A well-established approach in sales, lead generation refers to the process of identifying and attracting potential customers (“leads”) who have shown interest in a product or service that a business offers. The goal is to capture immediate opportunities and create fast transactions.
Businesses do this through collecting customer information – names, email addresses, or other contact details – which they put in their sales funnel to then engage with smart, relevant content in hopes of one-day converting them into clients.
Through this acquisition practice, businesses grow their email lists and hopefully develop a solid audience base for targeted sales marketing, email campaigns,paid advertising and retargeting. Other popular methods here include pay-per-click advertising, online lead aggregation and direct mail campaigns.
In many ways, lead generation’s success lies in timing – and this holds the line between hit-or-miss marketing efforts and those evergreen in their relevance. Most of these marketing campaigns aim to engage transaction-ready clients.
Theoretically, this form of customer acquisition makes sense: you want clients, and you want your marketing materials to land in front of lots of eyes. Right? So why are businesses slowly evolving away from this tactic of sales?
There’s two things here. First, one hint: that word, sales.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, but people don’t want to feel like they’re being sold; they want you to solve a problem for them. And they can always tell.
Second, you don’t just want a lot of eyes; you want the right eyes.
Targeting too broadly with poorly defined perimeters risks attracting shallow leads, which likely will not convert into customers or become very expensive to convert into clients.
Automation tools have streamlined the marketing process over the last 10 to 15 years, making it easier to connect with an audience on a larger scale. However, marketing strategies that rely too much on automation or lead aggregation can feel impersonal or insincere.
This edges into “sales” territory, and suddenly the guard goes up. This also happens when people receive content they don’t feel relevant to them, or does not feel authentic or engaging.
Focusing strictly on the sales funnel without connecting authentically to your audience or considering their needs can create a disconnect between a marketing strategy and the customer, resulting in an oversight, or loss, of potential opportunities.
For this reason, businesses are increasingly allocating marketing resources away from lead generation tactics and focusing instead on adding value through targeted, high-value content. We create value through content (link content article), and content has two powerful applications: lead generation and lead nurturing.
By focusing the strategy on specific, problem-solving content, we resonate with customers on a deeper level they’ll actually trust. Personalized, value-driven communication is crucial for engaging and nurturing the right leads.
Using authentic content to generate and nurture leads, we shift our efforts to creating awareness and interest by creating solutions, driving customer engagement and ultimately increasing sales. Instead of quick results, the goal is long-term growth thanks to a genuine connection.
Strategies such as content marketing, social media engagement and tailoring marketing efforts to the unique needs and challenges of each potential client all give us ways to build loyalty and create demand rather than just capturing leads through gated content or paid ads.
Everything comes down to engagement – an exchange of value for trust, and relevance for loyalty in hopes of eventually converting them into customers.
This becomes increasingly important as privacy regulations make it harder to track users with conversion tactics tools. The lead nurturing stage of the sales funnel is more important than ever for building awareness and nurturing relationships with potential customers.
Some examples of lead nurturing (also known as demand generation) include:
- Value-filled blog articles
- Downloadable PDFs or guides
- Videos offering solutions to customer problems
- Community engagement both online and offline
Methods that nurture audience relationships and keep brands top of mind have become an essential part of any demand generation, or lead nurturing, strategy.
Content marketing as the primary means allows businesses to offer valuable, relevant, and consistent content that addresses customer needs and interests. Not only does it build trust and showcase expertise through solving problems, but it has the power to engage people at different stages in their journeys.
Offering educational blogs, case studies, and thought leadership pieces can help potential customers realize they even have a problem in the first place, and now, thanks to you, they have a solution.
Email lists and social media platforms aside, high-quality content, especially when optimized for search engines, also has the potential to attract organic traffic. This increases a business’s visibility and creates demand passively as users discover the content along their own search for solutions.
Finally, brand-aligned, evergreen content continues to generate value long after it’s been published. Unlike paid ads or limited-time offers, material like guides or tutorials keep attracting and engaging leads over the long-term without incurring most costs.
Smart businesses still blend lead and demand generation (or lead nurture) strategies. They understand that successful lead generation requires a well-defined strategy, focused targeting and personalized communication. Both represent important aspects of the sales funnel.
Just as you can’t convert cold leads without some nurture first, you also can’t create customers with content alone. You need to provide them with a clear path – even if that’s simply CTAs (call to action) that spell out exactly how they can work with you.