What is Lead Generation and How Does it Work?

Sales are the cornerstone of any successful business—but if you don’t know how or where to find prospective customers to sell your products or services to, generating revenue (and profit) becomes an impossible task.

It all comes down to lead generation. A successful lead generation strategy is essential if you want to be able to find more customers, develop a sustainable stream of sales and grow your business.

In this detailed guide, we share our valuable insights about what lead generation is, how it works and how you can harness the power of lead generation to grow your business.

• Fundamentals of Lead Generation: Lead generation is a vital process for identifying and cultivating potential customers for a business's products or services. It has evolved from traditional methods to incorporate digital strategies, leveraging content creation, SEO, social media and more to attract and engage a defined target audience.
• Strategies and Tools for Success: Successful lead generation combines inbound and outbound tactics, utilising a range of tools from CRM systems to marketing automation platforms. It focuses on creating valuable content and using multiple channels to reach and convert leads, with the effectiveness measured through specific KPIs.
• Role of Who Needs Leads: Who Needs Leads specialises in helping businesses optimise their lead generation efforts, offering personalised strategies, leveraging the latest trends and technologies and demonstrating proven success through case studies. Their services are crucial for businesses looking to enhance their lead-generation processes and drive growth.

The Basics: What Is Lead Generation?

Before we get stuck into it, it’s important to clarify exactly what lead generation is.

Lead generation is the process of attracting and capturing a potential customer's interest in a company's products or services. 

Lead generation is a commonly used tactic to support a business’s sales and marketing functions by providing a pool of prospective buyers for you to nurture and encourage to become a paying customer.

Leads can come in many forms. It could be a name and an email address and/or phone number, or it might also include information like their age, gender, location, job title, industry, income or other information.

They might be someone who has visited your website and submitted an enquiry, someone who’s interacted with something you posted on social media, someone who completed an online quiz or questionnaire related to something you offer, or someone who was referred to your business through your personal or professional network.

These are just a few examples. Leads can come in many different forms depending on your product, service, industry and sales model.

It’s also important to note that a lead isn’t necessarily someone that’s purchase-ready. A lead could be at any point in the customer journey. They may have only just identified that they have a need for something you offer and are commencing their search for a solution, or they could be further along in their purchase journey, already comparing the various offerings from different businesses.

The Evolution of Lead Generation

The concept of generating leads is not a new one. Sales agents hailing from all sorts of industries have long relied on leads as a critical factor in their ability to successfully sell their products or services—however, the techniques used to obtain those leads have changed significantly.

Traditional lead generation tactics

In a bygone era in a world where the internet and online marketing was yet to go mainstream, lead generation looked a little different. Historically, businesses and sales agents relied on generating leads by conducting traditional ‘offline’ marketing activities such as:

• Telemarketing (or cold calling): Involved making unsolicited phone calls to businesses or individuals listed in free phone directories or purchased contact lists to pitch products or services.
• Direct Mail: Companies would send physical mail, such as postcards, brochures, catalogues, letters or magnets directly to potential customers. These mailings often included promotional offers, product information and calls to action to encourage recipients to contact or purchase from them.
• Print Advertising: Businesses advertised their products or services in newspapers, magazines, trade publications and other printed media. These advertisements would typically include compelling headlines, visuals and contact information to capture the attention of potential customers and encourage them to learn more or make a purchase.
• Networking and Referrals: Building relationships with other businesses, industry professionals and satisfied customers was a valuable lead generation technique. Word-of-mouth referrals and recommendations helped businesses attract new customers and establish credibility within their target markets.
• Trade Shows and Events: Companies participated in trade shows, exhibitions, conferences and other industry events to showcase their products or services, engage with attendees and generate leads.
• Door-to-Door Sales: Sales representatives would visit homes or businesses in person to promote products or services, demonstrate their features and benefits and attempt to close sales. 
• Printed Materials and Signage: Businesses distributed flyers, posters, business cards and other printed materials in high-traffic areas or targeted locations to raise awareness and attract potential customers. Signage, such as billboards, banners and storefront displays, also played a role in capturing the attention of passers-by.
• Public Relations (PR) and Media Coverage: Securing media coverage in newspapers, magazines, radio and television programs helped businesses increase visibility, credibility and brand awareness. Positive publicity generated through press releases, interviews and editorial coverage often led to enquiries and sales enquiries.

While some of these lead generation techniques held the potential to yield decent results (with some of them still utilised to this day), they were often expensive,  untargeted, had limited reach and their effectiveness was difficult to measure. Even more, it was often difficult to qualify the quality of most leads until after having already invested a great deal of time and effort.

Contemporary lead generation tactics

The internet has completely revolutionised the way businesses generate leads in today’s environment. 

While some traditional lead generation techniques still have their place, they’re now typically used in combination with digital lead generation strategies. Now, businesses often generate leads by utilising various online platforms and techniques such as:

• Websites: A well-designed and optimised website serves as a central hub for lead generation efforts. It can feature landing pages, contact forms and calls-to-action (CTAs) to capture visitor information and convert them into leads.
• Search Engines (SEO): Optimising website content for search engines helps businesses attract organic traffic from users actively searching for products or services related to their offerings.
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM): Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on search engines like Google allows businesses to bid on keywords relevant to their target audience and appear at the top of search results pages, driving traffic to their website.
• Social Media: Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter offer opportunities for businesses to engage with potential leads, share valuable content and run targeted advertising campaigns to reach specific demographics.
• Content Marketing: Creating and distributing high-quality content such as blog posts, videos, eBooks and infographics can help businesses attract and engage potential leads by providing valuable information and addressing their pain points.
• Online Events and Webinars: Hosting or participating in online events, webinars or workshops provides opportunities to showcase expertise, engage with audiences and capture leads through registration forms.
• Chatbots and Live Chat: Implementing chatbots or live chat functionality on websites allows businesses to engage with visitors in real-time, answer questions and capture lead information.
• Affiliate Marketing: Partnering with affiliates or influencers to promote products or services to their audience can drive targeted traffic and generate leads through affiliate links or referral programs.
• Online Directories and Listings: Listing businesses on online directories, review sites and local search platforms helps increase visibility and attract potential leads searching for products or services in specific locations or niches.

The new approach to lead generation

Contemporary ideas of lead generation have evolved from what was largely random cold-calling through a list of unsuspecting businesses or individuals, to instead focus on nurturing prospective customers that have shown some form of interest in what you offer.

Receiving a phone call from a sales representative can still be a highly effective lead generation and sales technique—provided it’s not unsolicited.

The invasive and unsolicited nature of telemarketing often caused irritation and frustration among those on the receiving end of the calls, which has widely earned itself a dirty name and made it a very challenging technique to utilise effectively in today's environment.

Lead generation now adopts a far more holistic approach, paying far greater attention to the customer experience and ensuring leads (and prospective customers) are carefully nurtured through each step of the purchase journey. 

Rather than adopting the questionable ‘cold’ techniques of the past, businesses now tend to adopt a ‘warmer’, more targeted opt-in approach, enticing prospective leads to hand over their details in exchange for some type of real or perceived value.

How Does Lead Generation Work?

While lead generation can work in slightly different ways depending on the product or service, the industry you operate in and the sales method/s used, here's how lead generation typically works:

1. Identify Target Audience

The first step in lead generation is to identify the target audience—individuals or businesses who are likely to be interested in the product or service you provide. This involves understanding the demographics, needs, interests, goals, behaviours and pain points of potential customers.

2. Create Valuable Content or Offer

To attract potential leads, you need to create ‘gated’ content or offers that provide some type of value to the target audience. Examples could include a blog post, eBook, whitepaper, webinar, case study, infographic, coupon, free trial or personal consultation. If you’re targeting multiple audience segments, make sure your content is personalised to the target audience and their individual needs, interests and challenges.

3. Capture Interest

Distribute your content through various channels and platforms where your target audience is likely to be present. This could include social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, email marketing, your website (SEO), affiliate partnerships or online events.

4. Capture Lead Information

Use lead capture forms, landing pages or opt-in forms on your website or other digital platforms to capture your leads. These allow visitors to provide their contact information, such as their name, email address, phone number or other details, in exchange for access to the valuable content or offer.

5. Qualification and Segmentation

Leads then need to be qualified and segmented based on criteria such as demographics, behaviour, interests, engagement level or readiness to purchase. This can help you prioritise leads and tailor your communication and sales efforts accordingly.

It’s also unlikely that every lead that comes through will be a good-quality, viable lead. To sort the good from the not-so-good leads, you’ll need to conduct a qualification process to help you avoid wasting time nurturing a lead that isn’t a genuine prospect.

6. Hand-off to Sales Team

Once leads are sufficiently segmented and qualified, they are usually handed off to the sales team for further engagement and conversion into customers. This might involve scheduling sales calls, meetings, demonstrations, providing product or pricing information or addressing any remaining questions or objections.

In some cases, you may identify that a lead could very well become a customer, but they’re still a long way off from being ready to make the transition from prospect to customer. In this case, it’s important to have appropriate lead nurturing strategies in place to encourage them through the purchase process, adding them to your sales pipeline by providing relevant and personalised communication, content and offers.

7. Measure and Optimise

Throughout the lead generation process, it’s important to track, measure and analyse how well your lead generation tactics are working. Take note of the channels that are generating the best results, considering conversion rates, lead quality, engagement metrics and return on investment (ROI).

You can then use this data to refine and optimise your lead generation strategies. If you find your lead generation efforts aren’t paying off, you might need to go back to the drawing board and review whether you need to: 

• Better understand your target audience and their priorities
• Adjust your content or offer to provide more value
• Use different channels (or combination of) to reach your audience
• Improve your landing pages or forms to encourage conversion
• Adopt a different sales/outreach approach

How to generate leads through social media

Social media has become one of the most effective lead generation platforms for businesses hailing from all sorts of industries, offering unparalleled reach, targeting capabilities and engagement potential.

Social media has the power to precisely target specific demographics, interests and behaviours, while also fostering direct interaction and relationship-building with potential leads. Social media also offers diverse content formats, advertising options and real-time analytics, enabling businesses to adapt and optimise their strategies quickly for maximum effectiveness.

Different social media platforms offer unique features and audiences, allowing businesses to tailor their lead generation strategies to each platform's strengths. 

Here’s a summary of some ways popular social media platforms can be utilised for lead generation:

Facebook

• Use Facebook Ads to target specific demographics, interests and behaviours with lead generation campaigns
• Create engaging organic content, such as posts, videos, and stories to attract and engage potential leads
• Utilise Facebook Groups to foster community engagement and connect with potential customers who share common interests or needs
• Incorporate lead capture forms or Messenger bots to collect contact information and qualify leads directly on the platform

Instagram

• Leverage Instagram Ads, including feed ads, story ads and carousel ads to reach your target audience and drive traffic to lead generation offers or landing pages
• Create visually appealing and engaging content, such as high-quality photos and videos, to showcase your products or services and attract potential leads
• Utilise Instagram Stories features, such as polls, quizzes and swipe-up links, to encourage interaction and drive engagement with your audience
• Collaborate with influencers or brand ambassadors to reach new audiences and generate leads through sponsored content or partnerships

YouTube

• Create informative and engaging video content, such as tutorials, product demos or customer testimonials to attract and engage potential leads
• Utilise YouTube Ads, including in-stream ads and discovery ads, to target users based on demographics, interests and viewing behaviour
• Include links to lead capture forms or landing pages in video descriptions, end screens or pinned comments to drive traffic and capture leads
• Encourage viewers to subscribe to your channel or sign up for email updates to stay informed about future content and offers

TikTok

• Develop engaging and creative content that showcases your brand's personality and offerings
• Collaborate with TikTok influencers to amplify your reach and attract new followers interested in your products or services
• Encourage user participation through branded challenges or contests that prompt users to engage with your brand and share their experiences
• Include clear calls-to-action in videos directing viewers to visit your website, sign up for newsletters or participate in special offers 

LinkedIn

• Use LinkedIn Ads to target professionals based on job title, industry, company size and other criteria with lead generation campaigns
• Share thought leadership content, industry insights and case studies to establish credibility and attract potential leads
• Participate in LinkedIn Groups and engage in discussions with industry professionals to expand your network and generate leads through relationships
• Utilise LinkedIn's lead generation forms to collect contact information from users who express interest in your content or offerings

Twitter

• Promote lead generation offers or landing pages through Twitter Ads, including promoted tweets, accounts and trends
• Use relevant hashtags and participate in trending conversations to increase visibility and reach potential leads
• Share links to gated content, such as eBooks, webinars, or whitepapers and encourage users to sign up or download in exchange for their contact information
• Engage with your audience through replies, retweets and direct messages to build relationships and qualify leads

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How to generate leads through Google Ads

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Google Ads is another powerful lead generation platform that offers unparalleled targeting capabilities and the ability to reach potential customers at the exact moment they're actively searching for products or services. 

With extensive customisation options, you can tailor your ad campaigns based on demographics, keywords, location and device, ensuring maximum relevancy and effectiveness. 

Leveraging the vast reach and targeting capabilities of the Google search and display network, Google Ads allows you to create ad campaigns that target a specific audience, ensuring your ads appear prominently when potential leads are actively searching for relevant information. 

Google Ads also offers various ad formats, including text ads, display ads and video ads, allowing you to tailor your messaging to your target audience at each stage of the purchase process and drive traffic to lead capture pages or landing pages to entice them to provide their contact information in exchange for valuable offers or resources. 

Backed by advanced tracking features, Google Ads gives you the opportunity to capture leads by presenting relevant offers and solutions to users who are already expressing intent, resulting in higher conversion rates and ROI.

Some ways you could leverage Google Ads for lead generation include: 

• Search Ads for Direct Lead Capture: Create search ad campaigns targeting specific keywords related to your products or services. Direct users to dedicated landing pages optimised for lead capture, where they can fill out contact forms, request quotes or sign up for newsletters or demos.
• Display Ads for Brand Awareness and Remarketing: Use display ads to raise awareness of your brand and products among your target audience. Implement remarketing campaigns to retarget users who have previously visited your website but have not yet converted, encouraging them to return and complete a lead action.
• Video Ads for Engagement and Lead Generation: Utilise video ads on platforms like YouTube to engage with potential leads and showcase your products or services in action. Include interactive elements like call-to-action overlays or end screens to drive users to your website or lead capture pages.
• Gmail Ads for Targeted Email List Building: Run Gmail ad campaigns targeting users based on their interests, demographics or behaviours. Offer incentives such as discounts or freebies to encourage users to sign up for your email list directly within their Gmail inbox.
• Local Ads for Location-Based Lead Generation: Use local ad campaigns to target users searching for products or services in specific geographic areas. Include location extensions in your ads to display your business address, phone number and directions, making it easy for local leads to contact or visit your business.
• Smart Campaigns for Automated Lead Generation: Utilise Google's Smart Campaigns feature, which uses machine learning to automatically optimise ad performance for lead generation goals such as website visits, calls or form submissions. Smart Campaigns are ideal for businesses looking for a hands-off approach to lead generation.

Why Lead Generation Is Important

In a perfect world, new customers would just come to you without you having to do anything, but that’s rarely the reality. Most businesses operate in a hyper-competitive environment, where if they don’t take proactive steps to find new customers, their competitors will. 

Lead generation is so important for developing a solid contact base of prospective customers that your sales and marketing teams can leverage to drive more sales, and in turn, grow your business.

You could have the best sales team in the world, but if they’re not backed by quality lead generation tactics, they’ll likely find themselves facing a challenge as difficult as selling ice to Eskimos.

By investing in lead generation, you are supporting your sales team by providing a steady stream of qualified leads who have already expressed interest in your products or services. Sales agents can then focus their efforts on nurturing and converting these ‘warm’ leads, rather than conducting cold outreach, enhancing their efficiency and close rates, and ultimately, generating more revenue for your business.

When done right, lead generation doesn’t just allow you to boost short-term sales—it also has the potential to establish a sustainable pipeline of sales for your business and develop an entirely new revenue stream!

How Do Lead Generation Companies Work?

Imagine getting handed a list of warm leads that are ready and waiting to be contacted by your sales agents whenever you need them! That’s essentially what lead generation companies do.

Like most business and marketing functions, lead generation can easily be outsourced to a specialist lead generation agency (like Who Needs Leads) to do all the leg work for you. Lead generation services effectively allow you to buy leads on demand.

While various lead generation companies will employ different techniques to capture leads for you, here’s how it generally works:

1. You explain what type of leads you want (or don’t want)
2. The lead gen company devises a strategy to capture those leads for you 
3. Using a filtering process, they sort the good leads from the bad leads
4. They hand you the leads, ready for you to work your magic and turn them into customers
5. You provide feedback about the quality of the leads you received
6. If needed, the lead gen company tweaks and refines the campaign to better meet your goals

How much does lead generation cost?

Lead generation companies typically charge on a per lead basis. The cost per lead will largely depend on the individual industry and the difficulty and complexity of capturing quality leads.

Most lead generation companies require you to purchase a minimum amount of leads to get started. This is important from a learning perspective, as lead generation can require some testing and tweaking to find the right strategy that yields the best quality results. Generally, the larger the initial sample size, the better the quality of the insights gained, which can then be used to inform future campaigns and establish a sustainable pipeline of leads for your business.

From time to time, you may receive hoax leads. Before choosing a lead generation company, ensure they have a refund policy confirming they will refund the cost of any verifiable hoax leads to ensure you’re not left out of pocket.

Key Takeaways

• A successful lead generation strategy is essential if you want to be able to find more customers, develop a sustainable stream of sales and grow your business.
• The ‘cold’ lead generation tactics of old are long dead. Contemporary lead generation approaches pay close attention to the customer experience, carefully nurturing leads through each step of the purchase journey.
• Social media and Google Ads are powerful tools that allow you to capture leads from practically any industry.
• A killer lead generation strategy doesn’t just boost short-term sales—it can help you establish a sustainable sales pipeline that delivers long-term results. 
• Outsourcing your lead generation efforts to a specialist lead generation agency can be a quick and easy way to find more prospective customers and scale your business.

How Who Needs Leads Can Help With Your Business’ Lead Generation

Who Needs Leads is Australia’s trusted finance lead generation company. 

Specialising in the finance industry, we’ve used our tried and tested lead generation techniques to capture over one million leads for 100+ brokers.  

Leveraging the latest trends and technologies, our personalised lead generation strategies are the solution you need to find more customers, fill out your sales pipeline and grow your business.

How do we do it?

We’ve developed and own multiple brands within the consumer auto, commercial asset and equipment, working capital and mortgage and refinance space which we advertise on Meta, TikTok, Google Ads, YouTube and natively to generate leads for our partners.

Our specialised approach also ensures you’ll only receive good quality, pre-qualified leads. Utilising a multi-step questionnaire to capture multiple lead data points and filter out respondents who don’t meet your criteria, each lead is also pin-verified (using two-factor authentication) to ensure its legitimacy.

Once verified, we deliver the leads to you in real-time by your preferred method (whether that’s in a Google Sheet, email, SMS or fed directly into your CRM), with your first leads arriving in as little as 24 hours. 

Find more leads now

Whether you’re after auto finance leads, personal loan leads, mortgage refinance leads or business loan leads, we can deliver you anywhere from 50 to 1,000 leads per month depending on what you need. 

Get more leads and grow your business today with Who Needs Leads.

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