The Complete Guide to Lead Generation (Part 1)

Every business that wants to grow needs more customers OR an upselling strategy; it’s purely mathematical. In our current world, 88% of purchases, in B2B or B2C, started on the Internet. It is therefore undeniable that a business must have a digital strategy! To help you conquer your market, here is the complete guide to lead generation online!

Initially, I will set the context and make you aware of essential elements to explode both the number AND quality of your leads. Then, you will have a step-by-step guide so that you can create your own lead generation strategy.

Important: You absolutely must have a CRM and the right digital tools in your business to achieve optimal results. Click here to check out our blog.

The two types of lead generation

You can generate leads very easily, without an extraordinary strategy. How? You contact a marketing agency and give them a budget. They will probably run Adwords or Facebook campaigns to then bring that traffic to a landing page. About 5% of the traffic will be converted into leads. Facebook will give you poor to average quality leads, and Adwords will provide average to good quality leads.

Convinced? It’s not that bad! So, where is the problem? In the audience and the market you are targeting. If that’s the strategy you have in place and you are satisfied, great! But you are missing out on an extraordinary opportunity. The opportunity to be much less dependent on the market that is in " Buy Now " mode and have customers who reach out to you with their wallets in hand. Thus, there are 2 types of lead generation. I’ll be direct, but here are the facts:

Strategy 1:

Your lead generation strategy is focused solely on traffic that is in “ Buy Now ”… the rest doesn’t matter to you. You show your boss, team, or client that you’ve done your job and they must do theirs. They need to contact the leads within 20 minutes and close them. It’s the typical “ marketing & sales ” relationship… no wonder they don’t often get along!

Strategy 2:

You create excitement for your business’s product/service or your client’s. You create awareness and develop a trusting relationship with your prospects. Above all, you educate your market and demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about. In fact, you are exactly in the middle of this strategy created by my company.

This second strategy requires much more time, but often, the advertising placement cost is much lower. It is extremely important that you remember the last sentence. I will even rewrite it: this second strategy requires much more time, but often, the advertising placement cost is much lower. Additionally, this strategy can be automated 100%.

Most agencies charge a commission on your advertising budget. These agencies do not like this strategy at all! Further along in this guide, I will show you very clear comparisons between Strategy 1 and Strategy 2.

Is lead generation useful in all sectors?

Some businesses, like wealth management and life insurance, for example, have built a culture of lead generation through search engine optimization and cold calling that works very well today. However, these businesses do not want to experience a downturn in their growth over the coming years, or worse, see the competition take the lead and dominate the market through their online presence. What needs to be kept in mind is that regardless of your field, there is an effective lead generation strategy that can be implemented.

Business case: the automotive sector

One of our specialties is lead generation for the automotive sector. We offer our services in “ white-label ” for a company specialized in private automobile sales. Initially, car dealerships were rather closed to the idea of using unusual methods to generate leads for their dealership.

After more than 90 campaigns conducted between January 15 and June 15, 2019, we generated several thousand leads that converted into sales at 7%. The cost per qualified lead was on average $60 CAD. Normally, to sell a car, dealerships had to spend on average $780 CAD. The practice proved to be very profitable, and our division is experiencing very interesting growth due to our results.

A very important point to mention is that our lead generation campaigns were also for B2B. The costs per lead and the closing ratio remained average. Unfortunately, for confidentiality reasons, I cannot show you the Facebook Business Manager of my clients in the automotive sector… but I will show you the campaigns I run internally for my company a bit later in the guide.

Business case: the CRM, martech, and lead generation sector

My company is called Gro. We are experts in CRM implementation, martech strategy, and lead generation for SMEs. We are purely in B2B.

Within our CRM and automation division, I have a lot of education to do. Before, I spent a lot (really a lot) of time educating my clients, and in the end, my closing rate was at 20%. Not high enough for the time it took me… I could spend between 10 to 20 unpaid hours per client to ensure they fully understand our services and what we were going to implement in their business.

I needed to find a solution to maximize my time. My goal was not necessarily to increase my closing rate, but rather to drastically reduce the time spent educating my clients.

I was a “ shoemaker’s children ”. I wasn’t using the methods I put in place for my own clients. So, I decided to use the same techniques I used for lead generation in the automotive sector… but on steroids.

I implemented a combination of content marketing, IBM (Intent Based Marketing), lead nurturing, and finally, a touch of magic (Magic Lantern technique)! For now, you probably don’t know all these terms, but later in the guide, I will explain everything.

The results of my lead generation strategy

The results were felt within a few days. At first, I would receive a message from time to time. After a week, one message per day. After 4 weeks, I could receive up to 4 messages a day.

It was after a month that I signed my first CRM mandate with this method, worth $17,500, without even having met my client! Normally, the CRM mandates I signed took much longer. This time, 100% of the “ customer’s journey ” for this client was virtual. I exchanged a few emails, two phone calls, and a little education. Two total hours of “ education ”. Moreover, it was also the first time I sold one of my services without having to travel.

Further along in the guide, I will share screenshots and screen-sharing videos to show you my method, step by step, as well as the results of my campaigns. You can click here to see the results now.

Lead generation is truly for all sectors

If you think that you have important and confidential information about your clients, and that, because of this, you cannot use digital methods to generate prospects… just imagine mine for a moment.

On one side, I either have their digital reputation in hand or their data… which includes their client file. Data is the most valuable resource for businesses today. So, regardless of your field, lead generation and other related techniques can work perfectly.

If, by chance, you are not convinced and would like to discuss with us about your business, its constraints, and your fears, please do not hesitate, click here!

Defining your dream prospect

To effectively start your lead generation strategy, you must first know what your ideal prospect model is. Without this crucial information, it is very difficult to attract attention to your products and services. Here are the 7 questions I ask myself about my “ persona ” when creating a lead generation campaign:

• What makes them happy?

• What are their hopes, expectations, and dreams?

• Where are they located? On which platform do they surf?

• What does a normal day look like for my persona?

• What is their preferred means of communication?

• What are their biggest frustrations and challenges?

• What are their biggest fears?

These 7 questions will allow me to define who my audience is, what my advertising will look like, when I should solicit them, what objections I should counter, and how I will make my product or service the solution to my prospects’ problems.

If I transpose these 7 questions for a prospect in the automotive sector, here’s what it might look like:

• My prospect loves cars and dreams of owning a Mercedes-Benz.

• They would like to buy one soon and hope to be able to afford it.

• They often watch comparisons on automotive websites and are subscribed to the Facebook pages of Audi and dealerships in their area.

• In the evening, they watch Netflix or TV while scrolling their feed on Facebook and Instagram.

• Currently, they have a 6-year-old car and are starting to worry it will break down and cost them a lot in repairs.

• They really love Mercedes-Benz but wonder if it wouldn’t be a better option since they live in the mountains and need a car with good all-wheel drive.

After this brief reflection, it becomes much simpler to develop a strategy for generating leads effectively. Because not only does this type of prospect exist, but it also comprises the largest type of traffic: people who are not searching but could be potential buyers. Your strategy should focus on this type of traffic and, eventually, prospects.

The 4 major stages of the sales funnel

To be effective in lead generation, it is important to understand the 4 major stages of the sales funnel on the Internet. There are several funnel models, but personally, I like the simplest of all:

• Awareness – Visibility

• Interest – Traffic

• Consideration – Prospects

• Conversion – Customers

Visibility (awareness)

The first stage involves generating attention from a very broad audience. For example, in my case, I started posting regularly on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, every day, sometimes twice a day. This allowed me to test my content and see the reaction from my followers. To achieve good results in lead generation, it’s important to have good content. To read more about content marketing, click here.

Interest (the traffic)

The second stage, that of capturing the interest of our audience, mainly involves directing traffic to your website or your Facebook/Instagram page. This stage is much more difficult than one might think. Getting a click from an internet user on one of our posts requires a lot of effort and a well-established strategy. Having a blog on your website is also a great asset. This allows for an increase in our organic search engine optimization. So, it’s two stones with one bird. Your content that you publish on social media will generate interest and traffic. This will improve your SEO, which will then increase your visibility. It’s a virtuous circle.

Consideration (lead generation)

Consideration is the third stage, which is about generating leads. In my opinion, if the first and second stages are done carefully and if your content is relevant and of good quality, the stage of converting your traffic into leads is by far the easiest. You just need to ask the traffic for its essential information (first name, last name, email, and phone number) at the right time and with a good incentive:

• E-Book (have you downloaded mine?)

• Free consultation

• Free video training

• PDF

• Free trial for software

• Test drive

• Etc.

Conversion (turning leads into customers)

Conversion, the process of transforming leads into customers, requires a lot of skill, attention, and patience. If your goal is to create an automated lead generation system that will turn into sales, you absolutely must implement a lead nurturing strategy. Now, let’s look together at the 4 types of traffic online.

Understanding the 4 types of traffic on the Internet

To properly implement your lead generation strategy, you must first know that there are 4 main types of traffic on the Internet. Here are the 4 categories:

1. Those who are looking for a solution and are ready to buy now.

2. Those who aren’t looking, but could be buyers.

3. Those who don’t know your product or service, but could be buyers.

4. Those who have no interest in your product or service.

Obviously, the goal is to quickly eliminate traffic #4 from our advertising placement. No matter how much effort you put into these people, you will not be able to sell them anything. If you are lucky, some of them might talk about you to a potential buyer, but the effort is not worth the cost.

It is therefore very important to focus on the other 3 audiences… but caution! As we saw at the beginning of this guide, prospects who are in " Buy Now " mode come with a huge disadvantage: 99% of placements on Google Adwords are made to solicit these people. Let me explain.

Traffic in " Buy Now "

Your prospects who are in " Buy Now " mode will practically all use Google. Why? Because they are actively looking for a solution to their problem or a way to meet their needs. Their first instinct is to go to Google and type, for example: Car model X 2019.

Bam! 4 Google Adwords ads at the top of the search field and 4 at the bottom. 8 companies are fighting for the attention of the prospect. The direct effect of this competition? An increase in bids on keywords. Not only that, but this traffic generally represents only 3% of the market. 3% of a market is generally in " Buy Now " mode… all this work and competition for such a small slice of the pie.

The typical prospect will generally visit 3 to 5 websites. They will fill out information request forms everywhere to ultimately receive calls from companies or, in this case, car dealerships.

5 forms = 5 calls, on average.

Do you think the prospect will respond to each of these calls? Probably not! The first ones to call the prospect will have the best chances… and the last ones, much less. Sales then become discouraged, treat the leads poorly, well, you see the scenario!

Adwords is still a very good source of leads for your business, but if your strategy ends there… good luck!

The best strategy to use for this type of audience is retargeting. The moment your prospect fills out a form, switch to " lead nurturing " mode.

The traffic that isn’t looking, but…

The second type of traffic, those who aren’t looking but could be buyers, is a true goldmine! Why? For the simple and unique reason that the competition to effectively solicit this type of traffic and leads is minimal. Yes, many businesses advertise on television and radio, but the funnel stops there. It’s branding and visibility that loudly proclaim buy my product, buy my service! Not very convincing!

We will group type 3 traffic in this section, since " Those who aren’t looking, but could be buyers " and " Those who don’t know your product or service, but could be buyers " should be solicited in practically the same way.

To convert these prospects into customers, you need to create excitement around your company and what it offers in terms of products and services. You also need to create awareness and develop a relationship of trust with your prospects. Finally, you must educate your client!

Think about it, these folks are not currently buyers of your product, but if you’re convincing, you drastically increase your chances of them taking action immediately. Moreover, when these individuals are ready to check out, you have a very strong chance of being the first company they think of. You maximize your chances!

We will see a bit later how to convert this traffic into leads… and how to convert them into customers afterwards.

Developing a strategy for lead generation

Now, let’s get to the serious and concrete stuff. The second step of this guide will teach you about the different lead generation strategies step by step.

In the next section, you will learn how to generate leads with inbound marketing. Click the link below to move to the next level!

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