25 Marketers share their secret tips to generate sales leads online

In this digital marketing era, generating leads has become a major challenge for many businesses. With competition intensifying and clients increasingly demanding proof of value, it’s getting harder and harder to stand out. Fortunately, there are many online solutions that can help you get ahead in this saturated market. Lead generation is one of the most important phases in the sales funnel. It’s the moment when potential customers begin to consider making the leap from interested buyers to paying customers. Your efforts in the marketing department will have a direct influence on your ability to generate leads. If you are looking for an online lead generation strategy, you are at the right place. Following are some tips from marketing experts which will increase your understanding of lead generation at the next level.

Sera Chern, Marketing Director of Virtudesk

One of the most effective ways that we are doing to generate leads online is through targeted social media ads. Research on what social media platform your leads are staying on more often because it’ll increase the visibility of your ad. If you want to attract high-quality leads, attach lead magnets to your lead forms such as ultimate guides, checklists, promos, hacks, etc. Another effective way to generate leads online is by working with influencers. Find someone who is related to your niche and whose audience is engaged. Start with micro-influencers first. They may have a smaller audience but, it’s easier to work on getting their attention towards your brand. Work on terms because it’s all about the agreement, and how each of you will benefit from the collaboration. Lastly, focus on building a good reputation and trust in your brand. Don’t forget to ask your clients to leave reviews. If you practice integrity and transparency towards your products and services, then these leads will come naturally. ” — Sera Chern, Marketing Director of Virtudesk

Ilija Sekulov, Digital Marketing Experts, Mailbutler -

The first step in lead generation is to identify your target customers. Once you’ve completed this step, you can think about which lead generation strategies would work best for your brand. How is lead generation for tech companies different from lead generation for “ordinary” consumers? The process itself isn’t that different, but finding qualified leads can be more difficult. Your potential customers may not even know they have a problem that you could help them solve!

Logan Mallory, VP of Marketing, Motivosity

cultivate and build relationships with prospective customers — When you’re able to build a relationship with a prospective customer, you’ll create trust, rapport, and connection. All three of these things are key to successful lead generation because you aren’t just coming across as ‘salesy’, but instead creating a relationship with the customer. You’re providing value to the prospect while gaining their trust, so they’re primed and ready to say yes to further engagement either through marketing channels like signing up for an email list or for converting into a paying customer and going through the sales process.

Teemu Raitaluoto, Founder and CEO, Markettailor

One simple and easily overlooked tip to generate more leads from a website is personalization. Today, websites and landing pages can easily be personalized and the effect is a much higher conversion rate across all target customer segments. Start by segmenting your customers and understanding what truly resonates with them about your product. For example, companies from different industries care about very different aspects of your product. Next, create different versions of your website content using simple website personalization tools. Change images and texts that truly speak to different visitors and see conversions increase.

Tyler Garns, Founder, and CEO, Box Out Marketing

Generating sales leads online is easy, but you’ll get confused about where to begin because there are many ways to do it. A quick and helpful strategy you can use is to utilize the one most familiar to you. If you are most active in social media, take advantage of it and learn how to create brand awareness on each platform. Create a business page and start inviting people to like your page. The next challenge is to create relevant and compelling content about your product. Create interaction by doing polls and contests for your followers. Use the platform to provide further information about your product. Participate in relevant events and strategically speak about the product simultaneously. These tips will help you create brand awareness and stir enough curiosity in your followers to generate sales.

Marc Bishop, Director, iDigiMagnet

My recommendation is to provide free downloads. A free download is one of the characteristics that a successful lead generation website might have. This might be an ebook, template, or other valuable resource that people can download by filling out a simple form. The digital product should be connected to your paid goods so that customers who download it will be interested in your other offers. However, it should be a high-quality product beneficial to users and stands on its own. Once they’ve downloaded it, you’ll have access to their information via the form. As a result, you can follow up with them regarding your other services.

Eli Orkin, VP of Marketing and Co-Founder, Vizit

These days, the most vital step in lead generation online is doing the proper steps while content marketing. Content is taking over the digital world, and most digital users are looking to have more meaningful and relevant content. Therefore, creating content as per the users’ search intent and following the latest trends in the global market has become an essential part of the lead generation process. Email marketing campaigns and social media management are two significant factors in generating more sales online. Therefore, it will be better to appoint some professionals and experts for these purposes. Having a strong network can be fruitful for social media management and email marketing as there will be more customers in the target audience base.

However, you can also arrange webinars and focus on building an attractive landing page for the lead generation strategy. The website must have all the necessary optimization techniques as well. Focus on the online PR strategies as this is one unique thing to grab more attention from the online customers.

Curran Van Waarde, Founder, CallScaler

You really need to communicate in an effective manner to a social media audience. Creating inspiring campaigns aimed at boosting sales requires creativity. It might require building a sales funnel that inspires interest using video as a catchy way of attracting attention with free giveaways that link directly to your website. In this way you will secure the contact details of a potential customer. The fact that potential customers were hooked enough for a free giveaway (in the form of an ebook usually) means that they are seeking solutions. Another effective way is to create content to boost your SEO rankings on google.

By blogging regularly using keywords that direct solutions for consumers who make up your target audience is a sure-fire way of improving your online visibility and also attracting sales. This is a fruitful way of gaining more brand recognition and improving the authority of your content, and hence the relevance of your business within a sector niche. Useful bogs pave the way for gaining authority on a subject and offer visibility to improve web traffic, interest, and ultimately sales.

Businesses today are operating in a large digital world, with competitors all over the world working hard to gain more attention on the web. Investing in exceptional SEO content will improve a businesses chances of digital success. Target audiences value brands that are visible, that answers their questions and are engaging via content that speaks directly to their problems and inquiries.

Linda G Thompson, Co-Founder, and Director of Marketing, Notta

Content marketing for lead acquisition is not its own, an extremely engaging process. One needs to constantly create new content, see what your competitors are doing, track keywords, find new target customers and fiddle with the ranking algorithm at the same time. This can be expensive, and frustrating when things don’t work out as fast as you expected. The only way to move out of the shadow of competitors and algorithms, is to use your own brand story to attract leads. Your brand story is the only thing that is not subject to competition. A brand story can help you set out your value as a brand, without jumping into the already thick pool of “valuable” content available online.

Amy Bos, Chief Operating Officer, Mediumchat Group

We focus on digital marketing, specifically digital PR for a big part of our lead generation. Our digital PR efforts bring leads but also help to boost our site's ranking. Combining reactive PR with proactive campaigns will get your brand placed in sites your target customers read and where otherwise it would be challenging to be featured. We use surveys to create content with a unique perspective in combination with responding to journalists’ requests for expert input. This method of lead generation is both organic and sustainable.

Brenton Thomas, Founder and Marketing Manager, Twibi Agency

An effective yet underrated means of generating sales leads online is through outreach programs. Approaching lead generation by tracking them down yourself yields results that are competitive when compared with other well-known strategies. When done the right way, an outreach program helps connect businesses with people who are more likely to benefit from the products or services they offer. It is important to not confuse this to mean every blogger who shows the slightest interest in food should be signed up to your weekly newsletter about organic fruits which breach the CAN-SPAM act. Rather, you can consider responding to a user on Twitter tweeting about their terrible experiences and difficulties in finding organic fruits by recommending your shop and providing necessary information. You might as well acquire their email and drop them a short and simple message asking about things they need help with. Giving your emails a personal touch contributes significantly to helping you find important and qualified leads.

Hilda Wong, Founder, Content Dog

Build a sales funnel if you want to collect contact information — you need to know who you’re targeting and how to reach them. All prospects are initially directed to a form or landing page where they are asked to provide their contact information in exchange for free gifts, coupons, samples, or other value-added offers. At this point, a CRM database will assist you in keeping track of potential customers throughout the process.

Madilyn Hill, Chief Operating Officer, Truepersonfinder

Landing pages, SEO, and website optimization Successful landing pages merge copy and design to set up your value proposition in the reader’s mind. It’s where visitors land after being directed from an ad that you’ve posted on the search engine. So, landing pages will be the best opportunity to present your business and convert the visitor into a lead. To generate more sales leads online from your landing pages, you need to:-Avoid walls of text.-Use a judicious combination of videos and images.-Make your copy visually attractive by layout it out in bulletins and shorter paragraphs. -Keep the page brief, and prioritize value more than length.

Sophie Bowman, Chief Executive Officer, Brand Branding PR LLC

1. Give to Receive — If you want people to give you their email addresses, you need to give them a reason to want to. Free eBooks or giveaways are a great way to capture data by offering value first before asking visitors for their trust or money. 2. Offer More Value — Your email marketing efforts should be exciting enough to motivate people to open your emails, so think outside the box a little here because this is where it becomes essential to know your target consumer better than they know themselves. Once you know why consumers buy your brand and what problem you’re selling a solution to, you can create your content around their interests. For example, the plant-based luxury skincare I worked with for years would add limited-time offers to add value but also add educational content via relevant trending, seasonal blogs hyperlinks into emails. People buy solution-focused skincare for a reason, so the majority will be interested in discovering the science behind their problem skin and are all about learning the latest hacks to achieve complexion perfection.

Sam Hoffman, Director of Marketing Operations, Creative Stream Marketing

One of the most effective and long-lasting methods to generate leads from digital marketing efforts is content marketing. Using content marketing to create and distribute helpful, educational information goes a long way in establishing your brand as the expert. If your audience views you as the expert, that means they will trust you, which is the first step needed before someone will respond to your CTAs.”

Christian Velitchkov, Co-Founder, Twiz LLC

1-Utilize software automation — It is most effective to reach out to potential clients via LinkedIn to generate qualified leads. It has become much more cost-effective and time-consuming for companies to generate leads with the advent of innovative and automated software.

2-PR Invest — In addition to thought-leadership content, product launches, case studies, webinars, panels with your team leaders, etc., social marketing can help you amplify this investment. It is important to build inbound sales leads online in 2022. 3-Boost your brand’s credibility So your prospects see you as an expert in your field and feel connected to what you do and what you stand for, you should build brand credibility first. It is possible to do this by delivering value-packed content through social channels and by building rapport with potential prospects.

Dan Gower, Owner, Buddy Gardner Advertising

Earning inbound leads is all about creating funnels. You attract people to your funnel by creating bait: helpful articles and resources to answer questions your audience has. You pull readers into the funnel by collecting contact information with forms, newsletter signups, and gated resources. You warm leads and keep people flowing down the funnel by sharing additional information and building rapport through emails. You can track things like link clicks and positive responses to see which leads are most engaged. Now you know who to focus on. These are the leads you can pass to the sales team.

Paul Mallory, Co-Founder, ConsumerGravity

publish content targeted to a certain audience. You should also personalize your other material like social media profiles and youtube videos to a certain audience. Whether a free download or a weekly blog, you must generate content with a distinct voice and an identifiable audience. The more particular you are, the more visitors will be interested in what you offer. Because there are so many people who might be already offering the same thing, if you are showing the specialization, it will keep you above your competitors and will attract clients’ attention.

Chris Gadek, Vice President, AdQuick

Social media provides a natural setting to interact with potential customers and offer proactive support. And when it comes to LinkedIn, customize your messaging by researching the LinkedIn profiles of these potential new clients. Doing so allows you to identify different organizational stakeholders and determine their pain points.

These insights can help you frame your posts to address their challenges better. But it’s crucial to find an interesting angle for each piece of content you create. A topic that is too broad won’t prove helpful to your target audience. Social media posts offering useful information are guaranteed to stand out in your leads’ feeds, resulting in more likes, shares, and customers.

Karl Tippins, Editor in Chief, Age Group

Online public relations (public relations) is a well-kept secret for generating sales leads on the internet. Because it requires payment, I’ve positioned internet public relations near the bottom of this list. Product evangelists and social media influencers should be on your radar as potential customers and partners. Their endorsement could assist you in increasing website traffic and generating more sales prospects. These individuals, on the other hand, are not affordable. For small businesses and startups, the first few months should be spent generating leads through content, social media, and email before diving into the game of lead generation.PRWeb and PRNewswire are two well-known websites for posting press releases on the internet. As a result, if you can establish ties with these two news organizations, you will have a massive audience as well as high-quality backlinks. PRWeb and PRNewswire, on the other hand, are both for-profit press release distribution systems. Keep an eye on your financial situation before approaching them.

Blaze Bullock, SEO Strategist, Blaze Digital Marketing

In short, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to submit a lead. I strongly recommend having a website chat that automatically opens after 20 or 30 seconds. This alone has caused my clients’ leads to double and sometimes even triple. Companies should also put their hours in the header and have a tap to call button on mobile. Lastly, the call to action on every page should be the next logical step in the consumer’s journey. For example, dentists shouldn’t have the main call to action on an emergency dental page be for a free consultation because those people need emergency care.

Radhika Gupta, Founder & Marketing Manager, One Digital Land

1 — Content marketing — entails developing and sharing educational information related to your industry. Your main goal is to establish trust and authority in your voice and, by extension, your company. It is an “inbound” way of generating leads for your firm. 2 — Landing page — A landing page is the destination for visitors who have been routed via a Google ad or a link in one of your social media postings. It’s a chance to introduce your company and turn the visitor into a lead. Successful landing pages integrate language and design in such a way that the reader understands your value offer. Webinars- What events and conferences mean to offline lead generation, webinars have the same importance for generating leads online. It all depends on choosing a topic that people care about, bringing in the proper speaker, and having a good dialogue.

Nirav Dholariya, Founder & Director, AcquireMore

1. Simplify your Website for Lead Generation — The key to improving your website navigation on smaller screens is uncluttering your pages. Your visitors can’t become leaders if they are distracted by unnecessary features or images. That’s why when you create a lead generation website; choose a clear, easy-to-find call-to-action button. Don’t bury it at the bottom of the page because scroll depth is not that deep. Keep the sign-up form short, and collect only the crucial information. The goal here is to ensure a seamless user experience which is one of the best lead generation techniques.

2. Use Sales Intelligence — Understanding your prospects and being interested in them takes more than just looking at their website. Sales Intelligence goes deeper than that to help you identify qualified leads and close more deals. Sales intelligence technology helps collect insights about prospects and customers. You can use the collected intent data to understand what made customers convert, their buyer journey, and their unique needs. This lead generation technique is about applying the marketing information you find in a way that provides value to your prospect. It helps you ask better sales qualification questions to benefit business leads.

Robert Welch, Chief Executive Officer, Projector1

There has never been such competition in the market as before. Hence, you need a solid magnet from which people just can’t run away. The best way to create this magnet is by giving people a free gift in return for the contact information they provide. You can give a template, free test, quiz, eBook, newsletter, or anything else that suits your brand. Make sure it’s beneficial, relevant in the present time, and most importantly, FREE to get the most leads.

Rameezm, Chief Marketing Officer, Web Hosting Advices

Target Your Competitors’ Audience with Gmail Ads: According to SuperOffice’s State of B2B Email Marketing survey, email marketing is still the most popular lead generation channel, with 77 percent of B2B marketers using it to drive leads. There is a lot of value in attracting the attention of your competitors’ clients in B2B. You can target your Google Advertisements campaign to those who have received emails from your competition using Gmail ads. Sounds sly, doesn’t it? It is, but it is quite effective. It provides you with direct access to those who are already aware of the nature of your service. Use this moment to demonstrate what distinguishes you from the competition. Use familiar language, enhance your email marketing layout, and make them an irresistible offer.

Increase Your Video Marketing Efforts: Video marketing offers a viable way to contact your target audience. According to a Forbes survey titled Video In The C-Suite, more than 75% of Fortune 500 executives routinely view video content, and almost two-thirds of that percentage visit the vendor’s website. As a result, it’s reasonable to assume that video is a highly effective method of attracting leads. Indeed, video content has long been recognized as a primary influencer of shopping behavior.

According to Animoto’s State of Social Video survey, 64% of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social video content. Furthermore, according to Adelie Studios data, a video on a landing page can increase conversions by up to 80%. According to HubSpot’s State of Inbound Report, 48 percent of marketers expect to integrate YouTube into their content strategy in the future years. Don’t fall behind your competitors. Get your camera ready!

Final Thought: So there are various ways to generate business leads online. As technology improves in the coming days, new ways of lead generation would take place. So if you want new ways of lead generation, you should always be active online on various information channels.

Author Bio — Vidyarthi Ram is an Indian Author, Digital Marketer, and Internet entrepreneur. In his free time, he loves to research new future technology which could be included in his upcoming book.