So, how can you automate something that, on the surface, seems to require a fair amount of human touch — without losing the quality of your generation efforts?

The answer lies in automating repetitive tasks with software platforms. Automated lead generation fills your pipeline with high-quality leads without manual effort, so your sales and marketing team can focus on what they do best — closing deals.

What is automated lead generation?

When you think about automation, do images of giant factories churning out cars made by robots come to mind? Well, car factories and automated lead generation have more in common than you think. 

Both let technology do the heavy lifting on repetitive, everyday tasks, leaving you free to concentrate on those irreplaceably human jobs, like directly interacting with customers. 

With lead generation automation tools, you can instantly collect email addresses from prospective customers and enter them into your sales funnel and beyond, all without lifting a finger.

These tools don’t just stop at collecting info, they help convert your prospects into qualified leads, too. All of this means you’ll reduce your marketing efforts and zero in on those potential leads that are more worthy of your time.

The 7 best lead automation tools for your business

Automation and AI are big buzzwords right now, so finding marketing automation platforms that aren’t just the original software with a generative AI bolted on can be difficult.

Luckily, we’ve done the research for you and found the 7 best and most functional automation tools to help your business. Let’s check them out.

1. Method

Method CRM is the #1 CRM and lead management tool for QuickBooks and Xero users. Capture and nurture leads with ease, and when they convert to sales, your accounting software updates automatically — no extra steps needed.  It helps businesses nurture and capture leads all the way from first contact to final payment. 

Pros

• Unbeatable integration with QuickBooks and Xero.
• Easy digital smart forms.
• Online 24/7 self-service customer portals with integrated payment processing.
• Sales and marketing automation tools like invoicing and follow-ups.
• Robust third-party integrations with Zapier, Outlook, Google Workspace, and more.
• Customizable to your workflows, with one hour of free customization consultation included.

Cons

• Most suitable for businesses that use QuickBooks or Xero.
• Only available in English.

Pricing

Method offers three pricing plans, billed annually or monthly:

• Contact Management: $25 per user/month.
• CRM Pro: $44 per user/month.
• CRM Enterprise: $74 per user/month.

There is also a 14-day free trial available with no credit card required.

2. OptinMonster

Image credit: OptInMonster

OptinMonster is a specialized platform that helps convert website visitors into high-quality leads with engaging pop-up messages and smart forms that capture contact details and boost conversions.

Pros

• Very user-friendly design for creating opt-in forms.
• Easy form creation with a drag-and-drop builder.
• White label branding for your business.
• Advanced targeting and triggers.
• A/B testing and analytics to optimize campaigns.

Cons

• Manual URL segmentation can be a hassle.
• Limited customization of pop-ups and forms.
• Pricing might stretch small business budgets.
• Support response times can be slow.

Pricing

OptinMonster offers four pricing plans, billed monthly:

• Basic: $21 per month for one site and up to 2,500 pageviews.
• Plus: $57 per month for up to two sites and 10,000 pageviews.
• Pro: $87 per month for up to three sites and 25,000 pageviews.
• Growth: $147 per month for up to five sites and 100,000 pageviews.

There is no free trial available, but OptinMonster offers a 14-day money-back guarantee.

3. Leadfeeder

Image credit: Leadfeeder

The next top lead automation tool is Leadfeeder. It helps marketing teams keep better track of website visitors and uncovers B2B prospects who are showing interest in your business. 

Pros

• Real-time insights into interested companies.
• Smart lead prioritization with automatic scoring.
• Tailored feeds to spotlight top prospects.
• Comprehensive, high-volume tracking across channels.

Cons

• High cost for smaller businesses.
• Integration capability needs improvement with more popular tools.
• Functionality is based on tracking cookies and IP addresses, limiting the ability to retarget.
• Reports of unexpected subscription auto-renewals and unreliable support.

Pricing

Leadfeeder offers two pricing plans:

• Free: Includes last 7 days of data only and up to 100 identified companies.
• Paid: Starts at $165 per month and increases based on your amount of identified companies.

They also offer a 14-day free trial and a 40% discount on annual subscriptions.

4. Sprout Social

Image credit: Sprout Social

As one of the best social media marketing automation and enrichment tools available, Sprout Social simplifies content management across multiple platforms for marketing teams of various sizes.

Pros

• Stronger insights into what’s popular with top-notch social listening tools.
• Detailed reporting and analytics.
• Easy team collaboration with user-friendly workflows.
• Powerful scheduling features for optimal post timing.
• Solid customer support.

Cons

• Limited to 5 social media accounts on the standard plan.
• Expensive add-ons required for advanced features.
• Steep learning curve for new users.
• Limited functionality for LinkedIn tagging and Instagram Reels scheduling.
• Smaller businesses might be priced out of even simple plans.

Pricing

Sprout Social has four pricing plans available:

• Standard: $249 per seat per month.
• Professional: $399 per seat per month.
• Advanced: $499 per seat per month.
• Enterprise: Pricing available on request.

They also offer a 30-day free trial and a discount on annual subscriptions of up to 25%.

5. Mailchimp

Image credit: Page Flows

Owned by Intuit, Mailchimp is best for sending automated marketing campaigns to email addresses. It can also provide detailed analysis and provide insights on how campaigns are progressing.

Pros

• Very easy to use, set up, and integrate.
• Automated data cleaning to keep your lead lists tidy.
• Robust analytics for data-driven insights.
• Solid integrations with other tools.
• Wide range of customizable templates.

Cons

• Lack of customization for emails, as it’s template-based.
• Emails from Mailchimp servers can be classified as spam.
• Pricing gets steep for larger lists.
• Deliverability rates are sometimes inconsistent.
• Customer support varies by plan and can be slow.

Pricing

Mailchimp’s pricing is based on the amount of contacts you need. It offers four base plans, which increase in cost as you add more contacts:

• Free: Includes up to 500 contacts, with 1,000 sends per month.
• Essentials: Starts at $13 per month for 500 contacts, with 5,000 sends per month.
• Standard: Starts at $20 per month for 500 contacts, with 6,000 sends per month.
• Premium: Starts at $350 per month for 10,000 contacrs, with 150,000 sends per month.

Mailchimp’s Essentials and Standard plans also offer a free month-long trial before you commit. 

6. Brevo (Formerly SendInBlue)

Image credit: Brevo

Brevo, formerly known as Sendinblue, is a versatile tool for B2B and B2C marketing through automated email and SMS campaigns. It’s a powerful tool for converting prospective business customers into high-quality leads.

Pros

• Integrates well with Shopify.
• Easy to track campaign success anytime.
• User-friendly interface that makes navigation easy.
• Robust automation features to enhance marketing efforts.
• Extensive multi-channel campaign options.

Cons

• No design services available.
• Reports can be lacking in detail, especially for less expensive plans.
• Customer support can be slow and lacks live chat functionality.
• Certain features can incur additional costs, such as SMS and WhatsApp campaigns.

Pricing

Brevo offers four pricing plans:

• Free: Send 300 emails a day.
• Starter: Starts at $9 per month, with 5,000 emails a month.
• Business: Starts at $18 per month, with 5,000 emails a month and additional features.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing available on request.

They also offer a 10% discount on annual subscriptions.

7. Marketo

Image credit: Adobe

Marketo Engage, now owned by Adobe, is a powerful marketing automation tool aimed at larger companies and enterprises. It excels in automated data analysis and lead scoring.

Pros

• Easy setup despite its rich feature set.
• Strong integrations with with SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, and NetSuite.
• Lead scoring functionality to enhance targeting.
• Comprehensive analytics for data-driven decisions.
• Powerful marketing automation tools.

Cons

• No built-in CRM limits direct customer management.
• The landing page builder lacks advanced features.
• High cost can be prohibitive for smaller businesses.
• Customer support varies by plan and can be slow.

Pricing

Marketo Engage offers four pricing tiers based on required features and business volume. Specific custom pricing for each of these plans is available on request.

• Growth: Up to 10 users.
• Select: Up to 25 users.
• Prime: Up to 25 users.
• Ultimate: Up to 25 users.

While user limits stay mostly consistent as you upgrade your plan, you get access to more features and tools.

Examples of lead automation

Automation isn’t just a one-size-fits-all approach to lead generation — it’s got options. It all depends on exactly what efforts you’re willing to assign to the software, and what tasks will remain human.

Let’s take a look at some of those options.

Automated cold outreach

While some salespeople do legitimately love it, most people find cold calling to be soul-crushing. With automated email marketing campaigns, you can send hyper-personalized messages at scale, all while still making it feel like a human-on-human chat. 

Automation makes it all possible by using generation automation tools that tailor your outreach based on the ideal customer profile you have given it. 

AI chatbots

Are you tired of answering the same old questions over and over? Enter AI chatbot pop-ups.

These bots engage with the users on your site, automatically capturing their contact details. You can set them up to learn from and address those common questions and concerns that come in on a regular basis. 

Best of all, they can take on the role of salesperson and start turning curious visitors into prospective customers or even qualified leads.

Lead magnets with smart digital forms

Lead magnets are irresistible little freebies that offer up some valuable content hiding behind a smart digital form. Some examples include:

• Ebooks.
• Checklists.
• Templates.
• Webinars.
• Quizzes.
• Podcasts.

Lead magnets are powerful tools because once a prospective customer bites, you can automatically add them to a drip campaign that nurtures them into high-quality leads.

Personalized website experiences

Nothing in the world says “we understand you” like a website that’s completely personalized. A good example of automated lead generation is through dynamic landing pages that are customized to each potential customer’s needs or industry. 

Using automation to personalize experiences means your website itself is boosting engagement and moving them further down the sales funnel without you ever having to be there.

Automated ad campaigns

Ever had site visitors that just slipped through the cracks after a lengthy look around your site? Automated ad campaigns bring visitors back into your funnel with retargeted campaigns that follow them around. 

The result? Without any human involvement from the sales team, automation is giving them a second chance to say yes.

Lead tracking with a CRM

Forget about tracking every single lead manually. Let automated CRMs like Method handle it for you. 

CRMs organize your leads for more efficient generation efforts and keep your sales funnel clean by separating potential sales from paying customers. 

So, you can keep your customers’ financial data safe and accurate in QuickBooks, for example, while also using that information in your CRM data to nurture leads better and inform future sales.

Automatic lead scoring and segmentation

Marketing and sales teams know that not all leads are created equal. And if you’re tired of manually scoring and segmenting hot and cold leads, you’ll be glad to know automation has got this covered too.

These features automatically rank your leads based on their likelihood to convert, helping your team prioritize the high-quality leads first.

Lead prospecting on social media

You shouldn’t only limit your generation efforts to emails and paid ads. According to our research, 62.5% of the world now uses social media. Platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, X (Twitter), YouTube, and Instagram are filled to the brim with prospective customers.

With so many platforms to cover, manually marketing every single one would be nearly impossible for smaller marketing teams. But with automation and the right generation tools, the leads from social media will keep rolling in. 

Benefits of automated lead generation

Most sales teams have felt the burn of frustration when one too many human errors let potential clients slip through the cracks and straight into the arms of competitors. 

Let’s take a look at the rest of the benefits.

Send every lead to the correct sales rep

Ever sent an individual customer to the dedicated B2B rep? Or a top-priority lead to the brand-new hire? Mistakes like these are not only signs of disorganization, but you can easily lose a prospective customer because of them.

With automated lead tracking and enrichment tools, leads won’t end up getting sent to the wrong sales rep ever again. This is because advanced algorithms and segmentation can route potential clients straight to the right team member, boosting the team’s productivity.

Personalize your lead experience

Your business isn’t generic, so why should your customers settle for boilerplate messages? With automation, you can segment your leads by important verticals like industry, demographic, or specific interests.

In a nutshell, automation dives deep into your ideal customer profile and sends personalized messages to the right prospective customers at exactly the right time.

Get a complete view of your leads

Want to know what makes your leads tick? Automated lead generation tools give you the complete lowdown on lead behaviour, including what is driving their decisions and what trends they’re following. 

This lets you spot trends far faster than the human eye and fine-tune your approach to push leads further down the sales funnel much easier.

Break down data silos

A marketing and sales team that works together is necessary in getting leads to close, so why aren’t your teams talking to each other? 

Automation connects your departments and makes sure your sales and marketing teams are always on the same page. More collaboration, far less chaos.

Improve your speed to lead

When it comes to potential customers, there’s a need for speed. Automated lead generation helps you handle those prospective customers faster, so you can respond while they’re still interested — and not when they’ve already forgotten your name.

Ensure consistent lead quality

Tired of wasting time sifting through junk leads? Automated lead generation keeps high-quality leads flowing steadily into your pipeline. 

Low-value leads are given less priority, cutting out the guesswork and saving your sales team a lot of time.

Grow and scale without a hitch

Scared of growing your business because of all the extra work and evolving needs? Scaling your business shouldn’t mean more work for your team. 

The processes that may have once worked when you were a smaller business are now not working anymore — but that’s a good sign, so don’t panic. Automation means you can grow your business without adding extra workload. 

Save time for your entire team by eliminating their repetitive, manual processes like creating invoices and sending emails. They’ll be able to contribute more to your business growth that way. 

Generate data-driven insights

With automation, your team grows smarter with every new lead — regardless of whether they convert. Tracking every single interaction with potential customers means ensuring more insights to draw from for future opportunities.

With so much information at your fingertips, your sales team can make data-driven decisions to improve success rates, and your marketing team can constantly improve and tweak their efforts.

Integrate with existing sales and marketing tools

Automated lead generation tools are powerful, but they can’t (and shouldn’t) operate in a vacuum. The best software developers design these automation tools to integrate and connect with your existing CRM and financial systems to make sure everything is running in sync.

Wrap-up: Choosing the right lead automation tool for your unique needs

Out of these seven automated lead generation tools, you’re bound to find the one that will make your generation efforts faster and far more effective. 

But if you’re a QuickBooks or Xero user looking for something that really handles it all — lead capture and management, communications, estimating and invoicing, and integrated payment processing  — Method CRM is your go-to.

It integrates perfectly with your existing QuickBooks or Xero financial systems, making it a dream solution for your sales, marketing, and financial teams.

Ready to delegate the repetitive work to technology? Method has you covered.

Try it free for 14 days.

Automated lead generation FAQs

What is AI lead generation?

AI lead generation uses artificial intelligence (AI) to find, qualify, and nurture all prospective customers for you. 

From intelligent chatbots that are barely indistinguishable from humans to AI-driven analysis of your hottest leads, it’s a hands-off way to keep your sales funnel full to the brim with high-quality leads.

What is the lead lifecycle?

The lead lifecycle is a journey that takes a curious stranger all the way to a loyal customer. 

The first stages of the cycle are when someone first shows interest in your business and its products and services, then moves through stages like lead nurturing, qualification, and finally, conversion.

What is automated lead capture vs. automated lead generation?

Automated lead capture grabs contact details from visitors to your website or social media platforms. There are a few ways that automated capture can accomplish this, including smart forms, chatbots, and sign-ups. 

Automated lead generation then takes those leads and moves them through the sales funnel with nurturing strategies like email campaigns and follow-ups. It scores each lead according to how likely they are to convert and then sends them to the appropriate sales rep for the human touch. 

Lead capture is often the very beginning of the lead generation process.

The post The 7 best tools for automated lead generation appeared first on Method.

Nowadays, managing your time and keeping track of every single contact can make or break a sale. So, whether you’re running email campaigns or posting digital content, you need to have a clear plan to capture (and then nurture) those leads. 

The more organized your approach, the better your chances of guiding those leads straight through the funnel and onto a sale.

Keep reading for 25 lead generation strategies that will set you up for success.

What are lead generation strategies?

Lead generation strategies are the tactics you use to attract potential customers (your target audience) and turn them into high-quality leads (the kind that are ready to buy).

Think of these strategies as the process of navigating the sales funnel, from grabbing attention to closing the sale. They are usually only possible with a unified approach. Your marketing team draws them in, and your sales team gets them signed on the dotted line.

When both teams are working together in harmony, those leads have a much smoother journey through the sales funnel, setting you up for success.

Your top 25 lead generation strategies to ensure conversions

Here are 25 of the best lead generation strategies to help you turn a “maybe” into a handshake:

1. Create quality content across several mediums

Your target audience craves valuable content, and that means mixing it up. Sticking to one medium or one type of campaign gets boring very quickly. For example, instead of pushing out blog post after blog post, you could also create infographics or tutorial videos.

The more variety in your content, the more likely you’ll capture a wider scope of leads. Using different medium types lets you appeal to different engagement styles. The result? You’ll build trust and see engagement soar.

2. Lean on your website and optimize for SEO

Your website isn’t just there for show or for the occasional hit on the “Contact us” button — it’s your 24/7 salesperson, a hub for marketing materials, and a source of truth for potential and existing customers. 

Naturally, you’re going to want to drive as much traffic to it as possible, and you do so by emphasizing a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy for your site. 

Create personalized landing pages for each of your buyer personas, and make it easy for visitors to know how to take the next step by adding clear calls to action (CTAs).

3. Use digital lead generation forms across your content

Whether it’s on blogs, videos, landing pages, or other site content, you can strategically embed smart lead forms in all your valuable content. These digital forms, known as web-to-lead forms, capture contact information like email addresses from customers when they’re most engaged. See an example below.

From there, you can send personalized email campaigns to the leads your website automatically captures. 

4. Publish and promote case studies

Don’t just tell — show. Your buyer success stories are one of the best ways to convert potential leads by showing what’s possible should they choose you.

Share these on your website and across your social media platforms to build up trust and credibility. For an example of a case study, check out this Method customer story.

5. Create an email marketing strategy

While we now see lots of paid digital marketing strategies like influencer marketing and pay-per-click ads spammed across Google, guess what? Email newsletters and marketing still work. 

In fact, email marketing attracts an ROI of $36 for every $1 spent. Sounds good, right?

Segment your audience and send targeted messages to really create and convert qualified leads.

6. Conduct paid advertising through PPC (pay-per-click) ads

Speaking of pay-per-click (PPC) ads, these are one of the fastest ways to get your message in front of your target audience. 

PPC ads generate traffic quickly and reliably. And best of all, you only pay if someone actually clicks. This means, unlike many marketing strategies, you’re not wasting precious budget on the gaze of uninterested eyes. 

The most common types of PPC ads include:

• Search ads that appear on search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Display ads shown on websites.
• Social media ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.

7. Leverage social media

Remember that old saying, “If it’s free, then you’re the product”? Well, with social media platforms, users who share everything about their lives — from holiday plans to pictures of their food  — are the product. You can tap into their feeds with information on what you offer and convert them from visitors into leads.

As you already know so much about your potential customers, social media is the ultimate goldmine for reaching your ideal customer profile (ICP). 

Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok let you showcase images and stories, and connect directly with your buyer persona. So post those insights, behind-the-scenes moments, and success stories to keep customers engaged. Not to mention, you can leverage paid ads on most platforms too.

8. Organize webinars to capture new leads

Want an opportunity to showcase your business and engage prospective customers? Webinars are the way to go. 

A webinar is an interactive online seminar or presentation that lets participants engage with the host and content in real time through videoconferencing technology. This means you can build trust and answer questions on the spot.

Webinars let you share valuable content and, most importantly, collect those contact details for qualified lead follow-ups. 

9. Host or attend events

Whether in person or online, industry events are filled with opportunities to connect with people who are likely to become new potential customers. You can even host your own events.

Networking in a space that is full of like-minded businesses and individuals helps your business build trust and show off its products — all of which are bound to generate some high-quality leads. 

10. Develop a referral program

Your salespeople are the best at selling your products or services, but coming in a close second are your happy customers. 

Encourage your customers (and employees) to refer others to your business and offer rewards like discounts and freebies for some extra motivation. 

It’s much cheaper than traditional marketing and will have a snowball effect of new potential leads coming your way in no time.

11. Employ a video marketing strategy

Your potential customers are more likely to engage with an exciting video than a huge wall of text. This is a chance for your marketing team to start getting creative with storytelling, fancy graphics, and of course some strategically placed CTAs for customer interaction.

The key to generating leads with videos is to keep them short, ideally between 15 and 30 seconds. In fact, 44% of consumers prefer to learn about products from short videos.

12. Use AI and automation tools

Do you want to save time and still nurture leads to the same degree as with manual marketing? AI and lead automation tools like Method CRM, OptinMonster, and Leadfeeder use generation techniques like automated follow-ups and email campaigns to do the heavy marketing and sales processes for you. 

So, not only do you bring in leads without additional effort, but you also get time back in your day to focus on other areas of your business.

13. Run retargeting and remarketing campaigns

It’s a sad fact of marketing that not every visitor converts the first time. The good news is that retargeting and remarketing can bring them back.

It’s important to distinguish between these two marketing terms:

• Retargeting: Typically refers to serving targeted ads to users who have previously interacted with your website or brand. It primarily uses display ads on third-party websites to reach these users as they browse the internet.
• Remarketing: Generally involves re-engaging existing customers or leads through direct communication channels like email. It focuses on nurturing relationships with people who have already interacted with your brand, often using personalized messaging based on their previous interactions.

These campaigns should target potential leads who have shown at least some interest, giving you another chance to win them over. 

14. Put on contests or giveaways

There’s one universal constant in business, and that’s that everyone loves free stuff. But giveaways shouldn’t be thought of as giving away your products (although that is definitely a part of it), but as getting some high-quality leads in return. 

Run giveaways that actually encourage engagement with your brand specifically, and make sure that all participants leave behind their contact details. It’s a win-win scenario: they get free stuff, and you get a shiny new list of leads.

15. Leverage CRM and sales data

Your customer relationship management (CRM) system is so much more than a glorified contacts list. It’s a source of truth for insights into your current customers. With a CRM, you can track every touchpoint, interaction, and transaction for all your contacts — whether they’re leads, customers, or vendors.

Analyze those sales statistics in your CRM and use the results to inform marketing decisions, like tailoring campaigns to diffent lead segments. Tools like Method let you quickly and easily:

• Track every opportunity.
• Create estimates and invoices.
• Convert leads to Quickbooks as soon as they become paying customers.

Learn more about Method CRM in the video below.

16. Cold outreach (email and calling)

Believe it or not, cold outreach, whether by phone or through email, is still alive and kicking. Sure, conversion rates can be low (to the tune of 2%), but with the right script and some solid persistence, it can create a domino effect of incoming leads.

When combined with follow-ups, cold calling is still a great strategy for sales reps.

17. Influencer marketing

Influencers are individuals on social media with influence over a large audience, and digital natives and Gen Z absolutely trust them — in some cases even more than celebrity endorsements. 

If you partner with the right influencer, you’re likely to connect with prospective customers you might not even know you had. Influencers can: 

• Introduce your brand.
• Build credibility.
• Ultimately drive purchases. 

18. Establish authority, expertise, and trust

Everyone knows that people buy from brands they trust — but what is the best way to build that trust?

Other than offering a standout product or service, one of your first tasks when establishing trust is to consistently deliver valuable content that is backed by original research and real testimonials. 

Keep your promises, and you’ll start to build long-lasting relationships with high-quality leads.

19. Network online and in person

Networking with fellow professionals in your field is still one of the best lead-generation techniques. 

Networks give your business an opportunity to have genuine conversations with both your target audience and big industry peers. Those relationships, if nurtured well, often lead to valuable business opportunities down the road.

20. Look at your competitors

It never hurts to analyze your competitors’ lead generation strategies to see what is and isn’t working for them. Study their tactics, uncover the gaps, and slot your business in to provide a better solution. 

21. Offer incentives

As we mentioned earlier, people love free stuff. But what if your product can’t really be given away for free? If your business is online, you can always offer free trials and demos or bundle in some free tools with your platform.

It’s the next best thing to free — try before you buy — and customers just love it and get hungry for more. Some other incentives you can offer include:

• Promo codes.
• Annual or bulk discounts.
• Free consultations.

Incentives are the perfect way to get a hesitant customer off the fence and into your sales funnel.

22. Keep your messaging and positioning consistent

Your target audience should always know exactly what you’re about, so mixed messages are a big no-no. Keep it simple, keep it clear, and most of all, keep it consistent across your entire sales process.

Confusion is costly, but consistency? That’s how cold leads turn hot.

23. Create lead magnets

Sometimes, you have to give something to get something. Lead magnets like free guides, exclusive templates, or video tutorials can be irresistible bait for getting contact details. 

Start publishing these kinds of materials and you’ll see your email list grow faster than weeds on a warm spring day. Once you have their info, you can nurture them into those highly coveted qualified leads through targeted email campaigns. 

24. Try direct mail

Snail mail still works, and in a world full of cluttered inboxes and easily accessible unsubscribe buttons, a targeted, well-thought-out piece of physical mail is surprisingly fresh.

Reach out to prospective customers with something that they can hold in their hand and make them stop and take notice. It’s personal, tangible, and it’s much harder to ignore than an email.

25. Test and evolve your tactics

Just like everything in marketing, lead generation isn’t “set it and forget it.” Your marketing and sales team should constantly evaluate what worked and what didn’t (hint: software is great for this) and tweak their approach accordingly.

So, keep on evolving. Whether it’s new-generation techniques or fresh tactics dreamt up through an employee advocacy program, you must always keep your lead game sharp.

Lead generation strategies FAQs

What are the top lead generation tools?

Good lead generation comes from automated CRM and marketing tools like Method CRM for follow-ups and tracking leads, OptinMonster for lead capture through smart forms, and Leadfeeder for catching website visits. 

What are the differences between inbound and outbound lead generation?

Inbound lead generation is focused on attracting leads through content posting, SEO, and social media — in other words, letting them come to you.

Outbound lead generation involves actively reaching out to potential customers through methods such as email campaigns, cold calling, and pay-per-click ads.

One key difference between the two is that inbound leads are often softer and more long-term, whereas outbound leads are more direct and yield much quicker results.

How do I measure the success of my lead generation strategies?

Success can be measured via: 

• Conversion rates.
• Number of leads generated.
• The quality of those leads (high-value vs. low-value).

Conversion rates are the percentage of leads that end up turning into paying customers.

Your number of leads generated tracks how many potential customers your business has attracted over a specific amount of time.

Quality of leads identifies high-value leads – or the leads that are likely to convert, vs. low-value leads – or the leads that have gone cold and are unlikely to get anywhere near a sale.  

Ready to generate more leads in less time? Try Method free.

The post The top 25 lead generation strategies to set your sales up for success appeared first on Method.

No matter how innovative your product or service is, how persuasive your marketing is, or how efficient your operations are, the true measure of success is profitability. And that’s where sales come in — the decisive factor that separates thriving businesses from struggling ones. 

You know that turning leads into sales is key to driving business growth. But what’s the most effective way to convert leads, and how can you refine your sales process to maximize revenue?

As a business owner, entrepreneur, or sales professional, you’re probably grappling with this question. You may have even already:

• Invested in lead generation.
• Honed your sales pitches.
• Perfected your closing techniques. 

Yet, your conversion rate remains a nagging concern. 

In this article, you’ll uncover the fundamental principles of turning leads into sales, highlighting proven strategies, tactics, and tools to: 

• Enhance your sales funnel.
• Strengthen customer relationships.
• Ultimately increase profits. 

Let’s jump in.

What does it mean to convert leads into sales?

Leads are people or organizations who have expressed interest in what you’re selling. For some examples, they may have: 

• Voluntarily shared their contact information with you through a form on your website.
• Made inquiries over the phone.
• Interacted with your business on social media platforms. 

Turning leads into sales means effectively persuading potential customers to choose your product or service. From there, the idea is to turn these prospects into loyal, paying customers. It’s the crucial step where interest is transformed into action, driving revenue and growth for your business.

Is there one single best way to convert leads into sales?

No, there isn’t one best way to convert leads into sales. The conversion process differs from business to business. However, a good tip to remember is that turning leads into sales generally requires a multi-level strategy that spans multiple channels and media using the best marketing and sales practices. 

Some effective strategies for converting leads into customers include:

• Focusing on solving prospective customers’ problems. 
• Creating engaging, visual, and educational content.
• Using clear calls to action. 

Ultimately, the best approach combines a deep understanding of your leads with a robust sales process that nurtures and converts them effectively.

MQLs vs. SQLs: What’s the difference?

Marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) are leads who have shown interest in your business offerings by performing actions like: 

• Downloading content.
• Signing up for newsletters.
• Engaging with your social media posts. 

However, they are not ready to buy from you because they are still in the “early awareness” stage of the buyer journey.

Sales-qualified leads (SQLs) are leads who have shown that they want to purchase from you. They may have: 

• Requested a quote.
• Scheduled a meeting with a sales rep.
• Tried out product demos.

Your sales process, and ultimately your business, will benefit from a clear understanding of the difference between MQLs and SQLs, as they each require different nurture strategies. 

When dealing with MQLs, provide relevant content and engagement opportunities, and they can become SQLs over time. When dealing with SQLs, your sales team must approach them and encourage them to make the final buying decision. Read on to discover how you can turn sales-qualified leads into loyal customers. 

Stages of lead conversion and best practices

No two companies’ sales pipelines are the same. You’ve got to define yours clearly to see how leads move down the funnel. Here’s a broad framework that describes most businesses’ pipelines.

1. Lead generation

This is the first step in your sales pipeline. It’s where you prospect and capture the right leads. Prospecting refers to activities aimed at identifying, researching, and engaging potential customers who may be interested in your product or service. Its goal is to fill your sales pipeline with potential customers. 

Traditionally, prospecting relied heavily on cold calling the target audience. However, an effective lead generation strategy today should incorporate a variety of strategic activities, such as: 

• Relevant content creation.
• Marketing automation.
• Targeted outreach on various platforms. 

Capturing is where you convert interested prospects into leads. Common ways of doing this include collecting contact information (like email and phone number) through marketing strategies like:

• Encouraging sign-ups (newsletters, free trials, etc.). 
• Offering valuable gated resources (eBooks, webinars, etc.). 
• Creating engaging experiences (events, contests, etc.).

See an example of how you can capture leads on your website below.

The fate of your lead generation strategy rests solely on targeting and capturing the right market and understanding your customers’ needs. 

2. Lead qualification

Lead qualification is evaluating generated leads based on their likelihood to purchase your product or service. This stage answers a simple yet crucial question: is this lead worth pursuing? If you get this answer right, you’ll prevent your business from wasting resources on prospects unlikely to convert. 

Also known as the “needs analysis” stage, this is where you determine if your product or service solves the pain points of each lead and if they can pay for it. To get the most out of this process, it’s essential to segment leads by:

• Industry. 
• Demographics. 
• Company Size. 
• Behaviour. 
• Firmographics.

With proper segmentation in place, you can:

• Develop customized messaging. 
• Focus on high-potential leads. 
• Use lead scoring (a point system) to prioritize leads. 

With this strategic approach, business owners can save resources while improving customer engagement and increasing conversion rates.

3. Lead nurturing

Now that you’ve determined the leads worth pursuing, it’s time to nurture them. Lead nurturing involves engaging with leads, addressing their pain points, and providing them with personalized interactions in line with their needs and interests.

If your lead is part of an organization, you want to first identify the key business decision-makers and address them directly to cut out the middleman. Then, find out your lead’s preferred communication method (face-to-face, email, phone calls, Slack, WhatsApp, etc.) and establish contact. 

These tips can kick your lead nurturing process up a notch:

• Make it a conversation — a sales pitch can be off-putting.
• Offer relevant value propositions to show your leads you’ve done your homework.
• Weigh client perceptions against reality and handle any objections that come up.
• Be clear about what action you want your lead to take.

4. Closing the sale

You’ve nurtured your leads and built trust, and they’re ready to buy. Now it’s time to seal the deal! Keep these key points in mind:

• Provide a clear, concise quote outlining:
  • Product/service details.
  • Pricing and payment terms.
  • Delivery timelines.
  • Any warranties or guarantees.

• Finalize and agree on the details with the customer.
• Deliver high-quality products or services.
• Create FOMO (fear of missing out) and a sense of urgency.
• Make opt-ins and purchases easy.
• Make payment terms clear and use reliable payment processing.

5. Follow-up and retention

Sealing the deal might leave you feeling your job is done, but it isn’t. You want to start a dialogue with your leads as soon as they convert. As a part of this conversation:

• Make sure they are happy with their purchase.
• Address concerns or issues.
• Offer support and resources.
• Collect feedback and insights.

With CRM platforms like Method, you can automate follow-ups to ensure you’re always engaging with customers — without having to spend too much time on them.

As each customer relationship develops, it’s a good practice to identify complementary products or services you can upsell or cross-sell to enhance their experience.

Finally, measure performance using reporting and analytics to track metrics like:

• Customer retention rates.
• Satisfaction scores.
• Upsell/cross-sell success.
• Return on investment (ROI).

Technical strategies for how to convert a lead into a sale

Lead generation and conversion rely on a combination of factors, not just one magic solution. Think of it as adjusting various levers to fine-tune your sales machine. Here are some levers you can pull to get your conversion ratio up:

Build and optimize your website

Your website is often the first impression potential customers have of your business. To make it count, start by crafting a solid SEO strategy. This isn’t just about stuffing keywords — it’s about creating a smooth user experience that search engines will love, too. Use thorough keyword research to identify what your customers are searching for. This will inform your content creation and ensure you’re speaking their language.

But SEO is just the beginning. To truly improve your website’s performance, you need to test and refine it. Run A/B tests to compare different versions of pages, CTAs, and content. This will help you identify what resonates with your audience and what doesn’t. Use data-driven insights to inform design and content decisions.

Another crucial element is an effective FAQ page. This goes beyond providing responses to common questions, as it’s about showcasing your expertise and building trust. Use research and clear, concise language to address customer concerns, and you will be converting visitors into leads in no time.

Develop your content marketing

Content marketing is the unsung hero of lead generation. It can help you build trust, establish authority, and attract potential customers through valuable, relevant content.

Start by using your SEO strategy to inform your content creation. Use keyword research to identify gaps in the market and craft content that resonates with your target audience. Produce high-quality, engaging content that addresses their pain points and interests.

Educate and inform with blog posts, exploring topics such as:

• Industry trends and insights.
• Problem-solving guides.
• Thought leadership pieces.
• Success stories and case studies.

But don’t stop at written content. Explore different mediums to reach your audience, such as:

• Video: Explainers, tutorials, and testimonials.
• Long-form content: E-books, whitepapers, and guides.
• Live webinars: Interactive sessions and Q&A.
• Podcasts: Interviews and industry discussions.
• Social media: Snippets, stories, and behind-the-scenes.

Social proof is powerful. What others are saying about you and your business can help you attract more leads. Share positive customer testimonials, reviews, and ratings to build credibility and trust. 

Invest in advertising

Advertising can boost your lead-generation efforts. When deciding how to advertise, consider digital and local options. If your business type allows for it, a blend of both would be ideal. 

Behavioral ad campaigns

To get the most returns on your digital advertising investment, run behavioral campaigns, which target individuals based on their actions and behaviors online, such as:

• Search history.
• Page visits.
• Abandoned carts.
• Product interests.

With this approach, your ads can reach high-intent prospects and increase your chances of converting leads to sales.

PPC

Similarly, conducting PPC (pay-per-click) keyword research can contribute to boosting your conversion metrics. It helps you to:

• Identify relevant search terms.
• Create targeted ad groups.
• Improve ad copy and landing pages.

Retargeting

Finally, another form of online advertising you should use is retargeting ads. These ads target users who have previously interacted with your brand but haven’t yet converted. With retargeting ads, you can remind them of your brand and encourage them to revisit your website or complete a desired action. That way, you’re more likely to: 

• Increase conversions.
• Improve brand recall.
• Enhance customer engagement.
• Get a better ROI compared to traditional advertising.

Whichever advertising you choose to invest in, use clear and concise calls-to-action (CTAs) in your ad copy to drive action and conversions.

Optimize your lead-scoring model

Lead scoring is a dynamic process, not a one-time setup. To maximize its effectiveness, continually refine, build upon, and reevaluate your lead-scoring model.

Your ideal customer profile (ICP) can evolve as your business grows. Market trends shift, customer needs change, and your value proposition must change too. Regularly reassess your lead-scoring criteria to ensure alignment with your updated ICP.

Here are a few questions you must ask regularly about your lead-scoring approach:

• Are we scoring leads based on relevant behaviors?
• Are our thresholds too lenient or too strict?
• Are we prioritizing the right demographics?
• Are we neglecting crucial qualification factors?

Your answers to these questions will give you data and insights for refining your lead-scoring model and improving your conversion strategies.

Employ an email marketing strategy

Email marketing remains an effective channel for lead nurturing and conversion. To maximize its potential, start by choosing the right email marketing tool for your business, such as:

• Method.
• Mailchimp.
• ActiveCampaign.

These tools offer features like:

• Contact management and segmentation.
• Automation workflows and triggers.
• Email builders and templates.
• Performance tracking and analytics.

If you want to get the best results from your email campaigns, remember to use tracking codes to:

• Monitor open rates, clicks, and conversions.
• Identify top-performing subject lines and content.
• Segment audiences based on behavior and preferences.
• Refine targeting and personalization.

Build a social media presence

Social media is a powerhouse for lead generation and brand awareness because of the sheer number of users and how much time they spend on those platforms. If you want to tap into its potential, you must approach it strategically.

For starters, identify the right channels based on your buyer persona. Each platform is most suited to different audience profiles and marketing content:

• LinkedIn for B2B connections and industry insights.
• Facebook for broad reach and targeted advertising.
• Twitter for real-time engagement and news.
• Instagram for visual storytelling and influencer marketing.
• YouTube for long-form content and educational videos.

Whichever platforms you decide to use, here are a few strategies you can use:

• Create content calendars for consistent posting.
• Design engagement campaigns to spark conversations.
• Partner with influencers to expand reach.
• Use paid advertising for targeted lead generation.
• Track for performance optimization with analytics.

Make phone calls

Sometimes, the most effective way to connect with a lead is through a simple phone call. If you have a phone number in your lead records, consider reaching out.

While cold calling success rates only average, according to our research, around 2%, it can yield significantly better results as part of a targeted outreach to warm leads. Done right, it can also create a domino effect of word-of-mouth referrals. 

Phone calls offer a personal touch, letting you:

• Build rapport and establish trust.
• Address concerns and answer questions.
• Provide personalized solutions.
• Move leads closer to conversion.

Also, pay attention to your leads’ preferences. Some may prefer to speak to you or your team directly. In such cases, a call might be the only way to nudge them forward in their customer journey.

Try out influencer marketing

Another way to boost your conversion is through influencer marketing. This lets you promote your brand by tapping into the credibility and reach of experts and leading voices in your industry or community. 

Here are two major types of influencers you can partner with:

• Macro-influencers: Established thought leaders with large followings (typically 100,000+), often across multiple industries. They are often costly but have significant influence and recognition.
• Micro-influencers: Niche experts with smaller, highly engaged audiences (typically 1,000-100,000). They offer authenticity and targeted reach, as well as more affordability.

Influencers give your brand access to an audience base who already trusts them. Some of this trust will be transferred to your brand simply because you associate with the influencer. 

That’s why it’s important to select influencers that:

• Are aligned with your brand values and target audience.
• Have high engagement rates and good content quality.
• Are relevant to your industry or niche.
• Have positive reviews from past collaborations.

Network to make partnerships and build community

Networking is also a powerful way how to convert a lead into a sale. With it, you can: 

• Expand your reach.
• Foster collaborations.
• Establish thought leadership. 

Connect with fellow industry professionals on social media platforms like LinkedIn to build meaningful relationships. Online forums are another digital option for demonstrating your expertise to your target audience. 

You may also want to seek out and attend local events in your niche, both online and offline. You can even go a step further to create your own events and community. Just try to work with others in your field while at it.

Leverage software

Thanks to technology, you can do almost everything faster and better, including converting leads to sales. You can tap into that technological advantage with CRM, AI, and automation tools, for example. 

With such tools, your sales team can build their lead lists faster by automating lead collection with digital forms. They can also track and manage leads and send follow-ups all in one software, like in Method. 

Top tips for turning leads into sales

The more, the merrier

In lead generation, rejection is inevitable. In fact, 80% of new leads never translate into sales. So don’t feel dejected when the majority say no — every “no” brings you closer to a “yes.” 

Remember, every conversion is a win, regardless of how small it may seem. The key to success lies in diversification and persistence. The more strategies you use and invest in, the greater your results will be.

Offer expert advice

Building trust with potential customers requires more than just a sales pitch. Don’t think only in terms of sales. Instead, offer free advice and assistance to establish your expertise and authority. Wow your audience by offering:

• Expert advice and guidance.
• Exclusive resources and informative guides.
• Personalized solutions to common problems.
• Responsive engagement on social media.

While at it, demonstrate your understanding of customers’ needs and show your product or service’s value.

Have your sales and marketing teams work together

Even if you have your sales and marketing teams operating separately, their ultimate goal is the same: driving revenue growth. Too many leads may slip away during hand-offs if both teams don’t work together to achieve the goal. To prevent this, get rid of silos across your business and let ideas flow across the organization.

Respond in a timely manner

When leads reach out, timing is crucial. Promptly responding to their questions and inquiries not only makes them feel valued, but also enhances the perception of your customer service.

Offer specials, discounts, and freebies

Let’s face it — everyone loves a good deal! Offering specials, discounts, and freebies is an effective way to capture attention, build excitement, and spur leads to act. For example, you can offer a discount code or a two-week free trial of your product or service. You can also offer seasonal promotions to take advantage of regular holidays and festivities.

Use appealing calls-to-action (CTAs)

A well-crafted call-to-action (CTA) can make all the difference in converting leads. Effective CTAs combine clarity, conciseness, and active language to prompt action. While you’re at it, use “you”-centric language to put the reader first. 

For example, instead of saying “Click here,” you might consider “Start your free trial today.”

In addition, be sure the lead is ready before asking for an action, or you might lose them altogether.

Use visuals

In today’s visually driven world, a wall of text will get you nowhere. You want to break up content with engaging images, videos, and graphics to capture attention and convey your message.

Listen to your unhappy customers

Negative feedback isn’t always all bad. Don’t ignore or skip over them. Unhappy customers can give you valuable insights into strengthening your sales process. Even negative reviews can help you grow, evolve, and address issues with your product or service.

Best way to convert leads into sales FAQs

What is a sales funnel?

A sales funnel is a model that represents the journey a potential customer goes through, from their first interaction with a company to the final purchase. 

What is the difference between prospect stages and pipeline stages?

Prospect stages refer to the early phases where potential customers are identified and their interest is gauged. Conversely, pipeline stages refer to the entire sales process, detailing each step from initial contact through to the closing of a sale.

What is a good lead conversion rate?

A good conversion rate varies by industry and specific business goals. Average conversion rates are between 2% to 5%, while anything above 5% could be seen as strong performance.

Ready to turn more leads into sales without the extra effort? Try Method free for 14 days.

The post The best way to convert leads into sales and increase profits appeared first on Method.

With proper lead generation strategies, you can grow your business, as well as the value of each customer you secure. Generating leads is key for any business, big or small.

What is a lead?

In the marketing world, a lead is a customer who has shown some sort of interest in the product or service you have to offer.

What is a lead generation system?

A lead generation system helps companies expand their customer base and grow sales. 

How do these systems work? They collect information from potential customers from online sources such as forms, websites and emails to generate leads. 

The best lead generation systems feature automation.

An automated lead generation system is a powerful tool for businesses as it allows you to capture information quickly from your website or other online marketing channels, such as:

• Contact forms. 
• Opt-in lists.
• Registration pages.

This information then comes in handy during sales calls to help you step up your game.

Is lead generation a marketing tool or a sales tool?

At first glance, it can be hard to tell whether lead generation is a marketing tool or a sales tool. This is no surprise as it’s actually a bit of both! 

In terms of how one fits into your sales and marketing strategy, there’s a few things to consider.  Lead generation helps businesses engage with consumers with valuable content and offers in exchange for contact information. 

It does this while helping form a genuine human connection rather than just a one-time sale.

Automated lead generation systems employ tactics such as email campaigns to increase the visibility of your brand and secure new customers. 

Often, your sales team takes over once leads have been created to focus on closing deals and converting leads into customers.

As such, lead generation can be thought of as both a marketing tool and a sales tool. Marketers need to create these leads initially before passing them off to sales teams for follow up.

Why do you need lead generation software?

While lead generation is an important part of sales and marketing, it is time-consuming to manually search for contacts and log each one. 

That’s where lead generation software comes in. 

Here are some reasons to use lead generation software:

• Reduces your sales and marketing teams’ manual workload.
• Attracts and prioritizes qualified leads that can actually turn into potential customers. 
• Updates leads’ contact information automatically.
• Reduces wasted time and money spent tracking cold leads. 
• Nurtures leads with less effort.

How does a lead generation platform work?

Every business has its unique approach to lead generation. And so, do lead generation tools. 

Some simplify the sales process for you, while others increase customer engagement. 

Regardless of how you approach it, the main purpose of lead generation is to attract leads and to turn prospects into customers, before your competition does. 

Here are some of the most popular lead generating systems:

• Gated content such as infographics and ebooks which boost engagement and encourage leads to provide their contact information.
• Lead scoring to save time and prioritize leads by automatically assigning values. 
• Lead nurturing tools to collect data for targeting your contacts with personalized messaging. 
• Lead distribution to pass high-value leads to follow up. 
• Sales analytics and reporting to see what’s working and what’s not.

What are the features of lead generation software?

Every lead generation system has a unique feature set. Below are the must-have features to watch out for.

Integrations

A good lead generation software integrates with your existing marketing tools. 

This will allow you to share data with your CRM, email apps, and more without having to go back and forth between browsers and platforms. This saves you from inaccuracies as well.

It’s important that any new business apps connect with your lead generation software for the above reasons as well.

Intuitive interface

Even the most powerful software is ineffective if you can’t use it. Your lead generation system should have an interface that’s simple and easy to use. 

A great software system offers multiple training options as well so that anyone on your team can use it without struggling through technical headaches.

Analytics

A good lead generation system offers an all-inclusive analytics and reporting feature. Having up-to-date data is key to make better business decisions and identify areas for improvement.

Customer relationship management

Lead generation is usually included as a feature of customer relationship management (CRM) software. CRMs are excellent ways to nurture customers in your sales pipeline and build a loyal customer base.

For exampler, Method CRM makes it easy for small businesses to automate lead generation, contact management, sales commission payouts, and activity tracking.

What are the benefits of using lead generation tools?

Better qualified leads

Having more leads isn’t always a good thing, especially if most of them are cold leads. You’ll end up working harder with less return. 

That’s where an automated lead generation system works its magic. It uses lead scoring to identify the leads that are most likely to turn into customers.

Lead generating systems figure out who’s really worth your time  by tracking your leads’ activity and engagement with your company.

Save time across the board

An automated lead generating system saves you time. Here’s how.

Your sales efforts become easier since you don’t have to spend time researching leads and chasing cold ones. Instead, you only follow up with prospects that check the right boxes. 

All the guesswork is removed and you’re no longer fishing in murky waters when you have a clear picture of who your best leads are.

Refined marketing tactics

Lead generation software includes powerful analytics and reporting tools that allow you to see how the highest value leads were brought in. 

This way, you can prioritize your time by working on the marketing campaigns that resonated with those leads.

This will reel in even more high-value leads, leading to more customers and less cold leads.

How to select the best lead generation program?

With so many options available on the market today, choosing which software is right for you can be tough.

The best lead generation software depends on the:

• Size and scope of your business. 
• Budget constraints.
• Specific type of leads you handle.

For example, Method CRM has powerful capabilities that suit many business needs. It’s a popular lead management tool because it effectively captures and organizes your leads. 

Rather than passing disconnected spreadsheets and emails back and forth, Method CRM captures prospects automatically through a web to lead form. See how below.

Method CRM also offers powerful integration with QuickBooks and Xero.

Instead of cluttering your accounting data in QuickBooks or Xero with leads, you can manage your information in Method CRM. Then, have leads sync to your accounting software when they become customers. 

Next, Method turns estimates into invoices in just a few clicks. Then, this data automatically reflects in QuickBooks or Xero. 

As a result, your time is no longer consumed by repetitive administrative tasks.

Key takeaways

An automated lead generation system identifies the best qualified leads, so that you can turn more leads into customers. 

If you’re ready to reap the rewards of an automated lead generation system, consider Method CRM. Here’s why. 

A follow up system like Method CRM enhances your sales process with capabilities such as:

• Web to lead forms to capture and organize leads effectively. 
• Powerful workflow automation.
• Two-way, real-time sync with QuickBooks and Xero.

Lead generation system FAQs

How do you create a lead generation system?

Creating and maintaining a successful lead generation system doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By following a few key steps, you can get started quickly and achieve great results. 

The first step is to identify target customers — who is your ideal customer and what do they look like? 

Once you’ve identified the target customer, find out where they hang out online and how they like to consume content. 

This will give you an idea of the channels that you should focus on. 

Next, create compelling content that resonates with your target customer base; this could be anything from blog posts, ebooks or webinars!

Once your potential customers are engaging with your content, turn them into leads by providing forms for them to fill out. An automated lead generation system helps with this. 

You can also use existing CRM systems that allow customers to sign up for services or subscribe for notifications. 

Finally, it’s important not to just try once, but “nurture” or continue engaging with both new and existing leads regularly — email campaigns are a great way of doing this.

Which are the 4 steps of the lead generation process?

The lead generation process can be broken down into four steps.

The first step involves an automated lead generation system that collects lead contact information from different sources, including web forms and social media platforms.

Next is lead segmentation, which involves classifying leads into specific market segments or target audiences based demographic, geographic, or psychographic criteria.

After this, conversion tracking takes place. This is when businesses track the efficiency of their lead generation campaigns to monitor which leads are high-value and will convert into sales. 

Lastly, lead nurturing takes place. 

This involves staying in contact with leads through emails or phone calls that foster relationships and increase the chances of turning leads into customers.

Follow these steps in place to create a successful lead generation system that increases your customer base and maximizes profits for your business.

What is an example of lead generation?

An example of lead generation would be content marketing, which involves promoting your business’ message through articles, videos, podcasts, webinars, etc.

This type of strategy helps you reach potential leads who may have an interest in your offerings. Ideally, this lead generation effort sparks conversations that lead to inquiries or conversions.

Accelerate your lead generation with a free trial of Method CRM!

Photo credit: Los Muertos Crew via Pexels

The post What is a lead generation system? And how could it help appeared first on Method.

If you’re not sure how to answer these questions, don’t worry. Here are some key changes you can start making today in order to generate new business tomorrow.

Conversion rate statistics

First, some context. The latest conversion rate data shows that a typical website averages a conversion rate of about 2.35%. If you aren’t hitting this number, there are some things you can do to improve the UX (user experience) on your site and increase conversions. For instance, consider the following statistics:

• A landing page with a video can see an 86% increase in conversions
• Omitting the navigation menu from a landing page can increase conversions by 100%
• Landing pages that don’t request the age of the visitor have higher conversion rates than those that do
• Landing pages that reduce the number of form fields from 11 to 4 can experience up to a 120% increase in conversion rate

Full image CTAs

Humans are inherently visual creatures, so what typically grabs them on a website is what they can see. When designing your call-to-actions (CTAs), consider using clickable images instead of plain buttons or links in your text. This is a clean and simple strategy for promoting your brand and attracting the attention of your visitors. It’s also a great way to create mobile-friendly CTAs, as a large image is far easier to click on a small screen than a simple button or link.

Sticky navigation

Instead of a static navigation menu that the user can only access by scrolling up, try using sticky navigation that allows the menu to move with the user. One study tested this concept and found that participants who used sticky navigation were able to move around a website 22% faster. In addition, 100% of the individuals who participated in the study preferred sticky navigation. Remember, you want to keep visitors on your site until they convert — so do what you can to make the website navigation experience as easy as possible.

Breadcrumb navigation

If you’ve ever visited a website and clicked on a few links only to find that you had no clue how to get back to the first page, you know how frustrating that can be. Breadcrumb navigation tells your site’s visitors exactly where they are at all times and provides shortcuts to get back to previous sections. This makes it easier for visitors to move around and view different pages or products without getting lost.

Web to lead forms

Interactive web to lead forms are a great tool to engage your visitors and increase conversions. By collecting contact information from visitors who may not yet be ready to purchase, you can start to build relationships and guide these individuals through the sales funnel. Typically, a form will offer something of value to visitors in exchange for their details — for example, access to a downloadable resource or a promise to follow up with them personally.

Well-designed footer section

Many people don’t really think about the footer section when they’re designing their websites. However, a good site makes great use of every single inch of space. The footer is an excellent place to put a sitemap, important links, social media icons, and your contact information. Most users will scroll quickly to the end of a page anyway — so having an informative footer menu will allow them to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily.

Site search button

This is a great user-friendly feature that allows individuals to search your entire site in one step. By entering a question or keyword on any of your pages, they can easily locate the information they need. For best results, a search button should be placed in the top or side navigation menu where it is clearly visible. If you’re looking to quickly increase the UX of your website, this one’s a winner.

Highly visible contact info

It may seem like common sense, but many companies’ websites fail miserably in this area. It’s incredibly important to place your contact information where your visitors can actually find it. Having a “Contact Us” page is a good start, but including a phone number or chat button in your site header or footer is also a smart move. If your visitors have questions about your offerings, you want them to be able to get in touch with you without having to hunt around. Otherwise, you risk them getting frustrated and moving on.

High-quality content

The rationale for publishing high-quality content on your site comes not only from a visitor experience perspective but also from a search engine optimization perspective. Gone are the days of keyword-stuffed fluff pieces and abysmally-written web pages that offer little or no value. Instead, Google gives higher rankings to sites that contain high-value, readable content. By making sure your product pages, blog posts, and other content assets are well-written and up-to-date, you’ll increase your chances of being exposed to more people who want what you’re selling.

Video

Adding video to your website has the potential to increase your conversions substantially. Customer testimonials, reviews, how-to videos, and other types of video content can all work very well. This is because videos allow users to access the information they need in brief, digestible bites. Just remember to keep your videos short: three minutes is pretty good, but anything over five minutes is usually pushing it.

Social media buttons

Including social media buttons (which link to your company’s social media profiles) on your site keeps people connected to your company, which can ultimately increase your conversions in the long run. By encouraging visitors to engage with you on social media, you’re creating an environment in which they can be exposed to your products and services on a regular basis. Your followers will also stay in the loop about special promotions or new releases, which may encourage them to take the plunge and make a purchase.

Conversion tracking

As you optimize your website for better conversion, setting up conversion tracking is a must. Keeping tabs on which features and pages are bringing in the most business lets you know what’s working and what isn’t. You can then take these insights and use them to improve your site’s conversion rate even more.

Conclusion

No matter what you sell or where you sell it, your company website should not be an afterthought. Instead, every element should be designed to encourage conversion.

Take some time to thoroughly assess your site and see what changes you can make to improve the user experience. Then, continue to revisit and refresh your site design regularly. Your website is one of your most important marketing assets — so treat it well.

Image credit Antoni Shkraba via Pexels

The post How to Optimize Your Website for Conversion appeared first on Method.

So what does that mean for your marketing efforts and your lead generation strategies? In this article, we give you some best practices that are not only going to help your construction company generate leads today, but also tomorrow, next week, next year, and well into the 2020s.

Focus on local search results

The first strategy for boosting your lead generation is to ensure that your construction company is listed in as many online search directories as possible. And definitely go local. You want to make it as easy as possible for people who live and work in your region to find your company in local search results.

The good news is that you don’t have to scour the internet to find every outlet, portal, social media page, and review site where your company gets an online mention. There are applications out there that will scan the furthest reaches of cyberspace and tell you everywhere your company appears online. This makes it easy to ensure that your contact info is correct in all your online listings.

Boost your content marketing

A business card and a sales pitch simply won’t cut it in today’s digital world. Construction companies, like any enterprise or customer-facing business today, need to focus on inbound marketing strategies — like content marketing — to maximize lead generation. While there are many tried-and-true content marketing best practices out there, you only need to know some basics in order to begin.

First, keep a company blog and post on it regularly, as in once or twice a week. If you can publish posts under the company owner’s byline, thereby putting a face to the operation, all the better. Also focus on creating useful, compelling content. To do this, you need to know your audience. Lucky for you, that isn’t so difficult in the construction business: your audience is anyone in the home service/building industry. So focus on publishing how-to blog posts and tutorials on subjects related to the industry. Examples might include “home-building mistakes to avoid,” “how to install drywall for beginners,” or anything else in your wheelhouse.

Also consider producing engaging video content, like tutorial videos in the home-improvement space. Audiences love videos, and if you can link to interesting video content in your email marketing, you’ll generate greater engagement. More on this below.

Elevate your email marketing game

No modern lead generation strategy is complete without good old-fashioned email marketing. Regarding best practices, there are some strategies that construction companies can implement in order to get more sign-ups and grow your list.

For starters, incentivize the audience you’re trying to attract. Tie your email strategy into your content marketing and offer visitors some useful/educational tidbit for free in exchange for their contact info. Normally in the B2B world, many companies offer things like white papers and ebooks in exchange for a sign-up. As a construction company, you’ll want to offer something that aligns with your target audience. Homeowners’ guides are a good idea — you can offer your potential subscribers how-to guides on everything from waterproofing a shed to building a backyard deck to installing thermostats to properly caring for hardwood floors. And as mentioned above, include links to your video content when possible.

There are some other email marketing best practices to adhere to that are equally crucial. First, if your content has driven your audience to your email list sign-up page, only ask for their email address and first name. Asking for more info than that can feel intrusive and might scare them away. Once they are subscribers, send emails at regular intervals (once a week), and continue to offer them more valuable content. Moreover, be sure to include the recipient’s first name in the subject line of the email. Even that little bit of personalization can really boost open rates.

Display your contact info boldly

Modern lead generation strategies aren’t only comprised of digital means. There is still a place for the savvy lead-harvesting tactics of years past. Take your contact info, for example. Certainly, you’ll want this information to be easily accessible to your audience. And if you’re using the inbound marketing strategies mentioned above, you’ll likely be directing a lot of traffic to your homepage and social media sites, where you’ll want that contact info boldly displayed.

But just as crucial is where people see your contact info out in the real world. If, as a construction company owner, you have various contractors doing work in different neighborhoods, then you’ll want your contact info displayed on each and every work vehicle. Just having people in the neighborhood see your company name on your trucks goes a long way toward boosting brand recognition and generating interest.

Optimize for voice search

With the rise of Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, as well as Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana, we can read the writing on the wall: virtual assistants are the wave of the future. And although this technology is still in its relative infancy, AI engines allow it to evolve at staggering rates. Various statistics portend how dominant it will be in the future. For example, according to comScore, 50% of all searches done in 2020 will be voice searches. Moreover, 30% of all searches will occur without even looking at a screen.

What this means for construction businesses is that today’s customers have eschewed the phone book and are moving away from typed online searches in favor of home smart speakers. There are realities, however, to this brave new world that businesses must take into account. For example, when a person performs a voice search, the results are ranked by proximity and online user reviews. So construction companies need to know that optimizing for voice search means simultaneously boosting customer service along with nipping bad reviews in the bud or resolving them as soon as possible.

Get recommendations from related industries

To be successful, you’ll obviously want to amass a long list of good reviews from satisfied customers. But to generate more leads, you’ll also want non-competitive businesses in related fields to recommend your company to potential clients. The way it works is simple. Whenever you recommend a business to a customer, be it HVAC, roofing, electrical, or plumbing, let those businesses know. Then, make it known that you would greatly appreciate it if they recommended your construction company to their customers, should the topic ever come up.

The home-service field is a small world, particularly when you’re limited to one part of a city or region. You’ll want to be part of a circle of businesses all recommending each other to ensure that a rising tide does indeed lift all boats.

Conclusion

Implementing the six practices mentioned above may seem like a daunting task if your construction company has yet to get in on the inbound marketing game. That’s why, to bring all your efforts together and ensure everything runs efficiently, we also recommend investing in a solid CRM for construction companies. It’s the best way to organize your operations, manage your customers, and grow your business all at the same time.

The post 6 Lead Generation Best Practices for Construction Companies appeared first on Method.

Of course, finding new accounting or bookkeeping leads can be a challenge, especially if you’re used to relying on client referrals. To help you mix things up, we’ve compiled this list of lead generation tips for accounting firms. Put these tips into practice and you may be pleasantly surprised by the amount of new, high-quality business you’re able to drum up.

1. Focus Your Lead Generation Efforts

Far too many accounting firms take a generalist approach when it comes to targeting new clients. However, most clients in search of an accountant are going to be looking for a very specific set of services. If you can target your lead generation efforts to focus on specific industries or specific problems that your firm is able to address, you’ll have an easier time convincing potential clients to hand over their contact information.

Depending on the services you offer and the type of clients you want to attract, you can create any number of targeted campaigns to achieve your desired results. Each campaign should have its own dedicated marketing materials, such as blog posts, emails, or pay-per-click ads.

For example, you might create one campaign aimed at small business owners in the restaurant industry who need payroll services and a separate campaign targeting self-employed individuals who need help with their taxes. The goal is to let your prospective clients know that you understand (and can help with) their specific pain points.

2. Create Effective Landing Pages

On the whole, digital marketing is an area that is underutilized by accounting firms. However, putting together compelling landing pages remains one of the most effective ways for businesses of all kinds to generate new leads.

Ideally, you want to create landing pages that excite visitors about the benefits of your services. You should also encourage visitors to take a specific action while on the page, such as filling out a contact form. Offer a clear incentive for visitors to provide you with their information, whether that’s a follow-up phone call or a special discount upon signing on with your firm.

Once you have your landing pages in place, use targeted advertising through services like Google Ads to target your ideal clients and drive them to the relevant pages. Keeping the previous point in mind, develop specific ads and landing pages for each type of client you want to attract. This classic lead generation strategy may not be new or groundbreaking, but it’s still one of the most effective ones out there, particularly given that many accounting firms fail to take advantage of it.

3. Engage in Content Marketing

In addition to using paid ads to drive traffic to your landing pages, you should also make use of organic forms of digital marketing. Content marketing is one such example. This type of marketing involves creating and distributing relevant content to your target audience, with the ultimate goal of bringing in new business.

Accounting firms are well-positioned to take advantage of content marketing. After all, most small business owners aren’t accounting experts, but they need to learn more about managing their finances. This leads them to search online for helpful resources. If you can provide those resources in the form of blog posts, you’ll attract plenty of visitors to your website. These visitors can then be directed to your landing pages and contact forms.

What you write about will depend on the time of year and your firm’s expertise. For example, you could write about how to prepare for tax season, commonly overlooked deductions for small businesses, how to find the right accounting firm and more. The possible topics are nearly limitless – as are the possible rewards of effective content marketing when it comes to attracting traffic and generating new leads.

4. Build a Presence for Your Firm on LinkedIn 

Social media marketing is an incredibly effective way for companies to generate new leads. But if you have limited time to devote to social media, choose your platforms wisely. As a B2B company, your accounting firm will likely have an easier time reaching its target clients on LinkedIn (a highly business-oriented platform) than it will on, say, Instagram.

Create a detailed LinkedIn profile for your firm and start connecting directly with small business owners. You can also incorporate LinkedIn into other aspects of your lead generation strategy. For example, you’ll want to develop a regular posting schedule to drive your LinkedIn audience to your blog posts. You can also make use of paid advertising on LinkedIn (in the same way you would use Google Ads or Facebook Ads) to drive prospective clients to your highly targeted landing pages.

5. Give Something Away

Giving away freebies is a common method used by businesses to convince visitors to hand over their contact information. After all, people love free stuff! However, this tactic isn’t often employed by accounting firms…for obvious reasons. Compared to a product-based company that can offer free samples, it’s a little more difficult for an accounting firm to come up with a relevant freebie to draw in potential clients.

If you get a little creative, though, there are plenty of ways for your firm to entice website visitors. In exchange for signing up for your mailing list or submitting your web-to-lead form, you can offer these leads access to an exclusive blog post or webinar, a downloadable resource like an ebook, preferred pricing on certain services and more.

Don’t be afraid to test different strategies to see what gets results. Once you have a well-received offer, promote it frequently: on your landing pages, on your blog, and on social media.

6. Make Use of Lead Management Software

There’s no denying that once you ramp up your lead generation strategy, it can be difficult to keep your prospective clients organized. This is especially true if you’re targeting different groups for different types of services. The last thing you want is to miss a follow-up or send the wrong message to the wrong person. But with so many prospects in your pipeline, simple spreadsheets are no longer going to cut it.

Lead management software goes hand-in-hand with the lead generation strategies described above. For instance, using a contact form that syncs directly to your software allows you to easily capture web leads from your landing pages. Meanwhile, automated reminders ensure that you never forget to follow up with potential clients. By streamlining repetitive tasks, you can convert more of your leads to paying clients with less time and effort required.

Conclusion

Don’t rely on referrals alone. In order to grow your accounting firm’s client base, it’s important to develop a multi-faceted lead generation strategy. By following the six tips outlined above, you can start generating high-quality leads that ultimately become loyal, paying clients.

The post 6 Lead Generation Tips for Accounting Firms appeared first on Method.

To set your agency up for long-term success, it’s essential to fill your sales funnel with a steady stream of new leads. But where are you supposed to find all of these prospects? As you know all too well, it’s not enough to sit and wait for potential buyers to come to you. Instead, you need to develop focused strategies to reel in your target clients and make sure they see the value of the services you offer.

Not sure where to begin? Here are six tips to bring in new leads for your marketing agency.

1. Identify Your Target Buyers

The first step in the lead generation process is to know what kind of leads you’re looking for. This requires you to have a deep understanding of your agency’s niche in the marketing world.

Log into your CRM and consider your current roster of clients. Do you do a lot of work for small to mid-sized businesses, or do you mainly have enterprise clients? Do you specialize in marketing for particular industries?

Next, identify your areas of expertise and think about what types of clients would most benefit from them. If your agency is known for Instagram marketing, consider which industries tend to be quite active on Instagram (for example, the health and wellness industry) and do some research on local companies in those sectors.

Once you’ve gone through this brainstorming process, you’ll be better equipped to find leads that fit your agency’s target demographic.

2. Join the Conversation

Your leads aren’t actually hiding out from you. But when your sales funnel is empty, finding potential clients can feel like rooting for truffles in the woods. To begin filling your funnel, you have to identify where your leads spend time online, then get involved in the conversations. Start by searching Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for industry-specific hashtags. You can also join forums like Quora and Warrior Forum where your target demographic may be seeking help with their marketing efforts.

As a marketing agency, it’s your job to understand what interests your clients and your clients’ clients. Consequently, these online communities are great places to “listen in” on what problems business owners have. When you see opportunities to answer questions or offer guidance, share your wisdom along with your agency’s contact information. Although the askers may not be ready to hire a marketing agency, putting your expertise out there will keep your name in people’s minds.

3. Show Off on YouTube

Not so long ago, people relied on their televisions for the latest news, advice, and entertainment. Now YouTube offers users the ability to view just about any kind of video content — anytime and anywhere. As a result, more and more people are flocking to YouTube for information about growing their businesses.

To capitalize on this thirst for knowledge, start a YouTube channel for your marketing agency. Create videos that evoke emotion and speak to your target clients’ marketing problems. These don’t have to be anything fancy, but have fun with them!

At various points in each video, encourage viewers to visit your agency’s website or sign up for your newsletter. You should also consider adding some gated video content directly to your website. By capturing the email addresses of interested viewers, you’ll acquire some concrete leads that you can follow up with.

4. Let Them Peek Behind the Curtain

If you’ve ever discussed your work at a party, you already know that most people have no idea how digital marketing works or what exactly a marketing agency does. Unfortunately, the same may be true for your target clients. This is problematic because if they don’t understand your services, they won’t realize how those services can benefit them.

One way to generate new leads for your agency is to let them “peek behind the curtain,” so to speak. This means sharing enough detail about your strategies and their results to spark interest (though not so much detail that your competitors can benefit!).

Client case studies provide a great opportunity to do this. In a video or article, explain your step-by-step approach to tackling a real problem for a real company. The benefits of this are twofold. Not only do prospective clients get a better sense of what you do, but if they have similar problems, they can better appreciate how your services could help them. Turning the case study into a piece of gated content provides another opportunity to capture the emails of interested leads.

5. Build Out Your Blog

It’s a classic lead generation strategy for a reason. Maintaining an active blog is one of the most effective ways to generate organic website traffic and new leads for your agency. Be sure to offer your readers valuable content that they can use to grow their own businesses. The more helpful your blog is, the more your readers will see you as a marketing thought leader.

Encourage your blog visitors to engage with you by embedding a web-to-lead form on the site. When a visitor provides their contact information through the form, they’ll automatically be logged as a new lead in your lead management software. This allows you to nurture them by sending them additional content they may be interested in.

6. Reward Referrals and Reviews

Isn’t it great when a client is nice enough to refer a friend or write a review for your agency? The truth is that online reviews and personal recommendations carry a lot of weight for people making purchasing decisions — so don’t leave these acts of goodwill to chance.

Take advantage of the good work you’ve already done by rewarding existing clients for reviews or referrals. Schedule reminders for yourself to follow up with each client after a project is complete. By offering a discount on future services or a small token of gratitude, you’ll increase the likelihood of the client spreading the good word. This will help to build your reputation in the industry and bring in new leads faster.

Conclusion

They always say you should practice what you preach. And in the case of a marketing agency, that means having a strong plan for generating new leads. Whether you focus on just a couple of the tactics listed above or implement them all together, your sales funnel will soon be full of potential clients eager to learn from your experience.

The post How to Generate Leads for Marketing Agencies appeared first on Method.

From Pro to Premier to Enterprise, QuickBooks offers powerful accounting solutions for busy small business owners. When it comes to any transaction that involves money changing hands, QuickBooks definitely has you covered. 

But where does that leave you when you’re dealing with non-financial matters like your lead management process?

The challenge: A disconnected lead management process

There’s no doubt that your lead management process is a crucial part of being profitable. After all, you can’t increase your revenue unless you continuously find and nurture new leads. 

The challenge here is that leads are potential customers who aren’t yet associated with real dollars. As a result, it’s tricky to determine how and where to manage your relationships with them. 

Many QuickBooks users handle their lead management process in one of two places: 

1. QuickBooks itself 
2. In spreadsheets

If you use QuickBooks for your lead management process 

Since you can’t create estimates or proposals for leads in QuickBooks, they often get added to QuickBooks as customers. 

The problem with this is two-fold:

1. You have leads in QuickBooks as real customers — which is optimistic but not accurate. 
2. Potential sales are recorded as real revenue — which causes confusion and makes you think you have more money coming in than you actually do. 

This makes for a disorganized lead management process as, over time, your QuickBooks account becomes cluttered with “customers” who have never purchased an item for you. 

If you use spreadsheets for your lead management process 

The second lead management process that’s popular with QuickBooks users is the spreadsheet strategy. 

And while it works for some, it’s not without its limitations. 

Here are just a few problems that arise when you use a spreadsheet for your lead management process. 

1. You waste labor. Admin work is never fun or a value-add to your business. So, this isn’t something you want to  your sales teams’ time going towards. 
2. Your data is outdated. Spreadsheets need to be constantly updated to be effective. With the chaos of daily life, however, this is often unrealistic. The result of this outdated information can be calling a lead that’s already converted to a customer or badgering a lead who’s clearly stated that they aren’t interested in your product. Neither of which are desirable.
3. Leads slip through the cracks. Like any manual process completed by humans, there’s bound to be errors made. In this case, leads get missed, overlooked, or have their contact details recorded incorrectly. The impact of this — you miss out on potential revenue and sales. 

How a QuickBooks CRM improves your lead management process

If you’re looking for a better lead management process, a QuickBooks CRM is the way to go. Here’s why. 

A QuickBooks CRM, like Method CRM, offers:

• A more organized and accurate system for tracking leads 
• A 360-degree view of each lead and customer
• An instant, two way sync with your QuickBooks account

Here are the top 7 reasons why Method CRM (the #1 rated CRM for QuickBooks users) is a game-changer for your lead management process.

1. Keep potential business separate from real business

Your leads aren’t customers (yet!), so don’t confuse your accountant by labeling them as such.

Instead, track your leads in Method CRM and keep them out of QuickBooks until they’re ready to make a purchase.

An added bonus is that with Method CRM’s real-time, two way QuickBooks sync, all of your classes, items, and terms are in your CRM. 

Plus, with your leads and estimates living only in Method CRM you also avoid cluttering your QuickBooks file with potential purchases.

2. Streamline your data entry and lead management process

The beauty of using a QuickBooks CRM is that data entry is a breeze. 

With Method CRM, you can record information about each lead’s company, source, rating, and more. Method CRM is also 100% customizable, so you can easily add new fields to track data specific to your business.

Plus, a QuickBooks CRM offers a much better data viewing experience than spreadsheets — particularly if you need to access that data on the go. 

3. Automate your lead management process

Speaking of easier data entry, why not take advantage of sales workflow automation with a QuickBooks CRM? 

For example, you can use Method CRM’s web-to-lead form to automatically capture lead details from your website visitors. Here’s how it works. 

1. A website visitor submits a lead gen form.
2. This person becomes a lead in Method CRM. 
3. This lead is assigned to a sales rep and they receive a notification about the new lead.
4. A follow-up activity is automatically created for this sales rep. 

4. Link your leads to sales opportunities

QuickBooks is built around financial transactions. So, it’s not a great tool for managing leads who aren’t yet at the buying stage. 

Sales opportunities in Method CRM, however, offer a convenient alternative for tracking what your prospects are interested in purchasing.

As you learn more about a lead’s needs, you can create an opportunity in Method CRM that details the:

• Current stage of the deal
• Anticipated closing date
• Expected amount of revenue

As your business grows, this information will help your sales reps prioritize leads and focus on the most promising deals in the pipeline.

5. Never miss out on a potential sale

When you enter leads into a shared spreadsheet, it’s hard to assign responsibility and schedule tasks effectively.

Sure, you could put your name next to each lead you intend to follow up with — but will you remember this the next time you open the document? Probably not…

This is where a QuickBooks CRM comes in handy. 

With Method CRM for example, your lead management process is streamlined as every time a new lead comes through:

• It is automatically assigned to the sales rep of your choice
• A sales activity is instantly created for the rep to follow up with the lead

When the follow-up is complete, you can record the details of the activity to ensure transparency and continuity throughout your lead management process.

6. Market directly to your leads

If you mix your leads with QuickBooks customers or isolate them in spreadsheets, lead marketing is a challenge. 

In the first scenario, it’s hard to filter your true leads from your paying customers. 

In the second, your lead database is disconnected from the rest of your business applications.

Luckily, you can solve this challenge with Method CRM’s convenient integration with Mailchimp.

Use this integration to make sending targeted email campaigns to your potential customers a breeze. Simply:

• Filter your CRM contacts based on your desired criteria
• Send your mailing lists over to Mailchimp in just a few clicks. 

7. Seamless integration with the accounting software you love

With a successful lead management process, your potential customer becomes a paying one — hooray! 

And now that you’re officially into dollars and cents territory, it’s time to get your new customer into QuickBooks. Luckily, the two-way sync between Method CRM and QuickBooks makes this quick and easy. 

With the click of a button, your lead becomes a customer, their estimate becomes an invoice, and their data automatically syncs to QuickBooks — no double data entry required.

Wrap up

The goal of every lead management process is to convert your leads into customers.

This, however, is tough to do if you can’t properly identify, track, or follow up with your prospects. 

That’s why you should use a QuickBooks CRM like Method CRM to:

• Gain a 360-degree view of a contact’s journey from lead to repeat customer
• Automate your lead management process
• Drive a better bottom line

 Want to take your lead management process to the next level? Start your free, trial of Method CRM.

The post How to upgrade your lead management process with a QuickBooks CRM appeared first on Method.

There are many different ways for manufacturing companies to generate new leads. Of course, the specific methods you use will depend on who your buyers are. Some manufacturers only sell to licensed resellers, while others sell to individual drop shippers. Still other manufacturing companies act as white label drop shippers themselves, with an individual or company acting as the middleman. In each of these scenarios, there may be some variation in how you approach finding leads.

However your company operates, it never hurts to experiment with some new strategies for bringing in new business. In this article, we’re looking at six lead generation ideas for manufacturing companies.

1. Convert Website Visitors to Leads

Just because you’re a manufacturing company, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to capture leads through your website. Manufacturing websites have a tendency to be quite industrial and not very user-friendly, with an overload of information and specifications on each page. Even if this is the case for your site, aim to make it easy for visitors to contact you. This can take the form of a simple button on each page that redirects to a “Contact Us” form. Don’t make it easy for these valued visitors to leave your website without first giving you their email address!

As an added bonus, consider using a web-to-lead form that integrates with your company’s customer relationship management software. Any visitors that provide their contact information through this form will automatically be entered as new leads in your CRM. You’ll also be notified of these new leads via email so you can follow up with them efficiently.

2. Offer Free Samples to Qualified Leads

Understandably, you can’t just ship free samples to anybody who comes across your site – you’d go broke! But if your company’s products are fairly small, you could offer free samples—including free shipping—to verified potential buyers. Displaying this offer prominently on your website’s homepage will prompt visitors to submit their information.

To determine who qualifies for a free sample, be sure to include fields on your web-to-lead form that capture the lead’s industry and/or company size. Based on your company’s target buyers, your sales team can then identify the most relevant prospects to ship samples to. And of course, be sure to follow up with these leads to ask how they liked the products. The combination of a freebie plus personalized service might just be the key to converting leads into customers.

3. Create an Explanatory Video

For many people, the manufacturing process is a big mystery. This may even be true for your target buyers. A company may be looking for products like the ones you make, but they aren’t sure what’s special about your process or the materials your company uses. And without this valuable information, they’ll likely just go with the cheapest manufacturer.

To combat this lack of understanding, it’s a great idea to make a simple video that explains why your company’s products are special. Depending on your video production skills, this could range from a simple “talking head” shot to an animated walkthrough of the manufacturing process. Then, generate interest among potential buyers by publishing the video on your website, social media accounts, or YouTube.

4. Partner with E-Commerce Merchants

If you’re a manufacturing company that is willing to drop ship white labeled products or sell products wholesale to individual drop shippers, you have another option. E-commerce platforms like Shopify have a huge number of eager drop shippers looking for products to sell. By partnering with these merchants, you can easily put your goods in front of people who want to sell and buy them, with minimal marketing effort on your part.

This is a less conventional “lead generation” tactic that takes advantage of everything modern e-commerce has to offer. The first step is to become an Oberlo supplier, which allows Shopify merchants to add your products to their online stores. While you may need to invest some resources in the initial setup process, the eventual payout for your business could be huge.

5. Attend Trade Shows

This is a classic lead generation strategy for manufacturers, and for good reason. If you aren’t already attending trade shows, you’re missing out on hundreds or even thousands of potential leads.

Trade shows are still going strong despite the rise of B2B transactions online. After all, these events give your company an opportunity to showcase your products in an interactive, hands-on environment. Send your most enthusiastic salespeople to the show, along with one or two technical experts who can answer questions about production and specifications. Then, be sure they collect business cards from every person they speak to — or better yet, pull up your company’s web-to-lead form on your tablet or phone and enter your new lead on the spot.

6. Run a Contest

No one expects a manufacturing company to run a contest, which is exactly why it will attract so much attention. Invite the public to submit ideas for a new product name or color, a new packaging strategy, a new mascot for your company — the possibilities are endless.

At its most basic level, the creativity behind this idea will generate brand awareness for your company. At the same time, asking entrants to provide an email address for prize eligibility will fill your CRM with new leads that can be nurtured after the contest ends. Depending on your business model, you may choose to run the contest within your local community (perhaps at a trade show), or you can take it online to your website and social media accounts.

Conclusion

Whether you produce just one item or a whole slew of SKUs, these six ideas for lead generation are feasible for any size of manufacturing company. But keep in mind that all the leads in the world won’t help your business grow unless you can organize and track them! If you’re ramping up your lead generation strategy, consider using CRM software to help with lead management. No matter how full your sales funnel becomes, you’ll be ready to tackle it head-on.

The post How To Generate Leads For Manufacturing Businesses appeared first on Method.