Lead Generation Techniques for New Customer Acquisition

August 17, 2023 Prashant Shukla 0

Summary – Effective lead generation techniques for acquiring new customers and building momentum. We’ve outlined both inbound and outbound approaches for net new customer acquisition and building momentum.

Despite squandering a fortune most organizations struggle with lead generation and find themselves at cross roads. Here are some effective techniques to approach it correctly and generate qualified leads in an efficient manner. We’ve divided these techniques into two categories: inbound and outbound. Before we delve further, let’s review these methods.

Table of Contents

Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation: A Comparative Overview

Inbound marketing, involves creating engaging and valuable content that naturally attracts potential customers. It involves providing solutions, answering questions, and addressing pain points that the target audience actively seeks.

Outbound marketing, on the other hand, employs proactive tactics to reach potential customers. This approach involves initiating contact and pushing the message (offers, content, collaterals, success stories, and so on) out to a broader audience.

The table below highlights key distinctions between the two approaches:

Aspect	Inbound Marketing	Outbound Marketing
Communication	Pull strategy – Attracting leads by providing valuable content and solutions they actively seek.	Push strategy – Initiating contact with potential leads through direct messaging or advertising.
Audience Reach	The audience discovers your brand naturally through online searches, social media, or referrals.	Brand reaches out to a targeted audience through ads, cold calls, and events.
Engagement	Focuses on building relationships and trust by offering relevant and valuable information.	Emphasizes the promotion of products or services with the goal of generating immediate interest.
Permission-based	Relies on permission-based interactions, where leads opt to engage with your content.	This may involve reaching out to leads who have not explicitly shown interest.
Conversion	Leads often have a higher intent to convert as they actively seek solutions.	Conversion rates may vary as some leads may not be actively seeking your offerings.

Understanding these distinctions will help you tailor your lead-generation strategies to align with your business goals and target audience.

Inbound Lead Generation Techniques

Content Marketing:

Successful lead generation relies on creating valuable and relevant content that aligns with the buyer’s journey. Content marketing is a powerful strategy for lead generation, as it involves creating and sharing such content to attract potential customers and engage them throughout the buying journey, i.e., nurturing leads.

Best practices –

Understanding audience needs focuses on providing valuable information and insights to develop trust with the audience.
Content promotion is crucial to distribute it effectively and ensure it reaches the target audience.
Choosing the right channels is equally important after analyzing the target audience’s preferences and habits.
Personalization should be done to tailor content as per the buyer’s purchasing journey stage and individual preferences to enhance engagement.

Social Media Marketing:

Marketers worldwide are attesting to the effectiveness of social media, with a staggering 77% recognizing its impact on their strategies, according to Hubspot research. With billions of users actively engaging on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Twitter, businesses can no longer afford to overlook the opportunities these channels present for lead generation.

Social media caters to both B2B and B2C organizations. To bolster social media lead generation, focus on fostering a strong online presence. Effective content creation and optimization stand as pillars of success, empowering brands to resonate deeply with their target audiences.

Best Practices –

Understand the audience’s preferences, interests, and pain points to tailor the content and messaging effectively.
Engage actively to respond promptly to comments, messages, and interactions and build relationships and foster a sense of community.
Incorporate compelling calls-to-action (CTAs) in the posts and content to guide users toward taking the desired action.
Mobile-friendliness should be prioritized while sharing content assets and landing pages, as most people access social media platforms through their mobile devices.
Utilize paid advertising to reach the right audience and intensify the lead generation efforts.
Monitor social media analytics to gauge the effectiveness of the lead generation efforts and adjust strategies based on data insights.

Gated Content –

Gated content, a cornerstone of B2B marketing, operates on the principle of exchange – providing valuable insights to prospects in return for their contact information. Often comprising white papers, videos, ebooks, and case studies, gated content is a powerful lead-generation tool. It’s a strategy brimming with potential yet not devoid of drawbacks.

Gating content can often act as a barrier, deterring potential downloads, particularly when early-stage prospects seek to engage. Using it intelligently is important, and ensuring that users receive actual value post-downloading the content.

Best Practices –

The objective should be clear whether the goal of the content is building brand awareness or generating leads.
Assess the competitors to see if they are offering similar content ungated, as this may give them the edge.
The content’s value should justify gating and prospect information collection.
The lead capture form should have minimal fields to reduce the friction users may face.

Webinars and Workshops:

Webinars serve as a prime source of lead generation, mirroring the impact of live events. These virtual interactions facilitate direct connections between brands and audiences.

Best Practices –

Steer clear of overt sales pitches, as thought leadership content better resonates with the audience.
The website should address the audience’s pain points and demonstrate profound industry insights. It provides a two-fold benefit: it imparts valuable knowledge to attendees while establishing the brand as a go-to resource.
Organizers should offer the attendees a platform to ask questions in an attempt to directly address the audience’s questions and get a first-hand understanding of their pain points.

Outbound Lead Generation Techniques

Cold Email Outreach:

Cold outreach introduces the product and services of a brand to potential customers and initiates a conversation. This lead generation method is a budget-friendly, scalable, and hyper-personalized tactic with high ROI potential (source: Litmus) –

Media, publishing, events, sports, & entertainment: 32:1
Software & technology: 36:1
Marketing, PR, & advertising agency: 42:1
Retail, e-commerce, & consumer goods: 45:1

Best Practices –

Develop a clear ideal customer profile (ICP) to devise the messaging, communication style, and email segmentation.
Utilize platforms like LinkedIn to identify key decision-makers in target companies and gather contact information (applicable to B2B companies)
Ensure the contact list is accurate and up-to-date for better email deliverability.
Craft short, personalized subject lines that convey value and urgency.
Create personalized, data-driven email content that addresses prospects’ pain points and highlights solutions.
Implement well-structured follow-up sequences that offer different value points and remain non-pushy.
Include a compelling call to action that drives prospects to take immediate steps.
Use automation tools to streamline outreach, minimize human intervention, and maintain personalization.
Implement A/B testing to optimize messaging, timing, and overall strategy for better performance.

Trade Shows and Events:

Despite the cost, trade shows and events present a valuable opportunity for lead generation. However, success requires careful planning and execution.

Best Practices –

Identify the attendees or event sponsors
Invest in pre-event outreach
Launch a multi-touch campaign

Telemarketing:

Despite the rise of digital marketing, telemarketing remains a potent lead generation tool. Even though it has a comparatively lower RoI, this method is cost-effective and can be scaled.

Best Practices –

Create a proper plan and database to reach out to only relevant prospects.
Tailor questions to the target audience’s needs and interests.
Use creative, natural, interesting, and relevant opening lines to capture prospects’ attention.
Use proper CTAs for demos, meetings, etc., to guide the prospects toward taking action.

Which Lead Generation Technique is More Useful for Businesses?

Each technique comes with its own set of advantages and limitations. Inbound marketing draws potential customers to your brand naturally. Outbound marketing, on the other hand, takes a proactive stance by reaching out to potential customers through direct messaging, advertising, and other targeted efforts.

Limitations of Inbound and Outbound Lead Generation Techniques

Let’s delve into the limitations of both these techniques –

Limitations of Inbound Lead Generation	Limitations of Outbound Lead Generation
Time-Intensive Results	Pull strategy – Potential for Intrusiveness
Competition	High Costs
Dependence on Audience Proactivity	Lower Quality Leads
Measuring ROI can be Complex	Regulatory Challenges

Balancing Act: Choosing the Right Mix

The decision between inbound and outbound lead generation depends on the type of business, the objectives, resources, and so on. In many cases, a balanced approach that combines both techniques yields optimal results. A well-crafted inbound strategy can capture the attention of those actively seeking solutions, while outbound efforts can broaden your reach and introduce your brand to new audiences.

In conclusion, a successful lead generation strategy integrates both inbound and outbound techniques to create a well-rounded approach. This blog post has ventured into the most popular techniques of lead generation employed by both B2B and B2C organizations.

Connect with Techmagnate, Google Premier Partner Agency, if you want to generate qualified leads for your business.

Prashant Shukla

Sr General Manager - Search Marketing

Heading the Search Operations at Techmagnate and with experience of over 9 years, Prashant knows all the nitty-gritty details of unlocking exponential growth for businesses via SEO. As the Senior General Manager of SEO, his expertise expands to various verticals, especially executing industry-specific SEO strategies for BFSI, Healthcare, and Education.