If you're new to sales or marketing, the term lead generation might sound a little intimidating - or vague. How on earth do you go about generating leads? Who has that magic wand?!
Lead generation is about capturing prospects by building interest around your products or services, and then ‘warming’ those leads so you can sell to them. It’s about eliciting their recognition and trust in you so that when you approach them to make a sale, they don’t give you the cold shoulder.
While lead generation is a precursor to sales, it’s actually a marketing activity. But that doesn’t mean it’s off-limits to other commercial roles like sales managers.
Let’s take a look at the lead generation tactics you can use to build your pipeline and make more sales (ka-ching!)
Lead generation tactics
1. Engage using an on-site webchat
Did you know that your chance of conversion increases by 98% if you respond to inquiries in five minutes? So, it’s worth engaging while they’re still ‘warm’.
Ever visited a website and had a little chat bubble pop up asking if you needed help? That’s a webchat, and it’s one of the fastest ways to start conversations with prospective customers.
Installing a webchat feature on your website lets you:
- Greet visitors in real time
- Answer questions immediately
- Offer demos or links to relevant content
- Capture contact information for follow-up
Since your website visitors are taking the time to contact you, you know they’re already interested. Tools like Conversations by Transpond make it easy to respond to incoming inquiries. Perfect for customer support and sales teams alike, you can connect visitors instantly to a live chat.
Or implement an AI Assistant that learns your business inside and out, to respond to customer queries any time of day, helping to avoid cart abandonment or your lead going cold.
2. Embed web forms to capture new lead data
Another way to inject your CRM with fresh new leads is to add a contact sales form to your website. It could be a ‘contact us’ or ‘speak to sales’ form. Or share content like a brochure, discount, or report behind a form.
And since they’re approaching you and handing their contact data over, you know they’re already warmed and interested in what you sell.
You get to choose what fields the lead must fill out, so you can also determine what data you’ll receive. Just make sure you don’t put off visitors by asking for too many things, or overly personal information.
3. Share newsletters and helpful guides
You could also encourage potential customers to subscribe to your newsletter. Whether your newsletter unlocks a one-off discount, regular industry commentary, or simply shares your business updates, you know one thing for sure: your lead wants to hear from you.
Getting your subscribers inside your CRM allows you to create lists of people that fit certain criteria, so you can create specific series of emails for the relevant audiences.
Let’s imagine you have a weekly newsletter, commenting on trends in different industries. If your form asked users to choose the themes they’re interested in, you could add them to a list relevant to that theme.
So when it comes to inviting them to demo your service or make a purchase, your lead:
- Knows who you are
- Receives personalized outreach based on what they’re interested in
- Is warmed, and very likely ready to compare solutions to their problem.
4. Automate reminder emails and follow-ups
Sometimes following up on leads can be overwhelming. And with all your other sales admin, things are forgotten, or fade into the background. Meanwhile, your competitors swoop in and woo your solution-aware, purchase-ready lead.
The good news is that you don’t need to rely on your busy brain, sprawling notes, or bottomless inbox to manage it.
Automate email sequences (like new subscribers) and quarterly follow-ups (e.g.“Want to see how [our product] works? Book a 5-minute chat with our product experts”) to take the stress out of follow-ups and reduce missed opportunities.
Low-cost platforms like Transpond make it easy to get started with marketing, with tools like automated follow-ups, webchats, webforms and more to warm leads, build pipeline, and convert more.
5. Connect your CRM to lead gen tools
You've probably done some lead generation yourself, finding leads in places like LinkedIn. The good news is, there's a ton of tools available to help you find new leads and then add them into your CRM automatically.
Automated data transfer tools like Magical quickly locate and migrate data like like name, job title, and employer straight into Capsule. It's quick and easy to set up an automation pulling key data from LinkedIn directly into your CRM. Then you can get straight to nurturing and outreach.
Tools like lemlist house vast databases of leads that already fit your ICP. lemlist goes further, offering enhanced targeting, outreach at scale, and automated contact and Opportunity creation when you integrate with Capsule.
Let the tools pick up the research and admin, so you can focus on your pitch and win the sale.
Lead generation isn’t just for marketers
Lead generation isn’t a one-off campaign or a magic switch. It’s a process, and marketing plays a key role in warming up leads so sales reps don’t have to start cold.
You don’t need to be an expert to get started with lead generation - you don't even a marketer on your team. Start with one or two tactics - a webform and an email nurture, for example - and build from there.
By aligning your sales and marketing efforts, you’ll create a process that not only attracts leads, but warms them into customers.
Cut the admin, build pipeline, and win more business with Capsule CRM. Get started with Capsule’s free CRM, or try any Capsule plan free for 14 days.
