Powerful Tactics to Fire Up Lead Generation in Digital Marketing

Yeah, your business could be the greatest, it can be the best, it can be the King Kong… you get the idea. But none of that matters if no one knows about it. 

Regardless of how hard-working and professional you are, your business will have trouble bringing in the big bucks if it has few leads to work on. 

So if you’ve been waiting for a sign to step up your lead generation in digital marketing, here it is.

Believe me, the right strategies, tactics, and marketing channels are what you need to get qualified leads and engage them all the way through the sales funnel.

I’ll be glad to show you effective ways to generate leads. But first… you know what lead generation is, right? Here's a quick update if you’ve been putting off that marketing book.

What is lead generation in digital marketing?

Lead generation means capturing people’s attention and interest to turn them into paying customers. Easier said than done, right? How do you do that?

Well, gone are the days when lead generation meant aggressively promoting products and services with pushy emails and phone calls. People simply have no patience for such tactics anymore. Plus, they got pretty good at blocking messages that don’t resonate with them. 

So yes, today, more than ever, businesses need to be creative with their strategies and messaging. But don’t worry, I’ll show you how to generate leads in a way that draws people in.

How to generate leads in digital marketing

Effective lead generation in digital marketing is what pulls potential customers toward your brand. Here’s how you can make this happen. 

Create content that resonates with your audience

People avoid sales pitches, but they’re sure ready to embrace content that strikes a chord. So start by getting to know your ideal customer and finding out what makes them tick. This will help you come up with a buyer persona and craft content that addresses their problems, preferences, or needs. 

But your audience won’t listen to just anyone. You have to establish and market yourself as a subject matter expert, so you’ll have to regularly post articles, podcasts, or videos related to your industry. And make sure the content is well-researched and crafted.

Remember: content only meets its goals if people are actually paying attention to it, so make it as engaging as it is informative. Give your audience compelling stories, real-life examples, infographics, interactive videos, and other rich media. 

Make it easy for your customers to find you

You’ve created content that meets the needs and preferences of your customers. Great, now you need to make sure it actually reaches the audience. An excellent way to do this is to fire up your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. 

You need it mainly because people who find you via organic search tend to be truly invested in your content and the products or services you’re offering.

Here are some tips I personally like:

• Work with a professional SEO expert

• Regularly publish blog posts that are optimized for specific keywords

• Boost the page load speed of your website

• Run a link-building campaign

• Encourage and promote customer reviews

If you follow these tips, you’ll have every chance to boost your SEO for better online marketing lead generation.

Reach your audience where they hang out

Your stand-up gig will be much more successful in a bar than in a church (unless that’s a specific church for that). I mean, the best way to reach your audience is to go where they normally hang out. 

And they’re likely to spend a lot of time on social media networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. When you combine your tone of voice, tailored messages, and platform capabilities, you get content that makes people hit that subscribe button. 

Have you found out your audience enjoys Twitter? Issue a thread on a topic they’ve had problems with recently. Your audience is Millennials? Then Instagram might be their platform of choice (so chip in for nice visuals).

And if it’s Gen-Zs you’re targeting, make sure to follow TikTok trends and that your content campaign doesn’t jiggle, jiggle, it folds.

Speaking of campaigns, here are the ones that are the most effective.

Typical digital marketing campaigns

All marketing campaigns that include digital promotion usually fall under three types based on their goals.

Customer acquisition campaigns

These campaigns aim to reach people who aren’t aware of your company or may be familiar with it but have yet to make any direct interaction. They specifically target the live incarnations of your buyer personas or the people who are already looking for what you’re offering.

Conversion campaigns

These kinds of campaigns focus on turning leads into paying customers. After all, your marketing efforts only count if they’re bringing in revenue.

Retention and trust marketing campaigns

Conversion is definitely a huge goal, but your marketing efforts don’t stop there. You need to win the customers’ loyalty too. People who trust your company will not only continue to buy from you but also convince others to support your business. 

Trust me: satisfied customers are the best ambassadors.

If you’ve been paying attention, you probably see that lead generation through digital marketing is closely tied to customer acquisition. And here’s how to do it right.

Lead generation campaign tactics

Let’s get down to business to defeat the Huns talk about the specific tactics that will keep those leads coming. 

Lead magnets

A lead magnet is a resource that urges your target audience to give their information in exchange for access. It may come in the form of an ebook, white paper, checklist, toolkit, cheat sheet, or any content that’s valuable to your potential customers. 

Often, a lead magnet is a landing page that explains the value of the resource and asks the visitors for their email addresses to gain free access to it. Alternatively, you can add an exit-intent pop-up just to remind a leaving viewer that they haven’t left any information.

Here’s an example. A digital marketing agency may offer an ebook that’s a complete guide for boosting local SEO. The businesses that would like to attract local customers will want to read the ebook, so they’ll willingly leave their emails to get free access. The agency can then nurture these leads by sending informative emails. A win-win for everyone!

And if you need more lead magnet ideas, Leadfeeder has a great piece on six popular lead magnet strategies. Enjoy!

Website visitor tracking tools

Tracking tools can help you identify site visitors even if they never reach out to you or leave any contact information. Using them, you get to make the most out of the traffic your website is getting.

Leadfeeder, for one, specializes in turning anonymous site visitors into company names. This then allows you to find specific company information, contact its representatives, and make them your active leads. 

The Leadfeeder tracking tool goes further by allowing you to search for company decision-makers, filter them by job role or location, and identify their contact information and LinkedIn profiles. 

It also shows you the exact behavior of the visitors as theye explore your website. This will help you measure their level of interest and the type of service or assistance they may be looking for. 

So it’s kind of like stalking people on social media but in a good way. Speaking of…

Social media marketing 

Building a social media presence can help you establish your business as a go-to resource in your industry. I mean, some of the greatest B2B companies have some of the greatest social media presence. It’s really an excellent way to boost your brand and actively engage with your target audience. 

The type of your company determines the social media platform you’ll want to target. For instance, if you’re a B2B business, LinkedIn can be a particularly effective source of leads for you. 

Hosting more than ​​575 million professionals, the platform has extensive targeting tools that let you reach high-quality leads and retarget those who’ve already shown interest in your business. It’s also home to groups that connect professionals and businesses with similar interests.

Infographics

Who doesn’t like attractive visuals coupled with useful information wrapped in a shareable format? Indeed, posting infographics is a great way to engage your audience. 

Effective infographics address the pain points or desires of your audience, provide statistics and insights, and offer actionable tips. On top of that, they clearly state their CTA and link to relevant content. Zendesk, for instance, uses infographics to drive traffic to their “Happy Customers, Happy Bottom Line” ebook.

Case studies 

Case studies feature compelling stories that illustrate the exact ways your company has helped its customers. Basically, they offer proof of success, showing potential clients how you handled similar projects.

You see, the company website may contain all sorts of information about your solutions and services, but only case studies tell a detailed story of how you approached a specific problem in a specific industry or using specific resources. 

But though it may feel like the case study is about you, it’s important to actually make it about the customer and the value your company has brought them.

Webinars

Webinars do a great job of positioning your brand as a thought leader. They also stand out from impersonal forms of content. Unlike videos and ebooks, webinars allow you to interact with your audience and earn their trust, all while showing off your subject matter expertise.

You can attract viewers by partnering up with brands or influencers who have a significant following in your niche. For instance, Kissmetrics worked with Trevor Owens, an author and founder of QuickMVP and Lean Startup Machine, to promote their webinar that taught people how to “start lean.” 

Email marketing

Though it kind of seems outdated now, I wouldn’t recommend discarding email marketing just yet. It’s still there, it still works, the messages just have to be engaging and valuable enough to make people click. This means no generic stuff that targets everyone and hits no one.

That’s where split testing comes in to test different versions of your emails and see which copy performs best. Remember: for every email you test, you’ll have to focus on a specific element, such as the subject line, body text, layout, and CTA.

Search engine optimization 

Like I already mentioned, the right SEO strategy will have Google bringing you better leads. But it involves a lot of work and preparation, so make sure to hire an experienced team for that.

I mean, publishing insightful, SEO-rich blog content twice a week may not seem that hard. But in reality, you’ll have to cooperate with a marketing specialist, an SEO specialist, and several content creators for that. Together, they will search for profitable keywords, analyze the search intent of your audience, research credible information, and craft easy-to-read content.

And you know what? It works! Thanks to some help from an SEO agency, the ContractWorks software company was able to increase the overall organic traffic by 258% and attract around 70,000 new users in one year.

Content Marketing

A thoroughly considered content marketing strategy encompasses SEO, SMM, case studies, infographics, and other aspects of lead generation in digital marketing. Let’s take a closer look at one of them: content syndication, which involves publishing your content on third-party sites to boost engagement or drive traffic.

For instance, guest posting on Forbes doesn't only expose your content to a bigger audience but also does wonders for people’s perception of your brand. After that, clients will be more likely to view your brand as credible. 

Retargeting

Customers don’t always take the bait on your first try, so you’ll have to add retargeting to the marketing mix. That is, you need to find a way to reach people who have already interacted with your content.

On LinkedIn, you can turn to Lead Gen Forms or templates that take information from people who click the CTA button. These forms are usually attached to an ad in a message, image, or video format.

TOPdesk has shown us how it’s done by integrating lead gen forms into their video and single image ads. They used the ads to reach potential customers during the research stage. The forms allowed them to retarget the same buyers when it was time to offer a free trial.

Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing lets you attract customers with content that aligns with their needs and inspires long-term relationships. Many of the tactics we mentioned above can help with inbound marketing, including email marketing and retargeting. 

Make your inbound marketing tactics more effective by using data to create your ideal customer profile. Another way you can take advantage of data is by scoring your inbound leads. Assigning points to the action the leads take, such as clicking on your CTA or downloading an ebook, allows you to assess their level of interest and retarget them accordingly.  

Now that you’re familiar with the tactics, it’s time to fit them nicely into a bigger lead generation strategy.

Lead generation strategy and goals

To craft an effective lead generation strategy, you need to have a deep understanding of the customer journey. Simply put, you have to know every step of the path of interactions people have with your brand. Usually, marketing specialists are the ones steering these customers in the right direction. 

Ultimately, the goal is to take customers through the sales funnel, from awareness to consideration, then conversion up until retention and brand advocacy.

Your lead generation activities are a part of your demand generation pipeline, and they cover the top of the sales funnel. That is, your strategy should focus on capturing the attention of potential customers and walking them right through the first stages of the funnel. 

And as you’ve seen from the long list of lead generation tactics I gave you, there are many ways to do that. So try them all out one by one and listen to your audience’s feedback.  

Conclusion

You can’t sit on your B2B butt and expect customers to come pouring in. No, you’ll have to fire up your lead generation campaigns and tactics to make them want to come. And there are so many things you can create for that: lead magnets, infographics, case studies, emails, social media posts, and many more. 

So don’t be afraid to experiment with lead generation in digital marketing. It might just make a difference for your business.

Note: Identify companies that visit your website, qualify potential leads, connect with decision-makers, and sync them with your CRM — you can do all that and more with Leadfeeder. Try it out in a 14-day free trial.