways, indicating whether they require additional marketing to close, or are already primed for further progression down the sales funnel (marketing qualified and sales qualified leads, respectively). Basically, a lead is a potential customer, but the amount of effort needed to convert it into a sale can vary considerably based on how it was generated.

Leads are generated via outbound or inbound marketing techniques . Whereas outbound entails aggressively chasing down leads, like our metaphorical bug catcher, inbound marketing takes a lighter but more effective touch, attempting to attract them through content and outreach tailored to their specific needs and buyer’s journey.

Outbound vs Inbound Lead Generation

In outbound marketing, every lead you start with is a “cold” lead. The marketer doesn’t know if they’ll be able to heat it up, so to say, but they try anyway by proactively contacting them and seeing if they can get them to sign up or buy. Outbound marketing is not bad per se , it’s just become much less effective over time since customers can:

More easily do their own research on the internet.
Tune out traditional outbound marketing overtures like pop-up ads and calls.
Choose the channels on which they prefer to engage.

Inbound marketing recognizes these realities and adapts accordingly.

To see how inbound marketing really works, take a look at this image from Brave, the makers of a privacy-focused browser and search engine:

This illustration and the blog post within which it lives are both optimized for Brave’s target audience of tech-savvy, privacy-conscious consumers and business partners. Nowhere in the blog is Brave making a hard pitch to an outbound lead.

Instead, it is providing detailed inbound information meant to educate readers about how there’s minimal risk from abandoning third-party ad tracking—an act that benefits Brave’s overall business strategy. The blog fits naturally into their buyer’s journey.

For another example of inbound marketing, look at the “Open for Business” podcast from eBay:

Again, there is no hard sell or blatant interruption here. This podcast is designed to draw in people interested in running an online business, even if they’re not yet an eBay seller. The idea is to guide listeners through the sales funnel with useful information, in the hopes of turning them into customers and advocates.

Understanding Inbound Lead Generation Methodology

The inbound lead generation process has a specific 4-part structure, which marketers have honed over the years and incorporated into how they manage the sales funnel.

What are the Four Stages of Inbound Methodology?

The four stages of inbound methodology are:

To visualize how these work in succession, consider the following table, which breaks down who an inbound marketer is attempting to reach at each stage and how they usually attempt to do so:

These terms for the different phases of the lead generation process sometimes vary slightly—for instance, “awareness,” “consideration,” “decision” and “delight” is another possible configuration—but the general concept (of someone progressing through stages of buying intent) is still the same. Different inbound marketing tools and strategies are available for generating leads at each of the four main stages.

Let’s map out a consumer’s hypothetical journey through a sales funnel, as guided by inbound techniques across those four phases:

Attract : This consumer, at this point still a stranger, searches for “Where is the best place to put a soundbar?” The SERP page returns a keyword-optimized blog post from a home theater company’s website.
Convert : Now a visitor, this same person begins looking for more tips on how to optimize their audio-visual setup. After an internal site search, they visit a landing page on the optimal settings and connections for a soundbar, and click a CTA to get on a mailing list.
Close : The next day, they get an email with some tips on how to set up a home theater. They click on one of the embedded links, which goes to a demo video hosted on the company’s site. This demonstration provides the final push for them to make a purchase.
Delight : After buying, the customer has a question about the AV equipment they purchased, so they reach out to the company via social media (or through phone support ). They get a prompt response which boosts their likelihood of purchasing again and recommending the brand.

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4 Common Inbound Lead Generation Strategies to Know

When generating leads via inbound marketing, there is no shortage of options for connecting with your target audience.

Indeed, the hard work in implementing an inbound lead generation strategy is often in selecting a handful of inbound strategies for your organization’s requirements from among these numerous possibilities, along with some marketing tools that support them.

To help you out, we’ll look in depth at four common inbound lead generation strategies to know.

1. Email Marketing

Email turned 50 years old in 2021, but it’s still as vital as ever to marketing in general and generating inbound leads in particular. Email is a great inbound marketing channel because, in most cases, the customer will have opted in to receiving messages, meaning they’ve already shown interest in your organization.

Effective email marketing is an art. Each message needs to engage the reader and drive action without seeming spammy. This example from NETGEAR shows how a marketing email can do just that, by reaching someone at the right part of the sales funnel, providing useful information and context but not making a heavy-handed pitch. The closing CTA leads to a Bitdefender blog.

2. Content Marketing

Speaking of blogs, they’re a vital part of content marketing, which itself is a major pillar of inbound lead generation. Take this blog from fintech provider Plaid. It’s deep in the technical weeds, but of utmost importance to Plaid’s target audience of customers and prospects, who want to be confident that the company has the right technical infrastructure in place to reliably connect financial accounts to an application.

The Plaid team demonstrates its technical expertise throughout this post, a piece that sustains the interest of leads in the sales funnel as they evaluate Plaid as a service provider. “Here’s how our databases really work” is in its own way a better sales pitch—an inbound one—than explicitly saying “hey, we’re the best!” on an outbound channel.

3. Product Demos

“Show, don’t tell” is maybe the hoariest of all cliches in writing. But it’s arguably better advice in marketing—inbound lead generation is ultimately about showing a lead that you can meet their needs, rather than simply telling them you can. For this reason, the product demo is a staple of generating leads via inbound methodology.

This explainer from Slack, showing how channels work within the platform, is a good example of a concise demo. Moreover, it’s valuable at multiple parts of the sales funnel, being useful to consumers thinking about trying Slack and to ones who already use it but want to get more value from it.

4. Social Media Marketing

Social media lends itself to both inbound and outbound marketing. Whereas ads and sponsored posts fit into the latter category, organic updates are in the former. It’s possible to create and nurture an audience by turning an official social media account into an inbound marketing channel, as payroll and HR software provider Gusto has done. This Instagram update provides useful information about SBA loans, a post that establishes Gusto as a trusted expert in this domain.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Gusto (@gustohq)

Leveling Up Your Inbound Lead Generation Game

Now that we know about some of the most common inbound techniques for generating leads, let’s turn to a few tips for getting the most mileage from your lead generation strategy.

Record and Link Directly to Webinars

Content marketing expert Neil Patel has singled out webinars as particularly effective inbound lead generation tools, with as much as 40% of their registrants turning into leads . The full process of coordinating, recording, sharing and linking back to webinars requires a little more hands-on effort than some of the techniques described in the previous section, but it’s worth it. The “close” stage of the inbound methodology hinges on your ability to clearly show why a lead can’t pass you up—and webinars deliver a high level of detail that can provide that final bit of convincing.

Make it Easy for Someone to Create an Account and Sign In

Email is pivotal to inbound lead generation, but what if you’re never able to get someone’s email address because they gave up after having to fill out a super-long sign up form? Luckily this hypothetical doesn’t need to materialize, since there are many options for streamlined sign-in via other accounts. The old standbys of “Sign in With Google” and “Sign in With LinkedIn” have been joined by newer alternatives like “Sign in With Apple.” Between them, these options give users a quick and secure way to get on your email list.

Select Lead Generation Tools that Suit Your Strategy

There’s a seemingly endless array of inbound marketing tools out there, designed to cover all four major stages of inbound methodology. No matter how you decide to tailor your inbound marketing strategy, you’ll want foundational tools like CRM software, a social media management platform and tools for boosting the SEO of your site and of individual pages. Beyond those, you’ll want to focus on the solutions that support your most important inbound techniques. Invested heavily in email campaigns? Make sure you’ve got email marketing software that works for your team. Eager to get customer feedback for future product development? Test and select survey platforms.

Re-Optimize Your Content Marketing Assets

Content marketing is a journey, not a destination. Blog posts, infographics and other assets often require updates, either for SEO purposes, to incorporate more recent information or both. Conduct periodic site audits, revisit keyword research and weave in narratives that fit your current branding and messaging, so that your sales funnel doesn’t dry up.

Inbound lead generation can take some trial and error to get right. But once you fine tune the lead generation machine, it’s much easier to operate than the traditional outbound marketing grind, not to mention much more efficient at, well, capturing those leads!

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Alex Cox is a senior writer at Brafton. Originally from Kentucky, he now lives in Chicago with his husband Marvin and an orange cat named Athena. When he's not writing for Brafton or creative projects, he enjoys painting, going for walks, and collecting vintage Nintendo games and controllers.

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How To Measure Lead Generation — KPIs, ROI, and Metrics To Follow

Research by Sales Insights Lab on 400 salespeople shows that only 23.4% of sales reps exceeded their quota last year. Additionally, 54% of sales reps think it’s harder to attract new prospects than it was five years ago.

What do these statistics tell us?

It’s now more important than it’s ever been to measure your lead generation efforts. If you don’t:

You will spend more money than you need to
You will waste time
It will be harder to generate leads
You may continue bad lead generation practices that aren’t serving you
You will lose leads to a sales team with data-driven strategies

Want to know how to measure lead generation? This article will cover 19 KPIs to use.

Here’s what we’ll cover in detail:

Table of Contents

Lead generation metrics and KPIs

Cold email outreach and sales kpis, email deliverability rate.

What it is:

Your email delivery rate (also known as “email acceptance rate”) is how successfully you got your email into your recipients’ inboxes.

Why it’s important:

There is a 0% chance your recipients will read your emails if they don’t make it into people’s inboxes. Tracking your email delivery rate helps ensure your emails make it to the right destination.

How to measure it:

Your email deliverability rate is calculated with this formula: (emails delivered / emails sent) x 100.

Email open rates

Your email open rate (or “click-to-open rate”) tells you how many people opened your email after seeing it in their inbox.

Many factors, including your subject line, email timing, and reputation among your customers and leads, influence your open rate.

A high email open rate indicates your marketing is grabbing people’s attention and a low email rate indicates your emails aren’t.

Open rates change across industries, but assuming you’re personalizing your emails, you should aim for an open rate of 70% .

Your open rate is calculated with this formula: (number of emails opened / number of delivered emails) x 100.

Reply rates

Your reply rate is the percentage of recipients that reply to your outreach email.

Your reply rate tells you how effective your outreach emails were. A high reply rate indicates your outreach email inspired recipients’ to the point they responded, so you should re-use the strategies you employed.

Your reply rate is calculated with this formula: (number of unique responses / number of successfully delivered emails) x 100.

Spam and bounce rates

Your spam rate is the percentage of emails that land in recipients’ spam folders.

Your bounce rate is the percentage of emails that bounce because of the recipients’ email addresses. There are two types of bounce rates: hard and soft ( learn more about them here ).

Your spam rate tells you how often your emails trigger spam filters. If your spam rate is high, you should investigate why — often, keywords, your sender reputation, or a low engagement rate are to blame.

Your bounce rate tells you how often you send emails to incorrect email addresses. The average bounce rate is 2% .

Your spam rate is measured with this formula: (number of spam complaints / number of emails delivered) x 100.

Your bounce rate is measured with this formula: (number of bounced emails / number of emails sent) x 100.

Reply to discovery call rate

This metric tells you how often a response to an outreach email leads to a discovery call.

Tracking your reply to discovery call rate helps you assess your lead nurturing efforts’ effectiveness.

A high rate can also indicate you are targeting the right Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs), as your leads are pursuing your offering.

Your reply to discovery call rate is calculated with this formula: (number of discovery calls booked / number of email replies) x 100.

Demo booked to deal closed rate

This metric tells you how often demo bookings lead to a closed sale.

A high demo booked to deal closed rate indicates your demos are highly effective in engaging with leads and persuading them to purchase your offering.

A low demo booked to deal closed rate indicates you need to tweak your demo strategy so that it converts more leads.

You can measure your demo booked to deal closed rate with this formula: (number of closed deals / number of demo bookings) x 100.

Demo booked to deals lost percentage

This metric tells you how often leads who book a demo call leave your sales funnel without purchasing your offering.

A high demo booked to deals lost percentage indicates your demo strategy isn’t working as well as it should be. It might be that:

You are targeting the wrong leads (like Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) instead of SQLs)
Your demo isn’t engaging and persuasive enough
Your demo doesn’t address leads’ pain points and motivations

You can calculate your demo booked to deals lost percentage with this formula: (number of deals lost / number of demo bookings) x 100.

LinkedIn outreach metrics and KPIs

Connection request acceptance rate.

This metric tells you how often leads accept your connection requests on LinkedIn.

A high connection request rate indicates you are:

Targeting the right leads (as those who don’t meet your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP ) are unlikely to accept your requests
Portraying yourself as trustworthy and reliable (as leads wouldn’t accept a connection request from someone they perceive as spammy)
Piquing leads’ interests

A low connection request rate indicates your LinkedIn lead generation strategy needs tweaking.

Your connection request acceptance rate is measured with this formula: (number of connection requests accepted / number of connection requests sent) x 100.

Accepted connection request to reply rate

This metric tells you how often leads who accept your connection request reply to your outreach efforts.

A high accepted connection request to reply rate indicates leads are progressing through your sales funnel — so your LinkedIn lead generation campaign is effective.

A low rate indicates your connection requests and value propositions fail to capture leads’ attention and curiosity.

Your accepted connection request to reply rate is calculated with this formula: (number of replies / number of connection requests) x 100.

Reply to disco/demo booked rate

This metric tells you how often your leads reply to requests for a demo booking.

A high reply to demo booking rate indicates leads are seeing your booking request and responding to it (either accepting or declining). While it’s best to get an acceptance, a response of any kind means leads are interested enough to engage with you.

A low rate indicates your requests are not effective and/or lost in recipients’ inboxes.

You can measure your reply to demo booking rate with this formula: (number of responses to demo booking requests / number of demo booking requests sent) x 100.

Read: 5+ LinkedIn Lead Generation Strategies To Get 500+ Leads

Fiscal KPIs

Return on investment (roi).

Your ROI shows how much profit an investment (like LinkedIn advertising ) generated.

Measuring your ROI tells you if a strategy was “worth it.” A positive ROI means you made a profit, and a negative ROI means you didn’t make a profit.

Your ROI can also:

Help you compare investments to each other
Help you compare investments in different periods (month-on-month, year-on-year, etc.)
Establish a benchmark for future investments
Help you justify your investment to higher-ups and internal stakeholders

You can calculate your ROI with this formula: ((amount gained – amount spent) / amount spent ) x 100.

Average Revenue Per Customer (ARPC)

Your ARPC tells you how much each customer spent on your offering on average. Usually, you calculate ARPC over a long-term period, like a month, quarter, or year.

Your ARPC can help you:

Assign a fiscal value to each customer
Work out how much is reasonable to spend on outreach/nurturing
Identify if you should invest more in cross-selling and up-selling (for example, if your ARPC was low)
Identify if you should pursue new customers (for example, if your ARPC was high)

You can measure your ARPC with this formula: total revenue / total number of customers.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Your CAC is how much money it costs you to acquire customers on average.

A low CAC indicates that your marketing and sales tactics are effectively moving leads through your LinkedIn sales pipeline . A high CAC indicates your marketing and sales practices need some tweaking.

You can measure your CAC with this formula: (total marketing cost over a set period + total sales cost over a set period ) / the number of new customers acquired over a set period.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

Your CPC tells you how much your organization spent to get each click on your website, social media post, lead magnet , Paid-Per-Click (PPC) ad, or piece of marketing.

In the context of PPC ads, a high CPC indicates a keyword is highly sought after by advertisers. High CPC keywords often have a high Keyword Difficulty (KD) and a lot of traffic.

Tracking your CPC helps you project your total advertising costs and plan your strategy accordingly. Monitoring it also helps you spot sudden fluctuations that indicate you need to revisit your marketing strategy.

You can measure your CPC with this formula: total amount spent / total measured clicks.

Cost Per Lead (CPL)

CPL tells you how much you spent to acquire each new lead.

A high CPL indicates your sales funnel is not particularly effective, and leads need lots of investment to convert. A low CPL indicates a strong sales funnel.

You can measure your CPL with this formula: total amount spent on lead acquisition / total leads attributable to acquisition efforts.

Customer-focused KPIs

Customer lifetime value (cltv).

Your CLV is how much revenue you got from each customer across their lifetime on average.

A high CLV indicates that your product fits its market, your customers are loyal, you are providing a good customer experience, and you are getting recurring revenue from customers.

Tracking your CLV can also help you spot sudden fluctuations that indicate a change in the market, customers, or your lead generation performance.

You can measure your CLV with this formula: average order value x purchase frequency rate x average customer lifetime.

Performance metrics

Click-through rate (ctr).

Your CTR is how often people who see a piece of marketing click on it. This piece of marketing could be your website, Call To Action (CTA) , ad, etc.

Your CTR measures engagement. A high CTA indicates you are piquing leads’ interest and persuading them to click. A low CTA indicates the opposite.

You can measure your CTR with this formula: (total clicks / total impressions) x 100.

Conversions by channel

Conversions by channel tell you how many leads from each marketing channel convert into customers.

Tracking your conversions by channel helps you compare progress between channels. This is particularly important because many metrics (like email open rate or LinkedIn connection request acceptance rate) are channel-specific and not comparable.

Read: The Ultimate Guide To Multi-Channel Marketing

The best way to measure conversions by channel is with a marketing analytics tool like Google Analytics.

Final thoughts: How to measure lead generation

By now, you know that measuring your lead generation and sales process helps you improve your ROI, tweak your strategy, and prove the value of your outreach efforts to others.

And if you want to simplify the evaluation process, try Expandi.

Expandi is a cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool that simplifies the outreach process.

Your Expandi dashboard provides you with real-time updates on your outreach efforts. Expandi also crunches the numbers for you, so you don’t need to be a mathematician to measure your outreach efforts.

Try Expandi with a 7-day free trial today.

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Lead Generation: A Complete Guide with Strategies and Examples

“You are out of business if you don’t have a prospect.” – Zig Zigler.

We’re just going to say it; the above quote is every business’s worst nightmare.

Prospects or leads, as they are called, are indispensable to the health of every company. As long as you get those prospects pumped up into your business, you can run towards success all you want.

Now, you must ask –

“How do you maintain a healthy flow of leads, or in better words, boost lead generation ?”,

“How do you know which leads you should go for?”,

“What strategies can you employ in the process?”

Woah, well, let’s hold the horses on these questions and go through them one by one in his guide that’ll cover everything from defining the basics to training you on the lead generation strategies.

Without any further ado, let’s get the ball rolling.

Lead Generation: What It Is & How It Works?

To understand the process of lead generation, let’s understand the basics involved first.

What is a Lead?

Simply put, a lead is a person who has somehow indicated to a brand that they are slightly interested in the services offered and have made direct and/or indirect contact.

Let’s paint a little picture here.

Say you were browsing through your social media, for example, Instagram. There, you randomly came across a sponsored ad from an e-Learning platform offering online courses.

Curious, you clicked on the ad and watched their post, say a video ( the interaction could end just here as well ), went to their site and answered a simple pop-up survey of ‘What brought you here?’ You answered, entered your email, and submitted the response.

To that brand, you are a lead ( Whether you qualify as a good or bad lead will come later in our discussion ).

Even the definition of lead quality differs for marketers and sales. For the former, the number of leads generated is considered quality, but sales might not consider all of them ‘leads’ entirely.

It’s what’s known as a marketer’s myopia.

5 Types of Leads

Looking at the types of leads will help paint a clearer picture of the characteristics leads possess at various touchpoints in the conversion funnel:

New Lead: A prospect who interacts for the first time with a company.
Working Lead: Someone who keeps interacting and conversing.
Nurturing Lead: Someone who can be convinced to buy in the future.
Unqualified Lead: Someone who isn’t interested anymore.

Qualified Lead: One who is a ripe prospect, ready to be converted into a customer.

How to Know a Lead Is Qualified

Marketing leads are likely to become customers since they show interest in the brand and respond to lead nurturing . They may not become customers right away, but they definitely enter the sales funnel.

As for the sales, a lead is considered qualified when they are close to becoming a customer. So, a good rapport between the two departments can increase lead generation greatly.

Sales leads have a higher chance of conversion since those leads are already past the screening point and they are qualified to become your customers. With the right strategy and support, sales-qualified leads are easy to turn into customers.

What Is Lead Generation & How It Works

Lead generation is a process with stages to capture and stimulate interest in a company’s services and products among the targeted audience and attract prospects. The process focuses on developing a sales pipeline and nurturing leads until they become customers.

From small to mid-sized and large enterprises, all adhere to lead generation to expand their business. Even 60% of marketers believe lead generation to be a key strategy.

Although we discussed what qualifies a lead, it’s not that straightforward in day-to-day operations.

Sometimes capturing a lead can be as easy as someone downloading resources from your websites, such as ebooks and guides, or it can be as sophisticated and complex as targeting a prospect with different marketing campaigns.

Overview of Lead Generation in the Digital Era

Long gone are the days when salespeople had to knock on the doors trying to convince customers to buy products or services based on the decorated and carefully recited marketing speech.

“Customers are now smarter, more connected, more informed, more influenced and influential socially, and less likely to respond to campaign bait. Marketing has to create content people actually want.” — Tim Barker, Chief Product Officer, DataSift.

The message from the above quote is obvious — cold calling is no longer the major lead generation strategy . Instead of throwing arrows blindly, practices such as spreading brand awareness, creating relatable and useful content, and developing customer relationships are more effective.

Such practices come under what’s known as Inbound Marketing , a solid lead generation strategy (which we will cover later in the article).

Now, with ever-changing customer behavior, and consequently, lead generation tactics , there’s one more thing that’s been completely revamped by the onset of digitization- the relationship between marketing and sales.

Watch: Building a Brand Using Feedback and User Research

Collaboration Between Marketing & Sales

Unlike before, when marketing teams were only required to collect and curate a list of leads and sales would turn them into customers, now marketing’s KRAs have evolved.

Marketing can consider the demographics to target and decide which leads qualify to be sent to sales, and then both the teams can decide further which leads to nurture.

How It Works

The audience discovers your brand on a marketing channel ( like a social media post, website, blog, etc. )

Prospects click on a CTA ( an image, link in bio, button )

Navigate to a landing page exchanging some resources for customer information.

Importance of Lead Generation

Now that you know what lead generation is and how it works, let’s understand why companies invest a huge chunk of their capital in lead acquisition and generation strategies.

1. Boosts Brand Awareness

Lead generation campaigns, including social media promotion, email campaigns and marketing, and many more are great ways to put your brand on the map and get your target audience to notice you.

Once you have a solid lead generation strategy in place, it’ll be easier to explore new avenues to boost brand awareness and educate customers about your offerings.

2. Helps Identify and Target Quality Leads

Nothing screams waste of resources and time than targeting low-quality leads that you may find from purchased email lists or cold calling customers .

If you want genuinely interested prospects with high chances of becoming your clients, then invest your time and energy in reading a robust lead generation strategy. With the right content marketing and other marketing campaigns, you will be able to identify high-quality leads that will convert sometime at some point down in the sales funnel.

3. Doesn’t Cost Your Whole Capital

With online digital marketing, it’s easier for you to target specific customer demographics you know will ring in more leads. This way, you will be able to get more high-quality leads that have high conversion rates . So, all in all, it would cost you fairly less to acquire each high-quality lead through inbound marketing than any other way.

4. Time Efficient

Online lead generation and management can easily be automated with different tools available in the market, such as BIGContacts , which automate your email marketing and sales CRM.

This way, salespeople don’t have to devote a huge chunk of their time hunting for leads but focus more on qualified leads and closing deals.

5. Helps Track Results and Measure Performance

With everything automated, it becomes easier for marketing and sales departments to analyze results and create reports to see recurring trends, and strategize for the future based on the insights. You can optimize your marketing campaigns and ensure you have a high conversion rate.

CASE STUDY: How GoodBlogs was able to segment visitors into different customer journeys

GoodBlogs provides crowd-sourced content to its clients coming from different industries. The platform required a tool to help them redirect the website visitors to the topics of interest and generate quality leads.

By implementing Qualaroo’s Nudge™ surveys, GoodBlogs was able to segregate leads as per appropriate customer journeys.

You can read about how GoodBlogs was able to send the traffic into the correct topic funnels to drive lead generation here .

6 Different Marketing Channels to Multiply Your Lead Generation

The table above displays the lead generation channels at your disposal and which kind they are. It’ll allow you to leverage inbound and outbound marketing strategies for lead generation.

1. PPC (Pay-per-Click)

With everything going online, it’s easier to collect customer information, but it should be in exchange for personalized and ethical marketing. PPC lead generation technique is about showing ads on Google searches (SERPs).

Given that Google gets about 3.5 billion daily searches , it’s a good platform to have people see your brand using ad campaigns. So, prepare your PPC strategy with a good budget, seamless user flow, target keywords, and more.

2. Email Marketing

Email marketing has been a go-to tool for companies to reach out to their customers. To this day, companies are big on email marketing and keep coming up with new ideas to optimize it.

You can send in event invites such as webinars, personalize your emails while sending promotional content, and just keep in touch while updating them on new things. It’s an excellent way to send content to prospects who may not be looking for you and turn them into quality leads.

Let’s take Neil Patel as an example. He uses email marketing to introduce customers to new events, such as webinars, and encourages them to sign up.

3. Content Marketing

As per the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is “the marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience — with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Like any lead generation channel, you need a clear strategy to benefit from content marketing.

So, what elements can make this channel your top lead generator?

Topics your target audience will eat up immediately.
Type of content your audience prefers, i.e., short-form and long-form content.
Channels you will use to target your audience such as organic Google searches, social media platforms, partnership with third-party websites, influencer marketing, etc.

It’s best to use a mix of short and long-form, visual, and written content to capture different audience demographics.

Short-form content will be your holy grail if you target an audience on social media. You can create small videos like reels, digestible infographics, illustrated slides, and stories.

As for the long-form content, you can create guides, eBooks, detailed articles, educational videos, courses, etc., and publish them on your website and mobile app or partner with third-party websites to widen the audience pool.

To take your game up a notch, you can follow some content marketing best practices like content re-packaging, tracking content performance across all platforms, and, most importantly, gathering customer feedback on content quality.

For example, you can launch pop-up surveys on your article pages, guides, and even eBooks to ask customers if that’s the kind of content they need.

This way, you’ll know if you are covering the right content topics and what else you can take up. If done correctly, this channel can:

Get inbound links
Social media shares and exposure
Shape brand preference
Help you create customer-centric content
Put you on the map of search engine
Increase brand awareness

Doesn’t sound that bad, right?

CASE STUDY: How Udemy improved content through feedback

An online learning platform, Udemy, wanted to understand the success of the newly updated auto-captioning feature for their videos. The team at Udemy launched Qualaroo’s Nudge TM surveys on their platform, asking students about the accuracy of the feature.

As a result, the team improved the feature to offer accurate captions each time. You can read more about Udemy and how it leveraged feedback here .

4. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has become a marketing juggernaut, thanks to the increasingly critical role of social media in people’s lives.

Leading brands like Gucci, Pepsi, Motorola, and countless others hopped on this bandwagon to reap one of the most significant benefits: Lead generation.

The question is, why is it so effective and popular?

It’s because people ( 61%, to be precise ) still believe in the power of customer reviews and recommendations.

You can partner with influencers that are popular among your target audience to spread brand awareness and attract more leads.

💡 FUN FACT!

Dior, a high-end consumer brand, bagged a whopping $1.1 million in MIV (media impact value) from a single Instagram post by a singer and influencer, Oh Se-Hun .

5. Live Events and Seminars

Just like Neil Patel, many companies opt for this outbound marketing strategy. One of the best ways to actively engage prospects with your brand is by encouraging them to participate in events like webinars that they may be interested in.

You can host offline events such as seminars, conferences, meetups, etc., with guest speakers, but in the post-pandemic era, online events work great too. Also, online events have the potential to reach more people globally.

Hosting events not only improves your brand presence and customer engagement but provides companies a chance to know their customers’ interests.

6. Social Media

Since social media is huge, it makes sense to incorporate it into your online lead generation strategy.

Facebook Leads

Facebook’s Lead Ads are a great tool to find TOFU leads and redirect them toward your website. You can add a CTA to your Facebook page that directly takes visitors to your website.

Twitter Leads

Twitter is another social media platform that helps businesses get and manage leads. It has a Twitter Lead Gen Card feature that generates leads from tweets and pulls out information such as tweeters’ IDs, names, and Twitter usernames; all they have to do is submit and become a lead.

LinkedIn Leads

Out of all the social media platforms, LinkedIn has become popular in the professional world with big brands and is now a solid part of their social media campaigns. It offers a feature called Lead Gen Forms to facilitate B2B lead generation on the platform.

The form auto-populates with the visitors’ profile information when they click on a CTA; all they have to do is submit. This makes it easy for users to share their information with minimal effort. Additionally, you can export contacts from LinkedIn directly into your CRM systems or marketing platforms. This export streamlines the process of managing and nurturing leads, allowing for more targeted and personalized multi-channel strategies. LinkedIn lead generation has proven to be effective for businesses targeting professionals and seeking quality leads.

7 Critical Goal-Lead Generation Metrics to Track in 202 3

Tracking the performance of your lead generation strategy is crucial for improving it. But how do you do that? – with lead generation metrics.

So, here are a few metrics that help with the lead generation process:

Number of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL)

Leads that are considered qualified leads by the marketing team using lead scoring. Also, measure the cost per MQL to track how much money you spend on acquiring each lead.

How to improve: Create compelling content, incentivize prospects, improve your CTAs, and highlight customer reviews.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

It is the percentage of the total number of clicks on the CTA divided by the total number of page views. A higher rate signifies that the CTA used is effective and working to bring in leads.

How to improve: Create irresistible CTAs, use interactive visuals, and optimize ad copy headlines.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)

Customer lifetime value (CLTV) is a lead generation metric that businesses use to gauge the possible revenue possibilities from each acquisition throughout their life cycle.

Everything from your marketing strategy, campaigns, customer service, upselling, etc., contributes to your CLTV.

Here are some elements you need to consider to calculate customer lifetime value:

Number of purchases by each customer
Average purchase size per customer
Determine yearly profit margins based on average profit margins per customer

If you have a high CLTV, it means that you are getting high-value customers and not just leads.

Here’s how you can calculate your CLTV:

How to improve: You can improve customer lifetime value by offering an excellent referral program, creating personalized marketing campaigns, optimizing cross-selling and up-selling, and gathering customer feedback.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

CPA is the cost of acquiring each customer. Tracking this lead generation metric is important because it helps identify profitable channels and how much marketing you require. The enterprise-level CPA (B2B) is generally much higher than B2C.

The formula to calculate CPA is:

The more efficient your marketing, the lower the CPA will be. You can even combine this metric with CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) to get detailed insights into your campaigns’ performance.

How to improve: Work on your ad quality score, optimize ad creatives, create dedicated campaign landing pages, update keywords, etc.

Capture vs. Conversion Rate

As the name suggests, the capture vs. conversion rate focuses on measuring the difference between prospects that provide some form of personal data and the final converted leads.

You can calculate the capture vs. conversion rate like this:

How to improve: Create targeted marketing campaigns, optimize website pages, and make clear and distinct CTAs.

Social Media Engagement

Since a significant chunk of your lead generation channels comes under inbound marketing, there are so many crucial metrics you need to track to gauge the performance of your marketing efforts. For example:

Customer engagement and lead gen KPIs through post shares, likes, tweets, retweets, views, impressions, etc., on platforms like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, etc.
Metrics that associate with lead conversions and web traffic coming from social media. For example, Udemy launched a survey asking website visitors how they found out about the company . With the feedback data, Udemy could identify its most effective marketing channel and reallocate marketing resources.

How to improve: Use appropriate hashtags, schedule content releases when your audience is most active, and collaborate with influencers to drive engagement.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who leave your website after a few seconds. There could be many reasons why this happens.

It can be that your website is not optimized, visitors don’t find the content they are looking for, your offerings are not clear from the get-go, and so on.

You will have a low conversion rate if visitors leave your website without providing any information or engaging with your website.

Here’s how to calculate it:

Single page sessions/Total Sessions = Bounce Rate

How to improve:

You can deploy exit-intent surveys on your website to gather feedback from leaving visitors. The surveys work using triggers and activate when visitors are about to leave. Optimizing the website, product pages, and checkout process also helps reduce the bounce rate.

[Also Read: 11 Best Exit-Intent Popup Tools to Increase conversion ]

5 Essential Stages of Lead Generation: The Process to Follow

After discussing so much about lead generation already, it’s time to answer some important questions like what is the sales lead generation process. The process can differ a little depending on each company and industry.

The process starts with companies defining what a perfect lead looks like. Start by segmenting your leads into demographics and use BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, and Time) for further segregation.

You need to figure out what you would consider a marketing qualified lead (MQL) and sales qualified lead (SQL). It is the start of the roadmap you will create in the next stage based on the lead generation funnel.

Build your road map based on the lead generation funnel with your inbound and outbound marketing strategies.

Plan and strategize the content you will push out on your website and social media and configure the placement of CTAs and pop-ups to attract customers. Then, design the steps to push a lead from the top to the bottom of the funnel until they make a purchase.

This is also where you will have to strategize your lead magnets and how you can optimize them to bring in more quality leads.

At this stage, you need to bring in your lead scoring skills and strategies to nurture the leads so they convert as soon as possible. The above steps will help you acquire the TOFU (top-of-funnel) leads, but you need to nurture the ones in the MOFU (middle-of-funnel).

Testing is always the last but one of the most important stages in any process. No matter how robust your strategies are and how much you invest in lead generation, it’ll be all for nothing if you don’t test and iterate.

So, perform A/B testing , multivariate testing, and ensure to keep the feedback loop between marketing and sales alive. This way, you will see which actions bring in better results and how customer behavior changes so you can optimize your lead generation process and strategy.

12 Strategies to Bootstrap Your Lead Generation Campaign

A rock-solid lead generation strategy does the heavy lifting in boosting your audience reach and convincing them to convert. So, let’s discuss what strategies you can use to drive your lead generation effectively.

1. Invest in Content – Gated and Otherwise

Think of the internet as a superpower for companies, and with power comes responsibility .

Instead of reciting an overly promotional marketing pitch, offer useful resources such as insightful posts, articles, and blogs educating visitors on useful topics related to your niche.

Creating content that matters to your targeted audience, marketing it the right way, and placing it at the right place in your lead generation process will yield astonishing results.

For example, Salesforce has a section called ‘Analyst reports.’ When you land on the page, you can download any report you want.

When you click on the ‘Get The Report’ CTA, you will land on the lead generation form page, where you will have to fill in your information to download the report.

So, invest in creating gated content like guides, ebooks, and public content like blogs, articles, and other such resources. These will educate customers about your company and its value offerings and allow you an intelligent way to ask for customers’ information.

Learn more about inbound vs outbound strategy

It may feel daunting at first to develop or improve your content strategy but asking your target audience what type of content they would like to consume is one of the best ways to go about it. To uncover, you can ask questions like:

Was this help section useful?
What topics would you like to see us write about next?
What other products would you like to see us offer?
Did this article answer your question?
Were you able to find the information you were looking for?
What other information would you like to see on this page?

Besides asking these content-related questions, you can also add surveys to your website to engage visitors and turn them into leads. For example, Qualaroo helps you collect leads with its lead generation form .

Here are a few questions you can ask in a lead gen form your leads to get their information and then target them to turn them into customers.

You can also use exit-intent pop-ups to engage your website visitors and stop them from leaving and eventually get their information to target them with different marketing campaigns. Tools such as Picreel specialize in this feature.

use discount coupon code strategy to generate leads

2. Freemium

Freemium and free trial are often used interchangeably but are two different things. For example, the free trial has a time limit for which the subscribers can try the product/services for free, and then they can pay for a plan to continue using it.

HubSpot is one example. They offer a 14-day free trial.

On the other hand, Freemium is a free service or product with basic features. Customers have to pay for a plan to get access to premium features. YouTube is an excellent example of freemium.

There’s no limit to how many videos you can watch or publish (the basic features), but you can enjoy ad-free streaming with many other functionalities with a paid subscription.

3. Focus on Top-of-Funnel Keywords

If you want to bring in new leads, you need to start from the top, literally. It will help to focus more on TOFU keywords that your target audience generally associates with your product and service.

Once you know what keywords your audience usually uses, you can start targeting them in different ways and create a roadmap that directs your leads towards the lead magnets (there’s no such thing as too many ‘leads,’ not even here).

To target the keywords, you can create keyword-optimized content, create landing pages around those keywords, use the keywords for PPC, push guest blogs, and follow SEO best practices.

[Also check out: The Ultimate Guide to SEO for UX Designers ]

4. Marketing-Sales Feedback Loop

As discussed above, a rapport between marketing and sales is crucial for effective lead generation. Creating and maintaining a feedback loop between the two teams is a great way to improve your lead generation campaigns.

For example, if marketing sends leads to sales and, in turn, the sales provide feedback on the lead quality on time, marketing can analyze what works and when they need to tweak their strategy.

If the feedback loop is missing, then marketing will think that all leads they send are converting, so they’ll continue with their existing practices without knowing what’s actually happening between the sales and the leads.

So, what’s to be done?

You can use a CRM like BIGContacts to create a solid feedback loop between sales and marketing. This integrated system can help reduce the communication barrier with its rich features.

For instance, a sales team can follow marketing campaigns to see how the marketing team targets specific leads.

Once they know how the lead was warmed up, sales can personalize their strategies to convert them. Teams can also add notes to specific leads and interactions to maintain the feedback loop.

[Here’s something useful: Top 45+ Lead Generation Tools For Your Business ]

5. Listen to Your Customers/Prospects

More often than not, businesses can significantly improve their lead generation strategy if they simply listen to their customers and prospects.

How you approach your prospects for feedback will differ from how you do it with customers.

With customers, you can gather information about your brand experience and use the data as customer reviews and testimonials. You can find loopholes in your customer journey and the overall experience to ensure your leads don’t churn away.

As for the prospects or leads, you can collect their feedback on how they come across your brand to strengthen your core marketing sources.

CASE STUDY: How Udemy discovered the most profitable marketing channels

Udemy wanted to explore how website visitors and users find out about the platform to reshape its marketing strategy and allocate resources to effective channels.

The team at Udemy launched surveys asking customers how they find out about them. Based on the feedback, they started to target the marketing channels that worked the best rigorously.

It also helped to funnel the marketing budget to the appropriate channels and lower the overall acquisition costs while improving lead quality.

6. A Dedicated Landing Page for Your CTAs

You may think this one is obvious, but it’s not. Unfortunately, many marketers do not create separate and dedicated landing pages for CTAs when they clearly should.

One of the primary purposes of CTAs is to direct customers to a landing page they represent. As a customer, you wouldn’t like clicking on a CTA for registering for a webinar and just landing on the website’s home page.

For example, here’s Mailchimp with its ad campaign for the “ Great Landing Page Examples ”-

As soon as you click on the ad, you’ll be redirected to a dedicated landing page for the same.

💁‍♀️ Pro Tip:

Try not to include multiple CTAs on a single page as it can distract the visitors and create a choice paradox as well.

You can also A/B test your CTAs and launch surveys to ask customers what they think of them. This way, you’ll be able to design CTAs that actually work.

7. Keep Your Messaging Consistent and Deliver on Your Promise

Messaging is crucial for every company, and it is essential to keep it consistent throughout your campaigns and different platforms.

From your ad copy to website design, to other media you create, to your offerings, it should all be a seamless experience. It ensures a smooth transition of leads to the next stage in the lead generation funnel.

For example, let’s continue the Mailchimp example from above. The landing page for the ad campaign gives the information it had promised with clear CTAs and the messaging is also consistent.

8. Coupons & Discounts

As we briefly mentioned above, you can use discounts, coupons, and deals as lead magnets for your lead generation campaign to attract both long and short-term leads.

For the long-term, you can motivate someone more to purchase from you, and for the short-term, you can convert bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) prospects.

9. Live Chat Software to Always Be There for Customers

Using live chat software allows you, as a company, to always be there for your customers when they land on your website. They can directly ask their queries in the live chat popup and get instant support.

For example, Qualaroo also has a live chat window that pops up every time a visitor lands and needs assistance.

Qualaroo is the best tool for lead generation

Besides, you can also:

Shoot pre-chat forms to collect visitors’ information.
Resolve customer queries related to pricing, checkout, and other early-stage touchpoints in the customer journey with a live chat tool to transform visitors into leads and push them further into the sales funnel.
Redirect customers to relevant pages to help them reach the end goal – purchase.

10. Lead Scoring

Each company has its own custom parameters for judging lead quality, but a common method used to judge leads on those parameters is lead scoring.

Lead scoring is assigning points and ranking leads based on:

How far along they are in the sales funnel
How close they are to purchasing and their interests

You can conduct user research surveys to create buyer personas of your ideal customers and then create a lead scoring system with parameters based on your needs.

Here are some lead generation survey sample questions to create buyer persona:

What is your role?
What is your biggest pain point?
What does your typical day look like?
What did you come here to do today?
What problem does our product solve for you?
What types of content do you read?
What tools are you using currently?
How has this feature impacted your work?

Access this survey question library for more information on this.

A few basic parameters you can consider for your lead scoring system are when the leads:

Open your email
Visit your website
Download resources from your website like ebooks, guides, etc.
Click on your promotional ad
Register for a webinar you are conducting
Subscribe from a free trial

You can assign scores to your leads this way, and the higher the score of a lead, the higher their quality and the chances of conversion.

A high-quality lead is generally referred to as a ‘Hot’ lead, while a lead with the average score is called a ‘warm’ lead which you can make hotter by targeting more marketing campaigns their way.

11. Boost Engagement Across Channels

Generating leads is all about engaging the target audience and motivate them to interact more with your business.

Your social media marketing, content marketing, and influencer marketing strategies will take care of bringing the leads to your website, but what happens after that?

Once a visitor lands on your website or mobile app, you need to assist them in your customer journey to convert them.

Here are some ways in which you can engage with your leads on the website:

You can add a live chat tool to assist in resolving queries and helping them navigate. For this, you can use a tool like ProProfs Chat .
A self-help tool like Knowledge Base takes care of small queries from leads as they can look for any queries without relying on customer support.
Once visitors arrive on your website, you can engage them using quizzes and collect their information . ProProfs Quiz Maker is a good choice for the same.

12. Streamline Your Sales Pipeline

There is much to be done when you get a lead, either through a sign-up CTA, Demo CTA, live chat, or survey feedback.

You need to manage and streamline your sales pipeline to be on top of every lead and ensure they don’t drop out.

Customer relationship management (CRM) tools such as BIGContact help you track each lead so you can customize your sales strategy and ensure they convert.

What Can Lead Generation Surveys Do For You?

We’ve talked about customer feedback and how it greatly affects lead generation. When it comes to feedback collection, surveys are a great way to communicate with the leads and improve the customer experience.

Here are a few ways to help you understand how YOUR business can benefit from lead generation surveys.

Helps You Segment Leads

Surveys not only help you collect customer feedback but segregate leads based on where they come from, the product they are interested in, etc.

You can frame questions for lead generation surveys based on the segmentation you want. For example, if you have multiple product lines, you can ask visitors which product they are looking for and guide them in the sales funnel for that particular product.

You can even pair the survey tool with your other workspace tools to make the process smoother.

For example:

You can integrate Qualaroo with Slack and push the responses into your desired Slack channel in real time. Then, the relevant team can pick this information and lead data, assign them to the proper funnel, design a personalized campaign, and target the prospects to push them into the pipeline.

Easy to Identify High-Quality Leads

Once a lead interacts with a lead magnet, such as a sign-up CTA or access to gated content, they offer some information about them. You can leverage that information and follow up with them using surveys for lead generation.

You can send emails with surveys enquiring about their requirements to offer solutions tailored to their needs.

But what if you have tons of survey responses on your website? It becomes a huge task to segregate high-quality leads manually.

The answer is automation.

You can pair the survey tool with a robust CRM like Salesforce to automate workflows across the two apps.

For example,

You can push the lead data and survey feedback into Salesforce as soon as the visitor submits the survey. A new record is created, or an existing record gets updated into Salesforce.
Then, use Salesforce’s automated lead scoring workflows to automatically shift high-quality leads into the right funnel. No need to lift a finger.
You can also trigger an automated survey via Qualaroo whenever you add a record to Salesforce. Collect the relevant information and add that record to the list of high-value prospects.

Differentiate Users From Customers

Sometimes, your users are not the customers and vice versa. For example, if you own an eLearning platform targeting elementary education, your users (children) are not your customers (Parents/guardians).

So, how do lead generation surveys help?

You can launch a pop-up survey for lead generation with a few questions gauging leads’ demographics, decision-making power, preferences, etc. You can also use branching and skip logic to show the right questions in the correct order to get precise data.

Align Marketing With Content

As we briefly discussed in the article, surveys can guide your content strategy. For example, once leads tell you their preference through a customer survey for lead generation, you can show them content they will like and find helpful.

You can follow up on your content and ask leads if they find it valuable and interesting. Based on the feedback, you can make changes in your strategy and offer personalized recommendations.

Best Lead Generation Survey Questions to Ask

You can ask appropriate questions to your prospects based on where they are in the funnel. We’ve divided the questions for the lead generation survey into two categories so that you can target prospects accordingly.

Marketing Questions to Ask to Get Qualified Leads:

“Which industry do you deal in?”

“Which of our competitors did you consider before choosing [Product name]?”

“How much revenue do you earn annually?”

“Are you the decision-maker?”

Which of the following topics are you most interested in learning about?

What problems are you looking to solve with [Product Name]?

Sales Questions to Ask to Get Qualified Leads:

“What are your top priorities in a solution?”

“What is your budget?”

“What can prevent us from working together?”

“How quickly are you hoping to see results?”

“When do you plan to make a decision?”

What strategies/plans/tools do you use to deal with your problem?

If we can do A, B, C for you, will you buy the [product/service]?

Tips to Instantly Boost Lead Survey Response Rate

By now, you know why to ask and what to ask in your lead generation surveys.

But what if leads don’t take them?

In that case, you can implement these smart tips to convince your leads to respond instantly.

Multi-Channel Surveys

Why restrict your lead surveys to just one channel when you can leverage a multi-channel strategy for surveying leads?

You can target website visitors through lead generation surveys not just on the website but also on mobile apps, emails, and SMS.

You can deploy surveys in-app and on-site and share survey links on emails and SMS. Doing so ensures you target leads at different touchpoints and channels to convert them.

Ask Relevant Questions

Nothing puts a prospect off like a survey with many irrelevant questions. Leads are highly sensitive at the beginning of their customer journey, and even the slightest inconvenience is enough for them to churn away.

So, when you deploy your lead generation survey campaign, start with small surveys like one-question pop-ups asking only appropriate and relevant questions.

For example, instead of asking demographic questions straight away to your visitors, it’s best to ask them what they are looking for and then target them with an appropriate lead generation strategy.

Incentivize the Feedback Collection

Taking surveys is no fun for many website visitors, and they may resist responding at first.

So, what can you do?

Simple – give them something in return.

You can incentivize your lead generation surveys with access to gated content, free trial, premium features, gift cards, vouchers, time-sensitive deals, etc. In that case, they are more likely to take your surveys.

Employ Conditional Branching

Conditional branching and skip logic are great strategies to ensure your leads don’t drop the survey midway. If the leads keep seeing irrelevant questions, they will abandon the survey in a heartbeat.

You can prevent this by branching your questions. For example, the next question a lead will see will depend on their previous answer, and skip logic will let them skip answering the question.

This is how conditional branching works:

CASE STUDY: How Marketade helped its client improve user experience with branching logic

Marketade is a user research company that wanted to help one of its clients improve website usability. They specifically wanted to improve the usability in these scenarios:

Primary care appointment booking system
Primary care doctor selection
Scheduling Mammogram
Family member visit patients in the hospital
Child food allergies research

The team used Qualaroo’s Nudge surveys and exit-intent surveys to gather feedback on the current UX and also get valuable insights from leaving customers.

The feedback enabled the team to improve the overall UX and also validate qualitative findings, among other things.

You can read about this case study here in detail.

Kickstart Your Lead Generation Efforts!

With all that we have covered so far, we hope you are equipped with tips and strategies to create a robust lead generation strategy for your business.

And not only the one that increases lead but brand awareness as well. It’s certainly possible with the right tools in your stack.

So, choose the tools that allow you to capture leads using different ways like pop-up surveys, pop-up deals, and discounts, among many other things, and you’ll see growth in the lead generation in no time.

About the author

Shivani dubey.

Shivani has more than 3 years of experience in the modern creative content paradigm and technical writing verticals. She has been published in The Boss Magazine, Reseller Club, and HR Technologist. She is passionate about Artificial Intelligence and has a deep understanding of how organizations can leverage customer support technologies for maximum success. In her free time, she enjoys Nail art, playing with her guinea pigs, and chilling with a bowl of cheese fries.

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61 Lead Generation Tools & Software We Love for 2024

19 february 2024 by jessie taylor.

Most marketers want to invest in lead generation software for one reason—they’re struggling to generate quality leads to hit pipeline targets.

We feel you. Sleepless nights thinking of dashboards and which way your graphs are headed. It hurts.

So we'll get right to the point—B2B lead generation tools can help you hit those ever growing lead targets. But, and here's the exciting thing, the best lead generation tools can help you do so much more.

Invest in the right tools to power your lead generation system and you can also save time on manual outreach, better measure your current efforts, and generate more leads from your current marketing investment.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

Well we've compiled 61 tools, grouped them by use cases for easy navigation, provided price points, peer reviews, and an overview of what each one does.

Dive in to find the tools that can help you today.

What is lead generation?

So, before we explore the list, let’s have a quick recap.

Lead generation is the process of attracting and engaging your target audience to the point where they want to give you their information.

To effectively turn leads into buying customers, it's advisable to categorize them depending on their current lifecycle stage or how you qualified them. Some of the different lead qualification categories include:

Service-qualified leads: These are leads who've expressed interest in your service. Such leads may inquire about your service offerings or use your free temporary subscription if you have one.

Product-qualified leads: These are leads who've expressed interest in your product. They may utilize your product trials, leave feedback on your product's efficiency, or request custom features tailored to their individual pain points.

Marketing-qualified leads: These are leads who respond to your marketing campaigns. They may willingly participate in your target market research; comment on, like, or share marketing content like blogs or social media posts; or sign up for your webinars.

Sales-qualified leads: These are leads who've expressed interest in paying for your service or product. These leads will inquire about your pricing and may try to negotiate for better rates.

Once you do this, your sales and marketing teams can build relationships with these leads. If you deliver real value, help leads overcome their challenges, and show how your business can help them, you can turn leads into loyal customers.

What is a lead generation tool?

Back to the tools (or lead generators as some people call them). Lead generation tools are a useful way to drive quality leads, but you need to invest in automated lead generation software to do it at scale. This is how you’ll reduce manual work.

Lead generation tools can be used for both inbound and outbound sales, depending on the use case. There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, this is why we’ve grouped them by use case below for easy navigation

Our top B2B lead generation tools and software picks

Essentially, these free sales lead generation tools are the equivalent of hugging a warm cup of tea ☕ in front of the fireplace.

And because we all like to relax with a nice cup of tea, we’ve done the hard work for you and compiled a list of the best lead generation tools out there. So you can spend a little more time relaxing.

First up in the spotlight is our very own lead generation tool, Leadfeeder. Who put that there? 😁

But seriously, let’s dive in and answer the question: Which tools can be used for lead generation in 2024?

B2B Lead Generation Guide

Marketers — need some fresh ideas to hit your MQL targets? Download this guide and fill up your pipeline now!

Note: Want to generate more B2B leads from your website? Sign up and try Leadfeeder free for 14 days to see the companies that visit your website, which pages they look at, and more.

Website visitor identification tools

To say there's a lot of sales lead generation software on the market would be an understatement. Hey, we're all just here to help companies grow .

There are hundreds of B2B lead generation platforms, but none that do it quite like Leadfeeder— which is why we gave ourselves our own category. 💅

So why do we think we’re so cool? We don't just help you follow up on leads; we find quality leads you didn't even know existed. What does that mean? Well, you can generate more leads from your current marketing efforts, without any extra investment.

1. Leadfeeder

Pricing: 14-day free trial , paid plans starting at €99/month.

Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars on G2

Leadfeeder is a powerful tool that helps businesses understand and engage with companies who visit their website in real-time. With Leadfeeder, you can track their behavior, gain insights into their interests, and use that data to optimize your website for better engagement and conversions.

The platform offers a range of features, including live visitor tracking, versatile filtering, automatic lead scoring, powerful contacts insight, email marketing integrations, website forms tracking, and real-time notifications, making it the perfect solution for businesses looking to improve their website's performance.

Whether you're an e-commerce business looking to increase sales or a B2B company trying to generate more leads, Dealfront's Web Visitors product is the perfect tool to help you achieve your goals.

It's time to take your website to the next level with Leadfeeder!

Leadfeeder for Marketing

Track site visitors, measure campaign success, and find more qualified leads.

Lead data collection tools

Need more data? These tools will help you better understand your customers and prospects so you can develop relationships that convert .

2. Overloop (formerly Prospect.io)

Pricing: Paid plans start at $49/per user/month

Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars on G2

Overloop includes all of the features you’ll need to run a multi-channel outbound campaign.

Their list building and contact management features include a chrome extension, email finder, the ability to import contacts from LinkedIn, CSV import, custom fields, and contact management.

In terms of outbound features (their bread and butter), Overloop offers multi-channel campaigns, personalized cold emails at scale, LinkedIn automation, templates and variables for personalized messages, email thread capability, and email tracking.

Overloop also helps sales productivity and offers robust reporting — to read more on those features, you’ll have to check out their site for yourself.

3. D & B Hoovers

Pricing: Contact for pricing, they offer a free trial

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars on G2

D & B Hoovers is a sales acceleration tool that helps businesses leverage data and analytics so you can build your lists and connect with prospects faster. Features include informed conversations, automated workflow software, real-time notifications, and personalized buyer intent data.

Email address lookup tools

These tools help to automate the process of finding someone’s email address. These tools are a little stalky but it’s approved.

4. OptinMonster

Pricing: Plans start at $16/month for use on one site

Convert and monetize your website traffic with OptinMonster . Stop losing visitors!

Quickly grow your email list, get more leads, and increase sales with the most powerful conversion optimization toolkit on the web. Implementing OptinMonster into your marketing strategy to nail your lead generation.

5. Hunter.io

Pricing: Free to find up to 25 requests/mo; plans start at $49/month

Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars on G2

Hunter helps you find emails by typing in the person’s name and their company. You can also browse for all emails at a specific company. You can use the tool for free for up to 25 email searches and 50 email verifications per month. From there, paid plans start at $49/month for 500 searches and 1000 verifications.

Hunter is a super popular B2B lead generation platform for good reason—you should definitely try this one.

6. Voila Norbert

Pricing: Up to 1,000 leads; plans start at $49/month

Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars on G2

Voila Norbert is a sales tool that helps you find email addresses. Simply enter the name of the person you’d like to see an email for, along with the company they work for, and Voila Norbert will automatically find the email address. Bulk email identification is also available.

7. Reply.io

Pricing: 200 emails free per month, paid plans start at $60/monthly

The all-in-one engagement platform for teams — Reply Chrome extension helps you find prospect emails on LinkedIn in seconds, keeping your pipeline full. You can either look up the required contacts one by one or source emails in bulk directly from LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

A valuable addition to Reply’s sales engagement platform, this extension also allows you to instantly add new contacts to multichannel sequences, access and manage your tasks, and make direct calls.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $49/month

Rating: 3.9 out of 5 stars on G2

We know that social media platforms rule all and so does Skrapp. Skrapp , Skrapp.io specifically, is a tool for finding someone’s LinkedIn email. Skrapp has Chrome Extension that, when enabled, will show a "Find Email" button on a person’s LinkedIn profile. You can then click this button, and Skrapp will find that person’s email when possible.

9. AeroLeads

Pricing: Plans start at $49 per month for up to 3,000 credits

AeroLeads makes it easier than ever to find contact information for prospects. Simply sign up, add their Chrome plugin, search LinkedIn, CrunchBase, AngelList, etc. and add possible leads to AeroLeads.

Their software will search and find contact information, including email, company URL, job title, and more.

10. Datanyze

Pricing: $29 per month, billed monthly, for up to 80 credits a month. They also offer a free 90-day trial.

Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars on G2

Datanyze helps B2B sales teams connect with prospects by providing contact information, company details, and "icebreakers" to help you warm up cold calls and email outreach.

Using data gleaned from social profiles, local news outlets, and more, you'll know who to contact and know how to start the conversation so you can build relationships — and drive revenue.

Email follow-up tools

If you do a lot of cold email outreach , or your sales approach requires following up with prospects often, these tools will help you to keep track of your outreach efforts. This can help you more effectively measure the results of your lead generation strategy .

11. Boomerang for Gmail

Lead generation tool, Boomerang for Gmail

Pricing: Free with 10 message credits/month; paid plans start at $4.98/month

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars on G2

Boomerang is a Gmail extension that allows you to schedule emails. But, it’s also helpful to deliver emails back to your inbox when you don’t receive a response from the person you originally messaged. For example, you can send the email back to your inbox if the person doesn’t reply within two days. This helps to stay organized when following up with prospects.

12. HubSpot Sales

Pricing: Free, paid plans start at $18/month

Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars on G2 based on 10,833 reviews

HubSpot Sales is a division of Hubspot’s complete marketing and sales platform. One of the best features of HubSpot Sales is the ability to track email opens. HubSpot Sales features a Gmail extension that will allow you to decide which emails to track. Then, when a prospect opens an email, you will receive an update.

You can also check all of your opened/unopened emails in the HubSpot Sales dashboard. You can compare HubSpot vs. Leadfeeder here .

13. Yet Another Mail Merge

Lead generation tool, Yet Another Mail Merger

Pricing: Free for one user and up to 50 recipients per day, paid plan at $25 for 400 email/day

Yet Another Mail Merge is a Google Sheets Extension that tracks email opens. This tool makes it easy to send email in bulk, schedule and personalize emails, see who opened your email, and follow up based on who opened your email, who didn’t open your email, etc.

Sales lead generation tools

Form & email collection.

These lead generators are all about collecting emails on your site to build your email list, either for future drip campaigns or content promotion.

14. Snov.io

Pricing: Free to find up to 50 emails per month; paid plans start at $39/month.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars on G2

Snov.io is a multifunctional tool that helps collect emails from the company website, get emails based on personal and domain names, find emails on Google and LinkedIn, and much more.

The B2B lead generation platform also helps with nurturing through automated outreach and lead research.

15. Global Database

Pricing: Available upon request, customizable by the number of regions and industries and other individual requirements.

Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars on G2

Global Database offers verified and up-to-date business information through an online platform with an advanced filtering system. You can get contact data of the companies matching your ideal lead profile, with a certain financial state, credit risk, position on the market, or digital presence.

All you need is to pick various criteria according to your expectations or use one of the integrated workflow solutions provided by the company.

Pricing: Free, Paid plans start at $49/month

Rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars on G2

Sumo is one of the most popular tools for listing, building, and capturing emails on your site. The tool offers popups, slide-in popups, and welcome mats (a popup email opt-in that covers an entire page).

The tool also has an option for a floating social share bar on your site and heat maps for figuring out where visitors are clicking on your site. The tool can be used for free (with Sumo branding on popups and the social share bar).

17. ConvertPlus

Pricing: Paid WordPress Plugin for $23 one-time fee

Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars on G2

ConvertPlus is another tool for displaying popup forms on your website. However, instead of a SaaS solution, this tool is offered as a WordPress plugin.

It has many of the same features as Sumo, including timed popups, percentage of the page scrolled popups, exit popups, etc. It can be a good tool for companies using WordPress that can’t invest in a monthly SaaS tool .

18. LeadQuizzes

LeadQuizzes online quiz maker for marketers and small businesses

Pricing: 14-day free trial, starts at $49/month

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars on Capterra

Make a quiz to capture leads and learn about your audience. LeadQuizzes has helped clients grow by capturing up to 500% more leads from their website. Additionally, the answers you collect can help you segment and understand your audience better.

"We have used it for functional and regenerative medicine leads and have generated 100x more than we paid for it. If you know what you are doing, you can do great things." - Capterra reviewer

Email marketing tools

To take it a step further, these tools will allow you to actually create email marketing campaigns and automated email drip campaigns. Using email marketing, you can continue to educate subscribers and eventually turn them into potential sales. This is the key to a successful lead generation system.

19. ActiveCampaign

Pricing: Paid plans start at $29/month

ActiveCampaign is another popular email marketing platform. While ActiveCampaign’s email builder isn’t as polished as MailChimp, ActiveCampaign has a more powerful email automation editor.

They also offer additional tools in their marketing suite, including landing page templates, segmenting, Facebook custom audiences, contact scoring, SMS marketing, and more.

20. MailChimp

Pricing: Free, paid plans start at $9.99/month

MailChimp is one of the most popular and easiest-to-use email marketing platforms out today. One of its best features is its intuitive, easy-to-use drag-and-drop email builder. MailChimp also offers email automation.

21. Brevo (formerly SendinBlue)

Pricing: Free, paid plans start at $20/month

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars on GetApp based on 1,800 reviews

Brevo (formerly SendinBlue ) is one of the more affordable options for email marketing with their paid plans starting at only $20/month. This plan allows you to send up to 20,000 emails a month. All of Brevo's plans allow for unlimited email contact storage.

Landing page creation & lead capture tools

These lead generation software tools will allow you to create custom landing pages and lead capture forms on your website. These are useful when trying to get visitors to sign up for an ebook, a demo request, or a sales call.

22. Unbounce

Pricing: Paid plans start at $95/month for up to 20,000 visitors and 500 conversions

Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars on G2

Unbounce is a tool used to create custom landing pages. The platform features a drag-and-drop landing page builder as well as many pre-built templates. Opt-in popups and A/B testing are also available. A 30-day free trial is available with paid plans starting at $95/month.

23. Instapage

Pricing: Paid plans start at $199/month

Another popular landing page builder, Instapage integrates with popular email marketing and CRM platforms like Zapier, Hubspot, MailChimp, and Salesforce. The tool offers a drag-and-drop landing page and other handy features such as A/B testing, lead capture forms, conversion analytics, and heat maps.

24. Leadpages

Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars via Capterra

Leadpages claims to be the "#1 Landing Page Builder". While we can’t necessarily say it’s the best, it does have a very well-designed drag-and-drop builder that is super easy to use. Additionally, the platform enables you to build Facebook ads directly inside the tool, and it even features built-in payment functionality for forms.

25. ClickFunnels

Pricing: Paid plans start at $147/month

Clickfunnels is a sales funnel and landing page builder all-in-one solution. With the tool, you can select from various sales funnels, and build the process out from there, including adding subscribers to your email list and collecting payments. A 14-day free trial is available with paid plans starting at $147/month after that.

26. SeedProd

Pricing: $79 per year for Basic Package (1 site, Drag & Drop page builder, etc.) — *on sale right now for $39.50/year*

Rating: 4.17 out of 5 stars on Cuspera based on 646 reviews

SeedProd is a WordPress landing page builder that makes it easier than ever to build customized landing pages that actually convert. Used by over 1 million professionals, it offers a drag-and-drop page builder, live previews, layout navigation tools, templates, and a revision history tool in case you make a mistake.

27. WPForms

Pricing: Plans start at $99 per year — *on sale right now for $49.50*

Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars on G2

WPForms is one of the most popular drag-and-drop WordPress form builders on the market. More than 4 million professionals use it to build smarter forms and surveys. Sales and marketing teams can create custom lead generation forms, gather information about their audience, and collect payments.

WPForms also integrates with many of your favorite sales and marketing tools, including Salesforce, ActiveCampaign, and Zapier.

Complete marketing automation/CRM tools

All-in-one marketing and automation software removes the hassle of integrating multiple platforms (such as your email marketing provider, landing page builder, popup builder, etc.) and instead combines all of these tools into one amazing B2B lead generation platform.

Additionally, many often include lead management and scoring features. While this can make managing leads easier, it typically comes at a higher price. So consider whether you’d like to go with an all-in-one solution carefully. Below are a few top B2B lead generation platforms:

28. HubSpot

Pricing: Free, paid plans vary depending on which features you need, but start at $30 per month for small teams

Rating: 4.4/5 stars on G2

HubSpot is one of the biggest and well-known tools on the market for SaaS companies and agencies. The all-in-one marketing and CRM solution has features for managing contacts, posting to your blog, creating landing pages, finding new leads, and more.

Pricing primarily depends on what features you need as HubSpot consists of three main platforms: HubSpot CRM, HubSpot Sales, and HubSpot Marketing. However, free plans are available for all three B2B lead generation platforms.

29. Adobe Marketo Engage

Pricing: Contact sales for pricing

Adobe Marketo Engage is another all-in-one solution that features lead management, lead scoring, email marketing, email automation, and analytics. Again, pricing will depend largely on the features you need, and you will need to get in touch with sales to receive pricing information.

30. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (formerly Pardot)

Lead generation tool, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (formerly Pardot)

Pricing: Paid plans start at $1,250/month

With Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, you can " Grow revenue and scale customer engagement with B2B marketing automation software built directly into your CRM. " With drag-and-drop landing page and form builders or AI lead scoring, you'll be able to take charge of your marketing automations!

Pricing: Paid plans start at $199/month for the first five months, they also offer a 14-day free trial

Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars on G2

Keap is an all-in-one solution for marketing automation and CRM. You can manage contacts, score leads, create automated email campaigns, create landing pages, track website visitors, and more. They offer a 14-day free trial.

32. SharpSpring

Pricing: Paid plans start at $449/month

SharpSpring is a bit of a lesser-known all-in-one solution, but it still has many of the same features as the top players. The platform features lead management, lead scoring, email marketing, landing pages, chatbots, pipeline management, and email automation.

33. Constant Contact

Pricing: Basic plan starting at $9.99 per month for email marketing (other tools priced separately)

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars on G2

Constant Contact is an email marketing and automation tool that makes it easier to create and send branded emails, manage your website, and even use social media to attract leads to your site. Features include website builders, email segmenting, SEO tools , and deep analytics tools, so you have more of that sweet, sweet data.

Constant Contact is best for small businesses, so make sure it fits your needs before diving in.

Sales process automation tools

These tools help you save time by automating routine actions. They can be used to find leads or for sales prospecting by notifying you of new postings on a specific directory, or they can simply help you save time by automating mundane tasks. Less time spent on CRM data entry means more time spent on crafting the perfect pitch.

For example, here is a shortlist of ways to use IFTTT for lead generation and other sales automation.

Pricing: Free to create up to 5 applets or turn on unlimited applets, paid plans at $2.75

Rating: 4.5/5 stars on G2

IFTTT stands for "If This Then That." The platform can be used to complete a specified action when another specific action happens. For example, if someone posts in a particular Craigslist category, you can automatically receive an email in your inbox with that posting. This can be helpful for companies that browse Craigslist for leads, such as web design companies.

Pricing: Free, paid plans start at $19.99/month (billed annualy)

Rating : 4.5/5 stars on G2

Zapier works much like IFTTT does; if a specific action occurs, then another is automatically completed. One big difference is you can generally create more elaborate actions using Zapier. For example, when you receive an email, the email could automatically be added to Dropbox, then an alert can be created in Slack.

36. OnePageCRM

Pricing: Plans start at $9.95 per month for small businesses

Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars on G2

OnePage CRM is a powerful CRM that keeps things simple by reducing admin work so you can focus on closing deals. It helps manage contact contacts, email, your sales pipeline, and offers automation and reporting tools.

Plus, it integrates with tons of other tools, like MailChimp, Unbounce, Skype, and Google Contacts.

37. Nimble

Pricing: $24.90 per month per user, per month (billed annualy)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars on G2

Nimble is (as the name implies) a simple, smart CRM that works with Office and GSuite to automatically combine contacts, communication histories, appointments, and email boxes into one place. It works with every social network, including LinkedIn, to unify contacts, track sales activities, and streamline the sales process.

38. HubSpot Sales

Pricing: Starts at $45 per month for two users

Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars on G2

HubSpot may be best known as a marketing tool, but it has tons of features to help make lead generation more manageable and productive. Features for sales teams include sales automation, pipeline management, meeting scheduling, tracking, goal setting, and live chat.

Higher tiers offer even more tools, such as sales forecasting, 1:1 video creation, smart send times, and predictive lead scoring.

39. Pipedrive

Pricing : Free trial, lans start at $14.90 per month (billed annualy)

Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars on G2

Who wants to make the sales process more efficient? ✋ Teams looking to work smarter should have Pipedrive on their radar. It is a customer relationship management tool designed specifically to help sales teams get more done.

Features of note include custom sales pipeline building, activity tracking, BCC email inbox, email opens and clicks tracking, task automation, revenue forecasting, and (in the higher plans) permission tracking and extra customizations.

Fun fact, Leadfeeder integrates with Pipedrive , so you spend less time flipping between tools and more time, you know, actually selling.

40. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Lead generation tool, LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Pricing: Free trial for every plan, contact for monthly pricing

Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars on G2 reviews

There's a good chance you already use LinkedIn for researching and prospecting. Sales Navigator makes the social network even more powerful with features like a full premium profile ( social selling 🙌), more InMail messages, saving leads, advanced searches, usage reporting, a learning center, and a relationship manager.

Live chat software and live chat tools

Live chat tools enable your team to grab the attention of site visitors using a chat bubble visible on any pages that you set. This allows potential customers to quickly get in touch and answer any questions about your product. Which enables you to generate more leads, nice!

Below are a couple of free lead generation tools and several paid options as well.

41. Intercom

Pricing: 14-day free trial, "Essential" plan start at $39/month and seat

Rating : 4.5 out of 5 stars on G2

Intercom is also another tool that can be used for live chat on your site. In addition to live chat, Intercom has features for managing conversations, sending targeted messages, and publishing help articles on your site. There are no free plans, but you can request a demo.

42. Tawk.to

Pricing: Free, $19/month to remove branding

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars on G2

Tawk.to is a live chat tool similar to Drift and Intercom. The tool can be installed for free with Tawk branding on the chat widgets. It’s then $19/month to remove the company branding. Setup takes less than a minute, and you can monitor and track progress over time.

43. Acquire

Pricing: Start at $500 per month (billed annually) plus $25 per agent & month

Rating : 4.2 out of 5 stars via G2

Acquire.io is a live chat tool that allows you to answer customer’s questions instantly in real-time. With a lead bot, you can automate the portion of the chat process and qualify and convert leads faster. Paid plans start at $500 per month.

44. CallPage

Pricing: Free trial, paid plans start at $39/month

Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars on G2

Looking to increase the number of sales calls from your website, decrease lead response time, and provide better customer service? CallPage can get you there with their callback automation tool that connects you with prospective leads in seconds.

Simply install a widget on your site, and site visitors can click to call and be automatically connected with your team.

Social media & forum software tools

These tools can help to save time finding leads on social networks such as LinkedIn and Twitter.

45. Twitter Search

Pricing: Free

Rating: N/A

Using Twitter Search , you can search tweets to find people who could use your service or product. For example, if you’re a web designer, you may search the term "web designer" to find companies who have tweeted in search of a web designer. Then, you can retweet them or try to find a direct employee’s contact information using one of the email tools we mentioned in this list.

There's also an advanced Twitter search that supports boolean operators like AND.

Quora is a massive forum for people to ask questions. It’s similar to Yahoo Answers, but the responses on Quora are generally higher-quality and provide more insight. Using Quora, you can search for questions from your target audience and provide helpful answers. This will create awareness for your company, product, or service. This works not only for the person who originally asked the question but also for future visitors who find the page via search.

Social media tools

Social media contest software for lead gen.

Running a contest can be a great lead generator. Usually, the goal is to create brand awareness and get people to sign up for your email list. From there, you can continue to market to them through email drip campaigns.

Below are a few free lead generation tools that will make it easy to create and promote a viral contest.

Pricing: Paid plans start at $149/month for up to 30K leads

Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars via G2

Vyper is a tool for creating viral contests. While getting a contest to go viral is easier said than done, Vyper enables your contest participants to earn additional entries by completing further actions such as completing a form on your website, following your social profiles, or referring a friend.

You can set the number of extra entries a participant will earn and increase the likelihood your contest will be shared.

Pricing: Free, paid plans start at $97/month

Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars on G2

Gleam functions similar to Vyper, allowing you to create a viral contest. While not as polished as Vyper, Gleam enables you to create contests for a host of different purposes, such as contests to increase engagement on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Eventbrite, etc. It also integrates with a range of platforms, including CRMs, social media, and email marketing tools.

49. Rafflecopter

Pricing: Free, paid plans start at $13/month

Rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars via G2

Rafflecopter is one of the easiest platforms for creating a well-designed contest quickly. Features include unlimited giveaways, unlimited entries, embedded forms, data export, and more.

You can try the tool for free, but you will need to purchase a paid plan starting at $13/month before launching your contest. Rafflecopter offers options for contest entry via email, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

50. RafflePress

Pricing: Plans start at $39.50 annually

Rating: N/A

RafflePress is a WordPress plugin designed to make giveaway and contest management a breeze. Features include a drag-and-drop builder, templates, landing page builder, fraud protection, and integrations with CRM, email, and other marketing tools.

Survey tools

Customer insights and customer satisfaction survey tools.

Using survey and customer research tools, you can gain helpful information on your target audience, such as what websites they visit, if they found your website useful, how much they’re willing to spend, etc.

All of this information can then be used to tweak your website and sales process to serve potential customers better.

Most of these are free lead generation tools with just a few being paid-only.

51. ProProfs Survey Maker

Pricing: 15-day free trial, paid plans start at $0.10 per response, billed monthly

Rating: 4.3/5 stars on G2

As a cloud-based tool, ProProfs Survey Maker allows you to capture qualified leads and identify their pain points. The online survey tool helps you pick questions that enable your operators to understand the prospect’s purchasing intent and customize their interactions going forward.

Distribute surveys effortlessly through email, social media, or embed a form on your website to maximize the likelihood of reaching your target audience faster. A 15-day trial of ProProfs Survey Maker is available.

52. Crystal

Pricing : Contact for pricing

When you’re reaching out to a lead for the first time, it’s critical to understand who they are. Crystal uses AI to predict anyone’s personality from their online footprint, helping you write and speak with the most effective style. It’s like having a coach for every conversation.

53. Qualaroo

Pricing: Free 15-day trial, paid plans start at $100/month, billed monthly

Qualaroo is a tool for gathering feedback from site visitors. You can use the tool to show survey and popup lead generation forms on your site. You can ask customers questions like, "Is our pricing clear enough?", “Did this page answer your question?” etc., and then use that data to optimize your site better.

54. Survicate

Pricing: Free, paid plans start at $89/month for up to 3000 customers per year

Survicate is another tool for collecting feedback from your audience. In addition to showing surveys or feedback forms on your site, you can also embed a survey directly into an email. This makes it easy to get feedback after customer support threads.

55. Google Forms

Pricing: Free for personal, $12 USD/month for business

Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars on Capterra based on 10,693 reviews

While it won’t have the level of integration and analytics that come with tools like Survicate or Qualaroo, Google Forms can still help create surveys. The tool is easy to use, and best of all, it’s free.

56. Extole

Pricing: Contact for a demo

Extole is an enterprise referral tool designed to turn customers into advocates — making it easier for you to close deals. It helps brands identify and engage with advocates with integrated social sharing, refer-a-friend programs, and a reward engine for offering customized rewards to your best customers.

57. Survey Monkey

Survey Monkey used as a lead generation tool

Pricing: Plans start at $25 per month per user for teams

Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars on G2 based on 18,556 reviews

Survey Monkey is a customer survey and feedback collection tool that helps companies better understand their customers. Features of note include easy-to-build surveys, detailed reporting tools, custom logo, colors, and URLs, advanced data exporting, and the ability to accept payments.

Higher plans offer advanced data analytics, targeting, access to industry benchmarks, and data visualization.

58. Referral Candy

Pricing: $49 per month, 30-day free trial

Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars on G2 based on 93 reviews

ReferralCandy is an e-commerce plugin that helps brands grow their sales by automating referrals and affiliate marketing. Features include the ability to design custom emails, pop-ups, and landing pages, a detailed dashboard to track your referrals, and custom rewards to drive retention and sales.

Calendar scheduling tools

Calendar tools are useful in lead generation to schedule meetings without going through a lot of back and forth between prospects to find a time that works. By allowing potential prospects to schedule a time on your calendar simply, you can make it much easier to schedule sales calls or demo requests.

Here are several free lead generation tools in the calendar space:

59. Calendly

Pricing: Free, paid plans start at $8/month

Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars on GetApp based on 3,100 reviews

Calendly makes it easy to schedule meetings, sales calls, demo requests, and so on. With the tool, you’d simply set the times you are available, and prospects can choose a time from your schedule that works for them. You can even add a Calendly link to your email signature.

Pricing: Free, paid plans start at $6.95/month

Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars on GetApp based on 1,700 reviews

Doodle is another solid option for easy meeting scheduling. In addition to simple scheduling options, Doodle allows participants to vote on the best times that will work to meet. The organizer can then pick the best option. This can make it easy to schedule meetings with multiple people.

61. Limecall

Pricing: 14-day free trial; paid plans start at $20/month

Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars on G2

Limecall is a callback tool that provides personal one-on-one conversations with your prospects that you can turn into qualified leads. This tool also has a widget that offers free calls to the visitors within 30 seconds of the question, and if they wish, they can schedule the call for some other time that suits them.

The Starter Plan is free, and then the prices begin to range from $149/mo depending on the number of calls and the engaged call operators.

So, which lead generation tool is for you?

Different lead generation software have different benefits. Which ones are right for you depends on your current lead generation system and what you’re looking to achieve.

But whether you're focused on outbound or inbound lead gen, looking to drive more leads, save time on outreach, report better on your programs, or get more out of your current website traffic, there should be a B2B lead generation tool on the list that’s right for you.

So, here’s to more quality leads, and less sleepless nights!

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Project Management

Multi-touch approach, collateral fulfillment, crm interaction.

"In the 3 years we have been engaged with NIH Research, they have been continually updating, refining and augmenting our internal database of prospects. NIH Research has been instrumental in infusing 3.6 million dollars into our sales pipeline and have become an integral part of our sales and marketing strategy."

Heather Bahner Director of Marketing / Netsmart Technologies

Lead Generation

Identify qualified opportunities
Increase development of a robust sales funnel/pipeline
Cover territory more efficiently
Reduce the cost and duration of the sales cycle
Increase sales and revenue
Enhance strategic positioning
Build brand awareness/company name recognition
Recover potential missed sales opportunities

Our range of contact experience includes hospitals, IDNs, group practices, pharmaceutical organizations, laboratories and more which means we understand the subtle differences in healthcare research that other companies typically miss. And, we appreciate that every group – physicians, chief executives, practice administrators, lab directors and others – each have a certain expectation for sales and marketing communications. The professionals at NIHR know exactly how to reach them all.

See impressive results with a lead generation or market research campaign from NIH Research & Consulting, LLC (NIHR). In fact, we typically enjoy success rates as high as 30% with almost half of those being high-quality “A-level” leads. Whether you have your own database of potential leads or you need NIH Research to procure a viable list on your behalf, our focused lead generation campaigns offer:

Better territory coverage
Lower cost of sale
Shorter sales cycles
Stronger deal pipeline
Increased market awareness
An overview of the marketplace
Updated databases with key healthcare contacts
Reduction in missed sales opportunities
Happier, more productive Sales Representatives

And that’s just the beginning of our scope of services. Once we’ve assembled leads for you, we can help you track them, use them, and much more.

At NIH Research we appreciate that gathering leads is only one important aspect of harvesting important revenue opportunities. That’s why NIH Research also offers a comprehensive set of services to work with your team to maximize your sales opportunities and realize a greater return on your company’s investment of time and money into your market prospecting campaigns.

Your assigned NIH Research Project Manager assumes an intricate role inclusive of on-going communication and consultation with you, your dedicated NIH Research Consultants and your sales team. This personalized communication between you and your assigned NIH Research Project Manager ensures that the information that NIH Research provides to you is being both utilized internally in an efficient manner as well as being distributed where it needs to be when it needs to be there.

Most companies make the mistake of employing a single touch approach in an attempt to contact a sales prospect universe. NIH Research employs a “multiple touch” methodology of communicating with this universe which significantly improves the chances of reaching the targeted decision maker or makers. NIHR’s multiple touch system was created by our firm and has been highly effective for hundreds of clients for over fourteen years. This market proven continuum of multiple touch outreach directed at the prospect contains but is not limited to the following elements:

Production through high volume calling (20 to 30) dials per hour per phone consultant
Bonding with the targeted contact’s gatekeeper
Establishment work patterns of decision makers
Once work patterns have been established call backs are scheduled
Exploration and discovery techniques are used determine learn more about the decision process
Once the call with the decision maker or makers has been completed appropriate follow up is established
Relationship and psychological bonding and credibility are established setting the stage for the further probing setting the stage for the next sales event
More information is disseminated through eCollateral Web presentations are scheduled
Appointments are set for the client’s sales professionals or subject matter experts
BUSINESS IS CLOSED

It is neither the purpose nor the goal of the highly credentialed and educated NIH Research Consultants to become “order takers” for your prospects who wish to receive and review your company collateral. Instead, our Consultants want to assume an “ownership” role in bonding with your prospecting client base. For this purpose, we offer as a value added service, fulfillment of your electronic collateral requests. This may include .pdf information, white papers and/or specific links to your company website. We accomplish this with the following steps:

At project inception, your IT team assigns the NIH Research Consultants a dedicated seat on your email server. Emails sent are branded to YOUR company name.
The NIH Research Consultant includes a personalized note to your prospect while identifying themselves as a representative from your marketing department.
After collateral is sent electronically, the NIH Research Consultant immediately schedules the follow up call in accordance with the direction given by the prospect. No one slips through the cracks!
Once the NIH Research Consultant “touches” your client post-fulfillment, they will collect additional feedback in response to the information reviewed and pass that information on to you.
If an email address proves to be incorrect or not in working order, we will call back in to the prospect to confirm the information and hence, provide you with the most accurate and up to date information about your prospect’s contact data.

NIH research works closely within your CRM system (www.salesforce.com, Sugar, etc.) once provided a seat and adequate permissions. This ensures no opportunity or task goes unnoticed.

Event Optimization

Keeping your name in front of clients and prospects is key! Our dedicated efforts can more than double attendance at your client events including:

Trade Shows: Avoid empty booth.
Webinars: Who’s watching?
User Group Event: We recruit and conduct real time registration.

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How Pew Research Center will report on generations moving forward

Journalists, researchers and the public often look at society through the lens of generation, using terms like Millennial or Gen Z to describe groups of similarly aged people. This approach can help readers see themselves in the data and assess where we are and where we’re headed as a country.

Pew Research Center has been at the forefront of generational research over the years, telling the story of Millennials as they came of age politically and as they moved more firmly into adult life . In recent years, we’ve also been eager to learn about Gen Z as the leading edge of this generation moves into adulthood.

But generational research has become a crowded arena. The field has been flooded with content that’s often sold as research but is more like clickbait or marketing mythology. There’s also been a growing chorus of criticism about generational research and generational labels in particular.

Recently, as we were preparing to embark on a major research project related to Gen Z, we decided to take a step back and consider how we can study generations in a way that aligns with our values of accuracy, rigor and providing a foundation of facts that enriches the public dialogue.

A typical generation spans 15 to 18 years. As many critics of generational research point out, there is great diversity of thought, experience and behavior within generations.

We set out on a yearlong process of assessing the landscape of generational research. We spoke with experts from outside Pew Research Center, including those who have been publicly critical of our generational analysis, to get their take on the pros and cons of this type of work. We invested in methodological testing to determine whether we could compare findings from our earlier telephone surveys to the online ones we’re conducting now. And we experimented with higher-level statistical analyses that would allow us to isolate the effect of generation.

What emerged from this process was a set of clear guidelines that will help frame our approach going forward. Many of these are principles we’ve always adhered to , but others will require us to change the way we’ve been doing things in recent years.

Here’s a short overview of how we’ll approach generational research in the future:

We’ll only do generational analysis when we have historical data that allows us to compare generations at similar stages of life. When comparing generations, it’s crucial to control for age. In other words, researchers need to look at each generation or age cohort at a similar point in the life cycle. (“Age cohort” is a fancy way of referring to a group of people who were born around the same time.)

When doing this kind of research, the question isn’t whether young adults today are different from middle-aged or older adults today. The question is whether young adults today are different from young adults at some specific point in the past.

To answer this question, it’s necessary to have data that’s been collected over a considerable amount of time – think decades. Standard surveys don’t allow for this type of analysis. We can look at differences across age groups, but we can’t compare age groups over time.

Another complication is that the surveys we conducted 20 or 30 years ago aren’t usually comparable enough to the surveys we’re doing today. Our earlier surveys were done over the phone, and we’ve since transitioned to our nationally representative online survey panel , the American Trends Panel . Our internal testing showed that on many topics, respondents answer questions differently depending on the way they’re being interviewed. So we can’t use most of our surveys from the late 1980s and early 2000s to compare Gen Z with Millennials and Gen Xers at a similar stage of life.

This means that most generational analysis we do will use datasets that have employed similar methodologies over a long period of time, such as surveys from the U.S. Census Bureau. A good example is our 2020 report on Millennial families , which used census data going back to the late 1960s. The report showed that Millennials are marrying and forming families at a much different pace than the generations that came before them.

Even when we have historical data, we will attempt to control for other factors beyond age in making generational comparisons. If we accept that there are real differences across generations, we’re basically saying that people who were born around the same time share certain attitudes or beliefs – and that their views have been influenced by external forces that uniquely shaped them during their formative years. Those forces may have been social changes, economic circumstances, technological advances or political movements.

When we see that younger adults have different views than their older counterparts, it may be driven by their demographic traits rather than the fact that they belong to a particular generation.

The tricky part is isolating those forces from events or circumstances that have affected all age groups, not just one generation. These are often called “period effects.” An example of a period effect is the Watergate scandal, which drove down trust in government among all age groups. Differences in trust across age groups in the wake of Watergate shouldn’t be attributed to the outsize impact that event had on one age group or another, because the change occurred across the board.

Changing demographics also may play a role in patterns that might at first seem like generational differences. We know that the United States has become more racially and ethnically diverse in recent decades, and that race and ethnicity are linked with certain key social and political views. When we see that younger adults have different views than their older counterparts, it may be driven by their demographic traits rather than the fact that they belong to a particular generation.

Controlling for these factors can involve complicated statistical analysis that helps determine whether the differences we see across age groups are indeed due to generation or not. This additional step adds rigor to the process. Unfortunately, it’s often absent from current discussions about Gen Z, Millennials and other generations.

When we can’t do generational analysis, we still see value in looking at differences by age and will do so where it makes sense. Age is one of the most common predictors of differences in attitudes and behaviors. And even if age gaps aren’t rooted in generational differences, they can still be illuminating. They help us understand how people across the age spectrum are responding to key trends, technological breakthroughs and historical events.

Each stage of life comes with a unique set of experiences. Young adults are often at the leading edge of changing attitudes on emerging social trends. Take views on same-sex marriage , for example, or attitudes about gender identity .

Many middle-aged adults, in turn, face the challenge of raising children while also providing care and support to their aging parents. And older adults have their own obstacles and opportunities. All of these stories – rooted in the life cycle, not in generations – are important and compelling, and we can tell them by analyzing our surveys at any given point in time.

When we do have the data to study groups of similarly aged people over time, we won’t always default to using the standard generational definitions and labels. While generational labels are simple and catchy, there are other ways to analyze age cohorts. For example, some observers have suggested grouping people by the decade in which they were born. This would create narrower cohorts in which the members may share more in common. People could also be grouped relative to their age during key historical events (such as the Great Recession or the COVID-19 pandemic) or technological innovations (like the invention of the iPhone).

By choosing not to use the standard generational labels when they’re not appropriate, we can avoid reinforcing harmful stereotypes or oversimplifying people’s complex lived experiences.

Existing generational definitions also may be too broad and arbitrary to capture differences that exist among narrower cohorts. A typical generation spans 15 to 18 years. As many critics of generational research point out, there is great diversity of thought, experience and behavior within generations. The key is to pick a lens that’s most appropriate for the research question that’s being studied. If we’re looking at political views and how they’ve shifted over time, for example, we might group people together according to the first presidential election in which they were eligible to vote.

With these considerations in mind, our audiences should not expect to see a lot of new research coming out of Pew Research Center that uses the generational lens. We’ll only talk about generations when it adds value, advances important national debates and highlights meaningful societal trends.

Age & Generations
Demographic Research
Generation X
Generation Z
Generations
Greatest Generation
Methodological Research
Millennials
Silent Generation

Kim Parker is director of social trends research at Pew Research Center

How Teens and Parents Approach Screen Time

Who are you the art and science of measuring identity, u.s. centenarian population is projected to quadruple over the next 30 years, older workers are growing in number and earning higher wages, teens, social media and technology 2023, most popular.

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The Edward A. Doisy Research Center on SLU's campus.

Creating the Next Generation of Researchers

A generous grant from the DeNardo Education and Research Foundation awarded to Rita Heuertz, Ph.D., i s creating unique opportunities for Saint Louis University students to work alongside the University's world-class researchers on impactful projects.

University students often find themselves eager for opportunities to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to real-life research scenarios. Whereas students at some universities are frustrated with hypothetical or scaled-back research opportunities, students at Saint Louis University receive opportunities to work alongside world-class researchers on real, externally funded projects. A generous grant from the DeNardo Education and Research Foundation connects students at varying levels to get involved in such opportunities as early as freshman year.

Rita Heuertz, Ph.D., MLS(ASCP) , professor of clinical health sciences, has served as the principal investigator for the DeNardo grant since it was first awarded to her in 2013. Her program “Active Learning Through Research'' is in its sixth round of continuous funding and has enabled over 81 research scholarships to be awarded to students over the past decade.

"In doing all of this, the students take away from the experience a deep respect for research that stays with them throughout their future years and careers," Heuertz said.

Students work alongside SLU faculty researchers from a variety of disciplines, including clinical health sciences, pediatrics, and nutrition and dietetics. They receive two or more semesters of mentored research experience, the opportunity to publish their research in peer-reviewed journals, and the ability to present their research at conferences in St. Louis and across the country. Students have completed research in fields such as cancer, neuroscience, bacterial biofilms and antimicrobial resistance, sickle cell anemia, and protein regulation.

Heuertz and one of her DeNardo Scholar undergraduate students, Nilan Patel, presented research results from the project “Swarming behavior of Pseudomonas aeruginosa,” a study that assessed the swarming behavior of a pathogen responsible for many infections, such as those seen in patients with burns, chronic infections and cystic fibrosis. Through funding from the DeNardo Foundation, Patel was able to present his research at three venues over the past year, including the 2023 SLU Institute for Drug and Biotherapeutic Innovation (IDBI) Research Symposium, in which he won second place in the undergraduate research competition); the 2023 Discover BMB Conference, which is the annual conference of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; and the 2023 Sigma Xi Research Symposium (SLU Chapter).

Because of this experience, students gain critical research experience early in their undergraduate studies, which leads them toward successful futures. DeNardo Scholars who have graduated from SLU have continued their education at impressive research institutions or pursued careers at industry-leading companies. Heuertz shared that the program has cultivated an appreciation for research and a uniquely profound opportunity to put classwork into action.

“This is excellent for bringing the classroom into the laboratory,” Heuertz said. “It’s in the laboratory, when the students are there doing an experiment, where they learn firsthand the things that we teach in the classroom.”

Heuertz and the SLU community see the program as a pipeline — cultivating the next generation of researchers. With a decade of supporting undergraduate student research under its belt, the future of research continues to shine brightly across campus and into the world.

Story by Mary Pogue, senior copywriter, Paradigm .

This piece was written for the 2023 SLU Research Institute Annual Impact Report. The Impact Report is printed each spring to celebrate the successes of our researchers from the previous year and share the story of SLU's rise as a preeminent Jesuit research university. Design, photography, and some writing contributions are made by Paradigm . More information can be found here .

Funding opportunity: AHRC responsive mode: Curiosity Award: round four

Flexible awards to fund fundamental research that leads to new research agendas, networking activity and idea generation, which enables the development of further research opportunities and new research agendas.

Awards are available for projects up to £100,000 full economic cost (FEC) and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) will fund 80% of this. Funding is available for projects up to five years in duration.

This funding opportunity will launch as consecutive rounds with defined opening and closing dates. Applications may be submitted at any time while a round is open.

Who can apply

Before applying for funding, please check:

the eligibility of your organisation
your eligibility as an individual . UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has introduced new role names for funding opportunities being run on the new UKRI Funding Service
that your proposal is suitable for AHRC funding
the remit query form  if you are unsure whether your proposed research falls within the remit of AHRC

Who is eligible to apply

Years of active research experience.

We do not consider years post-PhD or job title to be an authoritative marker of career progression. Eligibility is determined on the basis of grant-holding history as project lead.

The project lead and any project co-leads must be employed and supported by an eligible organisation for at least the duration of the UKRI support; it is not a requirement that a contract be in place at the point of application submission. It is also not a requirement to have a permanent employment contract to apply for funding.

Skills and qualifications

You must have the appropriate skills to lead the project in line with UKRI’s terms & conditions. There are no specific qualification requirements, and you do not necessarily need a qualification such as a PhD. During your project, you must be primarily based and permitted to work in the UK.

You do not need to hold an academic research or teaching post to apply; applications are welcomed from those working, for example, as archivists, curators, librarians, technicians and practitioners.

International researchers

We also encourage international researchers to participate as project co-leads. See sections two and three of the AHRC research funding guide for full details on eligibility of researchers, organisations, and costs.

Project co-leads

Project co-leads are permitted and encouraged for interdisciplinary applications or where a co-lead would provide specific technical expertise that is essential to the project. This can include international co-leads as per the guidance below.

However, it must be clear that the project lead is responsible for leading the project. Project co-leads are permitted to have previously led or be currently leading a significant research project and are not required to meet the eligibility criteria above.

Other roles

Other roles that are supported by this funding opportunity are listed in the ‘How to apply’ section below.

Who is not eligible to apply

We do not support project studentships (funding PhD study) within this funding opportunity.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion

We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.

We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:

career breaks
support for people with caring responsibilities
flexible working
alternative working patterns

Find out more about equality, diversity and inclusion at UKRI .

What we're looking for

Curiosity awards support early-stage ambitious and novel fundamental research which has the potential to act as a springboard towards new and exciting research agendas.

The funding opportunity celebrates the full diversity of the arts and humanities. It is flexible, and applications are welcomed from teams, networks, and solo researchers.

Projects can be single discipline, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary. The majority of the disciplinary focus of the project must fall within our subject remit; see section seven of the AHRC research funding guide for our remit coverage. Practice-based and practice-led research is supported by this funding opportunity.

We welcome applications to round four which enable digital skills development, capacity building, competitiveness and resilience, especially those that demonstrate how the arts and humanities can be a driver of responsible innovation in areas such as AI, technologies in the cultural and creative economy, and user-centred technology design. These will be assessed on their merits alongside all other proposal submitted to this scheme.

Partnerships and collaboration are supported. Where partnerships are already established, you should outline how this funding supports novelty in your collaboration. Applications should articulate how collaborative activity will be conducted, considering good practice in creating equitable partnerships. Further guidance is available in the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) good research resource hub .

The funding opportunity is intentionally flexible. An indicative list of examples of the activities we will fund are provided as follows. You are encouraged to request and justify costs for activities that best meet the aims of your project. This may include:

idea generation
seed corn funding
high risk and high potential concepts
novel research
networking activity
partnership building
knowledge exchange
public engagement
international collaboration
scoping and piloting, for example, early-stage proof of concept for ideas or change of direction
pivots in research focus at any career stage
mentoring for members of the research team

To note, this is not a prescriptive or exhaustive list.

The duration of these awards is up to five years.

The earliest permissible start date for applications to round four is 1 November 2024, however the project start date must also be at least six months from the point of the application submission to us.

Funding available

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £100,000 and we will fund 80% of the FEC.

Costs associated with international co-leads will be funded at 100% FEC but must not exceed 30% of the total project costs. Please refer to sections two and three of the AHRC research funding guide for details on eligibility of such costs.

Where mentoring is included for the researchers, salary costs to cover the mentor’s time can be claimed from the grant.

What we will fund

You are encouraged to request and justify costs for activities that best meet the aims of your project.

Supporting skills and talent

We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment .

International collaboration

If your application includes international co-leads, project partners or collaborators, visit sections two and three of the AHRC research funding guide for details on eligibility of researchers, organisations and costs.

Please also see UKRI’s trusted research and innovation for more information on effective international collaboration.

How to apply

We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.

The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.

Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.

Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.

Confirm you are the project lead.
Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. If your organisation is not listed, email [email protected] Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service.
Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page.
Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.

Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. You should:

use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
insert each new image onto a new line
provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
ensure files are smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format

Watch our research office webinars about the new Funding Service .

For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:

how applicants use the Funding Service
how research offices use the Funding Service
how reviewers use the Funding Service

Applications should be self-contained, and hyperlinks should only be used to provide links directly to reference information. To ensure the information’s integrity is maintained, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers should be used. Assessors are not required to access links to carry out assessment or recommend a funding decision. Applicants should use their discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.

References should be included in the appropriate question section of the application and be easily identifiable by the assessors e.g. (Smith, Research Paper, 2019)

You must not include links to web resources to extend your application.

The proposed start date of your project must be at least 6 months after the date of your application.

During the initial phases of the Funding Service, the system will continue to develop in response to internal and external user needs. AHRC responsive mode funding opportunities will run as consecutive rounds with defined closing dates. Opening in rounds means we will be able to accommodate system developments and assess applications in a batch submitted under the same conditions.

Applications may be submitted at any time while a round is open; you do not need to wait until the closing date. We will begin to process applications as soon as we receive them, therefore, if an application is submitted early in a round, we may be able to provide you with an earlier decision.

We must receive your application to round four by 30 July 2024 at 4:00pm UK time.

You will not be able to apply to round four after this time, instead you will need to complete a new application and submit it to round five.

Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.

Following the submission of your application to this funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.

If your application is rejected and invited for resubmission, your funding outcome may be later than advertised for this round.

Round five will open on 31 July 2024 and close on 30 October 2024. Details of subsequent rounds are available on the AHRC website: changes to AHRC responsive mode funding opportunities .

Personal data

Processing personal data.

AHRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications.

We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice .

Publication of outcomes

If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research .

Word limit: 500

In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.

We usually make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, therefore do not include any confidential or sensitive information. Make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:

opinion-formers
policymakers
the wider research community

Guidance for writing a summary

Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of:

the challenge the project addresses
aims and objectives
potential applications and benefits

List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:

project lead (PL)
project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
professional enabling staff
research and innovation associate

Only list one individual as project lead.

Mentor details should not be entered in this section, instead please outline their name and contribution in the ‘Applicant and team capability to deliver’ section.

Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications .

Application questions

Discipline classification – primary.

Word limit: 5

Please provide the primary research area of your proposal.

What the assessors are looking for in your response

You must select from one of these research disciplines.

This information will be used for the purposes of processing your proposal and in the selection of appropriate assessors. The research disciplines are:

archaeology
area studies
cultural and museum studies
development studies
drama and theatre studies
human geography
information and communication technologies
languages and literature
law and legal studies
library and information studies
linguistics
political science and international studies
social anthropology
theology, divinity and religion
visual arts

Discipline classification – secondary

Word limit: 50

Please describe, using keywords, the research area of your proposal and where relevant the approach, time period or geographical area.

This will further help with the selection of appropriate assessors.

Word limit: 550

What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work?

Explain how your proposed work:

is of excellent quality and importance within or beyond the field(s) or area(s)
has the potential to advance current understanding, or generate new knowledge, thinking or discovery within or beyond the field or area
is timely given current trends, context, and needs
impacts world-leading research, society, the economy, or the environment

Within the Vision section we also expect you to:

identify the potential direct or indirect benefits and who the beneficiaries might be

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

References may be included within this section.

Word limit: 1,650

How are you going to deliver your proposed work?

Explain how you have designed your approach so that it:

is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives
is feasible, and comprehensively identifies any risks to delivery and how they will be managed
uses a clearly written and transparent methodology (if applicable)
summarises the previous work and describes how this will be built upon and progressed (if applicable)
will maximise translation of outputs into outcomes and impacts
describes how your, and if applicable your team’s, research environment (in terms of the place and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work
Applicant and team capability to deliver

Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?

Evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:

the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work
the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work
the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others
contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community

The word count for this section is 1,650 words: 1,150 words to be used for R4RI modules (including references) and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions.

Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills you and, if relevant, your team (project and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) have and how this will help deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.

Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed. Use each heading once and include a response for the whole team, see the UKRI guidance on R4RI . You should consider how to balance your answer, and emphasise where appropriate the key skills each team member brings:

contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge
the development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships
contributions to the wider research and innovation community
contributions to broader research or innovation users and audiences and towards wider societal benefit

As a minimum, all named members of the leadership team should be discussed within this section of the form.

References may be included within this section, and if deemed appropriate, these should be included within the section’s word limit. We would advise you not to include hyperlinks, as assessors are not obliged to access the information they lead to or consider it in their assessment of your application. If you are linking to web resources, to maintain the information’s integrity, include persistent identifiers (such as digital object identifiers) where possible. You must not include links to web resources to extend your application.

Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 500 words. You should not use it to describe additional skills, experiences, or outputs, but you can use it to describe any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).

Complete this as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.

UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new Funding Service.

For full details, see Eligibility as an individual .

Project partners

Add details about any project partners’ contributions. If there are no project partners, you can indicate this on the Funding Service.

A project partner is a collaborating organisation or individual who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include direct (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of facilities.

Add the following project partner details:

the organisation name and address (searchable via a drop-down list or enter the organisation’s details manually, as applicable)
the project partner contact name and email address
the type of contribution (direct or in-direct) and its monetary value

If a detail is entered incorrectly and you have saved the entry, remove the specific project partner record and re-add it with the correct information.

For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.

Project partners: letters (or emails) of support

Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the ‘Project partners’ section. These should be uploaded in English or Welsh only.

Enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box, or if you do not have any project partners enter N/A. Each letter or email you provide should:

confirm the partner’s commitment to the project
clearly explain the value, relevance, and possible benefits of the work to them
describe any additional value that they bring to the project
be no more than two sides of A4 per partner

The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply. If you do not have any project partners, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.

Ensure you have prior agreement from project partners so that, if you are offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the ‘Project partners’ section.

Do not provide letters of support from host, project co-leads’ research organisations and other UK research organisations.

Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)

Word limit: 500

What are the ethical or RRI implications and issues relating to the proposed work? If you do not think that the proposed work raises any ethical or RRI issues, explain why.

Demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated:

the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations
how you will manage these considerations

If you are collecting or using data, identify:

any legal and ethical considerations of collecting, releasing or storing the data including consent, confidentiality, anonymisation, security and other ethical considerations and strategies to not preclude further reuse of data
formal information standards with which your study will comply

Resources and cost justification

Word limit: 1,000

What will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?

Justify the application’s more costly resources, in particular:

project staff
significant travel for field work or collaboration (but not regular travel between collaborating organisations or to conferences)
any consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities
all facilities and infrastructure costs
all resources that have been costed as ‘Exceptions’

Assessors are not looking for detailed costs or a line-by-line breakdown of all project resources. Overall, they want you to demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work:

are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified
represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
maximise potential outcomes and impacts

Additionally, where relevant you should explain:

support for any project partners organisations

We do not provide funding for individual items of equipment over £10,000. Please see the AHRC Research Funding Guide for further information.

How we will assess your application

Assessment process.

Note that all elements of your application form will be shared with the assessors.

We will assess your application using the following process.

Peer review

There is no written peer review stage for the Curiosity awards funding opportunity.

Proposals will be assessed by an expert panel against the criteria, and each will be graded and ranked alongside other applications after which the panel will make a funding recommendation.

Find out more about  AHRC’s assessment process .

We aim to issue outcomes within six months of receiving your application. The earliest grant start date for this round will be 1 November 2024.

Written feedback will not be provided on individual applications. We may publish separate collated panel feedback, ensuring that you or your application cannot be identified.

Principles of assessment

We support the San Francisco declaration on research assessment and recognise the relationship between research assessment and research integrity.

Find out about the UKRI principles of assessment and decision making .

We reserve the right to modify the assessment process as needed.

Assessment criteria

The assessment areas we will use are:

Resource and cost justification

Find details of assessment questions and criteria under the ‘Application questions’ heading in the ‘How to apply’ section.

Contact details

Get help with your application.

If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Helpdesk is committed to helping users of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service as effectively and as quickly as possible. In order to manage cases at peak volume times, the Helpdesk will triage and prioritise those queries with an imminent opportunity deadline or a technical issue. Enquiries raised where information is available on the Funding Finder opportunity page and should be understood early in the application process (for example, regarding eligibility or content/remit of an opportunity) will not constitute a priority case and will be addressed as soon as possible.

For help and advice on costings and writing your proposal please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

For questions related to this specific funding opportunity please contact [email protected]

Any queries regarding the system or the submission of applications through the Funding Service should be directed to the helpdesk.

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 01793 547490

Our phone lines are open:

Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm
Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm

To help us process queries quicker, we request that users highlight the council and opportunity name in the subject title of their email query, include the application reference number, and refrain from contacting more than one mailbox at a time.

You can also find information on submitting an application .

Sensitive information

If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email [email protected]

Include in the subject line: [the funding opportunity title; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number].

Typical examples of confidential information include:

individual is unavailable until a certain date (for example due to parental leave)
declaration of interest
additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the ‘Applicant and team capability’ section
conflict of interest for UKRI to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection
the application is an invited resubmission

For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read UKRI’s privacy notice .

Additional info

The launch of the Curiosity and Catalyst Awards schemes were supported by a webinar for prospective applicants and professional research support staff that presented an overview of the schemes, followed by an opportunity to ask questions. The webinars were recorded, and a copy can be found below.

Watch webinar recording from 8 September 2023 (YouTube) View a transcript of the webinar from 8 September 2023

Note that this webinar is British Sign Language interpreted.

Research disruption due to COVID-19

We recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major interruptions and disruptions across our communities. We are committed to ensuring that individual applicants and their wider team, including partners and networks, are not penalised for any disruption to their career, such as:

breaks and delays
disruptive working patterns and conditions
the loss of ongoing work
role changes that may have been caused by the pandemic

Reviewers and panel members will be advised to consider the unequal impacts that COVID-19 related disruption might have had on the capability to deliver and career development of those individuals included in the application. They will be asked to consider the capability of the applicant and their wider team to deliver the research they are proposing.

Where disruptions have occurred, you can highlight this within your application if you wish, but there is no requirement to detail the specific circumstances that caused the disruption.

This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback or would like to help improve our online products and services .

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Lead Generation: How To Turn Interest Into a Sale

When you understand the basics of lead generation, you'll turn interest into conversions. Here's what you need to know.

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Think like a buyer and seal the deal

What is lead generation?

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Make sure your content addresses pain points

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How to Do Lead Research: Solid Tips for SDRs and Marketers

Ojesvi Singh

Table of Contents

6 Tips for a Thorough Lead Research Process

1. Find Your Exact Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

2. Conduct Preliminary Research

Pick Prominent Sources for Research

Explore Advanced Search Techniques

Check Out Lesser-Known Search Databases

Identify Where to Find Decision-Makers

3. Harness Social Media Intelligence Insights

4. Perform Competitive Analysis for Lead Insights

5. Implement Collaborative Research Efforts

6. Leverage Connection-building Psychology

Best Practices for Error-Free Lead Research

1. Fill in Missing Lead Data

2. Replace the Old Database with Up-to-Date Information

Common Challenges and Solutions

1. Lengthy Manual Entry and Routine Tasks

2. Unclear ROI Feasibility for ICP

3. Scenarios Where No Leads Match Your ICP

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