The power of Automated Lead Generation & How To Do It

To stay afloat, almost every company needs to continuously generating high-quality leads. You won’t be able to predict revenue or effectively foresee your team’s sales performance until you have a clearly defined lead generation process. You want your sales people to spend their time selling, not scouring the internet and offline for leads. Your sales force will stay productive, focused, and motivated if you employ the correct process, tools, and templates to keep qualified leads pouring in. 

Automated lead creation is now easily achievable, and there are a few different approaches. The technique of employing software to carry out various marketing activities is known as marketing automation. Anything from marketing emails and social media posts to entire ad campaigns could be included in marketing automation. Not only is this a brand-new strategy for sales, marketing, and lead creation. It’ll almost certainly be successful in tailoring the client experience. If lead generation is what you’re looking for, this is your one-stop shop for automating your lead creation plan and prioritising the leads you already have.

What is lead generation?

A lead is someone who has expressed interest in a company’s products or services but is not yet qualified to purchase them.  They’re potential consumers with whom a business hasn’t done business yet but has reason to assume they will in the future. Lead generation is the process of drawing potential customers into your sales pipeline so that you may engage them, educate them about your products and services, and advance them along the funnel.

The Lead Generation Funnel: An Overview

A funnel is commonly used to define and describe the sales and lead generation process. The process involves filtering through a large number of names and prospects at the start, determining which of these names are suitable as sales leads, and then converting these leads into customers at the end of the funnel, just like a real funnel.

In her article “Lead Generation for Dummies,” Dayna Rothman gives a fantastic example of this lead generation funnel, showing the process as an actual funnel, as depicted in the picture below. The funnel, according to Dayna, is a technique for identifying your top leads and where they are in the lead production process.

A lead generation funnel has three essential components: top, middle, and bottom. This diagram depicts the buyer’s journey, with the following stages: awareness, contemplation, and choice. 

• Top of the funnel

It usually entails raising awareness and increasing traffic to your website.Basically, everything you can do to extend your prospect pool, increase your chances of collecting leads, and then turning them into clients and customers. When consumers are just becoming aware that they could require a service or product that you provide, they are in the awareness stage.

Apart from drawing customers to what you have to offer, those who don’t appear to be interested are filtered out farther down the funnel. People who are looking for something else or who haven’t engaged with your content may fall into this category. It simplifies the process of developing targeted information. After you’ve weeded out the unqualified leads, it’s time to focus on building trust with your prospects. You’ve already drawn them in; now it’s time to persuade them to make a choice. It is now ten times easier to track your engagements thanks to the excess of current marketing. To deliver insights into your data analytics, certain tools and services have been designed.

Gaining a thorough understanding of the process can aid you in optimising your campaigns to ensure that these leads become customers at the end of the funnel. It is vital to highlight, however, that each organisation has its own processes and sales scenarios. 

• Middle of the Funnel

It is critical to the conversion process as a whole. This is when you get to filter out those leads and prospects who might discover a solution in your services or be interested in purchasing something from you.

Content that reaches leads that are already in your database and engaged with your brand is referred to as middle-of-the-funnel content. At this stage, marketers generate and distribute material to match a buyer’s needs with appropriate items or features, determine a prospect’s readiness to buy, and move the right people closer to making a purchase.

• Bottom of the Funnel

The pool of leads you have now may be substantially fewer than it was when you first started.

These leads, however, are qualified and just need that extra push from you.

Cost adjustments, product or service finalisation, and brand specifications are what you’ll want to focus on. The goal is to persuade your leads to convert by making them feel as if they’ve made the finest decision or closed the best transaction possible. Even though it appears to be a simple process, it is critical to make any necessary alterations to your funnel and the items that go into it.

The Need for Automated Lead Generation

To begin with, as many as 80% of marketers are known to employ automation software to produce more leads for their businesses. Falling into the 20% would leave you disadvantaged and far behind the competition, putting you at risk of losing your business. Here are some other reasons why you should go for automated lead generation:

1. Saves Time

Lead generation automation helps save time by automating repetitive and duplicate operations that take a long time to complete. It frees up your marketing team to focus on more critical activities that necessitate your personal touch and creativity, such as conversing with clients and building strong relationships, developing campaign plans, and developing new goods.

2. Increased Productivity

According to Aberdeen Group research, 90% of established businesses who implement automation for their operations are expected to produce nearly 15% more marketing income. 

This is due not just to automation software’s efficiency, but also to the amount of money it helps save in terms of labour and other resources.

3. More Time with Qualified Prospects

You learn more about potential clients the more time you spend interacting with them. Your team will be able to spend more time on the phone with leads, learning what they want from your service, once their work has been automated. This has far-reaching implications for your entire company. Your product development strategy will be aligned with your clients’ desires.The thoughts of your clients will be reflected in your marketing material. There’s no better way to learn than to speak with qualified prospects personally.

Types Of Lead Generation Strategies

• Personalization

A pleasant and positive experience grows into good leads and loyal customers . And a positive client experience is determined by how much value you provide as well as how valuable you make them feel.

Personalization is a well-established notion that has been shown to be beneficial in attracting clients. However, because we live in the age of hyper-personalization, you’ll need to step it up a level and provide remarkable user experiences to capture customers’ attention. Install user analytics software on your website to track visitor behaviour, create triggers for interactions and events, and create smart campaigns to deliver content that they will find surprising. Also, to sway their decision in your favour, provide them with exciting offers and incentives.

• Chatbots

Chatbots are one of the most useful pieces of technology that is more relevant than ever before. Customers can reach out to you through a variety of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, email, and others, so it’s critical that you’re present and accessible to them across your digital presence. Customers have gotten more comfortable reaching out to businesses through social media channels in particular. It would be nearly difficult for you to be available at all times and in all places. This is when chatbots come in handy. They assist in quickly addressing client problems and make them feel valued in the service they receive.

• Make a referral programme available

Referrals can increase conversions by up to fourfold. They have the potential to increase your profit margin by 25%. However, you must create and implement a referral programme in a systematic manner. It be evident that you should concentrate your efforts on gaining a better understanding of your current clients and what can encourage them to recommend your product to others in their network. But what matters most is that they are aware of your referral programme and can simply participate in it. Running and tracking the success of a referral programme becomes more difficult as your customer base grows.

• Retargeting

Retargeting is contacting clients with the same product or service that initially piqued their interest and reminding them of the outstanding qualities or features that they will likely miss out on if they do not purchase. It’s a calculated move that makes use of specific client data accumulated over time about their buying habits and behaviours. It is, in reality, another type of application personalization. Retargeting emails, messages, pop-ups, and notifications can be set up to go out when a customer does particular trigger activities, such as downloading a case study from your website or attempting to book a call with your sales team but failing to finish the form.

• Provide value on LinkedIn Newsfeed and Facebook Groups

The only way to achieve automated lead generation is to make ‘helping your target market’ a regular practice–whether it’s on social media, through your own social profiles, or in groups and communities where you participate. Share the best industry articles you come across, market statistics you have access to, and even inspirational statuses that speak to your target demographic in some way. Make sure you keep an eye on what’s going on in your sector, participate in pertinent topics, and answer inquiries honestly without being pushy.

• Drip marketing campaigns

Drip campaigns are event-and-trigger based marketing channels that help reach out to customers and influence their decisions at the best times. Automated communications built with compelling phrases and attractive offers, customised and ready to be sent out to each individual consumer based on their profile and activities taken, as well as their general user behaviour, can be found in well-designed email drip campaigns.

For example, if a consumer spends a lot of time reading a specific blog on your website, you can send them an automatic email suggesting more blogs of the same type, discussing the same subject. It takes advantage of the reader’s potential interest and uses it to push the product until they make the decision to buy it.

• Automated Cold email campaigns 

Despite technological advancements and growth, email is still frequently used. It’s difficult not to sound like a broken record in your emails, and the individuals to whom you’re sending them are unlikely to read them. 83 percent of B2B marketers still employ email as part of their content marketing strategy, according to the Content Marketing Institute. Furthermore, 28% of customers still prefer to get promotional emails on a regular basis. Email is the lifeblood of producing B2B leads, with an estimated 3 percent rise in usage per year.Email marketing remains the most effective lead generating approach in intoday’s date.

By just personalising his automated email template, Aaron Ross, CEO of Predictable Revenue, was able to win 16 new customers. B2B businesses all over the world wish to automate their email procedures.

•  Make a lead magnet

Developing lead magnets is another fantastic way to automate lead generation.

A lead magnet is a type of incentive offered by a company to potential customers in exchange for their contact information. Downloadable content like as eBooks, industry studies, whitepapers, checklists, videos, or even free consultations are among the most frequent lead magnets utilised in B2B marketing and sales techniques.

There are four factors that influence how well a lead magnet converts:

• It solves a real problem: Your lead magnet should target a search intent or a problem for which your target market is actively looking for a solution. They will not download anything if it does not provide them with value in some way.
• It should be easy to consume: You may have a lot to say, but a lead magnet works best when it is digestible. The reader should be able to understand and apply the takeaways right away. The idea is to keep your prospects from being overwhelmed!
• It should assist in achieving a goal: The lead magnet you provide should not solely focus on the issue your target market is experiencing. It should also be able to provide a solution in an actionable way.
• It should provide great value and demonstrate your expertise: In comparison to your articles, your lead magnet should have more research, hard-hitting information, and examples. It should provide significant value to prospects and establish that you understand what you’re talking about or promising with the product.

• Word-of-mouth advertising

You can mistakenly believe that promoting your business through word of mouth is the same as having a referral programme. The truth is that the two approaches are similar, but they are not identical. A consumer does not need to be rewarded for the former. All it takes is a positive business experience. Simply gather everything your customers are saying about you: from the tweets they share to the reviews, ratings, and testimonials they write – bring it all together. The objective is to have your current customers refer new clients to you without having to ask them directly.

Qualities to Look for in an Automated Lead Generation Service 

There are several automation software or service that you can use. In fact, automation is a hybrid of a few different technologies.  The automation software you use will differ depending on your product or service.  However, you should consider the following qualities in these services:

1. Excellent customer service

You are a consumer in this situation, and the developer of your automated solution is the supplier.  If you don’t fully understand the software’s solution, the creator should be willing to assist you.  Developers can provide tutorials or useful suggestions to their customers as part of their business. Because not everyone has the necessary skills to run new interfaces, any assistance would be greatly welcomed.

2. Pricing

Another element to consider about is how much money you’ll be spending on the services.Of course, we all want to invest in the greatest services available, but we must also be practical.   You should consider what you’re getting for the money you’re paying. Consider all of your possibilities and don’t be hesitant to invest in the ones that appear to be the best fit for your business.

3. Accessibility

You’ll want to invest in services that are both user-friendly and effective.  Since you’ll be using this service or software frequently, you’ll want to make sure it’s convenient to use. An easy to use tool will make you look forwards to use it, rather than dreading it.

4. Analytics

Any tool that can effectively measure the success of your campaigns, advertising, posts, and other stuff is a perfect tool. In marketing, numbers are extremely important. You can also require the reporting to keep you informed about your future steps.

Automated Lead Generation through Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization and lead creation are two distinct tactics. SEO focuses on altering and editing various components of your site in order to improve its search engine rankings and increase web traffic. Lead generation, on the other hand, is concerned with boosting your company’s number of clients and prospects. The link between them is based on the influence of SEO on lead creation.

By generating awareness for the brand through organic visitors to the website, SEO can supplement a company’s lead generation activities. Your target clients will be able to locate you and learn more about your company’s solutions if your website appears frequently on Google’s first page.

Let’s look at SEO techniques to promote lead generation now that you know SEO is one of the most effective ways to increase your customer base, generate sales, and grow your business.

1. Create a blog with SEO-friendly content

Building an active blog with optimised blog entries is one of the finest methods to leverage SEO to obtain more leads. A blog incorporates all of the aspects required for effective website SEO. You’re simply supplying fresh content, keywords, backlinking, photos, social media engagement, and so on by posting content on a frequent basis.

Here are some of the fundamentals of optimising your blog for SEO:

• Use keywords: Conduct keyword research to identify the most significant terms in your sector, and then incorporate them into your headline and blog content. Just remember to make it natural and avoid keyword stuffing, as this may result in Google penalties.
• Publish on a regular basis: To get the most out of your SEO efforts, you must produce material on a regular basis. 
• Add links: You must connect to other relevant content on your website every time you publish a blog post. This enhances usability, increases page views, and aids in the distribution of link juice.
• Format article: Your content should not only be valuable, but it should also be simple to absorb and digest for your audience. Make your content easier to read and more engaging by following standard formatting techniques. The more frequently you update your blog, the better your results will be.
• Use subheadings: Using H2, H3, and H4 headings improves your user experience by making your content scannable. It will also make it easier for Google to grasp what your content is about.

2. Boost the speed of your website

Search engine rankings are influenced by website speed. Google’s principal goal is to deliver the greatest possible experience for its visitors, and the speed with which your website loads is a major aspect in achieving that goal. Google will give your website a higher ranking if it replies to searches quickly.

Here are a few simple techniques to speed up your website:

• Make use of a reputable web hosting service.
• Make your site mobile-friendly.
• Use a plug-in like TinyPNG to optimise your images.
• Use a plugin like WP Fastest Cache to speed up your scripts.
• Scripts and plugins that aren’t needed should be removed.
• Remove spam comments and fix broken links.
• Using a plugin like WP-Optimize, clean up your database.

3. Begin building links

The act of acquiring links from other websites to your own is known as link building. Users can simply move between online pages with the use of links. They also make it easier for search engines to crawl between specific pages on your site and entire domains on the internet. Link building is a vital part of your entire SEO lead generation plan, but if you want to see great returns from your efforts, you must do it correctly.

For example, you should never buy links and should only connect to high-quality sources that will assist your domain’s rating. Actively approaching bloggers for guest posts and link placements is still a very viable method of link building.

4. Customer reviews 

Customer reviews have a favourable impact on SEO and overall rankings. They send a strong signal to Google and other search engines that your site is authoritative and trustworthy (the positive reviews, anyway).

The following are the fundamentals for making efficient use of them:

• Encourage reviews: Simply asking for feedback from your customers is a terrific way to get started. Also, make it as quick, easy, and convenient for users to leave a review as possible to increase the likelihood of them doing so.
• Responding: Take the time to thank each of your customers who leaves you feedback, whether it’s positive or negative. You demonstrate that you appreciate your consumers’ opinions by replying to each review.
• Repositioning: Google’s rankings are influenced by your company’s digital visibility. The search engine giant considers your company’s web presence when determining where to place you in search results. So, in order to boost your SEO, make sure you present your company in the best light possible.

5. Social media 

You’re not alone if you’re not sure how social media can help with SEO. Many marketers are perplexed as to how social media affects SEO.

Although Google claims that social signals aren’t one of its ranking components, Search Engine Journal data demonstrates that social media can help your website rank higher.

The data reveals a strong link between ranking position and social signals, with top-ranking Google pages displaying much more social signals than low-ranking websites.

It might be stated that social media has an indirect relationship with SEO because the more social media followers you have, the more likely you are to attract customers or leads.

6. Perform keyword research

The importance of keyword research in SEO is undeniable. It entails determining the words that people use to search for information, products, or services via search engines. When done correctly, keyword research may serve as a firm basis for all of your internet marketing activities and guide all of your decisions.

There are a variety of keyword research tools available to help you uncover relevant keywords that lead to your website in order to enhance traffic, sales, and marketing ROI.

Tools and Services for Automated Marketing Lead Generation

While it’s not possible ojn our part to decide which services will be most beneficial to your company, we can point you in the right direction.

We’ve compiled a list of the best services  that can assist you in developing automated lead generation services:

• LeadFuze

LeadFuze’s tagline is “automatic lead creation.” LeadFuze is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered lead generation tool. Fuzebot finds hundreds of emails of new leads that meet the exact specifications once users enter some parameters about their potential buyer (e.g. industry, employee size, role, keywords, etc.).

LeadFuze is a software solution that allows you to automatically construct lists of accurate leads while also integrating with sales outreach tools so you may contact those newly validated leads.Then, using our cold email integrations, you can have business leads that you put to a list receive emails automatically. New emails will be sent out after the funnel is set up. Each and every day. Those who don’t react will be removed from any subsequent automation and will receive periodic follow-ups from your email account to thoroughly exhaust the leads generated. All you have to do now is talk to the folks who have previously expressed interest in your company by responding.

• ColdEmail.Club

What is the most difficult aspect of running a cold email marketing firm? The cold emails, to be precise. ColdEmail.club tackles this problem by writing cold emails for you as a service, allowing you to focus on other tasks. For lead generation firms, having a go-to writer for cold emails may be a game changer, and at roughly $350 for an email sequence, it’s also easy to price into your offer. Even if you’re on a pay-per-call model, booking just one call might help you break even and save you hours of gazing at a blank page.

• Whaly

Whaly falls into the analytics category because it allows you to easily sync and model your business data in one place. Whaly, backed by Ycombinator, has developed a platform that focuses on ease of use. For any business owner, the ability to put up several views is a fantastic tool. Whaly could be your best alternative if you’re trying to go from Google Sheets to a more powerful solution.

• AgencyAnalytics

AgencyAnalytics has you covered if you need to track campaign performance at scale without any drop-off. With a clear value proposition, AA can not only assist you in gaining fresh insights into your (customers’) campaign performance, but it can also make reporting virtually enjoyable. You may create your own dashboards and present data in the way you choose using an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. AgencyAnalytics is a terrific tool to have in your toolkit, with a tonne of connectors available and more on the way.

• Evaboot

If you scrape leads using Sales Navigator, you’re well aware of how inaccurate their filters may be. Once you get past the first five pages, the results can get a little erratic, and some truly awful fits can dilute your results. When the Evaboot team got into the same problem, they determined to address it on their own. They will not only filter out undesirable matches based on job titles, but they will also clean prospect and company names and assist you in enriching your data. You may harvest leads from LinkedIn Sales Navigator in one fluid flow by connecting your favourite email finder with Evaboot’s API connector. This tool saves a lot of your time, it is rightly said when it comes to establishing a lead generation service, time is money.

• Wavo

Built-in email warmup, client reporting, a white-label client dashboard for 24/7 reporting and easy onboarding, and more are all included in the platform. Wavo is one of your finest options for email automation if you’re running an agency that’s serious about cold email. Wavo has more to offer than simply software, especially for those who are just starting out, with some wonderful information on running an agency and cold email in general.

• Lead Chat

It’s likely that you’re aware of the advantages of Live Chat. To summarise, live chats may greatly enhance the personalization of your brand. User experience helps generate leads by providing accommodations and access to what a brand or corporation has to offer. Not only that, but it also fosters these possibilities. Getting on the phone with inbound visitors as soon as they have a query can result in a quick sales conversation that leads to a new client. Gone are the days when generating leads required merely a billboard or an advertisement. Many individuals value a positive user experience above and beyond your products or services.

Imagine having a real person on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to answer inquiries about your business, generate agency leads, and even nurture them without having to recruit a small, full-time team to do it yourself. Do you see the benefit in that? They’ll even interact with your CRM and enter data as if they were a regular salesperson. While they do not provide pricing up front, it does not appear to be too expensive. “We’re up to 50x cheaper than hiring a full-time professional to administer your live chat,” according to Lead Chat’s website. You’ll also have full access to our whole team of agents and professionals!”

• Socedo

Socedo is a “social demand generation platform.” Imagine being able to target hashtags and keywords that people are using on social media to see whether they are potential leads for your company. Yes, you (or your salespeople) can do it manually, but the results aren’t worth the effort, and you’d never be able to keep track of all of those essential phrases. That’s where this product really shines. When someone mentions one of those keywords, Socedo automatically targets them and sends them a direct message from your account. You can then start a dialogue with them or put a call-to-action in the message that directs them to a resource or landing page.

In terms of automation, it’s similar to LeadFuze. The difference is that these leads are discussing products you’re offering in a setting where you can speak with them personally. With this tool, you’ll always be at the right place at the right moment on Twitter and LinkedIn. Many people argue that social media generates simply a trickle of leads at most, but what if that trickle could be steady and automated?

Conclusion

Automating aspects of your sales process isn’t just for big businesses. Anyone may begin automating sales leads generation by using the strategies and resources we’ve provided. Hopefully, your mind is racing and you’re pondering the various applications of one (or more) of these tools.  Before making the decision to adopt automated services, each business must examine a number of factors. Different markets and target audiences, on the other hand, will require distinct strategies and techniques. It’s critical to consider all of your options and incorporate a combination of these methods into your strategy.